Kimberly's Birthday and Ogden Temple Open House

I couldn't have asked for a better birthday this year. We spent the day together as a family, kept busy but not too busy, and made some great memories.

When we found out a few months ago that the Ogden Temple House would be taking place this month, I immediately knew that's what I wanted to do for my birthday. Nate took the day off work, and it was a Wednesday so we knew it wouldn't be insanely busy and easy to make the ticket reservation. Our neighbors and friends across the street, RaeAnn and Brian, came with us which was fun since Brian is a member of our church but not active and RaeAnn is not a member at all. It was just a walking tour, but the line moved at a pretty rapid pace  - almost too fast to really enjoy it. It is absolutely beautiful and so different from the old Ogden Temple they tore down. Afterward we took some pictures:

Notice that Felicity's dress is wet in this picture. Within a couple of minutes of coming out of the temple, she quickly ran to the fountain nearby. As soon as she saw the coins people had thrown in, she wanted to try and get them, and I was 3 seconds too late from stopping her from falling into the fountain.

In the tent outside, they offered a free picture in front of a photo background of the temple.

After the temple, we headed home for lunch, a nap for Dayton, and I ran a couple of errands by myself while Nate made my birthday cake.

That evening we tried out a restaurant that was new to us (Taggart's Grill) because of its rave reviews. It was about a half an hour drive up Weber Canyon to get there, but so worth it. The food and service were excellent and the atmosphere was beautiful. The kids enjoyed walking around the outside and enjoying the peacocks that roam around as well as the koi pond. We will definitely go there again - hopefully without kids next time.

Happy birthday to me! Nate made that beautiful and delicious carrot cake from scratch. Dayton tried with all his might to stick his hands right in it while we took a couple of pictures.

Because I love to both give and receive practical gifts, Nate got me just what I asked for - a new diaper bag and also a new pair of nice flip flops.

Surprise Baby Shower

Over the past 2-3 months or so, multiple people (including my sisters Megan and Jessica) have asked me if I would like a baby shower. My response was always pretty much the same. I feel weird about having a second shower. I don't want people to feel obligated to get me a gift when I have most of the essential baby items already. All I'm really in need of is clothes, blankets, diapers, and wipes and I'm good to go. So that's what I planned to do - buy it all myself. I wasn't too worried because I can gradually stock up on diapers and wipes in the coming months, and I'm certainly not opposed to used baby clothing since most of it is in pretty good shape because they outgrow it so fast.

But my two little sisters are amazing. They love to throw parties and decided that since I wasn't gung-ho about the whole thing, they would throw me one anyway as a surprise. And boy was it a surprise! I had absolutely no idea, and it turned out to be so much fun.

They started forming a plan the end of July and involved my cousin Lori, who offered to host it at her home. Megan sent out invitations through email to my extended family, a few close friends, and some of Nate's family. Jessica lives in Oklahoma, so they picked a date they hoped would work so she could be here for my shower as well as for my cousin Lisa's wedding.

Lori's plan to get me to her house completely worked too, and they even got Nate in on the plan to make sure I would get there. Lori invited my family over for dinner at her house and told me she was inviting my friend Desaray's family over as well since Lori and her family just moved into Desaray's ward a few months ago. So my family and I showed up with the dessert I brought to go with the dinner. When I walked into house, the first thing I noticed was the large number of chocolate covered strawberries and cupcakes all over her kitchen table. It really confused me because I brought a dessert too and didn't understand why we needed so much dessert, and then I heard the big, "Surprise!" As I looked over into her family room, it was filled with my closest friends and family which completely amazed me. It was almost overwhelming to feel such love and support from so many people.

Nate left, and the party got started. They did a pasta bar for dinner along with the delicious desserts. Everyone ate and then we played a game while I opened gifts (they actually had a couple planned but ran out of time). I got so many cute clothes, some diapers, and a few other things. I wish that I'd been able to visit more with all of the people there, but Nate left both Bridget and Felicity with me at the party which made it hard for me to relax and visit.

Because it was such a surprise, I didn't think to take pictures, so all I got was this one with me, Jessica, Isla, and Megan. I'm so grateful to them and all the hard work they went to in order to pull this off and am so appreciative to all those who came. It's definitely something I'll never forget!

31 Weeks

As of yesterday I'm now 31 weeks along, so I figured it was finally time for a profile shot of my belly. The good thing is looking at this makes me feel like I'm not as huge as I feel like I am.

 

Today I went for another check-up and got to have an ultrasound to see if he's head down yet, and he is! Let' just hope he stays that way. This picture is just a profile shot of his face. I actually got to have a lengthier ultrasound at 27 weeks simply because the doctor didn't seem to be in a hurry and the baby was breech at the time making it hard for her to get the good pictures she was wanting. Sadly, Nate wasn't with me because I didn't know I was having an ultrasound that day, but I loved watching our little boy for several minutes. I even got to see him swallow which I've never seen on an ultrasound before.

Everything is still going well with my pregnancy. At 26 weeks, I opted to skip the 1-hour glucose test (which I failed with both of my girls) and go straight for the 3-hour test at the hospital. Luckily, I passed just like I did with both of the girls.

Also, about the start of the 3rd trimester, I started having some pain in my inner-thigh and groin area. This isn't anything I've ever had before, and it's getting worse the farther along I get. Some days it makes it very painful to walk or rotate from side to side in bed. Nothing seems to help it either. From what I've read and since discussed with my doctor, it's due to an over-production of the pregnancy hormone relaxin. It causes my pelvis to misalign at times especially when climbing stairs or doing anything weight-bearing while standing or walking. It's actually not uncommon in pregnancy and many women have it to varying degrees. A friend of mine gets it so bad that the entire last trimester she's on bed rest and has to use a wheelchair. So far, I'm managing okay most of the time, but I'm trying to follow my doctor's advice by staying off my feet a little more, not lifting Felicity unless I absolutely have to, and trying to minimize going up and down stairs as much as possible. I just hope it doesn't get much worse in the coming weeks. Other than that, I've been doing pretty well. It's been one of the hottest summers on record which I haven't enjoyed, so hopefully some cooler temperatures will come our way soon.

Kimberly's Birthday

My birthday this year turned out to be a very nice day, although if you asked Nate he would disagree because it didn't go quite like he had planned.

He made a nice breakfast, took care of the kids the majority of the day, cleaned most of the house, did a bunch of yard work, attempted to make a birthday cake from scratch for me, and made dinner. He felt bad because he ran out of time to get the whole house cleaned, didn't get the yard work finished, and then the cake fell quite a bit after he took it out of the oven. He made the exact same cake for me last year, so we're not sure what happened, but it was too late in the day to try and make another one so I told him to just take the girls and go buy one. Bridget's a chocoholic like me and picked out a beautiful and delicious cookies and cream cake.

We also met Megan and my cousin Lisa at Macaroni Grill for lunch. We hadn't been there in several years, but it was one of my favorite restaurants when I was in college. Sadly, it was not nearly as good as I remembered. The free birthday dessert I got was really good though, and they sing happy birthday in Italian to you so it wasn't all bad.

Like I said, it really was an enjoyable day for me. And now I'm hopefully another year wiser as well as older.

The evidence that he did in fact try to make my cake.

The cake we ended up enjoying

Girls With Curls

If I had a dollar for every time someone asks us where Felicity's curly hair comes from, I'd be a rich woman. People who knew me prior to about 10 years ago know the answer to that question. It was about 10  years ago that I discovered the miracle of ceramic flat irons and have straightened my crazy curls nearly every day since. With as naturally curly as my hair is, I knew it would be impossible for me to have children with straight hair, and so far I've been right.

I thought it would be fun to do a picture comparison between me as a child and my girls with all of our curls at their finest.

Age 3 -  The curliest my hair has probably ever been

About  Age 2 - Her hair finally filled in and started getting long enough for an Afro just before she turned 2 and got long enough by about 2-1/2 that the curls started to relax a little.

18 months - Her hair was curly by about 10 months and she's had a head full of tight curls ever since. Her hair is much curlier than Bridget's ever was.

So there's the proof. There's no doubt about where their curls come from, and I'm sure that someday they'll hate me for it.

Kimberly's Birthday

Nate knows birthdays are a big deal to me, and since he botched Mother's Day this year, I think he felt the need to make it up to me for my birthday. He did a pretty good job too - especially since the celebration lasted more than one day.

Several months ago, we found out that the musical Wicked was coming back to Salt Lake again. Since we weren't able to get tickets the last time it was here, we were happy to find out that Nate had access to buying tickets before the general public since his employer is a sponser. And we also found out it would be here around my birthday. Happy birthday to me!

We ended up going to the Saturday matinee a couple of days beforehand because we figured it would be easier to leave our kiddos that way. Luckily, my sister Emily happened to be in town with her family, so we were able to leave our kids with her and most of the Williams family at Jennine's house. Wicked was awesome!

As a little surprise on my birthday, Nate and Bridget snuck out while Felicity and I were still sleeping and went to get us Chunky Cinnamon French Toast from Kneaders. We love breakfast at our house, and that French Toast is one of my favorites.

Nate also knows how much I love cake, so he decided he was going to make my cake himself this year (and from scratch I might add). The finished product not only turned out beautiful, but it tasted as good as it looked. Apparently he's learned a thing or two from watching me make cakes so many times.This was the best picture we could get of the three of us together. Felicity just wanted to stick her little hand in the cake so badly as you can tell from the look on her face and her stretched out arm.For dinner, we went and got Zupa's and brought it home to enjoy with the cake and ice cream. We love that place, so it made for a great end to a great birthday.

Kimberly's Birthday

It's true. I'm now another year older, and hopefully wiser too. My birthday ended up being pretty low-key, but it was great nonetheless.

Although I told Felicity that all I wanted for my birthday was for her to sleep through the night, she opted not to give me that gift. The kids did sleep in allowing me to as well, and that at least helped with my sleep deprivation. Then Nate and I made one of our favorite breakfasts - Crunchy French Toast. The morning and afternoon were spent doing typical Saturday activities which included Nate taking Bridget shopping with him for my birthday present - a flat panel TV for our bedroom.

As I debated about where I wanted to go to dinner, the place that sounded the best was Cafe Zupas. I know gourmet soups, salads, and sandwiches don't sound like a very exciting birthday dinner, but I love that place. Afterward we headed to Coldstone to pick up a birthday cake, and then took it home to eat it.

After getting the girls ready for bed, we just hung out waiting for it to get dark because I was fortunate enough to have my birthday fall on the night our city was putting on fireworks. I know this sounds crazy to some people, but this was actually Bridget's first time watching fireworks (at least the first time since she was an infant). Her sleep has always been more important to us than fireworks, and we would have let her stay up a couple of other times this summer for them, but she opted not to take naps those days. Anyway, she took a nap on my birthday, so she got to stay up and see them. She loved them, and I'm pretty sure she thinks they did them just because it was my birthday. It was a great way to end the day.

Felicity's Birth Story

Introducing the new addition to our family...

Felicity Anne
Born April 6th
Weight: 8 lbs. 1 oz.
Length: 21 in.

A lot of people have asked if she looks like Bridget. In my opinion, she does although she has more hair and it's a little longer than Bridget's was. You can make your own opinion if you'd like. In the pictures below, Bridget is in the two pictures on the left and Felicity is in the two on the right:
Although I didn't get pictures of everyone that came to visit, here's the few we did take: (Top left: Nate's mom; Top right: my sister Megan; Bottom left: Nate's Aunt Linda; Bottom right: my friend Emily)
If you are not interested in the actual birth story, you'll want to skip this part and just scroll down to the other pictures. I'm writing this down for my own personal record and want to do it before I forget details.

As mentioned in the previous post, Felicity decided to beat the induction deadline the doctor had set. Tuesday afternoon (the 5th), I was still contracting but they were now spaced out about 20-30 minutes apart. The major difference was that they were more painful than the ones I'd had that morning that were 4-5 minutes apart. By the time I went to bed that night they were about 10-15 minutes apart and still quite painful. I was able to get some sleep from about 11pm-1am. When I woke up at that point they were definitely painful and starting to get closer together. I stayed in bed timing them and trying to let Nate sleep as long as possible. By 3 am they were about 5 minutes apart and so painful I got out of bed. Nate got up shortly after that, and by 4 am we decided to call my Aunt Jennine to have her come stay at our house with Bridget while we headed to the hospital.

We checked into the hospital at 4:45 am, and once I finally got settled in my room and the nurse checked me, I was 4 cm and 95% effaced which was definitely progress from the day before. I could hardly wait to get my IV so that I could get my epidural. I was hoping that the epidural would allow me to get some sleep since I was anticipating a long day of labor. Since Bridget was born by planned c-section, my labor was considered to be the same as that of a first-time mom. I was also a VBAC (vaginal birth after Caesarian) which is higher risk and requires my doctor to be on the hospital campus the whole time I'm laboring there. Anyway, the epidural took almost 20 minutes and 3 tries to get working properly. My right leg was completely numb because it got a double dose and my left leg was numb with some feeling like it was supposed to be. I got the shakes really bad and almost constantly after that (a normal side-effect of labor I'm told), so I didn't get the sleep I was hoping for.

My doctor arrived around 7-7:30 am and broke my water. I was 5.5 cm at that point and she told the nurse to give me a tiny amount of pitocin (even less than they give most people to start with) just to help things along. At one point I was a little panicked because I could feel pain right by my scar on the left side. Luckily, it was just labor pain that went away when I pushed my epidural button. The next time the nurse checked me (I think around 9 am) I was already 9 cm! I was shocked and I think she was too. At that point they quickly started to get everything in the room ready. When she checked me about 20 minutes later I was completely dilated and ready to go.

With the risks of VBAC, they didn't want me to have to push for very long, so I just waited to push and gave the baby a chance to continue to come down until my doctor got there around 10 am. The hospital had several nursing students there, so they asked if it would be okay with me to allow some of them to watch and help with the delivery. I had a total of 5 nurses (3 of them students) and my doctor there. I started pushing at 10:10 am, and by 10:27 she was born! I couldn't believe how fast everything went and how amazing the whole experience was. It was a million times better than having a repeat c-section, and I loved feeling great enough to leave the hospital just 34 hours after checking in.

Many people have asked how Bridget is adjusting to having a sister, and I'm happy to say that she's loving it. No jealousy whatsoever...yet. She's been looking forward to this for months and loves to hold her, cuddle with her, give kisses to her, and help take care of her. Here's a picture of of them cuddling together at the hospital the 2nd day:
Our first day home together, I was getting ready for the day while Felicity was sleeping on our bed. Next thing I know, Bridget comes in with princess books and starts "reading" to Felicity.

Many times a day she asks to hold her sister.

I just love my two beautiful girls and feel like the luckiest mom in the world. (Don't mind the tired look on my face and the fact that Felicity looks cross-eyed - at least she was awake).

We tried to get a good family shot, but this was the best we could do.

The Final Few Days of Pregnancy

My due date came and went last weekend just like I expected it would. During that weekend, I finally had contractions for the first time ever (I never had a single one with Bridget), but they were few and very far between. In hindsight, I realize they were Braxton Hicks, but I was just happy for any sort of sign that this baby was on her way out.

Monday 4/4, I taught school even though my contractions were 10-15 minutes apart consistently, but they weren't very painful yet. The regularity made me hope that she was on her way within the next 24 hours. So when I woke up at 3:30 AM on Tuesday morning and they were 4-5 minutes apart, I thought it was finally time. They weren't really uncomfortable yet, and since I was new to this whole labor process, I figured they would stay close together and just start to get more intense. I packed my hospital bag and waited for the intensity to increase, but it never did. In fact, all they did was start to get further apart again.

I had an appointment scheduled for early that afternoon, so I called my doctor's office to see if I could come in earlier. They told me just to come right away. My doctor informed me that it was false labor because contractions don't slow down with real labor. When she checked me, she said I was between 2-3 cm dilated and that the head was much lower than it had been the week before. Her recommendation was to induce me the next morning, and I was ready to be done so it was scheduled for 7 am on Wednesday the 6th. The doctor also joked about how often all it takes is just scheduling the induction to get a baby to come on their own. And sure enough, that's what happened. More to come on that story soon...

35/35

Since I have yet to post a baby bump shot, I decided today would be the day since I'm now 35 weeks and only have 35 days left until my due date. I really don't like taking pictures like this, but I don't want this baby to feel less loved than her older sister. It's hard to believe how close we finally are to meeting this baby girl because it feels like we've been waiting a very long time for her to join our family. We're mostly ready for her arrival here at home, but I still have a ton to do at school to have everything ready for my long-term sub. When I went for my last doctor's appointment a little less than 2 weeks ago, she was already head down, so let's just hope she stays that way.

Here's another picture taken 6 weeks weeks ago at 29 weeks just for comparison.

THE BIG 3-0

Earlier this month, I celebrated my 30th birthday. I realize that to some people, turning 30 is no big deal. To me the 20s are the prime of one's life, so turning 30 was not something I'd been looking forward to at all. I didn't actually cry about it, but I did feel like it a few times. Maybe it also has something to do with feeling like I hadn't accomplished all that I hoped to by this point in my life, but I'm sure a lot of people feel that way at any milestone birthday.

My birthday was on a Friday, and after spending the morning cleaning my house in preparation for the family we'd be having over that weekend, I did have a relaxing and fun evening. Nate even got off work a couple of hours early.

For dinner, we went to Salt Lake to have dinner with my sisters and brother-in-law at an Italian restaurant called Tucci's. I'd only eaten there once several years ago and remembered it being good, and it was. One of the owners "Papa Tucci" was actually the one to wait on us which included him singing "Happy Birthday" to me in Italian. They even put a candle in my slice of turtle cheesecake. Even if we didn't do anything extraordinary to celebrate, it was a nice birthday overall.
My birthday celebration even continued throughout the weekend because my sisters and their kids that arrived from Arizona wanted to celebrate too. So Sunday, we had the whole group over to our house for dinner, birthday cake, and homemade ice cream. This celebration also included my nephew Asher who was turning one just a few days later. It was great to have family around, even if it was a very short visit.

Here's hoping for great things during this new decade of my life!

An Early Gift

A couple of months ago, the inexpensive set of cookware I'd had since before Nate and I were married started to fall apart. Handles were starting to come apart and the non-stick surfaces weren't very non-stick anymore. Nate was ready to go right out and buy a new set for me, but I assured him that I could make do until Mother's Day. Being the great husband that he is, I got to open and use my gift just a few days early. And here they are:
Consumer Reports gave this set an awesome rating, and the price for this 15-piece set was great too. Happy early Mother's Day to me! And for the record, Nate washed all of them for me after pulling them out of the box so I didn't have to. :)

Test Results

My test results are all finally in, and they are all NEGATIVE. This is good news because it means that there doesn't appear to be anything specifically wrong with me. On the other hand, it also doesn't give us any answers about what went wrong this time. I know that miscarriages are not uncommon, and I seem to have just been really unlucky twice in a row. I'm feeling a little more hopeful now that maybe this won't happen the next time, but I'm also very terrified that it will.

The last 3 weeks have been very difficult for me emotionally. There's not an hour that goes by that I don't think my losses, and there's not a day that goes by that I don't cry about it. I know it will just take some time to heal, and I'm trying to be patient.

I'm scheduled for a follow-up exam next week, and I'm looking forward to talking to my doctor to find out what the next step is for us and hopefully get some of my many questions answered.

Surgery and Recovery

Yesterday morning I went into my doctor's office for another quick ultrasound just so she could check where everything was at and make sure that the D&C was still the best option, and it was. She also informed me that she would start a full workup to try and find an answer for us. It will take about a week to get the lab reports back, and they may not even reveal anything. I asked what we do at point and she said we pretty much just throw everything at it but the kitchen sink. Hopefully some treatment will give us the healthy pregnancy we're waiting for.

So surgery was on for 4:30, but thankfully they were running ahead of schedule so the hospital called to see if I could come in earlier. I was in surgery by 3:30, out by 4:00, and woke up about 20 minutes later. The last thing I remember in the operating room was the anesthesiologist putting something in my IV that made my hand feel like it was burning so bad I wanted to scream, "Cut my hand off!" But luckily I fell asleep before I could get the words out. I'm so glad that I had general anesthesia though because it was nice to just wake up and know it was all taken care of. What I wasn't prepared for was the flood of emotion that came when I woke up. I hadn't focused on the loss part since the first couple of days after we got the bad news because I was so focused on trying to figure out what was wrong with my body. But as I was laying there all loopy and barely able to speak, the tears came flooding out with the realization that I was no longer pregnant. My second failed pregnancy in a row was over and done.

After the surgery, my doctor went out to the waiting room to let Nate know how things went. She admitted that after seeing what she saw internally and what she removed, she still has no clue what went wrong with this pregnancy. Definitely not what I was hoping to hear.

When I got moved to the second recovery room after I woke up, I was able to see Nate again. He took great care of me over the next hour and a half helping me sip water and giving me crackers. I was so starving and thirsty that water and graham crackers never tasted so good.

I feel very fortunate that I had such great nurses and doctors every step of the way yesterday. It definitely helped make the experience a little less miserable. And Nate took great care of me as usual. It was also comforting to know what is done with the fetal tissue they remove. I'm not sure how it works at all hospitals, but at this one fetal tissue is given to a local mortuary to cremate and then be put in a vault in special garden at one of the local cemeteries. That was very touching to me.

We left the hospital by 6:15 yesterday, and then I spent the rest of the evening just taking it easy. Compared to recovering from a c-section, this has been a breeze. Some slight discomfort and pain that was easily taken care of by pain pills, and 24 hours later I'm actually feeling pretty normal - at least physically. Emotionally, I feel like I'm doing better than I expected. That may change after I get my lab results next week, but until then I'll try to pretend that my life is normal again.

Update

Just as I expected, the results of my 2nd blood test revealed that my HcG levels have dropped confirming this is not a viable pregnancy. Unfortunately, the O.R. was swamped yesterday so I couldn't get on the surgical schedule until Monday afternoon. Assuming I don't miscarry over the weekend, I'm going in to my doctor's office first thing Monday morning for another ultrasound so she can see where I'm at, and then my D&C will happen at 4:3o that afternoon. It's an outpatient procedure, so I'll be home as soon a I'm out of recovery. I'm not sure how long that will take since I'll be under general anesthesia. But from what I've been told it's not a difficult physical recovery - just emotional.

Bad News...Again

I've been debating quite a bit about whether or not to blog about this, and obviously I decided to go ahead with it. Although this is something personal that our family is dealing with, I'm tired of feeling like I have to hide it. I also think that writing about it with help me deal with all of the thoughts, emotions, etc. that I have.

For several months now many people have asked when we're going to have another child or told us that Bridget is so cute we should have another one. Although comments like that are meant to be harmless, it's actually made what we're going through more difficult. Trust me, we desperately want to have more children but are having issues making that happen.

I had a miscarriage in October that took forever to be resolved and was very devastating to us. I know lots of women have a least one miscarriage during their child-bearing years, so after working through all the emotions and getting over the whole physical aspect of it, I tried to be more optimistic.

To say that I was thrilled when I found out I was pregnant again about 3 months later would be an understatement. Being pregnant again greatly helped to lift my spirits, but I tried to keep from being too excited about it until after my first doctor's appointment because I wanted to know that everything was okay first.

That appointment was just 2 days ago. I was so nervous waiting for the doctor to come in to do the ultrasound, and she could see it on my face when she walked in, so she got right to it. As soon as I saw the monitor I knew that my biggest fear was happening again. But this time it was worse. Normally a uterus looks black and the fetus and everything else around the uterus is white. My uterus was solid white. She couldn't see anything and said that my uterus was full of guck or junk or some word like that. She told me it was probably a molar pregnancy but she'd have to check my HcG levels with a blood test first to confirm. If it was a molar pregnancy than my HcG levels would be sky high - probably over 100,000. And because my uterus is full of something and there was no sign of an embryo, I'd need to have a D and C to have everything cleaned out. The pathology report from the D and C will also give us a better idea what is going on and how to treat it.

When I called yesterday to get the results of my blood test and schedule the D and C, I was thrown a bit of a curve ball. My HcG levels were only 9700 - which means it's not a molar pregnancy. So now I have no idea what is going on with my body. The doctor didn't want to schedule a D and C until she has confirmation that it's not a viable pregnancy, so I had to go in to have my blood drawn again today to check my HcG levels again. I'll find out the results tomorrow and then go from there. The chance of this not ending in a D and C is slim to none, and I'm quite anxious to have it over and done with so that we can hopefully get some answers from the pathology reports.

In addition to dealing with a loss again, I now have several added fears. Cancer is definitely one of them. The strong possibility of continuing to have more fertility issues including more miscarriages is another. But the one that scares me the most is the possibility of not being able to have any more children at all. Bridget desperately needs a sibling to play with and would be such a great big sister. It breaks my heart that we don't seem to be able to give that to her.

I know that there's a reason I'm going through all this heartache, and I can't wait to figure out what it is someday. One thing I've definitely learned is that I can't plan every aspect of my life as much as I'd like to. Another thing I've learned is what an amazing blessing a healthy pregnancy is. I will admit that I hated all of the discomforts that I had when I was pregnant with Bridget. Right now I would give anything to have them again.

I am so grateful that I have been blessed with a wonderful husband and beautiful daughter. All of this has certainly increased my love and appreciation for them. I'm also grateful for wonderful friends and family that have offered to help us in any way that they can.

Birthday Fun

Earlier this month, I celebrated yet another birthday. After a typical day at home with Bridget, Nate's mom got into town, so we spent a little time with her before heading to Salt Lake for dinner. Being the thrifty person that I am, we opted for Buca di Beppo mostly because I had a coupon and also because Nate loves the gnocchi there. My sister Megan joined us for dinner, and you can see how excited she was to have her picture taken.

Nate practically fell out of the booth so I could get this shot of him with Bridget.

When we were done eating, Bridget decided that the bread basket made a great hat.

And Megan thought so too.

My yummy birthday cake

Nate always worries about gifts because he wants to buy me fun things but I prefer them to be more practical. I convinced him that I wanted a blower/vacuum/mulcher for the yard because I'm the one that always ends up cleaning up the tons of leaves in our yard, so that was my gift from him. Bridget got me a pretty sterling silver necklace with a tiny heart pendant that says "Mom" on one side and "I remember all the hugs you gave me" on the other side.

Jessica's Birthday Celebration

On Saturday, we went to SLC to spend the day with my sisters (Megan and Jessica) and my brother-in-law (Matt) to celebrate Jessica's birthday. It was a gorgeous day outside (70 degrees) and very windy, so we went to the park to fly some kites. Nate and Uncle Matt did a great job teaching Bridget how to fly the kite.

In fact, they did such a good job she was doing it by herself before too long. It was just too bad her attention span was so short that she would just drop it and walk away after a minute or two.
Can you believe she's not even 16-months-old yet?
She loves to steal my sunglasses.

Can you blame her? She looks so cute in them.

And here's the birthday girl with the Barbie birthday cake she requested I make for her. Apparently 21 is not too old for such a cake.

The rest of the festivities included making and eating homemade personal size pizzas (sorry no pics of that) and eating cake with homemade ice cream. Yum!

What are the Chances?

Today Bridget and I headed to the mall after I got off work, and as we were getting ready to leave the mall a horrible thing happened. Maybe I'll win a nomination for the bad mom award, but here's the story.

I had just put Bridget in her carseat, and she was crabby because it was lunchtime and naptime. She grabbed the keys which I had in my hand, and when I tried to take them back she screamed. So I decided to let her hold them for a minute while I put the stroller and bags in the car. I shut her door to open the door in front of it, and then put my purse and bag on the front seat. I shut that door and was about to open her door again to get the keys to open the trunk when I heard that dreadful "click" of the locks. In the 2 seconds that all the doors were shut, she just happened to hit the lock button on the remote. I immediately started to panic and hoped that she would miraculously hit the unlock button. When I realized that that wasn't going to happen and my cell phone was also locked in the car, I started looking around for strangers that might be able to help me.

A nice woman let me use her phone to call 911. The dispatcher I spoke to told me that "they don't do that" even though I told him my baby was locked in the car. He said I'd have to call a tow truck. I was shocked. Here I am in an emergency situation and the dispatcher won't even help me. What does he want me to do, whip out the yellow pages as I'm standing there in the mall parking lot? He seriously wouldn't help me at all, so I just hung up. The woman who was trying to help me went in the mall to try and get some help from mall security.

In the meantime, I'm standing at the car trying to keep Bridget happy and trying not to cry myself. There weren't a lot of people around, and luckily some more people came to my aid as I was standing at my car crying. Another woman let me use her phone so I could call Nate and have him start heading home to get our spare set of keys. Then a man who was a tool salesman and had his big truck full of tools was able to use something to get into the car and unlock the doors. By this time, Bridget had been locked in for about 30 minutes and there were about 6 strangers gathered around my car trying to help. The mall security guy informed me that the 911 dispatcher should have called a locksmith who would have opened the car for free because a baby was inside. He was very surprised when I told him what the dispatcher didn't offer to do anything like that.

So here's what I've learned from this experience. Don't plan on 911 helping you in emergency situations. Don't let babies play with car keys unless there is at least one door open at all times. And there are a lot of nice strangers out there who will help you when you need it.

Recent Changes

We've been in our house now for about 2 months, and in that short time we've already gone through some major changes at church. About a month ago Nate got called to teach Elders Quorum one Sunday a month, and lucky for him he probably now holds some sort of record for serving in a calling for the shortest amount of time and never having to actually do anything with it. Within 2 weeks of receiving that calling, our stake made major boundary changes to every ward and dissolved two of the nine wards (ours being one of them). Obviously everybody from our ward was released from their callings, and on Sunday we attended our new ward for the first time.

On Saturday a member of the bishopric randomly showed up at our door (for some reason they didn't have a phone number for us so he couldn't call first). I happened to still be in my pajamas because I'd been so busy cleaning and taking care of Bridget that I hadn't had a chance to get ready for the day yet, so it was just a little embarrassing. Anyway, I got called to be the 2nd Counselor in the Primary of our new ward. When he told me the name of the president, I didn't have a clue who she was (not surprising since we've only lived in our house a couple of months). When we were all sustained during sacrament meeting, I didn't even recognize her as somebody I'd ever seen before. She even admitted to me later that she couldn't even remember my name, but when she was praying about who her counselors should be, she knew it was supposed to be me (the woman who spoke in sacrament meeting just a few weeks before and bought the Riggs' home). I'm really excited about this calling since it's something I haven't done before, and I love Primary. I also look forward to getting to know the other women in the presidency, the teachers, and the kids.