Forever

Thanksgiving

2012-01-18T12:02:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving this (last) year was great!

I only had a couple of pictures on my phone. I'm going to have to check my camera for some more. It was a fun filled week that we spent in Georgia. Our little family got there first so we were able to spend some quality time with Gigi and Papa Tom.

The biggest event of the week was my brother, Abe, getting home from his deployment in Iraq. Every day we heard something different about his arrival. We didn't know for sure until the night before. Tuesday night we were told that he would get home Wednesday night. So exciting! The kids made signs to bring. It was so neat to be able to be there. Abe was featured on two different news channels. (There is a link to one of the videos on my facebook page).

The great thing about this Thanksgiving is that we were all there. My parents and all of their five kids and 12(?) grandchildren. It was so much fun. There were so many of us that we had to set up tables in the garage for us to all be able to eat together.

It was such a fun week. One of the highlights for Harper is pictured below. Here in Arkansas, Harper is kind of surrounded by boys. Most of the kids her age in our ward are boys. She does have a couple of little girl pals, but it is definitely mostly boys. She was LOVING being around all of her girl cousins. They formed a Girls' Club. Below are photos of their little handshake/cheer. They would put their hands together in a circle and say "1-2-3...GIRLS' CLUB!!!" Precious!

Camel?

2012-01-17T13:25:00.000-08:00

This post has nothing to do with a camel. It has to do with what Harper calls a camel.

One day Harper and Ryan made a fort while I was gone. I came home to this.

I guess Harper called it a camel because it looked like it had humps. Not really sure. She calls them forts now.

Boo!

2012-01-09T11:52:00.000-08:00

I'm way behind. Here's the Halloween post.

Halloween is so much fun for us! Our kids got to dress us three times this year. The first time was for trick-or-treating at Ryan's office. (Yet another reason for us to love Walmart). The second time was for the church trunk-or-treating. And the third time was for actual trick-or-treating around the neighborhood.

**I have to put a disclaimer on here. Harper picked out her costume. She has a new fascination with Ariel/The Little Mermaid. She wanted to dress up as Ariel for Halloween. I looked at patterns to make her a costume and it was a little too advanced for me. When we took her out to get a costume. She picked this dress out. It doesn't resemble anything that Ariel ever wears. It just has a picture of her on the dress. It was good enough for Harper.

The first two pictures were taken before trick-or-treating at Ryan's office. So cute. Rigs was a lion. Same costume as last year. Don't judge.

The next two pictures were taken either before or after trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. We did trick-or-treating with some friends and then had them over and had yummy soup. The second pictures is of all of our kids. Finn is the tortoise and Myma is the hare. How cute is that?!

New Year

2012-01-02T20:48:00.000-08:00

Oh, I just love the feeling of a new year. I am a big goal setter. (That doesn't mean that I'm a big goal achiever, but let's just go with it). I love what a new year brings with it. New calendars, new goals, new everything. I've heard people say that they don't like to set new year resolutions because they know they won't stick with them and they're just setting themselves up for failure.

I disagree.

I love the feeling of goals.

I think I'm that way because of my parents. I have a memory of waking up very, very early one New Year's Day (was it New Year's day, family?) and going with my parents, brothers and sister to our church building. We went to the high council room, which is just like a conference room with a big long table and white erase boards. My dad sat us all down and told us that we were going to write out our family mission plan. None of us except for my parents were very enthusiastic about it, but we did it. We also always had a special new year family home evening where we wrote out all of our new year resolutions. It's good stuff that goal setting business!

I have a few resolutions for myself this year. I'm not going to put all of them specifically on here. Maybe I will at the end of the year and I'll let you know which ones I accomplished. You can probably tell that blogging more often is one of them. I wrote down how frequently I want to blog and hopefully I'll be able to stick to it!

Wish me luck!

I have a few family happenings to catch up on so be looking for those. In the meantime, here's a cute picture of the little ones.

Thankful Catch Up

2011-11-15T11:39:00.001-08:00

I'm totally behind on this thankfulness thing. Sorry!!! Here goes...

#5 - I'm thankful for modern medicine. I'm pretty sure that Rigley wouldn't be here if it weren't for the doctors, nurses, surgeries and medications that have helped him so much. There are definitely pros and cons to it. Today I put a check in the mail to pay off the medical bill from when Rigs had to stay overnight at the hospital when he was four days old. It's expensive and things don't always go right, but I am very thankful for it!

#6 - My bed. Ryan and I got a new king size bed back in April. Before this bed we were sleeping on a full size bed. It was a fairly comfortable bed, just so small. Now on our new bed I can hardly even reach Ryan sometimes. And it is oh so comfy! I just love it so much!

#7 - Walmart/Bentonville - Ryan has been blessed with a great job at Walmart. And thanks to Walmart (mostly) Bentonville is a pretty cool town. We really love it here! We have made some awesome friends and had some really great times.

#8 - Book Group - I have recently become in charge of our book group and it is such a great group. The books are always great and even if I haven't read the book I can still go and have a good time! Any good suggestions for us to read?

#9 - My Parents - They are seriously the best! They are such great examples to me of how I should live my life. They are very good at being self sufficient. They have a garden, exercise regularly,, compost have tons of food storage, and the list goes on. I really look up to them a lot!

#10 - Ryan's Parents - They sure did a good job at raising Ryan. They are amazing people. They are always thinking of and serving others. And they're coming to see us for Christmas! Yay!

#11 - I would have written this on Veteran's Day. I'm thankful for Veterans. Namely my Dad, Grandpa, brothers Zach and Abe, Uncles Dick, Jim and Russ, my cousin Tucker and Ryan's Grandpas Bob and Johnny. My brother, Abe, will be getting home from Iraq in the next week or so (hopefully). It really helps me appreciate it a little bit more when I have servicemen in my family. Thank you!

#12 - My job(s) - Being a stay-at-home mama is (in my humble opinion) one of the most difficult but most rewarding jobs a person can have. It is such a joy to be with my kids and teach them and learn from them. Also, I have been put on the schedule to teach at a gym. I can't wait to start teaching classes. It's going to be a great experience!

#13 - Good friends - I mentioned that we have made some great friends here. I really love my friends here! I'm also grateful for long time friends. I talked to an old roommate on gmail chat yesterday. I like the friendships that remain no matter how long you go without talking. They're nice to have.

#14 - Cars - We are lucky to have two cars. I am able to go to the gym or library or go grocery shopping during the day. I really admire people who can figure out how to make it work with just one car. I also like that cars can take us places far away. We'll be driving to Georgia in a couple of days for Thanksgiving and I'm thankful that we have a car that can get us there!

#15 - Hair - This may sound silly but I am really thankful for hair. Particularly mine (and Harper's). I know a lot of people who have hair that they don't love. Harper and I are complimented on our hair probably 95% of the time that we go out in public. And let me tell you, it never gets old! It always brightens my day when we get a hair compliment. I'm not the best at styling my hair or doing cute hair-dos but I have great color, it's thick and it grows fast. I really am luck to have good hair.

Toyland

2011-11-13T12:47:00.001-08:00

Our Toyland First Friday this year was so much fun!

They had life size models of Lightning McQueen, Mater and Finn McMissile.

Harper got to ride a pony.

And Rigs got to watch.

We enjoyed the evening by getting all kinds of fun samples and seeing a bunch of fun characters!

Dr. Crentist

2011-11-13T12:37:00.001-08:00

"Your dentist's name is Crentist? That sounds a lot like dentist."

"Maybe that's why he became a dentist."

Harper's dentist's name isn't Crentist. I just love that quote from 'The Office." Harper's dentist's name is Dr. Caple and he is great! Harper had her first dentist appointment and she did such a great job! It really helps that they have a waiting room full of fun stuff: TV, train table, video games, etc. Also, they have TVs above each chair. When Harper was called back the dentist came and said hi and showed her what he was going to do on a stuffed frog. It was so cute! They cleaned her teeth and gave her a fluoride treatment. She doesn't have any cavities. Yay! The dentist said that the spaces in her teeth are a good thing. It will help with cavity prevention and when her permanent teeth come in. Here are some pictures.

Thankful

2011-11-04T13:05:00.000-07:00

I have a friend who is writing a daily post on her blog about what she is thankful for each day. I also know of people who are doing this on facebook. I figured I'd jump right in. I know some people might think this is silly or cliche (like my big brother, Zach) but I always feel like Thanksgiving is a little overshadowed by Christmas and this will be a good way to focus on and remember Thanksgiving. Since today is November 4th, I'll write four things I'm thankful for.

#1- Ryan. Man oh man, do I ever love him! We are getting ready to celebrate our fifth anniversary this month and I am so excited. I have these moments sometimes when I look around myself and think about how lucky I am to be living so comfortably in a home with two kids and it wouldn't have happened if it weren't for my hard-working husband. He works so hard for us and does so much for us while also keeping up with his church calling and making time to have fun with the kids and me. Such a great man!

#2- Harper. She is like a little sour patch kid. She does have her sour moments but she is such a sweet little girl.. I remember being pregnant with Rigs and worrying about how she would respond to him. There was almost no jealousy. She loved him so much! She is such a good helper and she is so smart. It is crazy for me to think that she is three years old. She is my little angel and I am so grateful to have her.

#3- Rigley. Our little miracle baby. This little boy is our happy, fun, flexible, strong, super-kid. He is at such a fun age right now. And oh my goodness does this kids love sports. It is definitely in his blood. Have you met my husband? If he sees sports on TV or anything that is remotely round (i.e. pumpkins, apples, etc.) he immediately points and says "BALL." He has quite an arm. His favorite thing to do is play catch/roll. The relationship that he has with his sister is precious. Harper is by far his favorite person. Love that little boy.

#4- First Fridays. Our town does something called First Friday the first Friday of each month. It takes place at the Bentonville square. Today is the last one of the year and it is the Toyland First Friday. A whole bunch of Walmart suppliers come and give a fun preview of what the hot toys are for the year. It's perfect timing with Christmas coming up. There are always fun vendors and shops and music and yummy food and fun stuff for the kids. We love First Friday!

Typical Tuesday

2011-10-25T05:10:00.000-07:00

Recently I met the friend of a friend. She and her sweet family moved to the area not too long ago. Her name is Rachel and she's pretty cool. I was looking at her blog and she does these really cool posts called 'Typical Tuesday.' She has people come and guest post on her blog and write a post about what a typical Tuesday would be like in their lives.

I LOVE that idea!

I am going to start doing the same thing here. I am so excited!

First, I'm going to share with you a typical Tuesday with our family.

Our Typical Tuesday:

Mornings start pretty early around here. First with Ryan getting up most days around 5:30 to get ready for work. After he wakes up, I try to fall asleep as fast as I can because Harper's average wake up time is between 6:00 and 6:30. Our nights are still a little unpredictable with at least one kid waking up at least once or twice. So, when Harper wakes up we go to the living room and it looks like this:

Yes, it's still dark outside. She comes out with her blanket (Nee-Nee), pillow-pet and a stuffed animal/doll. I get her a cup of milk and we watch cartoons for a little while. She usually only watches one or two shows. Usually Martha Speaks and Curious George. After those she's awake enough for breakfast and playing. (This is starting to change. I have started to take her straight to the kitchen where we have breakfast and only after she eats her whole breakfast is she allowed to watch anything. We've done this for 2 days now and it's working well).
This morning her breakfast was strawberry applesauce.

My breakfast is usually cereal. Sometimes I'll treat myself to a breakfast that would have syrup involved, but that would be a Special Tuesday not a typical one. This is my most recent favorite cereal.

The other kid in the house, Rigley, wakes up around 8ish. It really varies every morning depending on how his night was. Yes, he is almost 16 months old and yes he still has rough nights. They have been getting much better lately (thank you, ear tubes). He wakes up and has yogurt for breakfast (sorry no picture). After breakfast we get ready for the day. Harper has Joy School on Mondays and Wednesdays so on our off days I try to take the kids to a park. The night before this particular Tuesday was rainy so a park was out of the question. Too wet. So we went out and ran some errands and then headed to Chick-Fil-A. Oh, how we LOVE that place! The kids usually share some nuggets, fries and fruit. My favorite thing to get is the soup. Especially since the weather is starting to get cooler.

The picture of them playing is so cute. I took it through the glass. I love the look on Rigley's face. He loves playing with his big sister. After lunch and playing we head home for some naps. I did a little bit of laundry while they napped and then I took a short nap myself. After the kids wake up from their naps they usually have snacks and we just play. I also try to get a few more things done and get dinner ready. I worked on making a Halloween banner.

It turned out really cute. I'll have to share the final project, huh? Then Daddy comes home! One of our favorite times of the day! He plays with the kids while I finish up dinner and then we eat. Dinner on this Tuesday was Chicken Noodle Soup (I'm in a dinner swap where me and four other women swap dinners every week. Meaning, on Mondays we make four families worth of dinner and swap them with each other. Then we only have to cook once or twice a week. It's great!). After dinner there is a little bit more playing.

Then we read scriptures and have family prayer. Ryan usually puts the little boy to bed and I put the little girl to bed. After the kids are asleep out evenings sometimes look like this.

For some reason this picture won't rotate. Sorry.

We just like to relax on the couch and watch some of our shows. On Tuesdays we usually watch 'The Sing Off' that was recorded on Monday. After that it's bedtime. Goodnight.

So that is a typical Tuesday for us. If you're interested in sharing a typical Tuesday here, let me know. Or don't, I'll probably email you and ask you to anyway.

Stay Tuned

2011-10-24T11:23:00.000-07:00

This post is to tell you all to check back here tomorrow for a post that will introduce a new thing that's going to be happening regularly around here. I'm pretty excited about it!

My silly children.

Goldilocks

2011-10-10T10:37:00.000-07:00

Our sweet little boy has beautiful hair. He is a blond through and through. Some might call him a toe head. We do. It is so blond and so cute! This summer it was especially cute because it was a little curly. Especially in the back. He had the beginnings of a little curly mullet. Which is totally acceptable here in Arkansas. Well now that the humidity is almost gone so are the curls. It was becoming just wispy in the back and straight up top. It was so long that it would get in his eyes and while it was still so cute it was starting to get a little out of hand. Ryan has been saying that Rigs needed a hair cut for a few months now. I have been resisting and resisting. People always commented on how cute his curly, blond hair is. Well, when your son is mistaken for a girl three times in one week, it's time.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you: The First Hair Cut!

The before:

The during:

Can you see my tears mixed in with the hair?

The after:

So handsome!

It was a team effort. Ryan did some and I did some. We used both clippers and scissors. I feel like we did a pretty decent job. It's really hard to get a 15 month old to keep his head still. The haircut makes him look so much older. Everyone has commented on how handsome he looks. I totally agree with them!

Mommy's Little Helper

2011-10-09T20:21:00.000-07:00

While Harper is at Joy School, I do my best to get some things done around the house. The other day I was working on some laundry and Rigs decided he wanted to help me out.

He climbed right on in and got real cozy with the nice warm clothes. Would you look at that face? It's melting your heart isn't it? It melts mine every day!

If you look closely in the picture you can get a feel of his sweet, luscious little curls. Well, enjoy them because they are all gone now. Stay tuned for a post about that.

When did this happen?

2011-09-30T12:04:00.000-07:00

Time just needs to slow down.

I remember the first day we brought her home from the hospital. My mom was with us and we walked in the door and she said that she would watch Harper for us while Ryan and I took a nap. We agreed and went upstairs to sleep. I think we napped for a couple of hours. I came down the stairs so anxious to see her. My mom asked us how our nap was. I said, "Fine, but I missed her." I was crying. I missed my little angel baby.

It blows me away how fast they grow up. I hope that I can always remember and cherish moments that are so dear with my little ones. How I love them so much!

I got RIPPED

2011-09-24T19:16:00.000-07:00

About 6 months ago I started taking a group fitness class called RIPPED. I immediately got hooked to the class. It is such a great workout. About a month and a half after taking the class, my gym advertised that they were going to have an instructor training for RIPPED. I knew I wanted to do it. After being postponed a couple of times because of low registration numbers it finally happened today. It was an all day long training class: 9 am to 5 pm. We did two (that's 2) full 50 minute classes and the rest was lecture and practice. It was exhausting but awesome! The master trainer that taught the class puts the Energizer Bunny to shame. She was amazing!


Sorry it's kind of weird my phone is a little slow at taking pictures.

I can't wait to start teaching! Wooo!

Kansas City

2011-09-23T05:19:00.000-07:00

Playing a little catch up.

A little while ago, I want to say in May, we met up with Ryan's parents in Kansas City for a fun weekend. We got connecting hotel rooms, which Harper loved. It was a packed weekend. I can't remember the order that we did everything, but here's some pictures of the highlights of our trip.

At the Kansas City Royals game. This is one of the rare happy moments for Rigs. He did not like all of the noise and cheering.

The red heads at the zoo.

Rigs and the grandparents.

This hippo was so cool. You can see the top of the railing at the bottom of the picture. He swam right up to us. The kids loved it!

While we were at the zoo it started raining. It didn't ever come down super hard so we just stuck it out. This is at the end of our zoo visit and we were all pretty wet.

Liberty Jail.

Kansas City Temple. This might be our new temple.

We did see a couple other church history sites and the Community of Christ temple. We are so glad that Ryan's parents drove down and met up with us. It was a really fun weekend!

Up and At 'Em

2011-09-22T05:49:00.000-07:00

We have a really early riser in our house. Well, I guess we have two including Ryan who wakes up early for work. The other early riser is this little princess...

Her average wake up time is 6:30 am. It is a good morning if she sleeps in past 6:30. It's still usually a good morning when she wakes up early. I just obviously get a little more sleep when she sleeps in. I have a goal to try to wake up before the kids and have some personal time. It has only happened a handful of times but it's really nice when I do give myself that time.

I know this won't last forever and I have a feeling that I will wish she would wake up early when she's older and in school.

Productive Day

2011-09-03T19:44:00.000-07:00

Don't you just love it when you have a productive day?

Today was a productive one. I don't mean just a generally productive day. Like the kind where the house is clean and tidy at the end of the day (because mine isn't right now). I'm talking about the kind where you are able to cross something off of your long list of projects that need to be done around the house.

I finally painted the ceiling in our guest/play room. The ceiling is vaulted in that room and the task was just a little daunting. I told myself that I was going to do it today, and I did it. Thanks to my husband who kept Rigley out of the room and away from the paint. I think he was okay with it because he got to watch college football. He also would come in and help me by holding the ladder so that I could stand at the very top platform and reach the crevices of the twelve foot ceiling.

This means I only have four more ceilings to paint (master bedroom, master bathroom, laundry room and garage). I like my ceilings to be white. I also need to paint the walls in all of those areas and also the guest/play room. Maybe I'll get it all done before the holidays. We'll see.

*I am so sad that I have been absent from my blog for so long. Because of a recent experience that I have had, I am going to try to take some of the time and energy that I put into facebook and put it into the blog. Don't get me wrong, I love facebook. I will still be on there, just not as much.

Here's to blogging!!!

Rigley is One!

2011-06-28T05:54:00.000-07:00

I thought that Rigley's birthday was worthy of a blog post.

Sometimes I can't believe that he is already one. Other times I look at him and think, "You should be twenty. You have had so much happen in your life. It is enough to fill 20 years."

He is such a great baby! So content (mostly). So happy and smiley. It is so easy to get him to smile and laugh. Especially for Harper. She is by far his most favorite person in the world. And she knows it! He still doesn't have any teeth and he isn't walking (or crawling for that matter). He rolls to get around. It isn't your typical rolling. He is really fast and he can pivot around to steer himself. Lately he has also perfected the "Army scoot." If he has something in front of him that he wants and he knows he can't roll to get it, he can just scoot himself forward to get it. His best trick is the way he gets from sitting up to laying down. Most kids use their hands and kind of lay down to the side. Not Rigs. He just leans forward and does the splits all the way around. The kid is seriously flexible. I have a video. I'll try to remember to post it.

I was thinking the other night about how our lives would be so different if we didn't have him in our lives. Having him in our family and everything that we have experienced has been incredible. Every aspect of our lives is different because of Rigley. Spiritually, physically, financially....... We sure love this kid!

Oh, another cool trick he can do is flip his tongue over. As you can see in the picture.

Little Rock, Our new home and the PICU

2011-03-14T14:54:00.000-07:00

I took Harper home and put her back to bed. I started packing a bag with things for Ryan and me in Little Rock. I also packed a bag for Harper for a couple of days. I went to bed and actually fell asleep. I probably got about 2 or 3 hours of sleep.

Sunday morning I woke up early and finished packing the bags. Once it was a decent hour, I called a family in our branch, The Grovers to ask them if they would be able to take Harper. They said yes. I woke Harper up, fed her breakfast and got her ready for church so that she could go with the Grovers. When I dropped her off, Dan (Grover) told me that Arkansas Childrens Hospital was one of the top childrens hospitals in the nation. That was very comforting to hear. It was so difficult for me to leave Harper, but the Grovers have four young children so I knew she would have a great time. I got in the car and made my way to Little Rock.

The drive to Little Rock is about 3 1/2 hours. It was the longest drive of my life! A lot of tears. I know that I must have had angels driving with me because I wanted to drive 90 mph (I never did) and I saw 3 or 4 police cars driving down but I never got pulled over. When I got to the hospital I went straight to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) to see Rigley. When I got there he was coming back from a CT scan. He was accompanied by Ryan and three nurses. He was so swollen. The swelling was caused by a couple of things. They were obviously giving him a lot of medication and fluids to keep him hydrated. Also, at this point he was in Septic shock also known as Sepsis. One of the symptoms of Sepsis is that he had blood and other fluids leaking out of his vessels into his body cavity and other tissues. When my mom first saw him she said that he looked like a miniature sumo wrestler. He really did. At his most swollen he weighed 25 pounds. His eyes were swollen shut, his hands were swollen into fists and his ears were so swollen that they curved forward. His head, legs and arms were massive!

The doctors thought that because he was so sick that it may have been meningitis. In order to test for that they would have needed to do a spinal tap but he was too sick and unstable to do that. He just kept getting sicker and sicker. His heart rate was over 200 for a couple of days.

On Monday there was no progress. Ryan's parents arrived Sunday night and drove down to Little Rock with Ryan on Monday. At this point the doctors were assuming that it was a Staph infection. Because he was so swollen they gave him a diuretic to get him to pee and release fluids. There was so much pressure on his kidneys from the swelling that he couldn't pee on his own very well (we learned later the real cause of the not peeing problem). Ryan and his parents stayed at a hotel and I stayed at the hospital. My mom got to Little Rock late Monday night.

On Tuesday the diuretics were helping but only for a little while. A team of surgeons came to observe him and they decided to perform surgery. The swelling was causing so much pressure on his internal organs (lungs, heart, kidneys, liver) that they weren't able to function. They made an incision about 4 inches long right above his belly button and put a small bag (silo) into it. The extra fluid and his intestines were able to go into the bag to help relieve some pressure. So, yes, I could see his intestines coming out of his body, although they were nice and safe in the bag.

He turned one month old on Wednesday. I went to the gift shop with my mom and got him a little gift of big rig trucks because of his nickname. He was urinating well and the swelling was starting to go down. They put in a central IV line to monitor his blood pressure which was good. That night, the attending doctor in the PICU told me that if he hadn't had that surgery that he would have died. He also said that he was still very sick and he could still die. He told us to be prepared to be there for a while.

On Thursday the days started running together. I started to forget what day it was. There was progress but it was very slow. At this point the doctors and nurses were just making sure that his fluids were staying balanced..

On Friday my mom went up to Bentonville to be with Harper so that Ryan's parents could come back down to Little Rock. He was switched back to a regular ventilator from and oscillator (breathing machines). The oscillator was a breathing machine that would keep his lungs full of air and just give him really small breaths. Going from the oscillator to the ventilator was a step up! Also, Friday night he opened his eyes! We hadn't seen is eyes since Saturday. It was still hard for him to open them because he was still really swollen but he could open them for a few seconds at a time.

Saturday was good. Rigley was doing fine. My dad and brother Ezra drove to Little Rock from Georgia to surprise me. They got to Little Rock late Friday and came to the hospital Saturday morning. They brought us a big bag full of goodies. They stayed and visited for a few hours had lunch with us and drove back to Georgia. It was just what I needed!

Sunday morning Ryan's dad went back to Utah. The surgeons came to see Rigley and scheduled him to be closed up on Monday (tentatively). They said that if he was able to get a little less help from the ventilator then they would be able to close him. Ryan and his mom went back up to Bentonville to be with Harper and my mom came down to Little Rock.

The surgery didn't happen on Monday. The nurses started to wean him off of the ventilator to get him ready for surgery. We got an awesome package from my sister. It had all kinds of art to decorate his room with from his cousins. She also made a prayer wall. It had everyone's names on it that was praying for Rigley (I'm sure not everyone. Mostly family and our branch family and stuff).

Tuesday was close up day! The surgery went well. He had a few other tests done to rule out some issues and syndromes.

Wednesday things were still going well. He was able to be weaned off of the ventilator a little bit more. They did an ultrasound to check his kidneys. They also took out his catheter and took him off of one of his antibiotics.

That is all that I have documented really well in my journal. The rest of his stay in the PICU was pretty good. We learned that his kidneys were really sick. He had to have a surgery to drain an abscess on one of his kidneys. He had his breathing tube taken out and was put on oxygen.

Ryan's bosses at work were kind enough to let him stay in Little Rock the whole time that Rigley was in intensive care. After three and a half weeks in the PICU, Rigley was moved to the Infant/Toddler Unit (ITU).

Ryan's mom was amazing and stayed in Bentonville with Harper all of this time and a little bit more, she did go back to Utah to be with Ryan's dad. My mom was able to come back to Arkansas and be with Harper as well.

So that was his stay in the PICU. I will do my best to write another post soon to tell you about the rest of his stay at the hospital. I will also try to update this post with a few pictures soon.

Dear Blog...

2011-02-18T11:34:00.000-08:00

Remember me? The girl who created you and so lovingly updated you?

I know, we've had our ups and downs. Recently it's all just been down, right? I have lofty aspirations for us. You, for one, are going to look amazing! I'm going to give you an awesome name, too. Once that's done, oh the things we will do. I'll write words like her and be witty like her and be cool like her.

I'll do all of that and still be domestic like her and her and her.

While doing these things I'll still take care of my husband and kids and myself.

Hang in there, Blog. It will happen soon.....eventually... Right?

Love,
Abby

Emergency Room

2010-11-17T13:27:00.000-08:00

It all started Saturday July 24. Early that morning and during the night Rigley hadn't been eating very well. I checked his temperature and he had a fever. It also seemed like he was having a hard time breathing. He was grunting every time he would take a breath. Ryan was gone the majority of the day with a softball tournament and helping someone move. That afternoon I took his temperature again and his fever had gone down so I thought he was getting better even though he still wasn't eating. Our stake had a Pioneer Day activity that evening and we made the decision to go. We only stayed long enough to eat and let Harper play for a little while. We came home and I tried feeding him again but he still didn't eat. I put Harper to bed while Ryan held him. After I put Harper to bed I did some things around the house. I went into the living room where Ryan and Rigley were to check on him and his look had completely changed. His skin was gray and his lips and the area around his eyes were purple. He looked exhausted and so weak. I told Ryan that I felt like we needed to take him to the emergency room. We got Harper and went to the ER at the closest hospital (not where he was delivered or admitted the first time). We got to the hospital around 10 pm. Since he was so young they saw him right away. They brought us back and weighed him. The ER doctor came in to see him and after just looking at him, the doctor knew that he was very sick. The doctor said, "We have a really sick baby." He told the nurse to move us to a different room and he ran out. We got to the other room and I sat on the bed. I had been holding him the whole time. They drew blood. After they drew the blood they told me that I was going to have to put him down because they needed to intubate him (give him a breathing tube to help him breathe). That was the last time I held him for two and a half weeks. I went and sat on a chair in the corner of the room where Ryan and Harper were and I just held Harper in my lap. At this point there were seven people working on him: the ER doctor, the pediatric doctor, and five nurses and techs. We couldn't see him because there were so many people standing around the bed. They started giving him antibiotics through an IV that they inserted into both of his shin bones so that the medicine could get into his system faster. After they did that the pediatric doctor came over to explain what they were doing. She also told us that they called Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock and that there was a helicopter on its way to pick him up. Ryan and I just looked at each other in disbelief. Oh the tears that were shed. The doctors did their best to give us an explanation but they told us that he really needed to get to Little Rock because they could take better care of him there. Then they were just killing time and keeping him alive until the helicopter got there. We made the decision to have Ryan fly with him and I would take Harper home. There was one doctor and two nurses on the helicopter along with the pilot. The nurses came in to the room and took charge. They got him ready and put him into a clear plastic box. It reminded me of the little incubators that premature babies get put into. Before they left, one of the nurses asked me if I wanted to give him a kiss. I got up on my toes, reached into the little hole and gave his tiny, little hand a kiss. They all walked out and got onto the helicopter. I walked out to the car with Harper and we watched the helicopter take off. I remember thinking that I wished it was my brother flying the helicopter. Watching it fly away was probably the hardest thing I have ever had to do.

The helicopter he was flown in. It's called Angel One.


The helicopter crew gave him this.

*I did my best to keep a journal during all of this. That is where I'm referring to for these posts.

Halloween 2010 part 2

2010-11-16T13:03:00.000-08:00

Halloween weekend was also Rigley's blessing weekend so we were lucky enough to have some family come and visit. Saturday morning we went to a corn maze that is in the shape of a Razorback. It was a lot of fun. There was also a corn cob cannon, some bounce houses, a petting area and a cow train.

Saturday night we had our branch activity. There was a chili cook-off, some fun Halloween activities and of course trunk-or-treating. I didn't sign up to bring chili to the activity, but since we were bringing 15 extra people that our branch activities committee didn't plan on, we decided to bring some chili. I actually won an award. It is called the "Everything but the Kitchen Sink" award for "the chili with seemingly the most ingredients." I actually got a kitchen sink faucet as an award. I am seriously considering framing the certificate and putting it on display with the faucet in my kitchen.


This is the only picture I have from the Branch activity.

All of the cousins that were here for the weekend.

Ryan blessed Rigley on Sunday. It was a beautiful blessing and we were so lucky to be able to share it with some family and our wonderful branch who became extended family to us while Rigley was in the hospital.

The kids climbing on our fence. I just thought this was really cute.

Our sweet little family.

Happy (late) Halloween!

Halloween 2010 part 1

2010-11-11T12:38:00.000-08:00

I had this thought in my mind that I would get all of Rigley's story written out first and then I would go back and fill in the stuff I left out. I realize now that that is a pretty silly idea. The story will get written out in due time, but I think I need to give myself a break from writing it out or else my brain would explode and I would probably become dehydrated from crying so much.

Halloween this year was awesome! The first thing we did was carve pumpkins at our friends, the Redder's house one week for Family Home Evening. We brought two pumpkins and Ryan and I each carved one. Harper just had fun playing with her friends, Jake and Ben.


The finished product. All of the pumpkins that were carved that night. I carved the owl and Ryan did the ghosts.

One of the cool things about Ryan working for Walmart is getting to go trick-or-treating at his building. The Friday before Halloween, they let the associates leave at 3 pm to go home and pick their kids up and bring them back to trick-or-treat around the office.

Ryan's parents supplied the costumes for this year. Ryan's mom made Harper's costume. She was Glenda the Good Witch from The Wizard of Oz. Half the time she would call herself "Nice witch" and the other half she was just a princess. Rigley was the Lion. They were so cute. I love dressing up for Halloween too. It would have been fun for Ryan and me to dress up and try to complete the cast from The Wizard of Oz, but I didn't get around to it. Maybe next year.

This was the best picture I could get at the office.


You can sort of see Rigley's costume in this one.	You can also see some office decorations.

*Stay tuned to see what else we did this fun Halloween weekend.

First Hospital Stay

2010-11-04T13:03:00.000-07:00

After Rigley was born, we stayed a day at the hospital and brought him home. A couple of days after we had been home I noticed that he was warm during the night. That morning he still felt hot so I took his temperature. It was over 102 degrees. (It may have even been 103. I can't remember the specific temp). My mom was in town and she told me to call and get an appointment to see the doctor as soon as I could. I did just that. We loaded up the kids in the car and got to the doctor. The nurse took his temperature and confirmed the temperature that I got. I was still hoping that maybe I was wrong, even though I took his temperature at least 3 times at home. When the doctor came in he said that he didn't like the way things looked and that he wanted to admit Rigley to the hospital. I was blown away! I had no idea that was coming. I looked at my mom and she said, "I was afraid of that." The doctor left the room and I immediately started crying. All I could think about was how fragile he was. He was only 3 days old. I called Ryan and told him what was going on and he said that he was going to try to find someone at work who could come with him and give Rigley a blessing.

Rigley was admitted and they took him to do some tests. They brought him back and a nurse came to draw some blood. That was not fun. They had to poke him a few times and he had the bruises on his hands for weeks. Ryan got to the hospital with our friend Russell Boyle and they were able to give Rigley a blessing. As they were giving him the blessing I felt the comfort of the Spirit. My nerves were calmed (for the time) and I knew that he was going to heal. After the blessing my mom took Harper home and they took Rigley away again. When they brought him back it was one of the worst things I had ever seen (up to that point in his and my life). He was very dehydrated so he needed an IV for fluids and medication. They put the IV in his head. Apparently it is common for babies to have IVs in their heads, but I had never seen it before and it was horrible.

The big lump under that hat is the IV.

After they took the IV out. He was exhausted. The bandage on his hand is from where they drew blood.

After the fluids got into his system his fever immediately started to go down. The doctor decided to give him two doses of general antibiotics in case of an infection. Even though the blood and urine cultures didn't grow one. The doctor discussed a few possibilities like and ear infection or meningitis. But once he received the fluids and antibiotics he got better so fast. His fever stayed down and he was just acting better. After the antibiotic doses, they let us go. If I remember right, he was admitted the morning of Friday July 2nd and he was discharged the evening of Saturday July 3rd.

Looking back there seems to be no connection between his first hospital stay and the second time he got sick and had to go to Little Rock. No bacteria grew from the blood and urine cultures that were drawn at the hospital.

*This was a tough one to write. I guess it's about to get a lot harder.

Rigley's Birth Story

2010-10-18T12:24:00.000-07:00

While this blog is still under construction I figured that I might as well get started on writing out the story of Rigley's life so far. It will take me a number of posts to get it all on here, so please be patient with me.

I will start with the story of his birth. (This is the first time I am writing this down so some of the details are a little bit foggy).

It started very early Monday June 28th (the due date). I woke up around 4:45 am to my first contraction. I wasn't sure that that was what it was at first because it wasn't very strong and I didn't have another one for a while after that. I let Ryan know what I thought was going on without sounding too serious. (Harper was a week late and I had to be induced). I was not expecting to start laboring on my own and on time. My contractions continued to come every 15 - 20 minutes or so. They weren't very strong, I was still able to walk through them. I couldn't sleep so I decided to take a shower just in case I really was in labor. After my shower my contractions started getting stronger and they were coming closer together. Ryan asked me if he needed to stay home. He had some reports that needed to be done before his boss's meeting that morning or something. I sent him to work and told him to come home once he had the reports turned in. Of course once he left, my contractions started becoming more regular and a little bit stronger. They still weren't close enough for me to feel like I needed to go to the hospital and I wanted to try to labor at home for a good amount before going to the hospital. Harper woke up around 7:00, I think. I got her some breakfast and turned on some cartoons for her while I finished packing the hospital bag. At this point, my contractions were coming about 5 - 10 minutes apart. I called our friends who were going to take Harper for us and I wasn't able to get a hold of them. (They had just gotten back from a vacation late the night before and they were still sleeping). I waited a little while before calling our neighbors. They are in our branch and have two little boys, one who is Harper's age. When I called, I told her that I was in labor and asked her if she could take Harper for us. She was so sweet and said that she would love to. During the phone call I had a contraction and she talked me through it. (Thanks, Dana!) After hanging up with her I called Ryan and he was on his way home. I finished getting Harper ready and we waited for Ryan. While we waited Harper was so concerned for me when I would have a contraction. I did my best to smile through them and hold her and hug her while I was having one. It actually helped to do that with her. Ryan got home and walked Harper over to our neighbors while I put the bag in the car. It is about a 10 minute drive to the hospital. I called my mom while we were driving and had two contractions when I was on the phone with her.

When we got there Ryan suggested dropping me off but I told him to just park and that I was fine to walk. I did walk most of the way, but we had to stop every four of five steps for me to breathe through a contraction. Once we got close enough someone went in to get a wheel chair for me. We didn't have to stop to check in since everyone could see that I was in labor. They just let us go right up to the labor and delivery floor. I think this was around 8:30 am. We got there and I got changed and hooked up to all of the monitors. The nurse tried to check me but she wasn't able to see how much I had dilated. She called in another nurse (Katherine, I think) who checked me (ouch) and if I remember right she said that I was a 3 or 4. I wanted to try to do all of this without an epidural and I was doing fine for a while and then the back labor started. OH. MY. GOODNESS. If you are a woman who has delivered a baby with back labor and no epidural, I applaud you! It was the most excruciating pain I have ever felt. I was literally writhing in pain. I didn't have time in between the contractions to relax partly because they were coming so fast and partly because I was anticipating the next contraction. There were times when I would scream and yell. I did my very best to go as long as I could without the epidural, but once I started biting the pillow I figured that I had made enough of a fool out of myself that it was time. I looked at Ryan with pleading eyes and told him that I wanted the medicine. He was so encouraging and told me that I was doing great and he had all the faith in the world that I could do it. I tried going a little bit longer but it didn't last. I asked for the medicine again. Katherine, the nurse, checked me again. I think I was around a 6. She called down to anesthesiology and requested to have them come up. I think this was around 10:45 am. They told the nurse that it would be about 15 minutes. She told them she hoped I wasn't complete before they got there. That's how intense it was. Needless to say, it didn't take 15 minutes. They got there and gave me the epidural. Everything went fine. It was the perfect epidural because I wasn't in any pain but I could still feel when I was having a contraction. When I was in labor with Harper the epidural was so strong that I couldn't feel any contractions and I couldn't feel when I needed to push. After about an hour of resting the nurse checked me and I was almost to a 10. She called the doctor and let him know. I think he arrived about a half hour later. They were able to prepare and get ready for the delivery. The doctor checked me and broke my water, I think it was in the way or something. That helped to move things on a little bit more. I pushed a couple of times and then rested. After sitting and chatting for a couple of minutes (thank you epidural) I told the doctor that I felt like I needed to push. He looked down and said, "Oh yeah! You do need to push!" I think it only took two more pushes to finish. As soon as he came out the doctor and nurse both said, "Wow, he's big!"

Rigley Lane Bell was born at 12:45 (ish) pm. Weighing in at a whopping 9 pounds 6 ounces and 22 inches long.

This Blog is Not Dead

2010-09-29T12:31:00.000-07:00

We are still here. We are all alive and well. I do plan on putting the story of the beginning of Rigley's life on here in some detail. I'm not positive when that will happen...but it will happen. I literally have a TON to catch up on on this blog, so it will take some time.

Trip to Georgia part 2

2010-06-21T13:26:00.000-07:00

My brother, Abe, is a black hawk helicopter pilot in the Georgia Army National Guard. How cool is that?!?!

While we were in Georgia, we took the kids to go and see the helicopters. Abe wanted to get a picture with his girls by a helicopter for his wife for Mother's Day.

It was so neat to be able to see the helicopters that my brother flies. I think my sister and I had more fun than the kids did. It was AWESOME!!! We took a ton of pictures. So, here are just a few.

My brother and his daughters.

Harper getting ready to take off.

Most of the kids. I don't know where Lily Kate is.

Abe with the kids.

Cast Your Vote

2010-06-12T05:54:00.000-07:00

Okay.

We went on a date last night and we made a final list of names for this baby. (That wasn't the purpose for our date, we just did it while we were on our date).

There is a poll at the very top of the sidebar.

Go and vote! If a certain name wins, I'm not guaranteeing that we will use that certain name.

The voting will end on my due date, June 28th. You can vote for more than one name, if you like.

Feel free to let us know of reasons for your choice in comments on this post!

Trip to Georgia part 1

2010-06-07T10:39:00.000-07:00

First, I want to thank all of you who made those sweet, supportive and encouraging comments on the last post. It made me feel great! ....... 3 weeks and counting!

By the way, we still don't have a name for this little one. If anyone has any ideas that they would be willing to share with us that would be great! I feel like we just need some ideas and then the right name will come to us.

At the beginning of May Harper and I were able to make a trip to Georgia with my sister and her little boys. My grandparents were going to be there visiting and along with my Dad's birthday and Mother's Day it was just a great trip. We did so much while we were there that I am going to need to split it up into a few different posts.

Harper with her Great-Grandparents and cousins. Harper is sitting on the lap of her namesake. My grandma's name is Sherri Jeane and Harper is Harper Jeane.

We went to the Marietta Square for a little while one day so that the kids could play on the train. Harper's cousin Devon loves trains and Harper developed a love for them as well.

Here they are with Gigi (my mom).

One night we were able to go to my brother, Ez's, softball game. It was pretty late, so my mom stayed home with the little ones and my sister, her older son and I went to the game with my dad. Unfortunately they lost, but it was still a fun game to watch.

My Bad

2010-05-31T12:08:00.000-07:00

This is a post to apologize for not posting.

I'm sorry I haven't been posting lately. I have a lot of things that I want to post about. Like my fun trip to GA with Harper, our house, our baby paper chain, our trip to the Oklahoma Aquarium and more.

I usually do my blog posting during Harper's naps. Lately those have consisted of me trying to get things done around the house, having lunch and sleeping.

I don't want to get too mushy or throw myself a pity party but the past few weeks of this pregnancy have been hard; in more ways than one. I am very big. I am very swollen. The simple task of sitting up has become so difficult. I can only fit into flip flops. Don't worry, I haven't worn them to church. It has also been a difficult few weeks emotionally. It's hard for me to express what is going on inside of me. There are times when I will just burst into tears for no apparent reason other than I'm pregnant. Most of the time that is the only reason that I can think of.

I am 36 weeks today (about 8 months). I am so excited because my baby shower is this week and my sister is coming up from Texas for it.

I will try very hard to do some posting this week.

Is It Just Me.......

2010-04-23T11:16:00.000-07:00

....... or are the flies in Arkansas really stupid?

I'm from Georgia so I know that with warm weather comes the pesky flies. I just have a much different memory of trying to kill them.

Harper really likes to play outside. I will let her go out our back door and play in the back yard. She usually doesn't like to go out alone, but sometimes if I let her leave the door open, so that she can hear and see me better, she'll play outside long enough for me to get some dishes done. She almost always forgets to close the door when she comes back in. Which means that lots of flies get in. Yesterday, there were just too many flies in the house. I got the fly swatter expecting a serious battle to try and kill these bugs. The flies would land and I would get them in one try. It's almost like they wanted me to swat them. They didn't even try to fly away. I killed 4 in like 10 minutes.

My conclusion is either 1) Arkansas flies are just a little bit slower than average or 2) My reflexes are greatly improved when I'm pregnant.

Emotions

2010-04-19T19:18:00.000-07:00

It has been quite an interesting weekend.

The painters that we hired finally finished and so we spent a lot of Friday and Saturday hanging up pictures and organizing.

Our ward was split on Sunday. It was split into a branch and a ward. We are going to be in the branch. (FYI - it's not going to be like a typical branch. With 90% activity there will be over 200 in attendance each Sunday). With the split comes changes, right? Ryan was called as the Elders Quorum President, so he will be a busy, busy boy.

Sunday evening I was called by my dad and informed about a very sad loss in our extended family.

With that being said, I would like to say how grateful I am for the sealing power of the gospel and for the Plan of Salvation. I realize how lucky I am to have such a great extended family. I am not super close with all of them, but I am pretty close with some of them and I want them all to know how much I love them!

As for our little family, things are going well. I am officially 30 weeks pregnant. Only 10 more weeks! We are so excited for this little guy to get here and know that he will be the perfect addition to our family.

Safari

2010-04-16T19:09:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we went on a Safari with our friends!

About twenty minutes away from us there is a place called The Wild Wilderness Drive Thru Safari. It is awesome! For those of you in Idaho, it is similar to Bear World, but better. It is only $10 a person (under 3 is free) and there are a TON of animals that you can see. It starts off with the drive through where you can see so many animals: llamas, deer, buffalo, emu/ostrich, tigers, lions, monkeys, all kinds of birds, zebras, camels, alligator, donkeys and a hippo. There are more but those are the ones that I can remember and identify when I look through all of our pictures. The ostriches were crazy. They would get right up to the car and press their beaks up against the windows. Harper loved it!!

The girls in the back seat. Me, Harper, Myma, and Missy. We took them out of their car seats so that they could see better.

After the drive through area you can park your car and go to the petting and walk around area. In the petting area they have the usual like goats and pigs but they also had KANGAROO! We didn't get to pet them but we got really close and they were adorable. They were sleeping and there was a little joey sleeping in his mama's pouch. They also have monkeys in the petting area.

Harper LOVED feeding the goats. I would put the food in her hand and she would hold it out and let the goats eat it. She wasn't afraid at all. This little girl loves animals!

In the walk around area they have lots of other kinds of animals too. A lot of different kinds of monkeys. We also saw a porcupine, turtles, aardvarks, snakes, birds, a giraffe, camels, and a baby bear cub!

It was so much fun! We were there for a long time and by the end Harper was definitely ready to go as you can tell in this picture.

Hopefully this post will give all of our family and friends more incentive to come and visit us so that we can take you there!

Put a Fork in Her.....

2010-04-14T10:30:00.000-07:00

This may be a little late in the developmental calendar but oh well.

Harper has now started eating some foods with a fork.

A lot of kids out there that are the same age as her have probably been doing this for a while. I put off the whole utensil training because of the inevitable mess that would ensue. I still haven't started the messy part yet. Now she just eats things that she can spear with the fork, as you can see in the photo.... noodles and chicken nuggets. She has really enjoyed it though. I got her an Elmo plate and she loves eating the food off the plate and finding Elmo.

Easter

2010-04-13T10:51:00.000-07:00

Sorry it has been a little while since I've posted. I got sick about a week and a half ago and then Ryan got it. We went to the doctor and he said that it was allergies. We are just now starting to get better. I am still suffering a little bit and if it's not better by this Friday, which is a pregnancy appointment, then hopefully my doctor will be able to figure something else out for me. The stuff that he gave me last week hasn't quite done the trick.

Now, on to EASTER!!!

It was a lot of fun this year. We didn't go to any huge organized egg hunts, but there were a couple of small ones. Harper and I were invited to an egg hunt on the Friday before Easter and unfortunately I had a doctors appointment. My friend, Maryann, offered to take Harper to the hunt while I went to my appointment. It worked out perfectly! She had a lot of fun!

Ryan made a bid on an Easter basket at work and he won it! We hadn't gotten her any other basket so we let her open the basket Thursday night so that she could use it at the egg hunt on Friday. Here are a couple pictures of her opening it.

Look at that cheesy grin.

She was so excited about all of the fun things in her basket!

This is right after she opened her basket. We are posing with the pretty Easter flowers that Ryan got for me. (Please excuse my swollen, pregnant face).

We thought it would be fun to invite some friends over on Sunday for Easter dinner and another little egg hunt. We invited four other couples over that all have kids that are pretty close in age to Harper. It was a lot of fun! Yummy food and a fun hunt!

Gearing up for the egg hunt at our house. Isn't she so cute in her precious little Easter dress?

Picking up the eggs.

Here's a little video of Harper hunting.

We hope that you all had a great Easter and were able to enjoy General Conference and reflect on the wonderful blessing of the Atonement. Happy late Easter!

Soy Butter?

2010-03-31T10:05:00.000-07:00

Ryan is allergic to nuts. All nuts. Which means that he is also allergic to peanut butter. I have done a few tests and I don't think that Harper is allergic. Allergies can present themselves later in life, so there is still a possibility that she could be allergic.

I have found Soy Butter which is a non-peanut alternative to peanut butter. While pregnant I like to have a nice little PB&J every once in a while. I am always careful to use the knife in the non-peanut butter component of the sandwich first so that I don't get peanut butter into the other jar. I always clean the knife off too. I would just feel more comfortable having soy butter instead. That way if Harper turns out to be allergic she can still have a PB&J sandwich.

Is Soy Butter good?
Does it taste like peanut butter?

Calling All Handymen!!!

2010-03-24T10:50:00.000-07:00

One of the negative things about our new house is the amount of screws and holes in the walls. It seems like the people that lived here before us had never heard of nails and they wanted to have every single wall covered with something. Ryan was on the phone with his mom the other night and she asked how bad it was and Ryan asked me to count the holes and screws in the master bedroom and I counted 28.

28!!!!!!!

That's holes and screws together. It's pretty crazy. It's not that hard to get the screws out or the drywall anchors. My only problem has been these little buggers:

Toggle screws. There are a few of these guys around. It's not that hard to get out the screws that are screwed into them, but they are stuck in my walls. If there is anyone out there that can tell me how to get these monsters out of my walls without making an even bigger hole, please tell me!

Short

2010-03-22T10:41:00.000-07:00

First, I want to apologize for any of you who were looking at my last post and were flipped off. I got a picture of Spot Shot from the internet and apparently I stole it. In the place of the picture there was a drawing of a man giving the finger. SORRY!!!

Second, WE ARE HOME!!! The move went well and we are here. The house is a crazy unorganized mess but I'm working on it. One or two boxes at a time. There is also some hole filling and painting that will get done soon hopefully. We are also looking for a washer and dryer. We've been looking on Craigs List and haven't found anything. Fingers crossed.

That's all I have for today. Harper's napping and I need to finish a grocery list before she wakes up!

Thankful Thursday

2010-03-18T10:25:00.000-07:00

Things are quite busy around here.

We are closing on our new house tomorrow so I am doing all of the final packing and cleaning.

Harper is taking a nap right now so I'm taking advantage of that to do a quick post. If I don't do it then I will get out of the habit. And I know that all of my millions of devoted readers out there don't want that.

Things I am thankful for today:

Emergen-C - I woke up on Monday feeling a little sick. Just the usual scratchy throat, headache and sniffles. I got nervous about being sick and pregnant and moving. I remembered that my awesome brother, Ezra, told me about Emergen-C at Christmas time when I was sick. I took a packet of Emergen-C Monday night and was completely better by Tuesday night. It was magic. My brother takes a packet a day and he never gets sick. I am so thankful for this stuff so that I can have the health and energy that I'm going to need this weekend.
Spot Shot- As I was packing yesterday, I taped up the box and wrote the contents on it with a Sharpie. I set it down and Harper got a hold of it. I watched her for a second to see if she could figure out how to open it and she was struggling. I let her keep it and started on another box. I finished packing the other box and I noticed that it was a little too quiet. I looked into the living room and Harper had opened the marker and colored all over the box I had just finished packing. I walked over to her and noticed a small mark on the wall and carpet. I immediately took the marker away and started working on getting the mark off of the wall. I just kind of scraped it off the wall and scrubbed it with a baby wipe. Then I used Spot Shot on the carpet and it came right out!!! I'm so thankful for the Spot Shot because we have to have a walk through in order to get our deposit back and if those marks were there it would have been bad.

Harper - Even though she gets into the markers, she's awesome. There are times when she is very clingy and wants me to hold her all of the time, but I've learned that if I have her help me put things into the boxes she's a lot easier to deal with. She loves helping and being involved.

Ryan - He is working four 10 hour days this week (M-Th) so that he can have the day off tomorrow (Friday) to go to the closing meeting and do the move. He has been so helpful with Harper when he gets home from work. He has also been really good about looking for a fridge and washer and dryer for us. I love him so much!

Chipmunk?

2010-03-16T11:57:00.001-07:00

Oops. It has been more than 2 days since my last post. Sorry, I figure that the weekend is kind of a gray area for posting on the blog. All of the blogs that I read that are updated daily, are not updated on the weekend. I guess if I have something special to post, I will. If not, y'all will just have to wait until Monday (or Tuesday in this case).

Lately Harper has been showing chipmunk tendencies. It is so funny. I have a junk drawer (or two, or three) in the kitchen and she has now learned that she is tall enough not only to reach and open them but reach INTO them. She favors one drawer in particular. She will open it up, reach in and whatever her hand touches first, she'll pull it out and take into the living room and put it in her special spot. She has done this a couple of times now and it is so funny. Ryan and I joke that she's just storing things away for winter. I'm starting to worry that she's going to become a hoarder. Just kidding.

Here's a picture.

Here we have a crayon, chap stick, nail polish, the camera charger, an iPhone charger, headphones, a couple of envelopes and some Scentsy stuff.

I told you it was a junk drawer.

My Little Shadow.....

2010-03-12T10:32:00.000-08:00

Literally.

These are just some fun pictures of Harper playing dress up. Yes, those are my shoes (2 different ones) and yes that is a belt around her neck.

Harper is not a very independent child at home. She does really well when we are other places like church, friends' houses, restaurants with playgrounds, etc. She will just go off and play with other kids or just on her own. But at home this child will not leave me alone! She MUST be in the same room that I am in, no matter what (unless she's sleeping). I have tried going into her room and playing with her and then leaving her in there to play, but she just follows me out. There are some good times when she will just play in whatever room we're in and let me get things done, but it is starting to get worse. I think she has realized that we're moving again and she might be grasping on to the fact that a baby is coming and she has gotten really clingy! She is constantly wanting me to hold her and it's starting to get old. If there are any moms out there that have any ideas on how to remedy this problem, please tell me!!!

Wordless Wednesday

2010-03-10T10:55:00.000-08:00

Okay, so technically this post won't be wordless. But I want to explain the reason for the post. I am going to try and post more often in a semi-daily way. I am going to shoot for every two days or every other day and if I do that or more, I will be satisfied. I LOVE it when the blogs that I read are updated, so I figure that the few of you who read my blog will like that I update often.

*I also want to become a better writer and writing more will help that. I also have this silly dream that my blog will one day become this awesome blog that has tons and tons of readers that are just waiting to read about my life and hear what I have to say. I doubt that will ever happen, but here's hopin'.*

I have set up a little list for myself that has a certain type of post for each day of the week (i.e. Wordless Wednesday, Thankful Thursday...). That way if I don't have anything in particular to post like a family update, I will still have a back up.

Back to Wordless Wednesday:

July 4, 2009

March First Friday

2010-03-09T10:06:00.000-08:00

Here in Bentonville they have a thing called First Friday where they have fun events at the Bentonville square on the First Friday of each month.

This month was a St. Patrick's Day/Celtic themed event. They had the usual pony rides and a giant blow-up slide and food and vendors. To go along with the theme, they had Irish dancers and Celtic music and a redhead contest and a freckle contest. We missed the start of the children's redhead contest but at the end they said that they all won. (I am pretty sure that if Harper were on stage she would have dominated!) We were there for the adult redhead contest. I took Harper up on the stage with me and I was up against four other people. They had the audience applause for who they thought was best and I think I got second place. The girl that won was from Scotland. How do you beat that? It was still really fun. Unfortunately, the only picture I got is the one at the top of the blog now. I think Ryan may have gotten one of Harper and me up on stage with his phone. I'll try to get that.

Alright Already

2010-03-03T10:16:00.000-08:00

If you look through the comments of many of my previous posts the past few weeks you will see a comment from my dear friend, Sam, asking where the pregnancy pictures are. Every single post, no lie.

Sam is also pregnant and she is much better at doing prego pictures than I am.

I also got a post on facebook from my sister-in-law, Kelly, asking if I was sure I was pregnant because there was no proof.

Well ladies, here is my apology and proof:

These pictures were taken yesterday. I am about 23 weeks.

We're still trying to teach Harper about the baby and she doesn't quite get it.

We are still working on a name for this little fella, so if any of you have any ideas, let us know. We may have to go with the suggestions given to us by my brothers: Rotor Luscious Bell.

New Video

2010-03-03T10:02:00.000-08:00

Just a fun video of Ryan bouncing Harper on his legs. She's just so darn cute with the giggling and such.

Harper's Heart

2010-02-24T18:06:00.000-08:00

About a month ago, I took Harper in for her 18 month check up. She was so well behaved when they were checking her out. She is in the 16th percentile for weight and she is somewhere in the 70s for height. The doctor came in and checked her ears and eyes and listened to her heart. As he was listening to her heart, I noticed that he was taking a really long time and moving his stethoscope around a lot. Harper was so good and she sat still the whole time! After he was finished listening, he told me that he heard a murmur in her heart. He said that his concern was very low because of how healthy she is, but since he did hear something there was still some concern. He put in an order for a test and that happened today.

I took Harper in to the Center for Children in Lowell, AR. After they checked her height, weight and blood pressure (on her arm and foot), she had an EKG. An EKG is just a test that is used to check the rhythm of the heart (I think). They put a bunch of stickers on her chest and belly and attached clips and chords to all of them. It was not fun for me to watch this happen but she was so well behaved.

After the EKG we spoke to the cardiologist. She listened to Harper's heart with her stethoscope and she explained to me that there was a murmur and she wanted to have an Echo done. Echo = heart ultrasound. I took her in to have the Echo done and they had cartoons on the TV and a Sesame Street toy so Harper was all set. The Echo test was very very long. They put three stickers and clips with chords on her and then they started the ultrasound. They looked at her heart from four different angles and took probably 15 minutes at each angle. They looked right on top of her heart, to the right, to the left and right underneath her neck. Harper did such a good job! For the most part, she just laid there and watched the cartoons. Towards the end of the test she was getting a little impatient.

After the Echo the cardiologist came back in and explained to me the situation. This is what she showed me:

1) When babies are born they have a blood vessel that connects the Pulmonary Artery to the Aorta. Normally, this blood vessel closes off soon after birth. Harper's has not. This is called Patent Ductus Arteriosus (PDA).

The cardiologist said that the PDA is tiny and there is very little concern.

2) When babies are born they have a hole in the wall that separates Right Atrium and the Left Atrium (the two upper chambers of the heart). Normally, this hole closes within a few weeks or months after the baby is born. Harper's has not, her hole is 5 mm. This is called Atrial Septal Defect (ASD).

The cardiologist said that the ASD is moderate and there is not much concern.

The good news is that neither of these things are very serious right now. The cardiologist said that we need to have Harper checked on a yearly basis and if these two things haven't closed off on their own within a couple of years, there are some non-surgical procedures that they can do to close them off.

So, that's that. It was a nerve-racking day and I was very nervous as the cardiologist was explaining all of it. I did get a little emotional on the drive home and when I was explaining it all to Ryan, but I think it was tears of relief. It's never a good thing to hear that your child has a heart defect, but it's nothing too serious and it can all be resolved either on its own or very easily.

Other than that craziness, we are all doing great! We have set a closing date for the house, but I'll write about that another time. This post has worn me out and it's bedtime!

Valentine's Day

2010-02-18T11:07:00.000-08:00

This is a picture of my Valentine and the dessert we had on our date.

Please excuse the redness, we were sitting underneath a neon beer sign.

For Valentine's Day this year we kept things pretty low key. We didn't get each other presents, we just decided to go out. (I realized a couple of days after that we didn't get Harper anything either, oops).

*Big shout out to our pals Lance and Missy for babysitting for us. It was probably more of a treat for Harper because she just loves those guys and playing with their little girl!*

We went to a place in Fayetteville called Hugo's. IT WAS AWESOME!!! It's a small, chill, underground place. They say that you aren't supposed to go there on your first date. Apparently things won't work out if you do. They serve stuff like burgers and steaks. We both ordered the guacamole burger and loved it! Since it was a special occasion, we decided to order a dessert. We ordered Grasshopper Crepes. It was basically mint chocolate chip ice cream wrapped up in the crepes with chocolate sauce drizzled all over. They were so good!

I am so thankful to have a Valentine. Ryan is amazing! He works so hard and he is so good to Harper and me. I'm not sure if he really wanted the grasshopper crepes for dessert. I think he suggested them because he knew I would like them. He is always so thoughtful and caring. I love him so much!

Growing Up

2010-02-17T11:16:00.000-08:00

No, the title of the post is not about Harper. Although she is growing up really fast and I can't seem to slow her down. Any mothers out there with any suggestions of keeping your babies as babies please let me know!

The title is about me (Ryan, too, I guess. Though he's much more grown up than me).

We are officially in the process of buying a house.
Aaaaahhhhhh!!! Scary, I know!

In my mind there are a few things in life that serve as rights of passage into becoming a grown up:
Graduating college
Having a career
Having children
Buying a house

And other things that go along with those.

Our offer on the house was accepted and the house inspection went well. All that is left now is the closing and everything else that builds up into preparing for the closing. I will spare you all of the boring details (mostly because they're boring and I have trouble explaining them).

Below is a picture of the front of the house and I explained the house a little bit.

The house was foreclosed on and so we got a good price. It has four bedrooms. There is a built in entertainment center and an office nook right outside of the master bedroom. The kitchen is a good size and the laundry room is awesome! (I know that sounds so housewife-y of me to get excited about a laundry room, but I am what I am). There is obviously cleaning and some small cosmetic repairs we will be doing. We are very excited and we are planning to close in the middle of March.

It's a ......

2010-02-11T10:53:00.000-08:00

BOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We couldn't be happier! Of course we would have been happy if it was a girl too. We love girls! It's just going to be so much fun to experience all of the new things that will come with this little guy.

Ryan is already planning this little boy's sports schedule.

Harper is going to be a great big sister. We are working with her on knowing that there is a baby in my belly. She hasn't quite grasped the concept yet. I am so excited to see her interact with her little brother. As many of you know, she is quite the little fireball, but she has such a sweet and tender personality. The other day, we were having Family Home Evening and we were all sitting on the couch. We had finished with the lesson and I was crying (just pregnancy hormones, I don't even remember what I was crying about) and Harper got the most sympathetic look on her face. She said, "Aww." and reached over and hugged me and held me and patted me on the back. It was so sweet.

I just know she is going to be the best big sister. Probably like my big sister!

Sounds Like Life

2010-02-09T13:37:00.000-08:00

I heard this song on the radio as I was driving today and I love the lyrics.

( Darryl Worley, Wynn Varble, Phil O’Donnell )

Got a call last night from an old friend’s wife
Said I hate to bother you
Johnny Ray fell off the wagon
He’s been gone all afternoon
I know my buddy so I drove to Skully’s
And found him at the bar
I say hey man, what’s going on
He said I don’t know where to start

Sarah’s old car’s about to fall apart
And the washer quit last week
We had to put momma in the nursing home
And the baby’s cutting teeth
I didn’t get much work this week
And I got bills to pay
I said I know this ain’t what you wanna hear
But it’s what I’m gonna say

(Chorus)
Sounds like life to me it ain’t no fantasy
It’s just a common case of everyday reality
Man I know it’s tough but you gotta suck it up
To hear you talk you’re caught up in some tragedy
It sounds like life to me

Well his face turned red and he shook his head
He said you don’t understand
Three kids and a wife depend on me
And I’m just one man
To top it off I just found out
That Sarah’s 2 months late
I said hey bartender set us up a round
We need to celebrate

(Chorus)
Sounds like life to me plain old destiny
Yeah the only thing for certain is uncertainty
You gotta hold on tight just enjoy the ride
Get used to all this unpredictability
Sounds like life

Man I know its tough but you gotta suck it up
To hear you talk you’re caught up in some tragedy
Sounds like life to me
Sounds like life

--------------------------------

When I am pregnant, my worst symptom (if you can call it that) is irritability.

I am very easily annoyed and my patience is about as thin as it will go.

Now, I know what you're thinking, "What?!?! Abby, you're always so cheerful. You have such a sunny disposition and there's always a smile on your face. You never complain....."

Yeah right!

(If you really are thinking that, you're just too nice. Or maybe I hide it really well.)

Harper is getting into the terrible twos and fits happen at least once a day. Usually more than that. There are also the "fun" days when she spills my loose powder all over my pant leg before leaving for a doctor's appointment (today), or when she is coloring with a pen and decides to write on the table and chair, or when she just wants to be held all day. If it has been a particularly rough day, then poor Harper has to deal with my impatience. I always feel the worst about taking it out on her when she comes and gives me a hug or kiss.

I say all of this because, it's just life. As a family, we are doing really well right now. We are in the process of buying a house, Ryan has a steady job and we are all healthy. There is truly nothing to complain about. I hope that all of you know that I wouldn't go to a bar and drink if I had a bad day. I don't drink, I'm Mormon. But there are days when I feel so sorry for myself and I just want to throw myself a pity party. What I really need to do is say to myself, "It's just life. And you've got a really good and easy one. Just look at what so-and-so is going through. You don't have to deal with that. Be grateful and just live your life and have fun!" That will really make me feel better.

I just wanted to share that. Not that any of you wanted it to be shared. Those lyrics just got me to thinkin'.

FYI:We did have our ultrasound appointment and the results will be posted soon, we just want to make sure that all of the family has been informed before we share it with the world.

The Many Hairstyles of Harper

2010-02-03T17:54:00.000-08:00

Harper's hair is getting so long and it is so much fun doing her hair. I'm starting to get a little more adventurous when I do it. I'm wanting to start getting more creative and learn some new styles.

The "Double Ponytail on top of the head"

Right after a bath. Nice and combed out super long. Look at that little flip at the bottom. Precious!

Sometimes I am lazy and just clip it back out of her face with this guy.

The classic pigtails.

I'm still working on french braiding, but it has now gotten long enough to just do little braided pigtails. Adorable!

Playing in the Snow

2010-02-02T13:27:00.001-08:00

When we lived in Idaho Harper was too young to play in the snow. When we got so much snow this weekend we had to take advantage of it and have Harper experience the joys of playing in the snow. We bundled her up and headed outside to build a snowman.

Harper and Daddy getting started.

Harper trying to have the snowman's nose for a snack.

Harper, Daddy and the snowman.
(It wasn't the best packing snow so it took a while and the snowman wasn't that big. It still looked great though.)

Prepared

2010-02-01T10:51:00.000-08:00

Last weekend a really bad storm was coming through the Oklahoma/Arkansas area and we did our best to get prepared. The ice storm that they had last year was horrible and some people in our area were without power for a week. Luckily this year we didn't lose power. We only got about 1/2 inch of ice and six or seven inches of snow. Oklahoma was still hit pretty bad in some places, I've heard.

As you can see in the pictures, we got bread and water all ready but we didn't need it. When Ryan went to the store to get the bread they were all out of sandwich bread so he just got whatever they had (rolls, a whole wheat loaf, english muffins and tortillas). We also got some water ready. We have a Pur pitcher and Ryan got some bottled water. We also had some water bottles with filters in them that my parents had given me. I even filled up some of Harper's old baby bottles with filtered water. We didn't end up needing any of it but it was still nice to be prepared.

Good for us!

2009 Stuff

2010-01-19T18:16:00.000-08:00

I found this survey on a random blog that I came across today. I would eventually like to get our blog printed off and I thought it would be good to have this in there. It's kind of long and I don't know if I'm going to be able to answer all of the questions, but I'll try.

1. What did you do in 2009 that you had never done before?
-Ryan - Graduated from college in 3 years. Got a job at Walmart. Lived in Chicago for a little while. Moved to Arkansas.
-Abby - Lived in Chicago for a little while. Went to a Cubs game at Wrigley Field. Moved to Arkansas.
-Harper - Turned 1. Lived in Chicago. Went to a Cubs game. Moved to Arkansas. Played in the snow.

2. Did you keep your New Year's Resolutions and do you intend to make any for 2010?
-I can't remember what resolutions we made last year. I'd like to think that we kept at least some of them. Yes, we did make a few resolutions this year.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

-My cousin Meagan, and my cousin Jake and his wife had babies. I think that's it.

4. Did anyone close to you die?

-No

5. What countries did you visit?

-Just the U.S. of A.

6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you didn't have in 2009?

-A new house and a new baby.

7. What dates will be etched into your memory from 2009 and why?

-May 6 - My dad turning 60. Harper and I got to go to GA and celebrate!

-July 16 - Harper turned 1.

8. What is your biggest achievement of the year?

-Leaving Idaho. Ryan's would be graduating and getting a job.

9. What is your biggest failure?

-I'm not sure. Probably procrastinating.

10. Did you suffer any illness or injury?

-Nothing too serious.

11. What is the best thing you bought?

-Our iPhones!!!

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?

-Ryan's for getting a job and Harper's for being the best kid ever. She loves when I go to the gym because it means that she can go to the day care and play! I don't think she has fussed a single time that I've taken her!

13. Whose behavior made you appalled or depressed?

-Um....maybe the president's. I don't want to talk bad about our president, but he's the only one I could think of.

14. Where did most of your money go?

-The move from Idaho to Illinois to Arkansas. The time we lived in Illinois since Ryan hadn't started working yet.

15. What did you get really excited about?

-Ryan getting a job with Walmart! Harper turning one. Leaving Idaho. Finding out we are expecting.

16. What songs will remind you of 2009 and why?

-I'm not really sure. Just all of the popular ones this year.

17. Compared to last year...

a. happier or sadder? Happier. Not that I was sad last year, but we're just in a good place in life right now! Life is good!

b. thinner or fatter?Thinner. I love the Walmart Fitness Center!!!

c. richer or poorer?Richer. We are definitely not rich though!

18. What do you wish you had done more of?

-Crafts. I have so many crafts and decorating things that I want to get done. The list just keeps getting longer!

19. What do you wish you had done less of?

-TV watching.

20. How did you spend Christmas?

-Here in Arkansas with my family and brother.

21. Did you fall in love in 2009?

-More and more with Ryan every day!!

22. What was your favorite TV program?

-Ryan and I discovered LOST while in Illinois. I think that's our new favorite and of course The Office.

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate at this time last year?

-I'm not a hater.

24. What is the best book you read?

-Maybe The Lost Symbol. I can't remember all of the books I read.

25. What was your greatest musical discovery?

-I think the question is probably asking about a specific artist or song, but I got a ukulele this year. Thanks to our friends the Sugdens! I only know a couple of chords but I'm really excited to learn some more!

26. What did you want and get?

- iPhones. Ryan got a job! We were blessed in many ways!

27. What did you want and not get?

-Nothing that I can think of.

28. What was your favorite film this year?

-The Blind Side. Ryan still hasn't seen it yet, but I loved it!

29. What did you do on your birthday and how old were you?

-Harper turned one. We took her to the Spray Park and had friends and family over for presents and cupcakes.

-I turned 23 this year and went to a zoo in Illinois with Ryan and Harper and we ate at Buffalo Wild Wings.

-Ryan turned 25. He doesn't like to be fussed over so I made his favorite dinner and he got a basketball pump.

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

-More time with family, even though we did get lots of family time this year.

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept of 2009?

-Comfort and affordable.

32. What kept you sane?

-Ryan.

33. What celebrity did you fancy the most?

-None.

34. What political issue stirred you the most?

-I don't really get into politics much. The new president I guess.

35. Who do you miss?

-All of our awesome Idaho friends.

36. Who was the best person you met?

-Our new friends the Dunkins.

37. Valuable life lesson learned in 2009?

-Prayers are answered and our Heavenly Father always has us in mind.

38. What is the one thing you said this year that you never thought you'd say?

-"We're moving to Arkansas."

39. What was the one thing you heard that you never thought you would hear?

-"We're moving to Arkansas."

-I'd also maybe say that Ryan got a job, but that's not something I never thought I would hear, because he is so great and I knew he would get a job. It is just so great that he got one, and such a good one!!!

40. What do you anticipate will be the biggest change in your life in 2010?

-Having another baby and moving to a house.

Christmas '09

2010-01-19T11:39:00.000-08:00

This year for Christmas we had my parents and brother, Ezra, come to Arkansas to spend Christmas with us. We had a really good time with them, even though it was super cold and we didn't want to leave the house very much. We got a couple of inches of snow on Christmas and after that it was freezing cold for a week or so! We did have a lot of fun inside though!

Harper opening her Christmas pajamas on Christmas Eve.

Harper trying to figure out what was going on. You can see my brother looking out the front door in the background because we got a couple of inches of snow on Christmas morning!!

Our pretty Christmas tree on Christmas morning.

Harper LOVED her Elmo airplane!

Ryan got the book Super Freakonomics from my other brother, Zach, and Harper decided that she wanted to read some of it!

Guess What?

2010-01-15T09:49:00.001-08:00

We're...........

Most of you that read this probably already know because we have posted it on facebook, but here you go.

I'm about 16 weeks along so that means the baby is due at the end of June. We have an ultrasound appointment in about 3 weeks and we should have a better idea of how far along we are and we are planning on finding out the gender. I'm pretty sure we'll share the gender info but I don't think we'll share the name if and when we get one. We'll see.

Thanksgiving '09

2010-01-07T08:12:00.000-08:00

For Thanksgiving this year we were able to travel to Georgia and spend it with my family there. The drive is between 10-12 hours so we decided to drive through the night so that Harper would sleep and we could just drive straight through. We started driving around 9 or 10, I think. At the start of the drive Harper was really confused and kept looking at us with a "I'm supposed to be in my bed." look. It was pretty funny. She eventually realized that she wasn't getting out and finally fell asleep.

Thanksgiving morning our family ran in the Gobble Jog. The majority of us did the 10k. Some did the 5k and my nephew Hayden did a little fun run for kids. I was a baby and had to walk and run. Harper was a trooper and just chilled in the jogging stroller the whole time!

Here's the whole gang at Thanksgiving dinner.

We went to the Botanical Gardens where they had a little train display and a train ride for the kids. Harper loved it!

Papa Tom, Devon, Hayden, Harper and Gigi.

Halloween '09

2010-01-07T08:04:00.000-08:00

I know, I know...I have been a horrible blogger. I don't really have much of an excuse, so I'll just get right to it.

This year for Halloween Harper's Gigi (my mom) made her a tutu so that she could be a ballerina. It was precious! Here's proof:

Raspberries on Daddy's Tummy

2009-10-23T10:37:00.000-07:00

Just watch. It is so cute and funny!

Caught Up

2009-10-23T10:26:00.000-07:00

I am finally caught up on blogging. I am planning on posting some pictures of our new place soon.

This next picture is of Harper's little plumber bum. I can't let her walk around in just a diaper anymore because she always tugs on it until it sags really low like this. (This picture is before we had our chouches moved in so the living room was bare.

When we lived in Idaho, we kept our garbage can in the pantry. Well, we don't have a pantry here and Harper has a new found love of throwing things away. I was getting ready to take the garbage out and I heard something vibrating...

She had thrown my phone away. Luckily it wasn't covered in garbage juice or anything.

Fun Times in Illinois

2009-10-14T11:21:00.000-07:00

We had a lot of fun while we were staying in Illinois. I had my birthday while we were there and I decided that I wanted to go to the zoo for the day. It was a lot of fun! I will spare you all of the boring pictures that we took of the animals and just post the good ones of us.

Harper and I doing a puzzle with a zoo worker.

Harper as an elephant.

Harper's hand and a gorilla hand.

Harper and me in the monkey house.

Harper and Ryan in front of the lions.

These are just some funny pictures of some of Harper's crazy bed head. It was out of control this particular morning.

I was sitting at the table having breakfast and I looked over and saw this. Harper had climbed into her toy box and she looked quite proud of herself.

Harper had her first carousel ride at the Gurnee Mall in Illinois.

We of course had to go to a Cubs game while we were in Illinois. Actually, Ryan ended up going to three in one week. Harper and I went to two of those. (Thanks to Stub Hub, we got tickets for really cheap. For one game our tickets were only 50 cents.) They were so much fun! It is true what they say about Cubs games at Wrigley field. They are like no other.

Waiting to get on the L train.

The Wrigley Field sign.

Ryan and Harper down by the field.

Harper's adorable Cubs outfit.

Road Trip

2009-10-12T14:37:00.000-07:00

***Scroll down. I did a few posts today.

When we moved, we made a road trip to Arkansas and dropped our stuff off in Arkansas and then we made our way up to Illinois. Harper was a gem during all of the driving.

Here she is wearing her cool sunglasses.

Leaving Idaho, entering Utah. :(

Some cool windmills I saw.

Last Night with The Allisons

2009-10-12T14:30:00.000-07:00

While we lived in Rexburg we spent many a Sunday with the Allisons. Janis is Ryan's Dad's sister. Her husband and their children lived really close so we were able to spend a lot of time with them. Our time with them usually consisted of playing games and telling fun stories. It was good times. We will miss them!

These two pictures are of the last night we had with them. We played Apples to Apples.

Ryan's Graduation

2009-10-12T14:14:00.000-07:00

As everyone knows, Ryan graduated at the end of July. Here are just a couple of pictures from the actual event.

I just want to say that I am so proud of Ryan and how well he did in school. He is such an amazing man. He worked the entire time he was in school. Most semesters he was working 40 hours and in school full time. The majority of that time he was in the bishopric in our ward as well. And he got awesome grades to boot! It all kept him very busy, but I never felt neglected or forgotten. And now he's doing great in work! Yay Ryan!!!

Harper's Birthday Pictures

2009-10-12T13:59:00.000-07:00

There were a ton of pictures taken at Harper's birthday party, so instead of uploading all of them, I just uploaded a few that will be good highlights.

Here she is with all of her presents. Her friend Lexi had a birthday about a week and a half earlier so she was showing her how it was done. You'll see evidence of that through the pictures. It was so cute!

As you can see in this photo, she wasn't quite sure what to do with her cupcake.

She sure liked it!

One of the many pictures of her opening presents. She was spoiled!

Pretty much the cutest one-year-old EVER!!!

Silly Girl / Shots

2009-10-07T11:09:00.000-07:00

Lately Harper has been obsessed with putting things that belong on her bottom on her head. If there is ever a pair of pants, shorts or a skirt lying around she'll bring them to us and put her head forward. She's pretty funny.

It always kills me whenever I have to take Harper to get shots. Here's a picture of her afterwards with the band-aids. She was a trooper.

Like a Glove

2009-10-07T11:02:00.001-07:00

A little while ago I tried Harper's blessing dress on her again. It was pretty big on her when she was actually blessed but it fit a little better this time.

*My mom made the dress. Isn't it gorgeous?

Sad Goodbyes

2009-10-06T10:17:00.000-07:00

When we left Rexburg we left behind some family and friends that we will miss a lot! Our friends the Henkels are some of the ones that we spent a lot of our time with. These pictures are of a fun date night that we had with them before we left. The night started with bowling, then Wendy's and then we went to Walmart where Ryan and Chad helped unload boxes so that we could take them and use for packing. It was a fun night!

We all got the same score in the first frame!

This is a picture from a game night. We usually had game night with the Henkels a minimum of twice a week and sometimes it was more. We will really miss those guys!

Dear Chad, Crystal, Ella and Jackson

MOVE TO ARKANSAS!

Love, Abby, Ryan and Harper

Symbolism of Arkansas flag

2009-10-05T12:07:00.000-07:00

This is for Katie and Dad, and anyone else who was wondering.

The flag's elements have a complex symbolism. According to the 1987 state law defining the flag,[1] the diamond represents Arkansas' status as "the only diamond-bearing state in the Union". (Crater of Diamonds State Park was the only diamond mine in North America at the time, before more recent discoveries in Colorado and Montana.) The number (25) of white stars around the border of the diamond represents Arkansas's position as the 25th state to join the union. The blue star above "ARKANSAS" represents the Confederate States of America, which Arkansas joined in secession.
The three stars below "ARKANSAS" have three separate meanings[2]:
The three nations to which Arkansas has belonged (Spain, France, and the U.S.)
The Louisiana Purchase, which brought Arkansas into the U.S., was signed in 1803.
Arkansas was the third state (after Louisiana and Missouri) formed from the Louisiana Purchase.
The statute states that the two outer, upward-pointing stars of the three are considered "twin stars" representing the "twin states" of Arkansas and Michigan, which it claims were admitted together on June 15, 1836. However, that part of the statute contains two inaccuracies:
The three stars were in a single row in Hocker's original design; they weren't arranged in a triangle until later. Though one source indicates that the "twin states" symbolism was added by the 1924 Legislature[3], another states Hocker's "twin stars" are actually two of the 25 stars in the diamond, in the far left and right points[2]; the latter is more consistent with the original design, even though Michigan is actually the 26th state.
While both states' acts of admission were signed by President Andrew Jackson on that day and Arkansas became a state immediately, Michigan was offered admission only on condition of ceding the Toledo Strip to Ohio in exchange for the Upper Peninsula. Once that happened, it was finally admitted January 26, 1837.
Some believe that the flag bears a resemblance to the Confederate Battle Flag. Though the colors and star pattern are similar, the flag does not have the saltire pattern of the Confederate Flag. In addition, the history of the flag clearly shows that it was not considered to honor the Confederacy until the fourth star was added for that specific purpose in 1923.

**I got this info from Wikipedia.

Catch Up

2009-10-05T11:48:00.000-07:00

Okay, so there are a lot of pictures on our camera that I want to share with everyone. I have gone through them and I'm going to share them in order. So the first posts will be of pictures an happenings from when we were still in Idaho, then Illinois and finally Arkansas. This post is just a few random pictures that we had.

Harper's hair was starting to get unruly and so I started doing her hair in a little side ponytail on the top of her head so that her hair wasn't always in her face. It's become the go to hair style now.

This is just a fun picture of her pushing her toy the wrong way.

Arkansans

2009-09-19T08:03:00.000-07:00

No, I that's not a typo in the title of the post. That's what you call people who live in Arkansas. And that's what we are! Official Arkansans. And we're very happy about that.

We still only have our little netbook for now, so it might be a while before I post any pictures of us, but I thought I'd post a couple of pictures of things that I like about Arkansas:

This is the license plate. They have a diamond on them. How cool is that?

(This is the license plate but I'd say that about 75% of the license plates in this state have a Razorback on them)

Here's the state flag. I just really like how simple it is. It also shows that I'm back in the south!!!

Hiatus

2009-08-24T07:57:00.003-07:00

I wanted to let everyone know that I won't be able to do a lot of posting the next couple of weeks. We are still in Illinois and all we have for a computer is Ryan's netbook, which we don't want to upload pictures onto. I will definitely do more posting once we get to Arkansas and are able post more pictures so that I can tell you all about the fun times we've been having.

Harper's Tricks

2009-08-04T18:45:00.000-07:00

Okay, FYI, we have arrived safely in Illinois. We left Idaho on Monday night and arrived in Arkansas on Wednesday. We left the majority of our belongings in a storage unit in Arkansas. We stayed one extra night and got to Illinois Friday night. I have been having a few technical difficulties with my email, reader, facebook, etc. So if I don't respond to an email or facebook post, it's not because I'm ignoring. If you really need to get in touch with me you can always call.

We are already missing Idaho (yes, I said it). I am planning on making a post of the things we miss, and don't miss about Idaho. But I don't know if I'm going to be able to upload pictures while we're in IL. Sorry about that. You might not get a very good amount good posts while we're here.

The reason for this post is to tell you all about all of the fun things Harper is doing at the age of ONE!!!!!!

Harper Jeane Bell:

19.5 lbs
Somewhere between 25 and 28 inches (I can't remember)
She is walking (started at 10 months) (never crawled)
She can wave 'hi' and 'bye'
She can sign eat/food, more, and all done
She says Da-Da
She is now drinking cows milk
Her favorite food is raisins and cheese
We have recently taught her how to blow kisses (really she just puts her hand over her mouth and clicks her tongue).

Harper is pretty darn awesome. She is a CHATTERBOX! Talking and jabbering all the time! We love her so much and are so blessed to be her parents.

Harper is a Toddler

2009-07-16T19:31:00.000-07:00

Today was Harper's first birthday. It was great! We are officially celebrating on Sunday so that her grandparents can be here but we did do a few things today. Here's the rundown:

We decided to let her open one present today and we're going to save the rest of her presents for Sunday. This is the present she got from her Uncle Abe, Aunt Kelly and cousins Elle and Lily Kate. Please excuse my appearance. We did it first thing in the morning before Ryan had to go to work so I am still in my PJs with no make-up on. (And yes, I cut my hair.)

Ryan had class until 5:30, so as soon as he got home we went to the Spray Park (these pictures aren't from her actual birthday they are from a different day, but we did pretty much the same thing). When we first go to the Spray Park she is a little apprehensive about the water but as soon as she gets wet she is everywhere! All we have to do is go down the slide with her once and she is great! The first picture is of Ryan going down the slide with her. I love the second picture because she is a tiny little baby in the middle of all of those big kids. We are so proud of her!

After coming home from the Spray Park and having some dinner Ryan had to go to work and I decided to take her to G's Dairy and get some ice cream. Don't let the picture worry you. I just got a cone for me and I just shared with her a little but I put the cone up to her face for the picture.

Please excuse my appearance in the above photo as well. Ryan and I are the cool parents who will go down the slides and get wet with our kid and not the parents that sit on the benches and watch.

Big Change

2009-07-06T09:30:00.000-07:00

So I wanted to do something really creative to announce on here that Ryan got the job, but that didn't end up happening. I will do my best to give you the details about the job and what we are going to be doing in the upcoming weeks.

As stated before: RYAN GOT THE JOB!!!! It is with corporate Wal-Mart in North Western Arkansas. The job is in the Merchant Leadership Program. He will be doing things like forecasting, budgeting and planning. He will be working in Hard lines, which is departments like sporting goods, automotive and seasonal. (My brothers have been joking with me that Ryan will be a checker and a bagger and I tell them that he will be doing something much more respectable...he's going to bring in the shopping carts from the parking lot. Jeez! Kidding.)

Ryan graduates at the end of this month on the 23rd. The plan right now is to pack up and be out of here by the 27th. Ryan's parents own the townhouse and they are going to be coming out here to live for a couple of months, after that they want to rent out the townhouse (so if you or anyone you know would be interested in renting, let us know!). We will move most of our stuff down to Arkansas and put it into a storage shed and then we will make our way up to Illinois where we will live in Ryan's parents' house for about a month and a half. We will be living there to help them with getting their house ready to sell. We plan on getting to Arkansas in the middle of September so that we can get somewhat settled before Ryan goes to work.

We are very excited about this big change coming up. We have been so blessed! I don't say lucky because I really don't think that it is luck. Ryan didn't get this job because of luck. He got it because he is extremely qualified and he has been working so hard these past three years (How great is that? He's graduating in three years!) just to be prepared for something like this! I am so proud of him and I know that he is going to be great at his new job! He has worked (some full-time and some part-time) the whole time that he has been in school. He has also been a counselor in the bishopric for the past 2 1/2 years. (He just got released yesterday). It is a bittersweet time for us. Rexburg was our first home and it's where we had Harper and where we made our first friends as a married couple. I plan on making a post later about the things we will miss (and not miss) about Rexburg. So be looking for that.

We want to thank everyone for all of your prayers and thoughts and help on our behalf the past couple of months. We know that it is because of those prayers that we are so blessed. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Fun in the Sun

2009-07-06T09:19:00.000-07:00

Here are just a few pictures from when we went to the spray park with some friends.

Lexi, Sophie and Harper (Neopolitan)

Laying in the grass.

Harper and Lexi hanging out. What's new?

Harper + Lexi =

2009-07-04T19:57:00.000-07:00

BFF (Baby Friends Forever)

My friend, Sam, and I were on a walk one day and we looked down to see that our girls were reaching for each other. We slowed down and got close enough and they held hands. ADORABLE!!!

Tagged

2009-06-16T19:20:00.000-07:00

TaNelle tagged me so here it is...

1. What is your favorite color? Green

2. What is your favorite song? My song with Ryan is Forever by: Ben Harper

3. What did you do this month, that was your favorite? Ryan and I got to go to a sealing of a close friend.

4. What is your favorite Candy? Charleston Chew and Sour Patch Watermelon

5. What is something that you really want to learn to do? Fix cars. Everything about them. Then I wouldn't have to pay someone I don't trust to just mess it up more.

6. What is your favorite flower? Daisies and Columbines

7. If you could go anywhere in the world, Where would you go? Greece.

I tag whoever.

Check out this giveaway...

2009-06-14T15:49:00.001-07:00

It's a giveaway for a Shabby Apple dress at www.clothedmuch.blogspot.com

Counting Blessings part 2

2009-06-09T19:11:00.000-07:00

My previous post was about the tough financial situation that we're in and how we have been so blessed recently. Well the blessings just keep pouring in.

I got a package from my mom the other day with some clothes in it. A couple of skirts and shirts. And I really needed some longer skirts just like the ones she sent me. When you have a little one that is becoming quite mobile, it's nicer to have longer skirts that won't come up while you're wrangling said little one and show your unmentionables.

I also got a call from our Relief Society president a couple of hours ago letting me know that a couple in our ward had some leftover baby food (I'm pretty sure this couple doesn't have kids, so I don't know why they would have baby food) and she asked if we needed any. Of course I said "Yes!" It was great!

I just want to say a little something about our Relief Society president. Her name is Sam. She has become a great friend of mine. We go on at least one walk together a day... sometimes two! She is so incredibly thoughtful and willing to serve. She is always offering to babysit. She even told me that she would be willing to help me pack if/when we move and I know she doesn't like to do that! She is an awesome R.S. president as well. We are lucky to have you as a R.S. president, Sam!!! Love you!

Counting my Blessings

2009-06-03T19:43:00.000-07:00

We are poor college students.

I know that the majority of the readers of this blog are also poor college students or understand the meaning of that term.

At the start of our marriage Ryan got a really good job and I was working as well. We had paychecks coming in normally and although we weren't rich in any way, shape or form, I never felt like we were really pinching pennies. We were able to eat well and go out often and buy decent furniture. (It really helped that Ryan's parents own the townhouse and they are pretty much the best "landlords" ever!!!) I quit working when Harper was born and Ryan was very supportive of me being a stay-at-home mom. A little while ago Ryan had to quit his job (a couple weeks before the office shut down) so that he could do his internship. The internship lasted about 4 months and didn't have the best pay. After his internship Ryan started working on campus. Right now he is a TA for 2 teachers and he is an Econ Lab assistant. He is also donating/selling his plasma. It is hard for me to see Ryan do all of these things when I'm not earning any money. I am looking for employment at this time and hopefully something will work out. I don't want to get too specific about our finances, but basically, we're poor.

A few things have happened recently that have really helped out! In a recent post, I talked about our good friends who were moving. Well they are long gone by now (tear :,( ). Before they left they said that they had some food to bring us. I just figured it would be a few things that they had left over. Well, Will brought over two trips worth of stuff. It was great! Also, I was helping Nicole pack and she gave me a bunch of shirts that she didn't want anymore! They also gave us some baby clothes and cleaning supplies. It was so nice of them and I want to let them know how much we appreciate it! Also, I talked to my grandma a little while ago and she's sending me a package with some clothes that she doesn't want anymore (she doesn't dress like a normal grandma, she's totally hip!)

After looking at bills and thinking about tight finances today, all of these things came into my mind and I realized how blessed we are. Our Heavenly Father is truly mindful of us and I know that we will make it and all will be well.

P.S. Ryan has a final interview with corporate Wal-Mart this month the 11th-13th. It would be an incredible opportunity. I am also applying for a job at the office I worked at before Harper was born. So, if you could keep us in your prayers we would really appreciate it.

Trip to Georgia

2009-05-29T10:03:00.000-07:00

Harper and I travelled to Georgia to surprise my dad for his 60th birthday. We got there really late on a Saturday night, so we didn't even surprise him until Sunday morning. We wanted to do something fun to surprise him, but they have church at 8:30 so I needed to get up early so that I could get ready. Harper was still sleeping and I needed to blow dry my hair so I snuck into the hallway as he was coming back inside from taking the dog out and just quietly surprised him there. I didn't video that, but my sister and her little boy were able to get him good, so here is that:

We had an awesome week spending time with our family. I was able to see all of my siblings except for one (love you, Zach!).

We were able to go to the Farmer's Market in Marietta. It was a lot of fun! Please excuse the way I look. Emmi and I had just finished working out. We threw on some cloths and took off to the Market.

Emmi and Devon

Devo and Harper relaxing while this is going on.......

Hayden eating a donut on a string. I think it was shortly after this picture that he bit his mother's finger. Ouch!

Hayden, Harper and Devo in the back seat.

This is just a random picture of Devo bathing in the kitchen sink. Harper did this too. I'm not sure why I only got a picture of Devo.

In my parents' basement they have ceiling tiles for a ceiling and my mom got a really cute idea from a teacher that works a her school.

They paint each grandkid's hand and put their handprints on the ceiling tile. Each family gets a tile. This is the process of doing Harper's handprint.

She was really confused. (nice shot Ez)

Below, is just a random picture that I took, but if you look closely at Hayden's foot, you can see that he is wearing his cousin, Elle's shoes. Pretty darn cute!

Ryan's a Big Sister

2009-05-29T09:37:00.000-07:00

No, Ryan Bell is not a big sister. Our neighbors' daughter, Ryan, is a big sister.

(This post is going to get confusing. When I'm talking about my husband, I will say Ryan B. and when I'm talking about the little girl, I will say Little Ryan.)

A couple of Fridays ago we were playing Bocce Ball in the back yard with our friends the Henkels. As we were playing our other friend Will drove up on his way home from work and said that his wife was in labor. He told us that he was going to check on her and if she was alright then they'd be out to play with us too. (Later they told us that she texted him at work saying "We might be having a baby tonight, but if not we're hanging out with the Bells and Henkels.") It took him a while to come back out and when he did he was alone. He told us that they needed to go to the hospital and asked us if we would be able to watch Little Ryan for them. We stopped the Bocce Ball game and moved the games inside to our place. After we got Little Ryan to bed we resumed the games.

We received a text message from Will around midnight letting us know that Little Ryan's new baby brother was here!

Little Ryan woke us up around 6:30ish the next morning.

She had breakfast and played and had a nap and then we were on our way to go see her baby brother.
She was so excited!!!

This next picture is of me holding the new baby. I haven't told you his name yet because we have a funny joke going on with our friends. When we first started becoming close friends with them, they were pregnant with Ryan. We would always joke and say that they liked us so much that they named their kid after Ryan. Haha. Well, that became even more apparent when they told us that they were naming their little boy, Owen. (For those of you who don't know, my maiden name is Owen.) Owen Eugene....Harper Jeane. I mean come on! Even though they aren't really naming their children after us, it's still fun.

Congratulations Will and Nicole! We love you and we're going to miss you so much when you move! Hopefully, we'll move close by!

Forget Crawling

2009-05-29T09:10:00.000-07:00

As some of you may know, Harper has shown no interest whatsoever in crawling. For a while her main form of transportation was rolling. It was pretty funny. A while ago she started wanting us to help her stand and walk around. She is now walking. She is not completely out on her own yet, but she is very close! Here's proof:

Summer's Here!.....

2009-05-29T08:49:00.000-07:00

Hopefully. You never really know here in Rexburg whether Summer is here to stay or not. Last year we thought it was here and it snowed in June, yes June. A good sign that Summer is in fact here is that the canals are full and flowing with water from all of the snow melting off of the mountains. So, hopefully Mother Nature is satisfied with the amount of snow she has given us this year.

We had a four day weekend this past Memorial Day weekend. Of course Ryan had Monday off and he also had Tuesday off. We just did a lot of relaxing and spending time with each other. We had a little BBQ at our place on Saturday with our newlywed friends Jarom and Jamie. Then on Monday we had some burgers at Ryan's aunt and uncle's place. After we ate, they took us out to the cemetery and we got to see where some of Ryan's relatives are buried.

The Spray Park (mini water park) has opened up, so we decided to take Harper on Tuesday and see how she liked it. It was kind of chilly, so she didn't really get into it that much.

(I apologize for having her pacifier in her mouth in the pictures. She has learned how to grind her teeth. I can't stand the sound and it is obviously not good for her to do that. I'll try to be better about taking it out for pictures.)

The other day my friend, Sam, called and asked if we wanted to join her and her daughter, Alexia, in their little baby pool. Of course we wanted to, so she brought the pool over and we had a great time.

Ella, Lexi, Sam and Harper

The girls are very good at splashing and they managed to get a lot of water out of the pool and onto their mothers.

Filter

2009-05-14T14:57:00.000-07:00

Harper and I have safely returned back to Rexburg from an awesome trip to Georgia to celebrate my dad's 60th birthday. I was a great trip and I was able to see all of my siblings except for one. I am planning on making a post soon with pictures, but before I do that I have a question. We just installed an internet filter on our computer and it works fine but it won't show some pictures on the blogs that I look at. It will show some, but not all of them. And it won't show the follower section on the blogs either. It is the k9 filter and I know that some people in our ward also have the same filter and I just wanted to know if anyone knew how to fix that. Thanks!

Park Fun

2009-04-22T10:12:00.000-07:00

The weather is finally starting to get nicer here and we are taking advantage of it! I usually go on a walk with Harper every day and sometimes we go on two! We went to the park the other day and here are some pictures of our fun times...and a video.

(This is how Harper feels about the Cubs, don't tell her dad!)

Harper and her pal, Lexi getting ready to go to the park.

Green Canyon

2009-04-22T10:02:00.001-07:00

This is the only picture that I have from our trip to Green Canyon, unfortunately. I just had to take it because Ryan put on my sunglasses as he was driving because he had his contacts in and he had his hat to the side like that and I thought he looked like one of those high school guys that wear the big sunglasses. It was pretty funny. He was saying "NO!" as I took the picture.

Well, we went to Green Canyon on the Friday of Ryan's week break between semesters. It is a hot spring indoor pool. It was a lot of fun. The place is really old and not in the best condition, but we still had a good time. We mostly just held Harper in the water and let her play around. When Ryan was in high school (I think) he was a life guard and he taught baby swim lessons. So, he wanted to dunk Harper. I was really nervous when he did it, but she did great! She came out of the water looking surprised, gave a little cough and was fine. Ryan did it a second time a little bit later and she did great again! I am so glad that I have Ryan to do all of the scary stuff like that because I am a wuss. We really don't want our kids to be afraid of water and we want them to be able to swim around and have fun. I think we are well on our way of doing that. Harper is a cute little fish. She loves taking baths and loves water. I don't think she'll ever be afraid of the water.

Easter Miracle

2009-04-14T18:51:00.000-07:00

Don't get too excited about the title of the post. It's probably not much of a big deal to anyone but me.

About 2 weeks ago, I got a call from the music director in our ward asking if I would be willing to participate in a special musical number in sacrament meeting on Easter. The music director is a friend of mine so I agreed to it. She told me that I 'could' be in charge of it and she let me know of a few other girls in the ward who sang. I contacted two other girls and also another girl who is the ward organist/pianist and asked if she would accompany us. They were all very sweet and willing which made my job a lot easier. I looked through the hymn book and decided that we would sing I Believe In Christ. We scheduled a practice the Thursday night before Easter Sunday. I was pretty anxious about the whole thing because I hadn't sung for a crowd in a group smaller than 20 in about 4 or 5 years. We decided during our practice that we would just sing the 1st and 4th verses (to minimize the singing time). After singing it through a couple of times, we thought it might sound nice to add a descant during the 4th verse and have someone sing the tenor part (an octave higher). One of the other girls tried it and she wasn't completely comfortable so I said that I could try. I guess it worked out because the other girls said it sounded great. The girl who was accompanying us said that she really wanted to sing with us. So, we decided that she would play for us for the 1st verse and then stand up and we would sing the 4th verse a capella. Singing a capella makes me nervous because if it isn't exactly right then it sounds HORRIBLE!!! We sang all four parts (tenor and base an octave higher) and we didn't sound half bad. After practicing more we really got it down. We decided to practice again on Sunday right before sacrament meeting just to be sure. The practice went well and we were ready.

We did a great job. I actually saw a sister in the congregation crying. You know you're doing a good job when you see that!

The Train Game

2009-04-14T14:09:00.001-07:00

We have discovered a new game! It is called Ticket to Ride. It is great! If you like games like Settlers of Catan then you will LOVE this game!

We had a triple date night a couple of weeks ago with The Sugdens (Katie and John), and the soon-to-be Christensens (Alex and Orchid). We had a great time snacking, chatting and playing the Choo-Choo game. There is only a max of five players for the game and since there were six of us, we did teams.

Here is a picture of the board. To play the game you have "missions" that you have to complete. I.E. Seattle to Los Angeles. To complete your missions you have to build a train connecting those two cities.

Alex and Orchid. They got engaged right after they left our house!!!!

Playin' the game.

Driving Range

2009-04-10T15:38:00.000-07:00

When Harper was first born we took her to the driving range a couple of times. Since she was just a baby, she mostly just slept in her car seat. A little while ago we had some decent weather and Ryan was itching to get to the driving range. So we went.

Becoming familiar with a golf ball.

Watching Daddy's form.

Playing with a leaf.

FHE

2009-04-08T10:34:00.000-07:00

It's kind of hard to keep the attention of a baby for a very long time. So, it is difficult to think of ideas for Family Home Evening, but we have found something that works well and Harper loves it. We have a painting by Greg Olson of Christ and a little girl that hangs in our living room. It was a wedding gift from Ryan's siblings. We love it! One night for FHE a little while ago, Ryan took Harper over to the painting so that we could start teaching her who Jesus is. She got so excited! She will kick and wiggle and try to grab the picture. We like to think that it is because she recognizes Jesus, but it might be just because of her reflection. It's still pretty cute.

Don't worry, that's not the only thing we do every week for FHE. We let Harper look at the painting each week and then after that Ryan and I have our own lesson together. We try to have Harper listen but if she gets bored, at least we've done something with her.

Dear Zach....

2009-04-05T20:45:00.000-07:00

You would be SO PROUD of me. I walked to and from church in this:

And, the wind was twice as bad as the wind in the video in the post below (I'm thinking between 30-40 mph). I was wearing heels and carrying Harper and two bags. So, you can tell Al Gore it ain't MY fault!

Love,
Ab

Rexburg: The Original Windy City

2009-04-04T20:37:00.000-07:00

My sweet friend, Katie, made a comment on my blog and reminded me that I needed to update.

You know how they say that Chicago is the Windy City? I had always heard that and then my first semester up here at BYU-I I roomed with my now best friend, Sariah, who is from the Chicago area. I remember that she once told me that Chicago was called that because of the "windy" politicians. I had never heard that but I thought it was interesting. I have discussed this with Ryan and he said that Chicago is actually literally windy. I have never lived in Chicago so I can't really say, but I really feel that Rexburg is the original Windy City. It is crazy!!! There have been times that I will be walking outside and I will almost be knocked over by the wind. I am not exaggerating. Here is a video that will give you an idea of the windiness.

Pardon Me

2009-03-23T11:25:00.000-07:00

Sorry about the way the blog looks. I'm trying to get a new look for Spring and I just can't find the right look. It will come soon though. Have a GREAT day.

Bad Combination

2009-03-12T15:52:00.000-07:00

Luckily, she didn't even know that she cut herself. I just looked over and saw little smears of blood on the vent and wall. She was really confused by that band-aid though.

Do I have something on my face?

2009-03-12T15:50:00.000-07:00

Don't try this at home....

2009-03-12T15:46:00.000-07:00

....Or you'll get stuck.

Fun Weekend

2009-03-12T15:39:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, my friend, Sariah, came up to visit and to go to her future sister-in-law's bridal shower. It was a fun weekend, but unfortunately I didn't get nearly enough pictures.

Harper and her BFF Sydney.

Holding hands.

One night we went to the Slam Dunk contest on campus and there were a few other attractions before the actual competition. One of the attractions was Donkey Basketball. Only in Idaho.....

Girl Time

2009-03-11T20:59:00.000-07:00

After trying to put little H to bed twice and failing twice, I figured "Hey, maybe she's not ready for bed..." I got her out of her crib, made her a bottle and took her into my bedroom and set up a nice quiet atmosphere that would help her get into bedtime mode. As you can see in the photo, she is laying in my lap on our bed having her bottle and watching her absolute favorite movie, Finding Nemo. I never knew that 8 month olds could/would get into a movie like this. She is obsessed. Now, of course she won't sit and watch the whole thing but she'll watch a good 10-15 minutes straight and then she'll play and maybe take a break here and there from playing to catch a little more of the movie. I now have the whole entire movie memorized, so if anyone needs to know anything about this movie, just give me a call! Seriously.

This is a picture of Ryan's side of the bed empty :(.

He is in Dallas, TX right now on a trip with the school doing some meeting/interviewing for a job. Our fingers are crossed that something will happen because my sister is in Dallas and Ryan has two brothers in that area as well! Please keep your fingers crossed (and anything else you can cross) and keep us in your prayers. I am so ready to be somewhere closer to family and somewhere warmer. Ryan is ready, too. He wants to be able to golf year round.