Thursday, 12 November 2009
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How can you forget a murder?
I can't believe I forgot to include the Murder Mystery dinner we had last month as part of our halloween celebration. Well, it will get it's own post then... kind of. Our friends Travis and Bree Allred hosted (at Plowmans home) a murder mystery the tuesday before halloween. There were four couples (Plowmans, Whites, Allreds, and Millers). We all dressed as our character dictated and I must admit, it was a good time with lots of good cheese- and other foods. I ended up taking part in the murder along with a few others. I was a wealthy girl and rich was a rebel. It went until late - Rich's sister Allyson came up with Marianne and watched Janerbug for us. We have such good friends and family!
In other news, Jane is teething again. This time she is getting her top four all at once. Poor thing. But the nose has stopped running out of control and all but one tooth as broken through. She is also pretty much over her awful cold that has lasted about 2 months, same with Rich who picked up acute brochitis? We think that's what it was, and I picked it up from him since we like to share everything. I am on the mend and it is loosening up in my lungs and now I have a head cold. love it.
Saturday night I was able to attend dad's John Rutter concert- conductor- Craig Jessop. Can you say faaaabbuulous? And of course dad looked studly in his suit-bow-tie get-up. I was able to sit with Grandma and mom, and we met up with Dave/Melissa and Aunt Janet/Helen for a few minutes as well.
Lots of fun!
Friday, 06 November 2009
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I have been terrible at updating on all fronts of our lives. So here is my attempt to updated on a little of what we’ve been doing lately. The photos from last post were some from the Brower Family Reunion held at Mom and Dads home in Providence. There were also some from Rich, Jane and my trip to Florida. We were there for almost a week and had a fabulous time. Jane and I spent a lot of time at the pool or walking around the Marriot grounds while Rich was in his business conferences. We stayed at the Marriot which was practically attached to the Ritz. It was extremely nice, with gorgeous grounds, lots of pools and a golf course behind the hotel. We flew into florida and stayed one night in a random hotel, made our way to the Marriot for two days of glory and then the rest of the time we stayed in another place which apparently was being taken over and trying to be improved…. It definitely wasn’t the Marriot, but we had fun nonetheless! We loved the daily storms that rolled in to water the earth for a few minutes, and we kept our eyes on every body of water trying to catch a glimpse of an alligator or crock. We ended up playing mini-golf one night (where I did score a hole-in-one btw) and saw some small ones they have at the course for people to feed. It wasn’t as exciting as seeing one out in the “real world” but it would have to do. We made a trip to the coast one afternoon but soon got stormed out. The sand was pelting our skins , poor Jane who was only wearing her diaper. Thus the picture of us in the bathroom with her naked. We were trying to give her a bath to wash off all the sand in the local wendy’s restroom – it was quite the adventure. We even saw an armadillo randomly at the space station we went to check out. We were hoping to catch a blast off, but it kept being postponed due to weather. Rich and I loved driving around, seeing the mossy (and somewhat creepy) trees, all the green, and just being together as a family. I thought of Dave a lot and we even called him to get pointers about where to find the crocks…
But, as always it was super nice to return home, back to our own beds.
The top picture of last post is Rich working on our Kitchen. He puts up sheets to potentially keep the dust from floating throughout the rest of the house. I thought it was funny how his shadow on the sheet makes him look like a midget. I thought BriPam might appreciate that… Anyway, so on to Octobers pictures before the holidays and any other major events hit us. Halloween is a lot of fun. Although I am horrible at décor around the house, I did decorate our front porch (not pictured) with an assortment of funny squash and corn stalks (which have since been thrashed by wind). While in Florida we purchased Jane’s costume- a lady bug. It was between that and a bee (I wanted her to be a dinosaur, but none were her size….). I kinda wish we would have gotten the bee since Rich and I decided to bee bee catchers. But, we just said we were bug catchers and Jane was our prize bug. We had a little h-ween get together with our North Logan friends (Dasheek/Jocelyn/Davian and Derek/Carrie/Nyah/baby bean) on Monday night for FHE, then on Tuesday night we had the ward H-ween party. This always includes everyone bringing soups, costume contests and a carnival for the kids. Our ward really gets into dressing up which makes it really enjoyable. The night before H-ween Julies neighborhood had an awesome party/carnival for the neighborhood kids! I was so very impressed with the turnout and for all the activities and food they had. I loved the picture booth (manned by Julie--eh-uh, I mean, the evil sleeping beauty lady). I loved the homemade donuts which I definitly had my fair share. And most of all I loved Dave and Melissa for hanging out with Jane the whole time. What am I going to do when Melissa has her little girl??? What I loved almost more than Dave and Melissa was Mom and Dads awesome costume - will you guys please wear that every year?? For actual Halloween night Rich and I took Jane to visit her boyfriend Daegan (the monkey, and her first kiss) and then we were entertained by the neighborhood trick-or-treaters. Get this. One kid comes up to our door TALKING ON A CELL PHONE. He came up behind some others that were leaving and tried to just grab candy before saying the magic word. I was very annoyed and made him say the words before giving him anything. Seriously, kids these days. We got a surprise visit from Rich’s mom Rosemary along with Stefanie and Marianne. We visited with them, then went over to Valeria and Nate’s house for a long game of Catan with them and Travis and Bree (Bree fell asleep on the couch)…. It was definitely time for bed once that was over. During the game Travis thought he had me figured out. He wanted to steal some cards from me, asking if I had brick. I told him no- he said he knew I was lying because every time I lied I bit my lower lip. Little did he know, I really didn’t have brick, and my lips were just chapped and I happened to not have my chapstick!
Rich as able to get aggie football tickets to the game Brian was in town for. YAY! Was that convenient or what? It was nice to see him and his friend. We hopefully convinced him he needs to do this trip each year :)
Other then that, not much going on here- Rich has been working every chance he has on the yard and house and on Young Mens…. Did I tell you he was made Young Men’s prez and I was put in as second counselor in the RS? Yup. Anyway… enjoy the picts… and on to November!
Jane and one of her favorite boys- Daegan.
Jared, Julie, Lily, Jane and Serra
Mom and Dad -Raggedy Anne and Andy with "the bug"- jane
Doug and Darci with their skeleton boys, Ethan and Landon
the "Eight Ball" Melissa holding the bug, and dave was a three whole punch under the jacket... clever.
The Plowman Family as Star Wars
Part of the Hatfield Family (Scottish Warriors from Braveheart) and Brayden snuck in their too :)
Travis and Bree, Travis had a nasty, very real looking gashy plane crash costume while Bree was the pilot who somehow was unharmed.
Party with the North Loganers. Funniest thing was Jocelyn dressed as Dasheek- aka, a black man.
At the Aggies Game. We had two extra tickets which we gave to Doug who took Ethan (who didn't require a ticket) and the extra went to someone Doug knows who waits outside the stadium until half time when they don't take tickets anymore...
I was trying to get Janes attention one day when I was at the sink and she was eating snacks. She was gabbering to herself and finally when she turned her head to look at me I couldn't help but laugh. She had this marshmellow stuck to her nose- I thought it was really funny.
Sunday, 18 October 2009
Thursday, 27 August 2009
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Life is good. Summer is always busy and we have been having lots of fun with you and our little family. Jane spent many days in the sink this summer. It was a great way for her to keep entertained (and clean) while I was working in the kitchen. Mommy also felt better about Jane sitting in the sink where she couldn't fall back and hit her head like she could in a tub.
Jane and I painted our toes. It was my first time having my toes painted a dark pink (that was the only color available to me at the RS activity where we did this). I got some red nailpolish so Jane and I can go nail painting crazy. Rich likes our painted piggies.
Rich, King of Surprises took Jane and I on a surprise date (the date of the date escapes me). We drove over the Avon pass towards his parents in Ogden Valley where Rich (actually Jon) treated us to the symphony! Utah Symphony was on the agenda and they played very well, and we even had (close-to) front row seats. Before attending the concert, we headed to a nice restaurant and met his brother Jon and a few friends.
Rich purposely failed to mention this was going to be the night Jon proposes to Stefanie, his girlfriend of...oh, 6 years or something. Jon was one of the sponsors for the event, so he had some tickets for us...we were happy to witness him getting up on stage during "half-time" and expressing his life-long desires to Stefanie (and everyone else present). She was surprised...
For pioneer day Rich and I went for a drive in the mountains coming out at Mantua. We visiting the camp grounds for future outdoor adventures. We found some awesome sites, and a fantastic swing.
Have I ever told you how I love summer storms. Oh how I love them. The wind, thunder, lighting, rain. I love it all. I'm grateful to have just enough to enjoy and not enough to destroy.
We also took Jane to Bear Lake for her first time. She loves the water, sand, people, snacks and everything else that comes with trips to fun in the sun. Especially if her daddy gets to come. Jane adores her daddy.
Jane keeps us laughing. She likes to imitate things we do. She'll even play "attack" which her daddy does frequently to her. She is a doll and we are loving every minute.
I love this picture of Livy trying to pull up ethan's swimming trunks that were completely falling off. It was pretty funny to watch her being helpful.
I still have florida and family reunion to update, but those are still on my camera.... so, until later.
Thursday, 13 August 2009
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I've been saving my pennies from etsy sales for the past 6 months or so in order to buy a camera. They day finally came (thanks to a sale at Inkleys) where all my pennies added up to enough! Jane is so happy for me.
Next penny saving goal: sewing machine
Friday, 17 July 2009
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My next blog update was going to consist of the details of the previous video. Before doing so, I will record the news I've already updated you all with. My first pregnancy with Jane went as smooth as butter. This one, I was more sick and prego feeling. Two weeks ago (June 30th -July 1st) those sick feelings completely dissipated. I felt great! I wasn't hungry all the time and the sun shone a little brighter. But on the same note this light switch of change worried me. After talking to Julie about her miscarriage symptoms I decided I needed to go in and make sure everything was ok. Rich was home from work that day taking a sick day, so were able to go in to the doc together (actually only the nurse was there to help) and we heard a heartbeat and it was a strong one! I was a little over 10 weeks.
Although Rich wanted to come to yesterdays appt as well, he had a cousin's sealing he needed to attend in Draper to represent the family. Besides, he'd already heard the heartbeat and this was supposed to be just a hucky-dory checkup. Jane came with me instead. The nurse couldn't find the heartbeat. Dr. Streble (I switched dr.'s - and he says to tell darci and doug hello) also couldn't find a heartbeat so we went into the ultrasound room. The nurse found the baby right away and kept it in the picture for minute or so looking for any sign of movement or heartbeat. Things didn't look good. The doc came in, he didn't take as long. "We should definitely be able to see the heartbeat by now, especially if you've already heard it. And I'm not seeing any sort of fetal movement." I could only nod. Strangely I wasn't shocked, or really even surprised. It's as if I already knew.
The baby measured 10 weeks 2 days (exactly two weeks ago yesterday). Assuming we lost the baby two weeks ago, we lost it the day or day after we heard the heartbeat. They took my blood, I'll go in to the hospital lab tomorrow and get blood taken again to check hormone levels. We'll do another ultrasound on Monday to triple check. Assuming all looks the same I'll go in for a DNC on Tuesday. So, I have the weekend to see if I miscarry at home. I had to tell Rich over the phone as he was on his way back to work from the temple. He came straight home and we spent the day together, went out to eat then actually had a our friend Darin Humphreys make a surprise call. He was in town for the day and had met a young lady, actually Dave and Melissa's friend Lauren - and they spent the evening together, including a game of bochee and oreo shakes at our place. It was nice to have something to take our minds off the situation for a couple hours.
Looking back, it's amazing how I felt spiritually prepared for this. For two weeks I have literally felt a spiritual death. I felt empty inside, even though we had just heard a heartbeat, I feel as though I still subconsciously knew something was wrong. Little promptings throughout the day before and day of my appt also point in that direction, although at the time I kind of disregarded them. It's been a great lesson in listening to the spirit.
On my way from the doc's to mom/dad's for some support I thought of Jeff/Maren - I don't understand how someone can go through something like this (emotionally, physically, spiritually) over and over again. I at least had Jane and the knowledge that I can have a healthy and successful pregnancy. Without that the experience would have been 10 times worse. I'm not sure how you do it.
So... onward and upward!
Tuesday, 07 July 2009
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We've had a lot happen this spring and summer so far. Before getting too much into details, here's a video synopsis of the good times which have been photoed. We'll get into details later. -I've been having a problem with youtube blocking the music on this video (lame- I am now trying a different source) so hopefully it hasn't been blocked and you can hear it.
Monday, 11 May 2009
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As of late
Well, Jane is absolutely the best baby ever (except that she wakes at least twice a night, sometimes every 1-2 hours). Currently, she loves her hands, loves her daddy, loves being naked, loves being in the tub, loves attention, loves standing, sometimes loves cereal, loves mazy, loves being outside, loves going on walks in her stroller. .
I've been working with her on being able to sit on her own. She tends to bend herself completely in half, legs out in front and face on the floor in between her legs. It frustrates her. She is also working on enjoying tummy time. Here's the usual sequence of events.
We've (aka:Rich) been busy around the house making improvements. He has moved our shed over to underneath our pine trees (Rich's last words, "that's what the subi can do for you")
ran (aka: walked, jogged) a 5k on campus (cold turkey...ouch!) for my birthday (Serra's last words, "what was I thinking!?")
Witnessed Julies amazing talents of Irish dancing while very pregnant. She was just about as cool as Ethan
had some friends over for FHE BBQ. Rich, Travis, and Brock provided the musical number albeit voice and harmonica
been on lovely walks on sunny days
celebrated Mazy's first birthday on May 9th
Woke up to this
started feeding Janer bug cereal
planted our veggies outside, they froze and now we must start over
Rich bricked our patio. This photo is now outdated as he as added layers all the way up to the cement part... Rich is obviously die hard. Laying bring in the snow!
Found Jane napping with Rich (sorry for the sideways pic)
said an early goodbye to a friend who is moving to taiwan
got some cabinets to place in our kitchen. We received these from Rich's brother-in-law Erik who is a general contractor. He ripped these out of a current project and let us have it. He also let us have a dishwasher which was installed this weekend by Rich. We are hoping to get more overhead cabinets and will wait to install the cabinets permanently until then. Yes...many many blessings.
and have enjoyed some peaceful evenings
oh, and enjoyed my first official mothers day. We had the White folks over for a scrumptious dinner
Here's Zack feeding the horse rocks
I also stepped on a nail trying to play hide-n-seek with Mazy. I was jogging to my hiding place where I ran into (no pun intended) one of our many nail infested boards. I decided this was mazy's ultimate test. She can usually follow my scent right to me within 30 seconds. I found a good spot behind a tree bush. After a minute passed I checked my wound. My sandal was full of blood and when I lifted my foot an ounce or two of blood rushed out of my sandal. I decided I probably should get some attention. Mazy had failed me. I walked out explaning I had stepped on a nail and that it was pretty bad. I was doctored up by Rich and his dad and later taken to instacare to recieve a Tetnis (sp) shot. ouch. I'm pretty much now a slow moving gimp.
Tuesday, 31 March 2009
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Well, Jane sure is growing fast. It makes me sad sometimes. She has started to grab at things, including my mouth, nose and occasionally a chuck of my hair. We are having so much fun with her and can't wait for summer when its warm enough to play outside and in the pool! We've taken her out on the warm days (in that seat you're letting us use Pam) and she LOVES IT! And Mazy loves the company too. She'll sit by Jane all day long.
I can really only remember things we've done that I've taken pictures of. So here comes another big picture post. Thats what you like anyways right?
We watched Mayor for a couple days while doug and darci were out of town. Crazy dogs love company.
I met my friends Emily and Lisa in Ogden for lunch before Lisa took of to Washington for an internship. If you'll remember, these are a couple of my china buddies.
Rich decided to start sealing the basement with some keilers (?) paint. He opened the windows for ventilation and Mazy was wanting in super bad.
Have you ever been to the bird refuge out by Brigham? You should go. We have always wondered about it, so on a day off, Rich and I (and Jane) headed south to see if we could see and bird action. It was actually quite interesting and we can't wait to go back when there are more birds around.
A warehouse was closing in Smithfield and selling items for super cheap. Although these hats weren't as cheap as they should have been, I couldn't pass them up.
We decided to have some friends over for a valentines party. Although we would have preferred to have it ON valentines day, our Stake decided to have stake conference that night. I know. lame. So we did it on sunday, and I suppose it was just as fun. I was very proud of my fruit on the cake displays.
Dasheek and Jocelyn joined us. Does she look like she is even prego? NO! And she is due in three weeks here. I know. lame.
During the evening we played a couple games. One of them was this: each of the girls went into the kitchen and kissed a piece of paper with the glossed lips. We then taped all the lips to the fireplace and the guys had to guess which "lips" were theirs.
Surprisingly enough, they all chose the right ones! Although, mine were fought over because of their perfection.
We gave away prizes for each game. One of the prizes was the "bear." Travis and Bree were the lucky winners.
Rich won some tickets on the radio to a concert in Wendover, so we made a night of it. We took Allyson and Marianne to be our personal Jane babysitters, got a hotel and went partying it up in wendover.
The town of nothing but bunkers, gamblers and m/hotels. Rich woke me up before the sun rose and we climbed the mountain behind our hotel. He wouldn't leave without Jane. She is the bundle of white we are holding.
Rich actually climbed to the top. I opted to stay with Jane at a lower level. We watched the sun set. Lovely.
After breakfast we all went and explored the town. We found an old army base with rows of old bunkers. Huge buildings where they hid B2 bombers, an old church. It was like driving through a ghost town. What was even creepier was that some of the buildings were being lived in. People just come in and set up camp (no pun intended heh). The church had been made into an apartment building. It was random and wierd. Most the buildings were pad locked and had the windows boarded up.
If it wasn't pad locked, you better believe we went inside. This was a mechanics shop. creeeepy. it was full of stuff, dust and broken bottles.
We also went to the Salt Flats. Rich is determined to camp here one night.
If there is one person Jane loves the most, it is her daddy. He can get her to smile and laugh unlike anyone else. Every night Jane has some daddy time. I believe it to be her favorite time of her wakeful moments.
Our good friends Dasheek and Jocelyn had their baby. He is such a little stud. Although quite light in the pictures, he has darkened up quite a bit. Jocelyn has to go back to work after her three months of leave. She is enjoying every minute with her little bug. She is dreading returning to work, be hopefully Sheek will be graduated soon, off to work and she will be able to stay home. They are a beautiful family.
We brought them costa vida for dinner, and a diaper cake for dessert :)
And of course, the bro got married. I have some random shots for ya'll. It was a blessed day.
After the reception the arnell clan (and skyler, who can be counted among us) went and got some yummy ice cream. Ice cream and family...it doesn't get any better.
Jane loves her grandparents...the white's and the other folks too. Probably because of all the attention she gets :)
Whenever a missionary comes home in our stake they have what is called a "stake fry" where they get all the young men (and young women at times) together and they have the missionary talk about their missions while they eat good food (originally they all had steaks). One of the stake fry's was at our house. The missionary had come home from Russia...hence the large "beanie"
Many months before Jane was born, Liesl found this awesome car seat warmer outfit for Jane. We use it to take her for walks. She is so toasty warm, immovable and cute.
Three days apart, Daegen and Janer bug.
Jane is so talented, holding the bottle all by herself. At this rate she'll be in kindergarten by age 3!
Ok, thats enough for today.
Monday, 09 February 2009
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lil' bit of catch up...
Jane is sleeping...so here I am trying to play a little catch up. I have a lot of pictures to show you. First, let me talk a little. Jane is amazing. She is such a good baby. She only cries when shes hungry and I haven't gotten the bottle quick enough, or if she wants to be cuddled so she can fall asleep. My pleasure! I cannot believe how much she has grown the last two months. I don't know where the camera is, so I don't have *recent pictures downloaded, but I'll catch up on the pictures I do have.
She found her tongue a few weeks ago and shortly after that started smiling, as you saw in the post below. I love when I am looking away and when I turn to her shes smiling so big. It takes my breath away. No matter my mood, it makes me smile and count my blessing. She's so beautiful! She has her daddy wrapped around her little finger. Except when she has a poopy diaper.
Jane has blue eyes. They are amazing. I am jealous. I always wanted blue eyes- but if I can't have them, Im glad she got them. She isn't quite sleeping through the night yet, but we're getting there. Well, not really, but I keep telling myself that :) Alrighty, here's some pictures before she wakes up.
These were taken a few days after coming home. Livy and Evelyn came over. Once they had enough of the baby, they wanted to see the kitties.
To their surprise and disappointment, the kitties aren't kitties anymore. Evelyn asked, "where are the kitties?...no, the little ones?!" Then they went with Rich to visit the neighborhood pet turkey.
Jane had bilirubin, or jaundis (sp?) bad, so she had to be on the "blue lights" for a couple days. Do you know how hard it is not to hold your baby for two days when shes laying there in you're own bedroom?
We got lots of visitors. Here is uncle sheek.
I love this kid.
Rich and I have not been shy about taking Jane out of our home, or letting people hold her. Probably because from day one we had to bring her to the hospital a few times to be bilirubin tested. Here she is on her first official daddy, mommy, daughter date to Roosters on 25th street in Odgen (eatery), compliments of America First.
Rich and I were nervous to give Jane her first bath. She was so slippery and didn't like it. Rich discovered if he put a towel in with her to wrap her in warm water she actually quite loves the bath!
We spent Thanksgiving with the Arnell Clan which put us with the White's for Christmas. Guess who came to visit!
Jane is quite impressed with Gramp...uh...Santa's beard
Ezra is Janes little cousin born about 1.5 months before her. It pretty much snowed the whole time we were there. Here is the Dr. Suess lamp...
I worked on a "blurb" book for Rich. It contained from the time we started dating until the end of 2006. I hope to do a book for each year. It works a lot better then scrapbooking for me.
And we all did a whole lot of this...
Rich and my Christmas tree lasted a little longer this year than last years...but not that much longer.
We helped Grandma "take her Christmas down" on New Years Day. She is always so fun to visit. She even made us grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner :)
The blessing day...Mom made the bonnet and booties...simply amazing!
The only other time Jane cries is when shes laying next to Landon
You know the kind of friends that you can go without seeing for years, and then when you do finally meet up again, its like you just saw each other yesterday? Thanks for making the trip Joe...
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- Name: Serra
- Member Since: 1/13/2002
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