Twins! (Our little bursts of sunshine)

Hi!
If you haven't noticed my new widget to the right, I'M PREGNANT and it's Twins! We can scarcely believe it! Starting off, my hormones were 3x what they should be and I have been so nauseated. Work has been hard and I have learned to always have crackers nearby. Hopefully It will only last until the 3rd trimester.

Today was our first OB ultrasound; much anticipated might I add. After what happened last time, it was such a tear-jerker as we watched for the first time, those little pictures come on the screen. As our Doctor was measuring them, we saw their heartbeats flickering and almost their whole bodies were moving. They were very healthy and doing well: measuring 11mm and both had a 144 beats per minute. We are so excited to become parents! They are due the first week of February, however with them being twins, most likely they'll come a month early!

Below is our first ultrasound picture. It makes me cry looking at it and truly knowing that the Lord knows what he's doing with our lives if we just will patiently wait upon him. There really is sunshine beyond the clouds.

An Update at last.. .

Ok, so it has been forever since I have made a blog entry. The date can attest to that. February was a crazy month for us. Earlier in the month, we had learned that Christian’s Aunt Cheryll had a tumor in her pancreas that has progressively gotten worse. Well on Valentine’s Day, the tumor had blocked off her bile valve and causing her liver to shut down. We went to the hospital that day where doctors placed a shunt in order for it to work properly. We spent the rest of the evening there, spending time with her husband, Christian’s Uncle Jeff. After this surgery, she never recovered from the anesthetic and her body began to quickly shut down. Christian’s dad flew out, since it was his sister, and spent 7 days with us. It was good to spend time with him when he was here. His dad then flew back last Sunday for the funeral that was March 3^rd. I came away from the funeral wishing I had known her better but also grateful for the plan of Salvation that makes it possible to get to know her better in the future.

In the amount of time we spent at the hospital, Christian and I realized how precious life really is. We don’t know how long we’ll be here on this earth and we need to make the best of the time that we have. As we walked out of the hospital, one night, I met a teenage girl, waiting for her someone to pick her up from the hospital. She didn’t look more than 16 or 17 years old and she was holding a brand new little baby that was born the day before. I watcher her face as she was truly in awe of this little life. As I walked away from her, my heart full, it brought tears to my eyes as I contemplated the true circle of life.

Also in early February, we spent time on Whidbey Island where Christian’s great Aunt and Uncle live. In visiting them we confirmed some genealogy so we could begin to work on his family line. I learned that Christian’s great grandparents were born in Italy and were married there and then immigrated to America in 1920. It was incredible to see the scanned pages from Ellis Island that shows their names. We took 4 individuals (his great-great-grandparents) and were baptized in the temple in behalf of them. What an experience that was! Neither of us had done family names before in the baptistry and it was amazing. We felt like we really did something and felt they had truly accepted our service. The next month, March, we did the initiatory, endowments and sealings for one of the couples. It was a very sacred experience for us and we plan to return soon to complete the same for next couple. Just knowing that I have their name cards sitting on my computer, it is so very real to me that they are waiting for US to complete their work. It is up to us to complete their ordinances here that they can do there in heaven.

25 Random things about me....

I did this on Facebook, and thought my non-Facebook readers might enjoy it.
It's just 25 random things, facts, memories, goals, ideas etc.

Here goes:

1. I grew up the 5th of 11 children. I had siblings born when I was in 1st grade, 4th grade, 8th grade and 12th grade.
2. My littlest sister, Brittany was born the day of the Highland, Homecoming dance.
3. I met my husband in a Church history class at BYU. Our first date was on April 19th and were engaged 2 weeks later. We just knew.
4. I don't have a middle name. None of my sisters do.
5. I love to watch Lost, American Idol, and movies on the Hallmark channel.
6. I've lived in 4 states: Idaho, Utah, Kansas and Washington.
7. This year marks 5 years that I've been working for UPS. Currently I help to coordinate Boeing's Ocean Freight.
8. I love to put together puzzles and think I better start doing ones with 1000 piece because ones with 500 are too easy.
9. Last month, I was called to be a Laurel adviser and I love it.
10. I am the pianist for the ward choir and enjoy learning new pieces. I hope to teach piano lessons as soon as I have a piano of my own.
11. I have darling pug named Maddie. I don't even want to think of life without her. She's our little girl.
12. I love to watch Kansas Basketball games with my husband.
13. I love the milder winters here in Seattle. It is nice not have to worry about snow and not have to scrape our windows in the morning that often.
14. My mom was my 4-H leader as a kid. I can crochet, knit, sew, walk the fashion runway, name trees, and know the names of star constellations. So much of what I can do and know I owe to my mother.
15. I absolutely love to learn new things. My husband thinks I'm crazy that I loved going to school so much.
16. I have a brother on a missing in Sacramento, California. (It is the same mission that my husband served in). He'll be home in May!!
17. My husband is a cancer survivor. The summer before his senior year of high school, they found cancer in his brain. It came back a year later and threw him in a 6 month coma. He was 2 years late going to BYU but because he was late, he met me just in time.
18. I've recently got really interested in family history. My mother-in-law is a convert and there is a lot of temple work to be done.
19. Referring to 18, I'm excited to attend the temple this weekend in behalf of my real ancestors.
20. I love reading however once I start I can never put it down. If it's good, I'm up all night finishing it.
21. I yearn for children of my own.
22. Regarding 21, we attempted a round of IVF but I miscarried at 10 weeks last July. We plan to start another in another month. We almost have the first $12K paid off.
23. I am the proud aunt of 17 nieces and nephews.
24. I love facebook because it is so much easier and fun to keep in touch with people.
25. I love any kind of sweets and always have something close by that I can grab.

Catching up...

Okay.. so it's been awhile since my last post. Here is a little about life as we know it.

Last Saturday, while we were shopping at Old Navy, we got word that his mother was in the hospital with abdominal pain. It came on really sharp and she thought she better go to the ER. It turned out that her pancreas was enlarged and causing a significant amount of pain. She spent almost an entire week there and just came home last night. The doctors did many types of tests and nothing could explain why her pancreas was enlarged. I'm grateful that she is doing better now, but it was hard to have someone you love in pain but be so far away from them. When this happened, you realize how truly precious life is.

Then Thursday night, our pug Maddie had a series of 3 seizures. She has had a few before; it's been nearly 14 months since her last one. As we held and comforted her, it was so hard to watch her jerk and listen to her moan. She is all we really have and don't know what we'd do without her. I always get a little taste of how helpless my mom felt when I had febroric seizures when I was younger. Thankfully, I grew out of them. This morning, we took Maddie to the vet because we were so worried and felt like these were worse than her other ones. She gave us a dose of valium to give her at the onset to stop another one from starting. Hopefully for our and Maddie's sakes, it will be a while before she has another one.

And now for some good news....As Christian was paying bills this week, he called me at work to tell me that we have only $2900 more to go on our IVF loan of $12,000. I'm so grateful that we have been blessed financially to have children this way. Hopefully within a couple months, we can start a second IVF cycle. We can't wait to give Maddie a human brother or sister some day.

Christmas Season to Remember

We had a Christmas Season to remember. It was action packed: full of funny and happy moments and then moments of absolute fright.

We began our drive to Chubbuck, Idaho on Saturday, December 20. On the Snoqualmie pass, the roads weren't totally clear but they were passable. On the other hand, our drive through the Blue Mountains in Oregon was just plain scary. Many times we couldn't see the road and other times, we would hold our breath as semis would barrel their way past us. Christian and I were very grateful, 12 hours later, to finally arrive in Chubbuck. We had a quick dinner, spent some time with the family and then spent the majority of the evening with Beverly and the kids watching BYU in the Las Vegas Bowl. Unfortunately BYU lost and our hope was suspended until next year.

During the days leading up to Christmas Day we did so many things: visited and hung out with family, finished our Christmas shopping, put together many puzzles, and watched the snow as it continued to fall. Unfortunately Christmas Eve didn't begin as well as we'd hoped. Christian had the flu for most of the morning and couldn't keep anything down. He slept most of the morning and early afternoon while I took care of him, and hung out with family. I was happy that by Christmas Eve dinner, he was able to keep down dry toast and our infamous 10-layer jello that we had made. My favorite part of the evening was when we sat in the living room and listened to Amy and Brittany play duets and sing Christmas carols around the piano. It reminds me of the many times we would act out the Nativity and run around trying to find just the right costume to play our part.

Christmas morning brought a lot more snow and a strong wind to blow it all around. It literally was an adventure for Mom to dig out Grandma and bring her over for Christmas morning. We enjoyed the morning unwrapping presents and staying warm and cozy inside away from all the snow. Then we spent a good part of the afternoon playing my new DVD game of "Who's smarter than a 5^th grader." Some of the questions, I don't even remember learning about in the 5^th grade. I think my little brother, Bryan was better than all of us. :)

The day after Christmas was so busy. Busy with doing as much as we could before leaving Saturday morning. That night (Friday) Christian and I went to a High School Party that was hosted by one of my friends. I got to see so many friends from high school, meet their children and husbands. Despite the snowy roads getting there, we had a lot of fun talking to people there. Christian was a little bored but soon got talking to one of the guys there that was very similar to him.

Early Saturday morning, the roads were relative good. However by the time we got to Boise and Mountain Home, snow was blowing all over the road. Entering in Oregon, we could no longer see the roads. We passed a sign telling us the necessity to chain up. We tried to follow the instructions but finally asked a worker (he was helping the semis) to help us. We drove on them for about 50 miles at about 30 miles an hour. However they broke and we ended up removing them. We stopped in Baker City where ODOT had shut down I-84 because of the wintry conditions. After stopping at a Les Schwab, we learned 1) that we weren't supposed to keep our chains on that long, 2) we weren't supposed to go faster than 30mph, and 3) we were told that supposedly our little Honda would be "just fine" without them. We finally found a hotel and got some much needed lunch. After lunch, we watched college football in our room and took a long nap. The next day, we got up early and headed out on much better roads. The last leg of our journey (Snoqualmie Pass) was all snow packed and quite scary. We made it through safely and just in the nick of time. We found out later that they were closing down the pass 15 minutes later for some Avalanche work. We were so grateful to finally be home after 2 long days of traveling on icy roads.

Even though Christmas time was stressful due to the weather, we didn't let the weather dampen our spirits. We really enjoyed spending time with family as we celebrated Christmas. We loved making Evelyn smile and even hearing her giggle. I realized that I got addicted to puzzles when I was home because I started one here immediately and haven't stopped doing them since. We look forward to this New Year and hope to have our IVF loan paid off in another month. Then we'll start the arduous process again with hope the timing is right.

Belated Thanksgiving Highs and Lows

So I know it is already the 7th of December but I wanted to write about our Thanksgiving this year. We flew out to Kansas City to spend the better part of the week with Christian's parents and siblings. Here is a list of the Highs and Lows of our trip.

Lows

• Knowing firsthand the frustrations of missing our connecting flight and "almost" having to spend the night in Denver. (Because of weather delays, all the flights were delayed). They first told us that the next available flight was Monday evening but then we got on flying standby (I don't suggest it ever again).
  
• Spending 6 1/2 hours in the Denver airport waiting to get on a plane to go home
• Missing Maddie (we boarded her at the vet and had friends pick her up on Saturday
• Coming home at 10:30 on Sunday night, and waking up for work the next morning (now that's a harsh reality)

Highs

• Visiting and spending time with Christian's family
• Having out "own" Christmas with his family (they surprised us but decorating the house and letting us unwrap our presents early).
• Cheering on KU beating up on Mizzou in Football. For those who watched, wasn't that the greatest game? We scared a few people with our screaming, we were at a restaurant.
  
• Saw beautiful snow falling (it snowed all day Saturday and Sunday, 29th #& 30th)
• When I was there, I met former co-workers for lunch and caught up with them.
• Meeting my sister-in-law's boyfriend, and loving the fact that she was just so happy. (She has had a hard time and it makes us so happy to see her happy too)
• Talking to my mother-in-law about family history (she's a convert)
• In returning to Seattle, we met one of Christian's friends that was in the KUPT program. It was nice to have someone we knew at the airport to sit and talk to.
• Taking many family pictures (his sister is very good with photography, I wish I was)
  

How incomplete life would be with our Maddie!

Maddie is our spoiled and much loved 5-year old pug. You might have seen her pictures posted on my blog from time to time. :) She means so much to Christian and me. By the end of the post, I hope that you'll see how much.
We got Maddie in February 2005 when she was not quite 1 years old. Christian's mom is a veterinary nurse at an animal hospital. One of her patients had a young pug and he felt that he couldn't give her the best of care anymore. He was a truck driver and was gone 2 or 3 days in a row a week. He asked if she knew anyone that might want her. My mother-in-law couldn't say no. She brought her home and asked if we wanted her (at the time, she had 4 pugs and didn't want 5). We immediately said yes and now we wonder how life would be without her.
When we got home, we noticed two things. Her previous owner had taken her to obedience school and that she was house-trained. For example, as we were playing with her that first day, we say in jest, "sit" or "down" and we were surprised as she would immediately obey. Then later that day, we looked up from sitting on the couch and she was sitting by the wall by the front door. She was telling us she needed to go outside. We were so grateful that we didn't have to teach her those things.
All through Christian's schooling and the long nights that he waited tables, she kept me company. Every where I went, she'd follow. She was either cuddled up in my lap snoring or begging from me as I ate my dinner. When Christian would call to tell me that he was on his way home, I would look at her and say, "Maddie, Daddy is on his way home." She would yip and whine until he came home. Once he came home, she would say hello to him and then wait patiently while he took his shoes of, and then proceed to lick them clean. He worked at Carrabbas at the time and who knows the good tastin' stuff he'd step in!
In the first few years, that we had Maddie, we rarely let her sleep in bed with us. Now that has completely flipped. Ever since we moved from Kansas to Washington, she has always been in bed with us. Whether it is at the end of the bed, or under the covers, or even snuggled up to one of us. Maybe, it's because she started sleeping later (or at least until our alarm clocks go off in the morning). In the last month, she started doing something repeatedly that is so cute. At night, she'll be curled by the side of us or on the edge of the bed. Then about 4-4:30 in the morning, she walk up between us to the top of the bed and and paw our shoulders to be let in under the covers. Sometimes she also paws us while begging for some of our dinner or when she just wants to come into our laps to cuddle.
Maddie is so much a part of our family; we think of her as our little girl. I know it's related to the fact that we've struggled for so many years to have children and she's become that child to us. I have felt that even more strongly after my miscarriage in July that she has managed to fill that void and also comfort us with hope that one day, she will have a human brother or sister that will love her as much as we do.