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!