High Alert Status!

We are on High Alert Status because this aby could come at any minute. Yesterday I came home from work and I found Sarah pulling weeds in the flower beds, I think she was trying to get labor going, that is what she did, well actually, we thought she was going into labor. She spent the evening having contractions that were pretty regular and intense. My job was to time them and help her get through the pain. We were all ready to go to the hospital, we had the kids shipped off to Jen's house for the night the truck was packed, we had our Dula with us. We didn't want to go tothe hospital until we had to, so we waited, and waited... The contractions didn't change or get any more intense so we decided to just go to bed and see what happens. Sarah woke up with contractions for about an hour but they went away. Today they have been spaced out further and less intense. Sarah believes that tommorrow June 1st is the day. I have to work so we will see what happens. As for now we are still on High Alert Status!

Nesting at it's best... or worse?

Since I shared some slightly embarrassing info about Sam, I thought it only fair to let you in on one of my own little secrets - I have OCD - like crazy. But only regarding the cleanliness of my house. I'm sure some of you have suspected this or we've joked around about it, but it's always been a little secret of ours. Sam's great and is really patient about it and he's a great sport when I ask him to help me deep clean something.

Lately I've been playing it off as nesting, but that horomone has really started kicking in this past week. I have this undeniable urge to get the house ready for the baby. Which has meant of course deep cleaning and reorganizing EVERYTHING in the house. We finally finished with the storage room on Saturday and I have to brag, it's beautiful! I can walk inside, find everything I need, not stepping on buttons or beads which have been spilt out of the craft box. It's a dream come true for me :) Is that sad?

I never remember to take a before picture, but just use your imagination and make it as messy as you can. Now look at the picture, it's gorgeous, isn't it!

Allergic to what?

So funny story. Friday Sam was working at the fire station and they went to the market to pick up lunch. Sam and his captain both bought a mixed fruit salad.

Later that day.....

as everyone was eating lunch Sam's captain mentioned that the kiwi in his salad wasn't ripe and wasn't very good. Sam's kiwi was at the bottom of the bowl and when he got there, he thought he'd try it, to see if his was any good. One taste, not even a real bite, told him it wasn't ripe, so he spit it out.

1 to 2 minutes later....

Sam noticed his mouth starting to get itchy, and then he got a big lump in his throat, and his eyes started watering and itching!

I called him while this was happening and he and his coworkers were googling kiwi allergies to see what they should do. The funny thing is that I think Sam might be a hyperchondriac. He has "chronic" shoulder pain, and he keeps getting this "weird" achy pain in his side which makes it hard for him to breathe, and he's pretty sure his ribs pop in and out on their own. He always has "severe" colds, which he's certain has turned into something worse. The only thing I know for sure is wrong is that he's starting to go deaf from listening to his mp3 player so loudly I can clearly hear it from a few feet away - okay so I'm exaggerating, but just a little. He really is going deaf.

So for everyone that knows a hyperchondriac - here's my advice, go along with it as long as it doesn't cost you money. Anytime Sam wants to go to the doctor for these "symptoms" I convince him to wait another day or so. Or I tell him to go see the chiropractor, which works because he really DOESN'T like to go (I think it challenges his sense of manliness). So far these tatics have worked for us, I hope they work for you too. I'm sure there's a family help line out there and here's links to helpful websites: http://www.webmd.com/ and http://www.allergizer.com/ .

And sweetie, if you're reading this, I really DO believe you have an allergy to kiwis.....

5K for Charlie

This morning we went to Salt Lake for a 5k that Sam signed up to run in. The race was to support the brain injury foundation and we found out about it from one of Sam's coworkers, Shani. She has a nephew, Charlie, who has spinal meningitis in his brain. He's only 9 months old. We have a link to her blog and she has updates about him, and a link on her page to his as well. It's a heart touching story and we hope and pray he gets better soon. There were so many people out to support him and his family today, it was so great!
So this morning I got up at 6 am - just a little side note, I NEVER get up that early, so for me to do that for him, I must love him a whole lot, I just wanted y'all to know that - and got the girls up and we headed out for Salt Lake to meet Sam by 7:3o am for the race. After the race, sorry there aren't any action shots, we went to the playground at the park. We all had fun spending the morning together there. This park was cool too, it had a water playground and the kids could all run around in it and get wet, for FREE. Free is a good thing for our family, so we'll probably go there again this summer. It was a little difficult to convince the kids that the fountains were fun to play in, but after a while, they were having fun. After the park, we all came home and took naps. It was a great day, and we all felt really good for showing our love and support for Charlie and his family. I'm really glad that we could use this opportunity to teach the girls about loving and serving others - Ginger told everyone she saw today about Charlie, they were both really touched by him and his story. If you have a chance, check out his blog and keep him and his family in your prayers!

Mother's Day :)

On Sunday, my mom and brothers came over for dinner after church. We had a really great time visiting and the girls showed off for their uncles of course. They love all their uncles so much that whichever ones happen to be visiting are their favorite's for the day. So, Steven and Kurt got all the attention and were begged all afternoon to play hide 'n seek and to push them on the swings. We love having their uncles over so we get a break! I also just wanted to add that I have the best mom in the world, who's given me a wonderful example of mothering, and I hope that I can be as good of a mom as she is. My husband is more than I deserve, and I can't believe I'm lucky enough to be his wife. He is my lifesaver again and again with the girls when I'm too tuckered out with the pregnancy. He understands if jam is on the floor for a few days too. I love him so much and he's probably going to roll his eyes and then be all humble and say "whatever, Sarah" and then give me a big hug. He's so predictable, just like the romance movies I love. Anyway, I won't gush anymore, it'll embaress him too much.

Meet Matt's Girlfriend!

This past week Matthew's girlfriend, Brooke, came out to visit. She got to meet the fam on her whirlwind visit and from their stories it sounds like it was a great trip for both of them. I asked them if it would be alright to post their photo so y'all could meet Brooke - they said that was fine with them, what they didn't know was what I would write! Just kidding you two, I promise I'll keep it nice. But I couldn't write anything except nice because Brooke is a sweetie. She's an early education major in school, so they kids loved her of course. She served a mission which is how she met Matt - well sort of. She had a companion who's a friend of Matt's. She's outgoing and fun and could muscle a canoe down to the river.... that seems to be a Hale requirement, I had to pass that test too. :) Anyway, here's some photos of their visit.

Help me fix this page!

This is a call for help! I changed some of the settings in the html so I could put another column in the page. I have so much I want to put up, but it would fit best in 3 columns. I have two main problems: I tried adding a column in the html but it wouldn't take it because it doesn't understand another type of float, like topmiddle. It only uses startSide and endSide. The other problem I have is I don't understand half of what I'm looking at. Could someone please help me out? I've tried a few sites online that help you along, but then I'm stuck at the startSide and endSide floats for the column placement. Does anyone understand what I'm talking about?

Oh the other thing I want to do is change the header so it stretches the width of the page setting, but again, don't understand the html lingo entirely.

Please help me!

Day at the Park

We took my mother-in-law to the park on Saturday, for mother's day. We flew our kites when it was windy enough, but the kids caved in to the really cool playground after a while. There was so much for them to do and explore and there were so many kids! It really wore Kaylee and Ginger out, and they were sad to go. When our cousins come out during the summer, we'd love to go there with them!

Day of fishing

I took the girls to the kids fishing pond this morning while while Sarah slept in. I was surprised that they held onto their own rods. Kaylee even reeeled in her first fish with her new Hanna Montana fihing pole.Gingers was unsuccessful with her Batman rod. Kaylee has been very proud of her fish.I put it in a grocery bag and she wanted to hold it all the way home. The girls got their first anatomy lesson when they stood around and watched me clean it. After I cleaned it I put it in a ziplock bag and in the fridge, Kaylee keeps getting it out and playing with it. She acts like its swimming though the air. It is funny but also gross.They are already asking about going again.

The best news!!!

We got some of the best news today! My doctor appointment was with Dr. Parker. He's the best! He's letting the certified nurse mid-wives deliver the baby, I just have to go to him for the appointments. No one feels like the baby is going to have anymore problems because the non-stress tests have been perfect and they're not going to induce! I am SO happy about this. Some people think I'm crazy, but I'm so glad it all worked out. No premie worries, no inducement worries, no baby health worries.
I am so grateful Heavenly Father has blessed us like this. Sometimes we have to walk by faith before any blessings are showered upon us. I'm glad I learned that lesson because now I feel like it'll be easier for me to rely on Heavenly Father for all I need - help with the new baby and the girls, selling our cars, buying a house and anything else that might be coming up. And I know that these health concerns with the baby can change anytime, but I know that Heavenly Father is watching over us and helping us along the way. It's so wonderful to know this. Anyway, I'll get off the podium now. :)
I hope this blog is helping everybody stay updated and I'll keep it posted as much as possible.

My flip flop quiz results.... :)

I chose the pink flip flops with the flowers.

You are a very sweet and sensitive person.
You connect with other people easily.

You're the type of person who feels bad about killing bugs.
You hate to see anyone - or anything - in pain.

Your ideal warm weather place: Thailand

If you want to do it too, here's the link.
http://www.blogthings.com/theflipfloptest/

Visit to the kid's museum :)

We went to the Kid's Discovery Museum at the Gateway in Salt Lake City earlier in April. In preschool Ginger and I were studying the letter B. The museum had an exhibit from Sesame Street about the human body. It was really neat! Kaylee's favorite part was playing in the house and at the pretend store. Ginger's favorite part was the kid police car.

Flower mania

On my mom's birthday we went to the tulip festival at Thanksgiving point in Lehi. I just got a new camera with an option specifically for shooting flowers up close so I've been loving that and here's the pic's I took that day.

Visitors!

My Gramps and Tante Terri visited us from Carson City, Nevada. They came out for my mom's birthday so there are pic's of her b-day too. We had a great time seeing them and they're hopefully moving out here to Utah!

Baby Update - the latest

Whew... we're breathing a sigh of relief tonight folks. We heard from the doctor this evening that the baby's not anemic! Yeah for the baby! and thank you to Heavenly Father for blessing us with this answer to prayers.
You all are beautiful :) .

So Sam got me hooked. I have to say this blogging thing is pretty nifty and as Sam mentioned to me earlier, it's kind of like a family history journal, so I don't feel so bad doing this on a Sunday. Any way, we all stayed home from church today because 3 of the 4 of us were sick, and I'm being Dr. Mom today. But I really haven't done much, since I'm hooked on doing this blog. It's actually all I've done today besides make breakfast. :)

Kaylee and Ginger are resting in bed, watching movies. Their favorite movie is actually Phantom of the Opera, which I don't mind at all since Gerard Butler makes a great Phantom. I keep trying to get a costume for Sam but he says he won't wear it. Too bad!

This past week has been a bit crazy with the baby. We found out that my body is now developing the antibody D, which in Rh - moms isn't good. It attacks the babies blood, which can make it anemic, have a heart attack from stress on it's heart, and cause brain damage from lack of oxygen. We've been monitoring it from the beginning and it's always been the lowest it could be until 2 weeks ago. We got the blood test back on Monday, and I was discharged from my midwife's care because she's a direct-entry midwife, not a certified nurse midwife. I'm now high-risk, so I'm going to a well liked obgyn in my area. I haven't met him yet, but a lot of women I trust recommended him. Wednesday and Thursday I spent most of the day at the perinatologist's office in Salt Lake. He's been monitoring us with ultrasounds every month or two weeks this whole time, depending on how high the baby's blood volume is. If it's high, it suggests anemia in the baby. Wednesday and Thursday it was high enough for amniocentesis, which we did on Thursday. The amnio can tell us two things, if the lungs are mature and can count the billirubin levels which tells us how anemic the baby is. So far we know the babies lungs are mature enough to be born if need be. We're still waiting on the billirubin levels because they did the wrong test. Hopefully we'll have results on Monday. From there we'll know whether or not the baby needs to be delivered now or if we can monitor the baby until it comes on it's own. We know that everything will be fine with whatever happens and we're excited the baby can come at anytime! We're soooo not ready, I don't have a cradle or anything out yet, but hopefully I have some time this week!

If you didn't know already we're looking for a house. We'll move probably sometime in June when Sam has vacation lined up. So if you come to visit us, you'll need a new map.

Well Sam says I'm rambling so I should go before I bore you all and you never visit us again. Let us know if you have a blog and we'll add you to our links!

We jumped on the band wagon

We may have started this because of peer presure, but I think it was okay to give in on this one. I told Sarah that starting a blog will help us save on cell phone minutes. Now she won't have to call everyone and talk to eveyone individually and say the same thing over and over. Now we can just post it once and then it will be done (I hope).