Christmas in Utah Part 2

On Saturday Morning (Christmas Eve)  We got up early and headed up to Salt Lake.  Cindy and AJ are currently living with AJ's sister Addie while they save for a house, and she offered for us to stay there for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  Shortly after arriving, Cindy and I decided to go to the grocery store and Target to pick up some last minute gifts and ingredients for meals for that evening and for breakfast the next morning.  We left the kids with Brandon and AJ and headed on our way.  Our first stop was Smiths to get groceries.  We started loading our cart with lots of groceries and goodies, when it became apparent to  Cindy that something didn't feel right with her.  She goes into greater detail on her blog which you can read HERE.

When she realized that her condition, placenta previa, had taken a dangerous turn, we left our cart full of our groceries in the middle of the store and quickly exited, not quite sure what to do.  Those next few minutes felt like hours, and I will never forget how scared I felt.  I did not stop praying for the next hour straight.  We got a hold of AJ, and Addie drove him to meet us at Smith's.  I remember standing outside of the car anxiously waiting to see their car, wondering what could possibly be taking so long, checking on Cindy, and feeling completely terrified.  They finally arrived and I will never forget the look on AJ's face as he rushed to Cindy's side.  I jumped in the car with Addie and we decided to head to the hospital to meet them.  Right before AJ had gotten there, Cindy said "I can't feel her moving"  I could not get those words out of my head as we drove to the hospital.  It felt like it took us an eternity to get there.  AJ and Cindy took a different  way, and I just kept thinking that we should have called an ambulance, and that if anything happened to Cindy or the baby I would never forgive myself for not insisting that we do.  We finally arrived and I was relieved to see Cindy and AJ's car there, and that they hadn't had the same traffic problems that we had.  (AJ later told me that he had to be driving close to 100 mph) We had to wait in the lobby for a few minutes but when AJ's parents arrived we headed back to labor and delivery.  I was certain she was having an emergency c-section, since that is what her doctor told her throughout her pregnancy would happen if this situation arose. Walking down the hall, my heart was pounding and we soon saw AJ  walking towards us.  His eyes were red, and the first thing he said was she's OK, and the baby is OK.  That was music to my ears.  It turns out that they had gotten her stabilized and determined that the baby was OK, and they were monitoring her and the baby and holding off on the c- section for now.  A few minutes later they let us go in to see her. It was determined that she would need to stay in the hospital at least overnight.  So that meant she would be spending Christmas in the hospital.  Not exactly what we had planned for, but at least she was OK, and so was the baby. 

 What an emotionally draining afternoon!  But it was still Christmas Eve and I had kids back at the house so excited about all of the things that we had planned to do that day. I visited with Cindy for about an hour, and then AJ drove me back to Addie's house.  I still felt so emotional about all the past few hours events, but I was determined to still make it a good Christmas still.  Since we had left all of our groceries in the middle of Smith's, I headed off to another grocery store (I don't think I can bring myself to go to Smiths again)  to pick up some things that we needed.  At Smiths we had found some cute cookie decorating kits, and I was sure that this other grocery store would too.  Well, I was so disappointed to see that they were sold out of everything.  I decided to ask the lady behind the bakery counter if they happened to have any left anywhere in the store.  She said they didn't.  She must have sensed my disappointment, because as I was walking away she called to me, saying that they did have some sugar cookies behind the counter that they were giving out for free samples that she would sell to me.  I was so thrilled.  We originally had planned to bake sugar cookies, but with all of the days events we just didn't have time so this was perfect.  When I got back to the house, the kids were bouncing off the walls, so excited that it was Christmas Eve and that Santa was coming soon. Tori and Levi were very concerned about putting our stockings up, so we dug through our stuff that we had brought and found them.  They had to be creative in order to fit them on the  fireplace =)

 After that, I decided that I better start wrapping a few presents, so I wouldn't have so many to wrap that night.  Cindy and I had both not wrapped anything because we planned on doing it all together that night =(

I thought I would wait until after dinner to have the kids decorate the sugar cookies, but decided to get them out then and do it.  The kids were so excited to decorate some cookies for Santa.


Right when I snapped this picture, Lyla snuck a bite of one of the cookies =)



 Everyone each frosted a couple, and then I let them each eat one.  Right when we were finishing that up, Addie called down from upstairs saying that she had just finished making a batch of homemade chocolate chip cookies, and asked if we wanted some.  Even though the kids were all sugared up from the sugar cookies, I thought, what the heck, it's Christmas Eve!  So we headed up to get a little more sugar in our systems =)

We had planned on cooking a big Christmas Eve dinner, but decided with everything going on that we would go out to dinner instead.  We headed to Macaroni Grill and had a yummy dinner there.

I had to add this picture in! LOL  I am sure Lyla will love this picture when she is older =)

After dinner, AJ took Lyla to see Cindy at the hospital and we headed back to Addie's house. We told the kids, that since we were staying with someone else for Christmas, that we got to participate in some of their fun traditions.  One of which is that Santa's Elves deliver new pajamas  on Christmas Eve.  They were so excited to come home and find brand new jammies waiting for them!

 Brandon didn't want in on the picture, but he had some skeleton pajamas that matched Levi's =)

 Every year we get a new Christmas book to open on Christmas Eve.  We have got quite the collection going, and the kids always are so excited to see what book we will be adding to our collection each year. 

 This year it was a cute book called "Snow Angels"

 About this time, AJ and Lyla got back, and our kids were so excited to show Lyla the pajamas that the elves had left for her.

 The kids all gathered around while I read them our new book.

Such a sweet picture =)

AJ did a great job of taking care of Lyla while Cindy was in the hospital and making things as normal for her as possible =)

 After a long eventful day it was finally time for bed.  Christmas Eve is probably one of the only nights where I don't have to fight the kids to go to bed.  They know that the sooner they go to sleep, the sooner Santa comes!  We set up the kids sleeping bags in Lyla's room.  We thought Lyla would just sleep in her bed, but she immediately snuggled in next to Alexis on the floor =)

 Daddy tried to get away with sleeping in there with them too! =)

Lyla had a bit of a hard time falling asleep, so AJ layed in there for a while, and eventually brought her into his bed to try and get her to sleep.  He started feeling really sick  (he thinks from a corn dog he ate earlier, but I suspect the events from the day were catching up with him)  He left the room for a minute, and he said that he heard Lyla calling loudly, "Lexi!"  Alexis, went in there and crawled in bed with her, and a minute later he heard Lyla calling out, "Tori!"  So Tori went in there and crawled in there with her too.  When AJ came back into the room they were all snuggled together sleeping soundly =)

Then the wrapping marathon began.  It was definitely not what we had planned and I missed my sister being there so badly!  I was so glad that she was in the hospital getting the care she needed, but it was so hard to not have her there.  I know Brandon missed having her there too, because that meant he had to wrap the presents he had gotten me by himself.  He was totally planning on having Cindy wrap them like she did last year.  He tried to talk me into wrapping them, but I didn't let him get away with that =)

It was a different kind of Christmas Eve, but we made the best with the situation at hand.  I was so worried that my kids would feel the stress of the situation and not have as fun of a Christmas, but that night Tori turned to me and said, "This is the best Christmas ever!  Sometimes I forget that it's the simple things that make kids happy. We may not have had the homemade sugar cookies, or big dinner that we planned. But they didn't even notice.  I need to remember that in the future when I try to over plan and do things extravagantly.  Sometimes the simplest things are "best" =)

Christmas in Utah Part 1

A few months ago, my sister Cindy's husband AJ called and asked if we would consider traveling to Utah for Christmas as a surprise for Cindy.  The reason, was because Cindy had been diagnosed with placenta previa in her pregnancy and due to the severity of it, were told they they were not to travel anywhere.  We thought about it for a bit, and then decided why not?  This was our first Christmas as a family not in Colorado.  It was quite the adventure, and I will break it up into a few different posts. I was determined to take more pictures then I had the past few days.  The original plan was that we would stay in AJ's parent's vacant house that they were selling and that had been on the market for quite some time.  Well, they sold it so that was no longer an option, so Katie and Forrest offered up their home for us to stay in even though they were in Colorado. So the first two days we stayed in their cute little house.  The plus to this was that it was right around the corner from Kristalyn and her family so we got some added play time with them =)  For those few days we found ways to keep ourselves entertained.  Lyla quickly wrapped our kiddos around her little finger, and they had so much fun together.

One night Brandon was showing a funny YouTube video to AJ on his IPad.  They were laughing a lot, and the kids all gathered around to see what was so funny.  Every time that everyone would laugh, Lyla would burst into the most hilarious fit of giggles, that it made everyone laugh even harder.  It was so funny!

  

Lyla could frequently be found snuggled up with Alexis watching "Barney Songs" or "Tangled"  on Alexis Ipod.

 One night, the girls got out glee karaoke and had a blast singing and dancing together =)

                                            

 One afternoon we met up with the Ford's and took the kids to see the new chipmunk movie. It was a cute movie and the kids all loved that.  We loved that Katie and Forrest told us about a giant popcorn bucket that they had purchased that cost only 2.50 to fill.  We all shared it and filled it up twice throughout the movie!  I am all about great deals =)

The last night we were in Provo we all bundled up and went to the Riverwoods outdoor shopping mall to see Santa.  It was quite freezing but we had a good time.  My kids had not yet been to see Santa, so this was a must!  Luckily there were several fire pits all around that we could stop and get warmed up next to.


                                        
 The line didn't seem to long, but we spent about 45 min to an hour in it.  We kept ourselves busy and our minds of the cold by taking lots of pictures.

 I promise I had a warmer coat for Levi, but he was so excited about his new hoodie for Old Navy, that he insisted on wearing it instead =) 

 We were thrilled to finally make it up to the front of the line to see Santa.  Each family quickly visited with Santa and then we we took pictures (the most important part!)

 Levi was so relieved to finally be able to tell Santa what he wanted =)  Tori had already written him a letter, so she wasn't too worried about it.  Alexis wouldn't sit on Santa's lap, but agreed to stand in for a picture =)

 We stopped by some fires along the way out to try and thaw out a little and then called it a night.  We heard that there were supposed to be carriage rides as well, but we didn't  look see any =)

 Cindy, AJ and Lyla decided to head back up to Salt Lake where we would be joining them in the morning.  Kristalyn was so sweet to invite our kids over for a sleepover.  The kids all slept in their sleeping bags in her front room and had a great last night together.

Tori decided to stay home to keep daddy and me company =)  Here she is trying to warm up with some hot chocolate =)

It was fun to be able to stay in Provo for a few days.  We had a great time! 

More Fun Before Christmas

We were lucky this year to get to spend a lot of time with family.  Daniel, Charbel and Benji were here for three weeks, and Katie and Forrest are still here, and have gotten to spend several weeks here as well.  Kristalyn, David and their kids were planning on driving out the day after Christmas, but when David found out that he was scheduled to work during that time, they decided to come out before Christmas instead.  They got to stay at our house, and the kids were so excited.  It was quite a houseful, and I am bummed that I didn't take out my camera to take more pictures!

 I blame it on the fact that I was holding and snuggling with their new sweet baby Makynzie as much as possible =)

Here are a few pictures I managed to take on my phone of her.  It made me so excited about having our own little girl soon! 

 I did get my camera out one night to capture a sweet moment between the cousins .  The kids all slept in the basement.  We have a queen size spare bed down there and we blew up a queen sized air mattress. We put Mason and Carter in the bed, and Alexis, Tori and Levi on the blowup mattress.  They were all so excited so it took quite some time for them to settle down and fall asleep.  When we finally heard silence we went down to check on them.  We found them all comfortably sleeping on the air mattress.  It was so cute! =)

We had a fun few days visiting with them, and managed to fit in a lot of play time and even some shopping!  i have such fond memories of getting together with my cousins while growing up, and am thrilled that my kids are able to make great memories with their cousins as well =)

Bronson Family Christmas Party

Well, Christmas is over and I have so much to post about!  I will start with our Bronson Family Christmas Party.  Since we were traveling to Utah for Christmas, Jana planned our annual party for the week before. We usually have it on Christmas Eve, and were so happy that they agreed to change things up this year for us.  We always have a fun time hanging out, and this year was no different.

These two goofballs, being only 5 months apart are like two peas in a pod.  There's never a dull moment with them =)

The kids were so excited to have our traditional ornament exchange. The day before I took the kids to St. Nick's for them to pick out their ornaments.  This is something they love to do.  They all picked out such cute ones, and were so excited to bring them for our exchange =)

Nana gets the kids each an ornament every year too.  She always spends a lot of time picking out one that goes with each grandchild's personality.

Then the kids each got to open a present from nana and papa. The girls were thrilled to get the zooble mommies that they had been wishing for , and Levi was so excited to get some Star Wars Legos.  Legos are his latest obsession =)

It was a laid back night, but so much fun, we had good food and good company =)  We all watched football, some of us put together a puzzle and we finished the night playing Imaginif. 

Oh, and there was quite a bit of goofing off too =)

It was a great start to the Christmas celebrations!

29 Weeks

I figured it is way past time for a pregnancy update.  In this picture I am 29 weeks and 4 days pregnant. I actually cropped this picture from one that we took when trying to get a family picture for our Christmas card.  Brandon thought my belly needed to be showing in the picture, so he positioned everyone pretty much on one side and then me on the other.  Lets just say, that none of the pictures with that pose made it onto the card. 

I can not believe that I am in my 3rd trimester.  This pregnancy has been a tough one, and at times it has felt like the days were going by so slowly. But to be at this point and to know that I am in the home stretch, makes me feel like it has gone by so fast!

Right now as far as sickness goes, I am feeling really great.  I hardly ever feel nauseous and haven't thrown up in a long time!  That is quite an accomplishment for me! I am still taking the unisom at night to help with the nausea.  I tried not to take it one night, and the next day I felt awful, so I think I will stick with it for now.

I definitely can feel the strain that pregnancy is putting on my body.  I get out of breath very quickly and move much slower then usual!  At nights I have to rotate from my left side to my right side every half hour or so.  I have started to get these annoying pains in my legs at night.  They just feel really sore and uncomfortable, almost like a growing pain and I can't ever seem to find a comfortable position to make them feel better.  With my other pregnancies, I have always gotten really bad charlie horses in my legs.  I am happy to say that I have figured out a way to stop them right as I feel one coming on.  I just flex my foot, and it instantly goes away!

 Another thing that has started to show up is heartburn.  I always get it pretty badly towards the end of my pregnancies, and was hoping that wouldn't happen this time.  Unfortunately it has come back with a vengeance.  I keep a bottle of TUMS right by my bed and as soon as I feel it coming on I pop one right in, and almost every time it immediately goes away.  What would I do without TUMS!

We had a little scare over Thanksgiving weekend.  A few days before Thanksgiving I started to feel a lot of pressure, and I felt like I was having a lot more braxton hicks then usual.  On Friday it was seeming to get worse.  Every time I would walk the pressure would get so bad that it felt like the baby was going to fall right out!  In the late afternoon I decided I would lay down to see if I felt any better.  As I was laying down I started to feel several contractions.  I decided to time them, and after having 7 in one hour we decided I better call my doctor.  The on call doctor said I needed to come in to the hospital right away to make sure I wasn't having pre-term labor.  Alexis was at Tallyn's house, and so we decided to just take Tori and Levi in with us to the hospital.  It felt all too familiar.  When I was 28 weeks with Tori I ended up going into preterm labor, and I was 28 weeks this time too, so I thought for sure the same thing was happening.  When I got there they hooked me up to the machines to monitor the baby.  She was moving all over the place, and that was a relief to see.  I kept having contractions as I was laying there, but they weren't showing up as contractions, just as irritations.  But they were pretty painful, so I was sure the machine wasn't working properly, lol.  They did a test that is supposed to determine if you will go into labor within the next two weeks.  That came back negative, which was also a relief.  But I still had no answers to why I was feeling so much pressure and having contractions.They decided to check for a UTI, and sure enough that's what it was!  I guess the irritation in the bladder causes the uterus to contract, and can also cause the pressure feelings.  I was so glad to know what was wrong, and to know that I wasn't just going crazy.  So they sent me on my way with an antibiotic.  It actually got worse before it got better, but after about 3 days I was finally feeling back to normal (well as normal as you can feel while pregnant!)

So now we are counting down the days until out sweet baby girl arrives.  I feel like once Christmas has past, it will go by a lot faster.  I am so grateful to be feeling good, and that things are going well.  When I don't feel miserable I actually enjoy being pregnant! I love feeling each and every one of her kicks.  They are so reasurring, and they never get old.

I will try to do a few more updates before she arrives.  I am so excited to hold my sweet little baby girl =)

We're having a GIRL!

I  have been so sad that we haven't been able to know for sure what we are having.  For some reason the idea of having another ultrasound is completely foreign to my doctor's office, so I had pretty much given up hope of having another one.  Well my sweet friend Melinda who is due a few weeks after me asked her doctor if they would be willing to do a gender ultrasound for me.  She gets an ultrasound at every appointment  (I should have gone to her doctor!)  The ultrasound said she would!  So this past Monday we were able to go in and have another ultrasound.  I wasn't expecting a 3D ultrasound at all, so when these vivid images of our sweet baby appeared on the screen I was speechless!  Right away it was determined that we are definitely having a GIRL! We are so thrilled.  I was feeling like we were having a girl all along.  This is the first time that my feelings of what I am having have been correct!  It was so fun to see her moving around on the screen.   She was quite active, probably due to the giant glass of orange juice I downed right before =)   Here is a little video of our little cutie:

 Right away, we noticed that she has Alexis's nose =)

 Look at that flexibility!  That is her foot right up by her head =)

 We are so excited to be adding a sweet little girl to our family!  Only 11 more weeks until she is due to make her arrival!

Christmas Cards

I love Christmas Cards!  Well let me rephrase that a little.  I LOVE getting Christmas cards, sending them out isn't so much my favorite, but I do it so that people will send me them!  I was so excited when I heard that Tiny Prints was giving away 50 free Christmas Cards just by blogging about them!  They have so many cute ones to choose from, it is going to be so hard for me to decide!  I love this fold out card:

And I think this one that you can hang is so cute too!

But then there's this cute square one:

See why I may have a hard time deciding?  There are hundreds to choose from. If you want to check out their selection of cards, go here!  After that, if you decide you want some free cards of your own,  click on this link , fill out the form,  and tiny prints will contact you with the details.    I can't pass up something that's free! Good luck if you decide to get some of your own =)