SO EXCITED!!!!

After a long year and a half, I am so excited to finally announce Benjamin will be a BIG BROTHER!!

BABY #2 will make his/her debut June 20, 2012!!

We are very excited and looking forward to bringing another precious child into our lives. It is long overdue and we couldn't be happier.

Interesting tidbits on finding out:

**I couldn't sleep the other night and took a home test at 3:00am and was positive!!! I even woke Ricky up to tell him. Then I couldn't believe it and took a second one at 6:00am and it was still positive. It was so unreal...I've taken several pregnancy tests over the last year and a half and always negative and then start my period the day I take it.

**I couldn't wait a month to confirm the pregnancy with my doctor, since we've been trying for over a year to get pregnant, and so I visited a free clinic near the strip, which added a ghetto/memorable experience to confirming my pregnancy. Never again!!! But they were really nice and I learned way more than I needed to know about the risks of abortion. LOL!! But the lady consulting me was so nice and excited for me and even wanted a hug. I think she was happy to encounter someone who actually wanted to be pregnant and have a baby.

**Told Ben today and he was so happy! He wanted to tickle the baby and kept asking if the baby was ready to come. He understands days by how many "sleeps", so we told him the baby will come in 280 "sleeps". and he enjoyed looking at pics on the internet of what the baby looks like now and in the coming weeks. and when we told him he could help out by changing diapers, he said "but I don't know how to wipe his butt!" So, he's excited along with us.

Memories...remembering my wonderful roomies of #409

Tonight I watched the 25th Anniversary edition of Les Miserables. I love love LOVE Les Mis!!! The story and the music is beautiful. It brought back memories of being introduced to it at BYU, in Apt #409 at The Colony by my roommate Kira!! So, not only did I enjoy watching this concert, but I got to enjoy memories of my bestest friends and coolest apartment! 

Thinking of you all tonight :) 

               Kira, Heidi, Becky, Shelley, Megan, Jennalee, Kate, Natalie...

PERSPECTIVE ...

This week I had a friend share the most amazing and beautiful and sad story with me through trying to help a little baby girl named Ruby. And as I read Ruby's story, and as I thought of all the lost loved ones recently of many of my friends... it has changed me. I hope that I can remember their stories and appreciate all I've been blessed with and not take life forgranted. One of the most favorite things I read on Ruby's blog is this:

http://aniandmatttaylor.blogspot.com/

PERSPECTIVE

The old me thought I was tired and stressed out. The old me was unsatisfied with my clothes, my weight, and my ugly carpet. The old me dreaded hearing the babies cry over the monitor, too early in the morning. The old me was bored watching cartoons, and folding laundry. The old me hated making breakfast, and pour endless sippy's full of milk every day. The old me dreaded running errands with two kids to get in and out of car seats and into shopping carts. The old me did not think it was a big deal to spend a Saturday at the beach, or paddle boating around the lake. The old me was tired and grump from walking up the hill to our house from the lake. The old couldn't wait until nap time, when I could have some time to myself. The old me hated doing dishes, and checking the mail. The old me rushed bedtime and skipped pages in bedtime stories. The old me sang lullaby's quickly, and was relucted to sing, "just one more."

What was the old me thinking?!

My heart is literally aching right now to have my old life back, but with my new perspective. What I would give to have my whole family home on a rainy Sunday morning, making breakfast, and delivering chocolate milk on a fancy platter to my little Kate. I want to forget about the dirty dishes, and get down on the floor with my girls and play, play, and play. I would be thankful for that cheap carpet, because it beats none at all. I dream of the day that I get to wake up in my bed, and hear BOTH girls waking me up early in the morning. I will make them whatever they want for breakfast, and turn the music up loud and dance while I make their pancakes (because I know that is what Kate will want.) I will get them dressed and spend time gently combing and doing their hair, and breathing them in. I won't rush them. What is the rush about anyway? I'll load them in their carseats, and give them kisses while I buckled them in. I'll be happy listening to Disney songs as we drive to Target, or McDonald's, or the park. I'll chase them, and tickle them, and push them on the swings. We will spend our evenings playing outside, and cooking dinner together in the kitchen. Bath time will be long and drawn out, just like it should be. Bedtime will have lots of cuddling, and a few bedtime stories read slowly while doing the appropriate voices for Papa Bear, Mama Bear, Baby Bear, and Goldilocks. Matt and I will fall into bed exhausted together, and thank Heavenly Father for this new perspective on life and what is truly important and ask that we might be able to always remember.

Ben's tooth

Here is a closeup of Ben's new smile! This was taken during one of his adventures with pudding. I didn't mind since he was at the table and we had time for a bath afterwards. He had a lot of fun smearing that pudding everywhere especially on his face, hair and the table.

After I posted the garden pictures I realized there is one that shows Ben with his missing tooth and realized I never posted about such a significant event in his life. In September 2009 we noticed Ben had an infection in his mouth. We tried one dentist that was crazy and gave us an antibiotic and the infection went away and so we decided not to worry about it. Then with our move on Oct 2010 the infection came back. This time we found a child specialist and they immediately said it needs to come out. I was really sad thinking about my poor boy having to go through all that and losing a tooth so early, but a friend told me that her daughter had the same thing and it suited her and she was right. I miss his cute smile, but his new smile is super cute too! At the dentist visit he was given a medicine to sedate him and then he played for 45 minutes in the waiting room. I didn't really notice a difference in his behavior until we got into the room. In the play room the other kids were all getting loopy and one kid fell off his chair randomly while playing, but Ben seemed to be his same energetic self. In the room they gave him laughing gas and he loved putting the mask over his mouth and he just lay there not moving. They cleaned his teeth first and he was so content. Only one parent was allowed in and so Ricky waited in the waiting room. Then he slightly freaked out when they wiggled his tooth out, but it happened so fast and he had all that medicine to calm him that it was not really a big deal. We told him how cool he was to have his tooth out and he slept the rest of the day. We also had this done 2 days before we flew out for Christmas!!! When we got home he put his tooth that was inside the treasure box under the Christmas tree for the toothfairy. At first we were going to do his pillow but I thought there was no way it would stay under the pillow of a 3 year old and he'd probably end up swallowing it!! :) So, the toothfairy brought him the talking Woody doll (also what would a 3 year old do with money!) He was so excited to get the "present" from the toothfairy and a note (that Ricky wrote up) from the toothfairy.

The tooth in its treasure box under the tree.

Ben and Woody the next morning

Awww...hugs...

Gardening together as a Family

We are so excited to have been blessed to be out of apartment life and into a home that we couldn't resist doing a garden even if its a tiny one. We did tomatoes in pots about 2 summers ago and it was amazing to have fresh tomatoes. Although we had to fight off deer! This year we're pretty sure no deer, so we're excited to grow. We actually are so excited that we started planting elsewhere from our garden too. LOL! You'll see in the pictures. It has already been a great family activity and gets Ben outside each day to see if his seeds have grown. :)

BEFORE: This is a before shot of part of the backyard! Yikes!! We had to prune back trees and dig out a lot of dead bushes and bush stubs. On the very first bush Ricky tried to dig out he busted the borrowed shovel. So off to the store to get some tools! We moved alot of rocks that day too.

Digging Trenches and moving so many rocks!

Putting in the little fence around our garden

Ben was such a great helper!

It took us about 3-4 days to get the garden prepped. Ricky turned the dirt and we added composted manure and some planting mixes to add nutrients to our soil. Then watered it and had to let it sit for 2-3 days before we could plant.

Now we have to download more pictures to show our garden updates. And we have endless weeds to pull up still. We found out that Ben and I are highly allergic to something in the air and while trimming the trees he developed this horrible allergic rash on his arms and legs. But it has been fun!

And the new year begins... 2010 recap crazy stories of our life!

I still can't believe its 2011 already!! Ben is pretty much potty trained. Today at church he wanted to use the toilet by himself and didn't want me to follow him to the bathroom. Then he ran down the hallway to the bathroom. This was bathroom trip #2 and Ricky had taken him to the bathroom first into the men's bathroom. So, since Ben is running ahead of me he makes it into the Men's Bathroom!!! before I could get to him and he would not come out. LOL!! So, I had to wait in the hallway for him and it was pretty nerve racking letting him be in there all alone. I couldn't go back and get Ricky in case Ben came out while I was gone, plus Ricky was in Sacrament mtg.! So, I waited and after a few minutes he comes out and had gone pee. Hoping he peed in a toilet and not on anything or anyone, hoping he didn't put his hand all over a dirty toilet and that everything was ok in there!!! He was very proud of himself though and seemed to have more confidence in himself. Apparently he used the toilet during primary too and he did keep his pull-up dry the whole day.

I knew he was ready, but with all the changes that happened this last year, we were never stable enough to bring on this stressor for him, he was dealing with enough. We moved 4 times in the last year. From the only home he knew in Provo, Ut to Ricky's Parents house in Las Vegas, NV and then into an apartment in the SW part of town after Ricky was able to find a job. It was really hard, stressfull and overwhelming to deal with living out of suitcases with all our stuff packed away and then also not really knowing anyone in a new town and going from working full-time at an AMAZING job (seriously loved that job) and working out 3 times a week during lunch breaks, having Ricky around all the time and living in probably the best basement apartment in all of Provo and then leaving it all behind. We knew we were guided back to Vegas, but it was so hard to remember that when your life gets thrown into a tornado and everything is swirling around you in chaos. So, about 3 months after we moved into a great apartment, we were at my in-laws house for dinner and afterwards were watching a movie. Ricky was tired and all of a sudden was like "I'm tired and we NEED to go home NOW". The way he said this it was like ok let's go! He usually is not so abrupt and sometimes can be persuaded to finish the movie. Anyway, we get home and about 20 minutes later we hear gun shots and a woman screaming for help right outside our OPEN kitchen window. Ricky and I were close to the window and just dropped to the ground and then I looked up and saw Ben walking out of his room towards ME!! I had no idea what was going on. People upstairs are causing a lot of chaos too and so we thought maybe something was going on with them, but didn't know where the shooter had gone or was going to go. Every room in our apartment has windows or doors leading right to the incident. I have never felt more exposed and unsafe in my life. We hid in the master bath and called 911. About 5 mins and the cops and EMT were there and taking care of the scene. We were so shaken up!! and poor Ben was awake during the whole thing. Also, dogs started barking after the shooting and when Ben saw the lady on the floor he said that a dog hurt the lady. For weeks afterwards he would tell me that the dogs hurts that lady. It was sad, but we hadn't taught him anything about guns and so he didn't have any background to understand that a gun did it. But, Ben had to go to bed that night with police flashing blue and red light through his blinds lighting up his room. We felt a little ghetto that night. For weeks afterwards if Ben heard a dog he would get so scared and say "hurry hurry to the bathroom". He even liked to just act it out for fun and wanted us to sit in the bathroom just like we did that night. How horrible for my poor little child to have to experience this. Especially after leaving beautiful and peaceful Provo! So, then 3 days later our neighbor comes knocking on our door at 8pm telling us that he caught some kids with a skate board looking into our apartment through our living room window. We were home and in the living room at that time and the neighbor had called the cops. We were so freaked by everything that we packed up our things and camped out in Ricky's old room (all 3 of us) that night at his parent's house. How creepy to have someone looking into your apartment watching you live your private life!! The next day we went to the managers and asked to move to an upstairs apartment. We found a good one and moved again!! That was #3 in 6 months. We had tons of problems with our neighbors in that apt, because they said we made too much noise. Ummm....hello, we have a 3 yr old!! Yeah... they didn't get it. But at least we didn't have to worry about shooters or peeping toms. So the lady was shot 2 times in the stomach and survived. It was a random attack, apparently they followed her in and tried to steal her purse and she didn't know them. 3 days later they were caught and one was shot and killed, the shooter arrested. We still don't know who the peeping tom was, but noticed they had new renters for that apartment within a week. Then in October 2010 we moved into a beautiful house and seriously to be renting a house vs. an apt is no comparison. A house rules!! Its soooo much better and we are loving it. We even have a little back yard that Ben is doing very well playing in. Although, he really needs a playmate. :) Can we say Brother or Sister for 2011?! Hopefully, we starting trying about a year ago right before the shooting happened and then it just didn't happen. After about 4 months or so we just kind of let it go considering how stressful everything already was.

More crazy stories to come... What a year and I'm glad to never have to redo it. Yuck!!! I have a good feeling about this year. Especially since I got to start off the New Year with all my family in New Jersey, then come home to great surprises and a Husband with a great work schedule compared to last year and then right off the bat I get to see one of my most dear and best friends, Kira, and her mom Lisa while they visited here because of a family reunion. It was such precious time to be able to see her and talk and visit.