Just a PEEK...

at our little one on the way! Due in Summer '10

crashed

my computer that is... and it's been SO frustrating trying to get it back to normal - it may never get that way! Right now I'm feeling sick because I can't find any of my pictures, we just down loaded all our pictures from our San Diego trip before Thanksgiving and I never even got to view them all - FRUSTRATING and hopefully I can find them! Another bad thing is I had 2 photo books finished online that I hadn't ordered yet from 2008 and 2009 and they are gone now... I will have to start over - so sad huh! We do back up our computer but we hadn't done it since late summer so there are many things that won't be recovered I'm afraid! On a happy note, Blake is at physical therapy to get his shoulder back and going - as he was leaving Ashlyn says,"do good exercises so you can pick me up and throw me in the air" Oh how she misses her dad playing rough with them!

Man of the House

I wanted to do an update on Blake, his surgery went well and he's now done with the 2nd week of 4 that he has to wear a sling (he does take it off to move his elbow and do small exercises). Poor guy I know he's in pain, but that is part of the healing process. He ices it a few times a day and the kids love to help their daddy with the ice and ice packs. If you notice on his neck there are 4 pokes kind of in a square, he decided on a nerve block in his arm for surgery and the anesthesiologist wasn't the most confident in giving that, it took 4 tries and Blake was awake the whole time-pretty painful to say the least. His incision is about 4 inches long and looks kinda crusty in the picture because it still had steri-strips on it with dried blood. (i should have taken a more recent photo) Anyway, we are looking forward to when he can use his shoulder more - his bike is pretty much fixed and he's eager to ride again. We still count our blessings

Festivities

We carved pumpkins at my moms and the kids liked it more than I expected, Ashlyn thought the guts were too slimy, but Weston loved moving them from the pan to the bowl! He even took home a souvenir on his forehead! We ended up carving Tigger and the moon & stars! (Weston isn't holding a knife it's a big scraping spoon)

We stopped by our ward Trunk or Treat for a little bit before going to a family halloween party - Because of Blakes surgery 3 days before we decided he would be a patient and Weston too, I would be the nurse and Ashlyn the Doctor... We had a lot of fun!

Photo Shoot '09

We had dinner with Blakes family yesterday and decided to have his brother take a few pictures of our little family, it's been almost a year since we've done family photos and Weston has changed so much! Happy Fall

He's One

**Girl Time**

Sometimes I find that I don't spend enough one on one time with Ashlyn and I think that is partially to blame for her acting out at times. So while Weston was napping yesterday I decided to let her make Halloween cookies with me. She loved rolling the cookie dough in the colored sugar (she chose purple) and she also did a great job taking the wrappers off the hershey kisses. We had a fun time just being together and I think it made her feel special to have "mom" all to herself. (baby brothers can be kinda needy)

Dirt Bike Wreck

Last Thursday (the night before we were supposed to take our anniversary trip without children) Blake went riding at the track with is brothers as usual, I got a phone call from his brother telling me Blake got hurt - his shoulder and he had a good concussion... I met them at the ER. Blake was asking the same handful of questions every 2 minutes or so and it was pretty weird, it wasn't funny until all his tests came back and his brain/head was normal with no injuries besides the concussion which would heal on it's own. We had to take turns answering the questions as they were so frequent. (He still doesn't remember wrecking or being at the hospital) He has an AC Separation in his right shoulder (all tendons torn that hold your shoulder to your collar bone) and may or may not need surgery - depending what the surgeon says and how Blake feels. The wreck wasn't his fault, he was jumping over a "table top" jump and another guy had wrecked on the down side which Blake couldn't see until he was in the air and of course couldn't move his bike to land anywhere else but on the other guys bike... The other guy wasn't hurt at all and actually ran to the top of the jump to make sure others didn't land on Blake. The weekend was kinda crazy, just trying to get things together with doctors and catching up on sleep - my mom had our kids even though we didn't take our trip to California, and that was a HUGE help! Thanks to everyone for your thoughts and concern! We have such wonderful family and friends.

His shoulder is much lower than his collar bone - see the bump

He has some good "road rash" on his side, elbow and hurt shoulder

Here are the kids taking turns snuggling with Blake

We count our blessings, because it could have been a lot worse - thankfully Blake was wearing all his protective gear! And yes, I'm sure he'll ride again - but fixing his bike isn't our first priority!

2,556 Days Ago This Happened

I love him and he loves me

(technically our anniversary is Monday, but we have a lot going on next week and I wasn't sure I'd find the time to do a post)
To celebrate we are getting massages and visiting our friends in Laguna Beach for a few days!

Happy 7 Fabulous Years Babe! I Love you

My Man

So it's not often that Blake grows out his facial hair - in fact it's only once a year at Lake Powell where he doesn't shave for a week! I always end up liking it by the time he goes back to work and wants to shave it off, so this year I talked him into keeping it an extra week... I just wanted to have a picture of him on our blog with a scruffy face because I think it's hot!

Boys will be BOYS...

Raising Weston is SO different from Ashlyn, about 2 weeks after he turned a year old we were at the Dirt Bike Track and I put both kids in the back of Blake's brothers truck to walk around (I didn't bring shoes for Weston and he'd been wanting to walk all night) I was changing Ashlyn's clothes and looked out of the corner of my eye to see Weston climbing over the side of the bed of the truck and I ran so fast to grab him and was screaming "oh my gosh" over and over kinda loud - but I couldn't get there fast enough, he hit the dirt with his head and rolled down his shoulder and back, we didn't see any blood - just a terrified little guy (and mama). We took him to the ER because he started vomiting within 15 minutes of falling and they did a CT scan to make sure there wasn't an internal injury - All checked out well and we were so grateful.
Then last weekend Weston was climbing up and down my brothers tile steps (he's a good stair climber) and when we were about to leave, he fell into the steps and punctured above his eye - it was bleeding but it didn't look as bad as some I've seen... so I took him to Urgent Care and was hoping they had some medical glue to seal it up so it would heal nicely. Now we are just waiting for the glue to dissolve. **Boys are so much more rough than girls and in his 1 year of life he's had about as many injuries as I have.

(The red stripe across his forehead is from his band-aide we took off)
I'm still jealous of his eyelashes!

Our trip to the Country

Powell Farm, Blake's grandparents still live in the home his dad was raised in - pretty awesome!

Our 11 day trip, we went to Utah then up to Idaho and back to Utah.. We saw so many great family and friends and hope to get up north again soon, next time with Blake!

Weston was watching the cows very closely

Ashlyn wanted to see ALL the cows on the farm, so grandma took her on a tour

Grandpa & Ashlyn at the Farm

Palisades - Idaho

Glad she has fun getting dirty

silly girls

This was in Palisades, ID and the kids had so much fun playing in the creek

We went to Hogel Zoo with Uncle Greg in SLC

Weston wasn't a huge fan of the grass, but he did good!

Swing time, all the time

This is about 1/4 of my grandma's yard, oh how green it is - LOVE IT
Ashlyn wasn't sure where to play first, she hasn't had this much space to run in a long time

we enjoyed dinner in the yard

loved playing croquet with the adults

feeding the horses apples was one of her favorites, she still talks about it!

The "BIG" Day

My brother Robb was married a few weeks ago to Christina, (one reason we went up to Utah) and the ceremony/reception was beautiful! These pictures explain it all

Kensi, Ashlyn & Maeley

My Grandma Bird & Ashlyn (Weston slept the whole ceremony)

My parents and us 6 kids

They had an authentic Taco Stand outside, SO yummy & creative!

The Bride & Groom, listening to all the toasts

Top of the cake

Little Weston, exhausted, hungry and wanting his tie off