My niece LYLA!

Let me introduce my new little niece, Lyla! Congratulations to my sister Laurel and her husband Ryan. She's adorable, don't you think? The picture above was taken about 10 minutes after she was born. The next picture was taken by Ryan while Laurel and I were talking on the phone. It was nice to be able to visualize the setting.

One minute she's inside her mommy, the next she's sitting on top. What a miracle. This last picture was taken less than a week ago during our trip out there. Missed her by 5 days!

Utah/Idaho Spring Break

Dan & I just got back from a week of worth of family, friends, skiing, and LOTS of eating. We were busy jumping from one place to the next making sure we saw and spent time with as many as we could.

We started off in Layton with my two sisters and their families. Some of my AZ family was also in town so it was good to have a chance to see them. We enjoyed some NCAA bball and lunch at a sports grill...and a lot of time chatting and playing CandyLand with the nieces and nephews. I love seeing those kids and how much they have grown up.

On Friday Dan went snowboarding while I enjoyed another day worth of hanging out and enjoying the fam. That night we went out to eat with my friend Audrey and her boyfriend Josh. We had such a fun night together catching up and getting to know Josh a little. Sharp guy, we like him. Of course I always love spending time with Aud. She's amazing, I love that girl. We have a girls trip planned at the end of May to go see our 3rd part, Ashley. I can't wait to have the triple A's back together again. Guaranteed good times.

On Saturday morning we drove up to Rexburg to be with my parents. Although I ended up getting a little sick, we had a fantastic time. We had an amazing Easter dinner with my parents and my Aunt & Uncle (and family). We left on Monday morning with our fill of good conversation and plenty of hugs to get us through the next few months until we get to see them again. They will be coming out to Oregon when Andrew arrives. I can't wait to have them here to share that time with us. Our next stop was good 'ol Provo. We went out to eat on Monday with Dan's sisters and their spouses (and little Sam). Dan's sister Allison let us crash on their couches that night and the next morning Dan and our brother-in-law Sean got in some nice spring skiing. Unfortunately they forgot the sunscreen...While they hit the slopes, I spent the day with my HS friends Stephanie and Spencer. We hung out around BYU, got a J-Dawg, and baked in the sun at a BYU vs. Oregon State baseball game. I couldn't help but root for Oregon. Dan has done an incredible job brainwashing me to love everything Oregon.

The sun was a little too bright for a great picture...By the end of the day with Spencer he began referring to me as "liberal Annie". No doubt living in Oregon has influenced my viewpoint on plenty of issues. But boy oh boy, if he thinks I'm liberal, he should get out of Utah for a while. Gotta love that kid. After a nice Korean meal and another great chat with my sister CarolLynn, we headed back up to Layton. That night, we stayed up late talking with my sister Laurel and her hubby discussing all the little nuances of the lifestyle and people in AZ and UT. There are a lot of things that stand out when you come back after being away for a while. So interesting.

Wednesday was a nice, relaxing day before we got on our plane to head back home. We ended the trip by joining Laurel and her family at Red Robin for the twin's bday celebration. Happy 8th bday Kimball & Cole!

One thing I love about taking trips like this is that it gives Dan & I plenty of time to talk. We were in the car quite a bit and were able to share lots of thoughts and ideas with each other. We usually travel with a good book which tends to influence those thoughts and ideas. Dan is reading "Blink" and I am reading "Wild Swans". I'm grateful that we can connect on that level. Another reason to love that man.

Now that's a happy doctor!

Congratulations to Nate (Dan's brother) and family for getting into their #1 choice residency program!! He's going to Salt Lake City to do a residency in family medicine. A few days before we left for Utah we found out they did actually match with a program (big relief) so, Dan & I went over with an ice cream cake to celebrate. (FYI: The "3" is for the 3 year residency)
We'll miss them as our next door neighbors but we're excited for them to have Cafe' Rio at their fingertips...jealous.
Hooray for residency! Can you feel the excitment? Dan felt it...... alright Dan!

Baby bump!

WHO WANTS TO SEE THE BABY BUMP????!!!

This was taken about 2 weeks ago and can you believe it, it's even BIGGER now! Crazy how that happens. My favorite part is feeling that little boy kickin' around inside of me. I LOVE IT! The more he moves around the more excited I get about meeting this little guy. I'm at 20 1/2 weeks now, HALF WAY, WHAA HOOO!!
Oh what, you want to see some more incredibly flattering views... OKAY! How about from below...

AND from above...

I'm feeling great and enjoying getting nice and round. Oh what fun!

Beehive/Miamaid Sleepover

A couple weeks ago we had a sleepover at my house for the 12-16 year old girls from our church youth group. You will never meet a group a girls with more personality. I love it! They came over at 7:30pm, we played some games, and made cinnamon rolls.
By 10:30pm they started in on a game of twister. I wasn't about to get my pregnant self in on the action so I got comfortable on the couch right next to them. Next thing I know, I wake up, the house is silent, and the lights are off. I look up at the clock and it's 3:45am! Thankfully there were 2 other adult leaders at the sleepover who took control the rest of the night. Apparently they all practiced a skit for a talent show coming up, played more games, and was as loud as could be up until about 2am. Yup, don't remember a thing. I slept like a baby in the midst of it all. I was a little sad I missed out on so much of the fun but... oh well. I guess I should be glad I didn't wake up with toothpaste on my face and my hand in hot water. What good girls!

The next morning we all played in a Stake Women's basketball tournament. It was a blast! We had a few adult leaders and several of the young women on our team. Out of the 8 or so of us playing, I was the ONLY one who had ever played basketball! I was SO impressed that these girls were willing to give it a try. We had about 15 minutes before the game where I explained the basic rules of the game. I explained "traveling", "double dribble", and "defense". Then we just got out there and did it. The whole time I was shouting out where everyone should be and what they should be doing. By half-time, you could hardly get any of the girls to sit out. They were having too much fun. We ended up getting beat by 15-20 points but you would have thought we won by our reaction. Everyone was smiling and giving each other high-fives.

By the 2nd game these girls looked like they'd been playing for years (well, almost). They were way more comfortable with where they should be and what they should be doing. I didn't have to be shouting out directions nearly as much. They were making shots and being aggressive. I wanted to cry, it was so beautiful! We ended up winning that game by 15 points!

I was out of town the next Saturday worth of games but soon after the games ended, I got several texts from the girls telling me they lost bad but had a great time. I'm so proud! Nothing is better than working with the youth!

I want you to meet Andrew!

We're having a BOY and his name is Andrew! While we were in Utah last week we went to one of those ultrasound places in a strip mall (of course Utah would have one of these). I was 19 weeks and we didn't have an ultrasound scheduled with my doctor for another 3 weeks. Knowing that we could find out the sex of our child as of a couple weeks ago, we went ahead and paid to find out. We are thrilled!! We had two names going into the ultrasound - Jane for a girl, and Andrew for a boy. Andrew is Dan's middle name, his dad's middle name, and his grandfather's name. We love the name and love the family connection.

It's was amazing. With that small bit of information, I instantly was able to start picturing the next several years of life with our little boy.

On Easter Sunday morning, Dan and I were sitting in bed talking. I could feel Andrew kicking me and put my hand to my stomach to see if it was hard enough to feel on the outside. IT WAS! I grabbed Dan's hand and had him feel. It only took a minute for Andrew to kick hard enough for Dan to feel. Dan LOVED it. He was SO excited! I was pretty excited too to have Dan be more a part of what's happening inside of me. I can't wait to meet this little guy.

Peyton's Home!!!

Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers. Our little neice, Peyton, is home now. It was a long ordeal and I'm sure her family will still be feeling the effects of it for a while but thankfully she is healthy and the family is together again.
Dan & I have been out of town for the last week visiting family. Updates will be coming soon!

Update

For those of you wondering about little Peyton: She's doing a little better. She's still on the respirator and still has a lot of junk in the lungs. Right now it's just a waiting game. She needs to clear out her lungs before she can start breathing on her own. The update today is that they are going to adjust a few of her settings to try and get her to work a little harder at getting those lungs cleared out. Hopefully I'll have more to report soon.

Prayers Welcome

We've had a traumatic week here with our family. Our new little niece Payton (born on Valentine's day) is in the ICU at the children's hospital in Portland. She came down with an incredibly severe case of RSV. After taking her into the doctor 2 days in a row they finally emitted her into the hospital in McMinnville. During that time she got progressively worse and by Wednesday night had stopped breathing on her own. There was a highly traumatic code blue which led to her being put on a respirator. Shortly after, she was taken by ambulance up to the children's hospital in Portland. Not too many things were going right through Thursday and by early Friday morning her mom, Amy, had to be taken to the ER due to stress and anxiety. She was put on some anti-anxiety medication to help her sleep a little. Needless to say, it has been a highly traumatic experience for them.

Early Friday morning we got a call and went over to take care of their other 4 kids while the grandparents went up to support Brian and Amy. On Friday evening, Dan & I took the kids up to the hospital. We stayed with the kids at a hotel close to the hospital for the whole weekend.

As of today, Payton is taking some breaths on her own but is still on a respirator. She is making slow progress but is going in the right direction. She hasn't exactly "turned the corner" yet but the doctors and nurses sound more optimistic. We were told today that she will probably be in the ICU for the next 1-2 weeks. Once they feel like she's stable enough they'll move her up to another floor here at the hospital for another few weeks of monitoring.
Any prayers are VERY welcome. We adore this little girl and hope that she can continue to make good progress.