Last update about Dad for at least a few weeks :) Unless there's surprises

Well, E and I have had a good stay in Oregon. I think E's trip here was drastically different than mine. He played with his Papa and Grammie quite a bit as well as with some family friends, while I enjoyed being with my family. I had the wonderful pleasure of spending time with my Dad OUT of the ICU yesterday! He was allowed to leave in the afternoon yesterday and he's doing so well that the doctor's think that he may be released today from the hospital. I am very sad that I don't get to stay the entire day, but I do have about 5 chemistry assignments due tomorrow, so it's probably for the best.

I just want to give yet another update on my dad. This will be a cumulative update. He is currently out of the hospital. They released him Sunday afternoon. Before he left, they undressed his arm and redressed it. He'll be at home for two weeks I believe. His arm will be healing with the cadaver skin on it, acting as the world's hugest and honestly, nastiest band aid. After the two weeks he'll have the cadaver skin removed and a graft of his own skin from his thigh taken and used to replace the cadaver skin. How pleasant.... now he can have a sore thigh and a sore arm.

The infection that caused so much trauma and grief was not anything intensely serious. We feel so blessed, because it could have been worse. The infection was strep and yes you can get that anywhere apparently. He could have lost his arm and he didn't; blessing #1. He could have lost muscle and didn't; blessing #2.It could have been an incredibly difficult disease to heal and it wasn't; blessing #3. He could have been in the hospital for a long time, but he was not; blessing #4. I didn't have school Friday and had a free plane ticket so I could be with my family; blessing #5. I know there have been hundreds of other blessings poured upon my Dad and our family, but there are just a few we have encountered.

Birthday celebration!

This was one of my favorite parts of the whole trip! My Dad's birthday was on the 23rd and we were able to celebrate with him! We made a Happy Birthday Banner with two balloons hanging off as well as a delicious cake with homemade frosting. And I truly mean delicious. It was so rich I could only handle one bite of cake at a time and I loved it!

Happy Birthday Dad!!

My kids were very excited about participating in the event! You can see Ayden's little head in the corner. Anxiously waiting for the candle part.

Ethan has no idea what's going on. He's just there to chill on Grandpa's lap and be in the middle of whatever is happening, hence his stone cold stare.

We were so glad to celebrate my Dad's birth! Without him, there would be no us! Plus, he did go fishing in the morning and caught some fish for us, so he's still pretty useful. :P 

Temple Trip

My cousin was married this last Thursday. They were sealed in the Salt Lake Temple and it was a beautiful ceremony. I feel so blessed to be worthy to go to the temple with them to participate in their ceremony. It reminds me of how special and sacred the family is. It reminds me of my own sealing and how loved McKay and I were at our sealing.

McKay and I did things slightly backwards so at our sealing we had our son Ayden there with us. He was about 6 months old at the time.

I can still remember when McKay and I were sealed. We had just gone through the temple for the first time together a few weeks before, my heart felt full. Full of love and gratitude and thanks for my Heavenly Father and his love for my little family.

And then there we were; Kneeling across from each other on the alter. The room was filled with people we loved; Mom, Dad, Aunts, Uncles and Grandparents. As well as treasured friends from the community. The spirit in the room was abundant. I am sure there were others there from the other side supporting our decision. It was all I could do to keep from not crying.

And then she, dressed in white, brought my 6 month old son in. By this time there was not a dry eye. He was dressed in white as well and fast asleep in the arms of his caregiver. She delicately brought him to the alter to us. I could barely see, I was so overwhelmed by the spirit and love in the room. I know my Heavenly Father and Savior approved and still do approve of my decision to make my family an eternal one. During the entire ceremony Ayden didn't make a peep. He just lay there peacefully with us. I am so grateful that we were worthy and still are worthy to go to the temple. It truly is a little piece of Heaven on earth.

I am so glad that I was able to attend my cousins' sealing just so that the feelings felt at my own could be remembered.


I did get a chance to take some photos. I'm sorry to admit that I did not even get a chance to take one single photo of the man and woman of the hour, but I'll have to say that I was too preoccupied with own kids to really get a shot of them while I had the chance.

  We had some time before the sealing to walk around and take pictures and look at the beautiful scenery. Anyone, LDS or not, would appreciate how beautiful Temple Square really is.

Check out my awesome shoes!!! You know you wanted to see them. Admit it.

Oh look at that handsome smile. There's my little model man right there.

Their reception was very nice. It was at the top of a massive hill in Salt Lake. I'm pretty sure my car wasted about $10 worth of gas getting there. But the view on the way up was worth it. We had a view of all of Salt Lake City and the salt lake. I almost had the potential to meet Elder Uchdorf too. I guess someone saw him taking a walk outside, if I were at all creepy, I might have ran outside and followed him just to say hi. But I'm not. Lucky for him.

Ayden and 'tappa tappa' were best buds during dinner!

Ethan was hardly ever at our table. He was flirting with everyone in the room. I think he sat on about 4 or 5 individuals' laps before he made the rounds back to me.

The last photo here is one Ayden took. He is very proud of his work. Usually he ends up just flashing himself in the face, but this time he actually almost made a regular photo!

Can't think of a title that will fit this entire post well enough so this is what you get...

Ethan's new thing is to climb the stairs and at almost each space he sticks his head between the bars and smiles. Ayden saw me taking pictures and ran over to join the photo op.

We tried a few weeks ago to potty train Ayden.... IF for some reason you ReAlLy didn't know the outcome, it was a bust. Just like we thought it would be. BUT before we gave up for a later date, I caught Ayden in the kitchen looking rather cute in his undies and boots.

We for some reason in this home find it necessary to feel fulfilled and happy if we get to destroy the couch pillows- so as a part of our self worth/esteem boosting, we buried Daddy and then crawled all over him or tried to find him.

Really does wonders for the self esteem.

On a more exciting note! We had an awesome Thanksgiving! McKay and I drove 6 hours to Boise to be with my relatives and family. We learned a few things while driving.

• Ethan has a 5 1/2 hour limit on how long he can be in the car before it gets ugly. . .
• Ayden likes to watch movies AND kick the laptop that is playing the movies.
• If its Sunday then no matter how much junk food we have in the car, if we're traveling, we're going to stop to get something to eat.
• Front seats of GMCs are the most uncomfortable things to sleep in.
• And lastly, as a driver you must make up stupid songs to keep yourself awake and everyone else in the car as well.

We got to have a massive Thanksgiving Dinner, it wouldn't be right if it wasn't huge and loud and busy and full of kids! We missed out on having the more colorful relatives there. Too bad too! They're the life of the party! But we made do. There were games ALL over the place; settlers, Ticket to Ride, Rook, Speed Scrabble- my sister's college game which was a version of signs/big booty. If you don't know what that is then. . . well . . . too bad. It was fun and silly and definitely a college game. I'm sure there were more than went on, but I can't think of any others. Some of the kids went to see a movie. Why Thanksgiving has ever been associated with going to the movies is beyond me... BUT we went anyway. McKay was nice and took me to see New Moon. LET me be very clear here! I was not dying to see it by any means, but I did want to see it. I am pretty much a fair weather fan when it comes to most things. The movie was good. Will I see it again? Naw. Was Jacob ripped... yeah... but not enough for most the women in the theater to *gasp* in harmony and then start laughing!  *face slap!* McKay liked Jacob the best, he was the most level headed character in the movie according to him. I'll have to admit he was right.
The random photos are unfortunately the only ones I have of Thanksgiving. The one above and the few below are of my parents playing with Ayden on the porch swings. How Ayden doesn't slide off at times is a mystery to me. But he sure loved his grandparents. They're too young to be called that! How about newparents?? hmmm... maybe not. I'll have to ponder that one.

Ethan had a little puppy friend that would lick his face whenever he was on the floor. Ethan would screech at the puppy and swat at her face. If that didn't work, he'd try to crawl away as fast as he could with the dog still licking his face. Needless to say the pooch got in trouble after it didn't become fun anymore. :) We caught Ethan with Maya- the dog- sucking on his bottle. Ethan was drinking it and since he's still not a pro drinker some would dribble out of the side of his mouth, where the little puppy would lay there licking his cheek.

McKay and I saw the BYU holy wars game. The first and last BYU game we'll probably watch this year. Remember? Fair weather fan here!

Once we got home Sunday it was time to clean up and get the plastic on the windows since its cooling down. Ayden was helping me or rather he was playing with the plastic that covers the double sided sticky tape you use to hold the plastic on the windows. Its pretty thick plastic and somehow he managed to slice clear across his pinky finger with it. As soon as the blood started to come out he freaked. I got him washed up and settled down.... went to grab a band-aid and neosporin... and he decided to rub his eyes with the hand that had the cut on it. It started to bleed again and he lost it. I was surprised with how much blood could come out of a little tiny cut on a little tiny person! We finally managed to get the Scooby Doo band-aid on and Blue's Clue's started; where he sat and delicately held his wounded hand up. We take paper cuts pretty serious around here. :) 

What's your story?

Lately a lot of people around me have been getting engaged, ARE engaged, or just freshly married. Which I think is SO awesome! AnD its gotten me thinking about my own engagement. And whether or not it is story worthy... and I submit that it TOTALLY is!

First of all- here is my handsome groom nearly 3 years ago! Before I get too far into this and pictures start get confusing. McKay and I were civilly married first in 2006 and then were sealed a year later in. . . can you guess, 2007! Man you guys are smart. Ok. So this photo is of our actual marriage. It was a very small ceremony at my grandparents house.

BUT that's not the point of this post. Our engagement story is! So here it is.

I was staying with my grandparents in Idaho for a time. It was close to BYU-I, which was nice! And McKay was here in Utah going to BYU. So on weekends he would come up to see me. And on one particular Sunday he decided to drive up to visit for the day. Its a four hour drive. What a stud driving all the way up there for me! Then staying until 8 or 9 at night and driving all the way back! He normally did that by the way. 

So on this Sunday he arrived around noon. Text me that he was putting gas in the car for the drive back and that he'd meet me at church, which is where I obviously was. I waited....

and waited..

and waited....

FiNaLlY my grandma went to the house to see if he was there. Church was still in session, we had about an hour left. She didn't come back. So grandpa and I walked home and when we arrive I was greeted by a very VERY awesomely dressed McKay! Try to picture the next several photos on McKay. 

He wore a much brighter teal v-neck that was my grandmothers. It came up to just below his belly.

He had a maroon bathrobe on that I believe was my grandpa's.

For pants he wore my grandma's white capris and then my grandpa's white knee high socks. It was the messiest outfit I had ever seen. I have no idea why he was wearing most of my grandmother's clothes... or my grandparents clothes at all for that matter!

   He explained to me that while he was at the gas station that he had an accident. NO not the kind that you do to yourself when you're scared or just can't hold it! Not that kind of accident! He pulled up to one of the stations and got ready to refill his tank. Once he'd selected the grade of gas, he, like all of us, took the lever out of its holder and went to fill his tank. But instead of getting to do this, he got a face full... correction... body FULL of gas. The thing sprayed ALL over the place and very clearly all over him. 

 Hence the reason for the odd smell and the extremely funky clothes. I guess he'd showered about 3 or 4 times before we arrived.  He was there for about 5 hours  before he knelt on one knee, in my grandparents' basement on their 70s brown shag carpet, and proposed to me. Dressed in the most ridiculous outfit and the cutest nervous grin. He took my hand and it was all I could do to not crack a smile at his clothes.  I cannot remember what he said, I'm sure it was beautiful. McKay has such a way with words. Something I am truly envious of. I was just so caught up in the moment that I can only really remember the wonderful feeling I had when he asked me to be with him for all eternity.

 

And of course now we couldn't be happier!

Here is my dress at my sealing.  It was beautiful! And it was even better of course because I had my wonderful little Ayden there with me. I just wanted this photo in here to show you the difference between the two dresses you see in this photo and the previous. This one here fit so wonderfully! 

Also I had to add a picture of our first cake.... just to make all of you feel better, if anything awful happens or did happen at your wedding. You were not alone! I nearly cried when they gave me this atrocious cake.

My colors were off-white and red. Let me repeat. OFF-WHITE... not sunshine yellow! and red. I was mortified when ON my wedding day, this is the cake I was presented with. And just so you don't pity me too much.... if you were feeling bad for me at all. :) Here is the cake I had for my sealing.

Cool dad not included in the package! Or maybe that's hungry Dad. 

And now- I want to hear all of your engagement stories if you feel so desirous to share them! Or what your dream engagement would be like if you're no to that stage of your life yet. If you just want to leave a comment, you can do that too... or not. lol 

Bumps, bruises and scars aside

We HaD aN aWeSoMe VaCaTiOn!!!!

I posted a handful of pictures and a couple videos on here while I was on vacation, but I never really talked about what we did, plane flight post excluded of course! And naturally I have MORE photos to share.


One of the greatest things my kids enjoyed while in Oregon was the trampoline. Ethan just liked the new attention he received by being outside with brother as well as simply being outside. He was the bounc-ee for Ayden, the bouncer. :) Ayden jumps just enough for him to not go flying all over the place. The Kunz's also have a trampoline and even though I don't have any photos of us on their trampoline I want to share this story anyway. Naturally when this happened in real life it only took about 10 or less seconds, but I wouldn't do the event justice if I didn't fully describe it. 

I was out on trampoline laying down while Grandpa Kunz was on the ground making sure Ethan didn't crawl off. Ayden and I were bouncing together, or more like he was hanging onto me for dear life while we bounced. Laughing and loving it by the way, BUT after doing that for about 10 minutes I was wiped out and layed down. Much to the protest of the munchkin I was just playing with. After Ayden finally accepted that I was done-- mind it took him a couple swings at me to do this, he continued to bounce on his own. Ethan then noticed that I was on the trampoline floor and squirmed out of Grandpa Kunz's hands, making a B-line for my face. He gave it a few good slaps before I moved him onto my belly, so that he could ConTiNuE the face pulling, slapping and sucking. You think I'd learn! It was about two minutes of Ethan laying on my belly and Ayden jumping around AND me distracted and talking to Grandpa Kunz when I noticed out of the corner of my eye something massive flying through the air at me. A split second before I realized what it was I put my hand up to guard Ethan and caught Ayden on the lower half of my stomach. HE CAME OUT OF NOWHERE! If I could have slowed it down it would have looked like he was swimming through the air. All I could see was this big smiling face with flailing arms and legs rocketing toward my body and I MEAN rocketing!.... right to Ethan and I.

You need to remember that this collision was not in the least graceful. If it were a flock of birds colliding there would have been feathers sprayed all over the place. If you've ever done a race in track then you'll understand that when you're so focused on something that all other sound is drowned out beside the sound of the wind in your ears or the very faint sound of the screaming crowd. In my case, I heard the faint noise of Grandpa Kunz in the background. Something probably like "whoa!" or "stop!!" or simply "AHhhhHH!!!" One of those. After things had settled down, Ayden just simply got up, looked at the both of us with a 'what the big deal?' face and continued to bouce. It was pretty hilarious!

We also had the opportunity to go to the beach while on our vacation. I'm going to make this portion of the entry short only because I've already posted pictures with us there. First thing. IF you've ever gone to the beach in Oregon you should understand that- no you really don't ever get in the water. It's like that pretty decoration on the Christmas tree that you want to touch oh so badly, but you'll be severely punished if you. In this case getting in the water means you'll most likely and most instantaneously freeze your tooshie off! Jackets are a norm and unpleasant wind to make it even more chilly *cough* miserable! is common as well. BUT about once every decade you get lucky! We won the Coast lottery! Finally made it to the end of the rainbow to the pot of gold! It was a beautiful day! Ayden was able to stay in the water up to his chest without me worrying that he would turn into a blueberry. So... naturally that is where he basically lived the entire time we were there. There was barely enough wind to fly a kite. TOo bad for the kite flyers out there, but the rest of us were loving it! I haven't actually gotten into the water in years, so I didn't bother to bring my bathing suit. But this time I got into just below my chest. It was a beautiful thing. When we were ready to go I had to pry Ayden off the sand as well as Ethan. Ethan took to eating the sand instead of playing in the water. Both were equally satisfied as far as I'm concerned. Ok- so that is a bit long, but considering HOW long it could be, this was a short entry. And onto other things now!

 The Zoo! Boy do I ever love the zoo.... BUT it would also be awesome if when we went to the zoo that the animals actually came out to say hi! We got to see a lot of cool creatures, but we also missed out on a lot too. No lions, tigers or bears. Oh my. :) Polar bears that is. My kids didn't care though. They still had a lot of fun.

Ayden got to come into a bird sanctuary full of these little colorful guys and they would fly onto your arms and let you get really close to them. Ayden was entranced. You could pay a $1 for this sweet liquid and then you were guaranteed a birdie friend. We opted to just stand embarrassingly and awkwardly close to those individuals willing to fork out the dollar.

Ayden was observing the monkeys here and I'm sure he was thinking that he could possibly be related to some of those guys down there. Uncanny likeness and all.

They also had a couple of petting zoos open for the children to pet the animals. I remember those being so much more exciting when I was younger. Ayden didn't seem all that thrilled with petting the animals. he was more interested in the terrain they dwelled in and crawled all over the place.

But yes I did get one photo of him petting the lively goat.

Ethan was a very good boy the entire time. He sat pretty much in that spot for the entire trip. After a bit my dad noticed that he was tossing his head back and forth and asked if he could be bored. We picked him up and he was so ecstatic to get out that he tried to climb up my body to my shoulders. His little legs and arms were kicking fast enough to power a small boat.

I'll admit though- I didn't mind holding him and neither did my Dad when my arms started to go dead from his weight. He's only about 15 lbs, but he's a very wiggly and busy 15 lbs!

 My Dad loves being a grandpa and Ayden loves his grandpa. I think they'll be good buddies even when they both get older. :)

Happy to be alive!

These last few photos are post vacation, before I post them. I want to mention that the plane flight home was about as busy as the flight in. I even gave them Benadryl, it did NOT work! Higher dosage next time. :P A woman told me how brave I was to do that... I was thinking more along the lines of crazy and stupid. Those two seem to fit better.

The house was clean when we got home.

It did not stay like that for long.

 

Ethan is much more mobile now and found this little cubby hole. I was trying to get a picture of him all the way in there....because YES his entire body was stuffed into that hole. What he was doing in there? I have no idea, but he was happy.

If you look close enough at this photo you can see a little bruise by his left eye or right side of the photo. This is what happens when babies get out of sorts and try to follow you around the house. In Ethan's case he tried to climb up my chair and the chair ate his face. Poor guy. As you can see he was truly upset for a very long time. :P

 

All in all-we were very glad to be home in our own element and also very sad to go home. Ayden still asks me, "Where's damma? Where's gammpa?" As well as all of my siblings. I am sure if we had spend more time with the Kunz family he would have been asking where they were too. :)