November 2016

November was an interesting month, both good and not so good moments, but thus is life :).

In no particular order, here are some photos detailing our month.

Again, these are in no order at all.

 Mark left to for New Mexico the end of this month to do an audit. The kids and I decided not to stay in Gilbert and not go to Tucson. Well, the first day, our Durango ceases to start when leaving church. Luckily people are wonderful and heaven sent. Someone was able to start the car, but looks like its a bad fuel pump. Then we get home and I'm changing lily and see she has a red spot on her forearm, thinking it's just a bug bite I ignore it. Well, come Monday night she has full blown head to toe hives. They last five days and finally go away, but we have no idea what she was allergic too. Oh, and the lights went out in our place, it was an easy fix. Love living in an apartment for that reason. We also bought a car today, so that was fixed. It was a hard week, but it made it easier knowing the time would pass, all issues would be resolved and that my hubby would be home over the weekend to give me a break.

We passed the time inside with Jenga. Lily is awesome at this game!

My sweet beautiful niece Lucy. Our family Miracle!

 On November 12th we received a text from Andrew that Whitney was in labor. This was after being 42 weeks along, she was overdue for sure! We waited anxiously for the announcement of Little Lucy, but 50 hours later of labor, she still had not come. The intention was for her to be born in their home, but looks like the body had other plans. They took Whitney to the hospital where they performed a C-section to deliver Lucy. While in the womb, I'm sure due to stress, Lucy had her fist meconium, which of course means she would breath it in. She was delivered and was not breathing. After 40 minutes they were able to get her hooked up to oxygen and stable. She was suffering from Meconium Aspiration Syndrome and Pulmonary Hypertension which is very dangerous, and Lucy's was as bad as you could get. What was supposed to be a joyous event, was turning out to be very scary. We were not sure if little Lucy would be able to pull thru and was actually dubbed the sickest baby in Idaho that week. My whole family, as well as several other families and friends fasted and prayed for little Lucy to recover and make progress. Many tears were shed, along with many pleas. Every time I'd begin to cry over Lucy and pray for her, I'd get the strong impression she would pull thru. Last week Andrew and Whitney were able to hold Lucy for the first time. This week she is breastfeeding. She is recovering fast and they may even be able to take her home next week! The power of prayer, the power of priesthood, community and knowledgeable medical staff amaze me. Lucy is a fighter, you can feel her strong spirit without even having to be in her presence. I know she is going to be a strong influence in our family. Love her so much and I can't wait to hold her.

We went with a group of friends to the Phoenix Zoo, it was really fun!

Thanksgiving in Tucson. We had a visit from Aunt T and her family, all good times.

FINALLY got a haircut from my hair dresser Meg in Tucson. Love having short hair again.

Territorial Cup game at U of A, we were not able to go to many games, luckily they had a terrible season. BUT the game we got to both take Lily too was a WIN! Lily was hilarious to watch during the game, but has decided she will not play football someday cause it is too rough! ;)

Monster Crossfit WOD 2016

This is not the post I had intended to put up for October 29th. We had planned several months past to run a 5k, Carrera De Los Muertos in downtown Phoenix. BUT, a couple weeks ago I received an email stating the race had been cancelled due to lack of participation to afford the cost of the event. They are not going to refund our money, but place us in a Virtual race that we can do anytime we want. So lame, and I'm upset about it.
Well, a week later, the gym that we go to posted that they would be holding a Crossfit Competition WOD for that day and  all proceeds would go to the Domestic Violence Coellition. We had to attend!


MONSTER
5 rounds for time:
1k run
10 T2B (toes to bar)
20 Deadlifts (m135/95w)
30 Burpees


So, essentially we would still get to do our 5k race, just on Acid ;)
Mark and I partnered up for the workout, which made it so much easier. We still had to do the running, but we could split the reps for each skill however we'd like.
The T2B and Deadlifts were a piece of cake, I could do those things all day and not feel exhausted. But the Burpees and running? Dang. First two rounds were fast, but then the other rounds took forever. My running was weak, sweet Mark stayed with me the whole time, though I told him to run as fast as he'd like, he decided since we are a team, we stick together. Why is he always trying to show me how awesome he is, he already has my heart?! lol. Burpees were faster then I'd expected, but just cause others were watching. Overall we did good, it was for a good cause so it did not matter how fast we were. Our time was 59 min, 13 seconds. It was fun, and I was happy to accomplish my yearly 5k...no matter what form it was. Planning to do a Mud run/obstacle course with some friends next year. We'll see if that happens.

An unflattering view of my T2B



Mark made the gym website...oh yeah.

I AIN'T AFRAID OF NO GHOST!

Happy Halloween!


We had a fun week celebrating the spooky festivities. Four trick or treat parties, made for lots of candy and fun. Lily and Jacob really enjoyed themselves.


Lily had the best costume idea, to be a Ghostbuster! She had seen the previews for the movie and wanted to see it. So I had her first start with the Classics, GB's 1& 2, and then she and I went on a date to watch the new film. She was in love. SO, she decided to be one for Halloween. I tried to convince her to be Mavis from Hotel Transylvania, but she was not going to change her mind. Her costume was hard to make, just cause finding everything you need at second hand stores can be a hit an miss. BUT, we found everything we needed. I also lucked out when Auntie Clarice gave me some battery operated lights for Christmas, which we used to light up her proton pack. We did not plan to do a family theme, Jacob was going to be the Wolf man, but then I just couldn't help myself as I started making Lily's costume, we had to do a family costume. Especially while Jacob has no opinion on costumes, once he can say what he wants to be, no more family themes. Her costume was fun, took longer then I'd anticipated, but it was definitely my favorite costume of hers so far. She got lots of praise for her cool costume, which is nice. But what really made me feel I'd been successful making the costume, was when lily tried everything on and said 'Mommy, I REALLY love my costume.' World Complete :)

He kept ripping off the eyeballs, so they were replaced. Otherwise he had fun running around like a crazy Slimmer.

She is so cool.

We had our Ward trunk or treat on Wednesday, visiting the pumpkin farm on Thursday, Little gym Halloween party on Friday, Grandmas' Tri-Ward Fall festival on Saturday in Tucson and then Halloween of course on Monday. It was busy! We had a blast...now, a bazillion pictures.

We were about an hour late to the Ward party, so I decided Mark had to be Stay Puft for making us late.

It takes a real man to look this good in something so ridiculous.

At the Pumpkin Patch with William and Brigham.

They are a good team!

This boy would not let go of that red paddle! It made everything more fun for him I guess.

LOVE this boy!

Note the paddle?

Little gym Halloween party was crazy, but it was just Jacobs style.

Rincon Stake Halloween party. It was the only chance the grandma's would get to see us in our costumes, so we made a special trip

And it's always nice to hang out with little Shane Gardner. Love that kid, such a cutie!

Lily and Daddy putting slimmer in his place

Jacob totally gets Halloween. He has loved looking at all the spooky decorations at the store, he can say Pumpkin ('pumpa) and knows what he needs to do to get candy. I was pretty impressed, and glad we did not look like parents making our 1yr old trick or treat. He even cried when we tried to leave, grabbed his bucket and wanted to go to another house on Halloween. Such a cool kid.

We ended Halloween night with Spooky stories. I think the story that I told Lily was a little too scary, she asks me today 'what happens if my doll breaks?' (Doll goes after child. lol!)

Halloween Success! We let them eat all the candy they wanted on Halloween. This boy had about three suckers, lily...I'm still finding wrappers. And today, she hasn't even asked about her candy...good system!



Trick or treat! Halloween night. There was even a Ghostbuster house!

Our pumpkin carving. Lily drew the design, we carved it. Top left, her face cracks me up! BTW the girl is always in her under-roos at our house. lol