The Browns

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T16:15:00.003-06:00

We decided to skip the mail this year with our Christmas card, so I hope between Facebook and the blog everybody who cares gets it! Merry Christmas everybody!

Happy Halloween!

2011-11-01T20:21:00.001-05:00

We had a fun Halloween this year! I love this holiday! First our ward had a Trunk or Treat on Friday. We ate yummy soups and desserts, and the kids had a costume parade before we headed outside for The Trunk-or-Treat. As usual, Rand and I couldn't agree on a costume for Avery. As a back up I got a little Pirate costume before everything was sold out... Just in case we still didn't make up our minds before it was too late. We ended up just using it, and I must say that Avery makes one cute Pirate! Avery didn't quite understand the trunk-or-treating, but she loved running from car to car saying Hi to everyone. Here are a few pictures after the trunk or treating was over:

The cutest pig and pirate in town!

Family picture

Me and Nikki

Baby Quinn, Kim, Nikki and Me


We went out and had a campfire at the state park near here on Sat. night (sorry, no pics.), then we carved our pumpkins on Sunday night.

Avery thought is was pretty cool and got pretty excited, but didn't really like getting the pumpkin guts on her hands.

She loved pretending to scoop out the empty pumpkins though

Hi everyone!

Our finished pumpkins...

The small one in the middle was our puking pumpkin. We didn't get a picture with the guts coming out of it's mouth- sorry! The neighborhood kids love it!

Halloween night we got together for dinner with a bunch of our friends for a chili dinner and then headed out to Trick-or -Treat with the kids! Avery did much better this time, she ran right up to the door and held out her bucket! At first she was a little confused why we were knocking on doors but not going inside, but she caught on pretty quick. She did get tired of walking and I had to hold her towards the end, but it was a great night with awesome weather!

Here she is modeling her costume before it got dark

Showing off her sword skills

Believe it or not, she actually kept that eye patch on for a while! She loved wearing it, but didn't love not being able to see..

Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin picking!

2011-09-29T20:23:00.000-05:00

A really nice older couple in our ward told my friend Nikki and I to bring our girls to their house in the country and pick out a pumpkin from their patch. We went over Sunday afternoon, it was a beautiful day and the girls loved running around the yard!

I let Avery roam the pumpkin patch and pick out the perfect one all by herself...

Found it!

It was the perfect size for her and she loved holding it.

They are so cute together. I tried to get a picture of them sitting
nicely together with their pumpkins...totally didn't happen.

Happy Birthday Avery!

2011-08-22T19:50:00.003-05:00

Avery turned two on Saturday, so we had a rainbow party.

I made rainbow jello cups, a rainbow layered cake, and cupcakes too... Just in case there wasn't enough of the cake to go around.

Avery was drooling over the cupcakes earlier that morning, so we decided it was her birthday, so she could test a cupcake if she wanted to. As you can see she didn't hesitate one bit!

The Jello cups ended up being a lot tougher than I thought (that's a long story) The cake didn't really taste that great, but it looked awesome... and that is all that really matters right? ;) We invited family (what little we have here in MO)and friends. We had lunch and originally had planned to do a water party in the backyard so the kids could play with the slip n slide and sprinklers. Unfortunately the forecast showed rain in the afternoon on Saturday; bummer... The night before a really big thunderstorm came through, so it was really wet and muggy by Saturday morning, even bigger bummer... However, it was still warm enough and wasn't raining yet, so we decided to set up outside anyway, even if we didn't play in the water.

We ate...

We played...

And then it rained, so we had to pack up and head inside...

Then we opened her gifts...

...and sang to her.

Then we ate cake!

How cool is the cake?! Pretty amazing if I do say so myself!

Avery ate her entire piece...

After the party was over we had cleaned up, Rand had fallen asleep on the couch and Avery was watching one of her cherished Dora dvd's. I was finishing up the kitchen, but for some reason (I can't remember why) I went back to our bedroom for something, I was maybe gone a minute at most.

When I came back this is what I found...

I totally forgot that I had left a few cupcakes on the table. I think she knew exactly what she wanted, and was probably waiting for the opportunity to make her move! That thing was almost gone by the time I caught her!

(I apologize for her lack of pants. Rand feels it isn't necessary to put them back on after changing her diaper)

Then Grandma Brown called and Avery told her all about her birthday party.

Thanks to everybody that came and celebrated with us, we had a lot of fun even if it was partially rained out!

surprise!

2011-08-05T12:37:00.002-05:00

My 10 year high school reunion was last weekend. Originally I wasn't planning on going, but a good friend offered us some stand by tickets for way cheap...so of course I couldn't say no! Thanks again Maegan! Rand thought it would be fun to surprise his family, so we didn't tell anyone except his brother Tyler that we were coming. It was really fun to see the look on his parents faces when we showed up at their house unannounced! My family knew because there was no way I would get to see any of them if we didn't plan in advance. We flew in Thursday morning and left late Sunday. It was a really fun weekend.

My reunion was Friday night. It was great to see many faces I haven't seen since high school.

Me and Katie

Allison, Katie, Maegan, Tristan, Me, Gentry and Ruth

this one makes me laugh- sorry friends I had to post it :)

me and Allison

A few of us from Elementary days

Gentry, Me, Maegan, Ruth, Laura, Skipper (Stephanie)

We had a big lunch with the Griffiths family Saturday afternoon. Avery was loving all the girls and the attention they were giving her.

She loved this car

me and my sis

WE had a BBQ that night for dinner at the Browns, but of course I didn't take many pictures...Grrr. Avery and Jaxon were being so cute together. They were giving each other hugs laying down in the deck playing.

Avery decided that she liked our friend Kameron- a lot. She wouldn't leave him alone. She demanded to sit on his lap when ever he was around.

We were also able to take a quick drive up the Alpine Loop with my sister Bree and her girls. She took a few quick pictures of us. They turned out great! Thanks again Bree for spending the day with us and letting me use your nail polish to paint my toes!

I miss the mountains. I love the Aspens!

Thanks for the fun time everyone!

1 year ago...

2011-07-05T14:17:00.005-05:00

Last month on June 24th marked Avery's one year date post heart surgery! It's hard to believe it has already been a year, but as always time flies! As you all know, the surgery went just fine and she recovered quickly.

It is amazing what a properly functioning heart will do for you. Avery was hospitalized 4 seperate times pre-surgery for colds, swine flu, and other respiratory illnesses.
She hasn't been hospitalized at all since she left the hospital after surgery. Yay!
We are very grateful for a skilled surgeon and Dr's, and that she

was so resilient through the 1st year of her life.

How is she doing now you ask?

Well, she is one sassy almost two year old (next month!), with tons of energy.

She see's her cardiologist every six months for a check up and her heart is doing great!

She is always on the move, and it is next to impossible to get a decent picture of her these days.

These pictures prove it...

P.S. She loves shoes. Only she prefers to wear them one at a time, sometimes 2 different shoes because she can't decide.

Geese!

2011-07-01T23:30:00.001-05:00

My mom came to visit last week and we thought it would be fun one evening to feed the geese at Lions Lake in town. Avery loved every second of it. We brought a loaf of bread to feed them, which lasted about two seconds because there were so many of them. Avery kept forgetting that the bread was for the geese and not for her... She ate about every other piece that was given to her to throw. The geese would eat right out of our hands if we let them. It made me totally nervous and I may have jumped and let out a few squeals here and there, which Avery thought was hilarious. Here are a few pics. We have lots more to post, so stay tuned :)

Sneaky Girl

2011-06-16T20:22:00.000-05:00

Avery recently realized she is tall enough to reach the handles and open up the pantry. While we were making dinner the other day, I turned around to see her snacking on some crackers ever so quietly. I just happened to have the camera on the counter close by and was able to get some funny faces out of her before she could take off.

Easter weekend!

2011-04-28T19:53:00.002-05:00

We started off our Easter weekend by dying some eggs with our friends Nikki and Presli on Friday. Avery is still a little young to do this, but she was all kinds of interested....only in a bad way. We still had fun even though I spent the entire time grabbing her hands before she got a hold of a wet egg or a cup of colored water. The eggs turned out cute.

On Saturday we had some friends and family over for lunch and and egg hunt. Lunch was yummy and the kids had a great time with each other.

We decided that it would be easiest to place eggs in the front yard for the little ones, and actually hide them in the back for the older kids.

There isn't a ton of places to hide them in our yard, so the guys had to get creative

Let the hunt begin! It took Avery a few minutes and some coaxing to get the hang of it, but she loved placing the eggs in her basket. We got these cute bunny ears for her, but they wouldn't stay on! So some how they ended up on me...

She totally underestimated her distance from that egg, pretty sure she couldn't have stretched any farther!

The older ones needed some assistance too!

Avery and Presli checking out their Loot

Sunday we headed up to Higginsville to have dinner and another egg hunt with Rands uncles family. On the way out of Warrensburg we were sitting at a red light leaving town, and got rear-ended in Rands car. Fortunately it wasn't bad enough that anyone got hurt, but it definitely did some damage to the back of the car. The lady said her foot slipped of the peddle!

Avery did much better hunting eggs this time, she knew exactly what to do.

We forgot to bring her basket, so the grocery store bag had to do.

Avery saw the teeter totter and decided that was more fun than finding eggs.
She loved it, even though she looked a little nervous.

So other than being hit in the car we had a great Easter weekend!

Parkin'

2011-04-23T21:58:00.001-05:00

The weather has been so nice lately (except this week- totally cold and rainy). We have been going on lots of walks and visiting a few parks with some friends. Avery loves swings and slides. Especially slides. She would go up and down all day if I let her. She doesn't seem to have any fear of heights. I let her go down a tall one the other day all by herself and she just smiled the whole time. Here are a few pictures of our latest adventures:

DIY Nightstands

2011-04-10T17:53:00.002-05:00

Our nightstands have been finished for about a month now...I know, I know I am a big time blogging slacker these days! They were really quick and easy, and probably could have been mostly finished in a day or two. We however didn't dedicate that much time and they took about a week. I actually shouldn't say WE, because Rand did all of the building himself. Don't worry, I did help... I painted and lacquered. Oh, and sanded (a little) :) It was rough... We had some of left over wood, paint, and lacquer from the headboard, so we didn't quite have to buy everything for this project. Here are a few pictures of the progress:

We are unsure of the exact cost for the two of these, but we think it's somewhere around $50. Not bad huh! We need to get some fun lamps to put on them. I would love to find some old vintage lamps to redo.
We still have a few projects left, but I finally feel like the room is coming together! I no longer feel the need to keep the door shut! Next up I will be redoing our dresser. Yes I said I. That is going to be MY project. We already have the hardware purchased, I just need to sand it down and paint it white :) Wish me luck!

???

2011-03-22T20:43:00.000-05:00

DIY!

2011-02-12T16:27:00.002-06:00

Our master bedroom has been neglected for a long time. Rand and I have never been able to agree on what we want in that room...wall color, furniture, etc. We decided around Christmas that it was time to paint the walls and add new furniture. We decided on a grayish sage green and it looks great. We then decided that we need to make a headboard for our king size bed. Buying one is WAY too expensive. I watch a fair amount of HGTV and have come to realize how easy it would be to make an upholstered one. We looked at different fabrics and of course couldn't find anything we both agreed on. My friend Kim told me about a DIY website for furniture. So we checked it out...AMAZING! How did I not know about this before! Basically the website has all kinds of wood furniture and the plans for how to make them. BRILLIANT! The other cool thing is that people can submit photos of the projects that they have made so you can see different finishes/colors. We found a headboard that we both instantly loved and decided to make it a few days later. Originally we were just going to stain it like the website showed, but then we saw a photo of a white version that someone submitted- loved it even more! Now that our walls are green, white furniture will look great. The headboard took an entire week to make because we only worked on it about 30-45 mins. every night (after Avery was asleep). It probably would have only been a 1-2 day project if we had been able to dedicate more time.

Rand did the bulk of the work obviously, but I totally helped out too... a lot ;) I helped with the sanding, and did the painting and lacquering. Rand did everything else. Side note: projects like this should be done during the spring or fall, not winter. It was freezing in our garage! I'm pretty sure we picked one of the coldest weeks to do this. Oh well :)

Here it is half way done... I should have taken more step by step pictures. The middle boards are already painted white here. We painted those first so that the paint didn't fill in the cracks in between the slats.

Here it is all finished! After it was painted, we distressed the paint a little and lacquered it. We played with the idea of putting a brown glaze over the distressed areas so that they would stand out more, but just went without it.

The entire project cost ended up around $80 or $90. That is including a few small tools that we needed to purchase as well. Not bad huh? There is a very similar headboard in the Pottery Barn catalog- only it is $800 not including shipping!

We even have wood left over for our next project... Matching night stands!

P.S. the wood furniture website is ana-white.com

29

2011-01-25T19:26:00.002-06:00

Rands birthday was last Saturday (the 22nd). He is now 29 years old! that's right 29! OLD! Actually I had better be nice because my birthday is in a few weeks and I am not much younger...unfortunately ;) Anyway, we celebrated by going to the city to spend some birthday money and went to dinner. We had a few friends over the next day to have cake and ice cream. This year (after much debate) Rand decided he wanted a peanut butter/chocolate cake. Don't let the picture below fool you. No that is not a large pile of poop on that cake stand... it is actually a really yummy chocolate cake with creamy peanut butter filling, chocolate ganache frosting, and topped with chopped peanut butter cups. I probably should have thought out the presentation a little more...but it was tasty!

Avery even loved the cake! She ate the entire slice! Good thing I have a bib with long sleeves (brilliant)!

Happy Birthday Rand!

Snow!

2011-01-19T16:51:00.003-06:00

It is snowing right now. I realized that Avery hasn't really been out in the snow yet, so we decided to go outside for a few minutes before it really starts coming down. She didn't know what to think at first. Just stood by the steps and stared. She cried once she decided to touch it, so we went back inside. I wish I could get her to look at the camera.

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-24T10:50:00.000-06:00

Impromptu Photo Shoot

2010-12-20T19:29:00.000-06:00

I know I haven't written much on the blog lately... Really the only thing that has happened lately was our trip to Utah for Thanksgiving. We had lots of fun and Avery got to meet a lot of family/friends for the first time. She did pretty well flying (with the exception few melt downs). She came home pretty spoiled from all the extra attention, not to mention her schedule was all out of whack... Unfortunately we didn't take very many pictures on the trip. We always forget to use the camera when we see family.

It was a really nice day on Sunday (for December) and Avery was wearing a cute outfit, so I took her out around the corner from our house for an impromptu photo shoot. It didn't last very long... All she wanted to do was walk towards me and touch the camera, I did manage to get a few good ones though. Avery is 16 months this month... She has been growing and learning a lot lately. She is walking really well now, and is finally starting to learn some more words. She is very social and friendly, and likes to wave and say "Hi!" to everyone at church, the store, pretty much everywhere. She always finds a way to get lots of attention!

Look what I can do!

2010-11-28T15:26:00.000-06:00

For those of you who haven't seen Avery's latest trick-

Avery update

2010-11-12T22:01:00.001-06:00

Avery had her 15 month check up today and I am happy to announce that she is officially on the charts!

This is big people!

Here are her stats:

18 lbs 6 oz......3rd percentile

29 inches tall.....15th percentile

17 3/4 inches (head circ.).........25th percentile

Avery is always on the move. She is taking several steps on her own, but crawling is still much more efficient. The last couple of days she has started to stand up from sitting on her own. We took away her binky a few months ago. The adjustment wasn't too bad, it only took a week or two to get over it. She drinks from a sippy cup, but she still has a bottle right before bed. We are still working on words. She says mommy/mama, daddy/dada. She says lots of other gibberish, and has a few funny phrases (still gibberish) that are her favorites. She is doing really well on solid foods, but still eats baby food as well. Her favorites are yogurt, applesauce, sliced bananas, mandarin oranges, diced peaches, diced pears, cooked carrots, ice cream, popsicles. Anytime we are eating and she isn't, she gets right up in your face with her mouth open like a baby bird. She usually still takes two naps during the day. She is starting to learn what NO means...but usually just smiles at you and does it anyway. She thinks it is funny to watch our reaction as she turns the dish receiver off and on while we are watching a show. She also loves to empty any drawer or cabinet that is not locked, and scatter/suck on every item she pulls out.

She is a funny happy little girl that loves just about everyone. She gets more and more personality everyday and we love her to pieces!

Here are a few recent pics

Moo!

2010-10-31T21:47:00.001-05:00

After much debate (scary vs. cute), we decided to go with cheap and easy. So a cow it is! We played around with some pink fabric to make an utter... but it turned out border line inappropriate. So we scratched that idea and added a bow instead! Avery loved wearing it and was very cooperative while taking pictures. She was in a cute/funny mood so I just couldn't decide on one or two pictures, so here are a bunch!

Saturday we went to our wards trunk or treat/dinner.

I dusted off the old bat wings once again and we walked in the costume parade.

Rand put Avery's candy bag on her head as a joke.

She thought it was funny and kept it on for a good 10 minutes while she played.

The pumpkins! We did a puking pumpkin for the third year in a row. All the kids love it and seem to remember it from year to year. I guess it is a tradition now!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Whiteman air show (finally!)

2010-10-03T23:19:00.003-05:00

Last month we went to the air show held at Whiteman Air Force Base just down the road from us. This year was the second year we have been able to go, and it is well worth spending all day in the heat and sun. It was a pretty hot that day but it was a lot of fun. Avery did really well, she even took a good nap despite the noise, heat, etc... We were also lucky to get a spot in the shade pretty much the whole time.
There was a lot of different aircraft performances and demonstrations. This year the big headlining act was the Air Force Thunderbirds. They flew right at the end, and on the 1st day of the show a lightning storm started rolling in towards the end and ended up cutting their performance short. We were very dissapointed because they were so amazing and fun to watch. We decided to head back at the very end of the 2nd day of the show just to see the full Thunderbirds performance. It was well worth another trip, the full performance was awesome! Rand took TONS of pictures and we had to go through 2 or 3 rounds of eliminating photos to get down to these. There is still a lot, so buckle up!

They had lots of static displays on the ground. These are the B-1 Lancer, B-2 Spirit, and the Apache.

The Army Golden Knights parachuting team opened up the show

The A-10 Thunderbolts here at Whiteman did a formation flyby. There was also a Vietnam reenactment with all of the helicopters from that time period.

This crazy girl did an awesome wing walking routine. If you enlarge the pictures you can see her just hanging out while the pilot did all kinds of aerobatics.

These guys did some pretty cool formation and stunt stuff.

This is the F/A-18 Hornet. The newer fighter jets are always some of the funnest ones to watch.

This is the B-2 Spirit stationed at Whiteman, we get to see these all the time.

Whiteman is the only base that B-2 is stationed at.

And the Thunderbirds... (these were the pictures we had to cut down the most) They were very fast and very loud, most of the small children were crying when they came screaming by.

They did a lot of crazy maneuvers and formation stunts.

I'm sure you can tell that Rand coached me a lot on this post, I hope you made it through!

Look what I can do!

2010-09-08T19:59:00.000-05:00

Here are a few new tricks Avery has finally learned.

She has been doing this one for a few weeks now-

She has been working on this one for a while but finally figured it out over Labor Day weekend-

1 year old!

2010-08-24T21:50:00.000-05:00

Avery turned one last Friday. I can't believe it has been a year already.

What a crazy year it has been!

I took her to the Dr. on her birthday (mean I know), and she now weights 16 lbs 1.5 oz and is 26 1/4 inches tall. She is still small for her age and a little behind with some things, but she has had a tough year... so we won't hold it against her! Despite everything she has been through, she is doing great. We couldn't ask for a happier little girl. Seriously, she is awesome! We love her so much and are happy and grateful to have her in our lives. She has taught us so much in such a short time.

She was a little sick that day, but perked up just in time!
(we all have a bit of a cold right now)

She got a little set of 3 cute little books...

She even started to get into the unwrapping a little.

...and she got a fun Walk and Ride toy to help her learn to walk,

she just wanted to ride.

The adults cake...

...and Avery's cake!

The memory ran out on the cell phone video before the

supposed cake bash, it didn't turn out to be much of a bash...

You want me to do what?!

I'm not sure about this, it is kind of gross.

Ok, maybe it's not so bad...

We hope you had a happy birthday Avery,

we hope you had as much fun as we did!

Great Grandparents and the Zoo

2010-08-22T08:52:00.000-05:00

Last weekend we made a trip to St. Louis for one of Rand's cousin's wedding reception. We went to the zoo that day with Rand's uncle and his family that live out here with us. G-ma and G-pa Day also flew in from Utah and met us at the zoo, so Avery got to meet some of her Great Grandparents for the first time. We didn't take many pictures at the zoo. It was super hot and fairly humid that day, so none of us were really into being in pictures. The only animals that Avery acted interested in were some of the monkeys and the penguins. The penguins were inside and nice and cold. The exibit was really up close, you could have easily reached out and touched them. She loved seeing them swimming, splashing, and walking around. She clapped and smiled and made little noises back at them. One of them splashed her a little with some cold fishy salt water. That kind of startled her for a minute, but then she was right back to watching and clapping.

This is the only picture we really took at the zoo

Cooling down and having lunch after the zoo...

A few days later Rand's Grand parents drove our way and stayed at his uncles house for a few days. We went up one evening and Avery got to spend some more time with her Greats...

Avery's first Birthday was this weekend, so check back a little later for another post with tons of pictures...

Six years

2010-08-06T08:31:00.000-05:00

6 years ago today this was the best thing that ever happened to me-

I love you Hillary

-Rand

Swimmin!

2010-08-05T20:12:00.000-05:00

I have been meaning to post for a while, so these are a few weeks old.

We had been wanting to take Avery to the pool, but she is still taking a medication that makes her skin extra sensitive to the sun. Our good friends invited us to their little boy's birthday party at the pool. It was the perfect time to take Avery because it was in the evening, no sun!

Hat, shades, suit, ready to go!

She was a little unsure at first because the water was a little cold, but she warmed up to it and was splashing around in no time.

Then last weekend we finally busted out the little blow up pool in the back yard.

Tasting every fish in the pool

and then tasting the pool

She loved it!

Home Sweet Home

2010-07-08T19:30:00.000-05:00

Avery has been home for nine days now. She spent a total of six days in the hospital. We were told to plan on 7-10 days, but things went very well and we were able to go home a little early.

Avery has been doing awesome. She is very happy and always moving. She is beginning to get her mad rolling skills back. She is rolling over more and more every day. She was a little bit cranky the first few days were home, but she would perk right back up after some Motrin.

Here are a few pictures of her last two days at the hospital...

hanging out with mom

This is her nurse Stephanie moving her to a regular hospital room. We packed up her things and wheeled her in her crib up one floor. She totally enjoyed the ride.

She had her arms out spread eagle and would arch her back and look all over the entire trip. She thought it was pretty great.

Hanging out with grandma G right before we were discharged. We were told to treat her like normal. The only restrictions are no picking her up under her arm pits for about a month, and to keep her out of the sun. One of her medications makes her skin very sensitive. When she is out side, her incision needs to be covered until it is completely healed.

Rand took her to her follow up appointment three days ago and they removed her bandages and a few stitches. This was taken right before giving her first bath.

Avery has had so much fun with her grandparents the last few weeks. She is one spoiled little girl! This is Grandma and Grandpa B right be for they left yesterday.

Thanks again to everyone who has been there for us over the last year. We appreciate your prayers and support more than you know. We have amazing family and friends!

Progress...

2010-06-28T22:45:00.000-05:00

For those of you who may not have heard updates, Avery is doing well and making some good progress. Over the weekend they were able to take out the breathing tube. Once the tube was gone they took her off of the sedatives that were making her sleep all the time, so she became much more awake and aware. She hasn't been on any pain medications since Saturday and she doesn't seem to be in a lot of pain. She is getting more and more active but we still havent been able to get her to smile yet. Her voice is pretty hoarse and raspy from the breathing tube being in her throat.

This picture was taken over the weekend on the first day she had gotten all the sedative out of her system. She was still a little lethargic, but she was looking at us and you could tell she was much more aware of her surroundings.

As of today she isn't getting any medication except for antibiotics, she started bottle feeding again and stopped getting fluids from the IV. She has been gradually losing some of the monitors, sensors, and tubes. Hillary was also able to hold her for the first time since the surgery!

Hopefully tomorrow she will be able to move out of the ICU into a regular hospital room. They have also talked about possibly removing the central line in her neck, and maybe even the drainage tube in her chest tomorrow. These are all big steps closer to being able to come home soon!

I forgot to bring a memory card for the camera to trade with Hillary when I came over the weekend, so for now these 2 pics from our cell phones are all I have with me at home. Thanks everybody for you continued prayers and support!

A Mended Heart- Ch. 2

2010-06-25T00:30:00.000-05:00

Chapter 2- Surgery Day

We were told to be at the hospital at 9 am. So we got there, checked in and were taken to an examination room. The Surgeon had another case before hers so we had to wait for him to finish. They told us it wouldn't be long... They were wrong. We sat in that small uncomfortable exam room for over 3 hrs. waiting! Avery did remarkable well for how long whe went without eating, all together she went over 8 hrs. She hardly whined at all!

She Played

Slept an hour or two

Woke up

and played some more

This is about as upset as she got...

Then they finally came and got us...

We gave her hugs and kisses and said our goodbyes. There were a few tears, but we were happy and confident that the Doctors and Nurses would take good care of our little girl.

She even gave the nurses some good smiles as they left. Which made us feel even better!
(and brought a few more tears!)

They had told us that the surgery would take about 3-4 hrs. It was actually quicker than they thought it would be. They patched the hole between the 2 chambers, and widened the valve area leading into her pulmonary artery (takes blue blood to the lungs). They said the artery itself was actually large enough, it was just the valve area. They can't give her a new valve now because she will just out grow it. The surgeon said she may never need to have a new valve put in. If she did it wouldn't be until she is a teenager when her heart has stopped growing.

The surgeon said that she did very well and the surgery went very smoothly. As you can see she is very plugged in at the moment. She has drainage tubes, multiple IV's, a stomach tube, various sensor probes, some temporary pace making wires (which they never had to use), a catheter, and she is on a ventilator until they hopefully let her wake up tomorrow. Her heart seems to be recovering very well at this point and we are happy and relieved to say that at this point the surgery was very successful. The last two days have been very long, as i'm sure the next couple of weeks will be as well.

Here is our sweet little girl asleep and all plugged in-

We want to thank everybody for their concern and support for us! The blessing I was able to give her, and all of your prayers have all been fulfilled and answered. We have felt strengthened by everyone that has expressed their support and thank God for all the blessings we have been given. We have been helped through some tough times. We appreciate your continued prayers for a smooth and swift recovery!

A Mended Heart- Ch. 1

2010-06-24T22:54:00.000-05:00

Chapter 1- Pre-Op

Yesterday we went in for pr-op testing. I drove seperate from Hillary, Avery, and G-ma Griffiths so that they would have a car still when I came home to go to work. I had to run a quick errand and hillary had to get gas. So we parted ways and when I was done I pulled over just up the road from the gas station to wait(where I could still see them filling up). So I waited... and waited... and waited... Eventually I got so impatient I turned the car around and pulled into the gas station to figure out what was taking so long. I wish I could say it was a prompting or something, I'm pretty sure I was just impatient and slightly irritated. Turns out G-ma (don't feel bad, I just think it's kind of funny!) had inadvertantly locked the Jeep door on the way out. So the keys were locked in, the cell phones were locked in, and most of all, the baby was locked in. They didn't realize I was still within sight, and Hillary still didn't have my Ph# memorized. So by the time I pulled up the cops had been called! Ha ha... So I gave them my key and we were back on our way just a few mins. late (before the cops came). Sorry I had to tell that side story...

So we got to the hospital a few minutes late, but got in pretty quickly. They went throught the normal routine of weighing measuring and examining. Which to Avery is usually a fairly painless and fun experience-

Playing with toys.

EKG Stickers...

...and wires.
Stethascopes.

Examining... (both of them are doing a little examining here)

...and friendly and fun Doctors and Nurses.

I will skip the unpleasant needles, blood drawing, and tears part. So everything checked out. She was healthy and ready for surgery!

So we left the hospital and checked into the Ronald McDonald house next door and relaxed until morning.

The big day is here!

2010-06-22T21:55:00.000-05:00

It seems like we have been waiting forever but now Avery's heart surgery is finally here. Bright and early tomorrow (Wednesday) morning we will head to the hospital for a day of Pre-op testing to prepare for the surgery on Thursday morning. Still after 10 months of knowing, it's hard to believe that our little girl is having a full open heart surgery in a few days. We are a little apprehensive, but confident that everything will go well. We are excited to see the outcome. We will hear a clean heart beat when we put our ears to her chest instead of a swishing one.

All of your thoughts and prayers will be very appreciated over the next few days!

We wanted to get some fun pictures of her tonight before the surgery and the scar to prove it, plus she just turned 10 months old a couple of days ago. So here's some picture overload-

We couldn't get her to smile very much once the camera came out, but we did manage to catch a few of her silly faces.

We love our happy little girl and are thankful for the happiness she has brought to us.

(Even with all the stress and trials!)

Avery Update

2010-05-07T15:08:00.000-05:00

It has been a while since I posted about Avery, so here is an update...

Avery turned 8 months old two weeks ago- can you believe it?
She weighs 14 lbs 9 oz
She wears 0-3 month clothes... although she is on the verge of wearing 3-6
She sits up like a champ
She is stubborn about rolling over to her stomach (she can totally do it, but she insists on help)
She loves to talk... mamamama is currently her favorite sound
She loves her toes
She loves carrots, peas, green beans, sweet potatoes and avocado. Not a huge fan of fruit-crazy girl.
She already loves cell phones/tv remotes and cries when you take them away from her. So now she has a cell phone of her own to slobber on.

Avery's surgery is going to be next month. It is scheduled for June 16th. We don't know all the specifics about the surgery yet. We won't know everything until her pre-op testing is done the day before when we meet with her surgeon. We do know that it is going to be an open heart surgery that will last anywhere from 3-5 hours. Recovery is anywhere between 10-14 days and I was told that we may not have to stay at the hospital the entire time. So, just in case you forgot, she has a hole between the two chambers of her heart and an undersized pulmonary valve/artery that will be fixed.

and that is it so far... here are a few pics we took recently

check out those cankles! impressive right?

Yes, she is all smiles until the camera comes out...

Another Video...

2010-04-04T21:11:00.000-05:00

Here is a video that we took of Avery last month sometime. The only bad thing about posting fun videos of her is that it always has to include one of us acting like an idiot!

Look what I can do!

2010-03-30T16:02:00.000-05:00

Avery has learned a new trick over the last couple of weeks...

Half Birthday!

2010-02-21T13:39:00.000-06:00

Avery turned 6 months old yesterday! I can't believe it has been 6 months already! It is crazy to see that she went from this tiny little thing...

...to this big girl! Well, big compared to what she was;)

I was thinking about all of her accomplishments the past few months and realized that I didn't document anything. What was I thinking??? Currently we are working on rolling over and babbling. She doesn't like being on her stomach much so rolling over isn't very interesting to her. She enjoys sitting up much more and may even sit up on her own before she rolls over. She tried cereal for the first time a few days ago and I will post pictures of that later. She is such a happy little baby and is really easy going. She is an awesome sleeper and would probably almost sleep through the night if we let her, but the Dr. still wants her to eat every three hours around the clock. She weighted 12 lbs. a few weeks ago so she is probably about 13 lbs. now.

Happy half birthday Avery, we love you!

Love...

2010-02-14T19:53:00.000-06:00

Happy Valentines Day!!

Love,

Avery

What up yo...

2010-02-09T13:36:00.000-06:00

Word to yo Mama!

Birthday Boy!

2010-02-07T14:19:00.001-06:00

Sorry this post is late... but we celebrated Rand's birthday last month. He is 28! Holy cow, we are getting old...anyway, we went out to dinner and had cake with some friends and family.

Check out this cake! It is no secret that I love to make cakes. I decided to make this key lime cake and it was awesome! It tasted just like key lime pie (which is one of my favorites). I highly recommend it!

christmas 09

2010-01-14T19:32:00.000-06:00

We spent christmas at home this year. No traveling in scary weather... it was nice! We slept in, made a big breakfast and opened presents- just the three of us. Don't get me wrong, i love spending the holidays with our families...but it is hectic and exhausting driving from house to house to see everyone. Here are a few pictures of our day

good morning everyone!

I think this is our first family picture...awe

opening a present from grandma-look at her face, she is sooo excited!

this just cracks me up!

sporting one of my favorite gifts: snuggi-licious! seriously though... it's awesome!

enjoying the wrapping paper
our tree

our house lights- check out our temple square tree! this was our first snow of the year- on christmas day!

this is on new years eve, Rand took this panoramic picture with his new phone- isn't it cool? we were playing a really fun game- even though it looks like we are all totally bored!

Santa Avery

2009-12-26T22:35:00.000-06:00

Avery turned four months old on December 20! Here are a few updates...

At her last Dr. apt two weeks ago she weighed in at 9 lbs. 12 oz. She goes to the pediatrician monthly to have an RSV shot and gets weighed. She goes to the cardiologist monthly as well and is on track to have heart surgery sometime late spring. She is getting to be such a big girl! She is learning and getting stronger every day, but because she was born a month early, she is developmentally a little behind. She can hold her head up very well, but is still a little wobbly. She has discovered her hands and loves to suck on them. She hasn't found her voice yet, but is very close to laughing when we get her smiling. She is usually a very mellow baby. She has a very soft cry and only cries when she is getting dressed or hungry. She still eats every three hours around the clock... hopefully that will change soon. She loves her swing right now.

We just love this girl! Here are a few of her four month holiday photos

Merry Christmas!

all about avery...

2009-12-23T14:04:00.000-06:00

This is going to be really long... so sit back, relax and enjoy the happenings of Avery the last few months.

Starting with the most recent... Avery's blessing day was November 29th. Rands parents, brother Tyler and his wife Melanie were in town for thanksgiving and the blessing. Rand gave her a beautiful blessing at our home. Pretty sure there wasn't a dry eye in the house. Rands mother made Avery's dress- it is amazing. She spent about three months making it. We took several pictures of her dress, but none turned out great, so we will have to re-take some.

I love her face in this picture. I hope she doesn't hate me for those ears when she is older!

This is the best picture of her dress. Isn't it beautiful?

Rand's parents and us. This is the only family picture we got that day...

Avery loves her grandma (ps, remind me to ALWAYS have a bow on her head... or she looks like a boy ;) )

Last month Avery finally decided that she likes to smile! It took a while to get her to do it, but she is a smiling fool these days-especially in the morning. It is difficult to get a good picture of her smile, because once she sees a camera... it's over! So that is why these are all at a low angle- I was distracting her while Rand snuck a few pictures.

Bath time is one of her favorite things. She gets really excited and loves to kick and splash; making sure to always get me wet.

I just thought this one was really cute- even though we don't take her to church, we still dress her up on Sundays. I love her face while she sleeps.

And of course halloween. We stayed indoors on halloween so Avery wouldn't get sick. So I didn't get her a cute costume, but I couldn't resist a cute onesie and bow!

I'm not sure what is so scary, but she looks like she is about to pee her pants... er, diaper! haha

We didn't get any christmas cards out this year, so look forward to a christmas post very soon! The suspense is killing you I know it! :)

Happy to be me!

2009-12-10T13:36:00.001-06:00

So I have soooo many pictures to post, but just haven't had the time to do it! However, I just had to post this little gem today because I love it! Don't you love the look on her face? And those ears... love them! Wonder where she got that from? We just love this girl! This is currently my favorite outfit for her as well. Anyway, hopefully I will get some pictures posted from halloween and her blessing soon. Ta Ta!

Photo shoot part 1

2009-11-07T15:08:00.000-06:00

Too Cute!

2009-10-13T14:05:00.000-05:00

Look how cute Miss Avery looks in her new fuzzy outfit. Can you believe she is almost 8 weeks old?!

Crazy!

2009-09-29T13:32:00.000-05:00

A few days ago I was making my way to the kitchen to get a drink when something caught my eye on the living room wall. I'm not even sure how I spotted it because I didn't have my contacts in and it was really late at night (12:30 Am to be exact). Anyway, I saw something blurry and thought it might be a large moth or something... and this is what I found!

sorry the pictures are not very clear

It is not every day you see a full sized frog scaling your living room wall! So... naturally several questions popped into my head... how did this guy get into my house? How long has he been in my house? Did he hop right on in with one of us through the door? Did he shimmy through a crack/hole somewhere? I still don't know the answer.

Rub-a-dub-dub

2009-09-25T19:51:00.000-05:00

Avery loves her bath time! Her favorite thing to do is stretch out her legs, kick back and relax. She takes up the entire sink! It makes me laugh because her legs are so skinny. This particular night she was hugging her pink wash cloth and wouldn't let go...probably knew we were taking pictures and wanted to keep it modest!

Oh, and she now weighs 5 lbs 12.5 oz and is starting to not fit into her preemie clothes anymore. She is definitely getting longer... we just need to get some more meat on those chicken legs!

random pics

2009-09-22T14:36:00.000-05:00

here is a few random pictures that we have taken the past few weeks...

We are home!

2009-09-05T16:36:00.000-05:00

Last Thursday the Dr.'s told us that little Avery was ready to go home. We were a little surprised because her saturation level was pretty low. In fact it scared me to think what would happen if I didn't have a monitor beep to let me know when she was too low. The Dr. assured us that it is totally fine and they wouldn't let us go home if she wasn't positive that everything will be ok. She did warn us that she will have "tet spells" occasionally (where she will hold her breath and turn blue and start crying) but it is totally normal and we just need to recognize her signals to help her through it and she will always come out of it.

Here she is proving that she can tolerate the hour long ride home in her car seat. Look how tiny she is!!

She made it home just fine and that first night I don't think any of us slept very well. My mom laid next to her and listened to her breathe (because she holds her breath quite a bit) all night long. After we realized that she is totally fine,we all settled down and everything has been good ever since. I'm not loving this getting up every three hours to feed her, but I will get used to it.

I was really excited to put some headbands on her head,but most of them are way too big. I did find one that fit so of course we had to take some pictures! Enjoy!

Avery Update

2009-08-26T21:34:00.000-05:00

So I came home last night to get a few things done at home and go to work since Nicole (Hillary's mom) arrived today. Hillary and Avery are still at Children's Mercy, but now in the company of Grandma Griffiths.
For those of you that haven't already heard, we found out that Avery has a heart defect. From what the doctors have said it's not too major. She has Pulmonary Artery/Valve Stenosis (undersized artery and valve from the heart to the lungs), and a Ventricular Septal Defect (opening) between the bottom 2 chambers of the heart. The stenosis limits the blood going from the heart to the lungs to be oxygenated. The septal defect allows the blue blood (not oxygenated) to mix with the red blood and go through the body. This can cause a low oxygen saturation in the blood which can cause the baby to turn blue or grey. Fortunately she is nice and pink and hasn't had any sign of turning colors at all. They don't think her case is too severe. Her defect is close to a defect called "Tetrology of Fallot". If she had a full case of that defect, they would call her a "Pink Tet", because she doesn't turn blue. The Cardiologist made sure to emphasize that while she has 2 of the associated defects, he doesn't consider her to be full Tetrology patient. They said that as far as heart defects go, it's one of the better ones to have. It is operable, so she will have to have surgery to fix it. Since it isn't an urgent surgery, they want to wait for her to grow and get bigger and stronger before they operate. Usually they wait 9 months to a year before they do it. They did say that there is always a small chance it could grow and correct itself, but more than likely it will have to be fixed surgically. We hope and pray that she won't have any lasting affects and can be a happy, healthy, and active just like all the other little girls!
In the mean time she is doing pretty well. She is steadily progressing towards hopefully coming home soon. At this point they she is just like any other baby born a little early. She started by slowly weaning off of oxygen to room air, moving into a regular crib (not heated), and now she is learning how to mouth feed good enough to go home. She is being a little lazy and stubborn (not sure where she gets that from...), but is getting better and better at it. Yesterday the Nurse also removed the IV. So now all that's hooked up are the monitors and the feeding tube in her nose. We are proud of her for the progress she has made.
It's been fun just to spend time with her and hold her all day long, even though all she does is sleep. It hasn't been so fun spending all that time in the hospital! In the NICU they don't have any T.V's, no cell phones, only 2 visitors at a time, one of which has to be a parent or grandparent, and they don't allow you to fall asleep at the bedside! Not even a little nap! The only things we could do was read and hang out together. Time together is great, but I was getting pretty stir crazy by last night. Going to work today was actually kind of exciting and relieving! They did have a computer room available which helped a little.
Since we live far enough away from the hospital, we were able to get a room at the Ronald McDonald House across the street. Definitely a huge blessing, I don't know what we would have done without it. I never really understood what they were before. This one is kind of like a hotel/dorm. They have a big community kitchen, with lots of donated food stocked. They also have different organizations that volunteer and bring in big buffet meals about every night. HUGE blessing!
So hopefully all will continue to go well and we can bring her home by this weekend. We really appreciate all the thoughts and prayers and support from everybody, it has been a huge help in many ways! Here are a few more pictures that I brought home with me. Hillary has some more that are in the memory card that is still in the camera, so I'm sure you will all see plenty more pictures!

Momma saying goodbye before the transfer

In the transfer incubator

At the NICU

She enjoys the pacifier

Avery Jane Brown

2009-08-21T11:00:00.000-05:00

I still don't have a lot of time to tell the whole story, but here is the important info...

We have settled on the name after much debate, of course Hillary won. Avery is doing well. She has long fingers and long monkey toes, she appears to have my cleft chin. She has one ear that sticks out and one that lays flat, hopefully they will even out!

She is on a little oxygen to help her maintain her oxygen level and help her not work so hard to breath. She is being transferred to Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City to run some tests and double check a few things. She is stable and there doesn't seem to be anything too alarming at this point, so she isn't critical or anything. Hopefully it stays that way and we can bring her home soon.

Hillary was just released from the hospital, so we just got home to grab a few things and get ready to head up to KC. We are excited and still not quite sure what to think yet! Here are a bunch of pics for everybody that has been begging to see-

Thanks everybody for your continued thoughts and prayers in the behalf of Hillary and our little Avery! I'm sure Hillary will fill you all in on all the gruesome details as soon as everything settles down a little.

She is Here!

2009-08-21T01:46:00.000-05:00

Hillary gave birth to our tiny baby girl! She was born Thurs. August 20th at 9:51 p.m. at Western Missouri Medical Center here in Warrensburg. Since she insisted on coming this early she is pretty small. 4 lbs 15 oz, 18" long.
Hillary's water broke just before 4 pm, so it wasn't too long for her. They are both doing really well. Everything went very smooth. Since it's about 2 a.m. right now I will post later with more details and plenty of pictures. We both haven't for about 13 or 14 hours, so it's time for a middle of the night food run!

Update

2009-08-15T13:54:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone! Just wanted to give you a little update on my status (if you haven't already heard). I am home from the hospital now. They released me Thursday night and I am now on bed rest until this baby comes. The Dr. did an ultrasound and checked to see if I was dialated any more and everything was the exact same as it was when I was admitted. The Dr. said I am far enough along now that our hospital here should be able to take care of me. They are still concerned about the umbilical cord/excess fluid should my water break at home (I will spare you the graphic details they discussed with me about that), but since the baby's head is down, the chances are fairly low...but I am still considered high risk. So everything is good and as long as I stay down, I'm ok. I really hope my water doesn't break at home, so I don't have to worry about getting to the hospital super fast, but at the same time I am SO done. Part of me wants to just have this baby now and get it all over with, but at the same time, I don't want to have a premature baby that could possibly have problems. So I will sit here at home and hopefully have a few more weeks before she arrives.

Didn't even see it coming

2009-08-09T23:03:00.000-05:00

So... For those of you who haven't heard, Hillary is in the hospital. Don't panic, she (and the baby) are ok, and the baby is still inside her. For now... So here is the long story.

A few weeks ago Hillary's doctor decided that she wanted to see another ultrasound because she wanted to make sure the baby wasn't breached. So just over a week ago on Friday we went in and had a regular ultrasound here in Warrensburg. Everything seemed normal, the baby was head down and in a good postion. The technichian was pretty quiet, seemed like she may have been kind of new.

A few days later Hillarys Dr. called her personally and said she was a little concerned about a few things, nothing too major. She said there seemed to be an extra amount of fluid and wanted to investigate a little more with a type 2 ultrasound (more in depth I guess).

So this last Friday we went to her normal appt in the morning, and then went to the ultrasound all the way in Overland Park, Kansas. Just SW of Kansas City (about an hour away from home). It was the closest place that accepted our insurance and specialized in Perinatal care. Hillary's stomach has been pretty tight for a while and has had a fair amount of Braxton-Hicks contractions (I think that's what it's called), we didn't get the impression that this was too out of the ordinary.

The Dr. doing the Ultrasound said that there seemed to be even more extra fluid than the week before. She couldn't see why it was happening and said that the baby seemed to be healthy and normal. The she checked her cervix and said that she was already dilated to a 3, the week before it had been normal. Because of the quick progression, and the tightness and contractions, the Dr. felt like it was pretty serious and acted like she thought the baby was coming sooner rather than later. (about 5-6 weeks early at this point). They promptly rushed us down the hall, admitted Hillary into the hospital, and before we knew it she was in a gown, in a room, and hooked up to moniters... Kind of a surprise for us, we had just planned on going out to dinner for our anniversary afterwards and heading home. Needless to say we were not prepared for a stay in the hospital.

Our Bishop and I gave Hillary a good blessing Friday evening, and since then she has has actually been doing really well and isn't having any further problems. The Dr. still seems to think that the baby will be here pretty soon and wants to keep her there for close obsevation. They gave Hillary a couple of steroid shots to help the babys lungs develop faster in case she decide to come soon. So we are hoping and praying that the baby holds off as long as possible, but until then Hillary seems to be held hostage in the Overland Park Regional Medical Center.

She will either have the baby there soon, or if she makes it another week or 2 we can bring her home to rest and have it here in Warrensburg. Through it all we have felt really positive and really feel like everything will work out ok. Hillary is going to hopefully have a very boring stay at the hospital, and I am going to be doing lots of driving and sleeping some nights a very uncomfortable fold out hospital chair.

Thanks to those who have already shown us so much support, we appreciate it! I will try to post updates when I can.

Big as a house

2009-07-31T08:28:00.000-05:00

I'm sorry that all I post about these days is my huge gut. But seriously... there is nothing else going on with me, and lets face it- this baby is all I think about!

Last week at my Dr. appointment, my Dr. told me that there is a good chance that my baby is breach and because I have been in so much pain, she ordered another ultrasound to check everything out. So this morning, we got up at the crack of dawn to head to the hospital. It was really fun to see the difference between 17 weeks and 33 weeks. They did verify that her head is down-WAY down. She is also extremely active so it was hard for the tech to get any good pictures of her, but we did get a pretty good look at her face! Hopefully she's cute! Oh and she does have some hair too!

Looking at this picture, you would think that I should be having this baby any day now right?

But don't be fooled by the huge belly! I still have seven weeks to go! I hope it goes by fast because I hurt like a mother!

Baby update

2009-07-12T13:37:00.000-05:00

I can't believe I'm 30 weeks now. 10 more weeks to go- ugg. Yes I am large and in charge and boy do I feel it! About a week and a half ago my body decided it had reached it maximum allowance for this baby- and I had a huge growth spurt. This baby has no where else to go but out! I'm scared to imagine what I am going to look like in 10 weeks, at the rate this baby is growing! I might just tip over!
Aso, my parents were here visiting this last weekend and thanks to my mother, I have finally finished the bedding! I honestly don't think I could have finished the ruffle without her- she showed me several tricks that made it so much easier! Thanks again mom! I ended up having extra fabric and decided to make a quilt as well.

Wings Over Whiteman

2009-06-26T17:52:00.001-05:00

I'm pretty sure we are the last people to post about the air show we went to a few weeks ago, but here are some fun pictures. It was an incredibly hot day and incredibly windy, but we had fun!

Not sure what these are- but they were fun

B-52

B-25 from WWII

Apache

Aeroshell aerobatic team- these were my favorite- they did some awesome stuff

F-15, P-51 , A-10 fighter heritage flight

B-2 Spirit (they are stationed here at Whiteman)

B2 Chopper (made by Orange County Choppers)

And my incredibly painful sunburn that night. Totally didn't realize I was frying myself! And yes, I did wear sunscreen. Here I am laying in pain. (P.S. my arms look about the same). I have never had a sunburn like this! I don't burn like this! I didn't sleep at all that night because my legs were going to catch fire if anything touched them. I swear I had an allergic reaction to the sunscreen or the sun itself or maybe even being pregnant did it! Check out how splotchy the burn is too- totally did a better job than that putting on the sunscreen! After icing them/running cold water on them the entire next day and several layers of peeling skin over the next week or so... I'm back to normal with a serious farmer tan!

Almost done!

2009-06-26T17:03:00.000-05:00

I just have to show you all my project so far (obviously it's not finished...). It took me forever to get started, but once I got going I didn't want to stop! I finished up my last bumper yesterday and couldn't wait to see what it would look like on the crib. I have two sheets so far, but I think I like the polka dot one best. What do you think?! I am so proud of myself! Now all I have left to do is the ruffle and my mom wants to help me with that when she is here in a few weeks.

26 weeks and plants!

2009-06-14T14:02:00.000-05:00

Well I've reached 26 weeks and this is me today- right after church. I probably should have kept the skirt on, but I took it off the second I got home because lets face it... it was tight! I am officially out of the triple digits until my due date! woohoo! Only 97 more days to go...which is still FOREVER away, but hey, it 's only down hill from here right?!

I have to post this little creature because it is so random where we found it! The other day I was outside checking on my struggling rose bushes and found several quarter sized holes in the dirt. One of them looked like it had something in it! I immediately thought it was a snake (because we found one of those the other day too...). I had rand come over to see, and he got the shovel and dug it out. It was a little crawdad(sp?). I would guess we have more of these baby lobsters (Rand hates that I call them that) because we have seen several other holes throughout our lawn. How random is that??? Crazy, I had no idea they lived underground. I'm so glad it wasn't a snake!

This is our version of the "topsy turvy" tomato plant grower thingy! Rand has been watching those infomercials for months and one day decided that he could totally make that! I of course told him it was a good idea, but thought it would look extremely trashy to have buckets hanging from our deck, but it actually doesn't look that bad. We also decided to put strawberries on the top. What do you think?We started out with two buckets, but after replanting a tomato plant in one bucket three times only to have them all die, we decided to take it down. This was taken a little over a week ago...

and this is today... I forgot to take a picture of the tomatoes up close, but they are getting big! I can't wait until they are ready!

and of course one of Chloe aka the devil. (this picture is for Kimberly, I know you miss her!) She was just chillin in the grass so I thought I would take a picture. She spends much of her time outside these days. Hopefully one day she will get along with people and other cats!

and last, here is our flower bed. I get so excited to plant new flowers each year! Most of our annuals came back and are much bigger this year, but some didn't...I can't wait until all the plants get big in a few months. Also can I just say how uncomfortable it is to weed these days! Not being able to bend over and having heartburn doesn't not make for comfortable weeding.

23 weeks and fabric!

2009-05-23T17:48:00.000-05:00

My tummy has done a lot of growing these past two weeks! This baby is getting bigger every day! As you can tell I am also carrying low. My Dr. said that my placenta is backwards and that typically means it will stay lower the entire pregnancy. Don't worry she said that it shouldn't cause any problems. I have a feeling that I will have some serious pelvis/back pain in the future!

Next... I have decided to make the crib bedding! Exciting I know. Bree promised me that it isn't hard, so it better not! My good friend Kimberly left me this summer to visit family while her husband is deployed, and since we hung out all the time... I need something to keep me busy! Anyway, one of my co-workers is really into quilting and said she would come with me shopping for fabric and show me some fun quilt shops. We spent an entire friday shopping in Kansas and saw some amazing fabric! It was so hard to decide. But in the end I decided to go with this...

If you have heard of Amy Butler or HeatherBailey... this is a combination of their fabrics. Their fabric is pretty much amazing- go check out their websites! So the big poppie flower fabric will be the bumper, the solid pink will be the trim/ties, the large stripes will be the skirt and the small stripes will be a sheet. There is another fabric by Amy Butler that has a green/yellow polka dot pattern and it goes really well with the poppies... I plan to get that one later because this ended up a LOT more pricey that I thought. But it is totally worth it right???!! What do you think? Be totally honest, I will not be offended if you are not as pumped about it as I am!

21 weeks

2009-05-10T20:40:00.000-05:00

This picture isn't the best but...I am starting to show! Finally! It is really wierd to see my stomach get bigger- but in a good way! I feel so much bigger than I look. I am feeling this little one move all the time now. I can't wait until I actually "pop" out and really look pregnant so I can wear clothes that fit and look normal. This in between stage is hard! I will say that being an assistant has been really nice because scrubs are the best thing to wear! They are so comfortable!

It's a.....

2009-04-17T20:33:00.000-05:00

Girl! I am sooo excited. I really wanted a girl, but I just figured it would be a boy. I was pretty shocked when we were told it was a girl. Rand is still having a hard time coping with it, but he will come around. He was positive it was boy and says he doesn't know anything about dress up and tea parties- so he is a little nervous.

My due date has changed as well from September 13th to September 19th. It is only a week, so I guess i can handle that! Sorry we don't have a good profile picture, she was really wiggly and made it really hard to get clear pictures!

Finished!

2009-04-17T09:34:00.000-05:00

I finally finshed my quilt on conference sunday. It should have been done months ago, but I got busy and couldn't focus on it. So here it is, what do you think?!! This was a really fun project for me, and for my first time sewing, I think it looks pretty good. I kept putting off sewing the binding because it was very intimidating and I knew it would take me forever to do... but it wasn't too bad once I got started. I was able to hand stitch the back binding during conference and it took about five hours! My hands hurts the entire day after, but it was worth it. Now what should I do next....

Update

2009-03-24T17:56:00.000-05:00

We have had a busy past few weeks!
First off, I had to take a big dental assisting test last month. It was a two day test and we had to drive to Jefferson City. I was soooo stressed out about it, and they took their sweet time letting you know if you passed but... three weeks later I received my certificate in the mail and I PASSED! I'm not sure how well I actually did, but all I care about is that I passed. It was seriously one of the most stressful/hard tests I have ever taken. And to be honest, I was kind of dreading the certificate because that meant I had to start doing fillings, and I was totally scared to do it! So... my dentist gave me a few days to practice on some impressions and then set me loose two days ago! I thought I was going to poop my pants on the first one, but it really wasn't that bad and was actually kind of fun! I have been rocking them out ever since... ok, it has only been two days!

Almost two weeks ago, Randy's family came down to visit for a few days. It was lots of fun to spend time with their family. I didn't really know their girls and it was fun to get to know them. Anne and I are best buddies now! We went to Nauvoo and then just spent time here in Missouri for a few days. We were sad to see them go!

This last weekend my friend Rian came to visit and we had a girls weekend. A few of my friends husbands went to OK to spend the weekend with Rian's husband (including Rand), so us girls were able to chat and catch up. And just in case you were wondering- yes I bought twilight and we watched it Saturday night! I didn't get a chance to buy it early in the day so of course it was sold out everywhere except blockbuster video and I over paid for it.... but I did get a awesome poster of Edward! haha.

As far as our baby goes, I am up to 15 weeks now! woot woot! My next appointment is next Friday on the 3rd and then I can set up my appointment for the ultrasound. I am really excited to know what I am having, I seriously can't wait! So in the next three or four weeks I will let you know. Everything has been going really good- I still feel pretty normal for the most part. I really could do with out this heartburn thing though...

Well, that is about it for now, hopefully I will have some pictures to post next time!

12 weeks and counting...

2009-03-07T14:59:00.000-06:00

So I thought it would be funny to add a little baby to my blog with out saying anything- and there have been some great reactions! I decided not to announce that I was pregnant for a while because it started out a little rocky and I wanted to make sure it was going to stay this time ( I had a miscarriage last November if you hadn't heard). But everything has been going well and the baby has a strong heartbeat! I had another Dr. apt yesterday and they said I was measuring 12 weeks with a due date of September 13th.

It has been pretty easy to keep it a secret because I have been feeling pretty normal for the most part (not to mention I live about 1200 miles from family). I have your typical symptoms of being really tired all the time, massive headaches all the time, and an intense need to eat all the time! I usually don't feel good at night though around 9 or 10:00 but it never gets bad enought to make me barf. I have recently been getting heartburn too which sucks... So all things considered I am doing good! I really thought I was going to be extremely sick, so I am grateful that I only have mild yucky days and try not to complain- rand would tell you differently though! So we are really excited and will post more pictures soon.

To Big H...

2009-02-24T08:18:00.000-06:00

It's been a while, but I've hijacked Hillary's blog again.

As you may know it is her birthday today, she turns 26!
I tried to find her a card but they were all kind of dumb. Plus she just got me one last month for my B-day, so she has probably seen them all anyway. So I decided to skip that and do this instead, with none of the dumb card jokes!
Hillary I just wanted to tell you how thankful I am for all that you do for me everyday. Your personality is the perfect balance to mine. I don't know of anyone that has met you that can't help but like you! I am very fortunate to be married to such a smart, funny, beautiful and caring person.
We have shared a lot of big experiences together and I look forward to all the big experiences in the future. You are patient with me, and you a source of faith and hope in my life.

Happy Birthday H, I love you!

Here are a few pics of her that I like...

@ Stingers game in SLC...

Boating w/ friends on Deer Creek in UT...

Philidelphia, PA (seeing Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, etc...)

Cruise ship in Western Caribbean...

the amphitheater in American Fork of course...

Xel Ha Mexico...

in Hershey, PA...

Happy Birthday!!

2009-01-30T14:16:00.000-06:00

Rands birthday was last weekend (22nd). The big 27!! We invited the Johansens over for cake and ice cream to celebrate. I made a really yummy raspberry cream chocolate cake (it's one of our favorites, not to mention it looks great too).

Haven was way too excited about this cake to let rand celebrate it by himself! Rand was nice enough to let him sit on his lap and blow out the candles together. Look at him just stare at it! haha.

Happy Birthday!

holiday update

2009-01-20T18:39:00.000-06:00

Not much to say this post, but I do have some pictures of the last month (and then some....)

Our tree

Baking day! We made lots of yummy treats this day. This is haven and I making buckeyes. (Haven helped me make buckeyes, sugar cookies and truffles- such a good helper!)
more buckeyes!

Kimberly, Haven and I... yay for truffles!

the next day I made marshmellows- if you have never done this before you should! it's fun!

my left over mallows...

the finished product! I used cute small christmas cookie cutters.

We had a turkey dinner on christmas night- this is Rands yummy turkey

We decided to finally hang our tv above the fireplace- what do you think?!

I got a sewing machine for christmas and decided to make a quilt. It has all of my favorite colors: brown, orange, blue, green, red, etc. It is really busy and kind of ugly, but I totally love it! p.s. quilts are expensive to make!

This is the back I decided on. It might be the binding too, not sure yet.

Halloween, Thanksgiving, wedding, etc...

2008-12-12T14:05:00.000-06:00

I have lots to post today!

So this picture is totally in the wrong spot. For some reason it ended up first, and it wasn't supposed to... anyway, this is me at the wedding being an awesome assistant and holding everything!

And now the original start to this post...

For starters, back in october, Rands uncle's twins were baptized so some family came out to visit. That doesn't happen very often, so I was very excited to see rands family that we haven't seen in a long time.

This is Rand, Nolan, Melanie, Me and Tyler. They stayed at our house over halloween weekend. We carved pumpkins, watched a scary movie, ate Rands "world famous" ribs, laughed and had a good time. We were sad when they had to leave.

Then, we drove out to Utah for Tyler and Melanie's wedding a few weeks later! Congrats you two! We stayed at Rands parents house- thank you Val and April! Rand was their photographer, so while he was taking cute pictures like this...

a few of us kept ourselves busy and had fun taking pictures like this...

Me and Brooks

Me and Nolan

I don't know... we had so much fun that day!

This was how we spent our thanksgiving at Rands grandparents... it was so nice to just sit back and relax...

Oh, and of course I ate lots of pie... all at once- check out that plate!

I also went shopping super early with Nolan and a friend. As crazy as it is on black friday, I really enjoy it!

I was also able to see my family for one night. It was so good to see everyone! Thanks to my fam. for squeezing us into your busy weekend!

I love our families! We have lots of fun together. I love staying up late and talking into the way too early hours of the morning, laughing so hard I probably have a six pack, shopping, etc. Good times! Thanks to everyone for such a fun week!

Tag

2008-11-20T13:30:00.000-06:00

ok, ok, here is my monthly post for november!!! take it easy Amber! haha. kidding. i have been meaning to do this tag for a few weeks now, so here goes...

5 things I was doing 10 year ago:

- being a 10th grader

- hanging out with my friends

- having crush on several boys in school

- wishing I could drive!

- getting my braces off! awesome!

5 Things on my to do list in no special order:

- drive to utah tonight safely! the weather better be nice to us!

- go on another cruise

- Clean my house

- visit with my family

- scrapbook more

5 favorite snacks:

- fruit snacks

- jelly beans

- anything chocolate

- chips and salsa

- granola bars

5 Jobs I've had:

- cook

- real estate confirmation caller (something like that...)

- diet technician

- receptionist

-dental assistant

5 Things I would do with a million dollars:

- Pay off the mortgage

- Travel to exotic places

- Invest some for retirement

- finish our basement

- Share with my family

5 Things that made me laugh this week:

- Rand

- my friend Kimberly

- Kimberly's son Haven- funny boy!

- the assistants that i work with

- the random shows i have watched

I am pretty sure everyone has been tagged with this one, so I won't put any names!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

welcome fall!

2008-10-17T15:24:00.000-05:00

Fall is one of my favorite seasons! I love that the colors change, the air smells amazing (anyone know what I am talking about... it's hard to explain), the weather is a perfect not too hot/cold combo. Let's not forget halloween! Best holiday of the year! Which means I get to break out my fall decorations and pumkin spice candle!

I had to take some pictures last weekend. The weather outside was so nice, it was 70 degrees with a light breeze and a fun sunset! I just knew that it wasn't going to last long because the storm that you in utah got was coming our way!

Isn't this a cute? My awesome friend Kimberly made it for me!

We planted this little maple tree last month and it was fun to see the few leaves it had change to red!

Some pictures of my flower garden.

I love these leafy plants! We planted a few different kinds in front of our house and they are beautiful. Only they get a lot bigger than I thought and they kind of choked out some other plants! haha, but now that it is getting cooler, they are thinning out.

We worked really hard on our lawn and flower garden this year, and I am happy to say that it paid off.

"I love your blog" award

2008-10-01T20:30:00.000-05:00

Here are the rules: I have to answer the following questions with one word answers and one word only! Then I must pass it on to seven others.
The questions are as follows:

1. Where is your cell phone? purse

2. Where is your significant other? gone
3. Your hair color? Brown
4. Your mother? Nicole
5. Your father? Jay
6. Your favorite thing? candy
7. Your dream last night? none
8. Your dream/goal? Happiness
9. The room you're in? spare
10. Your hobby? scrapping
11. Your fear? spiders
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Home
13. Where were you last night? Home
14. What you're not? smart
15. One of your wish-list items? sewingmachine (see.. it's one word!!!)
16. Where you grew up? Utah
17. The last thing you did? mutual
18. What are you wearing? clothes
19. Your TV? off
20. Your pet? cat
21. Your computer? on
22.Your mood? bored
24.Missing someone? no..
24. Your car? Blue
25. Something you're not wearing? Socks
26. Favorite store? target
27. Your summer? Fun
28. Love someone? Yes
29. Your favorite color? Brown
30. When is the last time you laughed? Today
31. Last time you cried? days....
I award anyone who reads my blog with the "I love your blog award" and in so doing tag them to complete the above questions.

Memory Lane...

2008-08-31T20:02:00.000-05:00

I am really late posting this, but...several weeks ago on August 6th, was our anniversary! Four years...Crazy! I love Rand to death, and we have had soooo much fun together! Here are some pictures of the past four years...and then some!

Little Hillary...

Little Rand...

I loved that bear!

Don't you want to just squeeze his cheeks!

We met on a blind date in 2003...

we dated off and on for a year and were engaged for three months...

My endowment day. I like this picture even if my eyes are closed!

we got married on August 6, 2004 in the Timpanogos Temple...

my nieces...

We went to San Diego for our honeymoon...

We burnt ourselves at the beach and then went to the zoo...

We love halloween and have a party every year...

We went on a cruse for our 2nd anniversary...

on our cruise ship...

in Xel Ha Mexico

the Tulum Ruins...

We moved to Missouri two years ago and bought our first house. (this is an old picture)..

We got a cat and named her Chloe...

It has been an awesome four years! And...we have been in Missouri two years now (yesterday the 30th to be exact)! We enjoy it here in Missouri, it has been a really good experience so far...but I do miss Utah!

wedding weekend!

2008-08-19T21:32:00.001-05:00

Last weekend we went to Utah to attend my little brother Trace's wedding. It was so much fun to see my family and friends that I haven't seen in such a long time. Amber was absolutely beautiful and I am so happy that she is part of our crazy family! I have never seen Trace so happy! I only have random pictures of course but here is some of the action:

I love this picture of amber and my nieces. It reminded me of my wedding day and the almost exact same picture I took with them.

I thought her colors were fun, so here is one of the tables at the reception.

Me and my sisters, aren't we so cute?! It's funny how we really don't look much alike!

All of us Griffiths kids

I pretty much love this picture! Look at my face! What am I saying?! haha

Trace and I. What a cute brother I have

This picture makes me want to go tanning! Look at those pasty legs! It's funny though, because I went tanning the day before...probably just the lighting!

My cute cousin Randah- love this girl!

Hop over to Bree's blog for more fun pictures!

Tagged!

2008-08-02T20:29:00.000-05:00

How To Play This Game of Tag:
Post these rules on your blog.
List: 3 joys, 3 fears, 3 goals, 3 current obsessions/collections, 3 random surprising facts about yourself. Tag 5 people at the end of your post by leaving their names. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog!

Joys:
1 - Spending time with Rand
2 - Spending time with friends
3 - daisies! seriously... they make me happy:)

Fears:
1 - being kidnapped.... creepy!!!
2 - Losing a loved one.
3 - calling someone on the phone I don't know! talk about anxiety!

Goals:
1 - Having a happy family
2 - Pass a couple tests to be a certified dental assistant
3 - start to serioulsy digital scrapbook... I have been saying that for a long time...

Obsessions / Collections:
1 - HGTV! freakin love that channel!
2 - The Twilight books.
3 - Rand told me to put wierd chick music... what ever that means.... haha. I really do love music though!

Random Surprises:
1 - Sometimes I have to turn on the faucet while I poop so no one can hear me! hahahaha. Seriously though- it's way gross! It's been four years and Rand still can't believe that I do that!
2 - I have a cup next to the fridge at all times so that I don't have to dirty a million during the day. And it doens't matter how much water I fill it with, I can never finish it. Drives Rand nuts.
3 - I can't wear black and brown together. That is sooo wrong! Should be against the law.

I tag Bree, Jenn, Bethany,Amber

food and fireworks!

2008-07-06T19:53:00.000-05:00

I really enjoy holidays, doesn't really matter what holiday it is...it just means that I get to eat yummy food, and have fun with friends!
On the 4th, the Johansens and Comptons came over and we started off with a bbq. Here is Rand- Rand the grilling man. (Bree, do you recognize that plate?!! I still have a few of them as my back up plates!)
This is the yummy dessert I made. I thought you all might like to see it because it is so darn cute! How patriotic am I???!!!

After eating and playing some games, we headed up to Rands work to set off some fireworks!

Here I am in a prego-sandwich! Yes, both of my friends are pregnant...haha. Check out my awesome $5 shirt from wal-mart. I thought it was awesome... even though I don't drink coke...

One good thing about being in the midwest is the fact that we can actually buy real fireworks! I mean ones worth looking at! We had lots of fun! Rand was too busy doing the fireworks to take any pictures, so I got to take over. Unfortunately I am not as good as him, so most of these are blurry! Hey, Extended exposure is not easy!!!This is Haven doing a great job with his sparkler circle.

This is Kimberly attempting a heart with her sparkler- once again sorry so blurry

OOOH

AAAAHHHH

I will actually claim these next two, pretty good I know!

This one makes me laugh, one of our lets say larger fireworks went off on the ground right in front of us... this is what I got from it! It was totally scary, but I was laughing really hard at this pic!

Finished!!

2008-07-03T11:30:00.000-05:00

Last weekend we finally planted!!! It doesn't look like much right now, but it will....in probably a few years....but that is ok!
I decided that we had to start planting last friday night because it was supposed to rain on saturday (Rand thought I was crazy). So by the time we got to Lows and got home,(with only the bushes because it was so late) it was almost 10:00 pm! Can I tell you how great it is to plant at 10:30 at night! We have a street lamp on the corner of our lot, so our front yard has plenty of light. There was no sun and a light breeze, so the weather was perfect...it was awesome. Highly recommended. We could see the storm rolling in as we were planting and right as we finished, it started raining. It poured for a while and I was worried that we wouldn't be able to finish it the next morning.
We got up early and checked the dirt which looked very wet, but that wasn't going to stop me from finishing my project dang it! After another round at lowes and several hours of planting, we finished it. The dirst was actually fine- it was only wet on the top. I need to take better pictures, but of course it rained again last night so everything looks dirty- you will have to wait.
So for any green thumbs out there that are interested in what we actually planted (or want to look it up)... we have two kinds of bushed, a boxwood and a Euonymus (looks like a boxwood, but has white edges). We have a few Hosta Patriots( my favorite!) yellow stella de oro daylillies, and moonbeam coreopsis (a way cute little yellow daisy bush). We also have tihis pink flower bush that I have no idea what it is called, but I had to have it! Rand chose this wierd grassy thing that I don't care for called a gold bar miscanthus. It looks like striped spider legs and kind of wierds me out. I guess it will be cool once it gets bigger. And then of course we have a few annual flowers that will hopefully fill in until everything gets bigger.
I will post some better pictures once it is sunny again!

farewell

2008-06-25T13:18:00.000-05:00

Our good friends the Hansings moved to Oklahoma this morning... (cry, cry).Here are some pictures of the fun we had before they left. Monday night we went out to dinner and then had custard after with all of our friends. Here are some cute pictures of the Johansens boy Haven and the Hansings daughter Lydia eating their ice cream...

Isn't he too cute!?
I find this one really funny... she is such a messy eater- I love it!
Last night (tuesday) we went over to the Hansings house to say goodbye. Their movers were still packing up their house, so we just had fun outside on the lawn . Haven and Lydia found a little turtle under the moving truck and thought it was so cool. The poor turtle was probably scared to death, he wouldn't come out of his shell. Can't say I blame it, with two kiddo's hovering over me! We played with it on the neighbors drive way!

This is Rand trying to relax on his home made box-bed. The kids couldn't resist! Rand is such a kid magnet, it makes me laugh!

And last, of course a picture of us all.

We will miss you guys! We have had so much fun with you, thanks for all the great times, please keep in touch! Good luck with your new life in Oklahoma, we love you!

Rian... I will check your blog every day- so you better post!

New Background!!

2008-06-15T21:08:00.000-05:00

Yay for fun backgrounds!!! Rand thinks this one is like a circus, but I mostly don't care.... because it is so dang fun!! Once again here I am for my montly post. I don't have any pictures at the moment, but I should have some soon.
We are still working on our front yard-yes... an entire month later! We are not that lazy, we are just really busy, or the weather is poopy. We have had some serious storms- it is tornado season you know. Hopefully we will get it done this weekend. I have been to Lowes several times and know pretty much what I want planted, we just need to do it.
I recently got my hair cut and colored. It is back to shoulder length. My friend Kimberly does hair so of course I had her do it, and she thought I should dye it back brown with no highlights. I wasn't super excited about it, but wanting a change, so now that it is dark again, I am pretty much loving it. My long, bleached hair and the missouri hot, humid summer do not mingle well. I seriously get black woman hair in the humidity- it gets all thick and course. It's really wierd. I will post a pictured soon. That is pretty much all I have to say right now!

Yard Work!

2008-05-08T14:42:00.000-05:00

So we decided it was probably time to do some landscaping... way overdue I know! Last weekend was the only time that the weather was going to be nice, so our friend Craig came over to help Rand out. They worked all afternoon on saturday and only got about half way before it got too late ( the ground was still a little wet from a previous rain, so it was really heavy), and the boys had pretty good sunburns. They finished it off monday after work in just over an hour. I am way excited to plant flowers and bushes! I have always loved taking care of plants, and I can't wait to pretty up my yard. Hopefully the rain will stop enough to get it done in the next few weeks.

I love that my cat had to watch them the entire time...

It was sad to get rid of the thickest grass we had- of course right up next to the house, but they did transplant it to some other areas that were in need. Any ideas for what kinds of plants we should use?

New Table!

2008-04-06T13:05:00.000-05:00

We bought a table a few weeks ago and I thought you all might like to see it! I just love it! The pictures make it look kind of small, but it is actually big. It is counter height and square. It is nice to have a table that fits more than four people and actually fills up our dining area. oh, and there are actually six chairs even though the pictures only show five. We had to take one back, it wasn't made properly... but it is all good now! What do you think??

I've Been Tagged!

2008-03-20T21:28:00.000-05:00

A- Attached or single: Attached--Married for almost four years!!!

B- Best Friend(s): Rand and The Fearsome Foursome (I love it Kimberly! We are so still in highschool...), and Haven (Kimberly's son- we are best buddies these days!).

C-Cake or Pie: dumb question- both!

D- Day of Choice: Saturdays

E- Essential Item: candy. seriously couldn't live with out it! oh and my eyelash curler

F- Favorite Color: BROWN! freaking love brown. it goes with everything, especially baby blue, pink and orange.

G- Gummi Bears or Worms: uh, they are the same thing.... so both!

H- Hometown: Pleasant Grove UT

I -Indulgence(s): Right now, candy. I love the jolly ranchers jelly beans! The pink and blue ones are the best! (totally agree with Kimberly I love holiday candy)

J- January or July: July for sure, hate the cold!

K- Kids: none yet

L-Life is incomplete without: My family & friends.

M- Marriage Date: August 6, 2004

N- Number of Siblings: 5 brothers, 2 sisters

O- Oranges or Apples: Generally I like oranges better

P- Phobias or Fears: spiders, snakes, the dark, creepy people, etc.

Q- Quote(s): can't think of one right now

R- Reason To Smile: everything, life is good! I have an awesome family and awesome friends

S- Season: Spring/summer- i love when it's warm and all the flowers. I also love fall for the leaves/colors and jackets.

T- Tag Six: Bree, Tristan, Amber, Jill, Jenn... I can't think of anyone else.

V- Vegetarian or Oppressor of Animal: Not a big meat fan (hate the texture), but I will eat chicken- on a good day! I really should be vegetarian sometimes, I am that picky!

W- Worst Habit: biting/picking at my nails

X-xrays: haven't had any other than in my mouth at the dentist!

Y- Your Favorite Food: Italian!

Z-Zodiac: Piscies

Cake Decorating!!

2008-03-09T19:55:00.000-05:00

I am sitting at my friend Kimberly's house, and she said that I have to post something before I left (seriously, she is sitting right next to me, making sure I do it!). Last thursday our relief society did a cake decorating class so my friends and I decided to go. Here are our creations! The cake is mine and Stephanies masterpiece, and the cupcakes are Kimberly and Rians. My personal favorite is Rian's lion cupcake!

Here we are, Me, Stephanie, Rian and Kimberly.

Christmas Pics

2008-01-25T14:13:00.000-06:00

Once again another month has passed with no blogging. I have been really busy....get over it! haha kidding. Seriously though, I feel like I never have time to post anything. Between my long days at work and Young Womens, studying for my upcoming test, good shows to watch... no time!
Anyway, I have a few pictures from over christmas to share!
First the beloved Kitchen Aid! I have longed to have this beauty for several years, and I was sooooo excited to get it! There is something about a highspeed mixer that gets me excited... not like that! There are days I just put things in it when I really don't need to, just so I can use it! haha.

Rands uncle Nolan got us this hanging shelf from Ikea for our birthdays (rands was on the 22nd and mine is next month). I have been looking for something to hang coats on, but nothing really works in our entry way... until now! I love it of course. Now we just need to paint the walls and decorate the top!

Randy and Megan got us these sconces to hang in my kitchen! I just love them, they are perfect next to the iron square! Thanks guys!

front view, sorry for the terrible picture!

This is our new tv! We were very excited to get it thanks to all of our christmas money this year! it is 42'' and we will eventually hang it above our fireplace because it is too big where it is.

Obviously this isn't a gift, but I wanted you all to see. Rand took this picture of the provo temple the day after christmas. This temple isn't my favorite for obvious reasons, but I thought this was a really good picture of it!

I also got an eye exam over the christmas break and am now wearing contacts and glasses. after a month of contacts they still bug the crap out of me, but are much better than that first week. Glasses really don't look that great on me, but the ones I got are pretty cute. I will have to post a picture of them.

I am also studying for my missoui basic skills exam that I will be taking on Feb. 9th. I am really nervous about it. I haven't taken a test in years! So wish me luck. I have been assisting more and more these days. I really enjoy it even though I am not that great yet. In a few months one of our assistants is moving so they have decided to make me a full time assistant and hire a new receptionist! Exciting I know!

That is all for now!

25 Christmas things

2007-12-07T15:07:00.000-06:00

25. How many more days til' Christmas?
7! I am really excited to see everyone!

24. What color is your Christmas tree?
uh... the tree is green, the decorations are red, yellow and blue

23. Bought any gifts for anyone yet?

yup. including one for myself!

22. Are there any Gifts under the tree?

a few. we need to change that

21. Will it snow this Christmas?

possibly. probably not though, but there might be some kind of snow/ice on the ground.

20. How many family members live in your house?

must me and rand.... i guess you can count the cat if you really want to haha

19. Is Santa coming?

haha, no. if anything he came early and my gift is sitting in my guest bedroon (it is too big to fit under the tree)

18. Have you been naughty or nice?

what kind of a question is that! of course i'm nice!

17. Favorite place to get presents from?

depends. this year- costco...yay for kitchen aids!

16. How many places do you go to celebrate the holiday?

if i'm in utah, with my family and rands family on both days probably.

15. Ever 'peeked' inside a present?

of course! i get so excited i can't handle it- especially when i was a kid

14. Ever tried egg nog?

i used to like it when i was youner, but not really digging it these days

15. How cold is it now?

on my way home from work today at noon it was 32. we had a storm yesterday so it is cold and snowy now.

14. Decorated your house yet?

oh yeah. i get excited remember?! we had the light and decorations thanksgiving night! didn't get the tree until that monday though...

13. Do you still leave the cookies and milk, just for the fun of it?

nope. now that i am thinking about it... i don't ever remember leaving out cookies and milk...

13. Name 3 things you asked for this Christmas:

i only have two #1: black kitchen aid #2 christmas jeans ( i ended up getting two this year, so i guess that counts as three) now when i say christmas jeans i'm not talking jeans that are christmas-y or anything like that! ewe, i just make sure that i get a good pair of jeans once a year.

12. Ever watched The Christmas Story?

Yes, it is the best part of Christmas.

11. Have you ever been sledding?

yes, good times, good times. i honestly can't remember the last time i went though.

10. Do you get more money, or clothes for Christmas?

Money

9. Ever had a snow ball fight?

yes, rand makes sure to throw a few at me every year.

8. How many stockings will hang from the fire place?

just two

7. Does your dog/cat get a stocking?

no, rand would kill me if i got Chloe one!

6. How many people would you say you buy for a year?

probably about 10-for the most part just small things though

5. What kind of food do you celebrate with?

Oh, where to start! On Christmas day my mother makes a whole turkey dinner with all the trimmings, she also makes fudge, caramels, chocolate drops, divinity, orange drops. But it still wouldn't be Christmas with out Orange sticks or a Chocolate orange to whack!! good answer Bree... but we now have to add buckeye balls (for rand)

4. Did it snow on Christmas Day last year?

nope

3. Do you have one or more trees that are decorated for a specific theme?

only one

2. Do you go to Church on Christmas Day?

Only when it falls on a Sunday.

1. Merry Christmas!

Halloween party!

2007-11-04T13:59:00.000-06:00

Sorry it has taken me so long to post my party pictures! For those that don't know me well, I love halloween and usually host a party every year. So this year, we partied the saturday before halloween and I dressed up as a bat. I bought ears and wings and dressed all in black. It was totally easy and so much fun... except when I walked through a door way I had to turn sideways because of my wings! We had some fun food as well. This picture shows the cake and finger breadsticks. We also had soup and salad dry ice in our drink. Halloween isn't halloween without dry ice right?!

The purple on my wings is glitter if you can't tell, and I sprayed purple glitter in my hair as well, so I pretty much made a mess everywhere I went!

Here are the partiers! We had a cowboy, pirate wilma and fred, bat and missionaries (only they really are missionaries, but we said it could count as a costume!)

Pumpkins!

2007-10-30T22:50:00.000-05:00

At my party we were supposed to carve pumpkins but we didn't have time, so we all got together Monday for Family Night (including the missionaries) and had lots of fun. Here are some pictures

These pictures are out of order, but this one was actually taken on halloween. Rand insisted that we make a puking pumpkin. So here is the finished product, and all the little kids thought it was gross and way cool. Towards the end of the night, there was one kid that I was handing candy too and when he noticed the pumpkin he said " oh this is the house with the throwing up pumpkin, my friend told me about that!" haha. Rand is so proud.

here is the finished product! the cute smiley one on the left if mine!