Fourth of July Fun!

We had a great Fourth of July with friends and family! Our good friends Mike and Talayeh came down for the weekend to enjoy the lake and some great food. Friday night we got a babysitter for the kids and went out to a great restaurant called, "The Local." The menu consists of all local ingredients and it was yummy! We closed the place down and got caught up on conversation (sans babies, which is nice!). Saturday we headed to the lake and beach with the kids. It was a beautiful day, and the kids had a blast in the sand. We didn't see any fireworks, just put the kids to bed and grilled out on the deck. Oh summer, I love you!!

Guess What I Did?? (in Bradley's words)

I am really getting much too big for my crib. I haven't climbed out, except for that one time. It was scary!! Last Saturday I woke up from my nap to find the big room down the hall filled with my stuff. My parents told me it was going to be my new "Big Boy Room." I was so excited, I ran back to my old room to get my 'bees' and my books. It took me about fifteen trips to get all of my stuff from my old room into my new room. But, I did it!!

Then I played in there all day while my Daddy put together all of my new furniture!!

I LOVE IT!! I want to stay in there all day!!

They got me new blankets with cars, and then they painted an entire road around my room.

I haven't climbed out of my new bed once, I am so big!

I love you little Bradley Bug and I can't believe you are big enough for your own room and bed! Don't grow up too fast, I love you just the way you are!! (in Mommy's words:)

Summer Fun At Its Best!

Couldn't you just eat these three little peas up?? I love that Bradley was trying to get away from the girls, Larken looks happy as a clam, and Amalie is the funniest little thing!! Every time we laid her down on the hammock she put her arms behind her head for a rest. You couldn't pose a cuter picture.

On Tuesday we headed to the other side of town for some adventures at Larken's Aba's house. With the pool, a blueberry patch, and hammocks, it couldn't have been a better morning. I have decided that Bradley is a total water bug, and would have stayed in the pool all day. Even after our picnic lunch, he wanted to get back in. I knew he was exhausted, so we headed home for nap time. I am so looking forward to heading to the beach in a few weeks with this wonderful family!

Cali took this picture of Bradley with his new 'swimmies' on.

More friends were at Aba's house running around the pool.

I love taking pictures of little Amalie. She is totally working it for the camera!

Blueberry picking in the sun

Trying out the goods...

The pool, plus a little watermelon...yummy!

I am definitely feeling a lot better this week, and I am ready to get back to the gym. I start teaching my class again next week. Hopefully I don't pass out on the step!

JOY

The picture from my post last Monday does not do justice to the way I felt for most of last week. I really felt like I had just had another c-section and was going to be out of action for six weeks. I was the last surgery of the day on Monday, and was postponed even later due to an emergency. So, Chris didn't wheel me home until after seven pm. I think the hunger, plus all of the anesthesia was too much. The week flew by in a state of sleepiness and chest pain. They pump your belly full of gases so they can have a good look around. The gases put a lot of pressure on your chest until your body slowly absorbs them over the week. It was very painful, and a little scary. I turned the corner by Saturday morning. I am feeling a lot better today, but still a little iffy when I pick up Bradley. I survived, it was just a little more invasive than we had planned. Especially compounding everything with a 2 year old that was a little freaked out by his sick Mommy. Bradley had a number of meltdowns last week, and was a total bear for the babysitters.

On to the JOY...

As soon as I started to feel better we got out of the house on Saturday. Bradley has been so much better now that things are back to normal. Today was splendid with a trip to the park to visit friends, and an afternoon pool date with Daddy. I am in LOVE with this picture I took of Bradley playing at the pool, it makes me smile!

In other JOYful news, the surgery was successful! My doctor did find Stage One Endometriosis, but he was able to find all of it and treat it. I didn't get to speak with him after the surgery (obviously), but he went out and talked with Chris. He said that this is what you would hope for...a reason for the infertility and he was able to treat all of it. He is hopeful for our future. I am trying not to be too naive about the outcome, and get my hopes up too much. But, this has been such a long journey, and you have to take the silver lining with the darkness. This was a huge ordeal to put my body through, and it would have been devastating to have left without any answers. Or the disease could have been too bad to be treated. It was the best possible outcome, and I am going to hold on to that.

Thank you for all of your support and kind words. You don't know how much they mean to me...

All of the little comments and emails have kept me uplifted!

We also have big news about Bradley...he is now sleeping in his "Big Boy" room!! I have lots of pictures and a post to come. We canceled our five year anniversary trip last weekend, because I just wasn't up for traveling. Hopefully we will reschedule for later in the summer!

Sometimes We Just Feel Like...

This is kind of how I feel inside this week.

I am hopeful to get some answers about our infertility.

It is weird to go into a surgery hoping that they find something wrong...that way they can fix it. This is my first surgery besides having a c-section with Bradley. I know there is amazing technology now, and the recovery will be much quicker than my c-section. This has just been a long journey and I am praying for hope and some answers today. They have diagnosed me with Endometriosis, but it is something they can only see once they are inside. My doctor will be taking pictures and explaining everything to Chris afterwards. I am thankful for my parents for watching Bradley for us. I am grateful for an amazing husband that wants to go on this journey with me. I am hopeful for some peace and some answers. I'm not sure when I will be up to blogging again. But we have our five year anniversary trip this weekend, so lots of pictures to come!

Have an amazing week!

Favorite Things!!

With all of the craziness going on, I thought I would put together a fun post! Also, I have been really bad about my picture taking lately. Sometimes I am just not in the mood to snap away. I need to get back in the swing of picture taking.

We had an awesome play date last week that I forgot my camera. Then we celebrated father's day early yesterday with my entire family. I only took one picture! It was a great time though! We had the whole family over for brunch and got to have lots of yummy food. Bradley is working on a little runny nose, so we might be under the weather this week. Hopefully he will recover quickly!

Here are some of my favorite things right now:

My new LG cell phone. I love it!! It has great reception, and I am in love with texting. I can send out a quick note to my friends and let the know I am thinking about them.

Bradley just got the new LeapPad, and he Loves it!!

I just bought Bradley this 4 CD program at Best Buy, and it is really great. The computer activities are right on his level, and he is always asking to play it.

This weekend Chris is actually headed to a four day trip to Vegas to celebrate his brother's bachelor party! The following weekend is our FIVE year anniversary! We are headed off to a bed and breakfast at the beach! I am beyond excited for it!

Chris booked us Swedish massages in our room...ahhh!

One of Chris's father's day/anniversary gifts was an I Pod docking station that attaches to our home speaker system. We have a great speaker system that plays throughout the house and out on the deck. Every time we have people over we talk about how great it would be to listen to our I Pods throughout the house, instead of just a CD or radio. So, I got Chris a docking station with a remote to listen to some tunes throughout the house!

Chris's other father's day gift was a bike trailer for Bradley. Whenever Chris goes to the gym he loves to ride the bike. I thought this would be fun for them to do together. Bradley LOVES it, because it is like a traveling home. It has lots of room, cup holders and all! Now as soon as Chris pulls into the garage Bradley will run to the door and ask if he wants to "ride bikes." We have been out on our bikes every day since we put it together!

Happy Monday!

I Feel Like This Blog is Getting Depressing...

I have been avoiding writing a blog post since Thursday night. I don't know why, I really don't want my blog to be a depressing saga of our lives. But, seriously life has been throwing us under the bus lately. I would hate to come on here and post cute pictures of Bradley and act like we are all hunky dory, when that just isn't the case. Chris and I are trying our best to stay positive in the mist of all of this, but we are truly being tested.

First, I am sure that many of your read my sister's blog Bytes of Memory...well my sweet nephew Sammy

was in a car accident this past weekend with my parents. My sister did a much longer and more detailed post about the crash that I won't get into. But, everyone is fine thanks to my Dad's quick thinking and driving skills. They went to see their car on Monday, and it is totaled. It is amazing that everyone is ok from the accident. My parents and Sammy had some soreness this week, but everyone is hanging in there.

Aside from that, everything else we have been going through seems like such a small situation. The contract on our home feel through on Thursday evening. So, we won't be moving and we spent a majority of the weekend unpacking and cleaning up the house. We will hopefully have the house back on the market later this week once we are ready for showings again. It doesn't seem like anything to even worry about after the car accident, but it is/was upsetting to say the least.

Lastly, after a consultation with the fertility specialist I finally have been given a diagnosis for my infertility. They believe that I have endometriosis, and I will be having surgery at the end of the month to try and heal as much of the problem as they can. Hopefully after the surgery our chances to conceive will greatly increase. What a journey this has been. I have felt deep down inside, even last summer, that something was really wrong with me. I am partly happy and sad to finally have some answers and to be moving in the right direction. I am hopeful and nervous. Chris has been amazing through all of this, and it has brought us even closer together.

They say bad things happen in threes. Hopefully we are done and good times are headed our way!!!