Jaron's Blessing

This last weekend we had Jaron's blessing.  We did it at our house since Shane's mom was in town and it was general conference weekend.  We decided to do it between the afternoon session on Saturday and before Priesthood.  Always trying to get a cute family picture...this was as good as it got.

The blessing was really nice and Shane blessed him with some very nice words and counsel.  I hope to get some notes some people took so I can write down some of the things so I won't try to do it here and get it all confused.

Jaron looked as cute as ever in his little white outfit.  The Relief Society in our ward gave us this cute blanket with his name and birth date embroidered on it.

After the blessing we had a big dinner.  I made a Mexican food buffet, complete with dressing from Cafe Rio.  We had yummy rice and even fresh, hot cooked tortillas.  I've been eating left overs for a few days and it's still good.  Everyone was super nice to help out bring things and help set up and clean up.

In all I counted 42 people that were here for Jaron's big day.  No wonder he passed out in exhaustion afterwards.

Jaron, we love you so much and are so so happy you are part of our family.  You sisters love you so much and your dad and I love watching you grow and learn and can't wait to see the great person you will turn into.  Always remember we love you!

My girls are 2!

Of course my girls have their birthday 3 days after mine so as soon as I was done with my birthday weekend, it was time to focus on the girls.  We kept it pretty low key this year.  I knew I wouldn't be up to doing anything big, nor do I think the girls need huge birthdays every year.

The night before their birthday we had a family party at the park.  We just got pizzas and I made some cupcakes.  The girls loved this since they LOVE the park and they love pizza.  The theme of their birthday was Mickey/Minnie Mouse since they are obsessed with Mickey Mouse club house show.  So I put some Mickey cupcake toppers on their cupcakes and to this day they are still being carried around the house ALL. DAY. LONG.  In buckets, in purses, in pockets, etc.  Our family all gave us really cute gifts and toys that they have been playing with ever since.

Jennifer, who shares the same birthday came over on their actual birthday and gave them their own Minnie dolls.  They are so cute.

We gave them some Mickey Mouse chairs to watch their favorite show in, Minnie Mouse dress up dresses and Minnie Mouse pajamas...see I told you it was all about Mickey/Minnie, and some more food for their play kitchen.  That night we went to dinner and then to Jungle Jims to ride some rides.  Siena was not very adventurous and in fact didn't really like the rides very much at all.  Their favorite was the carousel which is funny cuz last time that is the one that scared them the most.

This last picture sums up their obsession...watching Mickey Mouse club, in their Mickey Mouse chairs holding their Minnie Mouse dolls!  So it was a great birthday and now they're officially 2.  Update on what they're up to is coming as well.

Jaron - 2 Months

Jaron turned 2 months.  He really has changed this month to me.  His face is filling out and he's getting longer I can tell.  My little newborn is now a baby.  He hasn't had his 2 month appt. yet or the dreaded first shots, so I'll have to update his stats later.

A few things about Jaron this month.

• At about 5 1/2 weeks, he started stretching his sleep out a lot.  He went from about 4 hours to 7-8 hours in one night.  Every few nights he only goes 5-6 hours but most nights he's sleeping from 11ish to 6-7ish.  I'm trying to move his nighttime to a little earlier but I'm not pushing it at this point, it will come.
• He is a horrible napper.  Not sure if I said that last month but he is.  He just cat naps and will take 1 maybe 2 good naps a day.  He's awake a lot more then I think he should be or that I remember the girls being. 
• He gets hiccups a lot.  Usually in the middle of his nap (see above)  He's gotten a little better about that this week but not much.
• Jaron smiles and coos a lot.  I love it.  You can see him all intent on my face and then he starts cooing and smiling.
• We got his first laugh the day after he turned 2 months.  It was cute and fun that both Shane and I were sitting right there when it happened.
• The other morning he had slept about 7 1/2 hours and hadn't eaten in about 9 hours and instead of crying I woke up to him cooing in his crib.  It was so cute I almost left him but I knew the girls would be waking up anyways and I wanted to get him fed so I walked into his room and when he saw me he just smiled this huge grin.  It was sooo cute.
• He's eating 4 ounces every 3 1/2 hours and just this week we've moved him to 5 ounces that he is finishing most the time.  Time to get out the bigger bottles, crazy.

Here's a picture of him when he was supposed to be napping...uh yeah doesn't look one bit tired to me.

So that's our little guy this month.  The girls are still obsessed with him and still like to help feed him, put in the binkies, bathe him, hold him and kiss him.  They've gotten better about not smothering him so I can actually leave him in the room with them for 30 seconds.

Cancer Free 5 years

I went to my 6 month check up with my Oncologist this last week.  It means I've been Cancer free for 5 years.  5 Years in the cancer world is a big deal.  It means the chances of my cancer coming back at this point is a fraction of a percentage.  I thought I was going to have to get a final CT scan but Dr. Harker thought every thing looked so good that there was no point.  I wasn't going to argue with him, scans are never fun and cause a lot of what ifs to creep into my mind (although a few years back I did like the scans only because it gave me peace of mind that there wasn't anything there.)

I don't have to go back now for a year!!!  The bad news of this visit is Dr. Harker told me he is retiring next year so this would be my last appointment with him.  I am happy for him but I felt a little sad.  He has been so amazing to me and especially my mom most recently with her treatments.  So I'll go see another Oncologist next year and once a year for up to 10 years (5 more years.)  As he left he gave me a big hug and I felt a little emotional.  Who knew 5 1/2 years ago that I would be sad to say good-bye to my Oncologist.

I posted this on Instagram that day:  "The changes that 5 years brings.  So blessed and happy to be cancer free for 5 years."  That really sums it up.  I never thought that 5 1/2 years after being diagnosed that I would be married, healthy and have 3 beautiful children.  I really am so blessed.

40 is the new 20....right?

I'm behind...3 kids, leaves no time for the computer.  This post has taken me a long time and I have so many more to go.  Maybe I can get one done a night this week...we'll see.

So I turned 40.  I'm kind of in denial that I'm 40, cuz I don't feel 40.  But it's true, I'm 40.  I had a great birthday so bear with me here as I recount my 40th birthday.

My sister Christy and her daughter Avery came to town for the weekend.  So Friday morning I went over to my parents and had my favorite hashbrowns and eggs for breakfast courtesy of my dad.  I was presented with a pre-birthday gift.  This shirt...

Lucky me I got to wear it to dinner that night with my whole family.  We went to Brick Oven with the adults, and a couple of cute newborns.  It was a fun dinner and fun to get together and not have to feed and watch the girls.  My sister in law babysat the girls and had a great night.

The morning of my birthday was busy, we were in a hurry to get up to Logan for my niece Kayla's baptism and Landon's blessing.  Kayla and I share a birthday so it was fun to see her on her birthday and she got to be baptized on her actual birthday as well.  It was a fun morning.  After the baptism and blessing we went to the park for lunch which was a lot of fun.

Shane and I didn't stay that long because he had arranged a day and night out for just us without kids.  I left all 3 kids (yes even Jaron who wasn't quite 6 weeks) with my family.  It was a whole family effort but mostly I put my mom in charge of the girls and Christy was in charge of Jaron.  They had a great time and the girls played with Avery and Abbey all night and the next morning.  They even played 'school' with them.  Jaron slept in Christy's room and gratefully that week he started stretching out his sleep so he ended up sleeping from a little after midnight until 8am.  Thank you Christy and mom and everyone else that helped. It made my night so much easier that I didn't have to worry about them.

So for my birthday Shane got me a nice new camera that I've been wanting for a long time.  My camera is so old and my phone doesn't cut it at times.  It's been fun practicing on it and taking new pictures.  Don't expect anything great but hopefully the quality gets a little better.

Shane also surprised me with 6th row tickets to the BYU vs. Texas game.  I was so surprised, I had mentioned that I wanted to go to a BYU game but figured we couldn't go cuz the Texas game was pretty much sold out and was a big game since Texas was ranked 15th.  It was such a crazy night.  The game got rain delayed for a crazy amount of rain and we sat in the car for 2 hours.  Then I was just hoping the game would be close even if we didn't win.  Well it was such a good game and we won!!!  The crowd was so loud and into the game and made it so fun especially on the 6th row.  It was been years since I've been to a BYU Football game. After the game we had reservations at the Homestead in Midway.  Their beds were super comfy and checkout wasn't until noon...an added bonus.  So it was nice to sleep in and relax.

That next week Brigitte made me lunch and my favorite Rolo cookies and so the celebrations continued well into the next week, which is just the way I like it.

So turning 40 wasn't so bad after all.  In fact, it was pretty fun and everyone really made it a special and fun weekend for me.

Photo shoot with 2 year olds

So as I mentioned earlier, I took the girls and Jaron to Fotofly here in Draper to get some pictures taken.  I knew I shouldn't have had high expectations with 2 year olds but the session itself turned into a nightmare.  I wanted to get some pictures of the girls together and then all 3 kids together and that did not happen.  Luckily we did get a few cute head shots of the girls and a few of Jaron by himself but I was very disappointed.  The girls were so clingy and would not pose of any picture of any sort.  At the end I just gave up and took what we did get.

Here are some...you can see how desperate I was when I got out the fruit snacks!

I thought the head shots turned out cute of the girls so I ended printing a picture of each kid on a canvas print and we just got them back and hung them up in our family room.  I love that wall and looking at the cute pictures of each of them.  When Shane hung them up my first comment was 'wow, we have a lot of kids all of the sudden!'  Here are the pictures we used for the canvas prints and then a picture of them hanging up in our family room.

Newborn Pictures

We had a few different newborn pictures taken of Jaron that I wanted to share.  We had the photographer at the hospital come in and take some.  Then we went to Fotofly with the girls the week after he was born and got a few cute ones.  And then I took a few myself one day just for fun and thought some of them turned out really cute.  So here are Jaron's newborn pictures.