Troy and Loni JP and Tate

Tate's 18 Month Pictures

2010-07-02T10:44:00.001-06:00

This post is 2 months late but I guess it's better late than never, right? We had Tate's 18 months pictures taken and it was so fun as usual. The evening was a little chilly but we kept him busy by running around and chasing him with the camera. Tate has grown into such a great toddler; he is definitely no longer a baby. His personality could not be funnier and we wonder how he knows that certain things are funny. He'll do something and wait for a reaction which is most likely laughter and then also laughs at himself. He's a character! We enjoy watching him learn new things and he always keeps us on our toes. We love this bug! Enjoy the pictures.

Southern California Vacation

2010-05-29T21:09:00.004-06:00

Earlier this month we went to Southern California with my family. We stayed in Oceanside in a rental home right on the beach. It was beautiful there. Every morning we walked on the boardwalk and let the kids play in the sand. There was also a park close by which the kids of course loved. At first we were all worried about staying in one place together but this rental home was large enough for us to each have our own room and space for our families. It could not have been better. Thanks Mom for the accomadations.

The first day we got there we went to the beach. Of course Tate had never seen the ocean before but he was pumped when he first saw. But as the afternoon went on he got a little scared as the water would touch his feet....well, I guess it didn't help that when he was playing in the sand the tide came up to where he was digging and covered his lap in water. After that he got a little freaked out and kept his distance from the water. It was really cute though because after it happened he came running to me with raised arms and said, 'Mama, Mama, Mama' like he was super scared. Love that kid!

Our first activity was Sea World. The weather was perfect that day and the kids were in good spirits. We went to just about every exhibit available including Shamu! Tate didn't show much interest in anything but the fish aquarium. I've taken him to the Living Aquarium here in Sandy and he loves it. Since Tate wasn't into it much we didn't take many pictures. But here are a few.

The next day was Mother's Day. In the morning before church the husbands made the Mom's a yummy breakfast. It was nice to have the morning off and be pampered a little bit.

Here's Tate all ready for church. He's so handsome, minus the binkie of course ;)

I just thought this was a cute picture. The boy cousins, Trey, Blake, and Taters. Trey and Blake are the same age as JP and were all born in 2007. So Tate is still too young to run around with these two but he sure tries and it's fun to watch.

The weather that day was a bit crumby but we were determined to go play on the beach. Tate loved the sand and I'm pretty sure he had sand in every crevice of his little body. Boy was that fun to clean out! I'm thinking of getting him a little sand box for our backyard because he loved it so much. But we'll see cause after all that sand and the mess it created, I don't want that tracked into the house.

The rental house was next to a pier with a restaurant called Ruby's all the way at the end. They are known for their mikshakes so we were all excited about that. But unfortunately, not everyone was that impressed. I however had a banana split I will never forget. It was delightful! And Tate liked eating it too. So no disappointment on my end, which with food rarely happens ;)

Next stop, the happiest place on earth. DisneyLand!!!

Before we even got to DisneyLand I knew I wanted to buy Tate some Mickey ears and have his name embroidered on it. But that was before I knew it was $17. Oh well, the memories are priceless, right? Tate has developed a liking for Mickey Mouse and we watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse almost daily at home. So we of course had to go meet him. Off to Toon Town to Mickey's house we went. The line to meet him wasn't too long and it was certainly worth the wait. Troy calls it 'star-struck' the first time Tate saw Mickey, but I call it simply adorable.

The second Tate saw Mickey he started screaming (in excitement) and wanted Troy to put him down but there were other kids getting their picture taken with Mickey. But Tate didn't care. So Troy put him down only so he'd stop screaming and Tate walked right up to Mickey in the middle of some kid's picture. Mickey looked at Tate and motioned to all us parents, who's kid is this? We claimed him as ours and I swear to you Mickey started telling us with his hand gestures, well, get him out of here, it's not his turn yet. Hilarious! and we have it all on our video camera. So Troy grabbed him and we waited our turn. Tate first wanted to touch him and we couldn't get him to look at the camera for a picture; he was too 'star struck'. This was probably my favorite memory of the whole trip. I thought for sure he'd be afraid of the characters all dressed up but he proved me wrong. Can you see the cute look on his face? He was in heaven!

Then we met Goofy. I went through a phase where Goofy was my favorite character so I was excited to see him. But I think Tate was indifferent.

Then it was on to the best ride ever, Pirates of the Caribbean. This is just a classic ride that you must experience everytime you go to Disney. We went to the park on a Monday and it wasn't a busy day at all. I think we waited maybe 5 minutes for us all to get on the same boat, it was great. Tate got a little nervous on the ride only because it was a bit dark but at least there was no crying.

Right before the park closed Troy and I ran (literally, a lady that worked at the park actually told us 'please walk, for your safety' when she saw us running) to Splash Mountain. This is my favorite ride ever. So we left Tate with my parents and we had no wait to get on the ride which never happens on Splash Mountain. This picture was taken right before going down the big drop. We sat right in the front of the log and got completely soaked! I think Troy even had water in his shoes. Did I mention it was a little chilly that night so being wet and cold was not a good combination. Brrr.

I wish we would have had more time at Disney but I think we all under estimated our kids and figured they'd be exhausted if we went in the morning and stayed all day. Oh well, there is always next time.

On our last day we had some time to stop at Sea Port Village in San Diego before catching our flight. It's a fun little shopping village right on the water. The Navy base is close by and it's just a beautiful area. Mishell, it was super fun to see you!! I can't thank you enough for letting us use your porta crib. I owe you big time. San Diego is one of my favorite places to vacation and I'm so glad I got to spend this trip with my family. And I already look forward to the next time we can go.

The Latest

2010-04-14T12:01:00.006-06:00

Hello family and friends that possibly check this blog and find out that I haven't updated this in a few months. To you I say, sorry. Blogging needs to become a full-time job because it takes up a lot of time! And by the end of updating I feel I've worked a whole 8 hour day. Just kidding. Here is an update on our little family and get ready for photo-overload because that's what you're getting!

Tate is 17 months old now and seems to be growing bigger and bigger over night. He constantly cracks us up and continues to amaze us. He is literally a little person now. He can pretty much tell us what he wants and doesn't want and I thoroughly enjoy that; no more guessing. His personality is what really amazes us. He has such a great sense of humor and knows what to do to make us laugh. He also has quite the vocabulary. He says Mama, Dada, NO, dog, cat, more, fish, GO, cracker, cookie, ball, car, truck.... But he's lately learned to say, 'No, I want that' and he'll point to what he wants. It's a crack up.

But I think his favorite word these days is 'Nemo' or in his words 'Me-mo'. He loves the movie Finding Nemo and we have to watch it at least 2 times a day. In fact, it's on TV right now as I type this ;) This has become a full blown obsession for him. We took him a few weeks ago to the Disney Store and bought him a toy Nemo, Nemo beach towel, and Nemo swim shorts. We only fed the obsession even more because most nights he now insists on sleeping with all three! But in all honesty it is really cute how into Nemo he is. And I don't mind watching the movie over and over again because it's only background noise for me as I work.

Here is Tate getting ready to watch 'Me-mo' with his Nemo beach towel. The towel is used as a blanket for the time being. He never just sits and watches the whole thing, he'll usually watch it then go off and play, then something will catch his ears and he'll stand there and watch it. He goes back and forth pretty much all day. We've tried to get him to watch other movies but during the new movie he'll say 'I want Me-mo'. See what I mean, he knows what he wants! Here is cute Tate wearing Troy's work vest. He found it on the floor in the closet and dragged it over to me and said 'Da Da'. I said, 'Yea, good job. That's Dad's'. Then I just set it down. But he kept handing it to me and then he put out his arm as if he wanted me to put it on him, so I did. He was so delighted, as you can see from the picture. He and Troy have a pretty awesome bond and Tate loves when he comes home from work, as do I.

Troy bought a motorcycle not too long ago and purchased this helmet to go along with it. Tate loves wearing hats, but not for too long. I'd say he likes to try them on rather than actually wear them. We sure love this boy.

Here's Tate spending more time with Troy. I don't remember where Tate found this tape measure but Troy was showing him how to pull the tape out. This is one of Tate's favorite toys now.

I had an idea one day to let Tate try his hand at coloring. So I got some printer paper and taped it to the kitchen counter. Then I gave him the crayons and showed him what to do. Tate had a good time doing this and it kept him occupied for about an hour. He, of course like any todder, tried to eat the crayons a few times but for the most part he scribbled a pretty picture on the paper. Good job Tate!

Tate absolutely loves the dogs and especially Rocky, for some reason. Tate dragged this rug over into the kitchen and Rocky thought it'd be a good place to lay down. And Tate thought Rocky deserved a hug. Rocky is super patient with Tate and lets him roll all over him and never gets aggressive. Cooper on the other hand is a bit smarter and bails the second he sees Tate coming.

Tate loves to help me vacuum which is not so helpful to me but he enjoys it. Throughout the day Tate will go over to where we keep the vacuums and just start pushing them around. I eventually bought him is own vacuum that makes cute sounds and talks. He really likes that but I think he still prefers the real one.

Dusty the Talking Vacuum

Tate loves to hide behind the curtains in our kitchen bay window. If you tell him to go hide he'll do it and stay quiet until you say, 'Where's Tate?'. Then he pops out and says 'Boo!'. Can you see his little feet below the curtains? This kid cracks us up too much.

Here are all the Thueson cousins coloring some Easter eggs. Tate didn't quite understand what to do but the older cousins sure did. The kids had a great time decorating their own eggs and also eating the chocolate for the egg-shaped rice krispie treats.

Here's my nephew Trey showing proof of the delicious chocolate. This was a messy project. After the decorating fun we took the kids to McDonald's to play in the Play Place and they definitely had a blast running off all that sugar.

Tate was ready to do something but he didn't quite understand the whole egg coloring thing. All he cared about was the food in the pantry and the toys in the family room. Typical toddler ;)

The look on Tate's face in this picture is hilarious! We kept asking him to look up at me so I could get a good picture of him with his Easter basket. He was too into his gifts but when he finally looked up I snapped the picture just in time to show the sincere annoyance he felt by this nagging. Classic! Easter morning at our house was fun. When Tate woke up we brought him downstairs and he started finding eggs all over the family room. I filled them with candy, goldfish, and fruit snacks. I thought for sure he'd find them and just put them in his little basket. Nope. He knew to open the eggs and knew that goodies would be inside. I'm not sure where he learned that but it was the source of a serious temper tantrum when we took the eggs away from him. Everytime he'd find an egg he'd open it and stuff his mouth full of treats before we could take the egg away. We wanted him to put it in the basket and go find more eggs. However, he had other ideas. I caught the whole tantrum on film and it'll make for great memories. And let's just say that shortly after waking up he went back down for a nice long nap ;)

I've been teaching swimming lessons about once a week lately and my goggles were in my gym bag and Tate found them. I don't know how he knew that you could wear these things but he really wanted to put them on. Just like a hat he won't leave them on for very long, only long enough to snap a cute picture. Again, this kid cracks us up!

I'm such a procrastinator....

2010-02-01T22:25:00.000-07:00

I'm extremely embarrased that I haven't updated this blog in almost 4 months. So much has happened in our little Tater's life that I don't even know where to begin....I think I'll start with the bugs birthday.

Tate's brithday is on Halloween so we knew we needed to have some sort of costume party. The theme of the party was sports since Tate was going to be a Giants baseball player for Halloween. We dressed him in the cute jersey we bought him in San Francisco this past June and my Mom sinched the bottom of sweats to make little nickers. Then she cut some tights to make sterup socks. He had the full outfit! I asked everyone to come dressed in their favorite sports team outfit or uniform or come in a Halloween costume. I put on my high school basketball jersey and warm up pants and Troy was dressed as a referee. It was such a fun party and I think everyone had an enjoyable time. We bought tailgate party type food like hot dogs, brauts, polish dogs, nachos, peanuts, chicken wings and potato chips and dip and had an all out feast! Here are some pictures.

This is Tate with his buddy Axyl. It was honestly a coincidence that Axyl came dressed as a NY Yankee baseball player. They were so cute together even though their teams of choice are rivals on the field.

This is my crazy Dad dressed as an oil-sheef (I'm not sure how to spell this). I love that my Dad got into the whole dress up thing and my, was he serious! What a crack-up!

Tate was extremely spoiled by everyone as you can see from these pictures. He honestly tripled his toy collection and he will not be getting any toys for christmas, true story. Of course he wasn't into opening any of the toys but his older cousins sure were. For awhile, my nephew Trey sat on my lap to see what I was opening.

These are Tate's cousin's and friends he invited to the party. We had Snow White, a Yankee baseball player, Utah Ute, BYU Cougar, and Michael Jackson. When my nephew Trey, who was dressed as MJ, first came to the party he was dressed in the full MJ look. He had an afro and one sparkly glove; it was classic! But the reaction from everyone made him a bit nervous so he took it off before I could get a good picture. If I had a prize for the best costume he would have won it by a long shot.

This is Tate's 'smash' cake. And my first attempt at making a custom cake. I had so much fun making it I think I'll do it again.

Now here come the fun pictures, Tate eating his smash cake. Here he is before we even handed him the cake; he's so excited.

Once we handed him the cake he wasn't too sure what to think or do. But after awhile he dug right in. I love his expressions in these pictures.

The end result!

I love this picture for some reason. He was covered from head-to-toe in cake so we put him straight into the tub, cake and all. After the bath I'm pretty sure he went right down for a nap and slept for a couple of hours. He was so tired from all that sugar he crashed big time.

After Tate's nap we put him back in his Halloween Giant's costume and headed out to do some trick-or-treating. It was a bit cold that night but it was still a fun Halloween night. My sister-in-law and her kids were in town so we really went trick-or-treating for the kids. It was super fun.

I can't believe Tate has only been in our life for one year. When really it feels like forever. Troy and I always say how we don't know what we did before we had him. It's so true though, life was pretty boring before that we didn't even realize it. Tate is such a joy to have that I sometimes wonder how it would have been with both JP and Tate. Crazy times for sure. Not a day goes by that I don't think about the two of them playing together and how I can't wait for that time to come. Families are Forever!

What we've been up to lately....

2009-10-28T17:52:00.002-06:00

So I've been a super slacker lately and haven't posted anything for over a month...that's pretty slackerish, if that's even a word. So to redeem myself I'm going to do one big entry...assuming Tate doesn't wak up in the next 15 minutes from his nap. Here's hoping....

This month was filled with lots of fun cousin activities. My Mom took us all to Frightmares and the kids had a blast! All the parents were surprised at how well they actually did. And it was the parents that wanted to leave at the end of the night; the kids would have probably been just fine if we stayed a bit longer. Despite how cold it was that evening the kids loved the rides and couldn't get enough. Here are some fun pictures.

Our cute neice Kensley is such a huge helper when it comes to Tate. She is the designated holder of him for family pictures and was so willing and excited to sit with him on the boat ride. Thanks Munchkin!

How cute are these boys?! This was the first ride the kids rode when we got to Lagoon and they all loved it. It's so fun to see these boys play together but I can't help but feel like there is someone missing. We sure miss you JP!!

My sister Natalie's daughter, Miss Independent Olivia.

Oh Blake, I sure love your smile. But behind that smile is a very mischevious boy!! Don't be fooled.

I couldn't resist taking this picture. Tate didn't like this ride so much. And it was a bit cold at this point. He was such a trooper the entire night. Thanks again Munckin for riding with him, you're the best!

My sweet auntie Cheryl holding Tate. We were all trying to stay warm that night, notice Tate's snow gloves; it was that cold.

Tate somehow managed to take a nap during all of this. But I would too if I was all warm and snugglie in a stroller. Too cute.

Me, Tate, and my auntie Cheryl on the train. The kids loved seeing all the fun animals. They actually had a lion! That was neat to see.

This was on our way back to the car at the end of the night. It's hard to see but Tate looked like a teddy bear all rolled up in his blanket. He somehow peed out of his diaper and onto his pants. And I of course didn't bring extra pants; who would? So we wrapped him up in the blanket and shoved him in the stroller. He didn't seem uncomfortable at all. But by time we got home his legs felt like ice cubes. Poor kid.

The next cousin activity we did this month was Witch's Night Out at Gardner Village. That was a fun night. We all dressed the kids up in their Halloween costumes and walked around and looked at the witches. That night was luckily not as cold as the night we went to Lagoon so it was a little more pleasant. The kids had fun, once again. Here are some photos.

All the cousins in their Halloween costumes. From left to right, Trey is a dragon, Olivia is Snow White (her favorite Disney character, at least for that day), Blake as a 'dina' (dinosaur), Kensley as a princess, and Tate is a Giants baseball player. Quite the crowd, right?

This is the Giants jersey Troy and I bought when we went to San Francisco this June. When thinking about his birthday party I thought it'd be fun to have a sports theme. Then we remembered we had this jersey and Halloween and his birthday were planned on the spot! My Mom put the pants together. She just sewed some elastic to the leg bottoms and then we sinched them up to under his knees. Then she cut tights to make the cute classic baseball socks. My Mom is so creative, thanks Mom!

I don't remember what Tate was looking at to make him smile this big but it was adorable!

Maybe this was what Tate was looking at because he was mesmerized by this witch (it's fake of course).

The next cousin activity was the annual 'Walk to Remember' event my Mom, sister Keri, and I have attended since JP passed. It is an event memorializing the babies we have lost; it's a very emotional time. Parents, siblings, grandparents, etc. of babies that have passed too soon get together and enjoy a couple hours of remembrance. We have a quick walk around the cemetery and then let of balloons after your babies names have been said. 'We walk the steps they will never take' is the slogan (or something similar to that). It's a very special day for me and I'm so grateful for my Mom and sis for going with me each year; I appreciate the support.

The afternoon started out by playing at Keri's house in the backyard. Then we went to Macey's for a mini-carnival. Then we went to our regular eating establishment, Eat-A-Burger for lunch. Then it was a quick 20 min. drive to Larkin cemetery in SLC. By this time the kids were sooo over it. We told them that they could hold the balloons if they were good...that sort of helped. I don't blame them for being onery, it was a long exhausting day. And their cousins in heaven appreciate them for coming.

We were standing under this tree when they called 'Baby Domina, Baby girl Domina' so where did they end up when we let go of them, in the tree. Bummer :(

But JP's went in the right direction, thanks Blake for holding onto it and for letting it go to heaven to JP.

Last weekend Troy and I were invited to a fun Murder Mystery dinner at our friends house. We each had characters and dressed up as them. The theme was 'Back to the 80s'. It was such a fun evening. I enjoyed just getting out and having fun with friends, which is something we don't often do without Tate. And won't lie it was fun to dress up like we were in the 80s again. My character was a valley girl and Troy's was a rich yuppie. Here are some pics.

Our Angel is 2!

2009-09-15T23:02:00.003-06:00

Two years ago at 5:34AM an angel was born. JP is two years old today! I cannot believe how quickly the time has gone. Yesterday the memories came flooding back so strong. But what keeps me going is the wonderful knoweldge of eternal families. I love knowing that we'll be with JP again someday and that I won't miss out on anything with him. Having Tate is also a plus and really keeps us focused on the positive. Tate is such a sweet little spirit that when I look into his eyes I feel like JP is also looking back at me. It's an odd feeling to describe but I still feel JP's presence. Not a day goes by that I don't think about him. However, I'm encouraged and optimistic with the thought of our eternal family.

Sunday we celebrated JP's birthday with my family. We had dinner and angel food cake for dessert. Then went up to the cemetery and sang Happy Birthday and let off balloons. It was a nice evening but a little emotional. Yes, Tate was not wearing any pants. And no, that is not a regular thing. Right before we left he pooped through them and all I could find were some plastic pants. 20 years from now we'll look back on these photos and wonder what type of parents we were...awesome!

I took the day off of work today and spent it with my Mom, sister Nat, her daughter Olivia and my other sister Keri's son Blake. We went to the Living Aquarium in Sandy and had a great time. I had never been there and I thought maybe Tate would enjoy it. And he sure did. He enjoyed looking at the big fish in the tanks and all the bright colors. It was nice to spend the day with people I love and it really helped make the day a bit happier.

Behind Tate's left shoulder you can see a little aligator sticking his head out of the water. The little guy just poped his head up as we were leaving so we went back to get a quick picture. We had such a great time and I look forward to going back again.

Tate and I then went back to the cemetery to put some balloons on JP's grave. Tate was loving the flowers and balloons and I got very carried away with the camera but here are some of the cutest ones.

All in all it was a great day and not as emotional as I anticipated. Thanks to all our family and friends for the Happy Birthday wishes for JP. We would not be here if it weren't for your love and support.

Happy Birthday our sweet angel baby! We love you!!!

Family Pictures

2009-08-26T15:06:00.000-06:00

My friend at work took these awesome pictures of our lil family last month. They are simply adorable. I want to post them all so here is a slideshow of the best ones. Thanks again, Candace!

An Update

2009-08-26T09:27:00.014-06:00

It has been an extremely long time since I last updated this and so much has been going on. I neglected to post a blurb about Tate turning 9 months or about our family pictures we just had taken. We also went to Seven Peaks with my family which was a lot of fun. There's obviously no rides Tate can go on but he seemed to enjoy himself just spashin' around in the baby pools. Tate has also started to crawl. He was doing an army crawl at first but now it's evolved into a full-fledge crawl. He's getting quicker at it and he's also pulling himself up onto things. I'm still not sure if I like him crawling around or not but I'm happy to see him developing and learning new things. I guess the next step is walking and I know I'm not ready for that!

Last month we went to his 9 month check-up and he's growing on the charts now. He's no longer underweight which I was happy about. That is due to the fact that I had to stop breastfeeding and not by choice. My milk just stopped coming in so we had to start formula. He luckily took to it really well; he never refused to eat. That was a bitter-sweet moment for me when that happened. I really enjoyed nursing but I also now see the convenience in formula feeding. I now just pack some formula and a bottle and head out to do my errands and if needs be feed him while he's in the carseat. However, I really don't like the cost factor. Formula is so expensive and it's made me even more grateful I was able to breastfeed as long as I did. Tate is still such a happy baby. I love his personality and the way he makes me smile every second. His laugh is also pretty awesome. It's a type of laugh that you just can't help but laugh too; it's very contagious. I sure do love this boy!
Here are a few pictures I took last month. Enjoy!

This is honestly Tate's favorite toy. If there are a group of toys in front of him he'll always grab for this screwdriver. And then he'll crawl around with it hanging out of his mouth. It's the funniest thing ever. Maybe he'll also enjoy working with tools just like Troy....
These are just cute pictures we took of Tate in the Giants jersey we bought when we went to a Giants game. It says it's 18 months but I thought it appropriate for this age too. How awesome does he look?
My Mom bought this little buggy at a garage sale for $5! I brought it home and put Tate in it and this was his first reaction, complete excitement! Check out that mouth! Tate constantly has his mouth wide open even if nothing comes out. It cracks us up. Troy will push Tate around the house in this and Tate just screams and squeals the whole time. Yesterday I took him outside and pushed him around our little cul-de-sac and he really liked that. He thinks he's so awesome in this thing. Good find, Mom.

Here we are at Seven Peaks. Tate really does like the water. It was fun to see him splash around and get wet. He also loves to people watch so this was an extremely enjoyable day for him.
Silly messy face. We're still working on being clean but he's a boy and boys get dirty, right?

I gave Tate one of those Gerber wagon wheel's and he thought it'd be a good idea to stuff the whole thing in his mouth. This is his attempt....crazy kid!

Have you ever seen a baby with bed-head? Just about every morning Tate has bed-head and it's so hilarious. He also always looks nappy after he wakes up from naps or in the morning. I didn't know baby's could look nappy...

I'm goin' private

2009-08-03T12:19:00.003-06:00

Hey all that still look at my blog....I'm going to make my blog private. I've been wanting to do it for awhile now but what pushed me to do this is I just saw on the news a story about a women that was searching on Craigslist and found an adoption ad of her own child!! And the pictures came from her family blog. How horrible is that?! So, if you'd still like to view my blog and I know you, please email me at lonidomina@hotmail.com and I'll add you to the list. I'll give it a few weeks before a actually make it private.

Thanks!

And I'll update my blog later. I have soooo much to update and I've been puting it off for too long. So stay tuned!

8 Months Old

2009-07-01T14:49:00.010-06:00

Our bug is 8 months old and we cannot believe it! Little ones really do grow up so fast. And this little one definitely continues to grow and make us smile each day. Tate is still such a great baby and we love every second about being his parents. Tate's personality is one you have to see first-hand. He is constantly smiling and laughing, no joke. Troy wonders all the time where his personality came from and I have to remind him every time that it definitely came from me. But I don't think I was ever as happy as Tate is. It seems as if Tate knows exactly what to do to make someone smile too. For example, last week I was having the worst night ever. I was still exhausted from our vacation and had a million things to do before bedtime. I was literally being a 'b' word. As I was giving Tate a bath I noticed he was grunting a little and I thought to myself, 'if he poops in this tub I'm going to loose it'. After the grunting stopped, Tate leaned forward to grab a toy and I saw these little poops from behind him making their way to the top of the water. He then looked up at me with the funniest look on his face like, 'look what I did, Mom'. He thought he was SO funny. I then lost it, but in a positive way. I starting laughing hysterically and it immediately got me out of that bad mood. I yelled for Troy to grab the camera and here's the evidence..... He's hilarious, right? This was the first time he had ever done this and what
impeccable timing too.

Tate's bottom front left tooth is starting to cut through and he's just discovered it. He runs his tongue across his gums like he's sticking his tongue out at you. It's cute. I'm surprised he hasn't shown more discomfort from it but he carries on like it's no big deal. I've tried to get a good picture of his tooth but it's a bit tough. So here's the best I can do.

Summertime means swimming time in my family. I took Tate swimming over the weekend and he seemed to enjoy just sitting in this little floaty. A good word to label Tate as is content. He is such a mellow, chill baby, when he's not laughing and smiling. He adapts well to just about anything, but will definitely let you know when he doesn't like something. He looks like such a big boy in this picture. I love him so much!

The past 8 months have been amazing. Troy and I wonder what we ever did before we had Tate. Seriously. It's so much fun having a little one around the house and I'm looking forward to this coming month and seeing what other funny things he does.

Vacations are the best!

2009-07-01T10:53:00.013-06:00

For our anniversary we took our first vacation as a family to visit my Aunt Deb and Uncle Bryson in Gilroy, CA. They've lived there for about 20 years and I've never visited them. So we cashed in our skymiles and flew out there. We had soooo much fun. This was honestly one of my favorite vacations. Tate had his first experience on a plane and he was so great! I was a little, okay, a lot worried about how he'd do but he hardly made a fuss; I had nothing to worry about. I didn't even give him Tylenol before the flight, he stayed occupied with his toys and little puffs. It was awesome.

This vacation was a busy one. When we got home we seriously needed a vacation from our vacation. I've never been to that area of California so I wanted to do as much as we had time for. The day we got there we just hung out at my Aunt and Uncle's house and relaxed a bit. Tate fell asleep on Troy's lap this way. It was just too cute. I tried to keep him up late the night before so he'd sleep on the flight. That sort of worked, but apparently he was still tired.

The next day my Uncle got us tickets to a Giants baseball game. This was something I made plans for earlier but my Uncle was nice enough to get us some extremely good tickets!! I can't thank him enough for the great time we had. We were about 20 rows up, just left of homeplate. We saw Randy Johnson pitch; my heck he's tall! And the Giants won 6-4; it was a super close game. We stayed the whole time and did the ballpark thing; ate hot dogs for dinner. There is nothing like a hot dog from the ballpark. We also bought Tate a cute Giants baseball jersey and wood bat; they are adorable. The Giants is Troy's favorite baseball team so he was in heaven as we watched the game. And I've always loved watching sports so it was a lot of fun for me too. While we went to the game my Aunt and Uncle watched Tate. Thanks so much guys! It was nice to have an evening just to ourselves but of course it felt a little odd not to have Tate with us. Happy Anniversary to us!
After the game we tried to find a place to eat but it was a bit late and not much was open so instead we decided to drive around and find the Golden Gate Bridge. We had no idea that San Fransico's streets were so messed up. We got lost about a dozen times because the street signs weren't the best and it was dark. We eventually found it but it was dark so we couldn't tell how high up we really were off the water. Oh well, at least I can now say I've been to the Golden Gate Bridge. Oh, and that trek cost us $6. When we drove over the bridge going north there was no toll. But when we drove back going south, they charged us...what a rip-off! For all we know there was a sign that said that but we obviously didn't see it along with all the other street signs in San Fransico. Good thing we had cash.

Tate was really great the whole trip. Eventhough his nap schedule was all screwed up he was such a happy little guy. Look at what a big boy he is sitting in this lawn chair. I love his smile!
My Aunt and Uncle have a pool and hot tub in their backyard so we spent some time swimming. The actual pool itself was a bit too cold for me so we swam in the hot tub instead. Tate loves the water. This is my cousin's daughter Chloe. She was so sweet with Tate. It was fun to watch these two play together.

For lunch on Saturday we ate at one of my A/U's friends property. I don't know how much property these people own but it was gorgeous land! It was only about 5 minutes away from my A/U's house in Gilroy and tucked away in the hills. They own a lot of grapevines and sale the grapes to vineyards to make wine. It really felt like we were up in the mountains at some campground. It was so beautiful. This is a great picture of Tate and Troy with some of the grapevines in the background. And just behind me was a man-made pond with real fish swimmin' around. This property was honestly amazing. It was a great afternoon.

On the last day we drove to Santa Cruz and walked the boardwalk. I really wanted to hang out at the beach but we ran out of time. So I settled with just seeing the ocean from a distance. Santa Cruz is a fun little resort town with an amusement park on the boardwalk. And let's not forget all the interesting people everywhere. We did some major people watching on that little trip. And let's just say that the word interesting doesn't describe it well enough.

All in all we had a fantastic time in the garlic capital of the world. And I'd love to go back as soon as possible. I wish we could have had one more day but by the last day I was ready to get back to a routine and get Tate back to his routine. We didn't sleep much the whole trip but it was worth it.

Happy 6th Anniversary!

2009-06-17T14:46:00.007-06:00

Today Troy and I celebrate our 6th year anniversary! I cannot believe it's been 6 years. We have been through a lot for only being married for 6 years. But each trial we have been through has really brought us closer together. They have been some of the most painful trials and I'm so grateful I had Troy right by my side the entire time. I am so grateful for Troy and that he was able to take me to the Temple to be married for time and all eternity. As a result of that simple commitment we made 6 years ago we have JP and Tate and the rest of our children sealed to us forever. I love how Troy makes me feel. Even though he's not the most thoughtful husband, I know he appreciates and loves me. It's the little things he does that makes me realize how much he does love me. I can honestly say that he is my best friend and I can tell him anything, whether he wants to hear it or not. I tend to talk a lot when asked, 'How was your day?' Those of you who know me well have also noticed this, I don't just give a short answer like, 'Oh, it was good'. I like to give a minute by minute playback of my entire day. I don't know why I do it but Troy never seems to mind my rambling, and I thank him for that.
Troy is such a hard working husband. Whether he works long hours to provide our family with the necessities or because he
just really enjoys his job, he's a hard worker. And I'm grateful
for that. Having Tate has really brought us closer together as well. I love hanging out with just the three of us. It's a lot of fun. So to sum it up I pretty much have the best husband in the world and I wouldn't change anything about our past and can only hope our future brings us just as much satisfaction and gratitude. I love you Troy and thank you for an amazing 6 years of marriage!!

Our boy

2009-06-15T17:46:00.011-06:00

I just wanted to take a minute to brag about the bug... Tate is truly the cutest baby I have ever seen, of course I think this because he's my baby but honestly, he's so adorable! I'll admit, I have a bit of a crush on him, is that wrong?! I love his sweet smile and his funny personality. He keeps us laughing constantly. Even when he cries I can get a laugh out of him. He's such a delightful baby and I only hope he carries that with him into his teen years (yea right). His latests thing is to blow raspberries and it's the cutest thing ever. Every night when Troy gets home from work, Tate sees Troy and starts blowin' his raspberries as if that's how he communicates with him. It's so sweet and of course it melts Troy's heart. I just thought I'd post some fun pictures I've taken of him lately and this funny video we took while eating at Texas Roadhouse after the Air Show. I was feeding him real sweet potatoes and he didn't like it so much. Enoy!

The other night I gave Tate a sippy cup. Of course he didn't know that you have to tip your head back to get anything out of it but he sure knew how to hold it. He's growing up so fast.

Tate some how pulled one of his toys off his walker and it's left his walker looking a bit unsafe. Here he is showin' off what he had done, doesn't he look so proud? I better keep an eye on this kid, he's trouble!

And here's the bug just sittin' up like a big boy. He's always so happy. I sure love you, Tate!

The Air Show

2009-06-08T16:41:00.004-06:00

A couple weekends ago we went to the air show at Hill Air Force Base with Keri, Spencer, and Blake. We had a great time. Some how Tate managed to fall asleep during it all. Poor little guy, we went right during his nap time so he was a bit cranky. And it was so sad, once we got closer to the planes, one flew over our heads and scared the poop out of Tate. We even put earplugs in but it didn't do much, at least for that first fly-over. Immediately his bottom lip curled down and he let out the saddest cry. Nearly broke my heart! So for the rest of the show we held him close to us and he seemed to get used to the noise. It was unbelievable how many people were there. We parked so far away we actually walked about 1.5 miles just to get to the actual show. We showed up just in time to see the Thunderbirds; which is pretty much the only reason why people go. It was a beautiful day outside and the sun was sure shining bright. If you've never gone to the air show, it's definitely worth it; it's free entertainment. And if you don't like planes, it was worth going just to people watch. You see some crazy lookin' people at stuff like this; that was entertaining just in itself. Good times...
Those suckers were so fast and I'm not very good at taking pictures. So this is the best shot I took. My sister Keri was a maniac with her camera. She took some awesome pictures of the planes doin' some crazy acrobatic stuff in the air. She should probably teach me how to do that.

7 Months Old Already

2009-06-05T13:54:00.010-06:00

I honestly can't believe that Tate is 7 months old. Where does the time go? I've always heard that little ones grow up fast but I now fully understand what is meant by that. It's amazing at how quickly Tate has changed too. It seems that each week and sometimes each day he has learned something new. We really enjoy watching the new things Tate has learned. His latest thing is eating finger foods, the little puff snacks. He loves those. He's doing such a good job at gummin' em down. He doesn't quite know how to feed himself so for now we're just working on swallowing solid foods. And he's a champ at it. He's also become quite the mischievious little boy when he's in his walker. Let's just say we now need to baby proof the house. Tate is also getting really good at sitting up by himself. He still falls over sometimes but when that happens he doesn't cry or make a fuss. He's pretty tough; he's definitely a boy! Tate has the best laugh and will laugh at anything and smile at any one. He's such a sweet little boy. I love love love being a Mom and look forward to having more little Domina's running around (not any time soon, don't assume anything).

Tate loves our dogs, Rocky and Cooper. Rocky is really interested in Tate and likes to sit by him when he's on the floor. But Cooper is pretty indifferent and doesn't pay much attention to him. It's fun to see Tate interact with the dogs now. On Memorial Day we of course went to the cemetery to visit JP. It was such a beautiful day and we spent it with just our little family. After the cemetery we took the dogs to the dog park and it looked like they enjoyed it. But they only lasted about 20 minutes in the sun; it was a hot day. Then we went to dinner and headed home to watch a movie and eat some popcorn. I sure love my family.

How cute is Tate sittin' up like a big boy by his big brother? He was so awesome that entire day.

Just a cutie!
One night Rock curled up to the boppy like it was his bed. I no longer use the boppy for feedings, it's now a prop for when Tate is sitting up; it catches him when he falls back. But Rock thinks it's for him, silly dog.
This is how Tate is honestly 90% of the time. He's constantly laughing and always has his mouth wide open. He cracks us up.
He's so awesome and so handsome. We love you Tater Bug!

We Run With Angels

2009-05-22T14:45:00.008-06:00

This past weekend my family ran in a 5K, 'Running With Angels' at Thanksgiving Point. It was so much fun. I am not a runner by any means, I actually hate running and don't feel any enjoyment while doing it. The only running I can handle is when I'm playing sports. This was the first race I have ever done and I'll admit, it was quite satisfying. I didn't run the entire thing; I pushed Tate in a jogger stroller and man was that tiring. That's probably why I enjoyed it so much, I didn't run the whole time. It was also satisfying because we were running for a good cause. The run was in honor of the babies we've lost. So of course we ran in honor of JP. The whole time I was running I kept thinking about him and imagined him cheering us all on. The weather that day was absolutely perfect and the rest of the day Troy and I felt accomplished. I really look forward to doing this as an annual thing with my family. It meant a lot to me to have them doing this with us. Troy did an awesome job and actually placed 86th overall. He's never done a race like this before either and he ran like a champ. We're both thinking we'd like to do another one this summer....only a 5K though. Anything more than that I think is a bit ridiculous at this point. And I'd like to actually run it this time.
I felt it appropriate to dress Tate in some exercise clothes, I didn't want him to feel left out. This is the first time he's ever had these cute, 'Weebok' shoes on. He was such a good kid that day. He actually fell asleep in the stroller while I was running and I don't blame him. We had to wake him up so early to get there. Love you buddy!
Here we are before the race began.

Here's my fantastic Mom about to cross the finish line with my nephew Blake. Pushing a stroller is hard work, good job Mom!
Hooray, we crossed the finish line! Of course this was taken afterwards ;) Don't ask what place I took, what is important is that I finished a race!

Cute Tater bug after the race. He loved sitting in the grass. It was such a great day to be outside. Tate was excited to do this for his big bro, JP.

Troy and Tate, I love these guys soooo much!

The race really wore Tate out...he fell right to sleep the second we put him back in the carseat. What a trooper!

20 months ago....

2009-05-15T13:59:00.003-06:00

My mind is so clouded today and I can't seem to focus on much. So I thought I'd write down my thoughts and hopefully clear up how I'm feeling. 20 months ago I bore a beautiful angel. To this day the images and emotions are so strong. I haven't cried about this in a while but lately I'm having a hard time holding back the tears. Mother's Day was especially a bitter-sweet day. I of course love being a Mom to Tate but I can't help but think what it'd be like if JP were still with us. Would we have had Tate so quickly afterward? Or would he have come later? The answer to that doesn't really matter, what matters is that I do have them now. On Mother's Day we took flowers to JP's grave and I saw the sweetest thing ever. I have a dear friend who's son also passed away around the time JP did; he's buried close to him. Someone put a sign on her son's grave that said 'I love you Mommy! I'll see you soon. Love Baby Blu' (his name is Mavryk Blu). When I saw this I couldn't help but cry a bit. I would give anything to have JP with me during this time but I'm grateful I will eventually have a chance. And I will hear those same words from him, 'I love you Mommy!'.
I truly can't imagine my life without my family. I'm humbled every day to think that Heavenly Father trusts me enough to raise Tate on this earth. I'm also humbled to know that just when I think I have control of my life, he pulls me back to reality. If JP were with us I imagine he'd be walking, talking, laughing, and most importantly making his Mom and Dad proud. I don't know why my heart is still so hurt by this and that by having Tate here doesn't make it easier to go through. The fact of the matter is, is that I've lost a son and for the time being I don't know why. Don't get me wrong, I feel extremely blessed to have Tate but I sometimes wonder what it would be like with both of them here. I like to think Tate has a little bit of JP in him; he certainly looks like him. But I wonder if Tate is such a sweatheart because he wants me to know that JP loves him and is sorry for leaving so soon. I don't want to say that I deserve an easy baby but, yeah, I sort of feel I do. Sorry, I said it. When Tate looks up at me with those beautiful blue eyes I feel I can see JP looking back at me too. I know I'll experience all these fun milestones with JP someday but lately it's been so emotional to see Tate go through them. I've wanted a baby for so long and now that I finally have one, I'm reminded everyday how much I'm blessed. That pretty much sums it up, I feel so blessed to have had JP and to now have Tate. And most importantly I feel so blessed to be sealed to both of them. We are a family, a family forever! I love you JP and Tate. You two bring me so much joy each day and you make me proud to be your Mom.

The bug turns 6 months old

2009-05-07T09:24:00.007-06:00

This is kind of a late post since Tate turned 6 months last week....but better late than never, right? Tate is still such a delight and is constantly happy. He keeps us laughing every second and I think he knows it too. For example, this morning for some reason Tate decided to wake up at 5:00am. But he didn't wake up crying, he woke up laughing and cooing to himself. Troy went in to check on him and he had flipped over to his back and was playing with his binki. He looked up at Troy and gave him a laugh and smile like, what's up Dad? What are you doing? Troy said it was pretty hilarious. He's just too funny.

Last week we went to his 6 month check-up. I've always thought Tate looked small but the doc. confirmed that by saying he's in the 13% for his weight :( He only weighs 15.2 lbs and is a little over 25 inches. He's just a little guy. That just seems crazy to me because I feel like I'm feeding the kid all the time. The doc. said there is nothing to worry about. But if he doesn't put on some weight by 9 months, then we'll need to worry. I'm trying not to sweat it; I'm just sticking with what I've been doing all along and Tate will eventually start putting on the pounds.

Tate loves eating his solid foods. He gets soooo mad if I don't have the spoon ready with more food right after he's taken a bite. He also hates waiting for me to get the food ready. He's not the most patient baby. Here's proof....he cracks me up. I still love every second about being a Mom. I'm still able to work from home and it's working out really well. I've got Tate on a pretty good napping schedule and when he's not napping he's playing in his walker, or playing on his play mat. I feel soooo blessed to be able to do this and can't imagine doing anything else.

This past weekend we drove down to Henderson, NV to take part in a baby blessing for our nephew Connor. Tate was so good in the car but the second we left St. George he lost it. The last time we drove down there he got upset right after St. George too, crazy pattern. So for about 60 minutes straight he cried. That wasn't fun. I'll be honest though, I did give in and take him out of his carseat for about 20 minutes and held him until he fell asleep. I know it's not safe but it had to be done. And the second I put him back in he cried. Other than that he was great! It was nice to see Troy's family again and the weather was fantastic. Unfortunately, I didn't get any layout time but it was still nice to be someplace warm. The pool was a little too cold for Tate so we hung out in the hottub. He loved it. Well I shouldn't say he loved it, he was indifferent. We dunked him a few times and he didn't make a fuss. I'm hoping he'll be our little swimmer boy....so far so good. He freaks out (in a good way) during bathtime; kicks and splashes like a maniac. I'm excited for this summer and all the pool time we're going to have. He'll be doin' the butterfly in no time!!

I do have a little story to tell that I'm sure I'll be talking about for years. On Saturday I jumped in the hottub to save our nephews. It's not really as heroic as it sounds. They weren't exactly drowning; one of them just slipped off the step and grabbed the nearest thing, his cousin. So they were both struggling. Anyway, instinct kicked in and I jumped in not even realizing I had my cell phone and new camera in my pockets. Once I got out I emptied my pockets and then realized what I'd done. I was so angry at myself and I still am. The lamest part is I could have just reached over and grabbed them but nope I had to play hero. Luckily cameras and cell phones are replaceable but cute nephews are not. I'm happy to say I've already replaced both items and everything is back to normal. Hopefully, next time I'll think before I jump in!!

The photo-shoot

2009-04-08T09:54:00.005-06:00

I took Tate about a month and a half ago to Mar Del Photography to get his pictures taken. I saw an ad in the mail for 'Model Search'. So I called and made an appointment. I was thinking actual model agencies were going to be there but what the ad really meant was they were looking for new models for their studio. It's all good cause they took some awesome pictures that will be used in their studio and I think some advertisements. He was such a good kid that day. For the most part he was happy and smilin' but near the end he lost it. You could tell he was done changing outfits and posing. I was only able to pick so many from the shoot (it was quite expensive) but here are the ones I purchased. I can't get enough of this kid...can ya tell?

The little man is 5 months old

2009-04-01T14:55:00.012-06:00

Tate is so awesome, need I say more?! He is such a delight to have and I can't believe he's already 5 months old. If he's already such a happy kid now I can only imagine what he'll be like when he's older...I hope the happiness never ends!! He keeps us laughing constantly and he's always got a smile on his face. We've been working on sitting up lately and it's going okay. He prefers to be standing though, which I think I helped enstill in him by putting him in the walker everyday. I wonder if he'll ever learn to sit up then? Also, we think he is teething. His fist is constantly in his mouth and he's fussing while doing it. And there is a constant stream of drool coming from his mouth, not pleasant. I've given him some baby orajel (the best creation ever) and it seems to calm him right down everytime. It doesn't look like he's cutting any teeth but something definitely is hurting him. I feel bad for the little guy. Oh, his goopy eye went away, YEAH! It was honestly a miracle. It went away on the day he turned 5 months old, so crazy. So no more wiping it every morning and throughout the day. I am so happy about that and I'm sure he can feel a difference. He no longer looks poor ;)

This Sunday he had his first shot at solids, rice cereal. We didn't think he'd like it but WOW did he get mad if I didn't give it to him fast enough. Seriously. He'd get a bit fussy the second the spoon left his mouth. Of course he didn't understand how to swallow but he definitely understood that what he was being given was food, and he liked it. After every spoonful he'd look over at Troy seeking for approval of something. It was so sweet. Honestly for his first time I don't think it was too bad. I think he is definitely ready for some real solid foods. How sad my boy is growing up. Here's a video of it.

Troy finished the bassinet he was making for Tate, and it's awesome! He did such a fantastic job on it and I think Tate enjoys it too (he sleeps really well now). He still sleeps in our room but in the bassinet. Once it gets a bit warmer then I'll consider moving him into his crib. It's just too cold still (the house cools down to 65 degrees at night). He is at least now taking naps in his crib, which he is doing so well at. Here's the bassinet Troy made. He detailed it and all, such craftmanship. He of course thinks it could have been better but I think for his first time it's pretty dang good. But we are always our worst critics, right?

The weather was awesome when I got home from work yesterday so I strapped Tate on with the Snugli and put the dogs on their leash and we all headed out for a nice walk. It was a little windy, I should have known, but it was a lot of fun. Our first walk of the season, there is nothing like it. My legs were definitely burning when I got home. I couldn't tell if Tate enjoyed it or not. He didn't make a peep the whole time, so that could be a good indication. P.S. isn't his hat adorable! I bought it at the Gap outlet in Park City. So rad!

Tate and I visited JP's grave the other day. I love this photo. His grave is all decorated for Spring and Easter. While we all miss JP a bunch I still feel like he's always with us. It's so comforting to know we'll get to experience all these fun things with JP one day, too. Families are forever!

And here are just some recent photos I've taken. It's much easier to just put them in a slideshow, so enjoy!

Tate's poor eye

2009-03-26T18:26:00.005-06:00

This is what Tate looks like when he wakes up in the morning and from naps. He has a clogged tear-duct and the doc says it'll go away as he gets older. It's only in his right eye and it's the saddest looking thing ever. People comment about it all the time and I just say, there's nothing I can do about it. All I can do is wipe it every morning and throughout the day. It's so goopy and does look like he's a poor kid, but it's only temporary. Hopefully it'll go away soon. Just thought I'd post this silly picture.

Tate is walking....in his walker

2009-03-18T09:17:00.005-06:00

Here's our little man walking around in his walker. He cracks us up. It's so funny to watch him run into things and run after the dogs. Seriously, he'll look at Cooper and then b-line it towards him. Cooper of course runs away to avoid the collision. Anyway, just wanted to share the video. Notice the large spit up hangin' out of his mouth when the video is over...I guess it was too much for his little tummy. Enjoy!

4 Months Old

2009-03-13T13:16:00.016-06:00

This post is just a little late, but I just had to share some new stuff about Tate. I can't believe how much Tate has changed in 4 months and that he's already 4 months old. He is still such a pleasant baby. He sleeps well, eats well and yep, still poops well. He has the funniest personality too. Troy likes to say he has my personality and he's glad he does...I'm also glad he does. He laughs when you tickle him, it's probably the cutest thing you've ever heard. And he smiles when he sees you, and that's probably the most rewarding site ever, it makes my day. It's also cute when he babbles back to you as if he's carrying on a conversation. It's just so fun to see him do new things and it's honestly everyday that he does something new. One day I caught Tate sucking his thumb. Naughty little guy. He hasn't done it in a while but here's proof that he once sucked his thumb. The cutest part is how he sucked it, just look at the picture, so funny. He also once sucked on his thumb through his binkie (it's the soothie kind of binkie). Now that was cute. He has developed the biggest bald spot on the back of his head, it's hilarious. But he's seemed to maintain the hair below the bald spot, that's the really funny part. I'll definitely need to take a picture of that cause it looks so funny. The dang kid won't stop rubbing his head on things, his hair will never grow back if he doesn't stop...oh well. I love everything about being a Mom and having Tate in our home has been such a spiritual experience. I still feel as if JP is around and it's not just the 3 of us, we are a family of 4. When people ask if Tate is my first, I'm not afraid to say, nope, I have one other son...but he was stillborn. It doesn't change anything for me, I'm technically a Mom of 2 and I love it. I just only have to deal with one...for now ;)

We went to Tate's 4 month well baby check-up and he's growing perfectly. He weighs 14lbs and is 25 inches long. He's such a growing strong boy. The Pediatrician said we could start him on rice cereal but I think it's too early for that. So we haven't tried. Is that wrong? I'm thinking we'll start all that when he's around 5 1/2 months old. I told the doc. he is still sleeping in our room in a bassinet and asked if that was okay and he suggested to have him in his own room at 6 months. I'm okay with that. I just don't feel comfortable with him sleeping in his own room, yet. He sleeps through the night for about 6 hours and then walks for a feeding. I'm working on breaking him of that and it's definitely getting better. What's funny is he's almost out-grown his bassinet so Troy is working on building him a new one. Troy has become quite the carpenter these days. He loves to build things so I suggested he build Tate a new bassinet and he's just about finished. I'll post pictures once it's done.
Here is Tate in a new toy, a jumper. He doesn't quite understand how it works but he's at least happy to sit in it. I'm sure he'll catch on in no time and he'll be bouncin' all over the place. He still loves his walker and he definitely pushes it by himself now. He's honestly a maniac in it. I took a video of him on Troy's cell phone but the quality is super bad. I'll figure something else out cause I have to share the video, you won't believe that he's only 4 months old and cruising around like a toddler. It's so fun to see him show interest in toys now, he's really growing up. One thing I haven't been good about is tummy-time. He just hates it so I don't bother doing it a whole lot. I shouldn't say he doesn't get any time on his tummy, he does, just not as much as he probably should. Anyone have some good advice for me about that? When are babies usually supposed to roll-over? I've put him on his tummy on top of the boppy before and he didn't seem to mind that but I don't think that helps him learn to roll-over. He gets time on his back just not his tummy so I guess I'm allowing him to experiment a little, but he's just not interested (listen to me justify). He'd rather run around in his walker. So maybe he'll learn to walk before he crawls? JK.

Another new thing he's learned is to sit in a little seat (not sure what it's called). He won't sit in it for too long but it's something new.

And here are just some fun pictures I've taken recently.

The most recent standing photo. I just love this outfit, of course another church outfit. I found this and one other tie at the Children's Place. Now is the only time to get these for little boys. He is the most stylin' 4 month old around. I think the highlight of my day is to dress him. I just love baby boy clothes, they are so stinkin' cute.
Whenever we change Tate's diaper he holds onto the sides as if it's a ride. He's done this ever since he was born. He cracks me up.

Troy and Tate after Church. They are just about the cutest boys I've ever seen.
I had to carry this laundry basket and Tate downstairs but couldn't quite do both with one in each arm. So I had to impruvise. I could tell Tate thought I was a bit ridiculous but he didn't make a fuss.

Gotta love new toys

2009-02-23T11:46:00.018-07:00

Tate loves this excer-saucer/walker. He's always loved to stand up so this thing is perfect. He actually started to move around, just a little, but he was using his legs. It's great to just put him in this instead of his bouncer chair or swing. I've always been worried about him getting a flat head from those things, so the excer-saucer is awesome. He's so grown up. We didn't think he'd be strong enough to stand up in this but he's such a champ. Here's a few more pictures of his introduction to his new toy...

Here's the first picture I took of him in his new toy, he looks a bit scared, so funny. Too cute!

Watch out, he'll run your toes over!

The last three pictures are just so sweet. The first one he's looking at the toy in awe, then his expression turns to, oh, you're not so bad. Then it's an all out smile...so adorable!

And here are just some sweet pictures I took while we were in Las Vegas visiting Troy's brother Cary and wife Amy over President's Day weekend. Which by the way was a lot of fun. The drive down wasn't too bad either. Until we got to St. George and Tate was over it. He started crying like someone pinched him or something. It was extremely intense but it was because he was sick (yes, his third cold) and super hungry. So we had to pull over and feed him to calm him down. We felt soooo bad, we really had never heard him cry like that before. But once he was feed, he was all better.
So sweet. Troy loves to take naps with Tate. Tate had to sleep with us in bed...so rough! I'm so glad we don't do this every night at home. I didn't sleep well the entire weekend because I was too paranoid I'd roll over Tate. And I was just worried cause he was sick and coughing most the night.
I just love this picture. Tate loves to take baths but hates to get out. I'm surprised we got such a big smile out of him right after. I love this kid!

This is our nephew Mason. He just loved on Tate the entire time we were there and asked me if he could hold him. He actually told his Mom that he couldn't 'wait to get older and have one of these of his own, so he could always hold it'. Mason is just so sweet and actually, his Mom just had a baby boy on Tuesday morning, the day after we left. Welcome baby Connor! So Mason, you've got a little brother now that you can always hold. Thanks for being so sweet to Tate, he sure loves you.

Professor Domina

2009-02-10T15:03:00.007-07:00

Sunday I dressed Tate in this little outfit for church, thanks Keri for the jacket, it's adorable! We had so many people come up and say how cute he looked. And if you can't tell his undershirt has a little tie on it. He honestly looks like a toddler, not a 3-month old. I love dressing this kid, it's so much fun. And notice the drool marks on his collar and rolling down his chin. He's become such a drool monster. If this is any indication of what it'll be like when he's teething, I want nothing to do with it. He's constantly drooling! And we're always covered in spit. But of course, it's still adorable. Also, he looks bald in these pictures, but he's not. He's only bald on the back of his head. It looks so funny. From the front it looks like he has a full head of hair until you turn him around and then bam! there's a bald-spot...poor kid. But I hear it happens to the best of 'em.

These other pictures are of him standing in his crib. Troy of course was standing off to the side to make sure he wouldn't fall. I just had to get a better picture of how awesome his outfit was. Thanks Megan for the shirt, it's freakin' rad. How awesome is this kid, if he started to slouch, he'd use his legs to stand back up...no lie! His legs are so strong. He loves to stand. He likes to be stood up if he is ever fussy, he actually prefers it sometimes. I wonder if he'll walk before he crawls...hey, it could happen. And he put his arm up on the side all by himself. My crap I love this kid!!

What we've been up to lately...

2009-01-23T21:24:00.009-07:00

Tate has been growing so fast! It's so freakn' sad. Poor kid has had a cold this week. I feel sooo bad for him. This is actually the second one he's had. He had one over Christmas and he was a bit miserable. This cold doesn't seem to bother him too much though. He sounds worse than he looks and acts. Between coughs and sniffles he smiles, it's so sweet. I love this little guy. I had to take him to the pediatricians on Tuesday cause his cough was getting pretty bad. They weighed him and he's weighing in at 13 lbs. 5 oz. now. I wasn't kidding he's a growing boy, right? Did I mention that I love this kid? He's still such an easy baby. He sleeps well, eats well, and I guess poops well...if that's possible. Everyday I'm amazed by how much I enjoy taking care of him. Not that I ever thought I wouldn't, it just brings me such joy. Nothing else really matters to me anymore. At first it was a little rough getting into a routine but I think I have it down now. I've figured out what he likes and what he doesn't like. I've learned that he loves his swing. Sometimes he enjoys it more than me holding him...which is fine. I'm able to get a lot done if I just put him in the swing. He also likes his bouncer chair. But most importantly he loves me. He calms right down when I pick him up, it's so sweet. Thankfully, I get to work from home on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I know I won't always be able to work from home but for the time being, it's such a blessing. Until that day comes when I can just stay at home everyday, I have a fantastic friend that watches him on the days I do have to go to the office. Thanks Em.

Let's see what else has happened...oh! Troy finally graduated. It's been so nice to have him done with school. I'm so proud of him. Actually his diplomas arrived in the mail today. He was so stocked. The best thing about him finishing school is that he's home more...NOT! It seems like he's home less now then when he was in school. It's real crappy. I hope that will change soon cause he's missing out on his son growing up. I think that's about it. Here are some fun pictures of the little guy. Enjoy.

The other day when I was working from home I put Tate on the floor for tummy time. He fell asleep and Rocky came right over to him and cuddle up for nap. They stayed there for over an hour all cuddled up. It was sooo sweet. I've been a little worried that Rocky and Cooper are jealous of Tate but apparently, they are just fine.

A couple weekends ago the power turned off at our house from 8:00 pm to 11:30 am the next day. We didn't want Tate to get cold so we put him in bed with us. The house got down to 56 degrees, brrr, so I put this beanie on him, he looks so cute. That night was just strange. I didn't sleep very well I was too worried about Tate keeping warm.

Tate had to get shots at his 2 months check-up. This picture was obviously taken once we got home but it depicts what it was like at the doctor's office. Poor kid.

Christmas and family fun

2009-01-23T19:17:00.010-07:00

Wow, it's been a super long time since I've posted anything and after multiple requests for new pictures of Tate, here you go. Where do I begin...Christmas. Christmas was great. We spent it with my family at my Uncles' house in Park City. It was soooo much fun. The house was amazing, the scenery was beautiful (when you could see it through the snow storm) and the company was...just okay. Just kidding. It was nice to be with my family for the holiday. However, this Christmas was a little emotional. It was so wonderful having Tate with us but it really made me miss JP. I couldn't help but think and feel like he was with us though. I love JP and there isn't a day that doesn't go by that I don't think about him. Everyday with Tate is fantastic and I honestly feel like JP is with us as well. We have pictures of JP all over our house and there is one in particular that Tate stares at all the time. It's so sweet. Everytime he does it I want to cry, it's the sweetest thing. If he's fussy, he'll calm down once he looks at it (tear).

Okay, I'm getting off topic here, I'm supposed to be talking about Christmas. Where was I...we were literally snowed in on Christmas day which wasn't a problem since there was plenty to do at my Uncles' house. And my Mom rented snowmobiles. So after opening presents we took the snowmobiles out on the streets and had some fun. Troy has never been on a snowmobile. I think he had fun...it's hard to tell with Troy sometimes. Everything to him is 'alright'. Anyway, long story short, Christmas was awesome. Here are a few pictures from the weekend.

Oh, I'm sorry I look so nappy in this picture. Good morning sunshine.

Of course, some more pictures of Tate

2008-12-18T10:50:00.004-07:00

Thanks to my friend Lynnley Robertson for having these pictures taken of Tate. As a baby gift she hired her step-sister Nicole to come and take pictures of Tate at home. They turned out wonderfully and I love them to pieces, so thanks a bunch Lynnley!! Nicole did such a great job with these and we had so much fun. You can check out Nicole's blog at http://nicolecarmanphotography.blogspot.com/. Tate was so great for the photo-shoot. He just chilled and did what we wanted him to do. He only peed on me twice too (once in my hair-hilarious!). This kid serioulsy needs to be in modeling or on a box of Gerber baby food. Does anyone know any agents? Of course I'm a bit biased in thinking that, but it could be worth a shot. Enjoy the slideshow of photos...

This kid is too cute!!

2008-12-14T21:52:00.004-07:00

Today was the first day back to church and Tate could not have looked more adorable. I love love love this picture of him. He just started to smile, without it being gas, and I asked him to give me a smile for this picture and this is the result, so awesome. Tate is seriously the best baby ever. But I'm sure it's not going to last forever, but we're lovin' it for the time being. Here are some more pictures I took today.

Tate the model...

2008-12-05T09:37:00.007-07:00

A couple weeks ago Troy and I took Tate to get his pictures taken at Kiddie Kandids, he was 3 weeks old. They turned out so so cute and I just wanted to share (show-off) how adorable this kid is. Trying to take these pictures was a riot. When we got there he was fast asleep and wouldn't stay in any of the cute poses the photographer put him in. So some of the pictures he's asleep and then the others he's wide awake. Once we took his clothes off to take the photo with Troy holding him, he decided to stay awake the rest of the time. p.s. take a moment to laugh at how large he looks in that picture, he doesn't quite fit on Troy's forearm. I've always known he was a big baby but for some reason when he was posed like that he looked more like a 3 month old. Either way he's so cute! We had so much fun getting these done. Enjoy!

Tate's Blessing Day

2008-12-03T19:12:00.004-07:00

Since Troy's family was out here for Thanksgiving we thought it'd be a good idea to bless Tate too. Troy did a great job and it was a very emotional day for me. I'm not sure if Troy thought it was emotional at all but I got a little teary-eyed during the blessing. I've waited so long for that day and it finally came. After we had JP I couldn't stand to attend a Sacrament Meeting that had a baby blessing, it was just too hard. But as time has passed I'm okay with it. And now that I've attend my own sons' blessing I'm of course okay with baby blessings now. I'm so grateful that Troy was able to bless Tate and I'm grateful for the special day we had. Of course the batteries in my camera died so we were only able to get one picture taken. We took more pictures on our video camera but I'm not able to get them off until I finalize the disc. So for now we only have this one picture :(

Thanksgiving fun

2008-12-03T18:24:00.006-07:00

Thanksgiving this year was at our house with Troy's whole family. They all drove out from Carson City, Reno and Las Vegas to come and enjoy the feast, and boy was it a feast. There was so much food it was awesome. It's amazing how a meal can take up to 5 hours to prepare and then be devoured in 5 minutes; Thankgiving is great! Tate was showing his support of Thanksgiving by wearing this adorable shirt my friend Brittany gave us, Little Turkey, so cute! The weekend was filled with lots of food, football and shopping; three of my favorite things. My sister-in-laws were brave and woke up at 4 AM on black friday to go to Walmart for some early Christmas shopping. One of my sister-in-laws is 6 months pregnant and went. She was being pushed around and said to a guy, 'please stop I'm 6 months pregnant'. And the guy said, 'I wish I had that excuse', as if she was lying; what a jerk! They luckily all made it home safely and will probably rethink going shopping on black friday next year. Here are a few photos from the weekend:

Our nephew Drue, niece Hayley and nephew Brady. The kids were so great and kept themselves entertained the entire time. We have such fun nieces and nephews.

Tate and his cousin Maverick. Maverick is a little over 3 months old and Tate is 1 month old...yes I have a large son.

Grandpa Domina and Tate, so cute.

The first week home

2008-11-19T20:45:00.006-07:00

Can I just say how in love with Tate I am. He is such an awesome and easy going baby I almost feel too lucky. He pretty much sleeps all day and doesn't really cry. He gives a little fuss when it's time to eat and that's about it. The other morning I actually sat by the bassinet waiting for him to start crying but he didn't. He only squirms and squeals a little to let me know it's time, so cute! Also, he only wakes up once during the night. It's almost too good to be true and I'm just waiting for it to all change any day now. So I luckily get in some good naps during the day, that's my favorite part of the day, cuddling up with Tate. Here are some fun pictures I've taken this week. This kid is too cute!!

When I change Tate's diaper he holds onto the side of the changing table as if he's holding on for dear life.

Rocky and Cooper don't mind Tate too much. I actually think they like him. I've actually caught Rocky sitting by the swing when Tate starts fussing. Rock will look up at him and then at me as if to tell me that he needs me, it's sweet.

Troy is pretty proud of Tate too. He loves laying Tate on his chest and taking a nap. It's pretty darn cute to see these two together; I'm a lucky lady.

Here's Tate doing some tummy time. He's getting pretty strong and can lift his little head up. But he hasn't quite mastered the soft landing back on the ground.

And these pictures are just super cute. Aunt Lorie bought him this outfit and I didn't think it'd fit him yet but he's bigger than I thought. FYI, we went to the pediatrician today and he weighs 9 lbs. 15 oz....rather large!! But dang is he cute!

Hooray, he's home!!

2008-11-11T19:41:00.009-07:00

Hip hip hooray he's finally home! Troy and I were able to bring Tate home this afternoon and it's been a fantastic day. This past Sunday they took out his feeding tube and said he could go on an ad-lib feeding schedule. This means he wakes up when he's hungry, usually every 3 1/2 - 4 hours. His glucose numbers aren't such an issue anymore so for the past few days we were working on feeding without using the feeding tube. That was hard, he sleeps a lot and usually during feeding time he'd be asleep so they'd have to finish the feeding with the feeding tube, this made it almost impossible to get him on a feeding schedule. But he's figured it out now and he's a good eater. It's so nice to finally be home and in a comfortable and familiar environment. The hopsital was okay but it just wasn't the same as being at home. Tate was so great in the car on the drive home, he slept the entire time. Last night I had to 'room-in' at the hospital before we were able to bring Tate home. The purpose of rooming in is to ensure that the baby is ready to be taken care of by the parent and be away from the hospital...sounds kind of silly but the babies that come from the NICU are pretty special and usually need extra attention and care (Tate isn't the typical NICU baby). At first I was terrified to do this, all by myself, I didn't think I'd be able to handle it. But the little Tater only woke up once during the night and was only awake for about 2 hours and then went right back to sleep until about 9:00 am. He seriously sleeps all the time. This doesn't make it very easy for feeding time though. You'd think for such a big kid he'd be waking up every hour to eat, but nope, he'd rather sleep. So that's the latest, we're home and so happy to be here. When we got home we let the dogs take sniff and peek at him in his car seat and they were actually pretty excited to see him. They haven't been too bothered by him since he's been here either, it's great. When he cries the don't do much, I thought for sure Cooper would be bugged by the sound but it doesn't. So, so far so good!! Here are some adorable pictures I've taken while he's been in the hopsital, enjoy.

Look at how many things were hooked up to the little guy. Poor kid had to spend his first 11 days of life with all this hooked up on him. He was a champ the entire time though.
Troy washed Tates' hair and he loved it! He was in heaven. It's hard to tell by this picture but Troy slicked his hair back. I thought he looked pretty silly but Troy thought he looked like he could kick some butt.
After they removed the direct line from his belly button they gave Tate a big boy bed; he had graduated.

An update and some pictures

2008-11-03T16:51:00.012-07:00

I figured I'd take this time and update everyone on how Tate is doing. Some may already know that he's still in the NICU at the hospital. He's okay, he just has low blood sugar and they need to monitor him closely to make sure his body can regulate the sugar on its own. He's been in there since Friday evening and they won't say how much longer he'll be. Because it's all up to him; the nurses can only do so much to help. In order for him to come home he must have two good glucose readings in a row that are higher than 60 within a 6 hour period (hope that makes sense). If he meets that goal they decrease the sugar intake by .5 CC's. He's making really great progress, it's just a slow process, unfortunately. So for now we're just being patient and catching up on sleep before he gets to come home. I'm extremely grateful for the care he's been given while he's been in the NICU, the nurses are so sweet and attentive. It's nice to know that when I'm not there he's in good hands. Luckily Troy and I are able to go up every 3 hours and feed him, not much is coming of it because he's just so tired, he falls asleep everytime I hold him (it's super sweet). But we're at least able to hold him during that time.

I won't get too detailed with how the delivery went so I'll make it short and sweet. We were admitted to the hospital on Thursday night at 7:15 pm. They started me around 8:00pm with some 'stuff' to soften my cervix. They gave me about 3 doses of that and my water broke around 5:30 am, Friday morning. Within a matter of minutes I started having super bad contractions so I asked for the epidural :) The contractions starting coming really quick and close together but they didn't seem to effect Tate too much. But just as a precaution they gave me some oxygen. After my water broke I was only dilated to a 2 but because my contractions were coming so quick my body knew how to dilate on its own so they didn't have to give me any pitocin. By about 10:30 am I was dilated to a 10 but Tate hadn't dropped down as much as they'd like so the nurses said I could try pushing but I'd most likely be pushing for a long time. We gave it a shot and within about 3 pushes Tate was right there; he was ready to come. So the nurse went to get the doc. and within about 2 more pushes he was out! It was amazing! At first they were nervous I'd need a c-section because of his size but I pushed that kid right out like a champ (yes, I'm a bit proud). The whole delivery experience was so emotional. The second I heard him cry I couldn't help but cry as well. All the emotions of last year with JP just came flooding back in and I was so overwhelmed with joy; we finally have a son. When they put Tate on my chest I couldn't help but feel JP in the room with us. He helped in getting Tate here and I'm so thankful for that. He's a good big brother and I know he's right there with Tate pushing him right along. Speaking of JP, Tate looks a lot like him. The biggest similarity is the hair. Some how both our boys have tons and tons of hair. We actually think Tate is going to need a haircut soon, it hangs over his ears already. It's super adorable. The nex similarity is the nose and chin. I look at Tate and I see JP, it's very special. So that's that, short and sweet. Here's some pictures of the event:

He's HERE!

2008-10-31T14:35:00.003-06:00

This is Keri updating for Loni and Troy. Baby Tate arrived at 11:00 this morning. He was a whopping 9 lbs 3 oz and 22 inches long! We knew he wouldn't be small, but holy smokes he's a big baby! I'll let Loni post about delivery details, just wanted to share with everyone that he's here, healthy and beautiful! Mom, Dad and baby are doing great and should be home Sunday morning.

I'll post some more pictures later, my camera was not working this morning :( and this one is from my cell phone. It doesn't do him justice, but he has TONS of dark hair - he's perfect!

A Halloween Birthday!!

2008-10-30T09:40:00.004-06:00

This past Monday Troy and I met with our doc. for our 36 wk. check-up and we found out a lot about our little guy and when he'll be here. The biggest news...he already weighs 8lbs 7 oz.!!! The nurse said they usually over estimate this rather than under estimate but I told her that she was most likely right on the estimate; JP was 8lb 8oz! The good thing though is that his head doesn't measure too large so I hopefully won't have too much trouble pushing him out, we'll see. Why do I have giant kids? I know this one is due to the gestational diabetes but still, 8lbs!!! The next bit of info. we were told was that I haven't dilated any; no surprise. My doctor actually told me that my cervix sucks! He's a funny guy but he was dead serious. So that was a bit discouraging. We then discussed when I'd be induced cause there is no way I'll be going the whole 40 wks. We always talked about Nov. 6 being the induction day but we were hoping to go earlier. We asked my doctor what day he felt most comfortable with and that was around 38 wks, so next week. So he put us on the schedule for Nov. 7 to come in and be induced. At first, Troy and I were a little bummed, we were really hoping he would feel okay about inducing me this week at 37 wks. But at the same time my doc. was saying 38 wks. he also said that if we couldn't handle waiting that long to give him a call and he'd get me in this week. Initially we both thought we could wait that long and it wouldn't be too hard. But the more we thought about it the more uncomfortable we became. But we wanted to listen to our doc., he knows what's best for the baby. The whole drive home I cried; something just didn't feel right. Once we got home we talked about it and both felt that we should call the doc. the next day and tell him we'd like to be induced this week. Our docs. main concern with taking the baby this week was that he may need to spend sometime in the nursery and that labor would be very long for me. And all Troy and I could think about was that 1 week couldn't make that much of a difference for the baby and that for our sanity sake we'd feel better about doing it this week. What was intersting was that when we were talking to our doc. he kept saying that if we didn't feel like we could wait that long to give him a call; almost as if he wanted us to call him and move up the date. It was very strange, he really kept bringing it up over and over again. So we figured if he's giving us the option, we might as well take it. Also, the situation just felt too similar to last year with JP. I really wanted my doc. last year to take JP early because the doc. said he'd be out of town on my due date and I just had an odd feeling. But he said he wouldn't and I remember practically pleading with him but he wouldn't budge. And our new doc. told us he'd be out of town next week but he'd be back in time to deliver the baby. It was deja-vu and it just didn't make us feel comfortable. And since our doc. gave us the option to take him early we decided we better take the offer and not toy with the situation.

So Tuesday morning I called the doc. but I didn't hear from him until Wednesday and he told me he got us on the schedule for this Thursday night to be induced! Hip hip hooray!! It was the best news I had ever heard. So tonight we're heading to the hospital to be induced in hopes it'll be a fast labor and we'll have our little guy sometime on Friday, Halloween!! I think a Halloween baby will be so much fun, but we'll see when he's growing up how much fun it really is. So hooray, there is end in sight. I don't know what I'm more excited to do after I'm pregnant; eat all the things I haven't been able to since I've had gestational diabetes or sleep on my tummy again. Either way, I'm thrilled and can't wait to be a Mom. Last night neither of us slept very well; we're both so excited. Troy said that he woke up about 8 different times and checked the clock each time in hopes it was morning. He said he felt like a kid on Christmas Eve and I totally felt the same way. So silly, I'm sure once Tate gets here we'll wish we could sleep through the whole night and not be woken up 8 times throughout the night. Oh the price we pay to have kids!

So there it is, long winded but that's the latest. Once the little dude gets here I'll post lots of pictures.

A Walk to Remember....

2008-10-13T10:44:00.010-06:00

October is Pregnancy and Infant Loss awareness month, as well as Breast Cancer awareness month. This past Saturday at the Larkin Sunset Lawn Mortuary the Share Parents of Utah held a walk to remember our babies that we've lost. I went last year to this event and it was very special, extremely emotional but very special. This year my Mom and I went but were a bit late due to my cousins wedding. Oh well, we made it to the important part where they let off the balloons and name each child lost. There were a lot more people at this event than there were last year. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not. It just shows how many people are grieving over the loss of their babies. It's so nice that someone puts on an event such as this. It really helps to know and see so many others that are going through the same thing as you; depressing but comforting. This year I had to add one more to my bundle of balloons. Please take a moment and laugh at this picture...I have no neck for some reason! I am so embarrassed and can't believe I'm posting this. I'm not sure what I was doing but I somehow lost my neck. But what is really important in this photo are the balloons I'm holding. The white one for my first loss, the blue one for JP and the pink one for the little girl I miscarried in Jan. And I'm possibly smuggling another in my jacket...JK, that's my large child Tater! I look so lame.

Anyway, last year at the walk I met an awesome girl named Kandace who had also just lost her baby son, Mavryk. We somehow made the connection that our boys were buried next to each other at the Larkin cemetery in Sandy. Long story short, we've been friends ever since. She's been a huge support to
me through the past year, it's made it easier to confide in

someone that is going through the same thing at the same time. This is me and Kandace and her oldest boy Jett. She just had another boy, Axyl, in July. Sure do cherish her friendship and appreciate her tons. Love ya Kandace! It was freakin' freezin' that day so that's why we look so frozen in this photo. The wind was howling like crazy and didn't make it any more pleasant. And thanks Mom for coming with me and toughin' out the weather. I wouldn't have gotten through this past
year if it wasn't for you! Love you tons!!

Snow in October...what the?!

2008-10-13T10:28:00.007-06:00

So this is what I woke up to on Saturday, snow. It didn't look like much so I didn't think much of it. But it didn't stop snowing the entire day. What is with Utah weather?! This coming week I hear it's supposed to be back in the 70s. Could mother nature make up her freakin' mind!!! Is it winter or is it fall?! I'm so not ready for snow. Last winter was a complete joke up here and it's just around the corner, apparently. This week Troy is going to go buy a snow blower, just in case. We're going to be prepared this time, beforehand. The crappy part about the snow this weekend was one of my cousins got married, sorry Syb. She looked gorgeous regardless of the super cold weather. And there is now much more snow than just a dusting. It's freakin' Oct. 13, why is there so much snow?! I saw icicles on the roof this morning too, icicles! That means it's friggin'
cold up here, brrr! It's so cold I had to bring my space heater in the office this morning. Our heater is on but I like the extra heat throughout the day. The dogs don't seem to mind it either.

I'm usually super hot these days (cause this child is ginormous!), so this is a great thing; I'm cold for once! That is the only good thing about this cool weather, I'm finally feeling some relief. So snow, that's the latest. It bites but it's here!!! I'm not sure what to do either; do I put up Halloween decorations or Christmas decorations?! I'm torn. Actually, I'm too scared to go get the Halloween decorations. We've been having a mouse problem in the storage room downstairs and I'm scared to grab one of the boxes. That little critter has probably made a home in one of those boxes. So I'll just make Troy go down and get it :) That's what husbands are for right?

An Update....I'm Large!

2008-10-08T09:05:00.007-06:00

It's been awhile since I gave an update on what is happening with my pregnancy. The last thing I posted was all about my diagnosis with gestational diabetes. I have since met with a dietician and diabetic educator, it was very helpful. They taught me all about how to eat a balanced diet (literally) and that it's important not to eat carbs by themselves. Carbs turn into sugar which make your insulin levels wacky. So, to balance that out you're supposed to eat protein with carbs. I didn't think this would be very hard but oh my crap was I wrong. Pretty much all food has carbs in it, so it's not as easy as you may think. It's been a complete lifestyle change for me and I guess Troy too. I eat just about the same thing every meal: I trade off between peanut butter, cheese, string cheese, hard boiled eggs, cottage cheese and deli meats. The times I've ventured away from those staple items my glucose numbers have been very high. So I'm stuck eating the same thing every meal. Oh yea, I forgot to mention, I have to test my blood sugar 4 times a day; 2 hours after each meal. This isn't too bad but it's nerve wracking when you're worried about the outcome. When I first started doing this my glucose numbers were too high so the doc. had to put me on some medication, Glyburide. It helps my pancreas produce insulin to control the glucose in my blood. He first put me on 5mg two times a day but that was't cuttin' it. So now I'm on 10mg two times a day and that seems to help. We met with the doc. this past Monday and he is giving me one more week with this medication to prove myself. If I can't get my numbers in the normal range he has to put me on insulin shots for the rest of my pregnancy. EEEKK!!! Shots! I won't be able to do it, no way. So I'm really watching what I eat. So far so good but I still have the rest of the week left.

Also, at the appointment Tate was measured and he's still 3 weeks ahead of schedule. He weighs about 6lbs 12 oz! Yes, we are for sure going to have a large child. Babies are supposed to gain about 1 pound a week in gestation so if we go for 4 more weeks, this child will be about 10lbs!!! We've asked the doc. if the baby keeps getting bigger will he take him even earlier than 38 weeks (crossing our fingers at the same time). But the doc. says no everytime we ask. Just because he measures at 37 wks doesn't mean his development is at 37 wks. This makes sense but still, get this large child out of me!!! Now I'm terrified of having a c-section. I know c-sections are safe but I didn't mind having to push and strain for multiple hours. I go in for a check-up every Monday; it is something to look forward to and it has made the time pass quicker. And this coming appointment they are going to give me a steriod shot to help Tate's lungs develop, in case we do go before 38 weeks. So that's encouraging, we could still go early; not that I want to put him in the NICU or anything, I just want to know that he's here and safe and the sooner the better.

Here's what I looked like at 33 wks. I'm now at 34 wks. but there's not much difference. My back constantly aches and I can barely see my bellybutton anymore. Troy has to cut my toenails cause I can't bend down that much; it's quite hilarious how awkward I am these days. I'm also hot every second of the day so I'm grateful for the cool weather these days. The picture up top is of Tate at our last appointment. The nurse was trying to get a profile picture but his arm is in the way everytime we try. It looks like he's deep in thought, silly kid.

All in all I'm doing good, our doc. is real encouraging and understands our anxiety about this pregnancy. And he keeps reassuring us that everything will be okay and we'll get this kid here safely....I'm definitely holding him to that. JK, everything will be okay.

Birthday tribute to my Angel JP

2008-09-18T14:43:00.008-06:00

Some may know what a guilty and loyal personality I have and I have been feeling very bad about not writing something sweet for JP on his birthday. All I posted was how much fun his party was. I never commented on how proud I am of him and how amazed I am that it's already been 1 year. To be honest I've dreaded writing down anything because I'm still quite emotional. And my thoughts are all over the place these days. So here goes...Our little angel turned 1 and my what a quick yet slow year it has been. For most children when they turn 1 the parent is saddened that their little one is growing up so fast. But for me, I'm thrilled that the first year has come and gone. I never thought I'd make it through the rough days and nights. But I think with a lot of help from my Heavenly Father and JP, I made it! I feel like I'm the one that has turned 1, but it's not my age that increased, it was a huge 1 year milestone in my life. I have an angel in heaven and I have my Heavenly Father to thank for that; can I say that in the same sentence? Can I say that I'm thankful for this trial? I'm not thankful that my son died, I'm thankful for the lessons I've learned over the past year. I'm thankful for the love and support I've received from such great family and friends. I'm thankful that I have the gospel and the knowledge that I'll be with JP again. My list could honestly go on and on. Usually when a child turns 1 they have either learned how to walk or are starting to take a few steps. Again, I feel like I'm the child; I'm learning to walk on my own again and I know my Heavenly Father is there to pick me up if I fall. The statement 'I am a Child of God' has really rang true for me this past year. I've always believed that to be true but it hasn't really made sense until this past year. Children are a gift straight from God. Whether they make it here and survive on earth or return to him too soon, we are all trying to reach the same goal; return to live with him someday. I'm thankful that JP was able to skip out on this life, I don't feel like he'll miss much. He was too precious to be corrupted here on earth and so chose to return to Heavenly Father quickly; I don't blame him. Some days I wonder why JP was given to me as an example of pureness, but I've come to the conclusion that I'll never understand why. JP is such a sweet little spirit who is still alive within me. I still feel his presence and know that I'm never alone. Sometimes I talk to him and get a feeling that he's right there with me listening. I tell him my anxieties about bringing his little brother into this world. And I feel a calm sense of peace during those moments telling me that everything will be alright. I know JP is a good big brother and wouldn't let anything happen to his brothers and sisters, so they'll get here safely. I can't wait for my earthly kids to grow up and learn about their angel big brother; he will definitely be a big part of their life as he is mine. I don't think we'll ever understand why these trials become apart of our life. The only thing I can think of is because our Heavenly Father knows we need to learn certain things to better ourselves. Or maybe we're given them to help others through their trials. Not sure, but one thing I am sure of is I love my Heavenly Father for giving me JP and making him apart of my eternal family.

So JP on the mark of your 1 year birthday, I want you to know that I love you more than words can express and I hope that the coming years continue to bring me even more joy and satisfaction as a mother as you fill with me today. Take care little buddy! Love Mom

Grrr, why?

2008-09-18T14:43:00.003-06:00

The last couple days I've had so much on my mind that I don't know how to make it go away. To add insult to injury I found out some pretty stressful news recently. I'm already stressed out to the max and can't handle all the anxiety lately that I some how managed to add a little more into my life. On Monday I had the glucose test done at my prenatal visit and the nurse called me Tuesday to tell me that my numbers were pretty high. I asked her if I then needed to come in for the big 3 hour test just to be safe and she said, 'Nope. Your numbers are high enough that we think you have gestational diabetes.' I was in shock, disbelief and a little confused. I told her that I had some peanut butter and jelly toast on the drive down and asked if that could have made my numbers really high? She said no, that was probably already digested before you had the blood draw. So great, gestational diabetes...what does this mean exactly? It sounds scary, diabetes; I have diabetes! Luckily it's only during pregnancy but the more I've read about it, it can sometimes carry on past pregnancy and you'll have it the rest of your life. Grrr, I don't need this! I know this is rare but I seem to be that 'one' in a million statistic lately.

The second I found out about this I jumped online and starting researching. And I found some pretty interesting stuff. One article said that if a women has had a previously unexplained stillbirth than she is more likely to have gestational diabetes. I definitely fit into that category. Another article said that if this condition goes uncontroled and unmanaged, then it could cause a stillbirth. Interesting, because I remember last year with JP having the glucose test done and my nurse calling me to say my numbers were high and to come back in for another blood draw. The second blood draw was okay so we didn't do anything further. So I'm wondering if this could have caused JP's death. I'm anxious to talk to my doctor about it and see what he says. It would sort of make sense. And one other interesting thing I read is that gestational diabetes usually causes babies to grow larger than normal. And this definitely is true for my boys. JP was 8.8 lbs and Tate is measuring 3 weeks early. So I guess this does all add up, unfortunately. I just can't believe I have one more thing to add to my plate right now. I was hoping that the next 7 weeks would be relaxing and somewhat stress-free.

So what happens next? Tomorrow Troy and I are meeting with a dietician and diabetes educator to go over how to control this and make it part of my life for the next 7 weeks. This is what gets me, on paper I don't fit into this category of women that get gestational diabetes. I eat a healthly diet, I stay active the best I can, and my weight gain hasn't been extremely high. None of this makes sense to me! I'm so anxious for tomorrows appointment to find out what they'll do for me. The nurse did mention that I'll first go for a few days of just testing my blood sugar levels and then if it looks like they are at a good steady number, then I won't have to take medication (which I think means insulin shots). I'm crossing my fingers I won't have to do insulin shots; I'm terrified of needles! I know there is only 7 weeks left but still that is 7 weeks too long of having to poke myself.

Oh well, what can ya do. I've obviously been given this condition for a reason and if it means I can secure a safe delivery of Tate, then I'll do whatever it is I can to help. I'm looking forward to tomorrows appointment and hope to get some reassuring news about this condition. I know it's common in pregnancy but come on people, I'm already freaked out enough, just back off!!

Thank you for listening :)

Happy Birthday JP!

2008-09-15T18:54:00.006-06:00

Today has been filled with fun activities to keep me occupied so I haven't had time to write about my sweet little angel, JP. It's his birthday today and I can't believe its already been 1 year. Yesterday I replayed in my mind what happened on that day when we found out he was gone...that was a crummy day. I remember it as if yesterday were that day; the images and emotions just all came back to me. And when I woke up this morning, I felt a sense of emptiness, just like I felt on Sept. 15, 2007. Strange how those feelings can all come back and almost haunt you. But throughout today I have felt at peace and have felt that JP is happy in Heaven. I miss him deeply but realize he's in a better place and I'm happy that he's happy.

Last night was great, we threw JP a birthday party with my family and friends. It was so fun! But that's not to say it wasn't emotional as well. We treated it as if he were there; we ate cake and ice cream and had lots of balloons. I don't know what I'd do without my family's support. We had the party at my parents house and afterward we all headed up to the cemetery to close the celebration by letting off some balloons into the sky. It was really special. When it came time for cake and ice cream we had JP's cousins do the honors of eating his 1 year old cake and it was a riot! It was so fun to see them get into it, literally. I couldn't help but think though about my little man and wondered what it would have been like if he were there. But I know he was watching and laughing with us all at the mess those babies made. It's comforting to know we have another baby on the way but that doesn't make the pain all go away. I was still very emotional about the day and tried my best to keep the tears in but it was impossible. Here's a fun slideshow of the party last night.

This morning I had a doctor's appointment, 30 week checkup. I was nervous about it being on JP's birthday. What would I have done if I found out bad news? That would have really made the day suck. But everything looks great with Tate. But side note, he's measuring at 33 weeks; 3 weeks ahead of schedule! My gosh, what is wrong with us? Why do we keep having ginormous babies?! I asked my doctor if that meant he would need to come even earlier and he said he's more concerned with his development than his size. But that we could also play it by ear. So Nov. 6 is still the day but it could be earlier if Tate chooses. I'll go back in 2 weeks to start doing non-stress tests once a week. I'm looking forward to those appointments. It'll be nice to have something to look forward to each week and going to the doctors to see my little peanut is definitely something good to look forward to. And it'll make the time go by so much quicker. So today hasn't been too shabby. Keri and I crafted for a bit and then met my Mom for lunch and a movie. I took the day off of work because I expected it to be a rough day for me and I'm glad I was able to take some time off; I really needed it. So thanks Mom and Keri, today was a lot of fun!! So Happy Birthday to our little angel, we love you and think of you everyday. We're grateful you're in our eternal family and have you forever.

Cooper and Dots

2008-09-03T10:20:00.007-06:00

Some people may know that Dots are my most favorite candy in the whole wide world. Well, it's unfortunate that it's our dogs favorite candy too. Anytime we open a box they come running over expecting to get a few for their enjoyment as well. The night before Troy's bday I was wrapping some gifts and had a bag of candy on the bed. I left the room for maybe 3 minutes and Cooper was gone. I figured he went outside to go potty so I didn't think much of it. Then I heard Troy come home so I closed the door to the room and went downstairs to say HI. I hadn't seen Cooper in a while so I peeked outside in the backyard and saw the box of Dots I bought for our movie the next night. I opened the back door and saw what Cooper had done; he'd grabbed the box, ran downstairs and ripped it open with his mouth, devouring all the Dots and a bit of the box too. All of the candy was gone!!! He ate the whole thing! We couldn't help but laugh, I couldn't discipline him for something that was so funny. Rocky was soooo mad at Cooper for eating it all without him, and that made it even funnier. About an hour later Cooper threw up a little and all I could do was laugh again. He was a little uneasy the rest of the night too paceing back and forth, he couldn't get comfortable. I figured that he deserved it, greedy little dog. Never steal a pregnant womans Dots!!! GRRRRR!!!!!

11 Months Old!

2008-08-15T10:38:00.005-06:00

I honestly wish time would slow down. It's so crazy to think that we held you in our arms for the first time 11 months ago. Next month will be even more crazy, 1 year! I'll never forget the first time we saw you. Your chubby cheeks, full head of hair and heavenly glow. I love you so much and everyday I love you more and more. Even though we don't have you here with us on earth, I know we'll have a life together in the eternities, hooray! We are an eternal family and I am so grateful for that. I'm not sure why we had to go through this but I'll be honest, I'm honored to be your Mom. I've learned so much about life, myself, relationships and love over the last 11 months that I wouldn't trade these experiences for anything. I honestly believe we go through these trials to make us stronger people and I have definitely become stronger. I also think I've become a better, not bitter, person. And I think that is what I'm supposed to do. I could have easily chosen the other direction and become bitter with life and blame others (God) for what happened. But life is worth living, it's not worth blaming others for our misfortunes. Life is what we make of it and I'd so much rather live a happy life. The biggest thing that makes me happiest these days is knowing I'll be with you again and that your little brother is so close to being here. Life is truely wonderful and yea there are bumps along the way but that's what keeps us sane (I think anyway). Make sure Tate gets here safely and never forget that we love you more than words can express. See you in my dreams little buddy...

Happy Birthday Troy!

2008-08-15T08:51:00.031-06:00

The big 3-0!! Happy birthday to the best husband in the world. You are so wonderful and I love that you're mine. Some days I wonder why I'm the lucky one that gets to spend life with you. Here are all the reasons why you're the best:
*You're extremely handsome!

* You know how to have a good time (this picture was definitely taken pre-back surgery).

* You're super ambitious!

* You make me laugh everyday!

* You're great with animals ;)

* You have a great sense of humor.

* You love to learn new things, usually about history; you're so smart!

* You're a hard-worker. You're always working on a project around the house.

* You're not afraid to show off your intellectual side ;)

* You have an amazing ability to heal quickly; you're so strong. This picture was taken the second day after Troy's surgery, he's walking!

* You're a fantastic Dad and example!

And last but not least, you're the best because....

You married me!!!

Sure do love you Troy, I hope you know that. And I appreciate everything you do for me and our growing family. Hope your day is fantastic! XOXOXOXOXO

The best concert ever!

2008-08-02T19:36:00.011-06:00

Last week Troy, my Dad and I went to the Steve Miller Band concert. It was a blast! I thought The Police were good in concert, but my crap, Steve Miller knows how to throw a concert. It was so entertaining and it kept us signing the whole night. This was the first concert Troy has EVER been to and this was a fantastic one to start with. The band has added a new guy to the group and he was awesome. He's a huge black guy that possibly looks like he could have been the bands bouncer, but he was up on stage dancin' and singing the whole time. And this guy didn't just sway back and forth, he had rythmn. I couldn't take my eyes off of him; he was so entertaining. Here's a picture of this guy jammin'.

We had awesome seats and were able to see the band pretty well. This was honestly the best band to watch. We stayed pretty much to the last song and didn't get home 'til after midnight. But it was worth being so tired the next day. Oh, I almost forgot to mention, the ampitheater was so empty, it was sad. The ticket price to sit on the lawn was the same price as chair seats but the lawn area was way more packed...odd. We chose to sit in chairs mainly for Troy's back and my comfort and it was well worth it. I'm glad Troy finally got out and did something fun this summer too. It seems like all he does is work, work and work! So this was a must needed evening for him.

Don't worry, I don't really have a mustache in this picture. It's just a bad case of pregnancy mask...grrrrr! It's so embarrassing. Only 3 more months!

The Police in concert

2008-07-23T10:18:00.006-06:00

Last Saturday The Police came to the Usana Amphitheater and we bought Dad tickets for Father's Day. He loved it! It was a lot of fun but Keri and Spencer couldn't come. Little Blake was super sick so Keri had to stay home and play Mom. I'm sure you're asking, why didn't Spencer stay home and watch him instead? Well, he was also sick; no fun at the Abney house. And in a matter of time Keri is going to be sick too, JK. Poor kids. Anyway, back to the concert. So it was just the three of us. Troy could have come but I didn't think he'd have fun sitting on the grass with his bad back. Mom didn't care too much about it but it was nice that she went. We sat on the lawn and found a great spot up against the fence. It was very comfortable, we were able to lean-up against the fence and see the stage just fine. But then the actual concert started and everybody stood up!! We were so ticked. Oh well, we don't really need to see the band perform, as long as we could hear it that's all we cared about. We sat down only during the songs we didn't quite know but then stood up and cheered during the songs we liked. We left a little bit before the concert ended and could still hear them all the way to the car. We're thinking the next time we go to a concert we'll just park the car and not actually go in....you can hear it just fine from the parking lot so why not?! Just kidding, I'm sure they have somebody watching to make sure people don't do that. Did I mention that The Police are fantastic live. I have never been much of a fan but I really enjoyed it. I've always liked Sting and The Police are basically the same sound so it wasn't hard to get into the music.

One concern I had about the concert were the people. We saw more people walking around with beer in their hands then we did people without beer. Where were their designated drivers?! Scary! I'm glad we left early, so we didn't get in a car accident on the way out. There were a crazy mix of people there. Young kids, middle aged, and the older crowd. If there is one thing my Dad likes to do it's people watch, and we saw some pretty funky looking people there. When you go to an event like that the crazies just seem to come out of the wood-work. HA!

10 Months Old Today

2008-07-15T14:55:00.007-06:00

Oh little buddy, how the time certainly flies! You're 10 months old today and you continue to make me a super proud Mom. I know it sounds cliche but, words cannot express what you mean to me. I honestly am in awe at how great you really are. I didn't get a chance to know you personally, but spiritually you're amazing. You are such an example to me and every day I strive to live a good life so I can also make you proud. Only God knows why this had to happen to our little family, but I'm not mad at Him. I know it'll all make sense to us someday so why question 'WHY' now? I still consider you a blessing and I have many others to be grateful for. I'm so grateful that we are sealed together as an eternal family and we'll be reunited again. I'm grateful that your little brother is on his way and that we have the chance to be parents here on earth. Cause apparently I'll have my hands full as well in Heaven. God made you so special that he didn't want your talents to go to waste here on earth. And as a Mom I'm proud of you. I see all your cousins getting big and I wonder, what would JP look like right now? But that thought doesn't stay for very long; I know I'll get a chance to raise you so why wonder. I know I'll be able to experience the whole thing myself someday. Life can be difficult but it's you that gets me through it, I remind myself why I'm here and it's to make it back to you. I love you more than I can honestly imagine. I don't have the physical connection with you like most Mom's do with their children, but I have the spiritual connection and that's good enough for me. When I kneel down to pray I know you're sitting right there with me. Anytime I'm by myself, I know you're there with me. It's awesome how I can still feel you with me even though you're physically gone. You're definitely my guardian angel and I feel honored to have one. Keep making me proud buddy and I'll do the same. Love you so much and don't know what I'd do without you. See you in my dreams....

The date is set. But will he cooperate...

2008-07-09T13:11:00.008-06:00

I went to the doctor's a couple weeks ago and discussed with him the due date Troy and I would like for Tate. I asked if November 6 was okay and he was cool with it. I kept back peddling and saying, well if it's too early I understand...but then he said 'Loni, I said okay' and stuck his hand out. So we shook on it. At 36 weeks I'll go in and they'll give me a steriod shot. I guess this helps me dialate quicker? With JP I didn't dialate more than a centimeter that last week. So when I delivered him they had to start me from scratch, took 12 hours. So they'll start the process a little sooner this time. The doc was cool with the date too because it's exactly 2 weeks earlier than my real due date of November 20. So we 'won't be putting the little guy in the NICU' as my doc put it. I was so thrilled when I left that appointment. But of course Tate could have other plans. He may decide to come early or what if a minute too late for the 6th?! Also, I'm a little worried they'll try and induce me but it'll put Tate in distress and they'll have to take him c-section. I don't want a c-section. I'd much rather go through the hell of pushing again than have a c-section. Call me crazy, but it wasn't that bad. If it's meant to be he'll come on the 6th like a good little boy ;) And of course at the doctor's they did an ultrasound. Here is my favorite picture of Tate. When I got it home I put it on the fridge, right below a picture of JP. It was a little crazy the similarities of the two, so I thought I'd share and see if anyone else sees it too.

I know, I know, they don't look the same. I guess I just see it cause I'm the Mom but come on, maybe just a little bit the same?

Shopping at Carter's

2008-06-25T17:26:00.009-06:00

Thanks to the extra money I've been earning doing private swimming lessons after work, I was able to go on a little shopping spree for Tate. So I thought I'd share with everyone the fun trip I just had at the baby clothing store Carter's. We're talking fantastic deals were going down at this store. Thanks to Keri for telling me all about it, I just bought Tate 7 shirts and 2 shorts + a baby shower gift all for $43!! It was originally $53 but when you spend $50 you get $10 off. To all those mothers out there or ladies that need a baby shower gift, I highly recommend visiting the store. Here's a picture of all the cute clothes we found. The kid is not even here yet and he has more clothes and shoes than I'll ever have. So spoiled!! Oh well, he'll be well dressed. I hope to never hear Tate say that I've never done anything for him, cause this is proof that I have. Hope everyone is doing great!!

Attention: Changing Blog Address

2008-06-25T17:19:00.002-06:00

Within a week or so I will be changing the blog address from thuesonfamily.blogspot.com to TroyandLoniDomina.blogspot.com. I don't want to loose anybody in the change so please make the update.

Peace Out!

Pictures of JP

2008-06-20T14:44:00.001-06:00

The new Domina blog!!

2008-06-20T13:10:00.006-06:00

Today I've made a real break-thru with this whole blogging thing. I figured I ought to set up a blog for Troy and I and that it'd be okay since Tad and Keri broke off as well. Thanks for showing me the light guys ;) So sorry Mom, this is no longer the Tueson Family blog. I also figured it's about time I updated this thing and showed you all some pictures of JP. The last time I wrote on this it was 3 days before we had him for the first time and the last time; 9 months ago. So it's definitely time I put up something new.

A lot has happened in the last 9 months. Troy and I still live in Suncrest/Draper and enjoy every second of it. We survived this past winter and holy crap there were days where I didn't think we'd ever see an end to the snow. It was absolutely ridiculous up here. Here's a picture of our backyard. That is a 5 foot fence and our hot-tub hidden in the snow. No joke!

But Spring and Summer have finally come and it makes it all worth it. Troy is almost done with school at UVU and will graduate in Construction Management this December. We're super excited and can't wait for the next chapter in Troy's life. I guess fatherhood is the next thing? Awesome! I still work at Novell in Provo. It's super fun and most days I can work from home. With rising gas prices it's a huge relief to think I can just wake up and roll out of bed and go to work. I'll admit I do take advantage of it but, eh, it doesn't bug me too much.

Let's see what else....Troy had back surgery in April. In January he came home one day complaining that his back hurt. He said that a lot so we both just brushed it off like it was no big deal. We went to the chiropractor's, but that didn't seem to help. Then we went to a family doctor who ordered an x-ray. The x-ray was only a waste of money; it didn't show us anything. Then the doctor told him to get an MRI done. We did that and we found out he had 3 or 4 bulging discs and 1 herniated disc in the L4, L5 region of his back. We discussed it with a neurosurgeon who suggested he try physical therapy and some muscle relaxers to prolong surgery. Troy went through all of that just to end up getting surgery anyway. For three months he was in extreme pain and there seemed to be no end to it. This is just the shortened version of this long story. But, if you have questions, just ask.

The latest with me is that I'm pregnant again and can't wait for this little guy to come along. Every day is a blessing and I honestly take it one day at a time. We're seeing a really good doctor who is very sincere and interested in my well-being. We've seen the doctor about 6 times and each time we get an ultrasound done. It's very comforting to see the little one often. A couple weeks ago we found out we're having a boy. Here's the proof.

When we found out Troy and I could not stop smiling. We're so excited to have a second chance with a son. The due date is November 20 (my Dad's birthday) but the doctor already told us he'll induce me 2 weeks early. The day we're really shooting for is November 6. That is my Grandpa Duane's birthday. So in honor of that we're going to name our son Tate Duane. Everything has gone really well so far, we're just taking it one day at a time.

2008-05-23T11:23:00.003-06:00

Welcome back!!
It's been a while but we're glad to be back.
Stay tuned for more to come....

Olivia blessing pictures

2007-09-12T10:09:00.000-06:00

Olivia had her blessing pictures done this weekend.
Look at how cute she is!!

2007-09-12T09:56:00.000-06:00

New Pictures of Trey & Kensley

2007-09-06T11:44:00.000-06:00

They are so cute together!!!

Loni's baby shower

2007-08-28T10:58:00.000-06:00

Thanks to Gma Smith and Cheryl for throwing me
such a fantastic baby shower. I had a great time and really
appreciate all the love and support. And I'm sure if JP
were here he'd thank you too!

So Grandma can smile!! Who knew?!

Is that a new hairstyle Kristen?
Just kidding, it was really windy that evening.
We actually had to move the party inside it was so bad.

Adorable Cousins

2007-08-28T10:56:00.001-06:00

Trey and Olivia

This is my favorite picture. It looks like I'm pinching her
or something...promise I wasn't. Such a sad face though :(

More Cousins

2007-08-28T10:54:00.001-06:00

Baby Olivia is here!!

2007-08-24T12:33:00.001-06:00

Olivia Moss was born on July 10, 2007
8lbs. 7 oz. 20 1/2 inches

2007-08-24T12:26:00.001-06:00

Olivia is the best baby. She's so quiet and sweet, half the time
you don't know she's even there.
Congrats Nat and Brett!!

Baby JP

2007-07-03T13:03:00.001-06:00

Here is our little guy at 18 weeks. Isn't technology wonderful?!

Welcome!

2007-07-03T12:49:00.000-06:00

Welcome to the first ever Thueson Family blog! I created this due to a request from Mom, you're welcome :) Even though we get together often it'll still be nice to see how each others family's have grown. So post your photos and update your profiles. The site will be a little blah for awhile but once all the babies are born it'll be flooded with photos. So until then....