Nine years ago today

I saw my future husband for the first time.

We met at Institute on a friday afternoon. I was home from school (senior in H.S.) sick and felt good enough by then to go to the Institute forum lunch class to flirt with some Missionaries...lol

I walked in, surveyed the room for cute guys. Saw Matthew....kept looking. ROFL Then I noticed him talking to a homeless man and he gave him a Book of Mormon. I thought it was sweet. I was pretending to read a book while watching everyone, he came up to me and introduced himself to me. His pickup line? "Hi, I'm Matt...excuse my accent I just got off my mission a week ago." ROFL He served in LA and had NO accent. Still cracks us up. We talked for about 45 min then he kinda alluded to asking me out again by asking if I was going to the Single Adult Christmas dance. I said that no, I couldn't...I wasn't old enough. LOL He was QUITE shocked to find out I was 17. We talked some more and we both left at the same time.

For 2 days he would not get out of my brain. I kept hearing this little voice..."CALL HIM, CALL HIM!" Well it wasn't so little I guess. I NEVER called boys EVER. Total phone phobia. But this voice would NOT give up, so I went back to institute, spoke to the secretary and described Matt. She knew him (he happened to be in her ward) and gave me his digits. :) I called him and asked him to come to a party my friend was having (it was a single adult party not some lame h.s. party) he did come, we talked all night ignoring everyone else and had a total blast. The rest is history ;)
We had our first "single" date Jan. 2nd, exactly a year later I was endowed in the Temple and a week after that we were Sealed. What a lucky gal I am! :)


This is at my Senior prom 6 months later :)

I did it

I finally had Elaine's hair cut. The poor thing looked like cousin IT anytime her ponytails broke so, I broke down and we had her get bangs today. We also trimmed around too so its more even in the back etc. But you can't see that in this pic. Anyway it freaked Matt and I out at first because it doesn't look like our Lainey anymore but I'm sure we'll get used to it :) Adele got hers trimmed too, but I can barely notice at all. Adele (And Elaine) were VERY good for the stylist after a couple minutes of her doing Adele's hair, Adele pronounced.."Dis doesn't huwt at all!" :)

Vacation Photos

I finally got my camera hookups to work again so here are some fun vacation pics! We are so mad we forgot to take our camera to the beach! The girls LOVED it there! Oh well, i'm sure we'll have that opportunity again! :)

Elaine & Daddy in front of Triceratops at the L.A. Natural History Museum. I wish I could get the entire picture, right above it was a huge T-rex skeleton. Adele LOVED this exhibit.

Adele loved this giant sea turtle, we loved the touch & feel section of the museum. They had a ton of great live reptiles, fish, and small rodents there to look at.

Adele and her cousins helping make the family specialty, homemade "noodles."

Adele and her Grami

Adele and her Aunt Shauna

Adele has never been camping before so on our last night there, Matthew set up a tent in my parents backyard. She had a TOTAL blast even though it wasn't "real" camping......a huge airmattress and dvd player....thats my idea of camping in style ;)

You may notice a lack of pictures of Elaine in this post..........that would be because lately she has taken a great dislike to the camera and most pictures of her turn out like this

Finally

Ok i'll post again! Its been a busy couple weeks! We were out of town for Thanksgiving. Had a fantastic trip to Cali, and I wanted to cry leaving the 80 degree weather and came home to 40 degree. Now its 25 degree........ya not enjoying that so much.

The girls LOVED the ocean, I had to seriously hold Elaine back from jumping headfirst into the water. She absolutely loved it, much different than her sisters past reactions to it. But this trip Adele loved it too. Unfortunately we didn't think it would be 88 degrees in late November so we didn't pack a swimsuit. Wet jeans are so fun for a 3 yr old let me tell ya!

We also went to LA's Natural History Museum and Children's Science Museum. The girls loved those too and Adele LOVED seeing "Sharp Tooth, and Cera's Daddy" posed fighting eachother.

The day after we got back I had my 14 weeks prenatal visit. Everything went great. Baby's heartrate was perfect and high about 160, everyone looked wonderful. 3 days later I was in the ER for horrible kidney pain. My Dr's office ended up taking care of that with a lovely shot in the behind and some nice strong painkillers. My new love......Lortab. We also were able to hear the heartbeat again yesterday, Matt wasn't with me for my appt so he got to hear it this time which was nice.

Lets seee I think that will be it for now. I think my body needs some more painkiller and my head is starting to pound so i'm off for a little break. :)

You really do show quickly with your 3rd!

Here is a pic taken of my tummy at 6 weeks pregnant.


Below is a pic i took monday at 11 weeks pregnant. Granted i'm 30 lbs lighter starting out this time but I didn't show until like 25 weeks with my other 2! :P

i'm in trouble

A good friend came to visit last week for 4 days. She has a cute little boy we'll call W, that is a year older than Adele.

Adele and W were friends before my friend moved, but at this age you know how long they remember eachother.

After getting reacquainted they TOTALLY hit it off and Adele kept saying that W was her "fwend." Not sure...they look like more than "fwends" to me. Am I in for it! oh and to top it off Elaine was also making the moves on him. LOL

 

Halloween!

I've mentioned before that Adele is a very well rounded child. She really can play with any kid because she loves EVERYTHING. From dinosaurs to ponies, from Darth Vader to Cinderella....she's all over it. So for Halloween I was wondering what we should dress her up as. Then I figured it out. :) A Pirate! And Elaine will be her Pirate Booty. I haven't made Elaine's costume yet but Grandma finished Adele's this weekend. Here is a fun pic. I'm not sure how I'm going to do her hair though. Should I do it in big curls? Two braids? Or should I braid it the night before and have it be crimpy and big?

Stinker

I think my BABY is a bad influence on my 3 year old. :P

Gross! Adele found my tinted Burt's Bee's chapstick. Went to TOWN. Even dug her finger into it and applied everywhere! Thank goodness she kept it to her face and hands....oh and hair. Its way gross, chapstick hair. Not something I wanted to deal with right now.

She came in to show me and asked me to help her wash her hands up (she doesn't like being dirty). Oh yes and she asked for more...do you think she needs more? :)

Victory!

When Mommy thinks Daddy has Elaine....and Daddy thinks Mommy has Elaine.....

Elaine will succeed in the thing she's been trying to get for the last 2 months. She finally got mama's baking chocolate out of the box and unwrapped AND had time to go to town before she finally came to find us. See her lovely chocolate handprints?

I wish we had taken a picture before she fell backwards and bumped her head! She had a HUGE grin of satisfaction. Oh well I had to get a pic of her chocolate face anyway :P

Not sued to having a baby that gets inot things....Adele was the kind of kid that wouldn't get into something If I told her no once. Elaine is a little more sneaky...darn it! 

A Word to the Wise

Adele went upstairs yesterday and told me she was going to sleep. Because she was "Sweepy." I went up to check her about 30 min later because usually her going upstairs by herself usually means all the lights will be turned on and she will probably be reading to all her stuffed animals.

But yesterday she did actually go to sleep. At about 3pm. I went up to check her and she was sound asleep under her covers cuddling her star pillow. Babysitter (MIL) got here at 4, I tried to go wake her up and she woke up and yelled at me and went back to sleep. We took away her naps a month or so ago because she wasn't going to sleep until 10 or 11ish. But seriously she was ticked and I didn't want MIL to have to deal with her wrath, especially with me leaving Elaine, She was gonna have a hard time anyway. I told MIL she'd wake up in 10 min or so and we'd be back at 6.

Got home at 6, she had JUST woken up like 15 MINUTES before we got home. So yes my 3 year old took an almost 3 hour nap. We shrugged and just figured she'd watch a low key movie while I went to the gym and when I got back at 10 we'd put her to sleep.

But when we went to put Elaine to bed (they share a room now) at 8pm she grabbed her blanket and said she wanted to go to sleep too. We were shocked! And happy! .....ahhh such naivety....

She did go to sleep with Elaine. But at midnight she was UP, and when I mean up I mean UP. In our room talking to me, cuddling, bouncing.......I told her it was time to go to sleep. Put her back in her bed. She came back 15 min later. And we did the same routine, this continued for 2 HOURS. She went to sleep finally at about 2:30.

NEVER NEVERRRR Will that child have such a long nap again. I'll do the old cold water on the head trick my parents always threatened me with. hehehe

My family

Just a quick post of a pic I LOVVEEEE :)

Who's got Talent?

Adele thats who! Look at this! She AMAZES me! This is a Dinosaur I had the opportunity to see before she erased it. Seriously she's awesome. 

My cuddles

Teddy Bears & Favorite Blankets rock. The Teddy is usually sitting up in the corner of her crib but she moved him so she could cuddle and sleep on him. How ADORABLE is that! :) 

Good Intentions

Last night as I laid in bed and thought about what a slacker I was for not working out, I made up my mind. Bright and early at 6am i'd jump out of bed grab my gym clothes, Mp3 player and Matthews work card and run to the gym for a fast hard 45 min workout. Jet back in time to take a shower before Matthew left to work at 6:55 (IF he was even on time) , read my scriptures, clean up the front room, throw in a load of laundry and make breakfast for the girls before they woke up this morning.....

So why at 5:50 when the alarm went off did I moan, cover my head with my blanket and cuddle into my pillow while Matthew got up and reset the alarm for 6:45? LOL

Imagination

My Mom could never put me in my room to punish me as a child. Taking away all my toys wouldn't help either. Once my mom came into my room to find me playing with two tissues, they were talking to eachother and I was having a grand time.
I believe Adele has inherited my love for imagination. Lately i've found her playing with certain objects like these cups that she made a "castle" out of. She laid down the blanket, the ring toss, the bottle inside the ring...everything to make her planned community. She even stuck the butterfly on top of the ring toss for added effect. I believe that is a security butterfly if I remember correctly.

Her obsession has been a lot of fun to watch. To see her little gears turning, to find her with a rag on the kitchen floor singing "Cinderwewwy...Cinderwewwy..." over and over. Its been an absolute fun part of being a mother.

I love how she is following in my footsteps. I really didn't think she was until last night I came into my office and she followed me with a boat full of animals. I was wondering what was up until I saw her settle herself down next to two empty CD racks.

Then I KNEW she was my child after my own heart. When I was a girl i'd get all my small Shera dolls, stuffed bears, and My Little Pony's and sit next to our christmas tree. I'd have an entire soap opera story going on for the weeks we had the tree. There would be deaths, marriages, fights, long lost children reunions. All sorts of fun stuff.


Anyway when I saw this my heart melted. I think I actually teared up a little bit. Because I remembered the joy I had doing the same thing she was doing.

Funny what things make you smile. :) 

What happens when you take a nap away?

This!

Adele wasn't going to bed very easily at night so we decided to take away her last nap. Now the girl LOVES her nap. She goes down at about 2pm and usually sleeps until 5ish so it was quite a nice break for both of us. But alas her going to bed before 11pm was more important to mommy.

This picture was actually taken about a week after taking her nap away. She just could not stay awake during dinner time. We finally just decided to force her to eat a banana before putting her to bed. My poor sleepy bear! 

what a wonderful morning!

*side note...this is a REALLY REALLY TMI post. So If you don't want to know about my gross personal problems stop reading now



I woke up thinking I had pee'd my pants. (not a lot of pee just a little bit which is not unusual after having baby #2) I went downstairs to jump in the shower and it wasn't pee! I started my period! Now those who know my history know how huge this is for me. I haven't had a "naturally occurring" period since 1999. I've taken fertility drugs to get good old Aunt Flo to come. So the fact that I weaned a month ago tomorrow and that my period is RIGHT on time is SOOO stinking exciting for me! I'm going to chart this month and see if I will ovulate on my own too...........its a long shot but today has proven long shots happen!

On to my 2nd great news of the day! My Sister in Law (brothers wife) is pregnant with TWINS! I had reason to believe that twins may be on the way and am THRILLED to know I will be the Aunt to two adorable Scott/Stephanie creations. VERY exciting! Now just to make sure they don't use the boys name that I am going to use and all will be well. :)

GOODBYE Split Ends!

I did it! I chopped off my hair. I decided to do it yesterday morning (I had an afternoon appt) I was so excited to do something drastic and surprise my hubby! I really do love it. Its light and sassy and I feel like a whole new person. Before I felt like old Sara with the same old look even though I had lost almost 30lbs. I craved something new. And since I NEVER cut my hair very short before because I felt i'd look like a big marshmellow I decided I deserved this. I'm definately going to miss my pony tail! But i'm glad its not an easy option anymore because I was being lazy about doing my hair. And now, no easy option. Although I am thinking of investing in some cute headbands and clips.... :) Anyway just wanted to share! 

Ground Zero

Thankfully we made it through one of Provo's worst crazy spastic storms yesterday! There were some winds recorded at 90MPH at certain points. I don't know what they were recorded at by MY house because the weather tower was destroyed. The worst part I guess was at the Provo Airport where 5 planes were tipped over and thats about 4 miles from my house.


These are just some pictures of around my house. The first is my neighbors back yard. She has branches from all the neighbors backyards in hers. LOL Her husband was out there with a chain saw for awhile!


This is the front of my house and a few huge pine branches that broke off our 60ft tree. There are some bigger branches that snapped and are hanging by small pieces of wood that we'll have to get down probably this weekend with a TALL ladder. Wish us luck on that one!





The back of the garage where our window was blown out. Matthew easily fixed that last night.










Our garden, it actually faired pretty well because it has two garages sheltering each side. Our corn needed to be straightened but nothing bad. :)

All in all we are SOOO lucky. Houses a block or 2 from us had big huge tree's uprooted, power lines tipped over etc.. Over 100 power lines were broken and laying over a ton of homes. Some people will be without power for 2-3 days. I feel SO blessed and watched over and am SO thankful my huge tree didn't crush our little home! 

July 27, 2005

Elaine was born. At 4:45am. She was my miracle baby. Not because we got pregnant with her (true that was a miracle too) but how she came, that was a true miracle, a total blessing. With Adele I was induced early for PIH (pregnancy induced hypertension) basically REALLY high blood pressure. SO when I was 31 weeks and showing high blood pressure again my dr. put me on bedrest. And I stayed there for 8 weeks.

Adele was 2 years old, it was spring/summer and we BOTH were going crazy cooped up in that house but we did it. My dr. told me he'd induce at 38 weeks, when 38 weeks came my blood pressure was perfect. No problem at all. So he said he'd continue to wait. Which made me nervous. I REALLY didn't want to be induced for PIH because I knew i'd have to go onto magnesium again and that stuff is EVIL (I couldn't even focus my eyes for almost 48 hours after having Adele because of it). So we prayed and Matthew gave me a fantastic blessing saying that baby would come naturally. Which was.....not possible in my eyes. I'd HAVE to be induced early or i'd get high blood pressure. And dr. had set a date to induce me on Thursday July 28th. I'd be exactly 39 weeks.

So Tuesday July 26th came and I had a dr. appt with Heather the nurse practitioner. She checked me and stripped my membranes and told me I was having that baby that night. She had no doubt, I was ready to go on my own. I rolled my eyes and tried not to get my hopes up. But by the time I was walking to my car after our appt I was getting strong contractions and they were not going away.

Fast forward to 4:45am Wednesday morning. When I pushed out my 2nd daughter. My second miracle. A wonderful labor and delivery, problems whatsoever. She came out crying like a kitten. Soft and squeaky. She never outgrew the squeakiness. And cuddley! She loved to cuddle, and she never outgrew that either. Miracle #2, or I guess its miracle #3. She nursed. She nursed WELL. She didn't need a shield like Adele, she latched on like a total pro and never looked back (except for one horrific night). She nursed as often as she could for 12 months stopping....last week. At the exact time her Mommy was willing to give it up.


The past year has been wonderful, stressful, crazy, and perfect. I wouldn't ask this last year to be anything but it was. I have my little Lainey to show for it. :)

Sad

When you are SOOO excited when the 10 day forecast says 86....really its just pathetic.

Illness

Moms really do have it rough. Adele had her first fever this past week. (I do know i'm EXTREMELY lucky in this dept) So anyway she's 3 and has never been sick. She's never thrown up etc.. So she took it pretty hard when she wasn't feeling well. Walked around all day saying how she was sick and needed to sleep and needed her "get better bunny." She curled up in her blanket all day with 2 icepacks and her mommy answering to every whim or whimper. She also had to deal with mommy snapping pictures because she was so darn cute and Mommy wasn't used to having a little girl in this condition. But we made it through the day and she is not addicted to Children's Tylenol. Which she kept insisting to her one year old sister that it was good. "Medicine GOOD Elaine! Have it Have it!" She is my little cheerleader for medication. Good thing I was trying to get Elaine the drugs at the time. I have to make sure I put them WAY WAY out of reach from little grabbing hands. She took 4 naps that day, passed out cold in "Mama's chair" which I willingly gave up when she insisted she have it.

I was happy to do it, she's my sweet little baby and I do worship her...........most of the time.
(read below)









But the next day when I was feverish and dizzy? The next morning when it burned to swallow and my headache felt like 100 chipmunks were running around inside my head? This is what I got.


OH yeah HAPPY and ENERGETIC from her FOUR NAPS. So yes Mommy got shafted ladies and gents. SHAFTED. I didn't get to lay down with my blanket and nice cold drinks. If I laid down from delirium I got ATLEAST one kid jumping on me and if I was lucky the other one would just crawl over to me and play patty cake on my face. Yeah and dear old hubby?!? Where was he you may ask? I have no clue. But I do know this. He asked ME why Adele hadn't been fed dinner and HE'D been home the entire night. (k small rant over) so anyway yes. I love being a Mom. :) 

The Great Tomato Massacre of 2006

I've done it. My hands are covered in blood.......tomato plant blood. So really they are green and black....

Matthew planted 18 tomato plants, watered them......and thats about it. He's WAY busy with school at the moment so he asked if I would take them over. I'm thinking he also knew what had to be done and couldn't bring himself to do it. I had to hack branches off the overgrown beasts that were heavy with lovely green tomatoes. They were so huge that the plant was tipping over (even in cages) and breaking on its own. So I had to go out there with clippers and hack and hack and hack. I even found a nice red one in the middle of one overgrown bush!

Oh and I found an ENTIRE cucumber plant with 5 skinny scrawny cucumbers under another tomato plant. That should clue you into how HUGE these tomato plants were. The poor cucumbers were all skinny and sickly looking. From lack of light and water that the tomato plants sucked up.

And still my job is not yet done. I have 4 roma plants that have NO cages so they are just laying on the ground branches growing every which way.....thanks Matt.....grrrr. Anyway so I felt so bad cutting these plants branches off at first. But then I actually enjoyed it....i'm a morbid serial tomato killer!

Growing up

Elaine will be one year on the 27th. She is a baby in so many ways still. She still sucks her thumb, she refuses to stand on her own, she is still rear facing. But in other ways she's becoming a little toddler and its really hitting me hard!

We are now on day 2 of a nursing strike. I believe she's done. She just up and stopped nursing yesterday morning. She will have NOTHING to do with it. If she even SEE'S me unlatching my bra she starts screaming like i'm going to torture her.

So odd considering our last nursing session was so wonderful. It was late at night, probably 9pm. It was her normal session before bed. She nursed really well, was way into it and would even look up at me and smile with her eyes. She would pat me and play with my hair. Then on the next side she fell asleep and unlatched, rolled onto her back and laid there asleep blissfully full.

It was so adorable that I went and told Matthew about it after I laid her down. That night she slept all night long not waking for a earlymorning snack. When she woke up at 7am she wanted NOTHING to do with nursing and hasn't since. So after being in extreme pain i'm pumping and giving her milk in her sippy cup which she seems totally happy with.

Its strange how quickly and surely they show their independence. I know i'm being a good mother because she is so confident and sure of her self. She asserts her likes and dislikes and she is loving and affectionate. I love her so much. This last week she's gotten 2 teeth, she's learned to climb stairs (horrors!) and she is climbing into any basket she can find. Hard to imagine that a month ago she refused any type of movement except army crawling. She now pulls up quickly on everything and is cruising around, driving her sister (who used to put all of her special toys on the couch so Elaine couldn't get them) crazy.


But she and Adele are also having a ton of fun together. Yesterday afternoon they spent hours chasing eachother around and playing with the t.v. and with her exersaucer together. Nothing is better than hearing your girls giggle and scream together while you are cooking dinner. I am glad that Elaine is growing up, and I needed to type this all out so I can remember it fully. She's been such a wonderful baby and the highlight of my year. I remember how wonderfully happy I was when we realized she would nurse. How hard I struggled with the new pains of nursing. It was worth it. It was so worth it.