Happy Birthday, Emily!

Happy Birthday, Emily!  Can you believe we already have a pre-teen!  Emily turned 12 years old this year and she is growing up too fast.

She is becoming quite the young lady and is a big help around the house.  For her birthday present this year the only thing she wanted was a puppy.  Now this really took some major convincing in the parent department because we did not want a dog or the responsibility of a dog.  She told us she would take care of this dog and do everything for it.  We were still not really convinced until she started going over to our neighbors' house and walking and playing with their dog.  She was very consistent with that dog.  She also expressed the need for a dog or a companion so that she would have someone or something to play with and talk to when she is lonely.  Russell and I have noticed that she has been feeling a little lonely lately and when she gave us this reason, we knew we had to do something for her.  

Well long story short, we searched for the right dog for a while because we wanted the right breed and size that would fit our family's needs.  Finally we found what we thought was the perfect dog at the animal shelter.  After meeting the dog, we knew it was meant to be.

So here she is, Truly!

The kids were instantly in love with this pup and Truly has seemed to love being with us too.  She has gotten maybe a little too much love but that is okay.  Truly is about 6 months old so she is not a tiny puppy but still young enough to train to become a good dog.  She is a lab mixed with something else so basically she is a mutt which is just fine with us.

We have been busy taking care of this dog and training her lately.  We want her to be pretty well trained by the time the new baby comes.  I think Russell has spoiled her more than the kids have.  He goes out and plays with her all day while the kids are at school.  She is an outside dog which she is totally fine with because she loves to run around the yard.  I don't know what she will do in the winter but hopefully not freeze.  

Russell made her a huge dog house.  He even insulated it to help keep her warm in the winter.

He and the girls painted it red to match the shed and house.  Then they all climbed in the house with the dog to try it out.  Truly loves the dog house and knows right when to go in there for bed at night.  We put carpet and a blanket in there and she is nice and cozy.

We have loved this dog.  Charlotte loves walking Truly in the field.  They love running together.  The poor dog really gets yanked around with her though because she likes to start and stop unexpectedly.

Emily was so excited and happy to get Truly.  She loves this dog and has been really great about taking care of her.  She gets up early to take her out of the kennel and take her to the bathroom in the mornings. Emily is also really responsible about feeding and walking her every day.  I think this will be a good thing for our family.  All of the kids work together to take care of Truly.

For Emily's birthday, we all went out to eat at Angie's.

We did not "Clean the Sink" this year because we are still full of ice cream since we tried to do it last year.  Now that Emily is 12, she is no longer considered a kid for the kids eat free... Oh well, she likes to order off the big menu anyway.  

After Angie's we headed home for cake and ice cream.

Emily wanted homemade ice cream and peach cobbler for her birthday.  It was so good.

Happy Birthday Emily!  You are growing up into a beautiful young lady. We sure love you and want the best for you!

Family Pictures for 2020

While we were driving up the canyon to Porcupine Reservoir looking at the fall leaves, we decided it would be the perfect time and place for updated family pictures.  This year we didn't hire a professional, I just used my tripod and camera and did my best to get some good shots.  I think they turned out pretty good even if the lighting is a little off in some of them.

I guess we are a pretty good looking bunch!  Along with family pictures, I took some of just the kids too.

They are some cute kids even if I had to constantly tell them to be serious and look at the camera!  The individual pictures went a little better because they were not tempted to bug each other.

Next, we did some shots with just us and the kids individually.  These turned out really good too.

Finally, Emily would not let us leave without getting a good picture of her dog, Truly.  This little pup has really work her way into our hearts and family.  

Well, they my not be professional, but I think they turned out pretty good.  Now the problem is narrowing them down again and figuring out which ones to print and which ones to give to family.  Happy Fall!

Fall Leaves and the Salmon Run

Fall is a great time in Cache Valley.  We love seeing all of the leaves change colors and the beauty the changing seasons brings.  One of our favorite Fall traditions is driving up to Porcupine Reservoir and seeing all of the leaves in the canyon.

Our favorites are the red oak leaves against the green pines. While we are at Porcupine Reservoir, we also love to watch the Kokanee Salmon run.

We are always amazed at these awesome fish.  We think it is so cool how they swim up stream and try so hard to swim against the current.  We especially like watching them try to jump up the little waterfalls.  It is definitely a lesson to us all that you can do hard things if you put your mind to it.  We love Fall!

Surprise! Baby #5 Coming Soon!

Well, yes, you read that title correctly.  Baby #5 is coming soon!  Was this expected? Well, no.  Are we excited though? Yes!  

We were not planning on having another baby at least right now.  First of all, we didn't really know if we could or should have another baby because of my past health issues with cancer and things like that.  We still don't know how the chemo and cancer will affect this baby but hopefully everything will be fine.  Second of all, I was training for a half marathon and hoping to PR at this race.  I won a free entry into the Southern Utah Half Marathon and was so excited to run because I love the course through the awesome trails in St. George. 

Unfortunately a few weeks before the race, I started feeling really crappy. I would get so sick after every training run and then be so exhausted the rest of the day. My times were really slowing down too and I could not get faster. This was not normal and it really got me worried. But, I knew I had this race coming up so I didn't want to stop running. Then I learned that I could transfer my registration to a virtual race instead. (Thanks Covid-19) That way I could run at my own pace on a day that I felt good. I did run the 13.1 miles on my own three weeks before the actual race. It was really slow but I got it done.  Little did I know at the time, I was about 6 weeks pregnant, which explains why I was feeling so crappy and slow.

My medal and swag from the race came in the mail a few weeks later.  On the bright side, I got 3rd place overall in the virtual category even though it was my slowest half ever!

Well, long story short, this will be my last medal and race for a while. Sadly, I need to take a break from running and give my body time to rest, recover, and adjust to the changes that are happening inside.  I'm not totally out of the game, just benched for a minute.  It's time to start growing a baby!

During the time I was feeling so crappy and not knowing what was going on, I was really worried about what was wrong with me.  Like I said, we did not expect pregnancy to be an option.  I read everything on the Internet and maybe that was my mistake because it got me even more worried about things like ovarian, thyroid, or some other cancers.  I also thought maybe I was just having early onset menopause which is not uncommon for having cancer at a young age.  I didn't know what was happening so the old cancer PTSD started setting in.  Finally, I decided to take a pregnancy test just to rule that out.

Well that just made things more complicated because the test came back positive.  I was still kind of in denial of this because it was a shock so I took a second test a few days later. This also came back positive...  In the meantime, I had made an appointment with my primary care doctor in hopes he could tell me what was wrong.  When I went in, I had him do a real pregnancy test just so I wasn't trusting some drug store test.  This test also came back positive. So I told him, "Well, I know what my problem is for sure now."  This explained all of the exhaustion, low energy, sick feelings in my stomach, and all those other symptoms.  I wasn't dying!!  He just laugh and said, "Well, Congratulations!"  

On September 11, three years to the day after my last chemo treatment, I met with my OB/GYN doctor for my first prenatal appointment.  During this visit, we got to see our new baby for the first time!

What a cute little bean!  I have been really nervous about this pregnancy because of my past health.  I wasn't expecting this so I hadn't been taking vitamins as faithfully as I should.  I also don't know how the chemo and cancer is going to affect the baby.  Another thing I was worried about is my age. 

My doctor was really great and explained a lot to me.  She said that I should be fine with the vitamins because most normal food has the vitamins I would need.  She was not too concerned about the cancer stuff either.  She did say that 35 was the threshold for what is called "geriatric pregnancy."  I never thought at 35 I would be considered "geriatric," but here I am killing it!  Because of my age and health history though, I am considered a high risk pregnancy so we will be taking certain precautions including more extensive ultrasounds and blood tests. 

This little one is expected to make its arrival on April 10, 2021 (or somewhere around there).  We are all really excited for this new baby even though Russell and I are still trying to wrap our heads around having another baby!  We are getting too old.  The girls are hoping for a baby girl and the boys just know it will be a baby brother.  We will have to wait and see what the tie breaker will be!  Charlotte has already named the baby, Baby Lori.  

Oh boy, here comes baby number five!

Hurricane Winds in Utah

2020 had proved to be the craziest year ever.  First the pandemic shut down the world, then, just to name a few, earthquakes rocked Salt Lake and surrounding areas, California has basically been on fire all summer, and now Utah experienced hurricane force winds all night.  In Hyrum, we are used to the wind blowing pretty strongly out of the canyon every morning but this was different, very different. The winds reached top speeds of 80-90 plus miles an hour all night long.  If we lived along a coast, this would be considered a category 1 hurricane! All night you could hear the winds howling and you just knew that there would be destruction to clean up in the morning but I don't think anyone expected this.  

When we got up in the morning, we discovered downed trees everywhere!  I don't mean little saplings, I'm talking 100 year old very established trees.  It was insane!  Because the trees fell over power lines and things, the power was out in most areas of the city for multiple hours and in some places days. 

The baseball fields lost all of their huge pine trees that lined the road.  It also had a few of the light poles topple over.

The Hyrum Cemetery was pretty tore up as well.

Many trees in the cemetery fell and tore up headstones and graves.

These were not the only area affected.  Many trees in people's yards blew over too.  Russell spent the day with his chain saw helping people chop trees and clean up the mess.  Our friends. the Knoppell's. lost two huge trees.  When they fell, the trees narrowly missed their house.  Our other neighbor, the Allen's, were not as lucky.  When their neighbor's tree fell, it landed right on the Allen's car smashing it.

We were really lucky and our trees survived the hurricane.  The only damage we faced was our fence.  A few of the slats in our vinyl fence blew out of place.  Luckily though, we were able to find all of the pieces and fix the fence.  

Many of our neighbors lost their trampolines and garbage cans because they blew away.  The field behind Mountain Crest High School was like a trampoline graveyard because there were at least 10 lost and broken trampolines scattered all over the field.

This was a crazy day of clean up in the city but it was also a great day of coming together as a community and helping each other out.  The neighborhood and city really came together to help everyone.  People brought their chainsaws and work gloves and just went to work where they saw the need. It was pretty amazing.  

What other crazy things does 2020 have in store for us?