HAPPY CHAOS

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

A Post With WAAAAY Too Many Pictures

On Thursday we flew out to Utah to go to JC's only sister Denisse's wedding. It was a whirlwind, sleep-deprived weekend that we crammed full of fun stuff before we flew back Monday night. We didn't get to see everyone we would have liked to, but there are only so many hours in a day! We did get to see a lot of JC's family that came for the big day, most of which I haven't seen in years and years, and spent a lot of time with them. So that was really fun and I also saw several of my closest friends which was awesome.

It was nostalgic to see our old stomping grounds! I have such great memories of my college years. Both JC and I attended BYU and then lived in Provo for I think 5 (?) years after we were married, so it was fun to eat at places we liked and see places we used to go, see the mountains again, etc. So without further ado, I will post a plethora of pictures that only begin to scratch the surface of all the ones we took:

On our way! The boys and the baby were great on the plane rides. Even coming back when we had a 2 hour layover and didn't land until almost midnight.

The Manti Temple. Denisse and Antony were married here.

Daddy's girl.

The bride and groom. Antony is half Spanish and half English. He grew up in England so he speaks English and Spanish with an English accent :-)

Tony and his cute family came up from Mexico City.

Having fun at the reception. There was a live mariachi band part of the time that was really good and so fun.

I put this one in solely because you can see Little J to the right waiting to catch the garter. He has a balloon wrapped around his head. He looks so tiny next to everyone else but he didn't want to miss the action!

All the brothers. Oldest brother JC, youngest brother Ivan (ladies - he is still available and so, so cute), 3rd brother Alex and 2nd brother Tony.

The brothers and the one sister. Hmmm....sounds familiar.

Alex with his cute family came from Issaquah.

Abuelo and Abuela with Little Miss. This was their first time to meet her and only the second time to see Little Man.

I couldn't resist another picture of her all dolled up. Plus, I'm never in any with her, so I thought I'd include it.

Attempting to hike up the mountain to the Y. We didn't expect to make it the full way with all the little kids, especially with how steep it is and how hot it was, but they put in a good effort. This is at the second turn (about 1/5th of the way up). Little J picked me huge sunflowers on the way back down the trail. We are with our good friends the Bells. They graciously let us stay at their beautiful home even though we found out later that they are actually going to move to Las Vegas this week!

At the base of Bridal Veil Falls. There use to be a tram that took you from the base of the falls all the way to the top of the mountain and there was a restaurant up at the top. I went there once. All of it was destroyed in an avalanche later on. You can still see remnants of the tram there.

Little Man stuck his foot in the freezing water and was happy to just throw rocks from then on out. In this pic you can see the three different levels of the falls. You can actually hike up to the middle part on a trail, but we didn't do that this time.

Proof she was there.

The "Giant Rock" as dubbed by the boys. As you can see by Big J's shorts, they got soaked attempting to conquer it. But they did succeed in the end.

The Provo River right next to the falls. That is a guy fly fishing in it. I went tubing down this river once. Good times! ...not really. It was freezing cold and I got banged up pretty good. But it's fun to say I did it.

My old college roommates and very best friends. These are some of the most amazing women you will ever meet. They are each so talented, smart and fun. I had a blast reconnecting with them and we always pick up where we left off. I love these ladies!

We also took the boys to BYU campus to show them around, get BYU t-shirts, and visit the art and science museums. The campus is so beautiful! It has always been beautiful, but the new buildings and new landscaping look awesome. All in all, it was a really fun trip and I am so glad we went!

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

More 2-month-old Pics of Little Miss (For Grandma and Grandad's Viewing Pleasure)

Yeah, we like her...

Monday, August 24, 2009

Where has the month gone?

Totally random pic of Little Miss modeling her sunsuit - 9 weeks old

I can't believe the summer is already gone. Not only is it gone, but it was basically a big blur to me. So many things have changed. So many things have happened in just a couple of short months. And I realized that I didn't capture much of any of it. For example, both the boys played baseball this summer (Big J's team went undefeated) and I didn't post one single picture or write one single thing about it. So I am going to try to do a rundown of some of the major things that have happened just in the last couple of weeks so I don't get so behind again.

1. The boys started school on the 13th. I now have a 3rd grader and a 1st grader that are gone all day. Little Man is having a little bit of a hard time adjusting to that. But both the boys are liking their teachers and enjoying the new year. The fact that I said both the boys are is a big deal because Little J hated kindergarten. He was bored to tears and it was a struggle to get him out the door pretty much every day. But this year - so far so good.

2. I saw the cardiologist for my follow-up. She had reviewed all my records from the hospital plus the 3 weeks of monitoring from the heart monitor and said that she feels confident to say that the bradycardia was caused from all the medications I was on and everything going on at the time and that she didn't think it was necessary for me to continue to see her. She did however want me to get under the care of a primary care physician so that my blood pressure can be monitored regularly. She kept me on the high blood pressure medicine because in the doctor's office my diastolic number was still high. She also wanted me to monitor my bp at home 2 -4 times a day for the next month so that they can get a good picture of how it behaves throughout the day. I've been doing that, and my readings have been coming back really good, so I am hoping when I see the new doctor they will take me off the bp medicine.

3. Little J was almost hit by a car. He and Big J like to ride their bikes on the sidewalk out in front. However, Little J started to think he was invincible and would zoom across the street without a second thought. He was reprimanded for this several times, and I knew I should have had him stop riding his bike, but I didn't. It had been sprinkling a little and then started to rain really hard so I sent Little Man to tell them to come in. He went on the porch and called to them and I started walking to the front door as well when I hear the combined sounds of a car screeching and honking and I just knew it was Little J. I ran outside, and sure enough there is a minivan screeched to a stop and Little J. He was fine, but Big J begins informing me with his arms how close the van was (about 2 feet) to hitting Little J. He had shot out in front of her from in front of a big black truck that was parked on the road. The lady rolled down her window and was all, "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! He just rode right out in front of me!" After I was over the initial shock of it (and fussing at Little J for being an idiot after he had already been told to stop riding across the street like that) I started bawling. I cried for a good 30 minutes. I have no doubt in my mind at all that Heavenly Father was watching over him. There is no way he should not be dead right now. Combined with the blindspot of the parked truck, the slick road from the rain, and the way people barrel down this road, I know the angels were with him.

4. Sunday was a sad day for me. After about 2 1/2 years, I was released from being the Primary president at church. About a week or so ago I started to have the feeling that I was going to be released, so I am glad I had that preparation beforehand because otherwise I would have been completely shocked. I am now going to be working in the youth program with the young women as a counselor in that presidency. I realized that over the past (almost) six years I have been in the Primary in some capacity. I was a counselor in a different presidency, then I was den leader for the Wolf Cub Scouts, then I was president. I will miss being with kids. I will miss the music! But I am excited to work with the youth and a lot of the girls in there are the ones I graduated from Primary, so I already know them.

Totally random picture of Little Man - 2 yr. 10 mos.

5. And of course I have to say something about Little Miss, because, well, she's a princess. So I will say that she is the best baby ever and so fun to have around. She is 2 months old now and she consistantly sleeps for about 10 hours at night. (Now if everyone else will quit waking me up...) I've never had one do that before, so it is awesome! She only fusses a little when she is hungry or tired and is easily soothed. We're buds. She laughed for the first time and she also rolled over once. Just once.