New Year!

Wow I feel like a broken record when I say that 2013 FLEW right past me. Ty and I were talking and this past year was the fastest yet. I think its because we had so many new things going on. Here is a breakdown of our last year

Jan-Uneventful. Thought we had a new leash on infertility (turns out that Dr was bogus kind of) but we didnt. Trying to stay patient and positive while waiting in limbo for our lives to change.

Feb-Lucy turned 3! I couldnt believe it. I honestly felt like I missed her entire 2nd year because I was so focused on other things and trying to survive the terrible two's, life in limbo, and endless infertility. So shame on me, but I learned a valuable lesson! Ty was interviewing for job opportunities.

March-This was a big month! We moved to St George! Ty got a job with Voxxy Networks and we up and moved very quickly. This has been a great opportunity to live here and we have had a great time!

April-Celebrated my 28th birthday. My twenties are quickly winding down and it scares me! I feel like life is passing by so quickly, but yet Im not sure how to slow it down. I was also inspired to start up a cake decorating business this month. Also my grandpa Pickett passed away. He was a GREAT person. It was a great blessing that he wasnt suffering any more but still really sad as he left my sweet grandma behind.

May-Pretty uneventful other than the Potty Gods smiled upon us. Potty training Lucy was a little more than absolutely wretched and this month was purely magical! Also getting things taken care of with my new business

Lucy's new bike incentive for being fully potty trained!

Kite Festival

June- Started more infertility treatments in Vegas. Its getting SUPER hot here in St George

Ty's first "major" bike wreck. And that's not all his scrapes either!

July-Won my first cake decorating contest. Got my first "cease and assist" letter from the city for making a cake without my license! What a joke! STILL waiting on the city for my license

Aug-Ty celebrated his 28th bday. I think this hit him harder than it did me. I think he almost came home with a brand new Ferari and his hair dyed! Ty's last sibling Cam got married this month

color festival which Lucy HATED! She bawled the whole time

Sept- Royal Icing Cake Design was officially born this month! FINALLY! I have enjoyed making cakes SO much. It was a nightmare to get started but I am so glad I did it. Just in the past few months I have learn so much and my decorating skills have improved drastically! Also Lucy started preschool. My baby is going to school. I almost cried. She looked so big and cute in her giant backpack. She LOVES school. I am so glad we decided to put her in at 3 instead of waited til 4. She has learned so much and her speech and behavioral skills are night and day! It has been so good to have her be with lots of other kids and people in charge and new rules and things to do.

                      

Oct- Halloween. Lucy REALLY got into Halloween this year. She was sleeping beauty and Ty and I were burglars.

November- Celebrated all we are thankful for.

December- Least busy Christmas season we have had yet! Had a freak snow storm that paralyzed St George and

I know a lot more went on that I cant think of right now but that is the jist of our 2013

ABC's and 1-2-3's

 So i have been having writers block. I like my writing to be interesting. I like some personality in my blog and I have apparently been really boring and have had a hard time expressing my every day activities in a fun way. You know what I mean? blogs arent fun to read or write when they are so plain and mundane!

So I have finally decided that I need to get my rear in gear and just catch up and write! So after a few months of Lucy starting school I decided its time to blog about it! I cant believe my little baby is in preschool. She is only 3 so she will be going to preschool for 2 years. I think this is ok and heaven only knows my social butterfly needs to explore, learn and play without me hovering over her at all times. All summer long Lucy would ask everyday, all day, if she could go to school. So needless to say she was VERY excited. We got her all suited up in her brand new oversized backpack (Disney princess style of course) and dropped her off on a new chapter of life.

I was really excited for her (and for free time i have to admit) but I was so sad that she is growing up so fast. I walked her in and found her seat. She was pretty quiet and just taking everything in and not quite sure of things. But she came home and was so excited to tell me and show me what she did. She tells me everyday about her new friends and her teachers. She loves school! It is so good for her too. Even though she will be in preschool for 2 years I am really glad we put her in this early. Plus they have different curriculum for the 3 and 4 year olds.  Already I can tell a big difference in her speech and her teachers say she is doing better in her listening and sitting still. I love dropping her off and seeing all the adorable little kids. I swear there are kids that are so tiny, they look like they are 2! The cutest is the huge backpacks that go all the way down to the back of their knees and bounce up and down as they walk in to class. Too cute! Little random side note, Lucy has grown exactly 2 inches since we moved here in march! Holy smokes! That is 2 inches in 6 months.  

Back to the grind

Let see.... Right now I am watching Duch Dynasty. Can I just say how happy this show makes me. Its so nice to see a family that actually shows they love each other, are respectful, God fearing , and not to mention absolutely  hilarious. But I digress. This is not the purpose of this post.

So some catch up on what has been going on. So last week we went to Logan and spent a few days for the 2nd reception of Cam and Rebecca. I was making the cupcakes for the blessed event and plus we had Time out for Women that we went to. It was a much needed vacation and it was jam packed full of fun.  I think I forgot to post about the actual wedding, now that I think of it. Maybe I should start with that.

On Aug 24 Ty's little bro got married. He was the last in the fam to get married so we relished in festivities cause there isnt going to be a wedding in the family for a long time. Well minus our good friends we consider family including Ty's best buddy. So we spent the night in Salt Lake because thats where the wedding was and then the rest of the time at the Nelsons, ty's grandparents in Orem. It was a lot of fun.

Here is the wedding cake. Yes I made it. There are a few things i REALLY wanted to fix with it, but oh well.

So now for the stay in Logan. I am absolutely LAME at taking pictures. So I have none. However I am waiting for my peeps to post some and then I can steel them (bwa-ha-hah-ha!) But to say the least it pretty much rained the WHOLE time we were there. But it was SSOOO nice and cool, it felt great. It was definitely hard coming back to 90+ degree weather :( But it miraculously cleared up for the reception! What a blessing. My MIL worked SSOOO hard on this reception in their backyard and I think I would have cried for her if it would have rained. Lucy had a blast playing with all the kids in her "princess" dress and getting oodles of attention. Then with Time Out for Women all of us girls went. It was a 2 day event for LDS women and there are lots of speakers and entertainment and of course lots and lots of women. ITs very similar to Womens Conference at BYU except we stay in one place and the speakers come to us! It was really good and very inspirational. Of course there are speakers where there isnt a dry eye in the place, and there are some that were seriously hilarious, and some that were so informational and educational that I thought my head was going to explode.  All in all great week, great people, great food, and awesome fun!

Summer summer summer

Whew! So much to catch up on! Honestly our summer has been so incredibly boring and then August hit and BAM we have had so much going on. From one of our best friend family coming to visit, 2 trips up north (well technically 3), wedding (thats the 3rd trip), Lucy starts school in 2 days, and cake stuff.

I have been putting off blogging because I havent been good at all at taking pictures and honestly I really havent been much in the blogging mood. When I am not in the blogging mood my posts tend to be extremely boring and not fun to read at all so I have been waiting for that moment when I am feeling ultra blog happy, and that isnt happening so I may as well bite the bullet now. I am thinking I will have to catch up in multiple posts too.

A few weeks ago one of my bestest buddies came to visit! We LOVE the Butterfields and we were so excited for them to come visit us. We stayed up WAY too late, went shopping, ate good food, went to Pirate Island, went to the splash pad down town, talked and talked and did I mention stayed up way too late?! It was a much needed stay-cation on our end. I was actually surprised that Lucy got along so well with the girls because she only has boy friends here and I was nervous that she wouldnt be used to playing with girls but low and behold our little girly girl got along perfectly well the whole time. Here are a few pictures to commemorate (that i stole from Meggans Facebook)

Lets see. So our trips to Provo and Salt Lake were fun and we really love going back to Utah county. We NEVER thought we would say that, but we sure do miss it a lot. It just feels like home there. Plus it is so green! Again, thought i would never say how pretty and green it is, but when you are surrounded by brown/red its kind of a breath of fresh air. First we went for a sort of family reunion for the Nixon side of the family. That was totally impromptu and last minute but we were glad we went. We saw the Trythalls and saw our family that we hadnt seen in 5 months (which is a long time when you go from seeing them weekly or more) and it was AWESOME weather. No pics for this one....

Next trip to P-town was for Ty's little sisters graduation from BYU and our new sis-in-laws endowment in the temple. Again, fun to see family and hang out. Lucy got sick the night of the endowment and luckily decided not to puke until we were getting her out of the car at home (aka Nelson's home) and lucky for tyler was while he was holding her and a big gust of wind came right at the perfect (or imperfect) moment. We think it was from all the junk and crazy schedule cause she felt better after that. Although for some reason when someone in my house or people I have been by get sick I get EXTREMELY paranoid and anxious. So she was doing better but I was a ball of nerves. 

Lucy helping Grandma with wedding prep. Never too young to help with weddings!

Reality check

Today one of my worst nightmares hit close to home. It was a horrible moment that seemed to last a lifetime. Lucy and I went swimming with our neighbors and one of the little boys drowned. Luckily, after being unconscience for hours and being life flighted, just a bit ago he finally woke up (thank heavens) and so far no signs of brain damage. Nobody knows how long he was in the pool struggling and it all happened so fast, yet seemed to last forever.  A little boy no bigger than an 8-9 year old is the one that saved him and pulled him out. He is a stranger and no one knows who he was but he is such a hero!

After getting the situation under control and helping out with the other kids and coming home I just couldnt get my mind off of what happened, and what could have happened, and how it could have been my child. I felt so helpless. The only thing I knew I could do at that moment was to pray. So Lucy, and the little boys sister (whom we took home), and I got on our knees. Have you ever been in a moment like this? Where you feel so worried, helpless, scared, yet grateful at the same time? Grateful because of the little boy who found him and by some miracle pushed him out of the pool even though he himself was little and they were in deeper water. Grateful that his mom was able to resuscitate him with CPR. Grateful for the blessings that I have, and for the awesome people who were there. But mostly, grateful for my precious loves. Man, what a moment that quickly brings you to reality. All of a sudden I was so aware of every time I raised my voice at Lucy, moments where she got hurt and was scared, how fragile life is, and how easy it is to get complacent and forget the blessings we have.

(continuing from last night)

Last night I had a hard time sleeping. I can only imagine what my friend is going through and what is going through her mind as she was trying to sleep. Again, I wish there was something I could do. Anyway today is a new day. I have my beautiful baby girl and my loving husband. Really what is more important than that? A new car, building our dream house, or going on a relaxing vacation? I may not have "things" but at least I have an awesome marriage and an adorable little girl who never ceases to make me smile.

Big leap of faith

So for a long long time Tyler and I have thought about what it would be like to adopt. My sister and her family have adopted 2 of their children and we have know other family and friends who have done adoption as well. Since we have gotten married we have always wanted to adopt and deep down we have felt like someday that would be a huge part of our lives. A year ago we had in fact decided to adopt, we went to the temple and I had contacted agencies and got lots of information. But shortly after we had made the decision, we got a feeling that right now is not the time and we need to do more invasive procedures with infertility instead. Even though those procedures didnt work for us, we have faith that for some reason that was the path we were to take.

So here we are 3 1/2 years after Lucy was born and we feel more strongly than ever that now is the time for us to adopt! It has been huge leap of faith on our end knowing that this really is the course of action we need to take and some how its all going to work out. The most scary and overwhelming part of this is the cost. An average cost for us to adopt would be $25,000!!! Talk about scary! How does anyone afford this? Especially when you dont have a lot of income and one spends their life savings for fertility treatments that didnt work. But we prayed and prayed and we still felt so strongly that this is something we really need to do. My good friend told me about websites that you can do fundraising from. So after weighing all of our options and thinking of ways we can raise money for this we found an awesome website that you can raise money for anything you want and advertise it through social media! We have no idea what we have gotten ourselves into and if this is actually going to work BUT again, we feel strongly that something needs to be done, and this is how we are going to do it.

So here goes nothing! If you or if anyone you know who is willing to help us, go to this website http://www.gofundme.com/3r3f6s Another really helpful thing is to share our page on your own facebook and twitter accounts, tell your friends and family and help us spread the word!

We have already received donations and we have had so many people wish us well. THANK YOU!!!! Your support means more to us than you will ever know. We cannot believe that we have so many people that love us and give us so much support.

Hmmm...

Lots to blog about.

Lucy was supposed to get surgery last week. We found out that our insurance was applying the whole amount to the deductible, which is a very high deductible, and we cant afford it right now. Hopefully in the very short future we will be getting different insurance and then she can finally get her ears fixed.

A few weeks ago we ventured to Vegas once again but this time it was for the IUI procedure. It was a bit more painful than I imagined for some reason. I hear your not really supposed to feel it but I certainly did and it was like a big contraction. Suddenly I remembered what those nasty buggers felt like, no fun. But it was short lived and then I was on my way. Well, to be expected (there is only like a 20-30% chance it actually works) it did not work for us... I got the feeling it didnt work a few days before our pregnancy test and I just knew I wasnt pregnant. I was mad. But I was glad that i knew before hand because it helped me adjust and except the news when it came. When the Dr called to let me know the news, I wasn't surprised and felt really at peace with it. a lot of our family and friends felt so bad and they would call and ask how I was doing and the truth was that I was doing really well. I almost started to feel bad that I wasnt taking it harder. But I had my moment of that a few days prior like I mentioned and that was that. Actually to be honest I felt a HUGE weight lifted off my shoulders. We are moving on to something different and its exciting. But when things get a little more finalized I will be blogging about that.

This past weekend we took a fast and very last minute trip up north. Ty's family was having an impromptu get together and we really felt like we needed to be there. So off we went. It was so good to go back to utah county. We really miss that place. Man it is green there! I remember thinking how ugly it was when we lived there and now when we went back, we couldnt stop saying how green and pretty it was. The mornings were PERFECT and the nights were cool. We hung out with the Trythalls and finally got to hold baby McCoy! IT was good to see family and go back to BYU campus for a few things. Things we dont miss about Utah county, how BUSY it is and all the traffic, and road construction.

I cant believe school starts less than a month! The summer, as always, has flown by! Oh ya before I forget. I made my first wedding cake on Sat! Pretty exciting. But I cant get the picture to upload. Pictures soon to come!

Surgery for Snookie bear

So a few weeks ago I was thinking about Lucy and her speech. Every time we have ever taken her to a Dr for a check up or to speech therapy and they have checked her ears it just so happens that she has had a cold or stuffed up for one reason or another. But every time they have said, its no big deal and not to really worry especially for her speech. Also she has never had an earache or complained about them hurting, ever. Well, as I was thinking I got the sneeky suspicion that maybe JUST MAYBE it really is her ears that is causing problems with her speech. Often times when we talk to Lucy especially if there is a new word she is trying to say, if she isnt looking at us, the word will come out COMPLETELY wrong, like not even close. But if she is looking at us as we say a new word  and she repeats it, it usually comes closer, like close enough that you can tell that she is trying to say that word. Also her annunciation is a huge problem. So I found a hearing specialist and made an appointment.

We go to the appointment and sure enough, she has hearing loss. It turns out, her eardrums dont even move! It is fairly mild and reversible (thank heavens). This explains SO much! She may have whats called Glue Ear, when fluid behind her eardrum, in her canal cant drain and it sits there for a long time and becomes thick. So I made an appointment with an ENT and today was the day.

So the Dr looks at her ears and confirms what I just mentioned and said she needs tubes in her ears and also probably needs her adenoids removed as well. So next thursday my little snookie bear gets to have her first surgery! I have to say I am nervous for her. The dr said it won't be so painful and recovery time is quick. So that is nice. But I can just imagine her being so scared back there by herself! She wont have anyone give her any sort of a check up without me holding her or she freaks. So hopefully they will let me back there until she is out... But thank heavens for mothers instinct, this could have gone on for years! But I do feel really bad, like I should have known and gone with my gut earlier. She should have had this done 2 years ago! So I feel really bad. When we found out she has hearing loss we felt so bad that we went and bought her some ice-cream.

Give me liberty or give me cake!

This week has been a fun and busy week. I had 2 trips to Vegas, 2 cakes to decorate, 4th of July, family and friends over, dance for Lucy and just regular chores and errands to run. Wednesday night in Hurricane they had a cake decorating contest that I entered. Here is the final result:

I was nervous because I found out last years winner did a cake that was of Mount Rushmore and you could really distinguish each face and it was awesome I guess. So I basically only entered to maybe get a new client or 2 and had no intentions of winning. Well... I actually took home the grand prize! Who knew?! Kinda surprising and kinda embarrassing. Ty thought it was particularly funny because I had to ride in the parade the next morning. He knows im sensitive about that, so he was teasing me all day about it. He thinks he is funny...Luckily no one in the parade could really see my face, so it wasnt THAT bad.

 Also Ty and Lucy got to ride in the Parade with Uncle Bryce for the Hurricane Rec Center. Lucy LOVED that! She got to throw cheese. It was funny. Most of the time if she actually got it out of the window it only made it a foot out! Then after that we went and looked at all the cakes in the competition, had breakfast by the Lions Club, and played some fun little games to win some prizes. When we were leaving Lucy saw cotton candy (which she has never eaten before) and said "a BIG ice-cream!" but we told her it was cotton candy and because it was the 4th of July we caved and bought her some. She look one lick and gave it to me. She did not like it at all! For being a total sugar addict, i was shocked. Then we came home and took a serious nap, bbq'd some burgers and then lit some fireworks with our friends. Lucy had been bugging us every 5 minutes for a week to do fireworks and she hated it! She didnt like them last year either. Maybe next time?

THEN today I had a cake order for my cousins little boy. It was his baptism day and they wanted a cake to celebrate. It turned out better than I thought. The cake pops were a nightmare so i was glad to get them over with. It was vanilla cake with chocolate buttercream filling.

We also do a lot of swimming. We love to go with our friends the Richters. Sway is one of Lucy's BFF's and after we were done they had to take a "nap" on the chair together. Little cuties!

Infertility and cake...

So a little catch up on the big "I" (infertility).  So this past month I have been doing IUI treatment. If you want to know more about IUI go here. But I have mentioned before that I have to give myself shots every night and go to Vegas every 3 days. Well that was going GREAT until our last appt when it was to decide when to do the actual procedure. I got a phone call that day saying we are going to have to cancel this cycle of IUI because there are too many eggs I have developed and they dont want to risk me having "9 babies" as what the NP told me over the phone. It wasnt a matter of "if" i got pregnant, but "how many". There was just to great of risk with how many eggs I had produced. So I was really bummed out, yet grateful that the medicine actually worked, it just worked a little too well! So I was disappointed because I didnt want to have keep doing this over and over again. It is very expensive to drive to Vegas every 3 days, pay for the medicine, take my child who seems to need every type of attention possible while I am driving and cant help her, give myself shots every night, not to mention the mental stress of infertility. Also did I mention we drive a whopping 4 hours all for about 10 minutes TOPS in the Dr office?! So anyway, I was put out, yet grateful (that doesnt make sense, i know). Now we have to start all over. Luckily we dont have to pay again (only for meds). But as I was talking to the nurse last night to schedule my appt for today I asked "just how many eggs did i produce?" and she counted, and counted and finally she said "21!". Twenty-one eggs people!!! Holy smokes! Again with the whole grateful thing. Could you imagine if I got pregnant?! I was thinking it was only 9 egg, since the nurse told me they dont want me to have 9 babies, but no, 21. I guess that is 21 less "crimson tides" that I dont have to surf in the future ;) Ok that was TMI but Im trying to look at the positive here folks!

So now I am back at it starting today. Sigh.......

I cant believe it is almost July. I love July. Living in Utah and being LDS we have 2 holidays to celebrate. AWESOME! Nothing says "American" like celebrating your country and religion and the freedom we have like the month of July. I am entering a cake decorating contest in Hurricane so I am racking my brain to come up with the most awesome looking and tasting cake there. Heaven only knows we need the cash prize AND to get my name and business out there to lots of people. I also just ordered business cards. That is weird to think I actually have a business card. I feel official.

Also one last thing. I dont think I put a pic up of my latest creation. It was for a friend who had a mission farewell party. He is going to the Ukraine and I was asked to to a cake for him. It was chocolate cake with a peanut butter mousse filling. This is the design I came up with...

F*R*I*E*N*D*S

So Ty and I were playing our usual game of Phase 10 (other times its Skipbo) and we were discussing how Ty would REALLY love to some day go back and work at a University. Ideally for him it would be BYU. Then we got talking about how we dont really feel at home here in St George yet and how we really miss Utah County. Then we got talking about maybe its because we are still new here and just need time to adjust and make friends. That last part, the one about making friends, thats where we fall short... See Ty and I are pretty sociable people. Probably more so Ty than me, but still we love the idea of having great friends around that you can hang out with at a moments notice. Is that hard to come by? Honestly, I dont know the answer to that. I have been SSSOOO lucky to have life-long friends around (and other great friends we have made along the way) that we have always had access too. If we were bored one night we could always call up someone and have a fun plan. Is that a rare thing that I have taken advantage of my whole life? Either that OR what worries us is that people think we are
A) weird
B) unfriendly; or
C) all of the above

Are we weird? Do people see us and say "oh they look nice" and then talk to us and say "oh... they are... different." Hmmm. There is some food for thought. Is there a reason we dont have any friends? We boggled over this question for some time. But to our credit we have noticed people keep to themselves a lot more here. We still dont know the majority of our neighbors and have probably only actually SEEN them a hand full of times, if ever at all. And in our ward we dont really fit in either. There is probably only a small hand full of people our age, and most of them have multiple kids they are busy with and have callings in the primary so we have only seen them in sacrament.... If it werent for our fearless attention-seeking child, we literally would know no one! So to all our friends scattered all over, how do you meet new friends when you move?

Splish Splash

Its officially getting hot down here. I think our days of double digit temperatures are gone for the time being. Its actually not as bad as I anticipated. Granted it isnt quite 110 on a regular basis yet, but being inside in air conditioned places or cars of course is the key. Friday I was in Vegas and at noon (nevada time) it was already 111, and thats not even the heat of the day! Yowzah!

Yesterday we took lucy to a Splash Festival in Washington and she had a blast! It is such a nice rec center and the pool opens up to the outdoors and has a lazy river and a water slide that is half indoors half out, plus lots of kid play areas/slides. They also had music and a surprisingly good band playing while Iron Man, pirates and mermaids graces us with their nautical presence. Lucy loved seeing "Ariel" and her friend (the other mermaid) and was quick to dismiss Ty and I so we wouldnt cramp her style and embarrass her in front of the famous mermaids. It was funny we took her over there and she turns around and said "Get out" (she is very tactful) and pushes us away. So now it starts. I didnt think she would be embarrassed of us until at least 10!

I have been super busy lately having to travel to Vegas every few days for fertility treatments. I have to take Lucy with me because I dont have anyone to watch her for hours every 3 days. Its not bad its just hard because she gets so restless sitting in the car. We travel the 2 hours just to be in the Dr office for  a whopping 10 minutes tops and then we are back on the road, so she doesnt get much of a break. so we are in the process of IUI right at the moment and they have to check up on me so often so that they are certain they get the results they want and make sure its not working TOO much, also the medicine I have to use has some nasty side effects that could potentially happen if they dont keep an eye on me. I am grateful for them taking such concern and it is very important, especially to get multiple eggs ready (therefore a better chance of conceiving). So i am very glad that they are really on top of things. Its just hard traveling so much, with a baby, on a car that has well over 111,000 miles on it. I just happened to stumble across a blog of a couple in Texas that went through the same procedure as me and had 3 eggs developed, just like my Dr is hoping for, and this couple wound up with quintuplets! WHAT! Talk about freaked me out! We are praying for one, possibly two, but 5!? I would cry for a while I think. Wish us luck!

Tonight before bed I asked Lucy if she wanted me to have a baby so that she would have a brother or sister and she said "Ummmm, no. Wucy pony?, No baby". Meaning, she asked if she could get a pony and has no interest in a sibling. So thats good to know.

This week I have a cake order and I am super excited. This is for a mission farewell party and there will be TONS of St. Georgians there to gain potential clients from.

Life inside the mind of Jody

So what is roaming around inside my brain today? Your probably scared to know. I would be too. But I shall tell you all.

Lucy vs. Friends: This has been on my mind today quite a bit. So i mentioned in a previous post that there are about 1 million little boys running around here, and no little girls, except mine. Which is fine. All of these little boys are older than her as well. Today there was about 6 or so of them outside our house trying to catch our neighbors poor little cat (well its actually quite a fatty but thats besides the point) and they were running around with no shoes on in the street and getting all dirty like little kids do. But the problem is Lucy was doing or trying to do EVERYTHING these little boys were doing. I tried to make her stay on the sidewalk, stay where I could see here, and to not crawl under cars. Of course Lucy being Lucy, listening isnt a strong point and defiance is. So I had a hard time reigning her in. Well some of the older boys (who were brothers) were talking to each other and said in a very mean way to each other "You are so stupid, your such a butt head" and "your so dumb get away from me". And some of the other boys werent very nice either, in a bad example sort of way. Soooo moral of the story is, people scare me. Lucy scares me. I cant control everything and I am scared for the example and impression people will leave on my children. How do you control who your children hang out with, without being rude or judgmental? Especially trying to explain to my children why I dont want them to play with little Suzy or Johnny especially when they cant understand the problem. I guess really the only thing I can do is pray really really really hard, and second teach my kids appropriate behavior and the rules we have for them and hope they make good choice and influence others for good. But thats the part that scares me, especially if my children are anything like me, which Lucy is 110% like me. Sigh...

Polygamy: So we discovered this show on discovery channel called Polygamy USA. Totally fascinating. Having grown up near and now living so near Polygamist groups I have always been so fascinated by their culture. Mainly because I dont know anything about them really and their religion is a lot of ways so close to mine, yet so different. I see folks from Colorado City and Centenial Park all the time around town and I want to so badly just go and ask so many questions I have, or be a fly on the wall in one of their homes or churches. Kind of a cool show to watch and just learn (hopefully its accurate).

Cakes: Last night I made some fondant to practice with today. I used about a gallon of food coloring and it took FOREVER to get the shade of Navy that I wanted. My hands were dead from kneading it. Today I went to cover my fake cake and the stupid stuff wont work. I realized I forgot to put water in with the recipe and now its too late and completely ruined. I was/am so mad about this. I hate wasting, its sort of a pet peeve of mine, and I wasted all that fondant, food coloring, time, and energy all for nothing... Boo. But I guess I did learn some things so i cant complain too much.

Neighbors: Ty and I are beyond house hungry. We have been dying to get into a home for probably the last year or so. I doesnt help when my favorite channel on tv is HGTV and ALL of our friends are home owners. It also doesnt help when we move in to a cute little neighborhood of townhomes and the unit next door in empty and then all of a sudden a bunch of teenage boys move in and blast their electric guitars and video games! I feel like such an old lady saying that. Cant you just picture me walking outside my door in a robe and curlers shaking my fist saying "you young whipper-snappers, turn down that ruckus before I come over there and turn it down for you"!

Last but not least, BUGS: I hate cockroaches. Hate them. There was a GIANT one this morning on its back by the door. Luckily I clobbered the bugger but still, the thing was like 2 inches long!! Of course hot places are usually infested with them, and St George is no exception. UGH! I can handle spiders, I can handle ants, but I cannot handle roaches!!!

Catch up and stuff

I really need to keep up on the blog. I have so much to blog about. Nothing super cool, but stuff I want to document none the less. But where do I even start?

Mothers day: This day was of course special and I was spoiled. We have church at 9 so i didnt get to sleep in BUT I was woken with breakfast in bed! Yummy french toast muffins, eggs, and a piece of bacon and a few magazines. It was so good. Lucy kept telling me Happy Birthday. Then Ty cooked dinner, he made kebabs with rice and rolls. Then for dessert I made texas sheet cake (one of my FAVS!) It was great. Also a great day to reflect on all the mom's in my life and how they have impacted me and made me a better person.

Lucy: Lots going on with this little girl. We got her all signed up for preschool (that was awhile ago) but all her testing was done. She is "moderately delayed" in her speech and she was tested for behavior and she is "slightly delayed" in that as well. Even though they dont do any diagnostics they said per the test results she has tendencies for ADD and something else I cant remember at the moment. It doesnt mean she HAS these things, just means she has a few characteristics that coincide with this. The funny thing is we KNOW she has a speech problem, thats obvious but when she was tested at the end of her speech therapy in Provo they said she was now normal. NO WAY!! The guy that did the testing here sat with her for 5 min and new she needed help. Just goes to show that parents inclination sometimes overrule "professional" opinion. So she has the summer off, no therapy, but when school starts up she will start. She will be in a class with kids just like her as well kids that have no delays at all with a teacher that is specific for this kind of structure, plus there are aids and people that will help. I am so happy with this and we hope this will catch her up to speed quickly.
 As far as behavioral, I thought I was just being super paranoid and sensitive to her behavior and she didnt have any problems, I was the one with the problem. I always felt like the worst parent when I would explain Lucy's "spirited" behavior to people I would always get the feeling like people were thinking "well, she is 2. 2 year olds dont sit still, and they are hard..." kind of like I was over exaggerating and being a baby. I always just felt like nobody understood my feelings of how "difficult at times" she can be, my feelings were never validated and for SO long I felt like I was the WORST parent ever because everyone has kids that seem so calm and mindful and they listen somewhat. I felt like maybe its all my fault because Im not patient, I yell, and I get mad, and maybe im too hard on her, and she watches too much tv, and Im not one of those creative moms who make these activites that keep their child occupied for hours, and its hard for me to be patient and play with her all day, and maybe im not made for parenthood, and on-lookers and people who dont live with her 24-7 make quick judgements and it of course reflects on my parenting.... And so on and so forth.  These thoughts go through my mind a lot. Anyway as much as I hate the fact that she is "below normal" I feel like FINALLY somebody understands and I really am not crazy and a horrible person to think that I ave had a hard time with raising her. But most of all I am glad that now we can DO something about it rather than just get frustrated and mad at her. I still think that somehow these issues with her are my fault, I dont think I will ever not think that. But I am just so grateful for the technology and BRILLIANT people that help families like us.  Reading back over this paragraph it doesnt expain what I really feel, and mean, but I think you get the picture...

Royal Icing- we are just sitting a waiting. I have done everything that I need to do and now I just wait for the home inspection and then turn in my business application to the city and then do more waiting. I had my first client. Ty's boss's little girl had a party and they had me do a couple sheet cakes for the guests. I also have another order (if you can even count it, its from my MIL) for a missionary farewell in a few weeks. Other than that, I wonder sometimes what I have gotten myself into. Honestly I have no idea what I have gotten myself into. But I guess I will see!

Ty: Ty is just working, working, working! He works SO hard, and for that I am grateful. He does a great job and I am proud of him. He is also prepping for a bike race in a few weeks in Cedar. The other night he went out and about 10 min later in he walks covered in dirt, blood, and lots of scrapes and ripped up gear. He wrecked big time. Every time he goes out I get really paranoid, for this exact reason. He is honestly lucky he didnt break anything or chip his teeth! But he is doing much better and is still biking.

Me: I am doing great. This sunshine has worked miracles for me. Im not joking. Being cooped up inside all winter was not doing great things for me and it was really hard. But I feel great and I am just happy for new opportunities. Big and EXPENSIVE decisions have to be made really fast about what route we are going to take for our infertility journey. Ahhh, back to the grind of the infertility battle. It was SO nice to take off the last 5 months and not even think about it, but with the hormone treatment completely worn off, we can now get back to the stress of it all. We are now working with Red Rock Fertility in Vegas (that is the closest fertility center to us). Wish us luck, and a lot of prayers. We need a miracle...

This post is forever long So i will cut it short and add some pics.

Lucy's new bike for being potty trained!!!! I honestly and truly never thought this day would come.

The girls playing with the water table and Grandma and Grandpas house

Lucy's princess dress that she got for pooping in the potty. This was the BIGGEST hurdle of potty training

Kite festival. SO FUN!

The girls and uncle Andrew. He is SO good to play with them.

Almost here!

So for quite some time I have been wanting to open up my own cake design company from home. I looked into it in Provo but there was too much to do (even more than I realized at the time) without knowing where we would be moving. So when we came to St George and I looked at our kitchen space I thought, maybe I should wait until we get into a house to start it up. We have about 3 sq ft of counter space and I knew I would go crazy trying to bake and decorate with such small space. Well it wasnt long after that that I just KNEW i had to start on the business process. I honestly felt/feel like im being shoved into this, its really weird! There are so many hesitations that I have and the process is daunting, long, in-depth, and overwhelming. But for some reason everytime I have a hesitation it either works out all on its own somehow or I get this surge (shove) of "YOU HAVE TO DO THIS!" and the process all of a sudden feels easier. I cant explain it other than maybe its the Lords way of telling me (this is how He usually does it) that this is where I need to go. I dont feel ready, prepared, or talented enough. But oh well, i guess its going to happen whether I like it or not!

SO... We are almost there! The other day I was reading over the requirements to pass the health inspection and there were things I was NOT ready for and I thought for sure that this process has come to a screeching halt and who knows when I will ever open a business up. I found that I have to have a separate fridge and shelving/storage for my cake stuff. I cant use our fridge or storage that has our personal food/stuff in it... Uh, I have to get another fridge? Ya right. Well of course after conversing one night with the Man Upstairs about this slight problem I thought "I think I really will have to just put this on hold".

Rewind a little over a month. Our renter had told us before we moved that we are going to have to bring our own fridge. Luckily my in-laws are the bomb and let us take whatever we wanted out of our old place to take with us, and that included our fridge. We got down here and annoyingly (or so we thought) there was already a fridge here! How inconsiderate! What are we going to do with an extra fridge. Bryce (Ty's bro) took it and thought they could use it at his office. But i had the feeling last night that we needed to call him and just ask to see if they really are using it or what not. Well turns out he is giving it back to us! Talk about MAJOR hurdle just cleared!!! Again, weird, and miraculous.

Without further ado. Here is my darling logo (thank you 48hourslogo.com!) and business name! Even if I feel all of these hesitations I could not be more blessed. Everything is falling PERFECTLY in to place by miracle. I cant wait!

I better watch my mouth!

So recently, more than ever, I have noticed Lucy is copying a lot of phrases that I say. Most I am not proud of. She is too little to have this vocabulary! Here is just a few

-UGH!!! (this is when I am slightly frustrated or bugged and I will do this grunting UGH sound. Lucy does this ALL the time now)

-Oh my gosh (even though we can still hardly understand a lot of what she says, this one came out clear as day. We tell her not to say it. But when I say it all the time and I dont realize, it makes it a tough case to sell)

-Crap! (this one came out last night after Tyler said it. She thought it was funny and kept saying it over. But at least this time it wasnt from me, whew!)

-Just a minute (she says this over everything. Again I say this to her all the time)

-I am spank you bum "im going to spank your bum" (When it is the last straw, we do in fact give her a little spanking, so sue us! Its not all the time but when she deliberately does something naughty when we REPEATEDLY tell her not to and looks us right in the eye and shoves it in our face, like biting people for example, she will get a spanking for it)

-she still calls me "Jod" all the time. Even though I tell her my name is mommy, I cant help but think this is so funny! Its the way she says it that cracks me up. And unlike a lot of things, is completely innocent!

My lucy bear is a crack up! But saying "crap" and "oh my gosh" makes me realize that I really need to watch myself in life and make sure I am doing/saying things that if she repeats, I am happy about. Even though they arent bad words or anything, I still dont like her saying it.

Birthday- Im getting old

So this week I turned the big 2-8. I cant believe that I am almost 30. This is too weird. I think I may have a pre-midlife crisis at 30. But since I am not quite there I will take a few deep breaths, harness my chi, and enjoy what is remaining of my 20's. The King family is infamous for having a "birthday week" instead of just one day. I like this tradition. So since on my official birthday we were at my grandpas funeral, I really did get to have a birthday week. Last night Ty and I dropped Lucy off at the Hurricane Kings for the night and we were foot loose and fancy free! Ty suprised me and took me to Springdale for dinner. It was AWESOME! First off, where the heck is springdale? Well it is basically Zion. The national park not Missouri. GORGEOUS drive. The weirdest thing too is once you hit Rockville (again, never even heard of it) the road turns red. Weird huh. The actual pavement is a red color. We went to an awesome restaurant called Whiptale Grill and it looks like a hole-in-the-wall but it was REALLY really good. The whole town (especially this restaurant) is kind of "granola-y" (which I strangely really enjoy) and it was just cool. We ate outside with the view of Zion all around us.  Ok the chips and salsa, HOLY COW, I honestly dont know if I have had better salsa, ever. It was that good. Then we walked around. There are strangely a lot of rock/gem shops around. Too. There is like 4 and the town is TINY. But this also made me happy because when I was little I used to go outside and look for hours and hours to find "cool" rocks and I would collect them. I think my little fascination still in there buried deep down. Then we came back to St George and went SHOPPING! I need summer clothes BAD and i spent all of my birthday money at target. Ty hates shopping so this was awesome that he willingly (instead of by force by me) indulged my indecisiveness and going back and forth from the changing room and modeling my choices one by one. P.s. there is no where to find modest shorts! Seriously it is annoying, what do people wear here! Then this morning we went and stood in line for 45 min at Kneaders for the french toast.

What an awesome birthday week. I am so grateful for the people who made me feel special, especially my Ty. Thanks my love!

(Ill have to add pictures later. They are having problems loading)

St George findings

We have officially been residents of St George for exactly one month. CRAZY! I feel like we just moved in yesterday. We really love it here. The second week we were here Lucy turned into this crazy alien-monster-creature person and I was losing my mind. Hands down this was probably the worst week I have had in my mothering career. I had a nervous breakdown one night and swore I was never having another child and cried hysterically for like an hour to Ty about it. But this week I think she has turned a corner. It could be because last Sunday I made it a goal to not yell at Lucy and be more patient and to make a conscience effort in focusing on the good things she does. Either that made a huge difference in her behavior or she has adjusted to the fact that we have a new house because she has been SO good this week. Not only that, but she has had 1 accident for a solid week! WHAT!! I was starting to be worried that her stubbornness for being potty trained was going to keep her from ever going to school and I would have to home school her forever (kids have to be potty trained to go to preschool). Not to mention how embarrassing would it be for her date to the junior prom to find diapers in her purse or have to remind her to "go potty".  I hope this isnt just a fluke.

Things we have discovered about our new place of residence:
1. People drive like maniacs here. Worse than in provo.
2. Its very WINDY! Every. Single. Day. It just blows and blows
3. Even though there are quite a few people here and it is a relatively large city in Utah but it still has such a small town feel. For example, nothing is online. People do not use internet marketing here at all. You have to basically use the phone book to find places.
4. Even though people drive like maniacs there is no traffic! This is great. The only street that gets really bad is the blvd but that is it.
5. Everyone has a golf cart they drive around.
6. The LDS population is a lot smaller than I thought. Well for Utah that is. I appreciate this. I like diversity. I like going to the store and seeing people of all walks of life. Its interesting to me.

Grandpa Pickett

A few months ago my sister-in-law went to her very first funeral. Ever. I was shocked when she mentioned this fact. I on the other hand have been to roughly 20 or more. I feel like that is a lot. My husband has been to 6. 5 of them since we have been married. Am I bad luck? Some times I feel like I am. Anyway, the reason I bring this up is because last Saturday my lovely Grandpa Pickett passed away and Wed was his funeral.  He was 84 and it is a huge blessing that he passed away because he had a disease in his liver that has been horribly painful and has made him very sick for a long time. It was sad, but such a blessing. Its mostly sad because he left behind his sweetheart, my grandma. He wasnt a man of many words but he was/is such an incredible example. He was such a hard-working, honest, and loving person.

this funeral has got me thinking. I don't know hardly anything about my grandparents. My other grandparents (my mom's parents) died when I was 9 and 12 so I was too young to really care about know much about their past or just about them personally in general. But now that I am older it kinda makes me sad. I wish i knew about their childhoods and cool stories and things they went through. Stories about things they accomplished. Gosh I dont even think I really know the simple things like their likes and dislikes, or favorite things. You know, the stories and things in life that have made them who they are. Kinda sad. Does this make me a horrible grandchild? I feel bad I was never close to my grandparents. I guess the good thing is we have eternity for me to get to know them.

One last thing. My grandpa served on the front lines of the Korean war (which I actually did know) and so during the burial we had a 21 gun salute and the folding and presentation of the flag with someone playing the bugle. It was such a special thing. It makes me so grateful for people who are or have served for our country. I am so proud of both of my grandpa's (and other many members of our family) who left their young families to fight for our freedom.

Family photo time!

We have been needing to get family pics done for forever and we decided to wait til Lucy turned 3 and then get hers and ours done at the same time. We were lucky enough to find out that a friend of ours from P-town was coming here a few weekends ago and she was nice enough to do our photos for us. She is the one who took our last ones. She does such a good job. I was so worried we wouldnt get any because Lucy was being... well... Lucy, it was pretty windy, and it was during the sunset and I was worried it was too dark. But alas we received WAY more than I expected and they are ADORABLE! Here is just a tiny sample of some of my favs. Thanks Janneke Marquez for giving us pictures we will love forever!