Jarom, Stephanie and Evelyn Lance

3 Months

2012-01-29T17:08:00.000-08:00

Oh my goodness! Where has the time gone? 3 months already! It's not really fair that when you are pregnant and waiting for your bundle of joy to get here, time seems to crawl by but then when they do get here, time FLIES! Well, Evelyn is 3 months old! She gets more fun and cute everyday! She smiles all the time! She is on a pretty good schedule right now and sleeping well again (through the night! YAHOO!!) She had to go to Physical Therapy to get her head checked out. It's a little flat! The Physical Therapist said that she wasn't worried about it but gave us a couple of exercises to do at home and we don't have to go back so that's good! She is SO strong! Always wanting to stand up! Which is fun to see her grow and get stronger but it's also sad because she's not as snuggly anymore! :( She's a mover! She loves sucking on her hands which makes them smell like stinky feet! yuck! Oh well, it keeps her occupied and happy so it's ok! We love our little girl and look forward to watching her grow! Here are some (way too many) pictures! I just can't choose which ones are the cutest so....I post a lot!

Helping Daddy with his homework

Little flirty face

3 Months old! She didn't love the Tutu! Darn! I plan on doing another little photo shoot when she is in a better mood! Hopefully I get some good ones!

She was NOT happy with me for taking her picture! Am I a horrible person for thinking it's still so cute though?

She loves those hands!

My Beauty sleeping! I could watch her sleep all day! But unfortunately, there are things I need to get done while she sleeps!

Can't Resist!

2012-01-23T09:55:00.000-08:00

I just can't resist taking pictures of this cute, smiley face!!! She is doing much better all around and is such a smiley baby!!! We love her more and more everyday! That's all. Enjoy the pics!

Rough Week and Pictures Galore!

2012-01-19T11:59:00.001-08:00

Oh boy has this week been rough! First, Evelyn got sick! She has had the worst sounding cough and snot filled everything! The poor thing could barely eat because she couldn't breath through all the mucus! She coughs so hard she gags and throws up!! Poor baby! We took her in because I was afraid it was something bad but her doctor assures us that it's just a cold and nothing too serious! Good and bad! Good that it's nothing serious but bad because there just isn't much we can do to help her! We have the humidifier running 24/7, we are sucking as much snot out as we can, rubbing baby Vick's on her feet and chest, letting her sit in the steamy bathroom, everything! Nothing seems to work very well! She has had it for a week now so hopefully she will be getting better soon! She's hit a rough patch! We took her in to her doctor last week because she was screaming and wouldn't eat. I tried everything! She had been really fussy for a while and screaming and we couldn't figure it out so we took her in. He said it sounded like a little bit of Acid Reflux or True Colic! GREAT! The good thing about that though is that it almost always goes away at 3 months and she will be 3 months next week. So we are really hoping to get some relief! She is also WAY off her sleep schedule and doesn't sleep much at night at all! Which makes for very tired parents! Which brings me to the next rough patch! I got sick! It's hard taking care of your sick baby when you aren't feeling so hot yourself! Jarom stayed home on Monday to take care of the baby so I could sleep and hopefully get over whatever I had! I still have the cough and runny nose but no more headache or ear ache, so that's good! THEN Jarom wakes up in the night with a HORRIBLE tooth ache! AGH! He went to the Dentist today and got TWO root canals!!! Poor thing!!! So this is the second day this week that he has stayed home from work! Nice for me and Evelyn because we love having him home with us but not so good for our bank account! And the poor guy is in so much pain! It's sad! So we are looking forward to next week and hoping that it's a little better than this week! On a positive note, we are still in love and love our baby to pieces! :) Always good to be positive right?! Also, enjoy this picture overload of our cute Evelyn!

8 weeks old hangin out in the bumbo.

Getting pretty good at holding her head up! 7 1/2 weeks

She loves tummy time!

She also loves this bouncer! It's so cute to watch her discover all the cool lights and moving toys!

Super Dad! With snot sucker and spit up rag in hand! Nice!

Smiley girl, even when she's sick! What a trooper!

Love!

Sick baby! :(

Sick Mommy and Baby!

Evelyn Giggles

2012-01-07T14:51:00.000-08:00

Evelyn is almost 11 weeks old! Holy Smokes! Where did the time go?!?! We had a WONDERFUL Christmas in Oregon (I will post about that later) but she got her first cold while we were there! It was pretty sad! And kind of miserable for us! She didn't sleep very well and was REALLLLLy Fussy and Clingy! Always wanting to be held! She is starting to feel better now and back to her sleep schedule! Thank Goodness! She is starting to giggle and it is just the cutest sound in the world! She likes tummy time and is getting close to rolling over! WHAT?!?! Since when is she aloud to grow up so fast! I can't believe she is already getting so big! But she is also so much fun! She likes to sit up or stand (with us holding her up, of course) all the time! She is always moving, moving, moving! I wonder if she will be an early crawler or walker? I caught this video of Jarom playing with her today. He was making her giggle so much! I just love it! Enjoy!

Evelyn's Blessing Day

2011-12-20T20:48:00.000-08:00

Evelyn was blessed on December 4th. It was a great day! Jarom gave her a beautiful blessing and we were surrounded by so many people who love and support us! I don't remember much of what Jarom said, I was crying (good cry) and worried that any minute Evelyn would start crying or something. Luckily Jarom's Mom wrote everything down. Thank you! Evelyn was perfect during the blessing and the rest of sacrament meeting! And she didn't poop in her dress! yay! She wore the dress that my Mom made for me to be blessed in! I love it! It's so pretty and has extra special meaning! After the blessing we had a lunch get together with all the people who made it to the blessing at Court and John's house (our place is just way too small for a large gathering). After Church we took a couple of pictures of the people that were still there (a lot of people had to leave early). We went home to change and get ready to head out to Court's and then things got a little interesting! People had been telling me how good and skinny I looked so when I got home I thought "hmmm I am getting skinnier, maybe my wedding ring will fit now." So I slipped it on and IT FIT! YES!! It felt so good to be wearing it again! After about a minute of wearing it, my finger started to swell! YIKES! I started to get worried so I tried to take it off! IT WOULDN'T COME OFF!!! I was really panicking now! I tried running it under cold water, soap, lotion, olive oil, ice pack...everything! Jarom tried taking it off-NOTHING! We couldn't think of anything. We call Jarom's Dad to see if he had any advice and they were already at Courteny's house so Jarom was talking to everyone about what to do and eventually we just decided to go to the E.R. I was terrified! My finger was turning purple and I was loosing feeling in my ring finger AND my pinky! I knew that wasn't good! As we are on our way to the hospital, Courtenay calls and tells us to go to their house and they will cut it off for me (that's all they would do at the hospital) I'm scared that my finger is going to fall off (hahaha) and now I'm scared that they are going to cut my finger while trying to cut the ring off and SO sad that my wedding ring was going to be cut! I felt SO stupid! Jarom was so sweet and supportive the whole time! So thankful for him and his calmness! We show up and everyone is already there for the party and ready to cut my ring! Jarom's Uncle Matt is apparently a pro at this kind of stuff so I knew I was in good hands! It doesn't make it any less scary though! They tried to wrap floss around my finger to get the blood back down my finger but the ring was already too tight, it wasn't going anywhere! So they get out the Dremel saw! AHH!! (Side not: John got the saw for Courtenay for Christmas and had to break it out to cut off my ring! Thanks John for sacrificing your Christmas surprise for Court! And really sorry we had to ruin the surprise!) They slipped a tiny piece of metal between my finger and the ring and started sawing. It got really hot and was burning my finger so Someone had to spray water while they were sawing it. IT WAS SO SCARY!!!! There was a whole team of people helping out. It was a sight to see, that's for sure! The ring came off and the rest of the day was great!
So over all it was a happy day! We really enjoyed the company of everyone. We missed my parents but when my Mom was here, we put Evelyn in her dress so I was glad that she got to see her in her dress at least! We love our Evelyn and feel so blessed to have her in our family! She get's cuter and cuter everyday! It seems impossible that I could love her more everyday but everyday, I am amazed at how much I can love her!

And here's the ring! I didn't get a picture of it when it was on my finger but it was not pretty! Luckily we got it fixed (and re-sized) and it's sittin nice and pretty on my finger!

Ha ha this in not a joke! This is for real! ha ha It cracks me up every time! It's like she's saying "Ha ha, i'm ruining your picture!" Too funny!

These picture were taken when she was 2 and a half weeks old.

Enjoying life with a newborn

2011-12-05T15:09:00.000-08:00

We LOVE Evelyn!

It has taken a while to get used to everything with her here (we're still getting used to it) but particularly keeping my house clean! I can't stand living in a dirty, cluttered, messy home! And with a baby, it can get pretty messy! There's just baby stuff everywhere! So much laundry to do with all the poop and spit up! so much to do and so little time! So for the first couple of weeks I was just trying to stay on top of things (Which didn't happen, even with all the effort I put into it) I just couldn't do it! Every time I turned around there was another mess to clean up or the sink was full of dishes again or it was time to do the laundry again and I need to feed the baby and change her and play with her and take care of myself and... ahhhhhh!!! Plus I was TIRED! So one Sunday I was talking to this lady in the Mother's room at Church about it and she just said the house work can wait, your baby will grow up so fast and will only be this little for so long. Enjoy your baby! So I thought "DUH!" What was I thinking! I know that it is still good to have a clean home but have now made a chore chart and everyday I will pick up the little things and do one big chore everyday like fold all the laundry or sweep and mop the floors or clean the bathroom etc. That way I don't get so overwhelmed with a messy home and keeping it clean and I get to enjoy my Baby more! It's a win win for all of us! Now this hasn't happened everyday! There are those days that Evelyn might need extra attention or something which might keep me from getting my "big" chore for the day done but for the most part it has worked out! So far. Most importantly, I have been able to really enjoy Evelyn instead of just surviving with her! haha Of course I have always loved her and having her in our family has been such a blessing but it was hard to get the hang of things at first and i didn't really feel like I was balancing everything very well. I love her more and more everyday! She just keeps getting cuter and cuter and smiling more and getting bigger and sleeping better! She has been sleeping through the night and making life MUCH better, for sure! I think I might be addicted to taking naps with her! We are loving all of this Holiday fun and festivities! We put up the tree and Evelyn LOVE is! I lay her by it and she just stares at it and smiles! It's very cute! We went to Temple Square with Jarom's family to the see the lights! They came to visit for Evelyn's Blessing. I will post about that day another time! Anyway, enough ramblings, here are some (lots of) pictures! :)

Christmas tree! It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Enjoying the Christmas tree

I can't get enough of her CUTE smiles!!!

Smiling at the Christmas tree!

Lights at Temple Square

We went to Trafalga and played Laser tag with Jarom's family! While we were waiting to play, we played an arcade game and won these mustaches. Classy!

Hey everybody!

Best little nap Buddy!

Sleeping under the tree! Love!

First time to Church

2011-11-20T20:11:00.000-08:00

Today was Evelyn's first time to church! We barely made it! We were 30 minutes late for sacrament meeting! I don't know what it is about Sunday's but we had planned on going to church last Sunday and we were up with her all night! She was so fussy and so we didn't make it to church. Well this week comes around and she has been so good at night lately! Sleeping well and eating well and going right back to sleep so we have been feeling pretty good but Sunday comes around and she's up all night again! UGH! So we didn't get much sleep but we were determined to go to church! We woke up late, almost didn't go but we wanted to. And needed to! It felt like We hadn't been to church in a long time! So we got all ready to go and Evelyn decides she's hungry. So I feed her and Jarom straps her in to her car seat and we hear a big squirt! She pooped! Awww man! Luckily she didn't get it on her cute outfit! So we wait a while to make sure that she is done with her business and Jarom changes her and gets her all set in her car seat again and another SQUIRT! ahhhh!! So we ended up being a half hour late to church but we made it! It felt nice to be back and have Evelyn with us! I have been waiting and dreaming about this day for a lonnnng time! I would always look at people with their baby's at church and want that so bad! And now we have her and it was really fun! Not how I expected it would be, being late and tired and all! Oh well!

Evelyn will be 4 weeks old tomorrow! I just can't believe how fast time is flying! She has changed so much! She is more alert and awake more and she is really fun but she's just growing up too fast! We love her so much! Jarom is still just the cutest dad ever! I can't get over it! I love watching him with her! We are so in love with our little Evelyn!

Anyway, here are some pictures of her first day of church outfit. Aunt Courtenay made it for her and I love it!!

She was NOT happy about me taking so many pictures of her! ha ha

Adjusting and grandma comes to visit!

2011-11-14T15:33:00.000-08:00

We are slowly adjusting to this new life with our little Evelyn! Adjusting to no sleep, SO many diapers, ALWAYS feeding her, the crying, scheduling, getting to know her and getting used to what she likes and doesn't like. Everything! I swear she thinks i'm starving her! Or at least i'm sure that is what people would think if they heard her hungry cry! Nights are never the same. I can't wait to get her on a schedule! Some nights she will sleep all the way through the night and others, she is up almost every 2 hours! I feed her, change her, rock her and rock her and rock her and finally she falls asleep so I take her back to her bed, climb into my bed and she wakes up again and I have to start ALL OVER! FRUSTRATING! She makes little noises all night long, so that makes it hard to sleep! Luckily she takes a bottle so I can pump and Jarom can feed her sometimes or whatever. It makes our little outings easier, too! But I feel like I am either pumping or nursing all day long! AH! We haven't figured out a schedule yet but I am excited to hopefully figure one out soon. Right now we are still in survival mode. Sleep when I can, eat when I can and take a shower when I can. I keep thinking that I should be able to get more done in a day but Evelyn is taking up most of my time. When she's asleep I have to pick and choose what I want to get done. Should I take a shower? Or eat? Or sleep? Or do the dishes? Or Laundry? I have never felt so exhausted in my life and I can honestly say I have never felt so happy, either! Even though all of those things are hard and it's hard to adjust to this very different life, I wouldn't have it any other way! Even though I can't sleep when she makes all those cute little noises, I love them! I love our little family so much! At night, when Jarom is home, I just soak up all the happiness! I could sit there and look at them all day! We are so blessed to have such a sweet baby in our home!

3 weeks old! She is getting so big and time is flying!! SLOW DOWN!
Just hangin out in Mom and Dad's bed!
Her first duck game! And we WON! Cutest Duck fan EVER!!
This is their favorite thing to do! Cutest little snuggle buddies!

Last week my Mom came to help out and to visit and snuggle her newest grand baby! It was SO nice to have her here! She took Evelyn every night! I pumped bottles for her so she didn't have to wake me up when she was hungry. We slept all the way through the night! What a blessing! We sure enjoyed the much needed sleep! She cooked and cleaned and took care of all 3 of us! We shopped and she spoiled us everywhere we went! She stocked us up on new towels and wash cloth's and grocery's and clothes and Diapers for Evelyn! Seriously, everything! Mom's are the BEST! Especially mine!!! She gave me advice and it was so nice to have her there when I had questions or I was worried about something. It was comforting to have her there all day and night and know that I would always have help! I was starting to feel better and recover so it was nice to be able to go out and have fun with her! Court and Everett also came and spent a couple of nights with us! We stayed up late playing games and laughing and having fun! We also put Evelyn in her blessing dress (the dress I was blessed in that my Mom made) and Courtenay took pictures of her and some with me and my Mom! Since my parents won't be able to make it to the blessing, I wanted my Mom to see her in her dress! So sad she won't be able to be there but at least she got to see her in our special dress! I will post those pictures later. We sure do miss her and are so grateful for all she did for us!Thanks for everything, Mom! I can't wait to have another Baby so we can do it again! Ok, I guess I can wait to have another baby. But I can't wait for Christmas, to see you again! Love you SOOO much!!!

I was HORRIBLE at taking pictures while my Mom was here! We were too busy having fun! These are pretty much the only ones that I got! Love ya Mama!

I love this picture of both of them! SO cute!!

feeding the babe. She eats so much for such a tiny little body!

Little bit of eye candy

2011-11-01T20:20:00.001-07:00

Courtenay took these beautiful pictures of our little Evelyn on Friday and I am in LOVE with them! I can't stop looking at them! She did such a good job and Evelyn was such a trooper while we dressed her and undressed her and posed her, oh so many times! She is already 1 week old and I feel like she has already changed so much! Why can't they just stay this little and cuddly?! I am excited for other stages of her life but there is just something so special about a newborn! She has her first Dr.'s appointment tomorrow! Hope it goes well! She is such a good little baby and we love her so much! Enjoy these pictures! :)

The Quilt I made her

This is the back of the quilt that Aunt Jenni made her

Aunt Courtenay made her all these cute headbands!

One of my favorites! I can't just choose one favorite!

Hee hee! This one always makes me giggle! SO cute!!

The background is part of her nursery! Still need to post about that!

We are so in love with this little baby girl!

Family of 3!

2011-10-25T13:09:00.000-07:00

Our sweet little Evelyn Hope joined our happy family on Monday!! We cannot believe how beautiful and perfect she is! I still look at her and can't believe she is mine! I never knew I was capable of loving this much! Our hearts are full of love and gratitude and just pure Joy! Jarom is the cutest dad EVER! Seriously, it warms my heart to see him look at her with so much love! He is a natural at everything and adjusting to this new lifestyle (so far) very well! I am too, it's just more fun to watch him be with her! He can't stop telling her how beautiful and perfect she is and how grateful he is to have her and how blessed we are! TENDER! I love my family SO much! I feel like I am in a dream and we are just playing "house" with this perfect little doll! It truly is a dream come true! We have waited so long for this! She is a perfect little eater and sleeper and pooper :) All the doctors and nurses are impressed with how well she is doing and how beautiful and pink her skin is! We got to bring her home today and we are feeling complete and absolute bliss! Everything I ever hoped for or imagined has come true! I could sit and watch Jarom hold her all day! He is Super Dad! And Super Husband! Anyway, Here are some pictures of our beauty and the birth story!

On Monday morning I woke up with a couple of painful contractions. They weren't frequent and didn't last for very long so I didn't think much of it. I got up and took a shower and got ready for the day. At about 9:30 I noticed that they were getting stronger and pretty painful so I decided to time them for an hour before I told Jarom. I didn't want to make him worry or get his hopes up, just in case it wasn't time. They were about 3-5 minutes apart, lasting about 50 seconds to a minute long. I called Jarom and told him that I was pretty sure I was in labor but I wasn't positive and didn't want to be wrong. So I called the Doctor and they gave me the go ahead to go to Labor and Delivery. I called Jarom and told him the big news and he rushed right home. We got everything together and packed up and said "when we come home, we will be a family of 3!" CRAZY! When we checked in to the Hospital I still wasn't sure if I was in labor or if they would keep us there. The nurse checked me and I was already at a 4.5 to 5 Cm Dilated! Saweeeet! So they let us stay. They got the IV in and checked me again an hour later and I was at a 6! Pretty fast! We were excited but thought that we would still have a while to wait. The contractions got pretty intense so I asked for an epidural when I was about 7 Cm. They got that in and taken care of and the nurse came in to check me shortly after and found that my water had broken! AWESOME! We were very pleased at my progress! A little while later ( and I really mean a LITTLE while) I could feel my contractions as if I didn't have an epidural or any pain medication, for that matter. YOWSA!!! So I told the nurse and she said "let me check you. Sometimes when you start to feel contractions with an epidural in means that you are fully dilated." I thought WOA! That's crazy! I don't think we will be that lucky. Sure enough, I was at a TEN!! WHAAAAAT?!?!?!! Are you serious? I felt like we had JUST gotten there! The anesthesiologist then came in to give me another dose of the epidural before I had to start pushing! The nurse went to tell my Doctor that I was ready to push. He said that for first time mom's he usually wants them to wait a little while and rest once they hit a 10 because they can usually be pushing for quite a while. The doctor came in to check on me right after that and the baby's head was pretty much right there and her heart rate was going down with every contraction so he said "this baby is not going to wait for us!" Seconds later, a big team of nurses and doctors came in and got everything ready for her to come out. They told me to start pushing and I pushed through 2 contractions and she was HERE!!! I still can't believe how fast everything went! We got to the hospital at about 12:30 Pm and she was born at 4:19 Pm! I feel incredibly blessed!!! She weighed 8 lbs (well technically she weighed 7 lbs 15 oz. but they just rounded up) and is 20 in. long and perfect in every single way! She is a champ at nursing and latched on with hardly any struggle! I am amazed at how perfect this little baby is! We love her more than words can explain! I am so grateful that things have been going so well and just hope that they continue to do so! Evelyn is doing great! I am realllllllly sore and tired but other than that, doing great! Jarom is just a champ all around! Taking care of both his girls! We are so lucky! Here are LOTS of pictures! They are all way out of order. Oh well.

This is one of his favorite things to do! Such a cute little Daddy!

Heaven!

Our first family picture!

My first time holding here (besides right after she was born and they put her on my belly)

Brand new!

About to get ready to start pushing!

Ready to go home! Great Grandma Lance made that blanket for her! We love it!

Cute!

Everett wasn't sure what to think of her! He'll warm up to her soon!

Getting some love from Aunt Jenni!

CUTE hat from Aunt Whitney!

Aunt Courtenay LOVES snuggle time with Evelyn! Who wouldn't!

Fall Fun!

2011-10-17T12:43:00.001-07:00

We have had a fun weekend, full of Fall Festivities!

Fall is my favorite time of year. Besides Christmas time. I love The weather, the colors, the smell, the start of all the Holiday fun, the food, everything! We're trying to soak it all in before this baby comes. We fit in a lot of good stuff this weekend! We went to the pumpkin patch and picked out some pumpkins and went on a hayride and went through the corn maze.

On Sunday, we had friends over to carve pumpkins and decorate sugar cookies. We had a blast and I am so glad we got to fit it all in! These are our special confused looks. The Corn Maze was really confusing. We had a hard time getting through it.

We thought it was going to be a spooky corn maze. It wasn't.

This is our pumpkin. If you can't tell, it's Jarom, Me and Evelyn. Along with a spooky tree, moon, and Cat.

Look at those pumpkins! And that BELLY! It's huge!

Carving pumpkins is serious business!

Jenni's traditional triangle face Pumpkin!

I also made a Jack-O-Lantern pizza for dinner. For fun. :)

Happy Fall, everyone!

Remembering...

2011-10-13T11:18:00.001-07:00

A year ago right now I was in the hospital having the Twins. I can't believe it has already been a year! I never thought this day would come! Honestly! I remember being so ready for a year to pass and to put it all behind us! Little did I know that I would probably never really "get over it". I think about them everyday and how our lives would be different with them here.

Sometimes I will just sit in our living room and imagine 2 little babies playing on the floor.

Whenever we go out, I imagine bringing them along and how much longer it would take us to do things and how much harder it would be but how much fun it would be at the same time.

I imagine Jarom coming home from work and school to all 3 of us.

During holidays, I imagine what it would be like with them, taking them trick-or-treating and dressing them up in something so cute and girly!

I imagine what they would look like and wonder if they would be chubby or skinny. Probably Chubby :)

Sometimes I sit in Sacrament meeting (Church) and wish we were holding them and passing them around to the people on our bench (mostly just Jenni and Michael)

Even when times are hard, I think about them. When Jarom had his seizure, I thought about how much more crazy it would be if they were here but how happy they could make us.

I imagine going on walks while strolling them along.

I imagine how CRAZY life would be but also how happy and fun it would be. I think of all the milestones that they would be going through and all the things they would be learning.

I imagine Jarom holding them and playing with them and loving them so much, he wouldn't know what to do with himself.

And today I can't get the picture of them out of my head. Holding their tiny little body's and loving them so much! Watching Jarom hold them both and look at them with the kind love I have never seen before. Crying together and telling them how much we love them. Kissing their cold skin and having to say goodbye to them. Nothing has ever seemed so hard or has strengthened us so much. We have grown closer together as a couple because of this and learned to rely on the Lord more than we could ever imagine! Through all the tears and memories of them, we are so blessed to be looking forward to the arrival of our sweet little Evelyn, now! Now I get to look forward to, and imagine doing all these things with her!! A year ago, I would have never guessed that we would be where we are today! I thought that we would never be able to have a baby again (Irrational thinking at that time). We are getting closer and closer to her arrival and I am getting so antsy to see what she looks like and hold her and kiss her and love her and know that she is Okay! Thinking of her has made this day a lot easier! I kind of knew it would! I will never forget our twins, or the day we had to say goodbye to them. I guess October 13 will always be a hard day for us. For now at least.

Baby Shower! Kind of a long post.

2011-09-25T18:38:00.000-07:00

So it has taken me a week to finally get this post up but I got the Flu last week and have been busy (unmotivated, really) and stuff! BUT, I had THE best Baby Shower a girl could ask for or dream about! Honestly, it was PERFECTION! Like a dream, for sure! It was a tea party theme and Court and Jenni went ALL OUT on EVERYTHING! Spending countless hours making everything and finding all the stuff for it! I felt so loved and special! It really meant a lot to me to be surrounded by so many people who I love! We missed a lot of people who couldn't be there (Mostly my Mama) but there were still lots of people there and we all had so much fun! I got SO much fun/cute baby stuff and DIAPERS!! we got TONS of Diapers! YAHOO!! it made it all seem so real that we are going to have a baby so soon! Here are some pics from the night!

Everett was such a good little helper! He loves Uncle Jarom!

These two ladies made all the magic happen!

Courtenay made me the cutest bow board FULL of beautiful, fun, sassy bows! I love it all SO much! I can't stop looking at all the bows and thinking they are all mine! This baby is set and will be so stylish!

Lindsey and Lauren won the present opening game. What is my biggest fear of becoming a mother? It's true, PROJECTILE VOMIT!

Jenni made me this beautiful quilt! It's seriously perfect! I am so impressed with her skills! I love everything about it! I can't wait to snuggle our babe in it!

Most amazing Diaper Cake I have ever seen!

Just a glimpse of the magic before everyone started showing up

They played a couple of games while they ate the delicious food!

Mmmm...beauty!

And last but not least, me at 35 weeks.

I honestly had the BEST night! Thank you so much Court and Jenni for EVERYTHING! And everyone who came! I am truly grateful!!

Life is moving on and I am starting to feel like time is going by so fast but so SLOW at the same time! I have mixed feelings about not being pregnant anymore, soon. I am mostly just excited to get this baby out and hold her and be able to sleep on my stomach and back again. My feet and hands are starting swell. My back hurts and I pee ALL. THE. TIME! But I think I will miss feeling her move inside of me all the time. She's my little buddy. I know she will be when she comes out, too, but...I don't really know how to explain it! I have so many feelings, I just don't know how to say it. Don't get me wrong, I am SO ready for her to come! I keep dreaming about how it will be when we first see her and bringing her home! It's going to be a dream come true!

One year ago today, we found out we were having twins. Crazy how fast time has gone! I just keep going back to that day and remembering how we felt and now to be expecting our new little Evelyn. We feel so blessed and cannot find words to explain how grateful we are for her already! She is so special to us!

Today also marks one year that we have lived in our apartment! We love it and we love our neighbors!

I didn't realize that it was our "1 year" mark when we took this picture today, but I thought it was appropriate! We call it the fantastic fourplex! :)

Anyway, we are happy and excited for new adventures ahead!

Coming soon!

2011-09-16T13:17:00.001-07:00

So, I was up all night last night with contractions ranging from 2-5 min apart! Nothing too painful but uncomfortable! I called the On-Call doctor and he said that at this point, they don't try to stop labor so just keep track of the contractions and get checked in the morning. So that is what we did! I went in to get checked and sure enough, my cervix is moving. I am dilated 1 cm and 70% effaced! YIKES! I have known or read about this happening to people and sometimes it takes weeks for them to deliver ( Which is what we are hoping for!!!) and sometimes they deliver the next day or soon after! you just never know! I'm a little freaked! I know that the baby will be ok, It's just a lot earlier than we had expected and planned on! Plus, my baby shower is tomorrow!! If I miss that, I will be SOOOO SAD!!! They told me to take a bath and drink lots of water and rest so that is what I am off to do! Not strict bed rest, but I can't do much! No cooking, cleaning or walking much! UGH! I will keep updating as we know more! I go back in on Monday!

Cute little fact

2011-09-01T10:17:00.000-07:00

This baby LOVES Jon Schmidt! Especially this song:

Or maybe it's Taylor Swift. Or Coldplay that she loves. Whoever it is, she loves it!

Whenever She is squirmy and moving a lot, I turn this song on and she is completely calm! It's so cool! I realized it happening a couple of days ago and just thought it was a coincidence and didn't think much of it so I have tried it a couple of times ever since and it works every time!! I often turn this song on because I really like it and I guess she likes it, too! Maybe she will play the Piano! I would love that! Maybe she recognizes it or something. I don't know! I love it, though! I think it's so fun to feel her react to things now! And hopefully this little trick will work for her when she gets here! That would be nice!

I am 32 weeks and I can officially say that she will be here NEXT MONTH!!! How exciting!!! I'm not really nervous for the labor part. I figure we've already been through it with the twins and pretty much know how it goes. I'm just a little nervous about bringing home a brand new, fragile little baby! Never done that before! I'll have help though and hopefully some things will just come naturally! I'm realllllly excited! I just keep dreaming of our new little family! I'm most excited to see what she looks like and see Jarom fall in love with her! He's so cute with little kids and babies already, I can't wait to see how much he loves his own! He is getting to the point where I can tell that he is finally excited for her to come and loves her so much already! He'll come and talk to her/my belly and sometimes say goodbye to her in the morning before he leaves. He says "bye, little one" and rubs my belly! Melts my heart!

Jarom started school this week. It's an exciting change, for now! Ha ha I can tell it might be a little tough when the baby comes. He leaves for work at 5:30 AM and sometimes doesn't get home until 9:00 PM! So it will be hard, but worth it! It's fun for him to have something new and I love hearing him tell me all about his classes and people he meets!

Well, That's our life right now! I've just been busy sewing and getting things ready for the baby to come! I have had more energy lately and so I can get WAAY more done! It's really nice! New belly pics to come later! She's getting big! :)

Recent Projects

2011-08-29T10:54:00.000-07:00

We have been working on a couple of projects lately. Trying to get as much done as we can before Jarom starts school (Today) and the craziness begins! He has been so awesome and supporting all the many projects I want done before the baby comes! LOTS of painting and cleaning and such! Here are some pictures of them! I still have lots of sewing to do for the nursery, so no pictures of that yet.

We got this dresser/hutch thing on KSL for $30. It was an ugly sun bleached, yellow-ish/cream color. YUCK! Jarom painted it and got new knobs and viola! I want to put baskets on the top shelf for more storage and cuteness.

I also made this little stuffed turtle a couple weeks/months ago. I can't remember. It's pretty cute and fun! Just a little color to spruce up the dresser. I like to call her Lola. At first, while I was making her, I couldn't help but keep calling her "turdy" and giggle every. single. time! My niece and nephew are very "creative" when naming their stuffed animals or toys and just put a "Y" at the end of everything. They had a toy turtle and name it "turdy" hahah Get's me every time! So this is Turdy...Err...Lola! :)

This beauty was a project that we had been wanting to work on ALL SUMMER but never got the chance to! We got this dresser on KSL in May or something. With the intentions of doing this to it someday and just got around to it last week! Just in time! I love it! I LOVE the antiqued look! I want to re-do our whole bedroom Someday! Not for a while I guess. But this is a pretty addition! Much better than what it was before! I have some idea's for some pretties to go on it. Just haven't done that yet.

And this is the Car seat cover I made for the Babe. It's reversible. I thought since I was making it, I might as well just make both sides CUTE so I can have 2 in 1 right? Right! I love it! Sorry for the not-so-pretty pictures. This is the best I could get. The pink Fabric has little white polka-dots on it.

We are all ready for her to come! I can't believe she will be here so soon!!

Baby Quilt-DONE!

2011-08-09T09:58:00.001-07:00

I finally finished the Baby quilt and I love how it turned out!

It was my first real quilt that I made all by myself! I'll admit, in the middle of doing it, I doubted myself! Ha ha it was getting hard to do and sounded impossible to finish! But with the encouragement from my awesomely awesome and sweet husband, and my determination to get it done, I DID IT!

I did call my sister and Mom for advice quite often, too!

Also, all these fun colors are the "theme" colors for the nursery!

There were a couple of things that made it a little harder like the fact that I chose to use minky fabric for the back. That stuff is SO soft and slippery and HARD to sew. But oh so cuddly and pretty and cute and nice! I'm glad I chose it ,now that the quilt is done and I don't have to sew it anymore! I was scared of the Bias Tape, too! I thought that would be the death of me, for sure! I wanted it to be perfect for our little lady and I think that is why it was so hard for me! It is no where near perfect but it is perfect for her and I LOVE how it turned out! It's so snuggly and CUTE and girly and fun! I can't wait to snuggle her in it!!! Now, on to the next project! I have a whole list!

Fun weekend and 28 weeks!

2011-07-31T12:21:00.000-07:00

Jarom got 7 peaks tickets from his work so we decided to go on Saturday with Joanna and Cody! When we got there, (at about 1) there was a sign that said they would be closing at 3:30. We wanted to stay all day, so we saved our tickets for another day and went to the Scera Water Park (just a water park in Orem) We had a lot of fun and it felt SO good to get in the water and feel the weight of this belly lifted! Everyone had fun going down the slides and jumping off diving boards and stuff. I just watched and enjoyed my time in the pool! Jarom was in heaven! He did not want to just sit in the pool. He was loving the slides and doing tricks off the diving board! Just like a little kid. It was fun to watch and I'm glad he was able to have a fun day!

3rd Trimester, here we come! YAHOO!!! We only have 12 more weeks to go! Well, if she's on time, that is. I am 28 weeks and feeling good! A little uncomfortable and hot, but that is to be expected! Still waiting to find out about the Glucose test. Just getting things ready for this baby to come! Trying to get the energy to tackle the nursery. I go in there a couple times a day hoping that it will motivate me to do something. It just overwhelms me and makes me tired so I leave. ha ha One of these days! We just have SO much stuff in there that we don't know what to do with. AH!

She's getting bigger and so is my belly!!

All is well over here and we hope it stays that way! Just trying to enjoy the rest of our summer!

Evelyn Hope Lance

2011-07-27T15:57:00.000-07:00

Is what we will be naming our sweet baby girl! We have loved that name and named one of the twins that. We still love it and still want to use it. I have always wanted my kids to have "family names" or names with "meaning" And wasn't sure if I wanted to use "Hope" still because it's not a family name. But it does have meaning in our family and we love it!

We picked the middle name "Hope" after the first twin died. We had" Hope" that we would bring the other baby home with us. We didn't get to bring her home but we will bring this new baby home and we are so excited!

We got an Ultrasound today and it was so fun to see her again! I have been used to seeing her every 2 weeks and this time it had been a month since I had seen her. She's a lot bigger this time so it was hard to get a shot of her whole body. We didn't get very good pictures but these are the best they got. Her mouth was opening and closing so that was super cool to see! She looks like she has chubby little cheeks already! She weighs a little over 2 pounds! I just think everything about her is a miracle! We love her so much and cannot wait to meet her!!

Good shot of her nose and mouth! Ha ha It looks like she will probably have my nose. Its kind of weird that you can't see her eyes or anything in this picture. Oh well, as long as she has them. That's all I'm worried about!

I also took my glucose test today. Got to drink that delicious drink and get my blood taken. The drink was actually pretty good. It tasted like an Orange Otter Pop. YUM! They had to take the blood from my hand because she couldn't find my vein in my chubby arm. She found that out AFTER she stuck the needle in my arm. Getting blood taken from your hand hurts! I had an IV in my hand when i was in the hospital so I thought I remembered what it felt like. I didn't. I think it hurt worse. Glad it's over! It actually wasn't that bad!

Anyway, everything is going well and we love our little baby girl!

24th of July Celebrations

2011-07-25T09:36:00.000-07:00

We had a fun filled 24th of July! It was nice to celebrate because our 4th of July was a little hectic and we didn't get to celebrate much, so it was fun!

We went with our good friends Cameron and Virginia to Mapelton Days!

It started with a parade and then we went to the park for the carnival! Ben and Kristen's band was playing there too, so we got to watch them. In the afternoon we went home to take a nap (and give Jarom and Haircut) to get ready for the festivities at night! We went to the Ryan Shupe and the Rubberband concert, which was SO much fun and they were awesome! They put on such a fun show! It was very entertaining! Then afterwards, they had THE best firework show! They were going off non-stop and there was music blasting while they were going. It was pretty cool!

It was a FUN day and we're so glad we were able to Celebrate! Thanks, Cameron and Virginia for such a FUN day!! We Loved it!!

Aerobics

2011-07-15T12:05:00.000-07:00

Every Tuesday and Thursday night at the church, my friend Shelby teaches an Aerobics class! It's SO much fun! She totally kicks our butt's every single time! She's so fun and cute and GOOD! I haven't been able to go for about a month until last night and it was HARD! I obviously took a break to take pictures! :) Sometimes there are WAY more people than this and sometimes there are less. It just depends. This was a pretty average sized group but still way fun!

Anyway, I have LOVED this class and I look forward to it every week! It's so fun to get together with all the fun girls and get our booties into shape! Thank you SO much, Shelby for teaching us! you're the best and we LOVE it!

We took a "muscle" picture but it was blurry so I had to use this one.

25 down...

2011-07-14T09:25:00.000-07:00

...Only 15 more to go. Give or take a little.

I am feeling pretty good. Fat, but good! I think the only real complaint I have right now is that IT.IS.SO.HOT! I can't escape it! I told Jarom that if we can help it in the future, I would prefer NOT to be pregnant in the summer! It's exhausting!

I am always hungry...for TREATS! Ah! I crave snow cones every single day! We finally got one the other day and it was HEAVEN!

My body is really starting to hurt. My hips and my back hurt real bad. Time to get back to aerobics!

I love feeling her move around! She's crazy! Almost always moving! Sometimes she kicks me so hard, it feels like my whole body moves! It's fun for Jarom to be able to see and feel her! It gets a little bit annoying when I am trying to sleep and she won't stop moving around, though! Oh well, we are so grateful for her and cannot wait for her to get here! I want to know what she is going to look like SO bad! I get a little worried that she might be funny looking. I'm hoping that every Mom goes through that phase and that I'm not some cruel mom who thinks her child might be anything but cute! We'll see soon enough!

Here are my "25 week" pictures. Getting pretty large! Please excuse the fact that I look like a rag muffin! It was a hot day and I was tired. Also the fact that I'm not looking at the camera. I looked too chubby in all the other ones. Ah, the joys of pregnancy!

Jarom calls this skirt my "rags" ha ha But it's SO comfortable, so I keep wearing it!

Speaking of Jarom, He went back to work yesterday and came home safe and sound! Yay! Everyday gets a little better for me. A little less worry, at least!

Our apartment is still not done! Boo! I'm going crazy! All my crafty stuff is in there and it's either too big of a hassle to bring it all up here or I don't know where it is. hmmm what to do, what to do. Courtenay is saving me today and we are going to go run some errands! yahoo!!!

The Flood

2011-07-10T17:08:00.000-07:00

Yes, our apartment really flooded 3 days after Jarom's seizure! We went to Target with Courtenay and we were gone for about an hour. Maybe an hour and a half. When we left it was sunny and hot. When we came out of Target it was raining. Hard! and thunder and lightening-ing. When we got home, we walked into our kitchen and saw tons of water. "Where the heck is all this water coming from?" We then go into the living room to find that everything had flooded! The front drain had clogged and so all the rain that had fallen, flooded in through our front door to the back door and through our kitchen! UGH! We couldn't get ahold of our landlord so we tried soaking everything up with towels. Waste of time! there was WAY too much water to even make a dent with towels! We called Joanna and Cody and Cameron and Virginia for help. Virginia saved the day with her Water Vac thingy, to bring up most of the water. The boys pulled up the carpet and the pad was SOAKED. there was nothing we could do from there except wait. Our landlord came over the next morning and got some people to start working on it. It has taken all weekend to dry it all up. The carpet will be fine they think but they need to replace the pad, maybe the drywall and possibly the wood floor in the kitchen. They have heater-fans going in there and it is completely unlivable! Everything is in shambles and out of place. It's a dirty mess and stressful to even look at! It has been SO HOT here and like 20 degrees hotter in our apartment. Luckily, we have been able to hang out up in Jenni and Michael's apartment! Its still really hot but at least it's a place to stay! Thank you SO much, guys! We don't know how much longer things will be like this or when we will be able to live in our apartment again but we are hoping it's soon! We are so tired and just want to go home! Life seems hard everyday but we are grateful for the little things in life. For family and friends who love and support and help us so much! For a healthy baby. For a place to stay while all of this is happening and to have each other through it all! Things could be worse. I just have to keep telling myself that!

Our trip to the ER

2011-07-07T11:02:00.001-07:00

No, not for me or the baby but for JAROM! Shocking huh? We keep saying "You're (jarom) the healthy one, I'm always the sick one. This isn't suppose to happen to you!" But it did.

Here's the story:

We spent the weekend at Court and John's. On the Fourth of July Jarom and John (My sister's husband) Were playing star craft (Video Game) upstairs. Court and I were making goodies for the BBQ we were going to later that day, downstairs. All of a sudden we hear a big thud. The boys were being silly a little earlier that day, so we thought that they were just playing around up there. We giggled a little bit and tried to listen for more, to see what they were doing. The next thing we hear is John yelling my name and telling me I needed to get up there. We ran up there and found Jarom on the ground. John told us that he was having a seizure. I instantly started crying and asked if I should call 9-1-1. I ran to get my phone and was shaking so bad I could hardly dial the number. I dialed it and then freaked out and hung up. Stupid, I know! You just never know what you will do in that kind of situation. I called them back and handed the phone to Courtenay. I didn't know the address. She talked to them and they told us what to do until the paramedics got there. John was awesome! He knew what to do to help Jarom and was so good at trying to keep me calm and letting me know that Jarom was going to be ok. He kept telling me to look at his chest rise and fall, that meant that he was still breathing and was going to be Ok. I couldn't stop crying and trying to talk to Jarom. He wasn't conscious so it was hard for me to think that he was going to be ok. He was unconscious for at least a minute (we don't know exactly how long) if not longer. It felt like an eternity! When he came out of his seizure, he was in and out of it. I will never forget the way he looked at me. He was so confused and didn't know where he was or who we were. He had no Idea who I was and that scared me! He kept trying to sit up but they told us to keep him laying down. He was sweating and had white foam on his face from the seizure. I was crying and pretty much freaking out, but when he would open his eyes I would try to be so brave and tell him that everything was ok. I kept asking Courtenay to ask the 9-1-1 operator if the ambulance was on their way. Apparently they got there fairly quick, but it seemed like forever to me! I finally heard the sirens and knew that help was on it's way. They came in and took over Jarom's care. I was so scared! They had the Paramedics helping Jarom and the Fire Department men helping me. Telling me what was going on and what they would do to help him. They kept asking me questions and my mind was going a million miles a minute, I couldn't even think! I don't know how long we were upstairs where they were still trying to get Jarom back to normal. Everything seems like a blur. They were giving him oxygen and testing all of his blood levels and a bunch of other stuff and asking him questions. He knew where he was and he knew what his name was but he didn't know that it was the Fourth of July. They kept calling him Jeremiah and Jeremy and one time they called him Bob! They loaded him up in a special chair to take him downstairs. Then they put him on a stretcher and loaded him up in the ambulance. Jarom was awake enough to know how much that ambulance ride was going to cost and kept asking them if it was really necessary that he rode in it. Poor guy! They had asked me if I wanted to ride along or follow them to the Hospital. I didn't want to leave him and just thought I would be worried and scared no matter where I was. So I rode in the front of the ambulance so that I could stay with him. When they loaded me up in the front, they assured me that he would be just fine and they would take good care of him. Through my tears, I told them" take really good care of him because I really love him a lot, ok?!" :) I was hysterical and said some pretty silly things, I guess. When we got to the hospital, they wheeled him into his room where a nurse was waiting for him. Court and John showed up a couple minutes later. What a relief to have them there! They hooked him up to an IV (he did NOT like that), took some blood, and did a couple of other tests. They did an EKG, some X-rays and a CAT scan. We waited there for about 3 hours. Jarom slept almost the whole time and I sat there and watched him breathe. I couldn't take my eyes off of him (still can't.) The test results came back normal. They gave me some instructions for home care and told me what to do afterwards. Dr.'s Appointments, further tests etc. and we were discharged. John brought our car home for us along with some food from the BBQ and Courtenay took us home. They stayed with us for a couple of hours and Joanna and Cody came over to see how Jarom was doing. The poor guy felt so bad about "ruining every one's Fourth of July" he wanted to go somewhere to watch fireworks and play games. We didn't do that. John and Cody gave me and Jarom a blessing and then everyone left so that Jarom could get some rest. I was completely terrified!!! I tried everything to help me relax while Jarom was asleep in the recliner.I just couldn't stop watching him and that continued all night. He woke up for a little bit so I moved him the the bed. When I say moved him, I mean helped him walk. I didn't sleep a single second that night. Every time he would move, I would ask him if he was ok. It got to the point where he would move and I would say "Jarom" and he would just nod, letting me know that he was ok. Ha ha I couldn't help it! I couldn't relax or stop crying. I just sat in bed all night and watched him breathe and move. I was so relieved to see the sun come up the next morning. I had been having contractions all night and morning (probably from the stress) but was too afraid to tell jarom, in fear that it would stress him out and he would have another seizure or something. I finally told him and he made me call the doctor. I went in that day and they gave me some medicine to help me sleep and the baby seems to be doing just fine! Thank goodness! That's the last thing we need right now!

Courtenay and Everett have been staying with us ever since. It really helps me to have them here! Thank you, Thank you, THANK YOU!!! I am so grateful for that!

Jarom saw the Neurologist yesterday. He didn't tell us much but he did a couple of reflex tests and nerve tests and everything seemed fine. He said he can't tell anything until after the EEG is done. That is scheduled for the 12th and then we go back to the Neurologist on the 22nd. Hopefully they will be able to tell us something.

So, it looks like I won't be going to Oregon, after all and that's ok. Jarom really wants me to go still but I wouldn't be able to relax or have fun or anything worrying about him! Plus, I want to be here for the tests and doctors appointments and just be here with him!

I am so grateful that we weren't home alone and that Courtenay and John were there when everything happened! I could never imagine doing that alone!

We don't know what caused this to happen. If it was the video game, lack of sleep, dehydration, seizure disorder, or just some freak accident. We don't know why things keep happening to us but we just keep pushing through it. Taking it one day at a time and hopefully things turn out ok. Everything is stressful right now but there's just not much we can do about it so we are trying to enjoy our time together and relax. It's harder for Jarom than it is for me to do!

THANK YOU everyone for your thoughts, prayers, meals, visits, phone calls, help and concern!

Jarom is doing well, for now and we hope it stays that way! He is getting pretty bad cabin fever because he can't go back to work yet! He's busy doing some projects around the house. I don't let him work too hard though. I make him take breaks and drink water and sit under the fan. Call me crazy, but I'm trying to take care of him. I think he's getting a little bit annoyed of me! haha Oh well. Thank you, again to everyone! We will continue to keep you updated!

Family Reunion

2011-06-28T09:08:00.001-07:00

We had a blast at my Family Reunion last weekend! The Barrus (My Mom's family) Reunion started Thursday night and ended on Saturday and the Mitchell's (and Lance's) stayed til Monday and had our own little reunion. We had everyone there but two members of our family! That is pretty good! That hasn't happened in a long time! It was SO fun to see Aaron and Joey and Scooter! I am so glad they could come! We packed a lot of fun into those couple of days! Poor Jarom had BAD allergies again! We finally got some medicine (Or a couple of medicine's) that work. I didn't get any pictures because I wanted to make a video so here are some of the things you will see:

* The Talent show

*John finally got initiated (if you remember, Jarom got initiated last year.)

*Everett Snuggles! I could snuggle him all day! He loved snuggling my big belly. It was so cute! It's almost like he knows what is in there! He loves it!

*Swimming at Miracle hot springs

* The Auction, of course. We didn't win much but it was still fun!

*Playing Minute to win it

*Lots of eating

*Camp fires

*Going to the fish Hatchery

*Going to a couple of waterfalls

*Glitter toes

*But most of all, just being together was the BEST!

Thanks everyone for such a fun time!

California Adventures

2011-06-21T09:40:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we made the long journey to California for Justin (Jarom's Brother) and Anna's wedding. They got married in the Oakland Temple. It was a crazy weekend but it was fun to get together and spend time with family! poor Jarom had THE worst Allergies ever! It looked like he was constantly crying and if he took the tissue away from his nose for a second, he had snot running down to his lips. Sorry if that's a little TMI. Ha So that is why he isn't in very many wedding pictures. He had to stay in the Motor Home most of the time, where there was filtered air. I didn't get many pictures but here are some that I did get. And also some that I borrowed from Jessica :) Thanks Jess! I had also planned on making a video but our batteries died half way through the trip. Bummer! Anyway, here are some of the happenings of the weekend.

A sneak peak of some family pictures. (Jarom's) Uncle Scott took some family pictures for us but We haven't seen them yet so for now, these are some that I am borrowing from Jessica.

Girls Night!

The boys were having a party for Justin so we went over to Jessica's for a girls night. We painted our toe nails, made (or watched Jessica make) Cupcakes for Charlotte's Birthday, ate Ice cream and took some silly pictures!

Oh, and looked through Jessica's fabric stash! Thanks for the fabric! I've already made something with it! :)

We all put on this silly make-up that Janae had. Special.

Well I guess that's it. I have more pics from the wedding and such but Blogger says that I have exceeded my upload limit. Or something of that nature. If anyone knows how I can fix that and would like to help, that would be great! Ha ha I have been trying all day.

Over the hump

2011-06-14T15:22:00.000-07:00

Yahoo!

We've made it!

We are 21 weeks now!

This is how far I was when we lost the twins.

When I found out I was pregnant this time Jarom asked me when we could tell everyone and I said "not until we are at least 21 weeks" Ha ha That didn't happen now did it?

I feel like I can breathe now! I know that there is never really a"safe" point in pregnancy. I have been hearing of more and more people losing babies. And maybe its because I didn't pay much attention to it before we lost our babies. You know how that is?

Anyway, I feel more safe now that we have made it past that hump! What a milestone for me! It's kind of cool because at this stage, we have an idea of how big she is and what she looks like because of the twins! I think about them so much lately!

Aside from that event last week with the contractions, I'm still feeling great! And even better knowing that everything is A-Ok!

I am thoroughly enjoying this whole stay at home thing! Especially when the sun is out! :) I love cleaning and crafting and getting things ready for our sweet baby to get here! And sleeping in and taking my time to get ready for the day, of course! I really love everything about it! It's so nice and I feel so blessed to have such a hard working husband who makes it possible for me to do it! He's the BEST!!! Really!

I have been able to get a couple of projects done that have been on my list for a LONNNNG time! I will take pics and post those later! For now, I am getting things ready for our trip to California for Jarom's brother, Justin's wedding!

And here's the latest picture of our pretty little lady!

They couldn't get a very good "profile" picture of her because she is still just hangin out upside down and she wouldn't move her hand from her face. so it's not very clear. Ha ha silly baby! So, here's the best they could get!

Everything is ok!

2011-06-10T13:12:00.000-07:00

What a relief!!!

We went to the Doctor and they did a detailed ultrasound and everything looks perfectly fine!

PHEW!!

She looks perfect and and my body is holding up just great! They think it may have been Braxton Hicks that I was feeling. Didn't make a dent in my cervix! I feel SO much better!! I hate that feeling and so it is so nice to know that everything is just fine! Thank you everyone for the love, support and prayers! You are all so great!!

Scared!

2011-06-10T09:02:00.000-07:00

Yesterday at work I started having some contractions. Not painful and not consistent but they were still there! I freaked! I called my doctor and talked to the nurse. She told me to lay low, keep my feet up and relax. Don't do anything stressful. So, I quit my job a couple days early and stayed home last night. I thought that they would go away but they didn't! they stayed all night. They ranged from 25 min. apart to an hour and a half apart and at night I went hours without having any. I think, at least. So they are definitely not consistent but DEFINITELY scary! I called the On-Call Doc last night to see what he thought and he said there's not much they can do but to come in tomorrow(Today) and get an ultrasound to check the cervical length.

I hate that I know how contractions feel. I hate that I am so paranoid about everything! I couldn't sleep last night at all! I cried and prayed almost all night last night! Jarom gave me a blessing and that helped. It gave me comfort, that's for sure! My mind is going crazy! I keep thinking positively like "Oh, it's probably nothing! I'm probably just really paranoid" blah blah blah but then I turn right back around and think the worst! I prepare myself for the worst and I had myself convinced that I would have to prepare to deliver this baby today! I hate that! I hate that fear! I was warned that this would happen with this pregnancy and I knew it would. I just really hate it! I feel like I am reliving the worst nightmare! The thought of losing another baby just kills me!

I pray and pray and pray! I know that Heavenly Father knows me and knows what's in my heart. I know that he knows how much we love this baby and want her in our family! I have faith that whatever happens is because it is in his plan and we will continue to be blessed. I know that He loves me and doesn't want me to hurt or be scared!

I go to the doctor in about an hour so I will update again and let you all know what's going on.

I know that I may be over reacting, but I have lived through the possible outcome of this already and it scares me to death to have to face it again! please pray that everything will be ok!! Thank you for your love and support!

"I thought I saw a Spider"

2011-06-07T16:56:00.001-07:00

Don't worry people, this is not a scary spider story!

Last night at about 2:27 AM Jarom freaks out and sits/JUMPS up from bed. It startled me so bad I was WIDE awake. I thought something was wrong for sure. Other wise why would he be so concerned. I got up and asked him what was wrong. He just stares at the floor by the side of the bed. I continue to ask Jarom "what's wrong? are you ok?" He finally gets out the words "I thought I saw a spider". AHHH! I said where? I thought that he felt it on his face or something! EWW! He said that he saw it run across the room! If it was big enough for him to see in the dark and freak out like he did, it had to be BIG! I said "ewww sick you can turn on the light, that's creepy!" So I thought that he would get up and look for the nasty thing! Nope, he said "No, it's ok. I already looked to the side of the bed". Oh ok,, so don't worry folks! It's NOT to the side of the bed so we're all ok! So i try to forget about this big giant spider and try to go to bed. IMPOSSIBLE! I couldn't stop thinking about it crawling across my face or waking up to it right next to me. I was imagining a tarantula type spider. You know, all the scary and irrational things you think about in the middle of the night. I tossed and turned for a good hour until Jarom said "It's ok, I don't think it was anything." Oh yeah Jarom, you're just saying that so i'll go to sleep and leave you alone! So I said how do you know? He told me that the spider that he "thought" he saw was this (holding his hands out to about the size of a football) big. Ha ha ha ha I think he was dreaming or something. I was silly enough to think "Oh my gosh well maybe it wasn't a spider, but it was probably a big nasty rat of some kind if it was that big" Really, steph? Come on! haha Needless to say last night was a sleepless night but I can't stop laughing about it today!

Note to Husbands: NEVER tell your wife that you see a big giant spider. Just take care of it and save her and irrational thinking and fear! Especially in the middle of the night! Ha ha It does make for a good story though!

Weekend with the Barker's

2011-06-05T18:08:00.000-07:00

This weekend was packed of fun stuff and we did it all with Joanna and Cody! On Saturday we headed out to Mountain Green for Lance (Jarom's cousin) and Danielle's wedding reception. It's always fun to see everyone and catch up! It was a perfect day to spend outside. It feels nice to finally see some sun!

Sunday we packed up a picnic and some games and went up the Provo Canyon to eat some dinner and check out the Falls. It was a WARM (ok, it was really hot) day and I can't wait for more days like this! I hate staying inside when it's so pretty outside. Bring on the summer weather!! I love it!

Comparison

2011-05-30T11:50:00.000-07:00

I was looking through some pictures the other day and came across my "belly" pictures from the twins. I was exactly 19 weeks with them in this picture and right now I am 2 days shy of 19 weeks. Holy smoke, I was HUGE! You can definitely see the difference between one baby and two! I remember being really big but seeing how big I am now compared to then, at the exact point in pregnancy, is just plain crazy! I'm so glad I have those pictures! I wish I would have taken some right before I delivered because I was still growing in those last 2 weeks. I wish I could see how big I was then!

I am feeling great! LOVING this stage of pregnancy! Not too big, but big enough that you can tell that I'm pregnant and not just fat! I have been starting to feel her move around in there and I love every single punch and kick! It's so fun and reassuring to feel her move around! She gets really active at night! GREAT! I hope that doesn't stick when she gets here! Jarom was able to feel her on the outside too! So cool! Sometimes he'll come over and shake my belly to see if he can make her move. So cute! I am at the awkward clothes stage though. Not quite big enough to fit into maternity clothes yet but too big for my regular clothes. Mostly pants. Good thing I wear baggy scrubs everyday at work. Those fit just fine!

Speaking of work, I just found out that my last day of work will be the 15th of June! This is earlier than we had planned but the office that I work in is making a lot of changes and won't need me anymore. After losing the twins, we were really paranoid about the next pregnancy and wanted to take every precaution to make sure that we got the new baby here safely. The Doctors were almost positive that I would have to have surgery again so we weren't even planning on me working while pregnant again at all. But since everything is going so well we thought it would be smart for me to keep working at least until we could pay off all of our past hospital bills. We are so close to that and feeling pretty good about this change. Before all of this we had decided that I would be done working at my 3rd trimester so this isn't too much earlier than expected. This job has been so good for us for the time that I had been there and we are so grateful for the financial stability that it gave us. It has been getting a bit stressful for me lately so, we feel like it's time to be done. So that is a big change for us.

Jarom will be starting classes in the fall at UVU. We are so excited to get the ball rolling again! It will be stressful without me working, Jarom starting school and a brand new baby but we are ready for the challenge! I think! :)

She's getting bigger

2011-05-11T19:05:00.000-07:00

Went to the Doc today. Always exciting and a little scary for me! Little baby is doing great! :) And so cute already! They did a "detailed scan" today which measures all the important stuff. She looks perfect! Everything looked great and she is growing perfectly, right on schedule! It was so fun to see all the details of her heart and brain and such! I think its so incredible how real she is! She has everything! It's so cool! I could watch her move around all day! She wouldn't let us get a good picture of her face. every time they got close, she put her hand in front of her face like she was saying "No pictures please!" hee hee She's already making us laugh! They still couldn't get a good profile picture of her because when they tried, she was on her belly and wouldn't flip over. They took a picture anyway and It looks pretty cool. You can see her spine really good.

Anyway, we are so happy! We already love her so much and can't wait to meet her! I am so grateful for my health and the health of our perfect little baby! What a blessing!

I try so hard not to worry but everyday is still a struggle for me, so knowing that she is doing so great and growing so healthy and strong is a huge relief!

Hopefully we will only have to go back to the specialist 2 more times! We're hoping that our regular Doctors Office will be able to take care of everything, unless something happens. It's only $26 at our Doc and $200 at the specialist, for an ultrasound! YIKES! That's an extra $400 a month for us! That's a lot!

We are pretty sure that we have picked out her name. We'll see for sure when she comes! Can't wait!

Isn't that cool?! Her legs are to the very left of the pic and her head is on the right. (If you can't tell)

GIRL! Kind of hard to tell in this picture!

Cute little foot! I love it!

Her arm and head.

Happy Mothers Day!

2011-05-08T10:36:00.001-07:00

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I have been blessed to be surrounded by some of the most amazing Women in my life who I look up to and am so grateful for everyday. But most importantly, is my own Mom! I could never imagine a more amazing, beautiful, selfless, fun, funny, smart, Incredible Woman to be my Mom! She has taught me so much and made me the person I am today! I look up to her so much and am hoping that I can soon become the kind of Mother to my children as she has been to me! She is such a huge blessing in my life! I look to her almost everyday (sometimes more than once a day) for advice, or just to talk. She is not only my Mom, but one of my best friends! Thank you for being the BEST Mom a Girl could ask for! I love you Mama!

It is also my first Mother's Day as a Mom! Jarom was so sweet and made me Breakfast in bed, made me a card all by himself and made me a shopping coupon!What a great Mother's Day surprise! I didn't expect much, so this definitely exceeded my expectations! Technically I am a Mother, but the Baby isn't even here yet. So I thought maybe I might get a card. He has spoiled me and made me feel so special and beautiful! I am so grateful for him and all he does for our family! I am so excited to be a Mom!!

Drum Roll Please...

2011-04-27T17:42:00.000-07:00

It's a.......

GIRL!!!

We are so happy! I was so shocked! I was really ready for her to say "It's a Boy!" I guess I'm not always right! My intuition was wrong! Ha ha Oh well! I am so excited! And I already have lots of projects I could work on with all the girly stuff I have from the twins! Jessica (Jarom's sister) Is coming to visit next weekend and we are going to do plenty of (Fabric) shopping so it's so nice to know what we are having so I can look for some CUTE stuff!

The Doc says everything is looking great. The cysts have not changed (bigger or smaller) so that is good and bad, I guess. They aren't worried about it so that's good! My cervix is looking awesome! They are very pleased, and so are we!

I am just so thrilled! I never wanted to admit that I wanted a girl, because I don't like that. What if it was a boy, I don't want to feel disappointed. That's horrible. I would be so grateful and happy with whatever we were blessed with. A healthy baby! But I have been feeling like I really wanted a girl. When we lost the twins, I felt like I got teased or something. I don't know, it's kind of hard to explain. I guess I just felt like I wanted a girl because I lost girls. If that makes sense. But I honestly would have been so happy and excited for either one! Honestly! Anyway, we are just so excited! I can't seem to wipe the smile off of my face! I Can't wait for this little girl to get here! But I will! :)

Really?

2011-04-26T16:31:00.000-07:00

So, I realize that I don't know what it feels like to have a normal pregnancy but last time, we found out what we were having (Boy or Girl. Or in our case, Twins) at 20 weeks. And I think that's pretty normal right? Well, at my last visit my doctor said that you can find out what the gender is as early as 12 weeks! Say WHA?! I thought that the earliest was at least 16 weeks or something. Nope! So they didn't even check last time but said that we could probably find out the next time, at 14 weeks. So that is TOMORROW! I can't believe that you can find out so early! We are so excited! We hope that the babe cooperates or else we will have to wait for 2 more weeks. Which is fine too. I realize that we are lucky to be able to even try this early! I have a strangely strong feeling that this little one is a BOY! I don't know why I feel that way. I just have since I found out I was pregnant! Last time I was POSITIVE it was a girl, the whole time! And I was right. So I am anxious to find out what it is! Whatever it is, we are so excited and grateful and really all I want is a healthy baby! I just don't know what I will do with all of this cute baby girl stuff! Save it, I guess! So, what do you all think? Boy? Or Girl?

I will let you all know, If we find out tomorrow! Crossing our fingers that our little one isn't crossing it's legs! :)

Cinnamon Bubble Buns

2011-04-03T08:30:00.001-07:00

Or "Cinnamon Surprise" as Jarom keeps calling them.

Yesterday for Breakfast, or lets face it, I didn't get up in time to make them for breakfast so they were more like a lunch treat. I made these Delicious Cinnamon Bubble Buns! I found the recipe in a magazine and had to try them! They are SO tasty and I love the name! hee hee (they don't make you have bubble buns, so don't be afraid to try them! In fact, they don't have ANY fat or calories or sugar or ANYTHING that's bad for you! Or at least that's what I tell myself) Here's the Recipe

Sour Cream Yeast Dough :

2-1/4 teaspoons (1 envelope) active dry yeast

1/4 cup warm water 100-110 degrees

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled

2/3 cup sour cream

3 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus 1 to 2 tablespoons for kneading, if necessary

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

Cinnamon-Sugar Coating:

2/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

4 tablespoons butter, melted

Translucent Vanilla Glaze:

1-1/4 cups powdered sugar

1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted

1 tablespoon milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

To make the dough: Combine the yeast with the water in the bowl of a stand mixer. Set aside until foamy, about 5 to 10 minutes. Add the butter, sour cream, sugar, egg, and vanilla and stir to combine with a rubber spatula. Fit the mixer with the paddle attachment, twist on the bowl with the yeast mixture, and add 2 cups of the flour, salt, and baking soda. Mix on medium-low until incorporated. Add the remaining 1/2 cup flour and beat until the dough is soft and smooth.

Knead the dough on a floured surface until it is no longer sticky (you may need to add 1 to 2 tablespoons more flour), about 3 minutes. Place it back in the mixing bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise in a warm spot for about an hour, until doubled in size.

Put a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees. Spray and flour a standard 12-cup muffin tin.

To make the topping: In a small bowl, stir together the brown sugar and cinnamon. Place the melted butter in a small dish nearby.

To shape: Punch down the dough, then form it into a long cylinder. Divide it into 12 equal portions, each one weighing 1-3/4 ounces. Divide each of the 12 portions (I use a bench scraper) into sixths, and roll each little piece into a ball. Roll the balls first in the butter, then in the cinnamon-sugar. Place in the muffin cups. Repeat, placing all 6 balls in the same muffin cup, roughly 5 on the perimeter and 1 in the center, but I found that being particular with the placement wasn't really necessary.

Repeat with the remaining 11 dough portions. When you're done, each muffin cup will be filled with 6 little cinnamon/sugar/butter coated balls, or "bubbles."

Cover the muffin tin with plastic and let rise for about 40 minutes, or until doubled in size.

Bake for 20 to 22 minutes, or until golden. Let cool for a few minutes, then remove the buns with the aid of a spoon or a thin knife blade. Place on a wire rack.

To make the glaze: Stir the sugar, butter, milk, and vanilla in a small bowl until smooth. Add a drop or two of water if necessary. Use a pastry brush to coat each bun with glaze, or just drizzle it with a spoon (as I did).

We have really been enjoying this Conference weekend! Relaxing at home, listening to awesome talks and wonderful music! There really is nothing like it. In the past, we have gotten tickets from our parents (Because they don't really offer them here in Utah) but we forgot this year sowe have really enjoyed staying home and watching it.

Today for the Afternoon session we are having Joanna, Cody and Justin over to watch conference and eat some delicious food and play some games afterwards. Should be fun!

Happy Conference watching!

Oh yeah, this morning we woke up to this.....

Update

2011-04-01T13:16:00.000-07:00

We went to the Specialist on Wednesday and everything is still looking great! PHEW! I worry every single day and those ultrasound days are exciting but also VERY scary for me! I'm just afraid that I am going to hear "I can't find a heart beat" again. They were so nice and it was so fun to see that Doctor again! He remembered us and everything that happened and was SO excited for us! He said everything looks great baby wise. The Cysts, however are not getting any smaller which isn't too dangerous but if they get bigger, they could possibly make my Ovary turn which is very painful so then I would have to have surgery to get them removed. It won't harm the pregnancy though and they aren't worried about it quite yet. My cervix looks perfectly fine and as of right now... NO SURGERY!!!! We will have to go back every 2 weeks to be monitored. I am so thankful that they are taking such good care of us and watching me so close! Even though it will be so (SO) expensive, it is totally worth it!

I love seeing the little munchkin so often though! This time it was bigger (obviously) and was squirming all around and we could see the (very) little arms and legs! So cute! It is such a miracle! Watching it move and knowing that it was right on track and that everything was OK made me emotional and so happy!

Anyway, successful appointment. The next one is scheduled for the 13th. Here's the newest picture of the little one.

Our Little Gummy Bear

2011-03-27T13:18:00.001-07:00

We're Having a Baby!!!

We will welcome this baby into our family on October 26th (or somewhere around there). I am 10 weeks along and so far feeling pretty good. Every once in a while I will feel sick but not nearly as bad as my last pregnancy. I am VERY tired all the time though. This baby is really takin it out of me. I would rather be tired than sick though, So I guess I better not complain!

We are so excited!!! It was a surprise for us but a much welcomed surprise! We are nervous everyday (or I am at least) and pray that everything will work out! Our Dr. Visits have been so wonderful! They have been listening to all my concerns and needs, because I think I have a lot this time around. They are being extra cautious about everything and I got an early ultrasound, which I was very thankful for! At our first visit the Dr. said that I was measuring big. OH GREAT! I automatically start thinking "it's twins!" Can I handle this? Will my body be able to take care of them? What are they going to do? Blah, Blah, Blah! Of course I would GLADLY take twins any day! We want them so bad! But I already have a fear of being pregnant and losing more babies and that we got pregnant "too soon" or sooner than they suggested. So we had an ultrasound to make sure there is only one and there is just one healthy little baby growing in there! What a blessing! I was measuring big because I have Cyst's on my Ovary's. They said it's nothing to worry about for now unless it bothers me, then they would take care of it. They said it is common in early pregnancy and would go away as the pregnancy progresses. So hopefully they won't give us any grief! When they did the Ultrasound I saw three black balls (one was the Baby in the amniotic sac and the other two were Cysts's) and thought TRIPLETS!! hahaha But no, Not triplets! Just Cyst's.

We have an appointment with the specialist we saw for the twins on Wednesday to see if they want to do the surgery (cerclage, Aka Stitching my cervix) again or not. My Dr. is very optimistic and doesn't think they will have to so I hope he's right! We'll see. We are very anxious to know that everything is ok. I have been very tempted to buy my own Fetal Doppler because I am so paranoid. We'll see though. I don't even know how much they are.

Anyway, Needless to say we are so very excited about this and feel an overwhelming sense of love from our Heavenly Father everyday! That he would trust us enough to care for one of his precious children.

I gave a talk in church today about Mothers and Motherhood and wasn't even planning on talking about the twins but just kept feeling like I needed to. I kept fighting it because I didn't know what to say and I knew I would cry. How embarrassing! So I ended up talking about them and how losing them has made me realize how special and sacred motherhood really is. Sometimes you don't really understand how important something is to you until you lose it. I guess that's how I have been feeling about this pregnancy. I feel so grateful for this second chance to become a mother. Maybe that's why I needed to share it in my talk, or maybe someone else needed to hear it. I'm not sure.

Sorry this is kind of a long post.

If you've made it this far, Thanks for reading! You must really love me! :)

Just Dance

2011-02-26T22:07:00.000-08:00

We got to hang out with some of our favorite people this weekend! Jenni and Michael, Anessa, Brooke, Lindsey and Shelby! We ate lots of delisious food (That seems to be a common thing in all these fun weekends.) played fun games, crafts, talked a lot and laughed a bunch but one of my favorite things that we did was play this Wii game called Just dance! It was SO much fun and hilarious! Jarom and Michael got so in to it, it was the best! I did get up there and shake my booty but there is no proof. I always seem to be the one behind the camera. Sorry you can't see my really sweet moves! HA

Thanks everyone for the fun weekend! I already miss you all!

We made it!

2011-02-24T18:49:00.000-08:00

Well, we made it past the dreaded due date! I cried once when Jenni and Michael left this for us on our door step. We thought it was the most thoughtful gift and perfect way to display remembrance of our babies! There aren't words to describe how much we love these and how much they mean to us!
It was a good cry of course, but other than that we were tear free!

We had such a great time in Park City! We didn't take any pictures darn it but we had a really good time together! Ate lots of yummy food, went shopping, swam in the pool, and played games! Perfect little get-away for us! We are ready to push forward and get ready for the next adventure life throws at us!

Thank you everyone for all your thoughts, prayers and kind words! We really do appreciated everything!

Arizona

2011-02-21T17:53:00.000-08:00

We had a really fun time in Arizona with Nate's family, Court and John, and my Mom and Dad! We got there on Friday Morning and left this morning at 5 am. It was WAY too short but so much fun! I love those kids and miss them like crazy! The kids are all getting so big and so fun! Oliver is so friendly and snuggly and FUNNY!! We wish we could have stayed longer but we both couldn't take a whole week off and Wednesday (Feb 23rd) is the twins' due date so we are going on a little get-away together to Park City. We're hoping that this way, the sad day that we have been dreading will be a little bit better! At least make us a little less sad. Anyway, we had lots of fun adventures in Arizona and spent our time well! Thank you Nate and Amy for letting us all come crash your party!

Enjoy this video of our trip!

Hope you all had a wonderful Presidents day weekend!

Feeling Good

2011-01-28T13:06:00.000-08:00

It's almost been 4 months since we lost the Babies and I can finally look back at it as a memory! Even though I think about them every day, I have accepted what happened and am ready to move on. That feels good! I thought that would never happen!

We had a wonderful Christmas and a MUCH needed vacation! It was really fun to see my family and friends and be "Home" again! Everything was so relaxing and fun! We went to the coast for a couple of days. Didn't get out to the beach much but there is just something about being there and hearing the rain pound on the windows while being all snuggly inside watching movies and eating yummy food! Love it! Thanks Mom and Dad for being so good to us and letting us come to visit!

My favorite little dude! Just can't get enough of him!

They were determined to fly those kites!

New Christmas Jammies!

Christmas Eve Nativity! Always a favorite!

I got called to be the Relief Society Secretary. Definitely a new experience! I am learning a lot and getting to know the ladies I work with a lot better! It's way more than just passing around the binders every Sunday that's for sure! Hopefully I'll figure everything out soon!

I went back to work. It feels like I never left! It's OK, Mostly I just love the girls that I work with and seeing them everyday! I have been exercising everyday, Thanks to Jenni! This extra baby fat is good motivation to exercise more! Jenni has been my "Personal Trainer" Everyday and it's AWESOME! She's the best! We have so much fun! She kicks my butt though! I'm sore almost everyday! I really do feel a lot better and have more energy and I'm starting to feel good and enjoy exercising rather than wanting to die after just 10 min. on the elliptical.

I am so happy and have so much to be thankful for! We have been planning some little vacations for the next couple of months. We're going to Arizona next month! I can't wait to see Nate and his family! I have missed them so much! We're also going to Park City for a couple of days to do something fun for the Babies due date. We don't want that day to be too sad. I know it will be hard and I'm not looking forward to it but hopefully this will help! Most of all, We're really looking forward to the time when we can start trying to get pregnant again! I can't stop thinking about it! It's like looking forward to Christmas or something! Everyday that goes by is one day closer to April!

We are grateful for our health and that we are able to heal from everything and have things to look forward to! We are very happy and feeling good!!

It's the most Wonderful time of the Year!

2010-12-20T20:58:00.000-08:00

We have thoroughly enjoyed our Holiday season! It has been PACKED with fun Christmassy (is that a word?) things! We kicked off our Holidays with going to California for Thanksgiving with Court, John and Everett! We had a blast! Family, Food and Fun! I haven't been very good at taking pictures so the only ones I have of that trip are of picking out the Christmas Tree. We had so much fun though and loved seeing everyone! We look forward to our next visit! Thank you Lances for letting us join your LARGE Thanksgiving party!
Jarom and Cute baby Charlotte!
Me and Jessica hangin out at the tree farm

Jarom and Sadie!

Playing in the pretty SNOW! We haven't gotten very much snow this year but when we did get it, we played in it! I had so much fun!

We decorated our pretty tree! We love all the festive decorations and the pretty lights! I love watching all the corny Hallmark movies and listening to Christmas music ALL. THE. TIME!

We got together with some friends for a White Elephant party, Dinner and games! We love them and spending time with them!

We went to Ben's last weekend for Mini Christmas. There is a video on Facebook of our weekend put to a song that we sang and recorded. Pretty special! :) Sadly, I don't have any pictures of this weekend! Lame, I know! But, We had so much fun! Thanks Ben, Kris, Court, John, Jill and Randy for such a fun weekend! We love you guys!

I made this SUPER cute Advent Calendar for Jenni and Michael (I made one for myself too. hee hee) for Christmas! It took A LOT of time but it was so much fun and so worth it! Jarom even helped me! He's so crafty! I was so grateful for the help, too! I am so happy with the way it turned out and Jenni and Michael's reaction was priceless! I'm so glad they like it! :) I also made Jenni a "Friday Night Lights" shirt that says "clear eyes, fully hearts, can't lose!" on the front and a Panther "P" on the back with the #33 (for Tim Riggins, if you don't watch the show) I had so much fun and was SO excited about the idea! We LOOOOOVE that show! If you haven't watched it, I strongly suggest you start! Here we are after our Gift Exchange! We usually do this on Christmas Eve but we are leaving to OREGON on Wednesday so we had to do it early. Jenni got me a BEAUTIFUL scarf Made by Danielle! I LOVE it SO much!!! I am wearing it in the picture but it doesn't give it justice to how pretty it is! A gift card for a yummmmy Restaurant and they got Jarom "Date Night". They spoiled us for sure! We love them and are so grateful for them in our lives! It's been a lot of fun living next to them! We ended the night with watching Christmas Vacation! Classic! These aren't the Greatest pictures, but you get the Idea.

I'm sad this picture turned out so blurry! I don't know why that happened!

I'm sure I am missing some fun adventure but it's late and these are all the pictures I have. Maybe I'll post that video of Mini Christmas if I can figure out how to get it from Facebook to my Blog. We have one more day of work tomorrow and we're off to Oregon for Christmas! We're so excited!! Hope you all have a fun and safe Christmas!!

Hospital and feelings

2010-11-29T16:27:00.000-08:00

I feel pretty brave for posting these pictures, as they are NOT the most glamorous pictures I've ever taken. I was just going through some pictures and came across them and decided to share. Though our experience at the hospital was hard and sad, I don't want to forget the feelings I felt there and just seeing these pictures made all those feelings come back.

I remember feeling so scared and nervous. So nervous that I couldn't stop shaking. I knew that everything I was doing was for my baby girls and so I tried to be so brave. I felt so lonely and ready for it all to be over.
When they told me that Jarom could not come with me into the OR I was terrified!
Everything hurt!
The IV was horrible, getting my blood taken all the time was so annoying, the catheter was awful, the food was gross, they gave me a local anesthetic for the surgery and it barely worked! I could feel EVERYTHING! OUCH!
I missed Jarom and my Mommy!
So many things were running through my head but mostly I just wanted my Babies to be safe!
I loved my Doctor and Nurses! They were so comforting and nice!
The visitors were awesome! Courtenay and Everett came and spent all day with us and Jenni and Michael and Joanna and Cody and Eliza came after work each time we went in! I felt so loved and they made me so happy!

When we went in to deliver the babies I just wanted everything to be over! I was so scared and tired. I had feelings like "Did I kill my babies?" and "what if the surgeries I had actually made things worse?" and so much more! I think I went through all the "What If's" you could think of! I know now that those were not realistic and that it's natural to have those kind of feelings, but then it felt so logical and real. All in all our visits were scary but good. These pictures make me giggle a little bit because of how embarrassingly silly I looked! take a look for yourself, I think you'll agree!

These were taken after the surgery and we knew that we still had both of our babies so I looked a lot better than I did after the delivery, if you can believe that! We didn't take any pictures of that visit.

I was able to get up and walk to the bathroom. It felt good to be up. Jarom giggled every time I would get up because of the special diaper I got to wear. hee hee

This was before surgery. I was trying not to think about how scared I was!

So, there's the glamour shots. I'm so glad to look back at these as a memory now.

We had a great Thanksgiving vacation in California with Jarom's family. I will post about that later. We're loving the snow and getting ready for Christmas! It's the most wonderful time of the year! Just what we need! I hope you all had a wonderful Holiday!

YAHOO!

2010-11-29T15:11:00.000-08:00

Well that wasn't hard at all! THANK YOU James Lance for helping me get rid of that!! haha easy fix that's for sure! I feel stupid because of how easy it was but I am SO glad to have it gone!! Thanks for your help!!!

HELP!

2010-11-29T14:04:00.001-08:00

I can't seem to figure out how to make that stupid sign from Photobucket go away! I have tried everything! changing my background, changing my title picture! UGH! It's driving me crazy! I can't get a new background until that sign is gone and i'm really sorry that you have been having to read over it for the past ummm.....5 months or something! Jarom can't even figure out how to get it off! Has anyone else had this problem? I am so close to just making a new blog because I can't get it to go away! HELP!!

Gone to Heaven

2010-11-01T18:43:00.000-07:00

We are writing this for our records and for others to read if they want to. Be warned, this post is long and has a lot of details. We do have some pictures at the end.

On October 12th we had our check up appointment to see how our surviving baby was doing. Steph was really nervous to go because she was worried about getting bad news from the doctors. We were really glad we were able to meet with Dr. Belfort for our check up as he was the doctor who had done the surgeries and been with us through everything. He did an ultrasound and was very enthusiastic. He told us that he was very excited with the improvements that he saw. The amniotic fluid measured was where it should be. The week before at the largest point in the membrane it was 12 cm and that day it was at 6 cm. He was also happy with the strength of the babies heartbeat and bladder size.

After his inspection we talked about what we needed to do to help take this surviving baby to full term. We were going to have to do weekly, probably even twice a week, check up ultrasounds. The biggest change we faced was that Steph was put on bed rest. It was not strict stay on your bed bed rest, but Steph shouldn't do anything strenuous like house chores or walking further than the bathroom or kitchen. So I, the mighty husband Jarom, stepped up to my new duties with loving tenderness for my wife and baby! It really was a lot to be faced with since steph still had about 4 months left in the pregnancy! We were happy that our baby was doing well but stressed at the same time with steph not being able to do anything! On our way home we updated everyone on the situation and went on with our day, steph at home and me at work!

October 13th came and it seemed to be as normal a day as any day could be in this situation. But at ten in the morning steph started having regular contractions 3-7 min apart and she was worried because the docs said to tell them if that happened. So an hour later she texted me to tell me what was happening and I told her to call our doc. When she called Dr. Belfort he asked some questions and he told her that she better go up to the hospital right away. Sounds scary and intimidating right? well it was very much so! Steph called me and I dropped everything at work to take her to the hospital. That was the fastest I've ever packed clothes and stuff we needed! Since our doctor was in Idaho we met with one of his partners who also specializes in twin to twin. He did an ultrasound and found that the cerclauge keeping Steph's cervix closed was in fact not keeping it closed! He called what was happening a funnel. Meaning that the membrane with our baby in it was starting to squeeze its way past the cerclauge. The ultrasound image looked like an hour glass with the cerclauge being the skinny part. The Doctor told us that this was a very dangerous situation. He explained to us that nature is smarter than doctors and that nature was trying to take its course. What he thought was happening was that there was an infection in the uterus and the antibiotics Steph had been taking were slowing but not stopping it. Nature was trying to get rid of the infection, and by so doing was trying to deliver the babies. At this point the most important thing was to make sure that steph would survive this with the ability to still have children. The risk was that Steph's cervix was playing tug of war with the cerclauge which could potentially tear and permanently damage it. That would inhibit her every having children in the future. In light of this news, the doctor strongly recommended that we remove the cerclauge and deliver the babies. The bottom line was that our baby would not make it and that we needed to make sure that steph would be OK. While we were deciding whether to deliver there at St. Marks, or at the Timpanogos hospital (for insurance purposes) steph's water broke! When people say its messy, they really understate it! it was all over the place! Steph was out of control! We had to get her undressed and into a gown to take her down to a delivery room. I'll just say that everything was soaked (including the carpet) and I won't ever forget how up close and personal I had to get to help steph with this, and I hope she doesn't forget that either! So into the delivery room we went and there we waited for someone to show up and tell us what was going on. Later the delivery doctor came in, introduced himself as Dr. Yamashiro and explained the procedures we would go through. What he would do was remove the cercluage and then give steph some medicine to speed up the labor. Taking the cerclauge out took the longest scissors I've ever seen and looked really painful. To dull the pain steph got some pain medicine that made her pretty loopy and all she could say was how much she wanted Dr. Pepper! With the Cerclauge removed and labor sped up we started our wait for Steph to be dilated to around 5 cm to deliver our babies. When our nurses shift ended we were relieved and surprised to see that our new nurse was the same nurse that had checked us in when Steph had the surgeries! A couple of hours later Steph got a fever that got to 104 degrees! This really worried everyone because this could lead to steph having seizures and brain damage! To cool her down we had to put ice packs all over steph's body. As the hours passed Steph's contractions got more intense and more frequent to the point where steph was feeling a lot of pressure. We called in the nurse and she told Steph that she could start pushing!

Finally, at 11:03 pm Evelynn ( our "surviving" baby) was born at 21 weeks with no heart beat. She was breach and was very painful for steph to deliver! At 11:10 pm Annabell was born still in her amniotic sac. Dr. Yamashiro came in and took over the delivery. He explained that it was fortunate that Annabell was still in the sac because it meant that the placenta had detached from the uterus wall and could be delivered with no complications. This would save steph from needing to get a D and C. Needless to say steph was relieved to hear this and completely exhausted becuase she had done everything without an epidural. Delivering the placenta went as smooth as the doctor predicted. During this the nurses had cleaned the babies and wrapped them in little blankets. They gave us our babies to hold and some time alone with them. Holding our babies, though they were gone, really brought us closer to them. We cried and told them how much we loved them. We are so grateful that we were able to hold them and see them for the beautiful babies they were. What we felt at that time is very difficult to explain. We felt deep sadness for the loss and a great sense of disappointment for not being able to keep our babies to raise in our family. At the same time we kept telling each other that they will always be our baby girls and that we would see them again in Heaven. After a short time we kissed them and said our goodbyes. The nurses took them away and made us a memory box for each baby that contained impressions of their hands and feet, an outfit that they wore for pictures taken of them, a stuffed animal, a hand crocheted blanket and a certificate of remembrance that had their hand prints and footprints. We are so grateful they did the memory boxes for us, now we can have something that we can hold and look at to remember our baby girls. We will always love and miss them and they are never far from our thoughts and hearts.

Evelynn

Annabell

For the rest of the hospital stay and since, Steph has been recovering physically and emotionally. We are blessed with Stephanie's health and look forward to when we can have more children and bring them home with us.

What was two is now one.

2010-10-08T13:39:00.000-07:00

As of early this morning, we have lost one of the babies growing in Stephanie. The last week an a half has been a roller coaster of emotions and physical edurance. A lot has happened and so I'm going to lay it out as it happened. Starting with the friday that we found out we were having twin girls, this was the appointment we were so built up for and were so excited to find out our babies gender! The technician found one definate girl and one most likely girl ( becuase her legs were closed)!! We were pumped and I was pretty excited about living in the middle of an estrogen ocean ;) What the technician also found was that she couldn't detirmine if there was a membrane seperating the fetuses. She must have had some other concerns that she didn't tell us becuase she set us up with an appointment with a specialist in parinatology for the following wednesday. That night we had a "gender party" and revealed the news that we were having girls by dyeing cupcakes pink ( to represent girls) and covering them in frosting so that those in attendence would discover the gender when they took a bite out of their cupcake! Also those who were there wore the colors, i.e. blue or pink, to show their vote for what that they thought our babies would be. We had people in attendence and people on conference calls! Everyone was so excited when they found pink inside their cupcakes!! Ok so we move on to wednesday. We left our jobs early and went to see this specialist, and waited for an hour after our appointment to see him. When we did see him and he did his ultrasound of Steph he told us some sombering news. Our babies had a condition called twin to twin transfusion syndrome (ttts). He took us to a different room and explained more clearly what we were facing. For us this TTTS was a condition where the splitting of the fertilized egg into twins took place about three days after fertilization and the twins were sharing blood vessels through, and in addition to sharing one placenta. It also means that one baby (called the donor) is dehydrated and has little or no amniotic fluid and the other baby (called the recipient) has far to much amniotic fluid. This causes the donor to be "shrink wrapped" by its membrane against the uterus wall by the pressure of the recipients amniotic fluid, preventing the donor from recieving the nutrients it needs. Only about 10%-15% of identical twins have this condition, making it very rare. The doctor told us that this was very serious and was endangering the lives of our babies! He also told us that we needed to go striaght from him to St Marks hospital in Salt Lake to get further evaluation from one of his partners. We went home to change, say a prayer and have our neighbor Michael help me give Stephanie a blessing and then we were off to the hospital. On our way we called our family and friends amidts our tears and weighty concern. We got to St Marks at about seven and met with Doctor Belfort who is one of about twenty doctors in the country who deal with this condition. Right away we were in way over our heads and terrified to boot! As soon as we walked in they were changing Steph into a gown plugging her into an IV and the doctor was doing his examination. He was able to find that our babies were in the later end of stage 1, almost into stage 2 of the 5 stages of TTTS. He also found that steph was having contractions every 1 to 2 mins and was dilated 3 cm!!! In order to prevent Steph from going in to pre-term labor the only thing to be done was a cervical cerclage, basically stitching her cervix closed, and taking medicine to stop the contractions. Our Doctor gave us two options to choose from that might fix the TTTS, and we had to choose what to do almost instantly. One was called Serial Amnioreduction, where they take out the excess fluid in the recipient baby, and the other called Laser Therapy, where they use a laser to sever the connecting blood vessels. We chose to have the laser surgery becuase it gave our babies the best chance for surviving. Without doing anything both babies would not make it, but with the laser surgery, it gave our babies a fighting chance. The Doctor laid it out for us saying that on one end of the spectrum steph and our babies could die from complications in the surgery and on the other end all three could be fine, but that most likely it would be that steph would be fine and that we would lose one of our babies. There was a 90% chance of keep one baby alive and a 60% chance of saving both. His logic came from the fact that our babies needed to be seperated from each other and this would leave one baby with a smaller portion of the placenta. Steph went into surgery only 4 hours after leaving the specialist. Waiting for steph was probably the most agonizing part of this! We had been together through all of this up to that point and being seperated was really lonely and scary for both of us. She did make out successfully and were able to put her to bed by about 2 in the morning. That was a long day. The next morning everything seemed to be fine and the ultrasound found two babies improving and with strong hearts. We spent that day lounging and watching tv. We had lots of visitors and are so grateful for everyone that came!! Well at the end of the day our Doctor told us that he wanted us to stay for observation one more night just in case. So this morning we got up and checked out and went for a check up on the babies. The Nurse doing this ultrasound found our first baby with strong heart and an improvement in its amniotic fluid. But when she went to check our second baby she could not find a heart beat. That baby did not make it. This was the hardest part of the day. The nurse left to get our doctor and we cried for our lost baby. When our doctor showed up, he was very caring and was able to explain what happened. When he cut the babies connection it had left each baby with a portion of the placenta, and unfortunately it left this baby with a portion to small to sustain her. We have been in a daze from all of this. In a week and a half we had learned we were going to have twins, that our twins' lives were in danger, to losing one of them. We are devastated, but at the same time we have so much to be grateful for!!! First and foremost we are grateful that we have blessed with one survivor and that Steph is healthy and rapidly recovering!!! We are also so grateful for our doctor, who by a design not of our own, was flying into Salt Lake from Idaho just as we were meeting with the specialist. He had the knowledge and skills to save the baby we have!! We are so grateful to live less than an hour from one of the very very few hospitals that perform the Laser Therapy, and to have moved our into our new home literally days before this tragedy. We are gratefull for the love, support and company of our family and friends who have bolstered our moods and uplifted our spirits. We are gratefull for the strength that we have recieved from knowing the plan of salvation and that we will meet her one day!!! I know it sounds like the serious part is over, but becuase Steph is still having contractions a few times an hour and because she still has a cervical cerclage, our baby is still at risk. Please include us in your prayers! This sunday we intend to fast for our baby and if you want to please feel free to join us!

We're having 2 baby.....

2010-10-03T11:25:00.000-07:00

GIRLS!!!!! We are SO excited! I have already been shopping and to a couple of fabric stores with court and Jenni! We have some big plans in store for these little girls! We are in the process of thinking of another girl name! It was hard enough agreeing on one boy name and one girl name. Now we need another one! Good thing we still have at least 4 more months! Wish us luck!

Belly Pictures!

2010-09-29T18:42:00.001-07:00

Here are some Belly pics! This is at exactly 19 weeks! I feel very LARGE! I'm half way there! So far things are going great! I'm pretty uncomfortable and I don't sleep very good! UGH! I guess I should just get used to that! Other than that, everything is going pretty good! My belly is growing everyday! Getting bigger and BIGGER! YIKES! Today a patient came in to work and she is due in November and out belly's were the same size! That made me feel HUGE! And i'm only going to get bigger! Oh well.
We find out the sex of the little babies on Friday! Babies! I am still getting used to the Plural part! I am so excited I can hardly stand it! We're going to Court and John's this weekend with Jenni and Michael and so we are going to have a little reveal party that night. I will post for the rest of you after that so stay tuned! I want to hear all of your guesses though! What do you think they are going to be?!

2 and 2 makes 4

2010-09-26T16:46:00.000-07:00

We had a surprise Dr's Appointment yesterday because I had some cramping that they were a little worried about so they had me come in just in case. Our visit was awesome! The nurse was so great, answering all our questions and spending lots of time with us. I asked her if it was normal for me to be SO HUGE at this stage of my pregnancy and she said that some people just carry different. Not to worry about anything. She wanted to check the heart beat so when she lifted up my shirt she was actually surprised at how big I was. She then wanted to start up the ultrasound machine just in case. (They don't usually do Ultrasounds on saturday) So I was excited that I got an early ultrasound (we were scheduled to have our first one on Friday to find out the gender of our baby) So I thought for sure she would be able to see what we were having. We didn't find out the gender but we did find out that we are having TWO BABIES!!!! TWINS!!!!! we couldn't stop smiling! We are so excited! jarom's reaction was priceless! he was so cute about it and so, so happy! He told me that he wanted to write it on the car windows to tell the world! He can't stop talking about how are life will be with our two new babies! It was so fun to see them moving around in there. Stretching their legs out and moving all around! No wonder I am rapidly gaining so much weight and getting so giant! We are so excited/scared/nervous/and even more excited!!! We will know more details after our ultrasound on Friday so I will post more then. plus some belly pics!

A much needed Update

2010-09-04T13:34:00.000-07:00

We're back! For now at least. We have been busy, busy, busy! These are just a few of the things we have been up to including my new hair cut and belly pics!

*BTW This is a pretty long post. Just sayin.

Went to Sundance and Bridalveil Falls for the day. I was sick and tired this day so sorry folks, no pictures of me. Just my handsome husband. It was such a nice day and I was tired of being inside so we took advantage of the warm (more like smokin HOT) weather. It totally wiped me out for the rest of the day but it was worth it. It was a much needed adventure with Jarom!

We went to California for Joanna and Cody's wedding. We had SO much FUN! It was way too short for sure! I love all the wedding festivities that go on and visiting fam and all. Joanna was a B-E-A-UTIFUL bride! It was a perfect day for a wedding!

*setting up for the Reception. Silly girls!

The next week Everyone came to Utah for the Open house/Reception In Ogden (Where Cody is from)We had BBQ's, ate lots of yummy food, played lots of fun games and hung out with some of the best people ever. Cool thing about being married to my sisters husbands cousin is that no matter what side of the family gets together, me and Court will always be there! Perry awesome! We were also able to go to Everett's Blessing! Oh.My.Gosh! He is such a handsome little man! Thanks to Matt and Laura for letting us crash at their house all weekend and making us feel so welcome and making us such delicious food all the time! I have been HORRIBLE at taking pictures so it doesn't show much of the fun we had or of the family but thanks court, for sharing some pics with me!

*Cute little cousins. Charlotte and Everett. About 2 weeks apart. Aren't they so Scrumptious!?

*This picture speaks for itself. Cutest little man in his Blessing outfit that Grandma made him.

*Nice socks babe errrr-lack thereof. Jarom forgot black socks. Nice!

*I just can't get enough of him. If ya can't tell. Isn't his little outfit the cutest? Court is so stinkin crafty! I can't wait for her to help me be crafty when our little one comes!

We were so lucky to go visit Lindsey in her cute new apartment and play games! It's always a treat to spend time with her! And spend some good quality time with Jenni and Michael too of course.

Nate has been spending a couple of nights at our apartment while he is here filming a new movie at the Motion Picture Studio. I got to go help with hair. I have wanted to do this for a long time so it was pretty exciting! So fun to be on the set and see everything that goes on there. I had a blast!

I finally got my haircut (again) yesterday. It's shorter than I have ever had it and I really like it! Such a fun little change! It's pretty short in the back.
We got to hear our baby's heart beat for the first time! What a magical moment! It made me cwy a wittle bit. It was so reassuring to know that there was actually something in there! We find out if it's a boy or girl on Oct. 1st. Can't wait!
This is at 15 1/2 weeks. I am feeling pretty fat these days. Starting to feel better and get my energy back though. My face just feels so fat. So why did I cut my hair so short?! I don't know. I still like it though. Jarom assures me almost everyday that I am still beautiful. We'll see how long that lasts. hee hee He has been so helpful! Getting me water and food all the time, doing all the chores, dealing with my silly mood swings, and being so nice to me. I don't think I could do this on my own, that's for sure! Don't mind the boxes and dirtiness in our apartment. We are moving this month so things are a little messy. We are SO excited to move though. Jenni and Michael will be our neighbors again! Yahoo!
Whew! I think that's about it. Thanks for hangin in there!

Best excuse I can think of...

2010-07-25T21:20:00.000-07:00

I have been the WORST blogger EVER! We have done SO many fun things this summer and I have nothing to show for it (On the Blog at least). I have been horrible at taking pictures and telling the blogging world about our fun adventures. So let me appoligize! I am sorry for being such a bad blogger! My excuse? I'M PREGNANT!!!!!!!! We're expecting our first baby on February 23rd! We are So excited!!! I am 10 weeks along and so far feeling VERY tired and naseaus. The Doc says that will hopefully go away soon and I will be feeling good again in no time! Crossing our fingers! So, I come home from work everyday and pretty much crash! No energy to blog! Sorry! I'll be better I promise...maybe in a couple weeks! Anyway, that's our life right now and we couldn't be more happy!

A little late

2010-06-25T13:41:00.000-07:00

I know this is a little late...ok really late BUT our computer died and then we got this new one and I haven't really figured out how to use it and put pictures on it and such. I have now figured it out and am starting to catch up! We went to Vegas with my family in May! It was SO fun! My dad had a trade show there and so we all met there for a little vacation! We spent most of our time by the pool! It was so nice and relaxing and the weather was perfect! We also had a little baby shower for Court. Emily and her cute little family came for that and for a little dip in the pool! It was so fun to see them! It was a perfect little break! My poor mom was SO sick most of the time. So other than that, everything was perfect! More to Blog about later! For now, Enjoy some pics.

Before and After

2010-05-08T22:06:00.001-07:00

Well folks, I finally did it! I CUT MY HAIR!!! I have pretty much always had short hair growing up until a couple of years ago when I decided to try something different and grow it out to donate to Locks of Love. Well, once it grew out, I really liked it long so I kept it-for 4 years! I have had this plan to cut it for a long time but have just been putting it off for multiple reasons/excuses. Mostly, I was waiting til we could afford a really good Haircut and someone that I trusted to do it. Done, and Done soooo...I did it! The girl I wanted to do it was booked so I just had someone else do it from that Salon. I figured if she worked there, pretty much everyone at that salon would be good. I LOVE it!!! And Jarom LOOOOOVES it!!! He can't stop looking at me and keeps telling me how beautiful and cute I am. I'm loving it! :) He says he likes the short hair better than the long. He also says that he would like it a little shorter! WHAT?! I was afraid he would not like it too short so I started out a little longer. Maybe next time I will be a little more creative. I was surprised at how LONG it was. I thought for sure we would just get by with cutting off the bare minimum to donate but we had room to spare. We cut off a good foot or MORE. It's a really fun change and I'm glad I took the plunge! Anyway, now for the fun part!

Before:

After:
So- I didn't get any angles or anything but the back is shorter and has really cute layers. I didn't get very many good shots.

One year already?

2010-04-21T18:26:00.000-07:00

I have been so lucky to have spent the last year with the man of my dreams! Seriously! I could not have asked for anything better! We have had so much fun together! Through the ups and the downs! We have definitely learned a lot and are just having so much fun together and looking forward to our future! I could go on and on and ON about this mooshy gooshy lovey dovey stuff, but don't worry- I won't.

We chose to spend the weekend of out anniversary in Moab! It was a BLAST!! Everything about it was absolutely perfect! The weather was beautiful, the park was beautiful, our hotel was so nice, the little town of Moab is so cute and fun, yummy food and spending all weekend with Jarom! Just us, I got him all to myself for 2 whole days!!! We left early Saturday morning and went straight to the Arches National Park (It was free National Park week! How nice of them to honor our anniversary!) I could have spent all day there and MORE! There was so much to do and see and everything was SO cool! We hiked a little bit and saw lots of cool things until I got some nasty Blisters. UGH! My feet swell when I travel so my shoes were too small for my sausage feet. Not as bad as they were before, but very close.Nothing to ruin our trip though! So-we pretty much just went on a couple of easy walks and then headed to the Hotel to get ready to go to Dinner. We ate at a cute restaurant and then took a little walk around Moab. We went swimming and then walked across the street for some ice cream. Our Hotel was on Main street so that was super fun! Then next day we had planned on going back to the park to check everything else out but i couldn't even put my shoes on SO-we went on an easy little hike to a super cool arch and then called it good. We were pretty bummed! We didn't want to leave! There was so much more that we wanted to see. We will most definitely be going back! Soon! Needless to say, Our anniversary was perfect in every way! We took lots of pictures so I'll only put a few on here. If you wanna see the rest, check them out on Facebook! :)

I couldn't put my tennies on so I had to wear these little flats. Not a very good idea.

Lately

2010-04-05T11:40:00.000-07:00

These are just a few things we have been up to lately:

I GOT A JOB!
Woot woot! Thanks to my Bff Jenni, I got a job at her work! (Utah Physiatry). I will be one of the receptionists there! I got the call a couple of weeks ago that I got the Job but I haven't started yet. We don't know when I'll start actually. Hopefully SOON! They call me once in a while to make sure that I still want the job and all and let me know what's going on (they are waiting for a few things to happen in their office before bringing me on) but they just don't know when I'll start! BUT-we are VERY grateful for the Job and I'm really excited to start! This will make Job #3 that Jenni and I have worked together! It's SO much better working with your friend! So, we are looking forward to that!

Swei Jows
We have had the chance to make swei jows 2 times in the last month or so. One time with Jenni and Michael and one time with Joanna and Cody. The first time I had swei Jows was the first time I met Jarom's family. They are kind of a tradition, I guess you would say, in their family. Jarom's Dad ate them almost everyday on his mission in Taiwan. We make any excuse to make them because they are SO delish! Liking swei jows is a requirement to be a part of the Lance family. So I guess I passed that test with flying colors! We didn't get any pictures of Michael and Jenni (sorry, dudes) But we did with Joanna and Cody. (By the way, Cody passed the test too. hmmmm?)

Looking for a new place to live.
We live in a cute little one bedroom apartment and we have LOVED it here! We loved our ward, the location,and the apartment itself. It's just time to move on. We want something bigger and better. It has been fun looking for new places and thinking of our future there. We don't want to move anymore while we are in Provo so we want someplace where we can start our family and have enough room for all that comes with that! SO exciting! And NO, that is not an announcement. I am not pregnant!

Our ward split!
Sad day! Last sunday they told us that they would be making 2 new wards in our stake! TWO! Crazy! The good thing is, is that the church is growing. The sad thing is, is that our ward got split! We loved our ward! I loved my calling, friends, and all the CUTE babies! We are now in the 247th ward and we meet at 2:30 P.M. YIKES! When we were looking for a new place to live, we wanted to find a place that is still in our ward boundaries because we loved it so much but I guess now is a good time to move anywhere we want because our ward will be different no matter what.

Playing with our new Wii
We have been wanting one for a long time. We have been looking at them everywhere to see where we could get the best deal. Jarom researches EVERYTHING before he buys it! We had saved up a little money and I got some money for my B-day and we found a SA-WEET deal on KSL. So we went for it. It has been so fun to play together and have people over to play. Michael and Jenni especially! We just can't get enough of how FUNNY Michael is when he plays! I'll post video's of that later!

Going to Conference
We had the opportunity to go to 2 sessions of conference. What a blessing! We went to the Saturday morning session with Joanna and Cody (Thanks Jan and Jon for the Tickets) and the Sunday afternoon session with Jenni and Michael (Thanks Mom and Dad for the tickets). There's no greater feeling than being there, in the presence of the prophet and his counselors and apostles and church leaders and hearing their wisdom and counsel. It never ceases to amaze me the spirit that is there. We had a great time and are so grateful that we were able to go TWICE!

Easter!
Jenni and I decided to keep the tradition alive and have Easter together! We made a big, yummy dinner with Ham, Potato Salad, rolls, Jill Jolley's Jello treat, and green bean casserole. We had our friend Brooke over too. AND we got a call from my brother Aaron! I was BEYOND excited to hear from him!! I hadn't talked to him in OVER a year! It brought tears to my eyes to hear his voice! I had been thinking a lot about him during conference, too. What are the Odds!? Since we were having our own little Easter, Ben invited us to go to their house on Saturday for an Easter Egg hunt and dinner. What more could we ask for? Family, friends, conference, good food, chocolate, treats...does life get any better than that? Oh yeah, and the Easter bunny visited our apartment too!

Our camera works!
I put different batteries in it and it worked! For some reason, the brand new batteries that we had put in before, did not work. Oh well!

We are looking forward to Our anniversary in 12 days! Can you believe that we have already been married for a whole YEaR! We are very excited and are planning some kind of romantic get-away. Hopefully! If we find someplace to go!

Looking forward to our trip to Vegas in May with my family!
We are SO excited! It's going to be such a nice little vacation and we only have to travel like 5 hours for it! woo hoo!! I'm so excited to see everyone!

Babies, Babies, Babies!!
By the end of September, there will be 3 new babies in our family! That will make 10 nieces and nephews for us! I am SOOO excited!!!!

I am a TERRIBLE blogger!!
I don't know what my deal is! I've gotta get out of this funk I'm in and get on the ball! I hate feeling like I have SO much catching up to do. PLUS, it makes for a LONG post! But have no fear, I posted pictures to go with it so I think that makes up for the gigantic catch up post!

Well that's our life in a nutshell for now! We are happy, and loving life! We're looking forward to the future and what that holds for us! Love you all!!

One year older...

2010-03-25T11:01:00.000-07:00

Thank you EVERYONE for all the Birthday messages, phone calls, cards, gifts and love! I had such a wonderful day! Jarom spoiled me wrotten....and so did everyone else!
My birthday has always been over spring break and so growing up, I felt like my birthday lasted all week! We usually went on vacation for spring break so I liked to think that it was for my birthday! This year was so exception (except we didn't go on vacation) My birthday has lasted all week! Last weekend we celebrated my birthday at Ben's house Playing games, watching movies, eating a YUMMY dinner (thanks Court and John! And Court made my favorite B-day cake!) and went shopping!!

Then all week, Jarom has been giving me the birthday treatment with foot rubs and back rubs and little love notes. I'm loving it! Yesterday he took me to dinner at Tucanos (YUMMMMM) and he got me nice presents and we pretty much did anything that I wanted to do. Which wasn't much, I was just enjoying being with him all evening (he usually works in the evenings but he took it off for my B-day). Joanna came over and surprised me with yummy cupcakes and Jenni and Michael came over and we made Blizzards with our Magic Bullet. It was such a wonderful day! I feel so blessed to be surrounded by so many people who love us! I enjoyed all the phone calls and messages and everything!

I don't feel older OR wiser, but maybe that will come later. So over all, being 23 has been great!

P.s. Sorry for the Not-so-hot pictures! I have been HORRIBLE at taking pictures lately! I just don't seem to remember. So these are pretty much the best we have from the birthday celebrations. Plus, I think our camera is pretty much dead! You can barely take one picture before it turns off. And we JUST replaced the batteries! Bummer!

Create

2010-03-15T18:35:00.000-07:00

I taught Relief Society on Sunday on "The Creation" and while I was preparing for it, I found this video! It's awesome! I really loved it! Very inspiring.
Just thought you might enjoy it! :)

We are Blessed

2010-03-10T11:54:00.000-08:00

We feel so blessed and Happy lately!! These are just a FEW of the reasons:

One of the greatest blessings is being so close to the temple! We live about 5 minutes away and we can go whenever we want! Growing up, going to the temple was always a full day adventure because it was 2 hours away. It is so nice to be so close and we have loved going so often!

Jarom's new job!! That's HUGE! He FINALLY got that Job at Wilson Audio (with my brother). Full time, more money, AND benefits! WHOO!! He loves it and I love seeing him more happy! Thanks, Ben for your help in getting this job!

Being so close to my family! I couldn't think of a better way to spend my time than with family!! It seriously makes me SO happy! Jarom and Ben are quite the couple.

They are becoming pretty good friends and they are so funny together! I've been able to spend more time with the kids and Ben and Kristen and Court and John!

It's just so fun!! Almost every weekend is like a Holiday for us because we all get together and eat lots of yummy food and play games and spend lots of time together! And spending more time with Joanna! We LOVE having her here! I love talking to her about college life and all the fun things she's doing and meeting her "friends" ;)

Being neighbors with Jenni and Michael! Being able to see them whenever we want! It's great! We love them!

Our ward is AWESOME! We've made some really good friends here! I love my calling! I might complain about it a lot, being a Relief Society teacher isn't as easy OR fun as being in the Nursery but I have learned SO much and it has almost forced me to study more. So, that's definitely been a blessing! I have learned so much! And it's so true that you love the people you serve. I love my relief society!

My Husband! What a blessing he has been in my life! He is so handsome, funny, fun, kind, loving, patient...and all the good stuff! :) I'm crazy about him! He is my dream come true!

Well, there ya have it! We are so blessed! We are having so much fun together and looking forward to whatever else might come our way!

Happy Birthday Nenni!

2010-03-08T11:39:00.000-08:00

Yes, I meant to put an "N" instead of a "J". (When I was little, I called Jenni "Nenni")
It's her Birthday today!! let me just tell you a little bit about my Jenni!

We were born 2 weeks apart (Thanks Mom and Carol!) and we do everything together! We are together so much that people actually think we look alike? What?! Yup, they do! Sometimes it's even like we have the same brain! I can almost always tell what she is thinking. I know almost everything about her! We have shared pretty much everything together! Ups and Downs, exciting and Sad, we've been through it all! Growing up we always hoped for/joked about (our mom's weren't joking, they really wanted it) having a joint wedding! We got married 4 months apart instead. Close enough!
We used to joke (before we were married) that we were like each other's boyfriends because when we were apart we missed each other so much! Before I made the move to Rexburg, Jenni was there without me! We were apart almost ALL YEAR!! That's the longest we had been apart our whole lives. When I moved to Rexburg we realized how CRAZY that was! We missed each other if we were apart for just a couple days. Or even one day sometimes!

My life definitely wouldn't be the same without her. (Now it really sounds like I'm talking about my boyfriend, or-now Husband :) Don't worry Jarom, I still love you!! hee hee) She is one of the greatest blessings in my life! I don't know if you can ever know how much I love her or understand the special relationship we have!

We grew up living 15 steps away (yes, we counted. We're THAT cool) So it's only appropriate that we now live in the same apartment complex ( I don't know how many steps away) with our husbands! Luckily, they are friends now, too!!

There's so, SO much more but I'll spare you all the stories. This post already sounds like a "lover" post. Ha ha
So- HAPPY BIRTHDAY NENNI!!

I Love you!

"I've never had someone that knows me like you do, the way you dooooo." "cuz we belong together now, yeah....my life would suck without you!" "Happy Birthday to you, Happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear jennnnniiii. Happy birthday to you!" "I gotta feelin. That tonight's gonna be a good night. tonight's the night, lets live it up" "so i put my hands up, they playin my song...noddin my head like yeah, movin my hips like yeah....its a party in the woodmansee apartment." (or, in the USA if your'e Miley Cyrus)

Love this

2010-03-04T11:07:00.000-08:00

I'm loving this song right now! Its so happy and fun and just makes you want to get up and dance. Or something. It's one of those "favorite" songs that I could listen to over and over and OVER and never get sick of it. I realize that I have a lot of those. :) It's pretty cute! Anyway, Enjoy!
P.s. Sorry the video is cut off. I don't know how to fix it!

Lame Blogger

2010-02-22T10:19:00.000-08:00

So, I'm pretty sure I have plenty to Blog about but every time I go to Blog, i just don't do it. Lame. Hence The "Lame Blogger"title.

Well, Valentines Day was bitter sweet for us. Nate and Amy moved that day! And they took their kids with them! How rude! Right? I had spent pretty much the whole week at their house helping with the kids so that they could get packed up and such. What a blessing! I love those kids to pieces! I wish they could know how much I love them! And Nate and Amy too, of course. It was fun to Chat with them and spend time with them too! We are So grateful for the time that they were here and we got to see them so often! For their love and support and advice and help and YUMMY dinners, and just for some good old fun! We LOVE and MISS them very much!

We all spent the night at Ben's on Friday and then Saturday morning we headed over to Nate's to help pack everything up and clean. Sunday was the big day. They left and we all cried. Well, all the girls and the kids at least. I had a crying headache for most of the day. We took naps, ate a yummy Ham dinner and made sugar cookies! So all in all, it turned out to be a pretty good day! And monday, the ladies (and Kaci) went shopping! (we had to have something to look forward to :)) A day of shopping and good deals with the girls! Who wouldn't love that?!

It was our first Valentines day "together" this year (we were engaged on valentines day last year, but Jarom was in California and I was in Rexburg. Not the same) So we had our own little celebration on Thursday night. We had a DELISH dinner played some games and watched a movie. It was so romantical! :) I also made the traditional BIG valentines cookies! That was fun to be able to do that for Jarom but my goodness-How did my mom do 9 of those things! In SECRET! I was so tired of it after just TWO of them!

*For those of you who don't know. Its a tradition in my family on Valentines day that my mom makes these huge sugar cookies and decorates them so cute in secret and then ding dong ditches them on the doorstep. So fun!

So I got a picture of the cookies but I think that might be the only picture I got.

I have the BEST Valentine in the world! I am one lucky girl, thats for sure!

Now its time for SPRING, and My BIRTHDAY and Our ANNIVERSARY (Can you believe we have almost been married for one whole year already?!) and SUMMER and NEW BABIES (Court and Jessica, Not me!) and VACATIONS!!! That all sounds SO good to me! Bring it on!

Happy Holidays!

2010-01-06T12:48:00.000-08:00

Better late than never. I'm finally getting around to blogging about Christmas! We had such a wonderful and most memorable Christmas! It was bitter sweet. It was my first Christmas away from home (and the Jolley's) But we all got to be together! My parents came to Utah and we all celebrated Christmas together at Ben's house! We were just missing Hill, Aaron, and Joey. We packed our week full of FUN activities! These are just a few (ok, a lot) of the pictures from our holiday festivities and highlights of the week.

*Going to Temple Square to see all the pretty lights. Incredible! A must see at Christmas time, i've realized.
*Going to the "Savior of the World" Pageant. Amazing! (we're waiting in line)

*Making Doughnuts for Court and John's neighbors. YUMM!

*Shopping (no pictures)

*Eating LOTS and LOTS of yummy food!

*Attending Courtenay's Christmas Sacrament meeting. Awesome choir and speakers!

*Playing Rock Band and watching my Parents play Rock Band! They really rocked out! And they were GOOD!
*Having a Hotwheels race tournament in Ben's Basement. My mom kicked everyone's trash!

*Helping the little girls put together their Build-A-Bear's from Grandma.

*Opening the Family Video's my dad had worked SO hard on and put them on DVD for all of us! Best present ever!

*Watching the family videos.

*going to Pirate Island. Eating yummy food, watching Dylan win 1,000 tickets, seeing Darren and Jill Jolley, and playing fun games.

*Skating at the skating rink. Who knew skating could be SO FUN! A family friend rented out the WHOLE rink so we had it to ourselves. It was awesome and quite entertaining. I fell 3 times!

*Sleepover under the Christmas tree.

*Sledding. Nobody got hurt!
*Preparing our traditional Christmas Eve dinner. Ham, Potatoes, Green Bean Casserole, Dill Bread, Etc.
*The Nativity play. The kids were so cute and fun to watch. I was the Angle this year.

*Getting our new Christmas Eve jammies

*The pretty Christmas Tree after Santa came.

*Family Pictures. My dad brought all of his fancy picture stuff and took these beautiful pictures of our family. He did individual families and couples too. We're so lucky to have such a talented dad!

(I just had to post this picture of Amy and Oliver because it's just too darn cute!)

*Playing endless games at all times of the day.

*Eating more yummy food and treats.

*Sitting around talking and laughing.

*And just spending some good quality time with family. I am so grateful and feel so blessed to be a part of such a wonderful family!

Thanks Ben and Kris for hosting all of us and Mom and Dad and Scooter for coming to Utah for Christmas. It wouldn't have been the same without you!

OUCH!!

2010-01-05T10:36:00.000-08:00

Ok, I need to post about Christmas! I know, i know, its super late. But we had an AWESOME Christmas! So much to write about! So that will all come later! with LOTS and LOTS of pictures! This post is about our New Years Eve. Joanna was with us this year and we were SO happy she was! We had so much fun with her and are SO excited she is in Provo! She's going to have SO much fun and we are going to have so much fun with her here! We started out our day by going SHOPPING and found some sa-weeeet deals!! How could the day get any better? Well it did! We went home and ate lunch and got all bundled up to go SLEDDING! YAHOOO!!! We went sledding on Christmas eve with my family (pictures to come later) and it was SO MUCH FUN! So we wanted to take Joanna. We were having a blast! We found this jump and i dared Jarom to go off it. He told me he would after i did. I hesitated and while i was waiting for my nerves to catch up to me Joanna piped up and said "I'll do it!" so we watched and laughed. It was a big jump and it shot you straight up in the air to where you were just standing on your feet. So Jarom had to do it after how fun it looked. Then it was my turn. Oh boy! I started out great! Excited to see what this jump would do with me. Ya know, shoot me up, make me stand up etc. But my sled starting turning so i was going BACKWARDS! SO SCARY!! I ended up going off the jump sideways. I tried to stand up but i was going too fast and the snow was too slippery i just landed straight on my tailbone and smacked my head SOOOOO hard!! It was SO painful! I instantly started crying/laughing. I think i was a little bit in shock. Joanna and Jarom were laughing/concerned that i was hurt. They asked me if i wanted to keep sledding. The stupidity in me wanted to go more so i stood up and was ready to go. not really. They said my face was so white and I felt dizzy. Not exactly in the mood to keep going. They went on one more run down the hill and then we headed home. I had a missive headache and butt ache the rest of the evening. It ended up being a really fun night. We went to the first night party in Provo.
Went to dinner, and relaxed at home watching America's funniest video's until the ball dropped and then we had a toast and went outside to bang pots and pans. We went to bed shortly after that. I was miserable! I have been sick for 2 weeks and I was in a lot of pain. The next morning i woke up and I wanted to DIE! I was hurting SO bad! I couldn't move my neck! I was pretty sure i got whiplash, but that didn't stop me! We went o Salt lake to go shopping and hang out with Court and some of Jarom's family! Later that night we picked up Jenni and Michael from the airport and I told Jenni all about my crash. She was also pretty sure i got whip last. She's been helping me so much in trying to get better! Massages, advice, exercises, and such! I am SO grateful!!! I am still in a huge amount of pain. All over my body. My stomach muscles almost hurt as bad as my neck! Weird! Jenni says it will probably take a little while before I'm completely better! At least i have her to help me along! Anyway, sorry for the long post! I just had to share and couldn't leave any of the details out! And if you made it this far, you get to see the video of the sledding adventure! It's pretty funny! You can hear me saying OWWWWW, Joanna running over to me saying "oh no Steph!" and My loving Husband video-ing the whole thing, LAUGHING!! Haha he explained later that it was funny until he knew i was hurt. Even then, this video is pretty funny! And painful to watch! Enjoy! :)

)

P.S. Do you like my boots? Pretty stellar! Thanks court! :)

Little Ballerina

2009-12-17T14:04:00.000-08:00

I got to go to Lily's Ballet Recital today! It was the CUTEST! There's nothing like a bunch of cute little ballerina girls! Lily was so funny. After every dance she looked at us and smiled and even blew Nate a kiss one time! I wish i would have gotten that on camera! It was really tender! This video is pretty cute/funny. Lily is the 4Th one from the left. Enjoy :)

CAN'T. STOP. WATCHING!!!

2009-12-11T11:22:00.000-08:00

Oh my gosh!!! I LOOOOOOVE GLEE!!!!! The season finale was perfect!! Everything that I wanted to happen ALL season happened in this last episode!!! I can't stop watching this video!!! Seriously LOVE it! The way i feel about Glee is the same way I feel about High School Musical and for those of you who know me, know how much I LOVE LOVE LOVE High School musical! Well, I have the same kind of love for Glee! I'm totally HOOKED!! Laugh all you want, I once told my mom and that wanted to live in High School Musical...and i WASN'T kidding! haha Some may say i'm crazy for admitting this love/obsession but i KNOW for a fact that some of you Eh hem-Jenni, Jessica,and Emily have similar opinions about Glee! I especially LOVE Mr. Schuster and Emma!! So, enjoy this video! :) The quality isn't that great and their mouths don't match the singing and there are some pretty silly dance moves but this was the only one I could find. If you haven't watched Glee yet, I suggest YOU DO!

Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

2009-12-03T12:46:00.000-08:00

Its official! It's Christmas time!! I am in heaven! Christmas tree, Christmas music, wrapping Christmas presents, Christmas treats, Christmas lights! I love our Christmas tree! Its so beautiful and brightens up our apartment! I could stare at it all day! I love spending this time with Jarom, too! We've been having so much fun decorating and watching Christmas movies together. The cheesiest Hallmark movies you'll ever see but I love them! So inspirational! Anyway, here's our tree!

I Love the Holidays!

2009-12-01T11:50:00.000-08:00

We had such a FUN thanksgiving weekend! We spent the weekend at Ben's and went back and forth to spend time with Nate's family. We had a YUMMMMMY Thanksgiving dinner at Nate and Amy's and played games and played with the kids and just hung out and laughed and talked. It was a perfect day! The next day Jarom and I and Kristen went shopping on BLACK FRIDAY! It was CRAZY! We got some good deals. Not all the ones I was hoping to get. Oh well. We helped Ben's family decorate for Christmas, watched lots of movies, played LOTS of Rock Band, Went with Nate's family to pick out their Christmas tree, watched more movies, ate more food, played more Rock Band and came home Saturday Evening. We were pretty pooped! We are so Thankful that we were able to spend that weekend with family and have so much FUN! There's so much to be thankful for in our lives. We are amazed everyday at how much MORE we can be thankful for! It's great! We decorated our tree last night too. Pictures to come soon! :) These pictures are out of order. sorry.

Christmas tree with the kiddos
I LOVE this little guy! He makes me so happy! He's so fun to play with and so funny and happy!
I am SO Thankful for my Husband! He is so good to me. SO patient and kind and handsome and selfless and much, MUCH more. I am one lucky girl!

The Thanksgiving gang

*oh yeah, Jarom got a job today at a call center. WOOO HOOO! Nothin special but hey, ya gotta do what ya gotta do. And its money, which we are VERY thankful for right now! We feel very blessed and grateful for what we have!

Date with Lily

2009-11-17T18:05:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Jarom and I spent the day with Lily. It was so fun! Definitely the high light of our week! We went to feed the ducks, ate gummy worms and bubble gum, did some crafties, ate mac and cheese and corn and apple sauce for dinner and went to Williams choir concert. She is just so fun to be around and the little things she says are just so darn funny! We love her and love to spend time with her! We didn't get any pictures of Williams concert but he did SO GOOD! He had 3 solos! I was so impressed! I cried a little bit. Anyway, here are some pictures of our day.

Our Home Sweet Home

2009-11-12T14:28:00.000-08:00

Sorry it's taken me a while to get these up. We LOVE our new apartment! We love the location, our ward, living in an apartment, living close to and hangin out with family, living next to Jenni and Michael, everything! We're having so much fun! It was really fun getting to finally unpack all of our wedding stuff and use it all! It feels like we just got married again! We're looking for jobs still. I'm waiting for my Utah license to get processed and hopefully I'll be able to find something to do with that and in the meantime trying to find something to hold us over. Jarom just had an interview at Wilson Audio (Where Ben works) today. He said its a lot like where he worked before except they work with Audio, not medical stuff. He said the interview went really well and he realllllly wants it so hopefully that will work out. *Cross your fingers* Ben has been so good to us in helping Jarom with this job! We are so grateful for that! Everyone has been SO good to us! Feeding us, helping us unpack, hanging out with us, helping us find jobs, and more! We are so blessed! We are excited to get things started and start our life here! Anyway, here are some before and after pictures of our apartment, as promised. I didn't get any of the Bathroom and the Bedroom is still a work in progress so no pictures of that either. sorry. I'll post pictures of our Bed before and afters some other time. That was a HUGE project Jarom got done RIGHT before we left. Thanks to Jon's help!! Sorry the pictures aren't great, but you get the idea.

Before:

This was when we were like half way done unpacking. it was WAY worse than this. DISASTROUS!!!

After:

Some of the Picture frames aren't all the way full, like this "Laugh" one. We're still waiting for some pictures to put in them.

Nothin special but we like it. It feels like home!

P.S. I made Cinnamon Rolls yesterday...YUMMMM!!!! They were SO delicious! Jarom's friends came over last night for dinner and games and they loved 'em! Try not to drool over this picture. This was before they were cooked. I put cream cheese frosting on them, Just like my mom makes them! DELISH!

Happy Halloween

2009-11-02T19:22:00.001-08:00

We had the BEST Halloween!! Full of fun, fun, fun! All the men (Jarom, John, Nate, Ben, and James) went shooting in the morning while all the ladies stayed at home with the kids and got the spooky food ready for our carnival. We went to the Red barn. Our intentions were to go on a hay ride but apparently they stopped those the day BEFORE Halloween! Weird! We got ice cream, anyway. Then we went home and got dressed for the big spooky night. Jarom was a Pirate, I was Princess Leia, Court was Cinderella, John was Captain Hook, Nate was a Pirate, Amy was a Renaissance princess (I think) or something, William was a paleontologist, Lily was "Fancy Nancy" , Oliver was a Dinosaur, Ben was a "Kiss" guy, Kristen was Snow White, Kaci was Snow white too and Dylan was a zombie. Everyone looked great! We had a spooky carnival with games and food and dancing. The night was a success!! Here's some pictures, of course!

Fall fun!

2009-10-27T13:13:00.000-07:00

We spent the day with Nate and Amy's family and Court on Saturday. We went to the Pumpkin patch, carved pumpkins, cut some hair, played games, ate YUMMMMMY food, played with the kids, played dress up and lots of dancing! It was a fun day! I LOVE the fall! I love the weather, the smell, the pretty nature, the fun things, the candy...everything! The Mountains here are BEAUTIFUL! I have always loved them, but living by them has made me love them even more. We are looking for jobs and having so much fun together and with friends and family! We love our ward and are excited to start the fun activities with them. Jarom hasn't really spent much time with the boys but they play soccer (or "football" as Jarom calls it) every saturday so he's really excited to start that! I love my relief society! They are all so fun!! We feel so blessed! Anyway, here are some pictures of saturday. :)

P.S. It snowed today. Didn't stick though.

P.S.S. Sorry for all the pictures, they're just my favorite part of blogs so i always share lots!

We made it!

2009-10-23T11:18:00.000-07:00

Well, we finally made it to Utah! We left a week ago but we have been SO busy and things have been SO crazy that i haven't even had time to blog! We just got everything done, well partly done last night! I finally got to Vacuum the floor because it didn't have boxes and stuff all over it! We've been having SO much fun hanging out with the fam and Jenni and Michael! We've done some pretty fun stuff. Watching movies, carving pumpkins, eating YUMMY food, making my FIRST pie at enrichment, A LOT of decorating our first apartment, lots of shopping for necessary things for our apartment, staying up til 2 or 3 in the morning trying to get everything in order and having so much fun together! I feel like i'm playing house! I haven't taken any picture of our decorations because we're not completely done yet but those are to come SOON! Here are some pictures of our pumpkin carving party and my pie. Its peach :) and Jarom loves it! I still can't believe i made it! Even though i don't like pie, it was fun making it and knowing how to make one now! hopefully we'll be able to do some video chat with Jarom's family and maybe my parents too. Anyway, enjoy these pictures and i'll post our apartment later.

Our mickey Pumpkin

Jarom approved of my pie. Yipee!

Family Pictures

2009-10-14T11:22:00.000-07:00

Since Justin came home, the whole Lance family was together for the first time since Jarom had left on his mission. So, thanks to Uncle Scott we were able to have a fun family photo shoot before Jarom and i leave. We had to do it in between Conference sessions on Sunday, but we got it done. I think they turned out pretty darn good! It was a lot of fun and we took some funny ones too! Anyway, i thought i would share some with ya. Thanks Uncle Scott, for the great pictures!

First the Normal ones:

The whole family

Now the Funny ones:

Silly Siblings. Plus me and Rory :)

Ha ha this picture of Jarom cracks me up!
Lance siblings, from oldest to youngest
Silly girls
I like this one. Candid's are always good
Funny boys

New favorite

2009-10-13T15:41:00.000-07:00

There are so many good songs out right now. I'm LOVING it!! This is one of my most recent favorites!! Its SO cute and I LOVE Michael Buble!! When i find a good song i listen to it over and over and OVER. I'm sure Jarom gets so sick of it, but he doesn't ever say anything. He's so patient! Ha! Enjoy!

Disneyland....again!

2009-10-12T20:06:00.000-07:00

We went to Disneyland again! We used our season passes for the last time. :( Thanks to Phoenix DeVentures (the company Jarom works for), we were able to go a couple of times this year and have enjoyed every minute of it! This time was a little sad because i was realizing that this is probably the last time we will be going until we go with our kids, when they are older. A little weird to think about. Ben and Kristen and Dylan and Kaci were all there the exact same days as us! SO COOL! A lot of Jarom's siblings also got to go this time, so that was fun!! I didn't get very many pictures and only one picture with a character, Mr. Incredible. But here are a few. :)

I'm bummed, this is the only picture i got with Ben and Kris. And the kids weren't even in it. Oh well. Nice face, Ben! It was so fun to see them!! I wish we could have spent more time with them but we were both pretty busy. We got to go on a couple rides together and stuff! The kids were SO cute and excited to be at Disneyland!

First ride, Astro Blasters!

Its a small world. Kind of a boring ride, but cute!
Tumbleweed Tex, or Tex Tumbleweed...i can't remember. He was the entertainment at the "Big Thunder Ranch" Restaurant. He was so much fun and sang to all the little kids and Sadie loved watching him. I think that my dad would be SO good at this! I couldn't stop thinking about that the whole time. He really reminded me of my dad!
"Big Thunder Ranch". We loved it there! Cute atmosphere, yummy all-you-can-eat BBQ YUMMMMM! and fun entertainment.
We watched the Aladdin show! It was AWESOME!!!! We had planned to go with Ben and his family but we didn't make it in line in time so we had to catch the next show. It was SO worth the wait!!!! Ben recommended it, and i'm SO glad he did!! We loved it!
Waiting for the show to start.
Mr. Incredible
Sadie loves Uncle Jarom. He loves her too! I love her little Minnie Mouse outfit and also the Matterhorn mountain in the back! Oh, and I also love Sadie and Jarom :)
We went on a lot of the little kid rides, Jarom wasn't too thrilled but it was fun to see all of them again. I hadn't been on them since the first time i went, in 6th grade.
We loved all the Halloween and fall Decorations! You can't really see any of the decorations, but they were cute! They also put some cool stuff in some of the rides especially for Halloween time and did a special spooky fireworks show every night!

On another note, we started packing some more right when we got home and finished today and moved everything into the trailer that will be shipping all of our stuff to Utah. BIIIIIIIIG THANKS to Jon!!! We really wouldn't have been able to do it without all of his help! He spent all day with us helping us pack and load and all the fun moving stuff. It was fun to spend time with him! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!! And THANK YOU Jessica and Rory for letting us keep our stuff in your garage, letting us use your truck, for giving us your couch, and all of your help!! We are truly BLESSED and so grateful for our families who love and support us so much!!! We sure will miss you!!! Also, I'm sick. Of course, in the middle of moving i get sick. Luckily I have a loving Husband who takes such good care of me and loves me so much he packed almost everything to get ready to go. What a good man! :)

Welcome home Justin!

2009-09-28T15:03:00.000-07:00

JUSTIN'S HOME! Justin(Jarom's brother) came home from his mission in Ireland late friday night. It was so fun for me to be a part of everything and be there when he got home because i was so little when my brothers came home from their missions. So i don't really remember that part. I finally got to meet him! I'm sure it was weird for him, coming home with 2 new additions to his family. A new sister-in-law (Me :)) and a new niece (Sadie). I think he warmed up to us pretty quick! Its been fun for Jarom to talk to him about their missions and share pictures. Its cute how excited they get to talk about their missions! We've been having a lot of fun with him being home! Sad that we are leaving right when he gets home though. We'll have to get all our Justin time in before we leave! I didn't bring my camera to the airport, of course. I always forget it. So these are from Jessica. Thanks :)

Waiting for Justin to come!

I Love this picture! Cute brothers! Jarom looks like he's pushing his chest out or something. I dunno.

P.S. We're going to Disneyland in 10 days!!!

The New Troy and Gabriella

2009-09-26T19:50:00.001-07:00

Thanks Jessica, for making this AWesOME video of us! I think we could possibly be better :) (JK) What do you think?

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