Baby Care 101

Macie shared some tips with me about how to take care of her baby. First of all, babies need a blanket so they stay warm. (Macie demonstrates putting on the blankey.)


Then you carry the baby around on one side with your hand behind its back for proper support, like so.


Finally, when your baby goes to bed on the floor in the middle of the room, it's important to lay down with baby. And there you have it.

Food Craze

With a couple new popular food places opening up in town I find myself drawn into the "food craze." What is it about these places that attracts so many people who want to keep coming back non-stop? I believe it to be some sort of addictive compound added to the food. There's no other explanation. The 2 places I'm referencing here are Golden Spoon and Cafe Rio.

Let's start with Golden Spoon. The non-fat frozen yogurt is pretty good. I like the variety of flavors and the toppings are all your standard crushed candies, nuts, etc. When I am in the mood for Golden Spoon I have to go because nothing else will satisfy the craving. (And no, I'm not pregnant.) However, when I'm eating my frozen yogurt I always seem a little disappointed, like I remember it tasting better before or something. Not that it tastes bad; it just tastes like any other frozen yogurt to me. So this is why it doesn't make sense to me. I always have to go back! A week later I decide I need it again. Why is that???

Ok, now on to Cafe Rio. I know there are many devout Cafe Rio fans out there. I have always liked Cafe Rio, but find several other places to be pretty similar. Bajios, Durango Grill...what's the difference? But now that there is a Cafe Rio in town I want to go there every so often. My food tastes good, but once again nothing so special that I just can't believe it. What's the deal??? Why am I drawn to things that I find "not bad" again and again?

Utah Trip Recap

Macie and I had a great time on our trip to Utah. It was so nice to be with my mom when she isn't in the hospital. My stress level is a lot lower when life is more normal. We stayed in an apartment my dad is renting in downtown Salt Lake, just a couple minutes from LDS Hospital. She has to be close in case of an emergency and goes to the hospital weekly to see her doctors. My mom is doing excellent in her recovery so far. She has about 15 pills to take every day and also has to have an IV put in every afternoon to keep extra fluids in her body. We have all thesupplies and do it ourselves. She has a small backpack to carry the IV around in so it's pretty convenient. Because her immune system is adjusting and coming back, she can't be in crowded places and has a mask to wear when she goes out. She does get tired pretty easily too. We mostly spent time hanging around the apartment having a good time. Macie loved the attention, of course.

Every time we left the apartment we had to take Macie's "pack-pack", as she calls it, with her favorite toys.

We stopped by Liberty Park one afternoon to feed the geese. It was Macie's first time! She was pretty excited to see them upclose, but wanted me right with her. At first she wanted to eat the bread herself, but after she finally threw a piece and saw how quickly one of the geese snatched it up she got excited and yelled "BITE!"

Mami Annie bought Macie a fun toy that involved matching animals. Macie loved it and played all the time.

It is so great and such a relief to all of us that my mom is having a great recovery. This whole process has been so draining and it's finally feeling like we're coming up. My mom just can't wait to get back to real life and feel "normal" again, as can I. I know I'm a grown woman now, but I still want my mom back!

Baby Shower

Before I went out of town we had a baby shower for my sister Melanie. Her baby girl is due on August 16th and we are so excited! The shower was a lot of fun; we stuffed ourselves with food and she opened a ton of presents. I took pictures of some of the food that I made. (I'm trying to be creative folks, bear with me.)

This cake looks really cool close up and is delicious. It is layered with brownie pieces, cheesecake mousse, cool whip, and crushed heath candy bars.


These turkey wrap rolls were made with a cream cheese spread and tasted excellent!


Here is Mel with her cute baby bump. We were playing a game where people had 30 secs. to draw a baby on a paper plate on their head without looking. I really like this game because it's easy to do, quick, and hilarious to see how all the drawings turn out!

Back to Utah

I thought I should update my blog since Macie and I are leaving tomorrow for the week to go back to Salt Lake. (Not that I'm that great at updating my blog in the first place, but I'm trying to get better at it.) My mom is out of the hospital but staying in an apartment close by for her recovery. She isn't allowed to go too far until next month at the earliest. There are still many precautions that she needs to take and someone always has to be there with her. My dad was there the first two weeks after she was released, then my sister, and now me! My grandparents have also been filling in as needed. It is much less stressful that she is now out of the hospital, but now we have to make sure she takes all of her medications, give her an IV when needed, take her temperature, and anything else as needed by the doctors. They continue to say that she is doing well and having a good recovery. So far there hasn't been many signs of graft vs host disease, which puts her back into the hospital, so that has been good. We are all just moving right along and praying that her recovery will continue to run smoothly and that she will be in remission when they test her in September. That is the one thing I always worry about. At this point we just don't know. However, her good recovery is definitely a good sign and we have faith that she can make a complete recovery. I look forward to seeing her tomorrow!


In the meantime, my little Macie is starting to really talk like crazy. It is hilarious. I love the sound of her sweet little voice when she tries so hard to say words. It is such a fun stage right now! Here are some of my favorite words she says: "pees" for please, "taynt" for thank-you, "annie" for my mom who the grandkids call Mami Annie, "side" for outside, "sauce" for applesauce, and "owie" for ow or ouch. This cute photo captures Macie enjoying her favorite pasttime, trying on shoes.

Not So Happy 4th of July

Let me first start off with the good stuff. Macie and I got up early to go sit outside in the miserable heat for the Summerlin July 4th parade. Josh had to work, what a bummer, so I met up with my brother's family and ended up seeing Josh's grandma there too. We were fortunate enough to get a spot in the shade. The kids didn't mind at all; Macie loved the big balloons, floats, and especially the horses. She is her mama's girl! Afterwards we walked to IHOP across the street to have brunch. We then went home to go swimmimg and had some friends over too. We had a BBQ in the evening and then were planning to go to the fireworks show at the Hills Park, but Macie and I were really wiped out from all the heat so we went to bed instead.

This is Macie with her great-grandma at the parade.

Here's my brother Ben with his youngest, baby Gus.

This is where the "not so fun" part comes in. I woke up a few hours after I went to sleep with bad stomach pain. I spent the entire night with the most violent stomach flu I've ever had. By morning Josh had it, then Macie (though hers was extremely mild, thank goodness) and my sister. It was so miserable! I was so weak that I couldn't pick Macie up. I easily lost 5 pounds when all was said and done. We are all better now, except for my little brother who got sick today. I know of several other people who have had the same thing within the last week. So watch out...something nasty is going around!

How We Met

My friend Jamie had a great idea for everyone to post stories of how they met their spouse. She plans to link them all up on her blog and I've enjoyed reading a stories from other friends so far. So, I decided to add my own. WARNING: this story is really long. I put in a lot of the detail as I remember it because I realized I have never written it down before.

In April 2003 I graduated from BYU and moved home to Vegas. While I loved my college years, I was glad to leave Provo and be back in a "normal" city. I found myself at the local singles ward, hanging out with the same old crowd that was finally starting to thin out. I had big plans for myself involving horses (show jumpers) and law school. However, I was off to a slow start seeing as how I had no summer job to occupy my time. I decided it would be worth my time to find new friends and do new things. I decided to go for all the activities, parties, dates, etc. that I was invited to so I could meet new people.

Well, I had one friend in particular who I had known all the way back from sixth grade. He was, to say the least, in his own category. He invited me to go to the lake with some friends and I really had to struggle to say yes to this one...I kept reminding myself that other people would be there too and that I loved going to the lake. I agreed.

We drove out to Lake Mead early in the morning to meet up with everyone else. That's when I met Josh. It was Josh's boat we were taking out and he was friends with my special friend too. (Ok, I'm being somewhat harsh. He is still a good friend to Josh and I.) So basically the first time we met we were in swimsuits so we can talk about that first. I thought Josh had a pretty good body. He was thin and nicely cut. He was very athletic and, of course, had a boat. I think a little bit of interest was definitely peaked. I've asked Josh what he thought about me when he met me, but of course he just says he doesn't really remember but thought I was cute. I think he secretly thought I was totally hot but is too cool to say.

Several people had bailed out on the lake trip last minute, so there were just 5 of us total. It was pretty fun and I got to show off my sweet wakeboarding skills. (I could stay in the wake and go straight for a long time.) There was one other girl with us who was a friend of Josh's from highschool and I could tell that she liked him. Josh claims that it isn't true, but girls can tell when other girls are into someone. Josh played the part of "I have friends that are girls and I take them on dates, but I can't decide who I like the most and want to be my girlfriend." I think I was intrigued and wanted a chance because I could make him pick me.

Moving on, Josh and I were in different singles wards so we didn't really see each other after that. I had a friend that was new to Vegas and didn't know many people so I went with him to his ward. It was Josh's ward and I saw him again that day. Josh and a friend came up to me after sacrament meeting and said they tried to call me to go to the lake with them again but they didn't have the last digit to my phone number. Ummm, that's kind of strange but I bought it and gave them my number again.

I had mentioned to Josh that I was training my aunt's horse for the summer and he told me he liked riding. We ended up going out to ride the horse and had a lot of fun. I'm sure I impressed him with my horse-riding abilities, but once again Josh claims not to remember what he thought about it/me. I was sure at this point that Josh was interested, but he was very hard to read so I wasn't quite sure what to think.

Josh later had a party at his house that I wanted to go to because I was still interested in Josh and trying to decide if he was worth pursuing or not. I dragged my friend Lindsey P with me to his house where I later thought I might not have a chance with this guy after all. He was in the hot tub with about 5 other girls. They were all his "friends." Right.

After one other meeting to play tennis at Angel Park, I started to think he might be interested in me after all. By the time we were done playing tennis the sprinklers were on and we ran around playing in them. I know, that sounds really dumb. But Josh was finally being flirty with me so I liked the attention.

Josh called me up for another lake trip in August. At this time we were both a little interested, but I knew he was going out with other girls too so I wasn't very confident if he liked me or not. That ended up being the dreadful day where I sat on the boat watching Josh show off on the water skiis. He took a huge jump and caught the edge of one ski when he landed. His leg flew out to the side and he was down. Josh dislocated his hip. It was hard watching him yell in pain as they pulled him onto the boat and held his leg up in a twisted position while we slowly headed back for the dock. The ambulance was waiting, and off went Josh to St. Rose Hospital. After loading up the boat we all headed down to the hospital to see how he was. We were in the waiting room with his mom when we heard that he hadn't broken any bones and that his hip was finally set while his dad held him down and another doctor pushed it back in. Poor Josh!

I was so distraught because I felt so bad for poor little Josh. Well, as it turns out Josh had a date lined up for that night and didn't want to cancel it, so he went out anyway with his brother as the chauffer and Josh in a giant soft leg cast. I didn't know about it at the time. I made Josh cookies and took them over the next day to see how he was. If you know Josh, you know he doesn't like to sit still. He had to quit his job at the golf course and got really bored. I wasn't working at the time either, so we ended up hanging out every day. He couldn't drive so I always had to pick him up or his brother would drop him off. All we did was hang out at each other's houses since it was such a hassle for Josh to go anywhere. Soon flirting turned physical and yes, we finally held hands. One night when cuddling Josh told me I was probably wondering why he hadn't kissed me yet. He informed me that he wasn't going to kiss me because in a couple weeks he was going back to school and he didn't want to kiss anyone unless it was going to be serious. I was a little crushed but knew he was right. We didn't have time to get serious.

A few nights later we were on Josh's trampoline star-gazing. Josh was unusually quiet so I thought he was going to tell me we shouldn't hang out anymore since he was going back to school. Instead he told me he wanted to kiss me but was scared. I guess I was just too irresistable folks! That was our first kiss. About a week later I drove Josh up to Provo for fall semester. During the car ride I waited for him to bring up our situation and tell me that it would be over. Instead, he told me he wanted to be exclusive and try a long-distance relationship. I was shocked , but excited. We took turns visiting each other on the weekends and were engaged a few weeks later, married on November 22, 2003.


This picture is from a BBQ the weekend I drove Josh back up to school. He was still on crutches but didn't want them in the picture.




This is my favorite picture from our wedding. I loved the photography style.


I can't believe we're getting close to 4 years!!! I still feel like I'm 22 and got married yesterday.

Splashing Around

To beat the summer heat we've been spending a lot of time in the pool. This is a clip of Josh singing the "motorboat" song that Macie loves. I think Macie was a little too dizzy to wave to me at the end. And yes, Josh ALWAYS wears those goggles.

The Best Kind of Work

I am very excited to announce that I've added a new format to my repertoire: kickboxing! I think most people who read my blog know that I'm a part-time group fitness instructor with 24 Hour Fitness. I've been working there for 2 years now and absolutely love it. I really wanted to add an additional certification to my credentials, so I became certified through Turbo Kick. Not only is to a killer workout, but so much fun too. Try it and I know you'll be hooked! For you local 24 members who want to give it a try, don't be shy. I want to see you in my classes!

And We're Off!

So let's face it, I've been really bad about blogging lately. But I'll be honest, I have no time. When I'm in town I spend my time getting ready to go out of town again, worrying about my mom, and worrying about having enough time to do everything else I need to. Not to mention Josh and I were asked to speak in sacrament meeting this last Sunday, which actually wasn't that bad because time went by so fast it was over before I knew it. I'm also planning my sister's baby shower next month which will be a lot of fun, and yes, there are gracious people helping me out. Also my younger siblings will be coming to stay with us next week for the summer since they're out of school and my dad is always traveling back and forth to Salt Lake. I was stressing about them too, so I found it easier for my dad to just send them my way. I already know that I am a high stress person, so I'm really trying to take deep breaths and slow down lately. I really don't want Macie to pick up on my anxiety. She is such a good little girl, I don't want to screw her up!

So tomorrow Macie and I are heading back up to SLC, which I am really excited about, to visit my mom. She has been going through some tough times these past few days and has had to be put on pain medication that is just stronger than morphine for the sores that have developed in her throat. It sounds extremely painful, not to mention the other side effects she's dealing with. Luckily the doctors say that she'll be out of the worst parts in the next few days. It's so hard to see my mom going through all of this. She is such a strong woman and a great fighter. She continues to keep the doctors pleased with her progress through all of this which is amazing. All we can do is take things one day at a time.

This is just a cute picture of Macie because, well, I think she is so darn cute.