A Blessing & A Farewell

My parents got their mission call to Frankfurt Germany and had their farewell on June 27th. It has been hard to think of them gone for that long and to see them get ready to go. I know that I was gone for 18 months on my own mission but that was me leaving them not them leaving me. They both did a great job on their talks of course. Dad talked on temples and mom talked on prayer. We had a lot of friends and family show up to support them which is always great to know that so many people care about your family. We had the luncheon at my brother Todd's house, one less thing for my mom to worry about. We had so much fun and great food! The food was so good and we were all so full, but couldn't stop eating. Thank you to everyone who came to support my parents and who helped with the food.


Because my family would all be together that Sunday we made arrangements to bless Hinkley that same day in their ward. Ben did an amazing job and it was great to have all my brothers and brother in laws there to bless her. She was an angel and didn't cry once. Like Bailey she was blessed with her plug in her mouth! Hinkley's did fall out but she still didn't cry! Thanks Lou for letting me borrow your shirt and for taking the picture.


It was also the first time that we had all been together since Hinkley was born so she got to meet a lot of the family for the first time. Everyone is so cute with her and the girls had so much fun being with family. Hinkley and Slater are only a month apart. Slater is as long or longer than Hinkley but Hinkley is more chubby!


My brother Eric's kids are so cute with Bailey and Shaydon! They play with them and love to be with them which is so awesome since they are older. Lily is especailly cute with Bailey and will be her closest girl cousin, Lily is about 3 years older than Bailey but is a great cousin and friend and I really hope that they will always have fun together.


We are kind of worried about how Bailey will handle going to Papa and Grammy's for the first time and find that they are not there. Bailey worships her Papa and can get him to play dolls, kitchen, cars, horsey and about anything else she can think of. I also feel bad that Hinkley won't have that relationship with my parents, but they won't be gone forever. Its really hard not to be selfish and not want my parents to go. I know what they are doing is important and way, way, WAY, deep down some where I am excited for them to be going on this adventure and know that they will love it. We will miss you Mom and Dad, a.k.a Papa and Grammy

Growing too fast!

Hinkley turned 2 months old this week! She is growing way too fast. She is a great sleeper at night and loves to be held and snuggled when she sleeps during the day, which makes it hard to get anything done but what can you do! She smiles a lot which I love and is starting to talk to us more and more. She has the cutest personality. At her two month check up we were told that she is healthy and doing great! She already weighs 11 lbs and we can't imagine our lives without her!


Bailey has done amazing with her she hasn't been upset with Hinkley once! She also is such a big help from bathing, getting clothes, putting back in and finding her pacifier, holding her, and trying to play with and feed her! Hinkley also adores Bailey she can just sit and watch her big sister for a long time! I love to watch the two of them together! Bailey is still very protective of Hinkley and when anyone gets to close to the baby that Bailey isn't comfortable with she lets them know that Hinkley is off limits. Bailey had a hard time at Hinkley's 2 month appointment and did not apprectiate the nurses and doctors looking at her at all!

I know its a little late, but this month we celebrated my dads birthday and fathers day. I was blessed to be adopted by such great parents. My dad has always worked hard to support our family and has been a great man. He spent the past 18 years in the stake presidency, more than half of my life, which showed his love and dedication to the gospel. He has always been such a great example to me and I don't know how I will get along without him for the next 18 months!


And Ben, he is a great father who also works hard to support us. He loves his daughters and they have him wrapped around their fingers and can get away with anything. I love to watch him dance with Bailey, read to her, feed her, and she loves him. I love to watch him hold Hinkley, kiss her goodbye every morning, and tell her how beautiful she is. He is such a softy!

I feel blessed to have known my father-in-law and can only pray that he approves of me marrying one of his sons. Don was an amazing man, who had a hard childhood but was determined to make a good life for himself and his family. He wasn't afraid to be himself and I hope my daughters will get that from him too. Don worked hard and played hard. Thanks to Don and Ann for raising the amazing man I married.


My parents are getting closer to going on their mission which is really hard but everyone keeps telling me how fast 18 months will go by. Ben told me just to think of it as they will only be gone for 1 tax season!

And we're back!

It has been a busy two months. We moved into scary house and I HATED it. A big thanks to everyone who helped us move though.


We were only in scary house a few weeks when Hinkley was born. She arrived as scheduled, the only thing not planned was her size, she was 8lbs 1oz and 19 inches long! My dad's comment was "No wonder Alisa was so big!" She has more hair than Bailey did and her skin is a little darker. She is definitely her own little person. Neither Ben nor I think she looks at all like Bailey did. Thanks to all the family and friends who came, called, emailed, sent text messages, etc. We appreciate your thoughtfulness. I was in the hospital for 4 days and was happy to get released.

Bailey was so cute with Hinkley when they first brought her into to see Hinkley and I. She sat on the bed with me and she and I both had to be holding Hinkley. Whenever anyone, even Ben or Grandparents, tried to take or touch Hinkley Bailey just cried and cried. She has done great with her and is such a little helper. Actually Bailey has done amazing with all of the changes in her life since March. Three houses, tax season, and a new little sister.


Two weeks after Hinkley was born we moved into our new house. I don't have a picture of the finished product, sorry. This picture was taken a month before it was done. Thanks once again to everyone who helped us move. Especially those who helped us move all THREE TIMES! We were in three house in three months something I don't advise. We are loving our new home, we are still not settled in, but with a new born and still recovering from surgery it's as good as it can be.

Hinkley is doing great and growing WAY to fast! Sometimes I can't believe she is here and she is already a month old! She does amazing at night only wakes up once or twice. She LOVES to cuddle and its so hard not to cuddle with her constantly, which may explain why there are still boxes all over the house! I love her little smiles and she is a mommas girl which I love too!

To all who didn't know my parents got their mission call to Frankfurt Germany. I'm trying to be happy about it. Just hard to think of them gone for so long and so far away. And Congratulations to Scott and Sommers on thier new baby boy!

Hope to catch up some more but Hinkley is paging me

Moving!

Well this last weekend we moved out of our first house! Kind of emotional, but I am also 9 months pregnant, we had shipped Bailey and Obi to Idaho with my parents so it could have been a lot of different things. Ben's mom Ann came up with two of his little brothers and little sister. I can't tell you how much help that they were we couldn't have done it without them! Ben has an amazing mom who always helps us, I feel bad because she doesn't come to visit often, but when we need help she is always there for us. We also had some awesome friends who showed up to help. Tyler, Jake, and Patrick all guys who Ben works with. Thanks for taking time off from work to help.


So our old house is sold, we closed on Friday, moved on Saturday and the funding went through on Monday so here we are renting again. I also realized Wednesday night that the drawer under the oven/stove still had pans in it! So we called the realtor and made arrangements for the guy who owns our house now to just leave my pans outside on the door step. That was a little weird picking up my pans from my old front step!

We are in Scary house and I'm still not happy about it, but I'm just trying to accept the things I can't change and that is about the best I can do and try to keep Bailey in a clean little bubble until we move!


Our new house is moving along, it just will never be fast enough. But they are texturing and mudding the walls, dry wall is hung, wiring is done, and they have started to hang siding. I am way excited for the house to be done, not just because I will get to leave scary house, but we won't have to move for a very long time, its nice to be able to have some say as to the lay out of your house, and it will be perfect for us in so many ways.


As for me and the baby we are doing well, besides living in scary house, I have started to dilate and efface, but I'm not holding my breath it will be a lot less stressing if she can stay put until after tax season. This is one of the only pictures of my pregnancy with #2 I think including this one there are 3 all together. I am HUGE!

To all my fellow tax season wives -Cara and Tiffany- we have almost made it! Only 13 days left! Yea for us now after the 15th we can have husbands and our children will have fathers!

We're alive, but we're dead!

Ok, so here we go playing catch up for the last month.

My sister in law (Lyndsie's) mom came to visit for a weekend. We had a great time! The girls went shopping, out to eat, watched movies, hung out, laughed, talked, and spoiled Bailey. Brenda and Lyndsie don't ever tell her no! And Ben worked - Love tax season!


The week after that Bailey came down with a cold. She started coughing Tuesday night and by Wednesday morning it sounded like croup. By Thursday I had caught her cold and by that weekend so had Ben. That Wednesday Ben's little brother Nathan came home from his mission. We headed to Idaho Saturday spent very little time with his family because we were all sick and Bailey was getting worse. We didn't spend a lot of time with my parents because they were watching my brothers 3 kids and no one wanted to get them sick. So we stayed at my brother Todd's. Saturday night Bailey had stopped eating and had a fever. By Sunday morning she was worse! Her cough was bad, her fever was higher and she would wake up for only about an hour and want to go back to sleep. We left her with Brenda while we went to Nathan's homecoming and took off for home after that.


I got her into the Dr's office Monday morning and they told me she had her 1st ear infection. Poor little monkey, so we got her some medicine and did a lot of cuddling and moving watching. On Wednesday I was having enough problems breathing from the cold and being pregnant that they wanted to have my lungs checked so I went back to the Dr's. Thank goodness for Lyndsie who came to watch Bailey. By Friday Bailey was starting to improve still not eating normally and clingy. But things got worse. I woke up Friday morning at 2:30am with a horrible ear infection. I was done getting sleep that night! I called my mom in tears and she headed down and Ben came home while I went to the Dr. again and got medicine for my ear. Mom stayed until Sunday and took Bailey home with her. I had a pregnancy appointment Monday morning and took off that afternoon to Idaho. So in the words of Dash from the Incredibles "we're alive, but we're dead."

We stayed with my parents until Thursday and came back to a house full of Boys! There was a USU game on and Ben had invited a few friends over. We also had some old friends from Burley staying at our house that week, but they left on Friday.


On Saturday Todd and Brenda came up. We have had some serious issues with landscaping at the house we are building. So my amazing big brother drove down with one of our farms semi's hauling a loader and spent 2 days moving dirt around. It is so much better than it was and it looks great. I can never thank Todd enough. We also had Ben's little brother Jacob come down for the night, he needed Ben's help. We had a fun, but busy weekend!


This last week we are all healthier and doing well. We have had a lot of stress finding a decent place that would rent to us for 2 to 3 months! So we are renting a scary house in Smithfield and are planning on closing on our old house this Friday and moving out this weekend. Brenda brought Lyndsie back yesterday after USU's spring break. I'm so happy to have her back because if the baby decided to come in the middle of the night Lyndsie is on call to stay with Bailey so it always makes me nervous of what we would do when Lyndsie is out of town.


The baby and I are fine, I have started falling about once a week! Not really sure how I manage it, Ben says he's sorry I'm a clutz! Bailey keeps us busy and laughing! Ben is working hard at Tax season. Yea tax season! We are just praying that the baby will stay put till after the move and than until tax season is over. The new house is moving along, it is framed and mostly wired and they are hoping to start dry walling this week.

House Update

Day 1: February 2nd Sign goes up

Day 11: First showing

Day 17: Received offer on the house

Day 18: Submitted counter offer

Day 19: Counter offer accepted!

Now if everything can just go great we can close and have our house sold!!

Where did February go?

So we have been so focused on getting the house ready to put up for sale that I haven't really been a good mom, wife, friend, or blogger!

The first week in February we were really just finishing up all the little details of cleaning and getting the house ready. We finally got every thing worked out with the realtors and got a for sale sign up and that was stressful!


The second week Bailey and I took off for five days to Idaho. Ben gets to put in all the hours that he needs to for work and not feel guilty about never coming home. Yea tax season. We had fun in Idaho and of course I forgot my camera there, which is another reason that I haven't blogged.

This last week we have been dealing with house crap. Lyndsie (my niece) watched Bailey a lot for me while I got the house ready to sale and now all I have to do is just maintain the house and keep it clean. So I feel like I have been a little better of a mom lately. Bailey has been AMAZING with this whole thing and I hope I can make it up to her.

Ben did a lot of work on the house every night after putting in a long day at the office and has been amazing too. Now if we can just sale our house!!