Thursday, June 23, 2011

Jade is going to be a.....

BIG SISTER!!
Most of you already know, but now that I'm 12 weeks, I wanted to officially announce that I'm pregnant!!!! We are super excited. Here is a little of our journey so far.

Most of you also know that we had to do Invitro Fertilization to get pregnant with Jade. This time we did it again. Yes, it is a sucky process and costs so much money, but we are grateful that there is a way for us to get pregnant and that now we know what we need to do. We are very grateful to have had it work the first try both times. This is not the norm so we know how blessed we are.

The proccess starts with a lot of hormone shots in the stomach. Usually around 3 a night. After you get pregnant it switches to shots in the butt. It is a long needle and you have to get one every night until you are 10 weeks pregnant. Those ones suck. Here is some of the needles I went through this cycle.
After your ovaries are nice and big and full of follicles (mine were the size of grapefruits), it's time for the surgery. It's not too bad, you are put to sleep and the doctor goes into your uterus with a needle and sucks out all of the follicles. This time around I had 36 follicles. Only 12 had eggs inside though. The eggs are then brought to the embryologist and they are fertilized. We have to pay an extra $1,000 to get the sperm injected right into the egg. Sometimes they let the eggs fertilize on their own. Out of the 12 eggs only 10 were fertilized. That might seem like a lot but we had the same number of eggs fertilize last time and only one ended up being good quality so I was nervous. The doctor said that my eggs are as if I were in my high 30's. I should have had more fertilize and more good quality eggs. We then wait 5 days and let the embryos grow and multiply. After the wait, it is the day of the transfer. There we learned that out of the 10, we had 2 good quality blastocysts. We put both in. After the transfer, I was on strict bed rest and no lifting of over 10 pounds for a long time.
10 days later you go in for a blood test and then wait all day for the nurse to call with the news. Right away you will have a good idea if you are pregnant with more than one. With Jade my HCG was a little over 100, so when the nurse called and told me my level was 520, I almost fainted. That is the average level for triplets!! We went straight to Dan's work to surprise him with the good news. Jade had a shirt on that said, big sister and on the back I wrote X2. Dan of course was excited, he has always wanted twins. I was excited and at the same time very scared.

My first ultrasound was at 5 weeks and there was only one sac. We were all very confused.
At 6 weeks, two sacs but only one heartbeat.
At 7 weeks, two hearbeats!! One was noticably smaller and the heartbeat was irregualar.
by 9 weeks, baby #2 was gone. The sac was still visible but no baby. It was crazy to me that in two weeks a baby that I saw was completely gone. It's called a vanishing twin and I guess it's pretty common. We were sad at first but it is for the better. The baby probably would not have been healthy and now it will be much easier on my body and our life in 7 months.

Ultrasound week 12, baby #1 still doing great and measuring almost a week bigger!
My due date is Jan 5, but I'm hoping it will come a week early like Jade.
Jade is so excited too. She talks about they baby daily and prays every night that the baby will grow healthy and strong.

We can't wait to find out what we are having. I have already had 5 ultrasounds and have 3 more before I'm 16 weeks, so I'm hoping one of those we will be able to tell. I 100% have no preference. Dan of course would like a boy, but I do like girls a lot.

I think because I have to go through so much to get pregnant I am blessed to not be sick. With Jade I wasn't sick really. Sometimes I would start to feel a little sick but I would eat and feel better. This time around I am not sick at all. Some nights I get a head ache but that is it. I know a lot of pregnant women who can't eat because nothing sounds good to them. I am the opposite. Everything sounds soo good to me. Maybe I'm not sick at all because I'm eating so much! Either way I'm grateful. I also was just cleared to start working out again, and I am so excited. It is so hard to go 4+ months doing NOTHING.I already feel like I'm showing so much more than with Jade. With her I didn't show until at least 6 1/2 months. I know this time will be different.

We are so excited for the future months and can't wait to meet this little baby!

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

My dad

This is one of the songs Jade sang with the Primary for Father's day. So Cute!

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Family pictures and JADE is two

I want to first say that I'm so glad that Jade's accidents happened the week after pictures. We were lucky to have Emily take some pictures of us. I was originally just going to have her take pictures of just Jade for her two year old shots but at the last minute decided that it might be nice to have some family ones too. They turned out great. Here are some of my favorites. Sorry there were so many. And some of you have probably already seen these on Facebook. Here is Emily's link where you can see the pictures too.























I also wanted to write a little about Jade at two years old.

-still takes one nap a day usually 3 hours
-loves to play royal rumble with daddy(yes they wrestle)
-knows all of her letter sounds
-loves family home evening, especially treat time
-still is obsessed with eating
-is potty trained! (still wears diapers while sleeping but during the day is great. She rarely has accidents)
-Can memorize any song super fast. I sing it maybe twice and she knows it.
-loves music in the car and is very picky which song she wants to listen to.
-still loves Disneyland and princesses. She knows every one. She loves Small World, Casey Junior, The Little Mermaid and Alice and Wonderland.
-She loves going to the park to play in the tunnels
-she has a weird love for bees
-likes to go on nature walks
-she loves to hide
-loves to read books
-loves nursery and her teacher Nicole Denne
-likes to go to the beach
-loves daddy daughter dates
-loves pirates and likes to talk like one
-weighs 30 lbs. She's soo heavy. I can barely hold her now.

We love you Jade and can't believe you are already two!

Two separate ER visits in one day

Poor little Jade. She had a rough day. It all started Thursday night. I went to visit Juliann in the hospital because she had her twins. And by the way they are adorable. Annabelle looked like a little doll. So perfect. Anyway, while I was gone Dan took Jade and Stevie down to play on the grass. They were playing some game when Jade tripped over Stevie and smacked her chin right on a brick. I got home later that night and Dan had already put Jade to bed with just a band-aid. He said it looked fine so I didn't worry. The next morning I took a look and thought it was pretty bad. Not too deep but just wide. I took a picture and sent it to Dan's dad (who is a doctor). He told me that we needed to bring her in. Luckily, with Dan's hook ups at the hospital we got to go in the back door and were brought immediately into a room. It still took awhile but they decided to glue her cut back together with a special glue.

We were finally done and ready to leave the ER and go to Underwood farms. Stevie had been looking forward to it all week. Dan was taking care of the copay while Stevie, Jade and I got the car. To pick up our car we had to go down an elevator. When the elevator reached our floor the door came open. Jade's hand was on the door and got sucked into the wall. The entire elevator door was in the wall with Jade's hand. It was horrible. I had to pull with all my strength to get her hand out. Jade was screaming, Stevie was bawling, and I was ready to cry too. I did not know what condition her hand would be in when I pulled it out. It looked pretty bad. Immediately swollen with lots of blood. We went right back up the elevator and back into the ER and into our same room. After some x-rays and another copay we were finally able to go home. No broken bones, but a nasty cut. Who would of thought that you could visit the ER twice in one day. It's healing nicely but still looks so gross. Here are some shots.

Waiting the first time for her chin to get fixed. It was good to have Stevie there with us.

Here is her poor hand

It doesn't seem to bother her at all. She even got up with the primary kids and sang the Father's day songs with them. She sang every word perfectly and stole the show. I'm glad she's not as shy as I was. It was so cute, I wish I got it on video.

To the BEST DAD EVER!!!




I decided that because it's Father's day that I would take some time and post some great memories that I have with my dad and all of the reasons why we love him so much.

Best Memories:

When we were little and we asked him if we could go to ice cream to get double scoops he would always say, "In a blue moon." That meaning NO. One night I remember he made a scavenger hunt for us to do. Each stop was another puzzle piece. At the end of the hunt we put all of the puzzle pieces together and it was a big picture of a blue moon. Right away we knew that we were going to Thrify's to get double scoops!! Best night ever.

On April fools one year he sat all of us kids down and told us that he was getting rid of the TV. We were devastated. Best april fools ever!

I remember him slaving away in our backyard building us the most awesome swing set and jungle gym. One day when he was working it was pouring rain and he just kept going. It ended up awesome! It even had a 3 story swirly slide. He also dug a hole for our trampoline two different times.

I always remember when it was time to say a pray he would tell us to fold our baby arms, bow our baby heads, and close our baby eyes. When he wanted us to give him a kiss he would tell us to kiss him quick I'm double parked.
Both of these I now say to Jade daily.

He would stand on our diving board and lift us on his shoulders so we could stand and do a high dive.

He taught us all how to do flips on the trampoline.

I remember that some days he would let us go to work with him at Subway. We were able to make our own sandwiches and put whatever we wanted on them. It was the best.

I loved when we went to Colorado last year and we were able to see where he grew up and all the crazy mountains he has skied down. We even got to see the jail that he was in for a night. He was at the same jail at the same time as the serial killer Ted Bundy.(don't worry it was nothing too bad. He was just in there until his girlfriend could bring the fine money for having an open adult drink while riding his bike, he wasn't a member then)

He forbade the word CAN'T.

Dan's favorite memory: Staying up all night in Austria laughing uncontrollably at the stupidest things in a chalet in the Alps.

He came to pretty much all of our swim meets which was every weekend and all weekend long.

Taught us all how to swim and taught us all sign language


Why my dad is so awesome:

First of all he had to live with 8 women. He deserves major credit for that.

He is so talented. He can play almost any instrument, published 3 books, mastered editing and making movies, can talk his way out of anything, can also talk his way into getting whatever he wants, knows sign language and Spanish, runs a cool website, and can do pretty much anything that he tries.


Still plays in a band and has music on Itunes

Best skier I know (maybe second to dan ) :)


A very good cook (best fajitas, sushi, stew, and bbq chicken)

Can skateboard on his hands and with someone standing on his shoulders. (we had a half pipe in our backyard in Colorado)

Great at taking pictures

Used to rock a mustache




Best papa EVER. (that's what Jade says)



We love you dad!! Thanks for being the BEST EVER!!!!!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!



Thursday, June 9, 2011

Disneyland with Stevie

We just got home from a great day at Disneyland. It was probably our last visit before the summer block out dates. My dad and Stevie are in town and spent the day with us. We were able to go to Ariel's Grotto for lunch. It was super yummy food and all the princesses come out and say hi. Today Jade won the heart of Cinderella. Jade leaned in a gave her a kiss and she said it almost made her cry. Then after she made the rounds to the other tables she came back to sit with Jade and said that she wanted to take Jade home with her. It was so cute. They said that they are all not used to having someone so young know who they are and can talk so well to them without being afraid. On her own Jade walked right up to Snow White and said, "How's the seven dwarfs?"

We were also able to ride the brand new Little Mermaid ride. It was a lot of fun. Today we spent a lot of time meeting the characters which was fun because we don't usually wait in the lines to meet everyone. Cruella was super funny. She did not like Jade hugging her. We had so much fun and so glad that aunt Stevie gets to stay with us all next week!
Jade playing hide and go seek with Ariel!











Saturday, June 4, 2011

Memorial day in Sactown

We decided last minute to drive to Sacramento and visit my family for Memorial Day weekend. We had just been in Utah the week before so we were not planning on going anywhere. We didn't tell my mom or Stevie that we were coming and it was fun to surprise her. We didn't get in until super late Friday night. When we arrived Jade woke right up and was excited to be at Grandma's house. We had Jade walk into my mom's room and say SURPRISE!! It was so cute. The next morning Jade woke up extra early and we were sleeping in the room next to Stevie's room. When Stevie woke up and heard Jade she just thought my mom was skyping with us at 6am. Hahah! She was so happy to see us.
Jade's actual birthday was on Saturday so we got to celebrate again. We went out to breakfast, saw Kung Fu Panda 2, and went to Round Table pizza for dinner. (the best pizza ever!!) Here is everyone at Round Table.
Jade and all of her presents!
When she opened this princess gift from Taryn she said, "OH MY GOSH!!!" It was for sure her favorite!

They play so well together. I love it. Stevie entertains her all day!
Dan let me sleep in one morning and I came downstairs to these cuties watching a movie together. What a great Auntie Stevie is.
We had to get some swimming in while we were near a pool. It was pretty cold though. I didn't get in, but Jade still loved it.