Year End Review -it's tradition

This post takes forever to do... ever since blogger changed the way pictures are uploaded and move around, but I like having it here, I actually refer to it at other times. Just so I remember what has happened and when.

January was our first (mini) vacation of the year. What is becoming a fun tradition (we're headed back up a month from now) snowmobiling with the Hardcastle's.

February was an awesome trip to Hawaii with the Goughs -Justin's family. Despite a few set backs (a trip to the emergency room for the Little Man on the first night, and a miscarriage a couple of days later) we had a great time. I had never been to Hawaii, and we enjoyed all of the sights and things to do on Maui. Plus, we loved spending time with family.

March started out with one of many trips to the zoo. We bought a family pass, so we were able to get there a lot this last year. The Little Man loves the animals. I also turned 30... it wasn't too bad.

In April Justin's brother, Bryan, came home from his mission. I learned how dependent I am on cell phones, because mine wasn't working the night we went to the airport. I forgot how the Salt Lake airport worked and ended up missing the actual arrival, nut we eventually found everyone. We also found out we were expecting Little Miss.

May kicked off our camping season... and continued the Little Man's ability to harm himself. We went camping over Memorial Day with the Lafeens and he fell out of their trailer. At least this one didn't require stitches.

June... gardens, trips to Wheeler Farm, Utah State, and swimming lessons.

More camping in July. We froze with the Goughs when we went on the 4th of July... and nearly died from the heat with the Lafeen's during the family reunion. Maybe that was just the pregnant lady though. The good news? No trip so to the doctors.

Matt and Jenny also got married. It was a beautiful ceremony and reception in Huntsville.

August 1st we broke our streak, and the Little Man ended up in the hospital again. This time with a stomach bug that he couldn't shake and he got too dehydrated from throwing up. We were there about 24 hours... and it took at least a week or two to recover. In the mean time, both Justin and I got sick too. It's no fun throwing up with the stomach bug while pregnant -as if there is a GOOD time for that to happen.

Later in the month we had girls camp. I had to take the Little Man with me one evening... and guess what? About 10 minutes before we were going to leave, he fell back from a picnic table, and we were on our way to instacare. This time it was staples. Pretty gruesome to look at, but much easier to get done.

September was our annual trip to Swiss Days and Park City. Once again I was very pregnant, but I hung in there. Even during all of the shopping hours.

October brought harvesting our garden, another trip to Utah State, and Halloween. Justin had a great time carving pumpkins, and the Little Man got to wear his Super Why costume more than enough times.

We had house guests in November, when Justin's dad got evacuated from their home for a night due to a fire near his house. The Little Man turned 2 and Justin turned the big 3-0.

And, our Little Miss arrived in December. As far as labor and delivery's go, it was pretty smooth sailing -considering the options. She was healthy and beautiful, and was welcomed gladly by her parents and brother. Not to mention a lot of extended family who were all just too excited she was a little girl. Despite some time spent on lights for jaundice, she's been a great baby. A good eater and a good sleeper, everything a mom could ask for.



Bryan and Haley were married this month. I made it to the temple ceremony, but the Little Miss and I missed everything else. That's what happens when you have an 6 day old I suppose.


We lost my grandpa unexpectedly right before Christmas. I was blessed to be able to say goodbye and be with him when he died in the hospital. It's never easy to say goodbye to loved ones, and my heart aches for my grandma who has spent the last 55 years with her husband and now must learn to be on her own, but he's in a better place. Reunited with his daughter, parents, and countless others. I know he's continuing his work unhindered by the limitations his body and age imposed on him in the last few years.
And on Wednesday our family's life changed in ways that I don't think Justin and I can comprehend right now. Justin accepted his commission in the navy, and will begin his training as an Navy Reserve Supply Corps Officer. I don't expect a lot of things to change in the very near future, and we'll just have to see what the future will bring for Justin and our family.

It always amazes me what can happen in a year!

Merry Christmas to all

Once again we had a very busy Christmas season. I don't imagine that we'll ever have a calm and relaxing holiday, but I'm not sure I'd prefer that.

We missed a few of our holiday parties (a very tired mom, and a 2 year old needing a nap kept us home during Christmas Eve afternoon), but made it to most of them.

I ran a few errands (with both kids in tow) in the morning, and then we went to Justin's aunt and uncles Christmas Eve. We had a delicious dinner and a Bingo game where Justin came out $20 richer. I forgot to take pictures, but the Little Man loved playing with cousins, and we all had a really nice time.

Christmas morning was pretty fun. The Little Man got a balance bike. He's just about an inch too short still in the legs, but he'll be exactly the right size as soon as it warms up just a bit. He still really likes it, and he really got into opening presents. He would get really excited even before he knew what was in the box when he would unwrap gifts.

We went out to my aunts house for brunch, which is pretty much my favorite meal of the year. I think it has something to do with the scones and honey butter. Mmmm...

We opened a few presents (after they were all located) and headed home for naps after that. This year we also made it to the Hardcastle's for Christmas dinner. We haven't made it to that dinner since we've been married, and it was particularly nice to spend time with the family this weekend.

After dinner and visiting, my siblings and parents opened gifts. My mom, as always, was very thoughtful and the Little Man and the Little Miss got WAY too many gifts. And, as always, the cheap gag gifts that my mom finds was the biggest hit. Who knew that marshmallow's could leave welt marks when shot out of pvc pipe marshmallow guns.

We didn't make it to Justin's dad's house, so they came over on Sunday. The Little Man is in LOVE with all of his Thomas the Train stuff he got from his grandparents, I can hardly get him to eat and sleep anymore. We also went back to Justin's mom's house and had a few more gifts to open. We've been very blessed and a little spoiled this year for sure!
It was nice spending time with family, and the Little Miss was great during all of the festivities. But, having a boring day at home today has also been VERY nice!

Announcement

I've been meaning to mention this for a while now, but I keep forgetting.

After much discussion (and a few arguments) we're making our family blog private at the beginning of the year. Justin's been begging me make it private for a couple of years now. If we had been a bit smarter at the beginning we wouldn't have used our name in the address, but I don't think we thought about the privacy issue at the time.

For those of you that use Google Reader (and if you don't... why aren't you?) I'm going to keep this blog address and use it as a pre-blog. (Thanks for the idea Jodie.)

I'll post here when any of our three blogs is updated with a link, so you'll know when to check it. For me, that's the most annoying part of private blogs. I know it's a pain to log in... but I'm sure you'll get over it.

So... if you've been invited to the kids blogs (I'm still getting used to that term -kids) I'll add you (whether or not you're actually still following). And if not, send me you address in the comments -I won't post your email address. If you're a blog-lurker, and don't worry, I do it to plenty of other people, maybe just mention that to me, and we'll add you.

I really like being 'found' on the internet, and finding people that I haven't seen for a while or done a good job at keeping in contact with. But, I agree with Justin that with all of the teaching he's doing for universities... and his new adventure that starts on Wednesday, it's probably time that try and keep a little bit better control on the information that we allow on the internet.

That's our big announcement -I'm glad that none of you thought we might be announcing that I'm pregnant.

Grandpa Hardastle

My Grandpa Hardcastle passed away last night surrounded by his wife, his children, and a few of his grandchildren.

It happened rather quickly, which was probably a blessing. My grandma told the doctor, "We were married for 55 years, that's a long time. But not long enough."

Grandpa was a hard worker and obviously loved his family. When we were younger and would visit, my grandpa could often be seen playing Solitaire on the family room floor. I never understood how you could play a card game by yourself -and how you didn't cheat.

Another thing my grandma said last night at the hospital was, "He was a good man. He didn't say much, but he was a good man."

Justin and I had the pleasure of visiting my grandparents while they were serving a temple mission in London. We got to meet the man (one of many probably) who helped save my grandpa's life when he had a ruptured abdominal aneurysm. He never fully recovered, but continued to work and completed their mission. It was fun having dinner with just the two of them, doing s bit of sight seeing and working in the temple.

When I as at school at Utah State (the Agricultural School) my grandpa often asked me if I had milked any cows yet. I always told him no, but if they ever brought them on campus I'd give it a try. I remember him trying to get my younger sister to smell his feet, telling her they smelled like strawberries. I think she fell for it a couple of times too. He loved black licorice candy, told us that beef jerky would put hair on our chests, and his version of homemade pizza was saltine crackers and ketchup.

We love you grandpa.

Introducing...

Our Little Miss

And of course, the Little Man.

What a difference a week makes...

I honestly can't believe we were in the hospital a week ago. Right now (who knows when I'll be able to finish this post) I was just getting started into pretty hard labor.

Mostly things are going well. We were back into the doctors office every day since Saturday (we came home on Friday) checking her Bilirubin level (jaundice). It kept going up and on Monday it finally got to a number where the doctor ordered a light bed. She has to hang out on the bed (and a paddle for her front) as much as possible. I've been surprised at how well she's done. Her number went down 5 points after one night and part of a day, so I'm hoping after tomorrow's check, we'll be off the lights.

The Little Man is doing pretty good. We've noticed a difference, a little more emotional and he get's frustrated really easy, but overall I think he's okay. To be honest, I started noticing he was a bit more emotional and frustrated even before his little sister came along, so he might just be getting into the 'terrible two's' and adjusting to a sibling all at once.

I'm doing remarkably well. There was much less trauma on my part this time, and that has made a WORLD of difference in my recovery. I didn't feel this good until probably 8 weeks after delivering the Little Man. Still have issues breast feeding (think blisters, cracking, and last night, bleeding). It's not pretty. I'm not sure what to do, I've seen a lactation specialist, but her latch is good, so I'm hoping in another week or so that also might be on the mend. In the meantime, we're definitely supplementing with formula, but I'm hoping to not get too far behind in what she needs.

Justin has been back to work for the most part too. It's kind of nice having him work from home, but it's hard for him to actually be OFF of work. I've managed to shower every day (an amazing accomplishment in my opinion) and he's been helping out mostly with the Little Man when I'm tethered to his little sister and the beli-bed.