Nov 2010

The ward clerk called me at the beginning of November to see if the Bishopric could come visit with us. Sure, no problem. Then I told Ryan, and he asked me if I was nervous. No, why should I be nervous? The whole Bishopric is coming. They don't usually ALL come to extend a call. I'm sure they are just coming to visit with us and get to know us better.

So I wasn't nervous at all. Then they starting talking about Young Women's, and asked me if I would be the 2nd Counselor in the Presidency. I actually just laughed first, because I really hadn't thought I was getting a calling. Then I told them, Of course I would!

We were set apart on November 21. Heidi DeGraffenried is the President, Lynnette Bowman is the 1st Counselor, I'm the 2nd, and Rachael West is the Secretary. We also had our Primary program on November 21. I played piano for the last time as the Primary pianist. I really liked being the pianist, but I was ready for a change, as well. All in all, it was an exciting and busy Sunday.

In the middle of November, Elayna got stung by a wasp on her hand. The next day, it was very swollen. I called Mike, and he suggested some medicine I could give her. Later that day (Saturday), I took her to the doctor because the medicine we gave her wasn't reducing the swelling. The doctor gave her an antibiotic, but I think it was mostly because he wanted to make me feel better. I am going to have to be really careful about watching her wasp bites from now on.

On November 18, the girls finally convinced me to let them play in the leaves outside. This is them sitting in the leaves:


A closeup of Katie smiling and raking:


Katie raking leaves while Elayna tries to jump in the pile:


A closeup of Elayna:


Both girls standing in leaves:


Katie jumping in leaves: (I love how her hair looks in this pic)


I felt the baby move on Nov 20, 2010 for the first time. I love feeling babies move inside me.

We went to Arizona from Nov 8-14. I am putting that in a separate post.

We had a very enjoyable Thanksgiving dinner at John and Emma Coronado's house. Then we went to my parent's house for another dinner. We actually brought Matthew with us to my parent's house because Jerry and Irma went to New York to be with Jonathan and his family.

The day after Thanksgiving (Nov 26), we all went to Del Taco for dinner. It is a fast food taco/hamburger place in Springville. Ryan absolutely loves their tacos. Anyways, we were just about done eating, so Ryan left to go to WM to get some milk and look at toys. Katie and Elayna were having fun playing in the play area. Katie came back and got a drink or something. She was kneeling on the bench, when suddenly she was on the floor, crying. I guess she slipped. I thought she was over reacting, because she was screaming a lot. I pulled her up on the bench by me, and was rubbing her back, trying to soothe her. That's when I felt the wet on her back. I thought there must have been some spilled drink on the floor or something. But when I looked at my hand, it was covered in blood. It actually took me a second to realize that's what it was.

I immediately called Ryan and told him to come back because Katie was bleeding. I didn't know what to do. A lady came in just then to get a high chair, and she told me to put pressure on it. So I wadded up some napkins and held them on her head. Ryan came, and we quickly cleaned up our area. Another lady came and gave us a cup of ice and told us to hold the ice on her head too. The first lady came back with a manager (a kid about 18 years old). The manager asked what had happened, and when I told him, his response, although not verbatim, was basically, "Oh good, it wasn't our fault. Bye". Oh well, I don't know what he would have done to help anyways.

Ryan and I debated whether we should take her to the Emergency room, or if she actually needed to see a doctor, or if we should just take her home. The lady that brought us ice had told us that she was a nurse, (I think) and that we needed to take her to a doctor, so we decided to do that. The high chair lady had told us that there was an InstaCare just down the road, but we knew it was IHC, and they weren't covered under our insurance.

Ryan called Spanish Fork clinic (where we normally go for check-ups and such) and they were still open. We rushed over there, and got there at about 7:00 pm. We took her upstairs to the pediatrician that was on call. The nurse had us put her on a table, and Katie started to cry. Then, while Ryan and the nurse tried to pull the hair off the wound, it started bleeding again, and she started crying more. By the time the doctor got there, she was throwing a fit. The nurse held her head, Ryan held her legs, and I held her arms. She was screaming at the top of her lungs. I haven't ever heard her scream and throw a fit like that. The doctor was numbing the area, and the syringe was about 2-3 inches long, full of fluid. So it took forever. At one point, I had to stop myself from laughing because she was so upset. It just seemed funny to me that she could throw such a humongous fit. Another time, I looked over at Elayna, and noticed her slowly backing away from the table. I told her it would be okay, and I'd hold her in a minute.

When the area was finally numb, we let go of Katie, and she didn't cry anymore. Of course, it was numb, so it didn't hurt either. But I'm pretty sure she was screaming so much just because she wanted to. Then the doctor put 4 staples in her head while I held Katie's hand, and Elayna on my lap. They tried to kinda clean her head off, but she has so much hair, it was pretty impossible.

We finally left the clinic and headed home. We took this picture while Katie was watching a movie. (Friday night is movie night at our house) Her shirt was covered in blood. The bit you can see at the top was just a small part of it. Plus, my pants and shirt had blood on them. And we soaked through about 4-5 inches of napkins at the restaurant within a couple of minutes. A very interesting night.



During the month of November, our heater would run fine for a cycle, then it would just blow air until we turned it off. Then, after it had been off for a while, we could turn in on again, and it would do it all over again. We called Paul Terry, a reliable guy from Santaquin, to come look at it. He said we needed to replace the igniter switch, which would cost about $120. So he replaced it, and it worked for a day or two. Then it started doing the same thing, but not as predictably. We called him back, and mentioned that we wondered if it was the circuit board, or gas valve, thanks to Jerry's recommendation. Paul said that he had actually taken out a furnace just like ours 2 days before. He brought the gas valve and the circuit board, and replaced them both for free, since he didn't have to pay for the parts. Paul Terry is a great guy, and I would recommend him to anyone in the Utah Valley for heating and air conditioning stuff.

On November 28, Katie and Elayna wanted to go out and play in the snow. There wasn't much on the ground, but they had lots of fun. I found out that the boots that I thought would fit Katie were too small, and the the boots for Elayna were too big. Also, the coats didn't fit at well as I had thought they did. I bought them both new boots, Elayna some snow pants, and found Katie a coat that fit better (Thanks John and Emma!!) after this outing.

Katie walking around with a stick:


Elayna posing:


Elayna eating snow:

Trip to Arizona

We left on November 8, 2010 at about 1:30 pm. Katie wanted to go to school that morning, so we packed while she was at school. Then she came home, we ate, and headed out. Dad was generous and let us borrow his car, since it has more leg room, trunk room, and is in better shape than our green Camry. I think we actually "started" on our trip around 2:30, just because we kept forgetting things, and had to drop some stuff off at people's houses, etc.

We discovered that the ipod and tape adapter we brought along with us wouldn't work in Dad's tape player, so we almost turned around and brought some CD's. But Ryan had put about 6 CD's in the car, just for fun, so we decided we could listen to them. Ryan has a hard time driving if he doesn't have music on.

We stopped in Cedar City to have some dinner at Taco Bell, then went on to Las Vegas. We probably stopped more than that, but I don't remember. We turned on the portable DVD players (Dennis and Naomi let us borrow theirs) when it started getting dark. It really helped the girls (and us, of course. They are sucked into any movie, so it was nice to just let them relax).

When we got to Vegas, we met some of Ryan's family at a restaurant called "Macayo". You'd think these Mexicans would get tired of Mexican food, but that's what we always eat with his family. :)
Blanca, Chad, Bree, and Kensley Farrow. Len, Virginia, Cami, and Jacob Coronado. Ali, Denora, Kelsey, Taylor, and Jasmine Babbitt. These families joined us for dinner. It was a fun night. Len's family was sick, so I'm grateful they came to see us, even though they didn't feel well. We enjoyed visiting with them all, but it was time to go to the hotel and sleep. We were pretty tired.

We stayed at Palace Station. They upgraded us to a better room because we were only staying one night, and it was nice. Huge flat TV, large marble topped desk and dresser, clean, and well taken care of. I wish we could have stayed longer, but we left after breakfast in the morning.

We supposedly drove over the "new Hoover Bridge", but we couldn't even tell we were on a bridge except for the signs that said, "No stopping on bridge". We didn't see the Dam at all. That was disappointing.

The rest of the way to Arizona wasn't very eventful. I think we stopped at a store to look for toys at one point, and a sandwich in Mesa, Arizona, but that's all I remembered.

We got to Mike and Kristine's house at about midnight on Tuesday night, I think. Katie and Elayna were so tired. When I looked back at them, their eyes looked like they would close any second, but they managed to watch the movie until we got to the house. I picked Elayna up and brought her into the house, and I know she fell asleep in the 15 seconds it took me to get her in. They were so tired!! We all slept pretty well that night.

On Wednesday, Kylie went to school, and Katie went to Preschool with Zach. Katie had lots of fun with Zach's Preschool. They were working on the same letter Katie's preschool in Utah was working on, so it worked well. It was also nice to have Katie and Zach play together. Katie usually plays with Kylie, but Zach and Katie played really well together.

We went to the temple and the park one day. Here are some pictures from that. We didn't take one picture. We are awful about that. Thank goodness Kristine took some.

Temple with kids:


Closeup of Katie, Elayna, Kylie, and Zach at the temple:


Playing at the playground:

The weather was cool, so Ryan was happy, but the rest of us wore jackets most of the time.

We rode bikes to the cemetery that is near their house. Katie rode Zach's old bike, and we put Elayna and Blake in the double stroller. It was a fun walk/ride. Cement borders divide spaces into lots, and then there were gravel roads in between. I don't think that describes it well, but I'm not sure how else to explain it. The cemetery was very Catholic-themed. Lots of Virgin Mary statues, and stuff like that. I've never seen a cemetery like that, without grass. Some lots had gates, and bricked half-walls around them. Others were different colored rocks, and a headstone. Lots of variety.

Another day (I can't remember if it was Wed, Thurs, or Fri) we went to Discovery Park that is near their house. I guess they normally walk, but because it was cool, and the back gate to the Park wasn't open, we just drove.

The Park has some space-related displays that we were looking at:

They also had a really neat shuttle ride that we all got to ride on. You climb into this small "shuttle" and they shut the door. Then the thing moves around to the movie that plays. Kind of like Star Tours at Disneyland? It starts with us blasting off from Arizona, going into space, and visiting each planet in our Solar System. Katie remembers almost crashing into the sun. I actually don't remember most of what was said because I get motion sickness sometimes, and I was really fighting being sick. But the ride was a big hit with the kids especially.

Then outside, they have this huge tire that has cement in the bottom, so kids can stand in it. Katie wrote a story --about the tire and the kids that got to play in it--after we got home. I guess this is a tire from the mining tractors nearby:


We wandered around some more outside, and found a door that was unlocked, so we went in and looked around. It looked like they were planning a new display area, or a local school was keeping it's projects there or something. It had old pottery and jewelry that looked neat. Then we started thinking maybe we really weren't supposed to be in there, so we left.

There used to be a train that drove around the campus of the Park, but it isn't in use now. This is the Platform to get on the train. You can see the engine and part of the train to the left of the picture.


Thursday night we grilled kabobs on the grill, then roasted marshmallows and Starbursts.
Roasting "mushmellows" (as my girls call them)


Kylie was sick Friday morning so we just hung around the house. While Elayna and Blake were down for naps, Mike and Kristine got out this cool wooden track thing. You make neat tracks for marbles to go on. Plus they had a music add-on for it, so the marbles would hit pieces of metal and make notes as it went down the track. After we (Mike and Ryan did most of it, while Katie and Zach "helped") played with it a bit, Mike went and laid down by Kylie on the couch, Kristine was on the phone, the kids must have been playing somewhere, and Ryan and I were on the other couch. I guess Kristine came out and Ryan, Me, Mike, and Kylie were all asleep. It was a nice impromptu nap.

Friday night we designated as movie night. We ordered Dominos pizza and watched "How to Train Your Dragon". The kids ate on a blanket in front of the TV, and the adults sat on the couch. It was a fun night.

Saturday morning we got all of our stuff together and headed out, after saying goodbyes:

Zach giving Elayna a big goodbye:

We stopped in Vegas again on the way back. We meant to meet up with relatives again, but it didn't work out. We got a room at Arizona Charlie's, so we decided that we would eat at their buffet. Not a good idea. It was very pricey, and didn't have a good selection or quality of food. The room was also more expensive than Palace Station (mostly because we stayed at Arizona Charlie's on the weekend), but not nearly as nice.
Ryan went Saturday night and bought some yogurt and breakfast stuff for us to eat in the morning. Then Sunday,we went to The Fiesta for a Breakfast Buffet with Ali, Denora, and Jasmine. The food was pretty good, and we really enjoyed talking with Ali and his family. When we woke up that morning, we had thought we might go back and see the Hoover Dam. But by the time we packed, and finished eating and talking, it seemed really late, and we wanted to just go home.

We got to our house at around 8 pm November 14 and went straight to sleep. We had such a wonderful time, and really appreciate everyone. My parents for letting us use their car; Dennis and Naomi for the DVD players; Mike, Kristine and their family for letting us stay with them, and eat their food; the Vegas families for taking time to eat and visit with us; etc.
Thank you!!!

Oct 2010

On September 30, Elayna went to the Primary Children's Hospital in Riverton. At first, I thought I would just go alone so Ryan wouldn't miss work. But the more I thought about it, the more I didn't like that idea. So Ryan came with us.
The staff did a renal ultrasound and a VCUG on her. The ultrasound was pretty simple. Just like the ultrasounds I get when I am pregnant. They looked at her kidneys to see if there was any scarring or physical indications that things weren't connected correctly. The doctor said that everything looked fine; her kidneys looked strong and healthy. He mentioned that there were some floaties in her bladder-that might be an indication of a Uninary Tract Infection.

Then, we took her into another room for the VCUG. They had us undress her and put her in a hospital gown. There was a lady there that was supposed to help distract Elayna from the procedure. I was thinking I would be able to be right by Elayna, but because they use radiation to look at her bladder and stuff, they wouldn't let me be in the room. The procedure is as follows: they put a catheter in, fill her bladder with fluid until it is so full that she has to let it out. They do that twice. I got to be there when they put the catheter in, and it was awful. I hated seeing her in pain. But it was so much worse to have to sit behind a wall and listen to her scream for her mother. And I couldn't go comfort her. I'm so so grateful Ryan came. If Elayna didn't at least have her father there, it would have completely broken my heart. I just sat there and cried. the doctor tried to come talk to me, but I don't really know what he said.

Thankfully, Elayna recovers very quickly. Before we left the hospital, she was happy and running around. We took her out for a shake, then went home and rested. I called the pediatrician, and he said that there weren't any problems. He wanted us to come in the next day to test her for the UTI. I'm so grateful there wasn't anything wrong with Elayna.

The next day, when we went in to check her urine, she wouldn't go in the cup. We were at the clinic for about an hour, and she just wouldn't go. In the cup. She urinated on the floor, and on my shirt, but not in the cup. The doctor suggested we could do a catheter, but I absolutely refused to put her through that again. As we left (I was in tears by that point) the doctor was telling me something about the antibiotic, but once again, I didn't really hear what he said.

Dr Keller called that night and explained that he wanted to test the urine to make sure he prescribed the correct antibiotic for the infection. But since we couldn't test the urine, he just prescribed the same antibiotic as last time. I'm so glad he called back and followed up on what happened. I was pretty upset at him when we were at the clinic. It seemed pretty obvious to me that she had an infection (bad smelling urine, floaties on ultrasound in bladder) and I couldn't understand why he wanted us to go through this ordeal. Now I understand, and appreciate his thoroughness.

We went to Naomi's house so the girls could play with their cousins. I sat on Naomi's couch, and proceeded to completely fall apart. I was so frustrated with the whole thing: Elayna not going, being embarrassed about being the only people in the clinic for ever, having the nurses and doctor ask me every couple of minutes if she had gone yet. Not to mention all the emotional stuff I went through at the hospital the day before.
Thankfully, Naomi was very understanding and compassionate. She helped me feel better, and suggested writing 5 things I am grateful for each day. I felt much better by the time I left. Thank goodness for good friends and family.

Ryan and I started singing in Community Choir. It is combined with the Santaquin Stakes this year. We are doing a program called "He is Jesus Christ" by Rob Gardner. Ryan and I both have solos too. I think it will be a good experience for us. The Bowman's are willing to watch the girls each Sunday night so we can both go. I'm so grateful for the help they give us.

October 23 was my parent's Halloween party. We all had so much fun. Mom and Dad set up an obstacle course downstairs, had a cake walk, and a fish pond. The kids enjoy it so much. The adults do too, of course.

I was reading through my "Tender Mercies from God". Almost everyday I was at my parent's house, it seems like. My parent's are so great to let me stay there whenever I need to. They always welcome me, and feed me, and take care of me. They are wonderful.
I wasn't sick at all with my first 2 babies, but with this baby, I feel nauseous so much. I don't feel like eating anything, or doing anything. Ryan is so supportive. He helps so much, and doesn't complain that the house isn't clean, or we don't have anything to eat.

I am so blessed with wonderful, supportive, and loving family members. I know I wouldn't be able to be who I am or accomplish anything I do without my parents, Ryan's parents, my siblings (and their spouses) and especially, Ryan. I love them all so much. Thank you!!

Ryan turned 32 this year. It is amazing that I can love him more each day. He is so wonderful. The day after his birthday, I went to my OB for the first time. With Katie and Elayna's pregnancies, I just went to my family doctor, Dr Lytle. I really like him, but he isn't doing pregnancies anymore, so I had to find an OB. Dr Crouch seems really nice. He actually let me look at an ultrasound of the baby. I was only about 8 weeks along, I think. We actually saw the baby's heartbeat!! How amazing. I'll be able to hear the heartbeat next month.

We spent Halloween night with the Bowman's. We ate dinner, then went bowling. The girls had lots of fun. At the bowling alley, there was a kid there with a scary mask on. Poor Elayna. She walked in between these kids, and was fine, but then she looked up and saw the mask. She just covered her eyes, whimpered, and tried to walk away without looking at anything. Thankfully, that is when I saw her, so I grabbed her and held her.

Elayna and Katie dressed up for Halloween: Elayna is a caterpillar. Katie is a dragon. (although she kept calling it a dinosaur)

My happy Elayna:



My imaginative Katie:

Pregnant again!

We found out on September 2 that we are pregnant with our 3rd child. We are so excited!! The baby is due May 9, 2011. I'm so excited to meet this new person that will be joining our family.

Sept 2010

My first Library Board meeting was canceled because I didn't post the agenda in enough time. The reason I didn't was because I was waiting for an approval from the Librarian and City Manager. I learned later, that I actually don't need their approval. Oh well. Live and Learn.

I started carpooling with Jeannette DeGraffenried and Stephanie Huff. We each take a week (Tuesday and Thursday) and drive. The kids are kinda smushed in my back seat, but we are just driving a couple of blocks on small streets to get there. We rarely even see more than 2 cars on the way there. But putting 2 kids in one seat belt isn't very easy. Someday I'll get a van, and it will be a lot easier.

Katie is really enjoying school. She likes learning, and meeting new people. She loves that she gets to check out books from the school library.

Katie and Elayna both went to the dentist on Sept 3. They both did great and didn't have any cavities. They both let the hygienist check their teeth, and didn't cry or anything. It was made possible because there is a TV above them, and they are both enraptured by any sort of media.

On Sept 4 we were very productive. Ryan washed both cars, cleaned the vacuum filter, and washed the welcome mats from the front and garage doors. I vacuumed both cars (Ryan's hasn't been vacuumed in about 3 years, I think), and swept the garage. The girls seemed to enjoy just being outside and working with us.

Katie was talking about a school bus that we passed in Payson. She was trying to convince me it was the same one that goes to Santaquin. I told her that all the kids go to school, and some ride buses, and some don't. She said, "Mom, all the kids go to school. Except one. Me. I go to PREschool."
Then after I started laughing about it, I told her she was cute. She said, "I know I'm cute Mom, you don't have to tell me EVERYDAY!"

We took Ryan to the doctor to be tested for sleep apnea and to test his thyroid. Some of the reasons were: he has weird spots on hands, his hair has been thinning for a while, he is always tired, plus his brother was diagnosed with a hyper (over reacting) thyroid. His maternal grandmother and mother's sister also have problems with their thyroids. We will find out the results in a couple of weeks.

We had Stake and Region Conference on Sept 11 and 12. Ryan and I sang in an double quartet. The talks were all very inspiring. The babysitter took the girls outside, and didn't realize that the handle will turn, even if it is locked. So they all got locked out Sat night. Elayna had underwear on, they didn't have shoes on, and the babysitter isn't old enough to drive. The phone was, of course, inside on the counter, so they had to go to a neighbor and ask to use the phone. Then, the babysitter's brother had to come pick them up. And since Elayna had underwear on, she got wet pretty fast. And they didn't have any diapers. The babysitter was resourceful though, and was putting feminine hygiene pads in Elayna's underwear. Poor babysitter. I'm amazed she is willing to watch my girls again.

Ryan and I went to the Covey Center for the Arts in Provo to see Agatha Christie's "The MouseTrap" on Sept 15. We were a little hesitant to go, but we had the tickets and decided we might as well go. We were very pleasantly surprised. It was very well done and of course, a really good story. Ryan and I both really enjoy reading Agatha Christie's novels.

Elayna went for her 2 year well check up on Sept 16. The doctor said she weighs less than she did 6 months ago, so he is concerned. Plus she gets fevers for a day or two, with no other symptoms, and she had an Urinary Tract Infection in June. He wants her to be tested to make sure she isn't getting infections. If she is, that would explain the fevers, plus she eats well, so that energy could be fighting infections instead of putting on weight. He wants her tested at Primary Children's hospital in SLC. That makes me nervous, because it sounds like such a big deal. We made the appointment for the end of September.

On September 24 and 25 I went to the Relief Society Retreat at Camp Koholowo. Ryan helped so much. He cleaned the kitchen, cleaned up a diaper cream mess that Elayna had smeared all over, and picked up donated canned food for his calling in the Elder's Quorum. Then, when I came home, he let me sleep, (because I had stayed up late talking to the other sisters at the retreat) then let me go to the Relief Society General Broadcast that night. When I got home, I talked to Naomi till I was too tired to talk any more. Then I fell asleep. Ryan is so wonderful. He is so supportive and loving. I'm so grateful he let me go this weekend. I really needed the time to make new friends, have fun, and recharge my spirituality.

Katie bore her testimony on Sept 26. Some of the things she said were, "I know we are Jesus' sheep. I know we love Jesus." It was so pure and sweet. I tried to bear my testimony afterward, but I was so touched by her testimony that I couldn't talk very well.

In Primary they have tongue depressors with the children's names on them. (so the children will be chosen for tasks fairly) The chorister (my cousin's wife) pulled out a stick and called "Kathryn Bowman? Who's that?" Katie stood up and yelled "That's me!!"

My cousin Jeff DeGraffenried was giving his homecoming address in Sacrament meeting. I knew my nieces and nephews would be there, so I said to Katie, "I don't think you can sit by your cousins in church. You will play with them. "
Katie-(said in a calm, emphatic tone of voice) Of course not! I have learned my lessons and my manners from my teachers in my classes. I will be calm, and listen to the speakers.

I love this picture of Katie and Ryan. It is so typical. The girls love to snuggle with, tickle, and play with their Dad. They love him so much, and he loves them so much. It just makes me happy and warm inside to have my family around me.