photo tag

my dear friend, darilyn, tagged me with this photo tag, and since i love all things photography, i couldn't pass it up!

 

what you do is go into your pictures folder and take the 4th picture in your fourth folder and post it.  my 4th folder is "2004 Jan. - Apr." and this is my fourth picture in that folder:

 

if you can't tell from the date of the folder, or the picture, this is nani and lala. nani was a few months shy of  3 and lala was 3 or 4 months old. i just love the big eyes on lala! you can see her spunky personality already forming! i love the rosy cheeks on nani! what a sweet girl she has been from the get go! she loved lala from day one and  puts up with a lot from her spunky sister, but never stops loving her and teaching her!

 

i tag my sister and anyone else who wants to take a peek back at their fourth picture folder and take a walk down memory lane!

birtrhday week

we are quickly approaching "birthday week" for our family. the second week of october has always been a pretty busy, but fun week for us in my family growing up.

it all starts on the 6th of october, the most important day of the month, of course, with my birthday! then, it is followed, very closely, by my mom's birthday on the 8th.

next, my two best friends in high school, i know that is not "family" but it is pretty darn close, have their birthday's. sara's is on the 9th and sarah's is on the 11th (yes, my two best friends were both named sara/h).

needless to say, it was a very fun time of the year for all involved!

well, if that wasn't enough birthdays for one week, we had to go and add more to the mix. lala was born in 2003 on october 11th. almost exactly 3 years later, kawena was born on the 13th.

so, on monday (MY BIRTHDAY) we officially begin "birthday week" in our family! and this year, it culminates with kawena's 2nd birthday, monday the 13th, and the day we drive away from oregon, set for the sunnier skiesof albuquerque(good thing she's only turning two and will have no clue that we are skipping her birthday party!). that is if we get everything packed and ready to go!

let the celebrations begin!

the good and the not so good

first of all i want to thank you all for the congratulations and well wishes! i knew i could count on you guys to encourage us through this crazy time!

 

i know many of you were surprised by our little announcement, but those who know me, shouldn't be too surprised. i have a tendency to keep it a secret for as long as i possibly can. i don't know, it just seems to make the 9 months go so much quicker. i mean, look, i've only got 4 more months to go!

 

typically, i choose not to tell people when i am pregnant just because it is fun. this time around, however, there were other reasons, as well.

 

so, by way of explanation...

 

the good: fertility drugs that make it possible for us to conceive

the not so good: the adverse side effects of fertility drugs (ohss)

 

the good: in may, we got pregnant with twins (yes it was during my whole fertility "drama")

the not so good: in june, we lost one of them at 5 weeks

 

the good: at the 6 week ultrasound, we saw a good strong heartbeat

the not so good: at that same ultrasound we saw the empty sac of the baby we lost

 

the good: at the mid pregnancy ultrasound, 2 weeks ago,  we were able to see our baby. baby is healthy and growing properly. baby has all 10 fingers and all 10 toes. everything looks great with baby. baby is VERY active, the girls were laughing at how much it moved around during the ultrasound

the not so good: at the ultrasound we also learned that i have COMPLETE placenta previa. unless the placenta moves out of the way (very slight chance) of the cervical opening my only option is a c-section (coming from this mama who has delivered all three babies naturally without any drugs, it is hard for me to take) i DO NOT want a c-section! not only that, there are several other possible complications with this diagnosis: bleeding during pregnancy, bedrest, hospital bedrest, low birth weight, having to take the baby early, hemorrhage at delivery, to name a few, not to mention that i will be in a new place with new people. but more concerning is the fact that i will be without my support system of friends that i've come to love, and rely upon dearly over the past 8 years  while living here in oregon

 

the good: i have come to rely heavily upon prayers and faith and blessings. my family held a fast on my behalf and we all went to the temple this past saturday. i feel my faith increasing through this trial and i feel closer to my family and the Lord. i feel a peace that only comes through the spirit that everything will be alright

the not so good: i was an emotional wreak for about a week after learning my diagnosis and i still have my days, but just not as often as that first week

 

the good: we are having a baby!!

top 7 stressful things

have you ever heard of the top 7 stressful things a person can do in their life? i hadn't until back in 2000 when one of mitch's co-workers pointed out to him that we were doing almost all of these things, at the time we were not yet pregnant. according to him they are (in no particular order):

1. graduate from college
2. start a new job/change jobs or careers
3. get married
4. move
5. buy/sell a house
6. have a baby
7. death of a loved one

well, in the year from 1999-2000 mitch and i experienced all of those top 7 most stressful things.

1. august 1999 i graduated from byu with my bachelors degree and went on my first date with mitch the same week.
2. december 1999, 4 months to the day from our first date mitch and i got married
3. february 2000 mitch's grandmother passed away
4. march 2000 mitch graduated from byu with a masters in chemical engineering and that same week we moved to oregon
5. march 2000 the week we moved to oregon, mitch started his first "real job" as an engineer at intel while i worked as a personal trainer
6. july 2000 we found out that we were pregnant with our first daughter, noelani
7. september 2000 we moved into our newly built and purchased home (the home we are currently trying to sell)

maybe, because we didn't know that these were on the top 7 most stressful things you could do list, we survived with very little stress. we were excited to graduate and move on from that stage in our lives. we were excited to get married. we were excited for a new adventure in a new place. we were excited and grateful that we had jobs. we were excited to be new homeowners. and we were most excited to be starting our family. maybe we were just to naive to really know what we were getting ourselves into. nevertheless, we survived!

 

the other day i was thinking about this exchange that mitch had with his co-worker. as i thought about it, i realized that we are back in the same boat that we were in 8 years ago. while we won't be experiencing all 7 of the above list, during the year 2008-2009 we will have experienced the following:

1. september 14, 2008 my uncle ned passed away
2. october 2008 mitch will start a new job
3. october 2008 we will move several states away to new mexico
4. sometime soon (we hope) 2008 our house will sell and we will purchase the beautiful 1 acre lot we found while in albuquerque and begin designing our new home
5. october 2008 nani and lala will both start school in a new place with new friends
6. early february 2009 we will welcome baby #4 into our family
7. we already got married, so we won't be doing that again

let's hope that we can survive it this time around as easily as we did the first time around!

 

hah! that's wishful thinking! already we are way more stressed out than we were the first time around, but that really wouldn't be hard to do!

 

i can think of three things that we didn't have last time that might make things a bit more difficult...namely, nani, lala, and kawena! they'll just make the ride more enjoyable....right??