Valentine's 2012

We definitely had a fun Valentine's Day this year! Mya got a new purse and Parker got a gun set. We had a lot of fun playing with the gun set this year. That day we delivered Valentines....I had a lot of fun making them and once Justin got home from work, we had our traditional Las Vegas Steak dinner served with special drinks (raspberry sherbet and sprite blended together - kids love it).

The Big 2-6!

Justin kept teasing me this year. I'll be quick to admit that yes, I was definitely spoiled this year for my birthday. Whenever it'd get brought up about how spoiled I was, Justin would say, it is 26, that's a big one! It was definitely way fun though!

We started it off the Saturday before. We went birthday shopping and picked out a new camera for me. I LOVE this new camera! Absolutely no complaints! I ended up getting the Canon (sold on Canons by the way) PowerShot ELPH 310HS. It's small and convenient, has a 12 mp and 8x zoom...and you can zoom while videoing too. I love the clarity of the pictures I've taken so far. Just love this little camera. After shopping, Justin took me shooting. I've been working on finishing my Hunters Safety online and so he took me to practice the different positions I'll have to shoot at. I'll go ahead and brag because I was surprised but I did really good. We shot a bunch and I only had 3 not go in the kill zone of the rabbit target and those were shots when I was standing up. So I was excited. Then we went home and got ready and went to dinner at Mo' Bettah Steaks in Bountiful. This is where it gets fun. This was my first day out in over a week from having the chicken pox. I really think my body just couldn't keep up with everything I wanted to do. Around the time we were shooting, I started complaining of a headache, but just told myself to take Tylenol before dinner...which I did. During dinner my headache kept getting worse and worse...never had it that bad. I was so disappointed I couldn't finish my food because I was feeling so nauseous. We left and as we were leaving, Justin asked if I wanted to go to a grocery store to find medicine or just to the gas station across the street. I told him to get me to that gas station as quick as he could. We got there, I threw up (in the disgusting bathroom) and we bought some meds and left. The entire drive down to Salt Lake I felt so sick. We were headed down to the Brian Regan Comedy Show. I had bought the tickets last fall and had been so looking forward to this night for such a long time...and here I thought I wasn't going to make it because of the chicken pox, and now a migraine! I was so sad. We made it to Salt Lake and parked and after sitting there for a while, I told Justin I needed to find a bathroom quick. So we found Deseret Book and hung out there for a little bit. That was actually a really good place because of all of the couches and chairs all over and not a lot of people. After a while, my stomach started feeling better and my headache was more tolerable. So we walked over to Abravanel Hall and got the tickets and found our seat. Seriously, as soon as we had sat down, I noticed my headache was completely gone and I was able to enjoy the show and the rest of the night. I had been praying a ton and it definitely had paid off-my prayers had been answered.

On my birthday, Justin surprised me. He was supposed to work all day and have school that night. That morning the alarm went off for him to go to work and he fell back to sleep, so I woke up in a panic that he would be late for work. That's when he told me he had taken the day off. We opened presents...I got a new rifle! It's a Savage 25-06 and I'll be taking that hunting with me this year! Maybe I'll shoot a deer with it...we'll see. I also got a T-shirt Mya had picked out for me at Cabela's. I think she had been more excited for my birthday to come than me. She was so cute about everything. I got my hair done then we went to lunch at Applebees. That night since he had school, he arranged for a lot of my friends in my ward that I served in Young Women's with to come pick me up and take me to dinner at Texas Roadhouse. It was such a fun girls night! Justin did good this year. At the beginning of January, he scheduled me off work, him off work, arranged for my friends to take me out, arranged a sitter, plus while we were at dinner, he called Texas Roadhouse and told them to bring me strawberry cheesecake and anyone else at our table who wanted some, too, and he'd pay. He definitely is a sweetheart! I can't wait to see what happens for 27! -kidding-

Spots...Spots... POX!

Shocked, surprised, & miserable. That's how I'll explain my Saturday morning on January 21st and the following week. I'll go back to Thursday night. Right before bed, I told Justin I was just feeling off. Like I was maybe getting sick...kind of cold but I was really tired and thought that could have a lot to do with it. I had been going to bed late every night that week and I figured it was just catching up with me. The entire night I did not sleep good. My body just hurt! My muscles, bones, plus headache....in the morning I took some Tylenol and after that kicked in, I felt a lot better so I got me and the kids ready for work and went to Lisa's. I took Tylenol throughout the day to help the aches, but towards the end of the day, even on Tylenol, I was getting chills. I left work early thinking I was getting the flu and hoping I didn't just expose Lisa's family to the flu. I laid around that evening, but then got up and got ready because Justin's brother was proposing and invited us all go to watch at the Syracuse theater. I tried to stay away from people because I thought I had the flu and just avoided contact. The next morning I got up and noticed spots on my face wondering why I was breaking out so bad...thinking I just woke up with 3 or 4 new zits. I got in the tub to soak my muscles and as I was laying there, I looked down and noticed a red spot on my stomach. I thought how that was weird and maybe I had a bug bite...but then noticed another one...then another...and another...now I was starting to freak out and called Justin. I didn't know what it was...my mom had always told me growing up that I had the chicken pox when I was really little...so it couldn't be that, could it? Plus, NO ONE gets the chicken pox anymore. Shingles, maybe? So I called my mom. We ruled out that it was shingles and figured that it was, in fact, chicken pox. I kept reading online to see if it could be anything else, but I soon became 100% sure that it was chicken pox. It gets better, I was supposed to speak in church the next day. I felt like a liar telling them I had the chicken pox...like I had made up a disease. That afternoon, Justin and my dad gave me a blessing. I know because of that blessing, it went through my body faster and it gave me rest and helped my testimony grow. That entire next week, I didn't have to worry about being a mom. I was able to do what my body needed me to do. So many people stepped (including Justin) and helped. For the first couple of days, I would try the oatmeal baths, calamine lotion, took benadryl and Tylenol. Monday Justin went to the store to do our shopping for me and he talked to the pharmacist at Walmart. That was such a blessing! He told Justin exactly what I needed to do, what I needed to take and explained how chicken pox in adults is so much more painful and lasts longer than it does in children. The things he told me to do wouldn't make it better, but would actually make it worse first, but make it quicker. He said to take baking soda baths - a full box of baking soda in my bath. He said that Benadryl was the worst thing I could take and to take either Claritin, Zyrtec or Allegra. Then Tylenol as I needed for fevers and pain, and said I could use the anti-itch cream I had at home (hydrocortizone 1%)...some creams make it worse but that was a good one. This was so much more help than the nurse I had called that morning who pretty much told me I just have to let it run its course and there was nothing I could do but keep anti-itch creams on me for comfort. After 3-4 days of having them, the fevers and bone and muscle pains were gone and it was just waiting for the blisters to go through their cycle. I definitely noticed a difference with the baking soda baths. Once I started that, the blisters stayed smaller. I had some that got huge on my back and stomach that had showed up from day 1, but all of the others stayed fairly small. Each day, new blisters would show up until Friday morning I woke up with no new spots and I was just waiting for a handful on my stomach and legs to cloud up and scab over. I was on a timeline here because Brian Regan was on Saturday. Saturday morning I woke up and they were all scabbed over. I still itched for a couple of weeks and to this day I still have scabs that are healing. But the itching is mostly gone now and I'm hoping in a couple of weeks, I won't even notice that I had the pox. I never want to go through anything as miserable as that again. The pain I felt would make tears flow and at one point I told Justin I was ready for my epidural. I would rather give birth over and over than do this again. It was crappy! I am so thankful for the prayers, my blessing, and all of the help I had, plus all of the many people that offered to help. So thanks to you all!
(And no, I did NOT take any pictures...that was the most disgusting disease I have ever experienced!)

Mya's 4!!!

I can't believe I have a 4 year old! She seems so grown up to me! Mya loves being in sunbeams! She had a hard time her first day. I think she thought she'd be able to sit by me and my class, so me dropping her off with her class then heading to the back of the room...she didn't like it. She cried so she came and sat with me and my 6 year old class. It ended up being a big day for her. There were no talks that first Sunday of the year but they were drawing names for the next week and Mya got the talk for the next week. She looked at me with fear in her eyes and told me she didn't want to do it. Then later her name got drawn again to help out with sharing time...I ended up going up there with her. Then in singing time, she was up there with all of the new sunbeams as they sang the Hello song to them. About half way through primary, Mya decided she could be brave and sit with her class. The rest of primary though she kept turning around mouthing things to me and smiling. So cute. That week we worked so hard on her talk. It was simple, but easy for her to memorize and it got the message across. She practiced in front of the mirror all week, in front of Lisa, Megan and Gavin, Grandma and Grandpa Wayment and Grandma Ropelato. We got lots of practice in. On Sunday, they sang happy birthday to her then she got up and gave her talk. I was so proud of her. She had it memorized so I didn't even have to help her. I just stood up there for moral support in case she forgot anything (and I wasn't sure if she would end up talking since she's a little shy). I wanted to cry when she was done! I was so proud of her. Justin came in and listened and said he could hear everything. She knew this was a huge thing for her and she was even very proud of herself.

Her birthday was so fun. She woke up and opened presents, I finished her cake then went and got a bunch of helium balloons for her birthday. After we went to McDonald's and then bowling. After that we came home so Parker could nap and so we played Sorry while he napped. Then Mya wanted dinner with just mom and dad, so we took Parker to my parent's while we went to dinner. She loved the one-on-one time with us. She kept telling us during dinner, "Thanks dad and mom. You're the best mom and dad in the world. I love you. This is the best day of my life." She's so fun to spoil since she's so grateful!

After dinner, we had a little party at home for her. She gets so excited for everyone to come over and that's what she kept talking about. I think she was in heaven that day. It really was just so fun!

Christmas!

Christmas was so fun this year! It was definitely a busier time of year than usual, but everything was very worth it!

We had been looking forward to being with our kids on Christmas, seeing their excitement with gifts and playing with them all day. Two weeks before Christmas, we were mostly ready but I was still busy trying to finish blankets I was making for the kids and just had some loose ends to finish up. Then Justin came to me one night. Leading up to this, our neighbors across the street are some of our favorite people. Theresa had been fighting cancer (leiomyosarcoma/LMS) for 8 years. She was now on oxygen because the cancer had spread to her lungs. Justin didn't know this, but for a few days I had been praying to know how to help Theresa. She wasn't the type to ask for favors and if I ever asked how she was, the story would get turned and I was telling her how we were doing...she was just like that. I would offer with things, but just wasn't exactly sure what to do. So, Justin told me that at work, he had thought of an idea, but wanted to run it through me. He was really excited about it and it just would not leave his mind all day. Then he went on to tell me about this playground he wanted to build for Theresa for her grandchildren for Christmas. The only thing was we were limited on time and it wasn't going to be cheap to make...we didn't have an extra couple thousand dollars to make this.

We decided that if it was going to be possible (funds) to definitely go through with the plan. Justin called Sandy. She is our relief society president but also one of Theresa's closest friends. He told Sandy his idea but that we would need donations so she said it would be done and we should go on with this idea. She went on to organize the donations and had sent out letters to people who knew Theresa to be able to contribute to this gift. It was very cool to see so many people come together and selflessly give for this woman whom we all just loved. We saw more amazing things happen each day to get this project done in such a small timeline. It turned out that one of our friend's in our ward's brother and dad worked at pitcher sports and they ended up donating the slide, swings, steering wheel, and so many other things to go on this playground...saving us hundreds of dollars. Justin's work decided that they wanted to donate the metal for the playground. Someone moving in across the street from us next door to this family worked at a paint place over by Justin's work. They ended up donating most of the paint and then giving us a good deal on the rest. It was amazing to see and be in the middle of all of this. Justin would be gone a lot working on this, but guys Justin worked with would stay late with him welding and when they would have slow days at work, they let Justin work on the playground during hours. Because of all of the material donations on top of all of the cash donations, we were way under budget and were able to give quite a bit of money along with the swing set Christmas morning. Christmas eve night at 11:30, tons of our family members along with neighbors came to help move the playground into their back yard so they would wake up and see it. It was definitely a memorable Christmas.
Christmas eve we went to dinner...we always go to LaFerrovia but because of the playground and getting things finished up, we were just too late. They were closed so we headed to Applebees then still went to LaFerrovia's the next Tuesday (it's Mya's favorite restaurant). We sang Christmas songs, read stories and scriptures and set out cookies. The kids went right to bed...Mya was so excited for Santa to come.

Christmas morning was so fun with Parker and Mya! We got all of the presents opened before church (and yes, we kept checking facebook waiting for an update on Theresa's page...wondering if they had seen it yet). Mya kept saying thanks mom and dad...they loved everything. During the day we went and visited grandparent's and parent's houses. Mya said it was the best day of her life! Theresa had posted pictures of the playground before church and said how she had seen it while at the sink that morning and was blaming Shane for doing it. After church, her grandkids came over and they loved playing on it.

Temple Square Christmas Lights

For the past couple of years, I've been wanting to take Mya to Salt Lake to see the lights on temple square. She loves temples, so this way I figured she would love to see the temple and Christmas lights. But we usually don't make it down and we usually just head to Willard Bay's lights. Well, this year since the weather has been so nice, we headed down for a family date night. The kids loved it. Mya's favorite part was all of the water falls and ponds. She got so excited anytime we saw more water! Oh, she absolutely loved the model of the temple in the visitor's center on the south side of the temple. Have you seen it yet?? So awesome! So much detail to all of the rooms, down to the pictures hung on the walls. It was amazing!