The Weekend

Over the weekend I took the girls to SLC to get some pictures taken for our Christmas cards this year! Thanks for the picture, Mary! Here are the dresses. I'll post some of the pictures when I get them.

Oh Nuts!

So I don't get along with nuts so well. Over the last year or so, I'd had a random attack here or there, maybe after eating some trail mix -once after eating some red dyed pistachios… This incident takes the cake. Ella and her friend Mikana were zooming around the house two days ago, and at one point were carrying chestnuts. Now, having heard the song “Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire” the nut seemed pretty inviting, as Ella left it untouched sitting on my kitchen counter. I decided to giver her a try. NO BUENO!!! AAK, chestnuts are AWFUL!! I spit out what I had in my mouth immediately, but could tell within a minute that it was an even bigger mistake all around. I noticed that my throat began to swell up, and I had difficulty swallowing. I called my mom and asked her to come over and help me –as I was having a pretty severe allergic reaction. Bless her heart, she stopped by for some Benadryl and was at my house within minutes. I had lost my voice by that point –because my throat was so swollen. My hands felt huge and became VERY itchy along with my arms, my belly, my neck, and head. My chest felt heavy, and that’s when I knew that I couldn’t mess around with it –we headed for the ER, They wheeled me in quickly and gave me a shot of epinephrine (I think) and started an IV. The lowest my blood pressure dropped was about 64 over 34. Lots of great drugs later, and slipping in and out of consciousness, we’d killed 3 or 4 hours and then I was discharged. Mom had taken the girls to Donny and Debbie’s who kept them for the night. (Thanks guys!) I went home and slept well –but too bad I was too out of it to enjoy the night without the girls! :) Just kidding! ...But am I??

Dinner at Connor & Logan's!

Monday night, Betsy (above, holding baby Teagan) invited us to dinner! Her little family lives two doors down from my mom, and they're some of the neatest people I know. Ella is GREAT friends with her boys: Connor and Logan. Next to Betsy in this picture is her friend Marilyn. She's a really nice gal.

Here's me and mom at the dinner.

Here's Ella with Logan!

Here's Ella with Connor! She's going to LOVE seeing this post! I love you Ella!

Last Weekend (better late than never)

Well last weekend we headed to SLC. We stopped by Tai Pan and got some fun new things for the house -we're SO excited! Mia started the day posing in her CUTE new outfit that Nanny made for her. Fun, huh?
OH, there she is again!Not so quite decked out anymore: when we hit SLC, we hit a major baby "blow-out" and Mia wound up posing in one of Lily's ensembles. Note the two bottom toofums. Too cute!Lily had a great time playing with Ella and the other kids as we all met at Rachael's for a potluck! Though this picture doesn't quite capture the enthusiasm, believe me, excitement was in the air! Ella kept busy playing with toys and babies. She had too much fun to pay attention to mommy taking your picture!

Baby Noah is now a little runner! He's such a little sweetie!

Here's Lance with Mia-babes.

We did get to spend a bit more time with baby Tessa -she's smiling now!

Finally here's baby Benny! He's such a little love, I can't believe how stinkin' cute he is. Mary, "HIS EYES ARE SOOO BLUE"!!! -quote from Stu, Logan High.

Not-As-Ugly-Ugly-Frog

Yes folks, it’s the long-awaited and much anticipated return of Ugly Frog. This one isn’t as bad as the first two, so I call him “not-as-ugly-ugly-frog”. Lance is out to get me. He told me yesterday that he was being bullied into going to the dollar store by our little schemer Ella. I guess together the diabolical plot was executed perfectly as the truth of the motives took shape upon receiving THIS PICTURE in a text…

Right now I feel as though my heart could burst. There is such a peace in knowing that my family is back together, and we are equally fighting to keep it that way.

Two precious little girls have so much riding on this. We take that seriously. The greatest gift you can give your children is being in love with your spouse. Lance, I love you so much.

OUR new house!

Well, through the grace of God, it looks like the house is going to be ours. The miracle within every aspect of this has been so obvious, it's absolutely undeniable. I took a few pictures while we were visiting with the owners. Here is the kitchen.

This is the other side of the kitchen -the windows have a ton of old-school character.

There's the master bedroom and bathroom.

One corner of the living room.

Another corner of the living room.
Living room, with the front door. We think we'll either stain it with a nice mohagany or possibly go red!Living room -lots of character with cubbies in the wall. Love it!

Heading downstairs.This will be the girls room -hard to get a picture that showed much, but trust me, it will be cute. I'll post pictures after we're all moved in and y'all can see how cute it all turns out! :)
The back yard. I love this home!!

LAVA

Lance and I took off for an amazing weekend in Lava Hot Springs on Saturday. We walked around and shopped and talked. We had delightful coffee at this little shop. Here's a picture of the two of us together. This weekend Lance got me the most esquisite set of pearls -the necklace, and a matching bracelet. You can't see them too well, but they're now my favorite piece of jewelry (that's saying something since I'm a jewelry junkie).
All ready to go out!

Me and Adrienne!

The lovely Karen! I thought this picture turned out so well! She looks beautiful.

Here's the two of us together. I'll tell ya, we had a fantastic time. We were there on our own, doing our own thing, but met up with friends as well. It's the best way to do stuff! We had just a fantastic weekend get-away, and importantly, Lance and I grew even closer together. I'm floating on cloud nine right now.

A house?

Crazy times. We have some friends from Mom's ward who are a few blocks away who are selling their house. They have had realtors after them like CRAZY trying to sell it for them, but they have stuck it out knowing someone could get a better deal buying directly from them... They had prayed about the situation, and decided that if they don't get what they need by Monday at noon, they'll had it over to the realtor. Now Mom and I were talking about how perfect this opportunity is for Lance and I to move -since my stuff is already packed and they just raised the rent at his home. We called them to see their asking price -not 15 minutes after they prayed about it!

We don't know about the financing situation -and possibly we'll have a deal to rent it from them until we can go through the approval process. They're out December 1st, and we'd be able to move right in.

What a blessing -keep us in your thoughts, eh? I'll post a picture of the home later if it's looking like a reality... :)

This Wall

Over the last few days, I have had a redirected focus. I guess you could say that I was heading down a chaotic path of uncertainty -holding together what I could, but planning on a future of being a single mother. This has changed. The path is still unknown, however, it's completely different. It's reserved, terrified, yet, undeniably the road I need to travel. I love Lance. He's my heart and soul. He's absolutely irreplaceable -as the father of my children, as the love of my life. He's been seeing the same, through the hurt that he's experienced as well. There is no guarantee that this road won't end in further heartache. There is only the double-edged sword of sweet/cruel hope that we can put these broken pieces back together and make our family whole.

Lance, I know you have a long way to go. I know you're taking steps to fix some of what has gone wrong. I know you have had a change of heart and recognize the irreplaceable value of having me to love. Words are one thing, actions, quite another. So far, you are beginning to break down this wall.

Happy Halloween!

I took the girls Trick-Or-Treating at work. It was good times. Mia was SO tired, this is the only shot I got of her! :( She was a lady-bug. I love the foot propped on the tray! Ella was a pirate. We didn't bother putting facial hair on her -she'd had that earlier for her pre-school party. She was a pretty pirate! AARGH!
*That's my senior team lead in the back -Trent. Funny guy! Here's my boss Jessica -she was a cow-girl. Can you imagine sitting next to this woman everyday? Not good for your self-esteem! ...She's one of the prettiest girls I know. To my other side was Uncle Fester (my quiet buddy Shane who giggles at us girls without adding much opinion)!!! I LOVE The Addams Family -in fact, here's a little known fact: Addams Family Values is one of my favorite flicks! I should have been Debbie Jellinsky from the agency! "Don't I deserve love.....and jewelry????"

I went out with my girls for the evening! Above is my dear friend Jami-Loo, beggint me not to snap the shot!m She has the best hair ever.

Here's my ever-fabulous BFF Erin. She was a school-girl with a hint o' naughtiness.

I was a wench. Ha! Happy Halloween folks!