A "quick" little update

 I'm sure this won't be very quick. HA!

Paul started working in Willcox at their nursing home in July.  He likes it so far.  He's hoping to be able to move over to the ER eventually. He was taking the civic (oh yeah, we bought Katie and Brendan's '06 Civic last September, and we LOVE it!!) to work, and I was driving the truck around. No big deal, except, this is Arizona, and it is summer, and the truck doesn't have A/C.  BOO.  So after a while of this we decided that we should look into getting a commuter car.  We looked at an '89 Honda CRX for $1000 but decided we wanted something that will last longer than a few years.  So we looked at local dealerships and found a Sentra that we liked, but we didn't like the price and they wouldn't come down to a price we did like. I looked online after the first time we test drove the Sentra that was here in town but didn't find anything similar.  So Paul went back the next week and tried to talk the price down again. No luck, so we walked away.  I got online again and the first car that popped up was an '09 Nissan Sentra in Avondale.   So we jumped in the car and headed down. We got there at 5 and drove it a few times. The price started at 13,900, marked down to 12,900 and had an internet price of 11,900.  So the price was $3,000 less than the Sentra we looked at here.  We bought it that night.

The out the door price on this Sentra ended up being the sticker price of the local one. HA!  We win.

 Don't mind the towel, out floor mats haven't come yet.   Paul loves it! It has cruise control so he can just enjoy his music and the drive.  And it has hands free bluetooth so he can call me on his way home.

In other news.... Hayden is potty trained! :)  After about a year of trying to get him interested, he practically potty trained himself.    

Beth gave us some pull ups after Quinton was potty trained.  It was Maelee's birthday and they were doing a water party and I didn't have any swim diapers left so I stuck him in a pull up. After a few minutes he said he needed to go potty.  So I took him and he went!  So he got a sticker and a little dollar store toy and lots of high fives.  Well after a few days he was doing so good that all his dollar store toys were gone his sticker chart was getting full.  At first he was asking for a diaper when he needed to poop but I kept reminding him that he would get a sticker and treat if he went and he would. After about 2 weeks of using his little frog potty he was refusing to pee anywhere but home because he was scared of the big potty. I told him he should go potty standing up like daddy does and it isn't scary if he were to stand and if he did he would get a quarter in his jar and he could buy a big cool toy with his potty money.   So while we were doing the dishes one day he said he needed to go potty and I said how about standing up and get quarters so he did.  And he's been doing awesome!!  He only had one accident (from holding it too long because he was scared of the big potty at the friends house)    So thank you Beth for the Pull ups! 

In January we repainted the living room and kitchen.   And got new furniture. Pictures to come!  

We put baby number 2 (well 3 I guess) on hold for now. We currently don't have insurance because of Paul's job changing. He's on a 3 month probation period before he gets insurance and who knows how long their policy will make us wait before they will cover a baby. So I'm thinking we won't be able to try until April or something.

That's all for now... I guess I'll clean my house to get more pictures! :)

I hope they call me on a Mission!

My little brother got his call last night! He's going to Salt Lake City South, Spanish speaking. He reports to the MTC on April 25th!! We are soooo excited for him!!

Congratulations Darren, You'll be a GREAT missionary!

Georgia

{WARNING: A lot of this post is about the miscarriage}

Learning that I was going to miscarry the week before my sister's wedding made me wonder if I should even try to make the trip. I really wanted to go and she had asked me to take her wedding pictures, so I just prayed everything would work out okay and I went anyway. I started bleeding lightly on Wednesday and I didn't worry too much about it. Thursday I flew to Atlanta with my sister, Adrienne, and her 4 kids and my dad. Hayden did SO good on the plane! Friday we went to the church to help set up for the reception. Not much happened, light cramps and light bleeding. Saturday I prayed and prayed that I could make it through the day and be okay.

We headed to the temple at 10 and got there at 11 so my mom could help Jessica. The rest of us waited the the annex behind the temple until 11:30. My brother and his friend watched all our kids while we went in for the sealing. After the sealing we grabbed everyone and the camera and tripod and when Jessica and Justin came out we did pictures. Then I did the bride and groom pictures. After that we went to PF Changs for lunch. We headed back to the church and finished last minute things and put out food, etc. The reception was so pretty and a lot of fun! My best friend from my senior year in Alabama was able to come too so that made it even more fun! She helped me a lot with Hayden and I'm so grateful! Everything went super well the entire day. Even the rain waited until we the reception started before coming :) It was such a perfect day! I'm so happy for my sister!! She looked beautiful and she found herself a good man! (sorry there aren't any pictures, I want to edit first)

After the reception was over we did clean up and that's when everything started going downhill. I felt stronger cramps and had to sit down a few times. Right before we left the church to head home I put one of Hayden's diapers in my underwear. (its about a 45 minute drive from the church to my mom's house.) The drive home was awful! I had cramps that were more like contractions when you're dilated to 5 cm (and maybe I was). I was leaned on the seat in front of me breathing through them. When we got home I got up and felt a huge gush come out so I raced to the bathroom. I jumped in the shower and stayed there until the hot water ran out. Then I turned it off and just sat on the tub floor for probably an hour and a half. After a while I decided the bleeding had calmed down enough to get out. I grabbed another diaper and went to bed.

I was able to get a good nights sleep and woke up feeling a lot better. I jumped back in the shower. After I was dressed I went downstairs. I felt a sharp pain in my side, but it felt more like bowel pains than uterus pains. After about 10 minutes it was getting worse. I went and sat down and I couldn't do anything but sit there bundled up in pain. The pain got so bad that I was in tears! I imagine it was equal to being 10 cm dilated (not that I've felt that before). I'm so glad I was staying with my mom. My step dad is a doctor so he came to my rescue. He had this thing called a TENS unit. Its got 4 sticky pads that you put in certain spots on your body and it sends little electrical pulses through you. So my step dad put them around my uterus area and I turned it on to where I was comfortable. He also got me a heat pad. The combination of the two of them took my pain completely away. After a few hours I turned the TENS unit off to see if my contractions were less painful. They started coming back so I turned it back on before they got worse. I used that with the heat until the evening. I turned the TENS unit off around 5 or 6 and just used the heat on medium and felt a lot better. I had my brother and my brother in law give me a blessing, which I think helped the most! I got my things packed that night and woke up with mild cramping Monday morning. My mom took me to my dad and sister's hotel at 7 am and we loaded up and headed to the airport. Adrienne's kids all ended up getting that nasty stomach bug that we all got a few weeks ago, so sadly she wasn't able to go to any of the wedding stuff on Saturday. Luckily she got some nausea pills because 2 of her girls woke up feeling nasty Monday morning. After the pills, the were fine and did great on the flight home. Hayden did great again too and even slept the last 2 hours of the flight and didn't wake up until we touched down and applied the brakes! I was glad because you run out of things to do in such a small space on an airplane. After we got off I went and found Paul and we met his parents for lunch at In N out. I was glad to see them. It is sooooo good to be home and to see Paul again. It was a fun weekend but we missed him SO much!

I think everything worked out perfectly considering the circumstances. The fact that Paul didn't come so I was with my mom and step dad when everything happened. The fact that everything happened AFTER the reception and AFTER I was done taking pictures. The fact that I wasn't on a plane when it did happen. I do wish that Paul had been with me, but since he wasn't able to be there, I'm glad I was with people who could take care of me, and take care of Hayden when I needed that help. I'm so grateful I had priesthood holders near me to give me a blessing when I was in need. I know the Lord was watching over me this weekend.

Now to get rid of this headache I've had ALL weekend that I just can't shake.

Blighted Ovum

Blighted ovum (or anembryonic gestation) is a common cause of miscarriage. It happens when a fertilized egg implants in the uterus but the resulting embryo either stops developing very early or doesn't form at all.

This is what a 10 week sonogram should look like:

Source

This is what my 10 week sonogram looked like:

Source

In January I had spotting with sharp cramping. After calling the doctor they said not to worry unless heavy bleeding occurs. Nothing else happened until Friday. I went in for my 10 week pregnancy check up and pap smear. Dr. Jones brought in a cheap sonogram machine to take a peek at the baby. I got my phone out all excited so I could take a picture and send it to Paul. After a few minutes looking around she called in Dr. Gurrero who is better at looking at sonograms. Neither of them could find the embryo. After the pelvic exam she ordered an official sonogram and blood test to check my hCG levels. After a quick call over to building B they sent me over right away. My bladder had to be full so I drank a ton of water and had to sit for an hour while it made its way to the bladder. I had to pee when I walked in the place... so you can imagine how bad I had to go while they did the sonogram! While I waited I had my blood drawn. After an hour I decided to tell the ladies I couldn't hold it anymore and they called me back. They did one sonogram on my abdomen and one with a probe inserted in the vagina (after I emptied my bladder thankfully). At 7 pm Dr. Jones called me and said that my hCG levels were pretty high (meaning there's a chance I could just be earlier in the pregnancy that we thought) but the sonograms showed an empty sack.

Tuesday I went in for more blood work (my arm is sore and bruised!) and this morning I called to get the results. My hCG levels were at 33 thousand when they originally took my blood. This test showed them at 18 thousand, confirming my worst fears. Miscarriage.

We have to wait a few months until we can start trying again. But try we will! :)

Guess what!?!?!

Even though I'm pretty sure that everyone that reads this already knows, but...

baby number 2 is on the way!

My due date is September 9th. We are really excited!!!

What a great Thanksgiving!

We had an awesome Thanksgiving! We went to San Tan Valley to be with Paul's family. We picked up Paul's brother Kevin from the airport that evening and just hung out and saw lots of family. Kevin's girlfriend Linda was also there so it was good to FINALLY meet her! Our Thanksgiving day feast actually went from an expect 20 or so people to just our immediate family so it was nice.

That night we (Cindy, Linda and I) made our way to Walmart for BLACK FRIDAY stuff. IT WAS NUTS! It was bumper to bumper shopping cart traffic. We got there at 9:58 and made our way through the craziness and I got everything I wanted.... but what I wanted wasn't anything in too high of demand.... a few sets of sheets and a telescope. After maybe 20 minutes of pushing through the crowd we stood in line for 45 minutes and then found Cindy (she parked the car for us and had left her phone at home so we didn't see here the entire time we were shopping). When we got outside it was pouring rain! It just made the night that much more fun! It was my first CRAZY black Friday experience, last year wasn't nearly as bad, but we went to Target and it was a bit after the sale had started.

But the highlight of our vacation was Friday. Bill has been asking us since we got married when would be a good time to do his family's temple work. Well we FINALLY were able to get started on it. It was so special to be able to get baptized for these family members who I never even met. We all got so emotional when Bill was able to baptize Paul in behalf of his (Bill's) dad. It was a very special day. We planned on doing everything, even the sealing of Bill's parents but the temple was so busy that we were only able to do the baptism and initiatory of the ones that needed it in the amount of time we had.

Before we did baptisms we were told it would be an hour wait so we went over to the distribution center and Paul got new scriptures (somehow his mission ones managed to get lost) and we were FINALLY able to purchase our temple clothes! It was so awesome... I think that is the best early Christmas present I've ever received! We haven't been able to do a session at our own temple yet because they don't rent clothes and we didn't have our own. It was such a special day!

After about 2 months of me nagging, I mean gently reminding, Paul we FINALLY (yes, I realize everything is FINALLY happening) were able to make our way into the city and find a scrub store for Paul to get new scrubs. He only had 2 pairs of pants and one was girls and flare on the bottom and I had to sew it straight before he would wear them. We got him 2 new sets and the lady at the store was awesome and even gave us 10% off just because! (turns out that she got married at the Mt Graham golf course 2 years ago... small world!)

It was such a great vacation and visit and Thanksgiving! We wished we could have stayed longer but Paul had to work today and no one would trade :( but that's okay because I was really glad to get to go to Clint and Tiffany's baby shower!!

I'm 3!

Hayden turned 3 last week! He sure was ready!! He's been saying he's 3 for a while now. Two days before his birthday I said "Hayden in 2 days your going to be 3! How do you feel about that?" He said... "4." Guess he was just counting up. We had a little party at home on his actually birthday where he opened gifts from mom and dad. He has quite a few little friends his age so I thought it would be fun to have a party at the park with friends. He picked "Blues Clues" as the theme but I really think he would have rather chosen CARS!

The at home party:

He also got this AWESOME Mater car that blows bubbles as you push it from Grandma and Grandpa Clites and let me tell you, he pushes that thing EVERYWHERE!! We decided instead of blowing bubbles, it should suck dirt! He even takes it to bed and it sleeps next to him and he sometimes won't let me go anywhere unless Mater is in the car! :) He's just so cute!

It was a special birthday! Thank you everyone who came and helped us celebrate!

and no.... we did not consume all of the leftover cake! :)

He had his 3 year old check up the day after his birthday and he was in the 13% for his weight and 4% for his height. I guess I need to feed him more veggies! ;) The doctor was asking all the "does he know" questions and one of them was can he count to 5? I said he can count to 20! He amazes me all the time with how smart he is. A few weeks ago he just randomly sang the whole alphabet!