Spring break in Salt Lake!

For spring break 2014 we decided to go to Salt Lake to spend some time with skyler's family and of course to enjoy some time off of work and school. We started our trip off with a terrible drive up with a crying baby that didnt want to be in her car seat! We  then celebrated our 2 year anniversary by having skylers sister babysit Avery so that we could go to dinner and spend some time with each other with out a baby. We went to Olive Garden and had the best experience ever there! Not only did they let Skyler change his food free of charge because he didn't like it, but they also gave us a free dessert! We then went hot tubing and had our first night away from our sweet baby girl. She did great though and loved spending time with her cousin Brantley!

Later in the week we had a cousin day and got to hang out with all of skyler's cousins. We went bowling and then to our traditional la puenta (not sure if that is how you spell it). It was a blast getting to see everyone!

The best part of our whole trip was getting told that I am still cancer free! I've officially been in remission for 5 whole years!! Skyler tried to teach Avery how to play some playstation while I got my blood drawn, and then Avery decided to have a HUGE blowout!! But people still kept telling me that Avery was adorable! Everyone kept thinking that Avery was the patient, which made me think how hard it would be to have a child with cancer... i dont know how my mom did it. I am glad that i was the one getting poked and pricked, because i cant imagine having to watch it happen to my baby girl.

we got the opportunity to see Les Miserable at the Hale Theater. It was amazing! The music was great, and the stage there is so intense!!!

The Last thing we did before heading home was get to listen to Dixie give her farewell talk. It was wonderful and we know she will be an amazing Missionary!

Fun In The Sun With All Them Guns

Since Avery has been born our life has been a little bit to routine for our liking, so we decided to shake things up and take some guns out for presidents day. I can't remember the last time it felt so good outside! 

This of course was Avery's first time "Shooting", she of course was kept at least 30 feet away from the guns, but she did really good and allowed all of us to have a blast!  

 

We all tried shooting Skylers Bow and Arrow, it was hilarious watching us girls try and pull it back, but now that I have mom arms, I was able to and shot it for the first time in the 2 years me and skyler have been married! The boys of course were able to shoot it.

 Skyler is a really big gun guy and goes shooting with his friends once and a while.... me on the other hand have been scared of guns and have only shot them twice in my life. After yesterday though, I think I have a much different opinion on shooting. It was such a blast! and as soon as the ringing stopped in my ears, I couldn't get enough of it!

All and All Presidents day turned out to be a blast and We are so glad we got to spend it as family and friends :)

Welcoming our Baby Avery

So I decided now that we have a beautiful baby girl, I actually have something to blog about!
So here it is.... Avery's Birth Story


So as many know I was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma when I was 15 years old. After I was told I was Cancer free it came back 6 months later. I had many doctors tell me due to the chemotherapy my chances of having kids were slim to none. But I had faith that I would be able to be a mother someday, I just didn't know when it would be.

Skyler and I got married in March of 2012. From the beginning of our marriage we knew we wanted children and started to try to get pregnant. After many months of being disappointed, a year later we found out we were finally pregnant!! I can not even express the joy i was feeling at this time in my life! All my fear was finally gone and in just 8 more months I was finally going to me a mother.

Now as much as i wanted to be pregnant.... being pregnant wasn't very fun... the first 3 months consisted of me not eating or drinking pretty much anything but sprite (only thing that didn't make me want to die). But once I hit that second trimester the nausea faded away and heartburn took its place.... then when the third trimester came along we added back pain to the mix. But i knew all of it would be worth it once my baby girl was here.

Averys due date was December 3rd, and when that day came.... it just kept on going. The next night (Decmber 4th) I decide to finish Avery's nursery, and finish cleaning my house. Skyler and I went to bed that night for me only to wake up at 1:00 in the morning with one of the most horrible pains I had ever felt. I went to the bathroom, tried to calm myself down and not get my hopes up. I jumped back in bed trying to get myself to fall back asleep... but boy was that impossible. My contractions were now 4 minutes apart. I began to bawl and decided it was probably a good idea to wake skyler up so we could get ready to go to the hospital because I was positive I was going to die.

We get to the hospital and they check us into a room they check and I am dilated to a 1 (This was progress from being dilated to a 0 on Avery's due date). We waited an hour with having contractions every 3-4 minutes just for her to check me and me be still a 1.... I was devastated. The nurse told us she wanted to do an ultrasound though because Avery's heart rate was dropping after some of the contractions. After the ultrasound they thought it best that they got my labor going so that there wasn't any complications.

I was moved to another room and hooked up to the pitocin... not even 5 minutes later my water broke. It was a good thing they hadn't sent me home! And then started the waiting game. By now it was 6:00 and my contractions were 10 times worse then what I thought was the worst pain ever.. at 8:00 they came and gave me my epidural because my contractions were 3 minutes apart and felt like someone was breaking my back! 12:00 rolled around and I had only dilated to "almost" a 3... I was sure I wasn't going to have this baby until the next day!! The nurse came back at 2:00 and decided to check me again, and good thing she did because the baby was ready to come out!

The nurse said she would be right back to get the delivery going, so I decided to sit up and fix my hair (i had extremely bad bed head!) And this is were it got scary.. As soon as I sat up I got extremely nauseated and dizzy.. I could barely hear what people were saying telling me i was as pale as could be. the nurses ran in and began to say things I couldn't understand and all of a sudden the room was full of people running. Most of it is a blur to me, but I guess both mine and the baby's heart rate had dropped below 100 and they thought the umbilical cord was wrapped around Avery's neck. They laid me down shifted my body and got Avery to shift and gave me oxygen. After this everything started to go back to normal. This was the most terrifying feeling I had ever had. I had no idea what was going on or if everything was going to be ok. Luckily all worked out.

A few minutes later after letting me recuperate from this the nurse came in and I started to push. 40 minutes later the doctor is handing me my precious baby girl. This is the best feeling I have ever felt. After 9 months of preparing to be handed the one thing that would change my life forever, it was finally here. Skyler and I were parents in this very moment. The second I saw my baby girl I knew I loved her with my whole heart and was the most blessed person in the world to have the opportunity to be a mother and Skyler a father.

It has been almost 6 weeks since Avery was born and though it can be hard at times, I wouldn't trade being a mother for anything. Even though she may cry and I may be exhausted, as soon as she smiles or falls asleep in my arms it makes everything worth it. I looked forward to seeing her grow older, start crawling and then walking and talking, but for now im going to enjoy the little things like waking up in the middle of the night and staring into her little eyes staring right back at me.