Molly @ 4 months!

*       Weighs 13 lbs 9 oz

*       Is 24 in (2 feet) tall

*       Is in size 2 diapers

*       Wears 3-6 and 6 month clothes. 

*       Sits up like a pro in her bumbo, but not quite on her own yet

*       Loves to talk and tell stories

*       Smiles really big when you talk to her or when she gets excited

*       Is still really happy when she wakes up, she has always been this way

*       Stretches really big just like her mommy

*       Can grasp and hold onto toys

*       LOVES to snuggle with anyone willing to hold her (there are lots of those ppl in her life!)

*       LOVES her “Princess Froggy” (this is what she is attacking in the picture!)

*       Reaches for things

*       Has rolled over from tummy to back a couple of times, we are working more on this.  She doesn’t really like being on her tummy a whole lot, but she is getting better.  When she IS on her tummy she is VERY strong and can push herself up really well. 

*       Has rolled over from back to tummy once, I personally think it was an accident

*       She loves to put anything she can into her mouth

*       She is a true binky baby and that is fine by me!

*       She is VERY observant!  She loves to people watch like her daddy.  She notices the dogs now and will just sit there and watch them run around.  She is very intrigued by these furry creatures.

*       She LOVES tv…the light, movement, and sound fascinate her.  If she is turned so she can’t see it when it is on then she will arch her back and crane her neck to see it.  If she still can’t see it she will YELL until you turn her!

*       She LOVES music!  Even if you are just making up words and a tune she will stop what she is doing to listen and she will sometimes sing along and get excited.  She also loves music on the radio.

*       She sleeps 8-10 hours at night.  I have to wake HER to eat and get dressed in the mornings on work days.  She is like her mommy and loves her sleep!

*       She loves her bath.  Right now we bathe her in a baby tub on our bathroom counter and she loves to watch us and herself in our big mirror.  She now also enjoys after the bath when I put lotion on her and give her a “baby massage”.  She sometimes still gets mad when I start to dress her though, I think she likes being naked…but with it being winter I don’t like to leave her undressed for too long. 

*       She eats almost like clock work every 4 hours.  We recently added rice cereal to her bottles to thicken it for mild reflux and the doc gave us the go ahead to give it to her more and try it with a spoon and also start trying baby food. 

*       She loves attention and to be entertained.

*       She knows what she wants and knows how to get it J

*       She lights up any room she is in

*       She melts the hearts of family, friends, and strangers.

*       She HATES her nose to be sucked…but I don’t blame her, I just wish she could blow her own nose.

*       Does really well in the car.  Almost always goes to sleep…unless she is hungry or really tired, but wants to be held and cuddled to sleep.

*       Adores her daddy!  If she hears his voice she HAS to look around until she can see him and then she always gives him a HUGE smile!

*       But she also LOVES LOVES LOVES her mommy!  :D

*       Has the most piercing beautiful blue eyes

*       Thinks she is ready to crawl!  She will tuck her knees under and push up on her hands and almost does an army crawl.  If she was on a surface where she had good traction I bet she would actually move.

*       Loves to sit up or stand…she is over the laying down thing.  She just wants to be mobile and be part of the action and go wherever she wants!

*       She is very curious and has to know and see what is going on around her.

Overall we just absolutely adore this sweet little thing!  I always knew I would love my child(ren), but until she cam into my life I didn’t fully understand the love I would have for her!  She is my world!

Be careful what you wish for.....with a HAPPY ending!!!

TRUE LOVE!!

PROUD PROUD DADDY!!

1ST FAMILY PICTURE!!

SO ALERT!

Look how big the newborn diapers were on her!

so little & precious!

awww tender!

Once I am experiencing pain I am pretty tough and can handle it, but the thought of any possible pain makes me want to cry. Ever since I was old enough to know that having a baby was painful, I have told my mom that I wanted to be put to sleep and woken up after the baby was out, of course I didn't REALLY want that, but the thought of the pain made me joke about wanting that....well my wish came true....and now I regret ever wishing for that. After a fairly easy pregnancy the time had come for my baby girl to come into this world. My doctor scheduled us to be induced on Monday July 18th. We went to the hospital the night before to get things started. We got checked in and hooked up to all the monitors. Sticking to her true form, Molly was being stubborn and moving around alot so we had to keep adjusting the monitors all night and I had to hold them in place most of the night, but it wasn't that bad. Around 1 am I started to feel the contractions. They weren't horrible, but they were noticeable. A couple hours later the nurse came to check my progress and I was dilated to a 1 and like 15% effaced...still a looong way to go. But at this point the contractions were intense enough that I asked for something for the pain. Shortly after that I was feeling good again and was able to get some rest. I wasn't really keeping track of the time that morning, but things happened quickly. The nurse came in a couple of times to check me and I was progressing slowly, but still progressing. She told me that my doctor would be in to break my water soon since that usually helps things go a little faster. At some point I had called my parents who were staying at our house to be closer to the hospital and to help with our little doggies to let them know what was going on. My mom wanted to be there at the hospital as soon as possible as to not miss anything and she wanted to bring Tom some breakfast. While we were waiting for my parents my doctor came in to break my water and since Molly was moving all over and we couldn't keep her on the monitor the nurse asked him to also put the internal monitor in so that we didn't have to keep chasing her. For those that don't know the internal monitor is a little corkscrew thing that goes into the baby's scalp so that we can have constant monitoring and not have to worry about her moving all over. So my parents got there not too long after and my mom stayed with me while Tom went out in the waiting room to eat his breakfast with my dad since I wouldn't let him eat in front of me. The nurse thought it would be a good idea for me to get the epidural at that point, I wasn't really in enough pain to want it yet, but she was pretty insistent that it was a good time so I figured she knew what she was talking about and said fine. So about 10-20 minutes after my parents got there the anesthesiologist came in to do the epidural. As badly as I wanted the epidural I was pretty nervous cause I hate needles and pain. My parents left the room and we got started. It wasn't that bad at 1st but it seemed to be taking a really long time and it was getting harder and harder to stay holding still. Well then I started to feel weird pains in my legs and my body started to go numb. All of a sudden I got REALLY REALLY nauseous and started dry heaving. The poor nurse got really frantic when I said I was really nauseous...I thought it was normal, but by the look on her face, I assume that not everyone pukes while getting the epidural. Shortly after I started loosing control of my body. I started tipping over and couldn't hold myself up, Tom had to hold me up from the front and the nurse had to hold me up from the side. If she let go I would start to tip over and had NO control. Then I couldn't breathe! I really could NOT breathe! The nurse got panicked and got an oxygen mask on me, even with that I still couldn't breathe. The anesthesiologist had told me that he was having a hard time getting the epidural to go through all the layers so he had to go up a level in between higher vertebrae. So because I was having a hard time sitting up and breathing they decided to have me lay down and try it that way. As soon as they went to lay me down I fell over. I was seriously having a hard time breathing and I was starting to panic. They were trying to keep me calm, but it wasn't working cause I was struggling so hard. It's hard to stay calm when you can't breathe and are gasping for air! Then all of a sudden my doctor was running in followed by a couple other doctors and a bunch of nurses and everyone was running around the room. I heard someone tell Tom that because it was an emergency he couldn't come with and next thing I know I am being wheeled out of the room. I knew that they were taking me in for an emergency c-section, but they didn't tell Tom that that is what they were doing. He knew something was wrong, but he had no idea what was going on because things happened so fast that no one had time to explain anything to him. Meantime I am being wheeled to the operating room and still struggling REALLY hard to breathe. This whole time I had a really calm feeling that my sweet unborn baby was going to be ok, but I HONESTLY did not think that I was going to make it. I was just thinking, "Tom is going to have to raise this baby alone, I hope that they are ok!" And the next thing that I know I was starting to come to in the recovery room and I couldn't see (they had taken my glasses off) and my mom was talking to me. I was SOOO confused (they had to put me to sleep to do the c-section since the epidural hadn't gone into affect)! Here I am thinking that I had died and all of a sudden my mom was talking to me. I couldn't figure out what was going on. So then my mom starts telling me about my baby and how she weighs 6 pounds and 9 ounces and has dark curly hair!!! WHAT??? I was so confused because I was expecting AT LEAST an 8 pound baby, even though my doctor had told me that she wasn't very big and probably wouldn't be bigger than 7.5 pounds, I was still convinced that she was going to be bigger than 6.9. And the dark curly hair thing was confusing me because I was ABSOLUTELY convinced that my baby was going to be bald and if she did have any hair it would be blond blond. As I am trying to process all of this confusing information people kept coming in and talking to me and confusing me even more. In the background I kept hearing Tom talking all excited about our baby and how cute she is and it was so good to hear the pure excitement in his voice! They finally took me from the recovery room to my regular room and as they were wheeling me through the halls I had nurses from labor & delivery coming up to me and telling me that they are so glad that me and baby are ok and that we really gave them a scare. My sisters were great and went back to our L&D room to gather up all our stuff and they were kinda freaked out a little cause they had to get me into the operating room so fast that they left needles and blood all over the floor in the room. By this point I was finally starting to come to and understand that I wasn't dead and that me and baby girl were both going to be just fine. Apparently what had happened to cause them to rush me out of there so fast was that my baby's heart rate had dropped to 60!!! YIKES! However, the only reason they knew that was because of that internal monitor that the doctor had JUST put in right before all of this happened! I am SOOO grateful for wonderful doctors and nurses that were able to get us taken care of and get Molly here alive and safe! But when I think back to that day it breaks my heart that I was asleep and missed the birth of my angel baby. And it breaks my heart that Tom wasn't able to be in the room with us, he wasn't able to cut the cord, he wasn't able to hold my hand, he wasn't able to be part of it at all. That is SOOO not how we had envisioned this wonderful day! So be careful what you wish for, I wished to be asleep when my baby was born and that wish regretfully came true! Again I am so very grateful that everything worked out well and that both me and Molly are alive and safe and healthy! Because they had to put me to sleep Molly got some of the anesthesia and so they had to kind of revive her when they got her out, but they had her out in 6 minutes and she is perfectly healthy to this day! Molly has been such a wonderful blessing to us & she is such a good baby we couldn't have been any luckier!

already found her fingers!

Pregnancy so far!

So I am 27 weeks pregnant at this point and I would say that this has been a pretty easy pregnancy! Of course I don't have anything to compare it to other than what I hear from other women, but I feel it has gone pretty smoothly. I've had plenty of moments of nausea, but it hasn't been an everyday occurence and I don't actually puke very often! The nauseous moments are less and less the further I get in the pregnancy, I just have to make sure that I eat regularly.

We went to the doctor on March 3rd for our 1st ultrasound to hopefully find out the babies gender. Well let me just say that we have a stubborn child and we weren't able to find out that time. They were able to see the heart and most of the other things they look for and everything they could see looked great, but they had us come back 4 weeks later to try for gender again and get the other couple of things that they didn't get the first time. At 1st I wasn't sad about it and knew we would be back soon to try again, but as soon as we got on the elevator I got all teary eyed and then when I called my mom to tell her that we had to wait I completely lost it! I just really wanted to know what we were having. The tears didn't last long and I quickly got over it and then I was able to laugh about it. I was still frustrated not knowing, but it was then funny that our baby was so stubborn. So a LONG 4 weeks later on April 1st, yes April Fool's day, we went back to the doctor to try again! Well the ultrasound tech who has been doing this for 30 years said that she had never seen a baby as stubborn as ours. She was able to see the other couple of things that she couldn't see before, but the baby's gender was still a mystery! So we had seen everything to know that our baby was healthy, but still didn't know if we were having a girl or boy. She tried EVERYTHING, but nothing would convince our little baby to cooperate. I so didn't find this funny, it was funny the 1st time, but I never even imagined it happening a 2nd time. Some people choose not to find out, but I have NEVER been one to not want to know and neither has Tom. So we went back out to the waiting room to wait for the actual visit with the doctor. Tom left cause he had to get to work. Then the nurse came to get me and made the comment that maybe our baby wants us to be surprised in the delivery room. This made me completely break down sobbing! I couldn't control my tears. Then I calmed down once in the actual exam room, then my doctor came in and made a comment similar to the nurse's and so I started the tears all over again. I am sure that he has dealt with plenty of hormonal pregnant women, but I still felt silly crying over this. At least we knew that my baby was healthy and that is what matters the most. I wouldn't love my child any differently based on their gender, but I was just SO sad and frustrated that this had happened to us 2 times in a row! So of course insurance will only cover the ultrasounds if done every 4-6 weeks so I would have to wait a whole month more. The ultrasond tech felt very bad and offered to let us come back in 2 weeks and she wouldn't charge us for it, but that meant that we couldn't make an appointment and we would have to just wait until she could fit us in between the other patients. Well this was fine for me on a Friday since I have them off, but with Tom having just started a new job, we didn't really want to do this not knowing how long we would be there. When I got out to my car I called my mom and completely lost it! I cried so hard that I gave myseld a migraine and made myself completely sick to my stomach. We had planned for both of our families to come over that night so that we could announce the gender, so I had to text everyone and explain that the party was canceled and we still didn't know. It took me awhile to calm down enough to drive so when I finally did I went to 7-11 and got me a coke slurpee to help my stomach and migraine. Then I went home and cried some more that I puked my guts out. I called my mom again and just cried. I feel silly now that I cried so much over this, cause honestly I was very greatful that we knew the baby was healthy, but I still just REALLY wanted to know what we were having so that we could pick a name and start planning. So my dad ended up bringing my mom out to spend the day with me and they brought some yummy lunch. My dad had somewhere to go, but was planning to come back to get my mom later. Well once Tom came home we convinced her to spend the night and we wold take her home in the morning since we had to go out that way anyways to get our dogs vaccines. So she did. We took her to Salsa Leedo's for dinner and just hung out. It was alot of fun. My doctor had mentioned that we could go somewhere like Fetal Foto to see if they had better luck. So Tom and I talked about it and decided that we would give it a try. When I called Fetal Foto to set up the appointment I explained the situation and asked them if they had any tricks to suggest to get the baby to cooperate. They suggested to eat sour patch kids and drink orange juice and then when I got there they had me empty my bladder instead of keeping it full. So we went in the following Saturday on April 9th. We didn't tell anyone, but our parents that we were going because we didn't want to jinx it or get anyones hopes up yet AGAIN. So that morning I ate my sour patch kids and drank my oj and we get into the ultrasound room the tech 1st looked at the heart which was nice and strong as always and then she went straight for gender and immediately knew! Tom and I were in complete shock that she knew so quickly...apparently the sour patch kids and oj worked! So she told us that we are having a little GIRL!!! We were so excited to finally KNOW! And the position that she was in there was no doubt about it that she is a GIRL! See for yourself.

However, our little GIRL was still being stubborn and wouldn't show her face! We had paid for the full 4D package with the dvd of her movement and all that fun stuff, but she refused to show her face. Luckily fetal foto is super good about this type of situation and they will give you a voucher to come back and try again to get what you paid for without having to pay again, so we set up the appt to come back. Our next appt was yesterday 4.21 and so I ate my sour patch kids and drank my oj again. We get there and she is being stubborn still! We know, we are IN FOR IT with this one...but we still love her very much! Finally we were able to get her to cooperate enough that we could get some good pics of her sweet little face! She is such a tease cause she would hide her face and then show us for just a second what she looked like and then hide again! She would give us this cute little smirk as if to say, "haha we play by MY rules!" She gave us this smirk many times and then she would do cute little things like rub her eyes and lay with her arm rested up on her forehead, which are both things that Tom does ALOT! It was so freaking cute and amazing to get to watch our sweet little thing and her personality! We were already in love with her, but after getting to watch her do her thing in there it is hard for either of us to not fall so much more in LOVE with her! We are very lucky and greatful for the oppurtunity to be her parents and we can't wait to meet her...but when it is her time!

Here is her cute little smirk!

She looks just like her daddy in this one!

Being a lil stinker and blocking our view of her face with her arm!

Sleeping with her arm up on her forehead just like her daddy does! So precious!

(I am having a hard time getting the captions to match with the pics, but hopefully you can figure it out.)

Oh Baby!

For those that don't already know, we are expecting our 1st precious little baby on July 29th. We are very excited to embark in this new adventure! We found out the week before Thanksgiving and wanted to tell my family in a fun way since this is the 1st grandchild for them and also the 1st great grandchild for my grandma! So since Christmas was right around the corner we decided that would be a fun time to tell them. I decided that I wanted to make everyone a shirt that said "Grandma", "Grandpa", "Great Grandma", "Aunt", & "Uncle"! So Christmas morning we went to my parents house and we decided to have breakfast 1st since we were all hungry! I was STARVING being pregnant and all, but of course I couldn't tell them that, I was just glad they agreed to have breakfast 1st. Before we ate I went up to wake up my brother and have him come eat with us. I went up there and was super nice and told him that I had a fun surprise and asked him to come eat with us and open presents. Well him being the difficult teenage boy that he can be told me that he didn't care and he didn't want to come down. I tried to not loose it, but I just started crying because I really wanted him to be with the rest of the family for my fun announcement, but there was nothing I could do. So I went back downstairs crying...it was kind of funny cause the way my brother had been acting no one including me was surprised that he refused to come down so everyone was looking at me funny because I was crying over it. So I finally stopped crying and we ate. My 1 sister was working for a few more minutes (she works from home downstairs) so I told everyone that they had to wait to open the present from us until she could come up. Everyone was kind of confused because all their presents were in the same size box and we had decided not to do gifts with all the siblings that year to save money for everyone, so my sisters were kinda mad/frustrated that we had something for them anyways. So then my sister came up for a quick break and we decided to go ahead and open them since everyone was curious. So of course I got the video camera ready and told everyone to open at the same speed. My sister that was on break from work didn't want to be recorded so you can hear her off to the side yell out "Monica is pregnant!" Well everyone else was still working on the wrapping paper at this point so everyone was kinda confused and just paused with this look on their faces. My other sister later told me that when she heard that she was thinking, "what could possibly be in that box that says Monica is pregnant?" So everyone else continued opening and once they figured it out they were all very excited! My sister Mikala was so excited she screamed, my mom was speechless and teary eyed, my grandma was excited and giggly, and my dad said "No wonder why she was crying at breakfast, I knew she had to be pregnant!" A little while later my brother decided to grace us with his presence and came and opened his. He was very quiet, but excited and he even smiled for the 1st time in a long time at the thought of being an uncle! So later that day we were going to my uncle's house for dinner and my mom decided to just wear her shirt over there to see how long it took everyone to notice. Once everybody noticed it they were all very excited for us! Here are the videos from them opening their shirts.

Answers: Fun Christmas Quiz!!!

1) Jingle Bell Rock

2) Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire

3) All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth

4) Holy Night

5) It Came Upon a Midnight Clear

6) Come All Ye Faithful

7) Away in a Manger

8) Deck the Halls

9) Little Drummer Boy

10) We Three Kings

11) Silent Night

12) God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

13) Santa Clause is Coming to Town

14) Let It Snow

15) Go Tell It on the Mountains

16) Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer

17) What Child is This?

18) Joy to the World

19) Hark, the Herald Angels Sing

20) The Twelve Days of Christmas

21) White Christmas

Fun Christmas Quiz!

These are titles of Christmas songs, but they are using different words. Try to figure out the real titles. Answers will be posted in a couple weeks, after Christmas.



GUESS THE CHRISTMAS SONG


1) Boulder of the Tinkling Metal Spheres

2) Castaneous-colored Seed Vesticated in a Conflagration

3) Singular Yearning for the Twin Anterior Incisors

4) Righteous Darkness

5) Arrival Time: 2400 hrs – Weather: Cloudless

6) Loyal Followers Advance

7) Far Off in a Feeder

8) Array the Corridor

9) Bantam Male Percussionist

10) Monarchical Triad

11) Nocturnal Noiselessness

12) Jehovah Deactivate Blithe Chevaliers

13) Red Man en Route to Borough

14) Frozen Precipitation Commence

15) Proceed and Enlighten on the Pinnacle

16) The Quadruped with the Vermilion Proboscis

17) Query Regarding Identity of Descendant

18) Delight for this Planet

19) Give Attention to the Melodious Celestial Beings

20) The Dozen Festive 24 Hour Intervals

21) Bleached Yule


Good Luck and Merry Christmas!!!!

Happy Anniversary!

4 years ago today, Tom & I were married for Time & ALL Eternity! It was the best decision I ever made! My life is so much better with Tom at my side! He is my true BEST friend! I can't even imagine what I would do without him! He is such a strong spiritual person and he makes me a better person! He is always willing to help out around the house even without being asked! I LOVE you very much babe & I can't wait to see what our future still has in store for us! Kiss Kiss! ;)

P.S. I know it has been FOREVER since I have posted a real update...I promise it is coming soon!

Babies!

Lots of babies have been born lately!

First to have one was Tom's sister Stacey and her husband Brian. They welcomed their 4th child Carter Grant Nelson on Monday, March 30th at 10:14am. He weighed 6 lbs 9 oz and was 19 inches long.

(I stole this pic from Stacey's blog...Thank You!)

Next was Tom's brother Darren and his girlfriend Jenny, they welcomed their first, Emily Marie Fletcher on Monday April 13th! She weighed 7 lbs 1 oz. Not sure how long she was.

(This pic was borrowed from Jenny's Facebook...Thank You)


Next my Uncle Jeff and his wife Lana welcomed their 3rd boy, Samuel Ray Beal, on Thursday May 14th around 11:30 am. He weighed 7 lbs 10 oz. And I think he was 19 in long.



And last, but not least, Tom's other brother Justin & his wife Laurel are expecting their 1st pretty much any day now! They are having a boy and the due date is June 20th, but I really don't think she will last until then!!! They have a name picked out, but since he isn't born yet and the name isn't official...I'm not going to say what they've picked...just in case! ;)

(pic was borrowed from Laurel's Facebook..Thanks)

Morgan's Eagle!

Morgan is my "little" brother!!! He is 15 and WAY taller than me! He is such a good kid (most of the time) and I love him to pieces and am so proud of him! Him & 4 other boys in their ward got their Eagle a few weeks ago! Good Job Morgan! We Love You!!! (Sorry, pics are kinda dark...the lighting in there was AWFUL!!!)

Morgan's display table

Morgan & his best friend Trace

The Eagle's Nest

Morgan waiting patiently

The Eagle

LOL! This pic makes me laugh...notice how the

guy is reaching as high as he can and Morgan

has to bend his arm! The guy wasn't short either

and when the eagle would flap its wings it would

hit my bro in the head! So funny!

Our cute cousin Jacob fell asleep! (He is red cause

it was SOOOO hot in there! He is also the little

voice that yelled "Hi Morgan", in the previous video!)

Trace with the eagle

Congressman Jim Matheson came & presented the boys with a certificate.

And so did Senator Gene Davis.

Morgan being presented with his Eagle

Morgan with our parents

Exchanging pins with our mom

Pinning our dad

His Eagle scarf

In the Eagle Nest with proud dad

Only in Utah!

So I got some new glasses in December, in the picture you will notice that the sides have rhinestones spelling out "D & G" in fancy cursive. If you don't already know..."D & G" stands for Dolce & Gabbana, which is a high-end brand name. If you've never heard of it don't feel left out, apparently you are not alone. Well I got them about a week before we went to Hawaii for Christmas and we met up with Toms sister and her family that live in California. Upon noticing my new glasses and the "D & G" on the side, my brother in law, Brian commented on how he was "impressed" that these glasses were for purchase in Utah...he joked that he didn't realize that Utahns even knew what it was! Well a few weeks after we returned to Utah, we went to a baptism and a lady came up to me and said, "Monica! I LOVE you glasses..."D & C"...how spiritual of you!!" This comment made me want to laugh so hard because only in Utah would someone think you could get glasses with a scriptural reference on them, but I didn't want to offend her and she obviously wouldn't have known what Dolce & Gabbana was if I had corrected her. So I just nodded, smiled, and said "yeah, uh-huh!" Well since then a few ppl have simply asked me what my glasses say and when I tell them, some immediately know what I am talking about and others I have to go into more detail. But on Sunday I was sitting in Sunday School and the teacher was passing out scriptures for ppl to read and he looked at my glasses and asked, "Do your glasses stand for Doctrine & Covenants? Cause that is what we are studying today!!" So of course the whole room is kinda looking at me and my glasses and waiting for my response...I told him that they say "D & G" not "D & C" and that "D & G" stands for Dolce & Gabbana...those few that know what it is just nodded and smiled and the teacher and most of the rest of the room just looked at me like I was some weirdo that wears glasses with random letters on them! Just had to share my funny story!

Crazy Video!

Updates & Tasers!

We are still alive! I'll keep this short. Since my last post nothing much has really been going on, which is mostly why I haven't posted.! To update you, our Valentines was good! I had been sick the whole week of Valentines and Tom got sick the day before so we just went to dinner and rented a movie and hung out at home. It was very relaxing and enjoyable. A week later we celebrated my dad's 50th birthday! He got an ipod and is pretty much loving it! Then at the beginning of March my great grandma passed away! :'( She had a heart attack last May and was in the hospital for awhile, she was able to go home for I think under a week (I was in Europe at the time) and she has been in a Care Center ever since. It sure has been a rocky year for her and those of us watching her though. One week she would be doing really good and wanting to get up and dance and then the next week we would be lucky if she could communicate with us! As time went on she just kept getting worse and worse and then at the end she couldn't even move. One day just before she passed my mom was up with her and my grandma told her that she would like a blessing, so later that day me, tom, & my parents went back and Tom and my dad gave her a blessing. Then a few days later my mom got a call at work and she was told that if she wanted to see her and say goodbye that she needed to go up. So my mom and sister headed up and kept in touch with me, then after I got off work I headed up with Tom. When we got there a lady from hospice was there playing the harp for her...it is called music therapy and she does this alot when people are getting ready to die. It was really peaceful to be there for and really hard to see her as well cause she was worse than we've ever seen. At this point she couldn't communicate at all and could barely breathe. She also couldn't swallow, so no food or drink. We knew it wouldn't be long! After sitting with her for awhile we told her that we love her and that we would miss her, but that it was ok to go and find grandpa. She made it through the night and the next day and my mom went back up the next evening. They had the harpist come in again that evening and it helped to relax my grandma and later that evening about 30-45 minutes after the last visitor left, she went home to our Heavenly Father. It breaks my heart that she was all alone when this happened...but the way I see it, she wanted to be alone cause she had been surrounded by family all day and night and then that quickly after they all went home and she was gone. Her funeral was a few days later and it was a nice service, where we were able to remember all the fun happy times we got to share with her! And as much as we miss her, we know that she is in a better place and we are so grateful that she doesn't need to suffer anymore. We are also grateful for the Atonement of Christ and that because of it we will get to be with her again someday!



On a happier note...last night we had Tom's brother Justin, his wife Laurel, and 2 other friends to be left unnamed over to play Wii and hang out. One of the unnamed is a cop and somehow the topic of conversation became to be about tasers and how many people he has tased and if it hurts and all the questions that someone that hasn't experienced it asks. So he decided to get his taser and let Tom and Justin experience it...of COURSE I HAD to get video of it!!! Toms reaction is HILARIOUS!

Make sure your sounds is on!

Hawaiian Christmas!!!

Ok, so once again, I know I'm about a month late on this...but late is better than never!!! For Christmas, Tom's AWESOME parents took the whole family to Hawaii! We had an AMAZING time!!! We arrived on the Saturday before Christmas and when we got to the airport we were greeted with fresh flower lei's! (Tom's sister Stacey & her family flew in from CA, so they were already at the hotel when we flew in!) We then went to get our rental cars and head to the hotel, well the rental car place took FOREVER, so by the time we got to the hotel and got checked in, it was pretty much time for dinner! The 1st island we went to was Oahu and we stayed in Honolulu on Waikiki Beach at the Hilton Hawaiian Village! It was a very large hotel and very nice...right on the ocean! Here is some pics of the view from our room!

The next day was Sunday, we went to church then we went on a submarine ride and we couldn't get very good pics of anything we saw under water on the submarine, but we saw a shark, lots or turtles and lots of fish!Sunday was also our brother in laws bday and we went to dinner at a really cool restaurant called the Oceanarium and we sat right up next to a giant aquarium and they had a diver come right up to the window and brought a sign wishing Joe a Happy Birthday and she hung out and fed the fish and the sting rays right there out of her hand!!! The next day, Monday, we went to the Laie, Hawaii temple grounds and to the Polynesian Culture Center, that was really fun! We learned about all the different Polynesian Cultures and watched a couple of really cool shows and got to attend a luau! Then on Tuesday, the 3 guys that had taken scuba diving lessons prior to the trip went on their 1st dive! While they were doing that, most of the rest of us went to the swap meet for some great deals and then we went to the Sea Life Park where me, Tom, our nieces Mikayla, Brooke, and our nephew Connor got to swim with a dolphin! That was THE coolest thing I have EVER done! Our dolphins name was Laka and she is over 40 years old! We got to give her a kiss and she kissed us on the cheek and we got to swim on her belly and pet her lots! We got the video of it, and I will try to get that posted another time! Later that day we also hung out on the beach! We also walked the streets of Honolulu and saw alot of fun street performers including people that hold still as statues and dances and this one guy that had quite the little set up and crowd around him and when we finally got close enough to see what was going on, he was painting 2 pictures at the same time using airbrush!!! It was insane how fast he was going and even crazier when we saw the finished product! On Christmas Eve we flew to the next island, Kauai. Here we stayed at the Sheraton Kauai Resort and this one was even more on the beach than the last! Around the corner from our room was an elevator that literally took you straight down to the beach!On Christmas Day we all went down to Tom's parents room where Santa had come and left the kids their "loot"! While there we noticed that they were roping off part of the beach and we were a little concerned because today was going to be spent on the beach all day and we couldn't figure out why they would close it, so we all put on our matching shirts that said, "Fletcher Family Hawaiian Christmas 2008" and went down to breakfast! Once we were done with breakfast, we decided to investigate the beach closure situation and found out that a Hawaiian Monk Seal had swam up on shore over night and they sectioned off the area surrounding him so that he wouldn't be scared back into the water too soon. Laying in the sun all day is how these seals digest their food, so if he had gone back into the water too soon he would have died! So all day while we were playing and having fun at the beach we had the company of this funny seal! We got some boogie boards and had a blast in the water! The day after Christmas some of us went tubing and some of us went Kayaking...we chose tubing and according to the ones that went kayaking, we made a good choice! They said it was more work than fun! Tubing was a blast, we went down an old ditch that has been around for hundreds of years and had 5 tunnels, so we got to wear hard hats with miners lights on them and thank goodness for those hart hats...I hit my head quite a few times! I also flipped my tube on a waterfall and to say that the water was cold would be a HUGE understatement!!! And it was really rocky and so my knees got all cut up and bruised and some of the bruises are still there! But it was a TON of fun!!! The next day most of us got on a boat where the 3 scuba divers were going on another dive and the rest of us went snorkeling! It had rained alot so the waters were kinda murky, but we had fun nonetheless! It was a long boat ride cause they kinda took the scenic route to show us the very beautiful Napoli Coast! It was also very bumpy, so I got a little sea sick and so did a few others in our party...let's just say that the fish didn't go hungry that day! ;) We didn't get the best pics, cause we were too busy looking and we kept forgetting that we had cameras! (it is easy to forget that when you are in the water!) We also had a TON of dolphins swimming along our boat and we saw a whale...but it was too far away to get a pic!Then on Sunday and Monday we just hung out at the beach and shopped! Then on Monday night we flew back to Honolulu were we had a 3 1/2 hour layover then we flew back home overnight! All in all, it was an AWESOME Christmas!!!!! Thanks again mom and Dad!!!