3-D Ultrasound Pictures

Here are some pictures from the 3-D ultrasound we had earlier this week. The above picture is of her face and she has both of her hands covering one side of it. That's why the left side of the picture is blurry and distorted. It looks like she is going to have my nose and Levi's lips. Below is a picture of her feet. You can see the toes of her second foot down by her heel.
They're not great pictures, but it's still crazy to think there's a little person living inside of me. I never get used to that.

Footloose

We just got home from the High School's production of Footloose. It was awesome! I know I'm a little biased but I think my brother, Caleb, was one of the best actors there. He played the part of Willard for anyone who's familiar with the story. He had to sing a solo, which was great and his song got the best audience reaction of the night. I wish I had video to post of it, but I'm sure it can be found on Facebook or something.
We also took Michael to see it. He was on the edge of his seat the whole time. I kept having to remind him to sit down so the people behind us could see. He was so into it and he kept worrying every time the lights went down between scenes that it was over. Really, what 4 year old sits through a 2 1\2 hour play and enjoys it?
Anyway, it was a great night. I wish we could have gone some of the other nights as well. Hopefully many of you got to see it as well.

Halloween

We had a lot of fun this year for Halloween. (Just an advance notice...the pictures are in no real order. I just can't ever manage to find the patience to figure out how to load them in the right order or move them there after.)
Michael happened to get a Wolverine costume handed down to him, so we were set. Levi did his hair and we sprayed it black. Then Levi got the great idea to spray some of the black hairspray on a sponge and give Michael a beard. It turned out so great. I must admit that my favorite part of the holiday was seeing Michael with dark hair and actually looking like Levi and I are his parents.

This is the dads trick-or-treating with the kids around our neighborhood. We went out with some friends of ours, Clay and Leslie and their son Owen. Levi was Al Capone and Clay was Johnny Cash.


Our Pumpkins that we carved. Michael and I did the bat and Levi and Liam did the "dragon". That's what Liam tells us it is anyway.

Here's Liam, as Tigger, Michael and Jenna all ready to go out trick-or-treating.

Update on Liam

We took Liam to the doctor yesterday to have his uvula checked out. First of all, it took us about twenty minutes just to get Liam to open his mouth so our doctor could see. He was able to feel the top of Liam's mouth, without getting bitten luckily, and Liam's palate is complete, so that was one worry checked off. The doctor looked in Liam's ears and nose and said that all of those passages seem to be properly formed and clear, so that was worry number two out of the way. And finally, after about five more minutes of trying and me ending up holding the stethoscope, the doctor was able to listen to Liam's heart. He couldn't hear any sort of murmur or problem, so that checks off worry number three. Liam is talking and talking well, so it seems that this bifed uvula is just going to be something cool to show his friends and gross out the girls. The doctor will continue to monitor it as Liam grows though. If we ever get pictures, I'll post them, but I'm not counting on that for several more years. Liam really hates opening his mouth for us to look at it. I"m glad that it all turned out to be so innocent for my crazy boy.

Bifid Uvula????

So I think that Liam is going to be the child who constantly has me worrying. I was playing with him this morning and noticed something odd. I was looking in the back of his throat and saw that his uvula (the hangy ball in the back of your throat) was split in two at the bottom. It resembles a snakes forked tongue actually. So I did some research on the internet. I'm not sure if the internet is a blessing or a curse at times like this. I've found all kinds of reports from people who have had no problems, to delayed speech and chronic ear infections, to it being a symptom of a very serious aortic aneurism. It also seems to be caused at times by a form of cleft palate. My question is, has anyone else ever seen or dealt with this. I"m planning to mention it to my doctor, but I don't know how concerned to be at this point.

It's a ...

So last week we got to have an ultrasound to hopefully find out the gender of our baby. We took the boys with us too which was fun. Michael was really excited to see everything, but Liam was a little nervous about it. As we were going the technician asked the boys what they thought it was going to be. Michael said a sister, and Liam thought the pictures looked like a dinosaur snake. He was really excited about that, but not so much about a brother or a sister. We did get to find out and we're having a GIRL. We're excited and a little nervous too. I have no girl things and I have gotten really good at playing little boy games. I don't know if I know what to do with a little girl. Levi is worried that she's going to have him wrapped around her finger and he won't be able to say no to her. We'll just have to see how this next part of our life goes. The pictures we got were really blurry due to the baby moving so much and the technician not taking as much time. The two long, light gray images in the middle of the screen are her thighs just to help you get oriented.

The Best Kind of Friends

I have been thinking a lot about friendship lately. I have many good friends that I have met in my life who have taught me many things. I have friends who have taught me to be a better person, to love myself more, and to give other people a chance to like and love me too.
This past weekend we had some family in town and it occurred to me how truly blessed I am because some of my best friends are my family. I think that is a very rare thing in the world these days, and I am glad that I am blessed with a family that gets along and is all very close. I hope there are other people out there as blessed as I am.

News

I know it has been a long time since I wrote anything, but I just haven't been able to find the time. We have spent most of this month, the weekends anyway, at our cabin on the mountain. That has been a lot of fun and Levi has taken some really pretty pictures.
We also have some other news. We are going to be having another child in February. I am about 12 weeks along and we are excited and also wondering if we might be a little crazy. It's a little intimidating to think about taking 3 children somewhere and Levi and I will now be out numbered. I'm sure everything will be fine. People do this everyday.

Class Reunion Part 2

I did attend my class reunion, and I am so glad that I did. There weren't really that many people that came. (I can think of almost 20 who live in this town still who didn't come. Some people showed up that I never thought would.) It was just fun to see people and talk to them. Most people didn't even look that different to me, and some of them hadn't changed at all from when we were in school. I was disappointed because hardly anyone that I actually hung out with a lot in High School (and I know some of them read this occasionally) showed up. There were only about 3 of us out of a group that ranged up to 15 at times. I really would have liked to see and visit with some of them, but I guess they just missed out this time. Maybe they'll show up at the next one.

10 Year High School Reunion

I know it's hard to believe, but this year I am having my 10 year High School Reunion. I am having some mixed emotions as I look forward to it. First, I'm kind of shocked that it has been 10 years already. I hardly feel any older than I did when I graduated. There are a lot of people that I would really love to see and catch up with, and there are a few it wouldn't hurt my feelings to never see again. Most of High School was great, but there are a few moments, incidents and situations that I wish I could remove from my brain. I guess my quandary exists in the fact that I'm not sure the good things are worth the risk of dredging up the bad. I am going and I guess if it doesn't go well for me, I won't go to any more of them.

Bragging About My Husband Again

These are pictures that Levi took of some of the flowers in our yard. The orange one is called an Asiatic Lily and the red one is an ordinary Tulip. I love to watch Levi garden around our house. It's so relaxing and enjoyable to him. I also love watching him take pictures. When you combine the two activities, it's pure magic as you can see from the photos. We also have some Irises that just started blooming, so maybe he can get some pictures of those too.

Do Something That Sticks

I am mostly speaking to all of the moms that read this, but this lesson I am learning is good for everyone. A few weeks ago I was looking around my house wondering how it could still look so messy when I had just spent so long cleaning it. It was a very frustrating feeling. Later that day, I had a conversation with a friend who beautifully described the way I was feeling. (She said she had learned all of this in a Relief Society workshop.) She made this comment to me. She said, "None of the work we do as moms sticks." It's so true. Everything you do all day long - the dishes, laundry, cleaning, cooking - you're just going to have to get up and do it all over again tomorrow. My friend said, "Sometimes I feel like I'm in the movie Groundhog Day. I'm just living the same day over and over." Don't we all feel that way sometimes? She said she learned in her workshop that we need to do something everyday that "sticks". It can be praying, reading scriptures, writing in journals, service, reading, scrapbooking, or any other hobby. I've been trying to do this, and I have discovered that it makes a difference in my life and how I feel about myself. It doesn't matter what the task is. I feel better about myself because I feel like I have done something that is at least going to take longer to undo than the time it took me to do it in the first place. I would like to extend this invitation to you my friends. Try to do something that "sticks" and then let me know if it makes a difference for you.

Hiking

The weather here has started warming up occasionally so we went hiking one weekend with some friends. This is a picture of the moms and all the kids.
Look at the cliffs and that blue, blue sky.
Liam in his backpack. He did really well in it especially for a kid that doesn't like to be strapped down.
Luxton just hanging out.
Here's our whole crowd coming around the corner. We were quite the bunch with eight adults and six kids five of which are under the age of two.

Las Vegas

In the time since you heard from us last Levi and I went to Las Vegas with Levi's family for his sister Mandy's wedding. We had a good time and Levi took some really pretty pictures of everyone in front of the Bologio fountain.
Here is Mandy and Brock. Brock is in the military. For those of you who don't know how the Bologio fountain works. It's different everytime. It has different music and the water patterns are different. Conveniently the music was "God Bless the USA" when we were there. I must admit that watching the fountain was my favorite part of the weekend.

Family Pictures

Mandy took family pictures for us at Christmas time. I posted just a few of my favorites.

Christmas

We spent Christmas in Grand Junction with Levi's family. We had everyone except Levi's oldest sister there. It was a lot of fun. The kids were out of control. We wanted to get all of the grandkids together for a picture but it just didn't seem to work. So we have two partial pictures. The second one is super blurry because the kids would not hold still.


Here's the glory of Christmas morning. Levi is wearing all of the clothes that he got.


The boys opening presents.
Papa Brad with Jaytin and Liam.

Hope your Christmas was as wonderful as ours.