Micah, Callie, Gareth and Kahlan

Playing catch up

2011-05-21T12:14:00.000-07:00

Ok, I am so bad at blogging it's not even funny. I feel like a horrible mother since I never post about my wonderful children. Lot's has happened for us over the last year. We moved back to MS in OCT of 2010. I have decided to go back to school full time and Micah is still trying to decide what he is going to do...haha I was originally going to school for Radiology but have just recently decided to change my major and go into Physical Therapy. I'm actually really excited about it. I just finished my first semester back in school after 9years and ended up with 3 A's and 1 B, which landed me on the Dean's List....yay me!!!! The kids are loving being here in MS and getting to see their cousins all the time. Gareth has a really hard time saying goodbye when he gets to play with them. He always cries and begs to go home with them. It's actually a little heartbreaking to see how hard it hits him. Kahlan is full of personality and is constantly making us laugh. She is going to give us a run for a money the older she gets. She loves to pick on Gareth and to mess with him. I have a feeling that when she gets older and is big enough that she might just kick his butt. Gareth goes for pre-k evaluation on Thursday, we are keeping our fingers crossed that he gets in. If he does then he will start in August and will be in school Mon-Fri from 8-2. Well, this is my attempt at jumping back into blogging, hopefully I will do better and can write about all the funny stuff that my kids do on a daily basis to keep you all entertained...haha

Checking In

2009-11-06T20:07:00.000-08:00

Ok, so everyone knows i'm totally horrible at this blogging. You would think I would have so much to write about with a 2 year old and a 3 month old. So, let me give some updates. Gareth has been doing really well with his potty training up until this last week. He is trying to regress a little, he will pee his undies and then come to me with a big grin on his face and say "Potty." He's totally just doing it for the attention, so a friend gave me the idea that everytime he has an accident to strip him down and stick him in the shower with ice cold water and explain that we have to get him clean since he had an accident. He hates showers anyways and when it's freezing cold he hates it even more, he cries and shakes and says "Cold." It totally breaks my heart to be so mean but i've got to get it through to him that peeing in his pants is not a game. Other than that he is doing really well, he is starting to try my patience a lot more than he use to but that's a typical 2 year old. He's loving being a big brother and constantly wants to help with her in some way. He always wants to give her her binkie, and gets mad when i do it. Micah finally got his app in for the FD, we are just waiting on his letter inviting him to test. He is doing really well in his class and is basically the teacher's pet, it's totally cute. He's decided he's probably going to take 2 or 3 more classes next semester and is planning on having his Firefighter I by the end of next year, that way if he doesn't get on with City this time, he can get on the reserves here in Boulder once he gets his FF I and then they just move him up to full time employment when someone transfers out or an opening comes available.

Kahlan is getting big and doing really well. At her 2 month check up she was 12lbs 2 oz and 21 1/2 inches long. She is a little chunker....It's so stinking cute. Our pediatrician said since she was nursing so well that she will probably wait til she is 6 mos old to start her on solid foods, which is fine by me. She is such a great little baby, she smiles ALL the time, especially when she sees or hears her Daddy. She is a total Daddy's girl. She sleeps pretty good too, she normally goes down about 8:30 and sleeps til 5:30 or 6:30, goes right back to sleep for another hour or two after that. She's recently discovered her hands a feet more and is constantly attacking her hands. We are so blessed to have two wonderful, healthy children. We are hoping to get back to MS around Christmas time so everyone can see Kahlan, plus i'm just dying to go home and see my family.

Halloween was a lot of fun this year. We were afraid Gareth wasn't going to wear his costume and that he was going to be to scared to even trick or treat. He is going through this scared phase, everything is "pooky" (spooky). He was terrified of halloween sections in stores and scared to death of halloween stores in general. He would scream and cry "Scawy Scawy, Help ME, Help ME, " but he did great on Halloween. He loved his costume and we were hardly able to get him to take it off and he was bouncing from house to house. He loved being a Dino. He loves Dinosaurs and that is pretty much all that consumes him and his days. It's way cute. Kahlan was a Ghost for Halloween and i think she was the cutest ghost i've ever seen. Next week is the annual Aviation Nation Air Show at Nellis Air Force Base and we CANT WAIT!!!

Welcome Kahlan Gael

2009-08-22T18:26:00.000-07:00

WEll it has been two weeks so i figure it's about time that i announce the arrival of Kahlan Gael Andersen. I was scheduled to have an amnio the morning of the 10th and scheduled to be induced on the evening of the 10th. I guess Kahlan had a different plan in mind, a lot like her brother. I was scheduled to be induced on my due date with Gareth and went into labor 2 days before which is exactly what happened with Kahlan. I started having contractions on Saturday morning around 10:30 and they stayed consistantly 5 min apart, at around 1 I called my dr and he told me to wait another hour and call him back. Well, after an hour they were 2 min apart but they weren't progressing in strength so I called my dr and he told me to get my butt to the hospital...haha his exact words....love my OB he's the best. So, we started getting ready, Micah took Gareth to the Jorgensen's and came back and picked Mom and I up and off we went. We got to the hospital at about 3:30 or 4 (can't rem exactly). They put me in a room and started me on fluids b/c I was having "irritation" between my contractions and they wanted to knock that out so they could see my actual contractions and how often they were coming. After receiving 2 bags of fluids the nurse came in and said that the dr wanted her to give me phenagrin and morphine. Apparently if you are in labor morphine will push you deeper into labor and if it's false labor it will actually stop your labor so this was the best way to determine for sure if i was in actual labor. BRING ON THE MORPHINE, i slept for about an hour and half to two hours, they gave me the morphine at 7 and when i woke up i was still contracting and the nurse announced that we would be staying and we were for sure going to be welcoming our little girl soon. She checked me around this time and i was dilated at a 4-4 1/2, but they didn't want to break my water b/c Kahlan wasn't dropping low enough and due to my high fluid they were afraid if they broke my water to soon that she would drop to fast and the umbilical cord would get wrapped around her head. So, we all just went to sleep and waited..haha They woke me up around 3 and checked me again, i was almost a 5 so they went ahead and broke the flood gates...haha and called the anesthesiologist for my epidural. The anesthesiologist got there around 4 and and gave me my epidural which was great but i really wasn't feeling to much anyways thanks to the morphine. My dr called around 5 and was wondering why i hadn't delivered yet, he was a little ticked that they had waited so long to break my water but oh well...haha he had them go ahead and start me on potosin. After that i started to progress really fast, i was dilated about a centimeter an hour or a little more. They called my dr at 8:30 since i was dilated to an 8, and he got there a little before 9. I was dilated at a 9 when he got there and we started pushing. He had them turn off my epidural when he got there but i still wasn't feeling anything and the morphine was still holding strong and i was chilled as can be. I pushed for 30 min and at 9:27 am we welcomed Kahlan Gael weighing 7lbs 1 oz and 19 1/2 in long. It was the best labor experience ever. She was born right at 37 weeks and was as healthy as can be. She has been the best little baby. She will be 2 weeks old tomorrow. She has been jaundice since we brought her home but it started clearing up and going away around Wednesday. She is awake for about 4-6 hours a day and sleeps and eats really well. She has been such a blessing to our little family. Gareth struggled with having her here for the first few days but on day 6 he held her for the first time and ever since he has been loving the role of big brother and is wanting to hug and kiss her all the time. We were afraid Gareth would revert on on his potty training when we got her home but he picked up right where we left off and he is doing great. He still wears a pull up during naptime and at night but he stays dry all day. My heart is so full and I feel so blessed to have such a wonderful husband and to have these 2 amazing children. I am recovering well and we are loving life.

Dr appt

2009-07-29T07:53:00.000-07:00

I had my weekly dr appt yesterday. Everything still looks good, i'm still dilated at a 1 and 60%efaced. He did decide that because my fluid level remains high and the increasing problems i'm having breathing and the pressure in my shoulders that if she doesn't come on her own in the next week and a half he is going to schedule an amnio for the morning of the 10th and will prob induce that afternoon if her lungs are mature enough. I go for our growth assessment tomorrow so we will have a good idea of how big she is. So, no matter what i know we will have her here in less than 2 weeks!!!

So, we have been working on potty training for almost a week now. Gareth is doing so well, he hasn't had an accident in 3 days, i'm thinking it may take another full week for him to be completely trained. I was hoping to have him trained by the end of this week but i'm thinking it may take a little longer...we'll see. He's still not asking and wanting to go, i'm still having to say "Ok, let's go sit on the potty." He is getting increasingly excited for his new baby sister. I think it is finally starting to sink in that mom is having a baby and that he is gonna be a big brother. He goes with us to my fetal assessment appointments and he gets so excited. As soon as we get into the room and he sees the monitor he starts smiling and saying "Baby Kahlan" before they even get me hooked up. He is such a good boy, he sits there the whole time and just loves to watch her. The days that we get pictures from our ultrasounds he has his hand outstretched for baby kahlan and he keeps the pictures with him until we get home. It's so cute. Gareth is soooo big. Everywhere we go, people comment on how tall he is and are so shocked to learn that he is only 2. He's as tall as a lot of friends with 3 and 4 yr olds. He towers over the 3 yr olds and is about the same size as the 4 yr olds, it's crazy!!! He's suppose to be my little boy but he is sooooo big. He is full of sooooo much personality and is making us laugh all the time. He has this new thing where he will tell you he wants something for example he loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and last night he wanted to watch it and asked his Daddy for Mickey but then continued to have his own conversation with himself and this is how it went "Mickey, mickey, what do you say.....please.....ok ok.....now what do u say......Ank you (thank you).....ok ok.....you welcome." We were laughing because he kept saying this over and over, he probably had that same conversation with himself like 4 times. This is our normal routine, when he ask for something i always ask him "what do you say" and he will say "please" and once i give it to him i say "Now what do you say" and he will say "Thank You" and i'll say "your welcome" and he says "you welcome." We are also working on "Yes sir, No sir, Yes Mamam and No Mamam." I am bound and determined for my kids to show respect b/c most dont out here. It's so different from growing up in MS. PLus, it makes you feel good when you are out places and someone gives him something and he always says "Thank you" and people are always commenting on how polite he is.

Preg update

2009-07-22T07:30:00.000-07:00

I'm sure most of you know about my issues the last few weeks but for those who dont i thought i would blog about it. I went in for my regular scheduled ultrasound earlier in the month and when they measured my amniotic fluid it measured 24.5, which is considered to be high. So, they started scheduling me twice a week for NST ultrasounds and stress test to monitor Kahlan and to check my fluid. The next week when we went back my fluid had jumped to 27.2 cm, but then went back down 2 days later to 25cm. The issues with high amniotic fluid is it can cause your body to think you are further along than you actually are and can cause pre-term labor which i experienced last Wednesday at 33 1/2 wks. They gave me two bags a fluid thinking that i was possibly dehydrated and that was what was causing me to go into labor but the fluids didn't stop the contractions so they had to give me shots to stop them. 3 shots later and 3 hours later they finally stoppped, but not before they gave me steroid shots to help mature her lungs. I was sent home on bedrest and then the next night (Thursday) i started contracting again and had to go back to the hospital for another 3 shots to stop my contractions. My Mom flew out on Friday to help since i was put on bedrest and Micah works weekends. I saw my dr yesterday and i'm still dilated at a 1 and about 60% efaced but he said if i go into labor after Saturday (I will be 35 wks) that he wont stop me and I can get off bedrest...yay!!! If she hasn't made her appearance by 37wks they will probably do an amnio and if her lungs are mature enough, he will induce me.

2009-06-10T10:16:00.000-07:00

So much for potty training. I was hoping to really push it this week and try to have Gareth potty trained by the time Micah got back from his trip on Friday but alas he will not cooperate. Every morning i get up and change him and say "let's put on big boy underwear and you can go potty on the big boy potty." And what does he do??? He whines and says "No, no, no, diaper" and will go and get a pull up. He refuses to wear his big boy underwear. He had actually been showing more interest this last week so i though we'd have some luck this week but i guess not.

7 months preggo!!!

2009-06-08T13:00:00.000-07:00

Woohoo, i can't believe how fast this pregnancy has seemed to go. She is growing and making it harder and harder for me to breath, ugh!! I never had that with Gareth, alot of the time i have to yawn in order to get a deep breath. We've had so many ultrasounds this pregnancy and we have one more next month. Our latest was our 2nd 4D and Micah was able to be there for this one. She looks just like her daddy!!! She is soooo precious and i just can't wait for her to get here. I've had sciatica problems pretty much the whole pregnancy but i increased my workout routine about a month ago and since doing that I have been pain free. It has been such a blessing. Working out is giving me so much energy and i feel 1000 times better, plus i know she is enjoying it b/c she is moving more. She is a pretty quiet and laid back baby. Gareth was so busy when he was in my belly, he use to do barrel rolls across my tummy and kicked ALL the time. She is much more subtle and really only gets active in there about 4 times a day. Gareth is going to be such a great big brother!!! He loves little babies and he's always kissing my stomach and saying "Baby Sissy" or "Kahman"...haha I love how he says Kahlan, it is so cute. He is growing and changing so much everyday. He is sooooo smart. I know as a Mom i'm suppose to think that but people are constantly telling us how smart he is for his age. When he turned 2 he already knew the whole alphabet including recognizing each letter and could count to 20. Now he does all of that, knows all his colors, all his shapes, can count backwards from 10, can count by 10 up to a hundred (we are working on counting backwards from 100) and knows the sounds that each letter makes. He is always thinking. It's so amazing, he totally thinks outside of the box, if you give him a chip, he refers to it by it's shape, when we walk down the grocery store isles he is constantly picking out numbers and letters in places you'd never think to look. I love that he is so eager to learn, I hope Kahlan is the same way. He is still a big love bug. He loves giving hugs and kisses and wants to give them to you ALL the time. It's the greatest feeling when you leave, even if it's just to go to the gym for an hour, and you come home and he just runs and gives you the biggest hug and kiss. I love it!!!

Micah is gone all this week on high adventure with the YM. This is his first time going and i know he is going to have a blast. They are staying at a members cabin in Beaver, UT and hiking 4 miles one night to do a big camp-out by a lake. Im sure he will have lots to tell when he gets back. Gareth and I are missing him so much already, he's only been gone a few hours but this is the first time he's ever left us and it isn't easy. He finished his EMT-I on May 8th and he passed his written exam the first time he took it which is pretty rare. Most people have to take it twice. We are so proud of him and his diligence and hard work. He is now looking for part time work to get some experience and will start a fire science class at CSN in September. He is working so hard and doing everything he can to prepare for the FD and I am extremely proud of him. I am married to the most amazing man!!!! I will forever be grateful for all that he has sacrificed and had to go through in order to provide for our family. I thank my Heavenly Father for him everyday.

Well, that about sums up all that is going on for us. I'm trying to be better about posting but i'm just not...haha

2009-04-14T09:12:00.000-07:00

2009-04-14T08:29:00.000-07:00

So, Gareth is showing a little bit of interest in potty training but not near enough. We can't lay him down for naps in just a tshirt and diaper anymore b/c he will take is diaper off and pee in the crib or if he has pooped, then he will play in it and smear it EVERYWHERE. So, this last week we went to the dr and found out that he has a sinus infection so he has been on some heavy duty antibiotics that are causing him to have diarrhea. He has really bad diaper rash so i've been trying to do some potty training but it has been a no go. He will go and sit on the potty but will never go. On Saturday, we laid him down for his nap with pants on and a tshirt, 40 min late Micah went to check on him and he had been digging in his diaper and smearing poop all over him and all over the crib. So i'm pretty sure these are all signs that we should be potty training and i'm totally trying but he just really doesn't want to go yet. It's driving me nuts.

We had a great Easter. We had 2 really great talks in sacrament meeting and our ward choir sand 2 really beautiful songs along with 1 song from the primary children. After church, we had a small egg hunt with Gareth which he loved and then Gareth and I went to the Jorgensen's for Easter dinner. Nothing exciting has happened thus far this week, it is a pretty busy week though. I'll try to stay on top of things and update when something fun happens..haha

Bad Start

2009-04-08T07:42:00.000-07:00

Ok, so this is a total frustration post. We haven't even been up an hour and already Gareth has dumped a box of cereal onto my couch and as i'm cleaning that up and picking up the rest of the house he is playing with his fire truck on the kitchen table. I go into the kitchen and he has his fire truck in one hand and the salt shaker in the other, he had dumped the WHOLE shaker onto the table and floor and was running his fire truck through it. I have a feeling this is going to be a very LONG day.

Yesterday we took Gareth back to the dr for a check up since his cough has gotten worse and he's been getting stuffier at night and he doesn't have an upper resp. infection, he has a sinus infection. Dr. Conti started him on antibiotics on top of everything else we are doing and said if he's not better in 2 weeks to bring him back and he wants to send us to an ENT to have his tonsils looked at. Poor baby boy, he hates going to the dr. WEll, as of right now that's all to update but if Gareth keeps going the rest of the day the way he has this morning i may have another post...lol

To big, Too Fast

2009-04-02T07:42:00.000-07:00

Ok, so my tummy is growing way to fast with this pregnancy. I know it's normal when it's your second but gosh dang it i dont like it. I suck at blogging, as you are well aware. Maybe i will be better when Kahlan gets here, haha hopefully I will have more to write about.

I will be 19 wks on Saturday. This pregnancy seems to be going by a lot slower than Gareth's. We found out last week for sure that she is a girl, which i knew she was the whole time..haha This pregnancy has been a lot different than the first. I'm still having sciatic pain, with Gareth it only lasted my 1st trimester but it continues to flair atleast everyday if not every other day. I think i'm still having it because she sits low. Gareth sat high and she is sitting pretty low. Atleast i'm hoping that's why i'm still having it.

I quit my job 2 weeks ago. This is my second week being at home full time. Last week didn't really feel like I wasn't working. We had to go to Vegas pretty much everyday for something here and there. I had to take Gareth to the Dr., he just had an upper resp. infection, nothing to bad thank goodness. I cut 4 peoples hair on Tuesday night and then had 2 haircuts and a color on Saturday. I felt like i was more busy last week than i was when i was working. I'm watching 2 little girls for 4 hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays, they are 2 and 3 and Gareth loves to play with them.

Gareth is growing way fast and talking so much. He is such a smart little boy. He knows all of his ABC's and can count to 20. His favorite thing in the world is for us to write letters and him to tell us what they are, or for us to spell words and him to learn new words. He knows tons of shapes, thanks to an ELMO game we have he even knows what an octagon is. We are still working on colors, i think he knows them, but is unwilling to say them, or atleast that is my observation. He is loving that my belly is growing. He will come up to me when i'm laying on the couch and start pulling my shirt up saying "Baby" and pointing to my belly. I'll say "Yes, Baby sister is in momma's tummy" and he'll say "KISS" and kiss my belly and give it loves. It is the cutest thing ever. Yesterday Micah got out of the shower and Gareth of course had to go in the bathroom to see him. Micah starts telling me, "well, i'm officially fat. Gareth just pointed to my stomach and said "Baby"." I just busted up laughing, it was the funniest thing ever.

Micah is almost finished with his EMT-I class. He only has 4 weeks left. I can't believe how fast this class has gone by. He is loving it. He has had 2 clinicals in the hospital and both have been great learning experiences. His last one was this past monday and he did about 12 IV's and 12 blood draws, which is what he really needed to practice b/c that will be a lot of his normal day to day calls.

Well, i hope i have caught everyone up on everything. Not much else is going on that i can think of at the moment but then again, my brain has been completely fried by this pregnancy. Maybe i will think of something later.

News

2009-02-16T09:30:00.001-08:00

So, i have been keeping this in the vault since the day after xmas. It was kind of crazy, we were in utah for Christmas and it was Christmas day and we were playing farkle and my dad and Micah were eating chili cheese fritos, which i LOVE by the way, but all i could smell was the corn in them and i thought i was gonna be sick!! ( i had been thinking for a few days that i might be pregnant but didn't want to take a test yet) My senses were off the charts so low and behold i took a few pregnancy test the next day and all 3 came back positive. I am now 12 weeks and due August 29. I had a few weeks of morning sickness but not to bad. I never had that with Gareth. My cravings have been through the roof but luckily have tamed themselves in the last week or so. I totally think it's a girl and will be completely shocked if it's a boy. I really dont care what it is as long as it's healthy. So, that's the news, i figured it was time to warn the world that another Andersen is on it's way...haha brace yourselves!!!

Update

2009-01-19T11:12:00.000-08:00

Wow, i have a lot to write. Christmas was great, we got to go up to SLC and spend it with Mom, Dad, Wes, Amanda and Kaleigh. There was lots of snow and a lot of fun. We spent about 4 days up there and then went and spend 2 days in St. George with Micah's family. This was the first year that we got to spend both Thanksgiving and Christmas with both sides of the family. Nothing special for New Year's, Micah always works so it was just a normal night for us. Gareth turned 2 on January 6. We decided instead of having a bday party for him we would just take him out for a day we went the the Mirage to the Secret Garden and the Dolphin habitat. He loved it, he had so much fun, the dolphins were really neat to see and i really want to take him back in the summer b/c the trainers swim with them in the summer. The secret garden had lions and tigers and some leopards. After that we went to MGM Grand to the Rainforest Cafe. He was a little freaked out at first but then loved it, he had a blast. It was a lot of fun. Next year we will have a big bday party for him. Micah started his EMT-Intermediate class on the 2 and is really enjoying it. He's looking to apply for a Citizen's firefighter academy which is basically a volunteer fire department but they do training and everything and it will be good experience for him. They get to do ride alongs with different fire departments so it would be a nice step in the right direction. Hopefully he will get accepted, they only accept like 20 ppl. Keep your fingers crossed for him. I'm still working 3 days a week, not much has changed there and prob wont for a little while longer. Gareth is growing and changing everyday. It so fun to watch him talking more and doing more "big boy" things. He can count to 10 and we are working on going up to 20. He can do a few past 10 but not all the way. He knows his ABC's, he call pick out letters pretty easily but he has his own agenda when saying them. He can tell you his name and how old he is and he's staring to ask directly for more things. He's came a long way from a month and half ago when we thought he would need speech therapy. He is progressing amazingly. I will be very sad when the day comes that he no longer does his baby babble.

Oops

2008-12-13T16:51:00.000-08:00

Just notice i said we got a new Enjoy in may....haha i meant a new Envoy....lol

Cars

2008-12-13T16:45:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I have failed to mention the horrible luck that Micah and I have with cars. Our little hyundai has been a great car but boy is it a big fat target for ppl to hit. I've had 1 wreck in it and 1 where someone tried to park next to me and couldn't fit, they dented the passenger rear fender and backed up and took off. Two months before that Micah got side swiped on the freeway. So i was hoping that it was just that car...lol No LUCK, we got a new Enjoy in May and over Thanksgiving my sister in law accidently backed into the driver side door. Luckily it wasn't too bad but it is noticeable and we have to get it fixed. Not even a week later we were on our way to get our Christmas tree and low and behold a lady pulls out of a parking lot and never even looks, instead of pulling into her immediate lane she drives over 3 lanes to ours and side swipes us. OMG, i was soooo mad, so now our car is getting fixed and it's going to cost us a $500 deductible until we find out if her insurance is going to cover. Gotta love the holidays....lol Atleast none of us were hurt in any of the accidents, that is a huge blessing especially since the lady hit us on mine and Gareth's side. Bah!!!

All Done

2008-12-13T16:41:00.001-08:00

I am so stinking proud of myself. I am completely finished with ALL of my Christmas shopping. We finished all of our friends and family on Monday and Tues (about 30 ppl) and today Gareth and I went shopping and I got all of Micah's presents and my half of Gareth's presents. Whew, it feels so good to be finished. Now if i could just get them all wrapped...lol The Lord has really blessed us this year and I am so thankful. This is the first year that we have actually been able to buy gifts for other people. Last year we were hurting so bad that would couldn't even afford to buy Gareth a $5 present. I feel so blessed. We said after last Christmas that we would make it a tradition to always give back every Christmas. We will always do an angel tree present and we want to find a needy family to help every year. Tonight is our Ward Christmas party and I am off to bake some oatmeal chocolate chip cookies...yummy!!!

2008-12-04T07:13:00.000-08:00

2008-12-02T20:19:00.000-08:00

more pics to come later

Thanksgiving (Wyoming, Utah and Idaho)

2008-12-02T19:31:00.001-08:00

Well, it's been a while since my last post so before i tell about our trip i'll catch everyone up on Gareth. We went for his development evaluation last Tuesday. We wanted to have his speech checked since he isn't talking as much as he should and we weren't sure if we needed to have him in speech therapy. So, we got there and there were 3 people evaluating him. There was a speech therapist, a development specialist and a nutritionist. They watched him play and interacted with him and ask us questions. The development specialist was very impressed with him and said he is very well developed and that we had nothing to worry about in that area. The speech therapist determined by our answers to questions and observing him that he is a little delayed which we figured since he had his ear infections but that she wasn't worried or concerned. He is progressing and he is prob about 3 months behind what he should be. She told us that children that are delayed need to hear a word 500 times where as a child who isn't delayed only needs to hear a word 100 times. She told us that if he hasn't progressed much in 6 mos to have him re evaluated but for the time being he is perfectly fine. We were pretty sure that was what they would say but wanted to be on the safe side and are glad we had him evaluated. He's getting to be such a big boy and is saying some of the funniest things. Work is still the same for me and for Micah.

Ok, onto our trip!!! So, we weren't planning to go away for Thanksgiving b/c Micah had to work. Well, on Tuesday morning before Gareth's eval, Micah sneezed and through out his back. He called his chiropractor and got in for an adjustment but he was still really tight and sore and could hardly move his neck around. So, on Wed morning he called his chiropractor and got a dr's note for work and got the whole weekend off. Micah's brother and his family moved to Pinedale, WY this summer and we haven't been up to see them and Micah's Dad, stepmom and younger brother were all going up there for Thanksgiving so we made a last minute decision to load up and head up that way. We left wednesday afternoon around 4, when i got off work and headed to SLC. We got to Salt Lake at about 11 and went to my Mom and Dad's. They were so excited that we were getting to come and stay the night. We spent the night there, got up early on Thurs morning, had breakfast with mom and dad and hit the road for Pinedale. Pinedale was about a 4 hour drive from SLC. The drive wasn't anything special and it helped us to realize that the next time we make the trip we will definitely fly and rent a car instead of driving the whole way...lol We got to pinedale around 3. It was soooooo cold. It was great to see all the kids and clint and kelli, i think it had been like a year since we had seen them. So, prob 30 min after we got there we had thanksgiving dinner, it was great having most of the family there. It was Micah, myself, Gareth, Taylor (micah's younger brother), Kim (Micah's dad), Shauna (Micah's stepmom), Clint (Micah's older brother), Kelli (Clint's wife), Cole, Lainee, and Toree. On Friday Clint had to work so Kelli took us around town and showed us the local sights. It was sooo pretty, we drove up to Fremont Lake and the surround areas up the mountain. It was beautiful but it was sooo cold that we could barely stand to be out of the car to take pictures. On Saturday Cole had roping lessons and so we all went to watch him. He did so well and the kids had so much fun. We were there for about 2 hours and then we just relaxed and hung out the rest of the day. Everyone left on Sunday to head home and we decided we would go up to Yellowstone and spend the night and head back down to SLC on Monday morning. The drive was absolutely amazing, it was snowing and we were driving through the Teton Mountains. We got to Jackson Hole and hung out for about 2 hours and had lunch and just walked around the town. It was a lot of fun. We left Jackson Hole and headed up the mountain toward Yellowstone. We had driven for about an hour and half when we came to a sign saying road closed. We were so upset. Apparently the southern entrance into Yellowstone is closed for the season, how weird....who closes down a national park??? Micah was soooo pissed, i can't exactly repeat the things that he said...lol So we head back down to Jackson Hole and decided to stay there for the night, so i called and got a hotel in Teton Valley. On our way to our hotel our gps had us take a small road off of the main hwy. It was crazy, all we wanted to do all day was see a moose or an elk or something and we were having noooo luck. So here we are driving down Moose Wilson road and i look over to our left and what do i see??!! 2 female moose were standing in a river bed, it was so fun to watch. We stopped and video taped it for about 5 minutes and then they started to move away so we had to pack up and keep driving. Not even half a mile down the road micah stopped the car and told me to look, i turned around and up the hill to my right there were about 20 elks. We were so excited, it was absolutely gorgeous. Well, we went another 3 miles and came to another road closed sign. So again we had to back track another 30 minutes and ended up going all the way back to Jackson Hole and around. We got to our hotel in Teton Valley at about 5:30, it was a 4 star hotel and was super nice. It was called Hotel Terra. Absolutely beautiful and very modern decor. Everything was organic and it was a completely green hotel. It was right on the mountain and the slopes were right there next to the hotel. We were so tired from traveling all day that we just decided to get some dinner from the Mangy Moose next door and stay in for the night. Monday morning we got up and headed toward Salt Lake but we decided to take the scenic route instead of going back the way we came. We went through the Teton Pass, which was kind of scary b/c it had snowed like crazy and the roads were pretty slick and it was all up hill. We went over into Idaho and down. We got to see some of the Oregon Trail and some more really pretty mountains, national forests and more lakes. We got to Salt Lake at about 4 and hung out with Mom and Dad until Wes got off work. Dad grilled some steaks and we all ate dinner and just hung out for the evening. It was great getting to see my fam and being able to spend some time with them. Finally on Tuesday we made the long haul home. We got back to boulder city at about 3:30 and home never looked so good. We traveled a total of 32 hours over the last 7 days. Wow, it was a lot of fun and i would have never expected Gareth to travel in the car for so long so well but he was such a good boy and never fussed. He prob napped a total of an hour and a half in the car the whole trip. He never sleeps well in the car but luckily he rides really well. We are already planning our next trip up to Wyoming it will prob be in the spring and we are going back to Salt Lake for Christmas. Now, it's back to work tomorrow....haha

Aviation Nation 08

2008-11-08T15:56:00.000-08:00

Ok, so every year we attend Aviation Nation at Nellis Air Force Base. It is one of our highlights of every year. Micah has gone ever since he was a kid and it has become a yearly tradition for us since we got married. Basically there are planes on display and they do flight demonstrations. It's awesome. I never thought it would be something that i would get into but i love it just as much as Micah. Gareth is a huge fan of airplanes, he loves to look for them everytime we are outside so we knew he would go crazy for the airshow. My only concern was that the noise would hurt his ears due to previous ear problems b/c it is wayyyyy loud, but they never bothered him. He never once tried to cover his ears or anything. Part of what i love about the show is the sound of the fighter planes. Every year they have different demonstrations and different planes. This year they had most of my favorites the F-15(My ultimate fav), F-16, F-18, F-22 and they also had the C-17 and a few others but the F-15 & F-22 are the most fun to watch. They also had the Air Force Reserve Jet Car, it was an actual "jet car." It was pretty cool, they had it racing another plane (I believe it was the Red Bull Mig 17) and the jet car actually won the race. It was pretty cool to watch. Gareth had a blast and he loved the noise, he would laugh every time one would fly by that was loud. When we would start to walk away to look at more planes he'd get upset b/c he would think we were leaving. He would just zone out and watch the planes. It was so much fun and they had so many planes on display this year. It is such a joy to watch Gareth share an interest in something that Micah loves. I love watching them together. We can't wait for next year!!! ( www.aviationnation.org)

halloween

2008-11-01T17:41:00.000-07:00

Ok, where do I start. It looks like Micah is going to have to wait another year before testing with the fire department. Nobody is hiring this coming year and i'm assuming that is b/c of the economy. He just going to do his EMT-I and then go ahead and go to paramedic school. In the mean time while he's doing all of that he is going to try and take a test to become an elevator technician. A guy he works with is doing it and is a trainee and he is making $50/hr so we'll see if that goes anywhere in the mean time. Gareth found his shadow this past week....haha It was pretty funny. We were outside saying bye to Micah one night for work and he saw his shadow on the wall. It was sooo funny, he kept walking back and forth and stopping and then he'd yell at it. We were cracking up. He's finally starting to talk more and mimic what we are saying. He does it better for Micah, but we are still waiting on a call back from the early intervention department here to get him evaluated and see what they suggest we do to work with him so that he starts communicating with us better. He was Yoda for halloween last night. It was Micah's idea for him to be Yoda and it was a huge hit. We had strangers stopping us and asking if they could take a picture of him. He got the swing of things really well, he would walk up get his candy and off to the next house. He had a blast!!! Not much else is going on just gearing up for the holidays and trying to make plans. We are exciting about going up to Salt Lake for Christmas, Gareth will have such a blast spending it with Nanna and Pappa and Uncle Wes and Aunt Amanda.

2008-10-10T17:54:00.000-07:00

2008-10-10T17:31:00.000-07:00

Ok, so i'm really bad a blogging....lol Let's see, lots to catch up on. Gareth and I went to MS with Nanna and Poppa 2 weeks ago. Gareth traveled GREAT!!! I was so proud of him, he sat on the plane soooo well. He loved getting to play with Tori and Zak and had an absolute blast visiting MS. It was great to get home for a few days and to be able to see so much family. It was the first time i've visited Bville in 2 years and it was the first time that Mom's side of the family got to see Gareth.

Gareth is getting so big, we went to the pediatrician the week before we left for MS and he weighed 27lbs (50th%) and was 35" tall (90th%). We were suppose to get a hearing evaluation but he screamed and hated every second of it so they were never able to get an accurate result. Dr. Conti heard a heart murmur so he referred us to a pediatric cardiologists but said he wasn't to concerned that it was probably a growth spurt. Well, we went to the cardiologist this week and everything is great and fine, Gareth is healthy as can be and his heart and everything looks great. Also, this week Gareth crawled out of his crib for the first time...(oh no!! it's official he's a big boy). I spanked him and put him back in and told him "NO, NO!" He crawled out 2 more times and hasn't done it since. I peek in and see him thinking about it sometime but he hasn't tried since i spanked him and told him no.

Let's see, Micah started his EMT-I class last wednesday and quit the same night..haha The instructor didn't know the material and was dropping the f-bomb every other word and Micah just couldn't sit through it. So we called the schools director and lucky us she loves Micah and apologized and told him about another EMT-I class that will start sometime next month, it's an accelerated class so he'll finish in 2 months instead of 4 months...YAY!!!! The down side is, it is on Wednesday's and Friday's 8-5 and i work both of those days, so we are going to have to get a sitter or put him in daycare, but luckily it's only for 2 months.

I guess that's pretty much everything that has happened. I'm still working, kinda getting over it and would rather be at home but we are enjoying the extra cash and being able to pay off stuff and save also, so i'll stick in there a little longer...lol Sorry i haven't posted any recent pics, i'm getting bad a taking pictures, it's hard to pull out Micah's big professional camera just to take snap shots of Gareth. I told Micah that i wanted a small point and shoot camera for xmas....lol

Let's see, what else, Heather totally got me addicted to the twilight series a month ago. She called me when she was on New Moon and told me i just had to read Twilight. I went and bought the book and finished all 4 in like 7 days and Heather still hasn't finished the series..haha Now i have like 5 people at my salon reading the books and we are all going to go to the movie when it comes out.. If anyone has any reading suggestions, i'm all ears. I need something new to read!!!

Sept 08

2008-09-14T22:49:00.000-07:00

Wow, i'm so bad at this. I never write. Micah passed his NREMT exam and is now nationally registered EMT-B, he starts his intermediate class on October 1st. Gareth and I are getting ready to go back to MS with Nanna and Poppa. We are so excited. It will be my first trip up to Booneville in 2 years....craziness. Most of my friends have never seen Gareth except in pictures so it should be fun. I'm anxious to see how Micah handles being away from both of us for 7 days....lol I dont think he'll do to well. Work is about the same, nothing ever changes there...haha Gareth has a doctor's appt tomorrow, we are getting his hearing evalutated and he's past due for his shots. He's growing like crazy and is as active as EVER. I'll try to write more tomorrow after his doc appt.

Aug 08

2008-08-23T20:38:00.000-07:00

Not much has been going on in Boulder City...haha Micah finished his EMT-B at the end of July and we just celebrated his 30th bday....he's such an old fart...lol Gareth is growing like crazy. We went to the lake with the Jorgensen's on Tuesday, it was Gareth's first time on a boat and of course he had a blast. He jumped right in the water with everyone else and was loving just swimming around and floating on the lake. He LOVED riding in the boat and watching us tube, it was the cutest thing ever, when the boat would stop he would stand up and when the boat would take off he'd sit down like a good little boy and just enjoy the ride. He had the best lake hair i've ever seen, it was sticking straight up all over and it was sooooo long he looked like Elvis. Not much else has happened, we've been taking him to the park a lot more and all he ever wants to do is swing for hours and hours and then pitches a fit when we have to leave. He loves taking baths so at random times throughout the day he bangs on the bathroom door and wants to take a bath, it's the funniest thing ever. He loves the bath so much that when we gets out at night and his daddy doesn't drain the bathtub right away, micah will put his diaper and pj's on him and in less than 10 secs he is sitting in the tub with his pj's on splashing around....i love it.

Micah takes his NREMT (national registry emt) exam on Sept 4th and will then start his EMT-I sometime in september, they still dont have set dates yet. Work for me is going well, we are getting ready to pick up Tuesdays so i will be working 4 days instead of 3, which sucks but it means more money to pay off debt.

Utah

2008-07-10T18:19:00.000-07:00

Well, i had this week off so we decided to take a short trip up to Utah to take Gareth camping for the first time and to just hang out and relax. We drove up Monday and went up to Pine Valley to set up camp. Our camp site was right next to a stream which made things a little difficult b/c Gareth always wants to get in water whether it be a lake, a pool, a bathtub or in this case a stream...haha He had so much fun though, he was all over the place and he got soooo dirty. There were rocks sticking up here and there out of the ground and he kept tripping on them and skinning his legs, so he got lots of battle scars from camping. Micah started a fire and we roasted hot dogs and some marshmellows, it was a lot of fun but Gareth wanted to play in the fire and he didn't want to hold his hot dog over the flames so we ended up giving him his own poker just to hold. After dinner he and Micah went down to the stream and threw rocks and sticks in the water for like 45 min, Gareth thought that was the coolest thing. It started to get dark and it was cooling off so we washed Gareth down and put his pj's on and he sat in a chair with Momma and watched a movie. He was sooooo tired. So, after we put Gareth to bed Micah and I were finally able to enjoy some alone time just sitting by the fire and talking, it was great. A few hours after we were asleep Gareth started crying so we pulled him out of his pack-n-play and layed him down with us....BIG mistake. He never sleeps good when he lays with me, 30 min after laying with us he sat up straight and was ready to play. He was talking and laughing and walking all around the tent. Oh and i failed to mention that i forgot to pack our air matress so we were sleeping on these foam pads that were like an inch thick so needless to say neither one of us had slept the few hours before Gareth woke up. It's still dark outside and so we are trying to get Gareth to lay back down, so we put him back in his pack-n-play and put his dvd player in with him and he lays down and starts to relax. So, i'm curious what time it is plus i have to go to the bathroom, i'm thinking it's about 4:00 am, i get up and go to the truck and about fell over, it was only 2:30. We had planned on hiking in the morning but after Gareth waking up and us not really sleeping anyways, we decided that we'd just pack up in the morning and go to our hotel room and Micah could sleep and i'd take Gareth swimming in the pool. So, Gareth woke us up at about 7: 15 and he and Micah made a fire while i laid there a little longer, we packed up and went to our hotel. Gareth and i took a bath and then went swimming so Micah could get some rest. Gareth only wanted to swim for about an hour so we went back to the hotel room and he was soooo tired, he was crying and crabby so we laid down and took a nice 3 hour nap....yay!!!! We woke up and ate dinner and went up to Grandpa Kim's to visit for a few hours. Then on Wednesday we had planned on going up to Zion and hiking so we loaded up and went up there and it was like 11:30 when we got up there, so an hour into our scenic bus ride Gareth started fussing, it was sooo hot and he was so tired, so we had to go back to the car and just drive around ourselves. At this point we realized that we could no longer plan trips around what we wanted to do but we would have to plan trips and activities around what Gareth would do...lol It ended up being nice, we drop up to duck creek and navajo lake and just had a nice drive. That nite we got to go visit with Jackie (Micah's younger sister) Deron, Rylen and Ammon. It was our first time seeing their new house and they hadn't seen Gareth since he was like 8 mos old. All in all it was a great trip and we had fun but it was a learning experience too. It's so hard trying to do things you want to do with an 18 mos old.

4th of July

2008-07-05T21:25:00.000-07:00

We didn't have any real big plans for the 4th. We went to the parade in the morning which Gareth loved, it was his "first" parade that he actually could enjoy. He loved it, he was sooooo amazed, he just sat there and stared the whole 2 hours!!! It's so freakin hot here that they have what they call "water floats," so the last 7-10 floats have water guns and blasters and they spray people down and you can spray them down. It's pretty cool, so Gareth and I got sprayed and cooled off at the end of the parade, he got the biggest kick out of that. We went home took some naps and then we went to the Shamo's for a little Rock Band on the xbox 360. Micah was rocking it out on the drums, they were all so amazed b/c he was playing expert after only 2 songs and they've been playing the game for like 8 months and nobody has ever played expert. I was like duh, he is a real drummer...haha Gareth loved watching his dad play and was in complete awe. We hung out with them for about 2 hours and then went over to the Jorgensen's for dinner and the firework show. Micah had to work so he had to leave around 7:30 so he didn't get to stay and see the fireworks with us, it was really hard for him. He called me from work almost in tears b/c he could hear the fireworks on the strip going off and he couldn't be there for Gareth's first "real" firework show. Gareth sat still for about the first 10 min then he thought he could chase them down and was jumping up and down yelling at the fireworks, it was so stinking cute. He was so tired, it was an hour and a half past his bedtime when we got home and he crashed. I'm off work all next week so we are going to go up to St. George and take Gareth camping in Pine Valley and probably go to Zion Nation Park and visit with some of Micah's fam.