Happy Birthdays!!!

The birthday Parties are finally over...phew!  It is tougher then I thought it would be to have two kids born in the same month and have two parties for each one.  If I was smarter I would have just one big party, but the fact is that I wanted to honor each child individually.  Those two kids are growing so fast.  They just had their well checkups today.  Xander is getting tall.  He weighed 40lbs (80%) and was 41in (65%).  Wesley gained nearly 10 pounds during his second year.  He weighed 29lbs (63%) and was 34.5in (53%).  These two are brothers and they do fight, but the good news is that they do seem to be buddies as well.  They love seeing each other when they first get up in the morning.  They share toys at least 50% of the time.  I have seen Xander try to read a book to Wesley or do something to help take care of his little brother.  I really hope they continue to be close and be the best friends that I know some brothers can be.  Taking care of those two kids is fun, and crazy and stressful.  Just being a mom and putting the needs of two little ones above my own is a sacrifice, but I don't regret it.  Despite all the challenges of motherhood, I know that it really is a huge blessing in life to have this experience.

We had Xander's 4th birthday party at Cherry Hill on 7/6, one week before his real birthday.  He really wanted an Angry Birds party.  I did my best to follow the theme.  I have a very talented sister-in-law, Kristen who makes specialty cakes.  She made cakes for both parties.  I could never pull off the kind of things that she does.  We ate food, played a few games and just watched Xander have fun with all the kids who stopped by.  I'm sure that his next parties after this will be more friend centered rather then family.

 Cake made by http://www.facebook.com/pages/My-Sweet-Fancy-Cakes-by-Kristen/228682690496797

 Aftermath, it was so delicious!

We celebrated Wesley's 2nd birthday this last Saturday, 7/21.  We had the party at Boondocks, a family fun center.  Since Wesley is still kind of a baby to me and I don't know what he likes, I picked his party theme.  We did kind of an Elmo/Sesame Street party.  Kristen came through again and made the cutest cake.  Xander loved helping him open all his presents, especially since I think he knew that he would get to play with them anyway.  Whatever Wesley gets, Xander will play with and visa versa.  We are so grateful to all the friends and family who made it to the parties.  It was special that Jerry's dad, Grandpa Stephenson, was able to stop by while visiting from Texas. 

 I think one reason I justify doing two parties is because I hardly throw any other events during the year.  My kids are one of the most important parts of my life so why not celebrate them?  I can't be too horrible of a mom if they have made it this long.  I just remember when Xander was born.  I had no experience with kids.  I didn't know how to a change a diaper.  They handed him to me and I was terrified to hold this tiny 6 pound newborn baby.  I was thinking in my head, "Wow, you seriously trust me with this little creature?"  It's amazing to look back and remember that.  Sometimes I'm still blown away when I look at my life.  I think about how I have been in a wonderful relationship to Jeremiah for over 9 years now.  We met 10 years ago next month!  I have two healthy kids.  It's amazing how much can happen and how fast it all flies by.     

  

Enjoying Summer

 When I saw the date this morning I realized that two months have passed since I have made a blog entry.  I have been wanting to make a post but it seems like something always keeps me busy.  It's more difficult with young kids to go anywhere and do anything but we try.  It just means that there is extra preparation, even to go to the store and then you never know if they are going to make things difficult.  We have gone to a few places still.  We have Lagoon season passes and have already gone many times.  We went to the zoo in June for my company party.  I'm still hoping we can find a way to go camping.  I know people who camp with young kids all the time but the idea just terrifies me.  I love sleeping out in a tent, but I worry that we would go and our kids would stay up all night or they would find some other way to make the trip difficult.  If we do go camping, it will be just a quick overnight trip somewhere close to see if we enjoy it. 

Hanging out on the beach at Pineview Reservior on Memorial day

@Lagoon

Lagoon again



This was the first trip to Lagoon where it looked like Wesley was actually having fun!


 We are making preparations for our possible move coming up at the end of the summer.  If everything works out we will be moving into a brand new townhouse in Lehi.  It is a slight down grade from what we have, but I'm sure it will still be a very nice place to live. 



Basement of townhouse

  For a few years we actually owned 3 cars and they were getting very old.  The first one to go was the 1997 Saturn.  It still ran, but it had some problems and we knew we needed to say goodbye.  In June, both the 99' Honda CR-V and the 98' VW Jetta were due for state inspection.  Over the past 3 years it was a huge struggle to get the Jetta to pass and would cost us a lot of money.  That car gave us so many problems that we finally decided it was time to say goodbye.  We needed something more reliable and more comfortable for a family of 4 with two young kids in car seats.  I have decided that I love Honda's, so we found ourselves a 06' Honda Pilot.  It is a nice vehicle and we are enjoying it so far.  I don't have to drive anything fancy, all I require in a vehicle is that it stays reliable and we get our money's worth out of it. 



Very roomy new car, I think Wesley likes it. 



Having a good summer!!

 I will try to post more when I have time.  I hope the rest of the summer goes well, especially if there will be a big move at the end.  July is birthday month and I hope I can pull off some great parties for my two kids.  I can't believe my first baby is already 4 and that my sweet little one is going into the terrible 2's.  You know time flies when you watch your babies grow right in front of you. 

April Update

I don't have the most active or exciting blog out there but I still try to make a post at least once a month.  We celebrated Easter at the beginning of the month.  I wasn't enjoying it because I had to work all weekend.  I actually found a part-time job which is extremely rare in my field.  It would have been awesome because it was only Tuesday through Thursday for 8 hours a day.  I was so excited..but I didn't get the job.  I'm stuck working my seven on seven off double life schedule.  I am so sick of it!!  Jeremiah took the kids on an Easter egg hunt at the Ogden dinosaur park.  We did color eggs later when I got home from work.

Easter egg hunt

 Egg coloring!

We did a very crazy thing on April 13th..we put down an offer on a brand new townhouse in Lehi.  It is so new that it hasn't been built yet. We would be downgrading from our beautiful house in Kaysville.  We are willing to do this to find a way for me to stay at home with the kids and for Jeremiah to not have such a ridiculous commute every single day.  I still might have to keep working, but I might be able to find a PRN job at a hospital.  We will see how things go.  We are doing all we can to do what is best for our family.  We are praying like crazy and I hope something works out for us and this will be a good choice.  Nothing will be happening until the end of the summer, but I'm starting to do all I can to prepare now.   

8 years of marriage and a cruise!!

 

Anybody who knows me well knows that my most favorite type of vacation is a cruise, so if I get the opportunity to go on a free cruise..I'll take it!  Leave the kids at home..I'll take it!!  As much as I love our kids (my little bundles of joy and challenges) it was so nice to get away for 3.5 days.  This was my 3rd cruise and it was the same type of cruise as our first where we just went to Ensenada Mexico.  It was so awesome to just get away from the challenges and business of life and just be a couple again instead of stressed out working parents. 
  We left the kids with my family.  They were so awesome to help us out.  I don't have any nieces or nephew to babysit, but if I did, you guys know I owe you one.  We got to the ship way too early, but it was awesome because we got to tour the famous Queen Mary ( http://www.queenmary.com/) It is a retired luxury liner built in the 1930's and retired in the 1960's.  They converted it into a motel, restaurant and museum.  It reminded me of the Titanic and had this very classic feel to it.  We took the haunted tour which was fun.  We really enjoyed the cruise with plenty of food and entertainment.  I have been really strict with my eating which is how I lost 50 pounds, but I just let myself enjoy the food and luckily haven't gained weight from the trip.  I'm getting back on track now. 
  We tried something new in Mexico, at least I did.  Jeremiah used to ride horses when one of his aunts owned some.  I have sat on a horse before but never ridden one.  It was scary when I first got on this powerful animal.  I thought he was going to take off on me.  I kind of got the hang of it and it was a fun horse ride.  We were up on some cliffs overlooking the ocean.  I might go on another horse ride again someday.  It was an awesome trip and much needed.  Jeremiah and I are busy working parents.  We love to spend time alone together so it was so nice to have this opportunity. 
  Today is our 8th wedding anniversary.  We started dating about 9 years ago as well.  I was 18 and Jerry was 22 when we first met in the Weber State symphonic band.  A few months after we met we were going to hang out and become friends but it quickly turned into so much more.  I had resolved to just leave boys alone and focus on school when Jerry came into my life.  It is interesting how fate works.  Here we are still happy, still going strong, still best friends.  Who could ask for more then to be with the one they love forever? 

PRK Update

I promised an update, but I have been busy this week just trying to get through another on week at work.  It has now been 10 days since my PRK surgery.  I did experience mild to moderate discomfort on day 2 and 3, but on day 4 the pain was gone and my eyes have been painless since then.  I had my contact bandages removed on Tuesday, day 5.  My vision immediately regressed, but I wasn't concerned.  I read about other people's experiences and talked to the doctor about it.  The day before I was seeing almost perfect.  Things were starting to come into focus and actually be sharp and clear.  The reason there is a regression is because that contact bandage smooths out the healing tissue on your eye.  Once it is removed you don't have that smoothness anymore and have to just wait for the surface to heal on its own.  I saw small improvements in vision the following days.  My vision seems well enough to drive and road signs are getting easier to read every day.  On day 6 I had no choice but to drive in the dark because I had to be at work by 5am.  I was so scared, but it wasn't bad.  I could see but I just had to ignore the halos and glares coming off of lights.  I feel like I can see well, but things seem to come in and out of focus.  The most difficult thing to look at is a computer monitor.  This is more challenging because my job is to sit at a desk and stare at a monitor.  My eyes just can't seem to focus on letters and numbers properly.  I'm very hopeful this will improve week by week. 
  Right now I'm just patiently waiting for my eyes to heal and my vision to keep improving.  I really think that the end result will be close to 20/20.  This whole experience is truly a miracle to me.  My vision was really bad.  I was at -6.25 in both eyes and without correction the whole world was this huge blur closing in on me.  When I look around and see right now I have to keep reminding myself that I'm seeing without contacts or glasses.  I have to keep using re wetting drops for my eyes about 6-8x a day.  They are keeping me on steroid drops 2x a day.  I have been following all the doctors orders as closely as I can so these eyes can heal quick and I will get the best results possible.  There is even more pressure for me because I was told that this surgery was my only shot.  I don't have any future opportunities for a touch up procedure due to the fact that my prescription was moderate and borderline severe.  If you get this procedure done with only a moderate correction then you have chances to get touch up procedures if your vision is under or over corrected.  I"m sure I will need some form of correction in the future.  My expectations were to be free of any correction for several years and then hopefully only need reading glasses when I"m older.  I always wanted to get my eyes corrected and I was hoping to get it done in my 20's so I could have the best results possible.  Right now I am in the best health of my life at age 28.  I'm taking care of my eyes the best I can and hoping for good results.  I will keep posting updates. 

PRK surgery

Last October I went to the Moran Eye Center for a free consultaion and screening to see if I could get LASIK to fix my poor vision.  It has been a dream of mine ever since my vision started diminishing when I was in 4th grade.  Technology has really come a long way since I first dreamed of getting my eyes fixed.  I found out that my corneas are too thin and could not get LASIK.  I was really dissapointed and they introduced me to a lesser known method called PRK (Photorefractive Kerectomy).  I'm typing with very limited vision right now and I will fix all my typos later.  I found out that this method is similar to LASIK in that a laser is used to correct poor vision but the difference is the prep for the surgery.  With LASIK they cut a flap in your cornea and shoot the laser through.  Healing and recovery is a peace of cake.  With PRK they use chemicals and scrape off the top epithelium of your eye and then correct with the laser.  Recovery is longer and has some pain.  I'm on day #3 and the pain hasn't been terrible.  I am dealing with hazy vision and struggling to see the monitor I'm typing on. 

My big day was Thursday Feb 2nd.  It's a day that I hope will be one of the best decisions ever.  I went in at 7:30am and everything happened really fast.  The doctor was ready for me and it was so quick I felt like my eyes were already done the minute I laid down.  They took my vitals and gave me a bunch of instructions for the millions of eye drops I would take over the next several days.  They numbed and cleansed my eyes and then took me back.  I layed down on a table and they put this nice warm blanket over me.  I brought my fat cat stuffed animal and it was surprising comforting because I was terrified!  My job was to keep my head still and focus on the green light right in the center.  It was so fast, even the laser part.  They were done with me in about 10 minutes.  I could see right away but my vision was hazy like it still is right now but I can see glimpses of clear vision.  I do have a protective contact on but I am seeing with my own eyes right now and it's at least 100 times better then it was before!  I"m very hopeful that when my vision settles that I will not need glasses or contacts, at least for several years.

I feel like I can function pretty well despite the hazy vision.  The pain hasn't been horrible.  It's a burning pain and my eyes tear up, but it has been manageable.  The doctor even said I could keep working out so I did a good workout today.  I feel like I'm getting back into my routine slowly.  So far I am glad I did this and I'm hoping my vision will clear when my eyes heal up.  I will post more of an update later because it is really difficult to see the monitor right now.

Busy weekend with a wedding!

My brother got hitched this weekend on Saturday 1/7/12.  It was neat being able to participate.  His new bride Kristen asked Sarah and me to be bridesmaids.  It was fun dressing up.  I'll admit it,  I'm a girl who still likes to dress up when she gets a chance.  We are excited to welcome a new sister into the family.  Xander was supposed to be the ring bearer, but when we were getting in line for the ceremony he decided he wanted nothing to do with it.  I guess that is the way of 3 year olds sometimes. 

Sarah and Chris

Mike and Kristen signing the certificate!

The other big event was having Jeremiah's father Rick and his two younger daughters, Sammy and Bradie come to visit all the way from Texas.  Xander and Wesley got to see their other grandpa, but I suppose they may be too young to remember.  We all hope that we will get to see each other more despite the distance and build some relationships.  We had a dinner at our house with everybody, including Jeremiah's half-sister Bethany and her little family.