Halloween

Well Halloween was a week long event. The Saturday before Halloween we had a Ward party, I went to help my mom with a both she was in charge of and also to show off Shad and his adorable costume. We had a fun evening watching all the kids run around in there costumes and at the end of the night they gave out different awards for costumes and to my surprise Shad got the first one which was the baby category, I didn't even know he was in a category. So pretty much the bishop announced what I already knew, that my son was the cutest baby in the ward hehe JK. The next week I worked on making Pinatas with Angie, we thought it would be fun to set up Pinatas instead of just handing out the candy. The Pinatas were a bit of a challange to figure out how to make but in the end turned out looking really cute. On Halloween we just hung out at the house, outside for a good portion of the evening waiting for groups of kids to come so we could "wack" the pinatas. We were very lucky because it was a beautiful night and was actually pretty warm however it did sprinkle a couple of times. The rest of the night we spent watching a semi-scary movie Aracnaphobia, it was a fun Halloween.

Vegas Baby!!

Every year my sisters, mom, aunt and I go on a girls retreat and we usually end up going to Vegas because it is in the middle of where everyone lives. Last year we went to see Celine Dion before she retired her show and it was absolutely fabulous. This year we first stopped in Cedar City on the 15th of October to see the Shakespeare Festival. The next day we drove down to Vegas and picked up my sister from the airport. On Friday we hung out at the pool and later that evening my sister and I went shopping while my mom and aunt went to see the play Menopause which they said was halarious. The next day we toured the strip which consisted of getting show tickets, walking around the Venitian, Belagio, and eating at the Excalibur Buffet. Two of my sisters rode the New York New York rollercoaster but I would'nt dare in fear of passing out on a down slope. That evening we went to see Mystere which is a Cirque du sole show at Treasure Island and it was fantastic I enjoyed almost every minute of it (I hated the baby part in it and for those who have seen the show know what I am talking about). The next morning we woke up just in time to check out and head to the M&M store for suveniers and watch the fountain at the Belagio to pass by the time till my sister had to be back at the airport. The whole trip was very relaxing and enjoyable trip but by the time the 4 days were up I was ready to get home, I really missed my boys.

Family Pics

What, a tooth!!

We found a tooth, well not actually found it we just noticed it. Shad was acting really gumpy and not eating well at all, he would it about 2 oz. then just scream. We went on like this for about a week or so not knowing what to do. I looked on the internet and all of his symptoms matched Thrush (I didnt know much about it but is seemed to match) so I pinned the crying on that. He had a check-up with his doctor the next day and I brought it up and he doubted that it was thrush and said it could be caused by teething. I really didnt think that was possible considering he was so young so I continued to treat Thrush which is pretty much just sterelizing everything to the extreme including his hands. Well the next day we were out running errands and he was talking (cooing) and when he opened his mouth my sister noticed something white and low and behold it was a tooth. I cant believe his first tooth came in a just 4 months old. I am so glad that I am not breastfeeding. We are not sure if he ever had Thrush but either way the tylenol helped out tremendously whether it was just teething or Thrush so I am so greatful for modern medicine.

Shad is sleeping through the night!

At just 2 months old Shad started sleeping through the night and most would say "oh how lucky are they", well it was a bit more than luck although I wont say that luck didnt have any part in the process. I had heard a lot about the Babywise method and didnt think much about it until Dan and I were very sleep deprived and quickly getting short with eachother. About this same time a friend of mine mentioned that her daughter (9months old at the time) was sleeping on average 12 hours a night WOW. She said that she started sleeping through the night at just 3 months old and told me that it was due to the Babywise method, so of course it got my attention. I immediatly purchased the book on amazon and started reading as soon as I recieved it, it took me a few days to finish it but it was worth it in the end. After just 5 days of doing the suggested routine Shad just decided on his own to skip his midnight feeding and slept 8 hours straight and has been doing that for the past month and a half and now and then we have a very lucky night of 10-11 hours of straight sleep and on those days I am particularly happy that I accepted the suggestion from my friend.

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1.02.05

Please come party with me!!

I have just started selling with a company called Usborne books and I am so excited! I am having a starter party on
Sept. 27, 2008 at 1:00 pm

and would love everyone to come and visit or even start your Christmas shopping early and get a few books. If you cannot come but would like to order books just call me and you can make an order over the phone. Hope you can make it!

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1.02.21

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Happy Birthday to Me (Kate) in Park City

The weekend of my Birthday was a bit crazy because we had a lot of people in town for Shad's Blessing so we decided to celebrate my Birthday the weekend after. Dan planned a weekend away without Shad which was a wonderful break from our daily activities. Shad stayed with my parents and Dan and I went to Park City, we did one of those TimeShare "scams" where they suck you in by giving you a free stay in a hotel but you have to take a 90 min tour of their facility and listen to all the incentives they want to give you if you buy today. Well needless to say we didn't buy anything as much as we wanted to so we go put into a decent but not great hotel room for the weekend. When we got to the check-in counter Dan knew the person checking us in from when he worked there this past winter. Luckily Dan was on good terms with this person and her upgraded our room to the nicest room they had available and it was RIDICULOUS!! We had a two story room on the top floor equiped with; two common areas, 2 bathrooms, 3 TVs, a full kitchen, 2 outdoor patios, and of course a bedroom well actually 2 bedrooms but only one of them was really ours to use, they just hadn't locked the door in between the two rooms. The next morning we went to breakfeast at a 5 star restaraunt (which doesnt taste much defferent than ihop for breakfeast anyway). I spent most of the afternoon at the spa which was very relaxing and I think much deserved after just having had a baby. And for dinner we ate again at a 5 star restaraunt which was deffinatly worth the money. I order steak and Dan of course ordered the hamburger, which to my surprise was better than my steak, I didnt think that was possible. We eneded the reaxing day in the pool. We went back home the next morning which was good because I was starting to miss my baby boy (Dan thought I was ridiculous for missing Shad after only 2 nights away). We also had a nice family party that evening where we just ate dinner and dessert and played games in the backyard. Overall I think it was the best Birthday I have had so far.

Shad's Blessing

We finally blessed Shad on Sunday the 31st of August, we had to wait until Dan's Dad and friends could make it out here from Sacramento. I thought that I would share some pictures of him and the family. My mom made his adorable outfit, the vest is made from her wedding dress material and the tie I made from the sash I wore when Dan and I got sealed so there is a bit of sentimental value in his blessing outfit.

Shad's First Trip to San Diego

When Shad was just 8 weeks old I decided to go down to San Diego to visit my sister and aunt. Bekah went with me so that made the trip much easier. Shad was still eating very frequently so that made it the longest trip to SD that we have ever taken. We had to stop about every 2 hours or so but we were lucky that Shad decided to be good in his car seat and slept most of the way. We had a great time in SD although we really didnt do much. We hung out with my sister, aunt and of course neices. I was very surprised that Shad did as well as he did, he really didnt seem to even notice that we were not home. When we went home we flew (shad's first airplane ride) and it proved to me much easier and faster, of course, that driving. I was worried that Shad would have a problem with his ears so I just made sure that he was drinking or sucking his binky everytime we were accending or decending and it seemed to work great. I think I will fry from now on.

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1.02.05

It's a Boy!!

Dan and I wanted to start trying to have a baby early Oct of 2007 so that I wouldn't have the baby until my parents come home from China at the end of June. Dan had applied for a job with church security and when we found out that he didn't get the job we decided we would not try to get pregnant yet due to lack of health insurance, well little did we know it was to late. We found out that I was pregnant on Oct. 8 2007. It was a bit of a funny experience. I had been feeling a bit sick for a couple of weeks but didn't know what I was sick with. After the first couple weeks Dan said that he thought I was pregnant, I told him that I wasn't because I didn't feel nauseous (that is what I thought you were supposed to feel when you were pregnant). A week later I was waiting to have my period so that we could start timing it to know when I could get pregnant and I realized that I was already a week late. I of course got really excited thinking I could already be pregnant and pulled out an at home pregnancy test I had left over from a false alarm a while back. I took the test that morning and when the symbols came up I didn't know what to think because I had no idea what they meant because I had thrown all the packaging away. I rushed to the computer and pulled up the website to the brand of test in order to understand what it meant. I had a hard time deciding how to tell Dan, he was already gone for the day and I couldn't stand waiting all day so I decided to just call him (very boring I know). I was very excited to tell my parents who were already in China, but not at all anticipating telling them that they would probably miss the birth due to my poor planning. Pregnancy for me really wasn't that bad, I felt nauseous only a few times but never threw up. I had an aversion to most foods so find things to eat became very difficult I found myself often just eating cold cereal, bagels with cream cheese and lots of fruit, I only wish that my shrunken appetite stayed with me after delivery:) At 18 weeks we decided to find out the sex of the baby, I didn't care what it was and I pretty sure Dan made him a boy out of shear will power alone, and he was elated at the ultrasound. The rest of the pregnancy was pretty easy until about my 30th week when I was diagnosed with pre-eclampsia also known as Toxemia.

Sealing

Dan and I were married December 23, 2004 but only civilly because Dan was not yet able to get clearance to be sealed to a second wife because he was married before. We had to wait almost 3 years in order for us to be cleared to be sealed because our paperwork was lost the first time we applied and it took another year to get it filed again once we moved to Utah and started over with a new bishop. We were so greatful when we finally got permission and were sealed on August 11, 2007. Because we were already married we didn't want to make a huge deal of the event so I went with a more modern/casual dress and we just had a small open house that evening to celebrate with close friends and family. Dan and I consider it a huge blessing that we were able to be sealed in the temple and can return to the temple to be reminded of the commitment we made to eachother and our Heavenly Father. This commitment has helped us through many trials and difficult times and I hope we never take for granted the privilage we have to attend the temple.

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1.02.05

Washington DC

In February 2005 Dan was still station in Cuba and I was living in San Diego. Dan had to get surgery on his nose so the military flew him to Washington DC to get the surgery done, since he was going to be there about a month I decided to fly out and meet him so I guess that was more of a honeymoon than after we were married since we just traveled to see family and friends after the wedding. Unfortunately the surgery and recovery was pretty painful for Dan so it ended up not being to exciting of a trip but I got to spend a lot of time with Dan so it was worth it. The first few days were spent in our hotel room while Dan recovered (painfully). When Dan felt up to it we finally got out for some site seeing, we went to the typical places; White House, Washington Monument, Capital Building, and some museum I don't remember the name of where we saw a pretty terrible 3D movie about dinosaurs.