Hallie LaRue Peters a Birth Story, Part 2

09/22/14

Do you know that I was embarrassed to announce my pregnancy this time? I didn't even tell Steve for several days.... do you want to know why? Both Em and Ry took such a long time to conceive and Hallie did not. Em took around 18 months with a miscarriage prior, possible loss of her twin as well (not confirmed, just speculated by the doctor). Ry took around 2 years, with a miscarriage before as well.... Hallie was conceived the very month I went off birth control, and I felt guilty. Very guilty. I know what it's like to have a hard time conceiving and then have other people's pregnancies thrown in your face, and I didn't want to do that to anyone. I knew people would know we got pregnant fast because of how soon it was after Ry was born, only a month after his first birthday. So, I thought it was important to get that out, because I actually experienced that guilt for most of the pregnancy.

Now onto the rest of the birth story.....

Today is the morning of my induction, I wake up feeling the same as I have for the last 2 weeks, but more pressure and actually a little bleeding. We got both kids bathed, Em ready and off to school on the bus. We had the kids bag packed for over a month now. Also, made arrangements for the bus driver to drop Emarie off at my step-dad's place (they're only a couple blocks away from us), we were going to drop Ry off there on our way to the hospital.

Finally, after relentlessly cleaning and trying to organize things to kill the time, the hospital finally called a little after 11:30 and told me to check-in at 12:45. So we finished up all the last minute prep, and got going, dropped Ry off and headed to the hospital. Once I was all dressed down and hooked up, a nurse checked me and I was surprised that I was nearly a 4, so labor was finally beginning anyway! They still started pectocin anyway just because things had taken so long to get to that point, and the plan was to have my doctor still come and break my water when he got a moment. I was glad about that, because it doesn't seem like anything really happens until my water breaks. And he came a couple hours later, and I still hadn't dilated any more, even on the pectocin, that was about 3:30. By 4:30 I was feeling a lot more pressure and strong contractions that were mainly in my hips. The nurse checked at that time and declared I was a 7, and thought the baby would be here within a half an hour.... Figured it was time to text Lacey to let her know she needed to be there soon if she was going to get pictures. She was still in Provo, but said she could head to American Fork as soon as she dropped off her husband. Less than 20 minutes later, I knew it was time, and the nurse confirmed I was fully dilated, and went to call Dr. Haskett, which they had a hard time getting a hold of him, the hardest part was trying not to push as I felt the urges. My doctor wasn't there, and my photographer was doing everything she could to make it in time, luckily it all worked out AGAIN! Just like with Ryker's birth. Lacey walked in about 3 minutes before my doctor finally made it. I pushed 4 times max and again for only a couple minutes and she was out by 5:02 pm. I knew she was bigger than my first two because I actually had pain pushing her out (even without an epidural, I didn't feel much pain pushing Ry out and I didn't feel Em at all), it still wasn't that bad, and for the first time ever, even with a baby a lot bigger than what I'm use to, I didn't tear at all, so no stitches. I think I can chalk that up to all the Evening Primrose Oil I'd been using in hopes of inducing labor myself! So, Dr. Haskett was in the delivery room less than 5 minutes! I guess he raved about me in the office the next day and said I was his easiest delivery ever.... at least that's what his associate told me when she came to check on me the next day.

Hallie came out so fast that she was quite swollen and had some bruising and petechia, she still has small hints of this even 3 weeks later, mostly in her eyes. Most of the comments from the doctors and nurses were about her full head of long, black hair! In fact, when I stated that her head was harder to push out than my other two, Dr. Haskett said, "It must be all the hair!".... I remember the nurse who took her to wipe her down said, "Oh she has a dimple!" I was SOooo excited about that!! It is one of my favorite features about myself and I have always hoped one of my kids would inherit them.... even if she only has one, I was so happy! Dr. Haskett thought it was funny I was so excited about that and said, "I figured you'd be most excited about all the hair?".... I told him, "Eh, my babies always have hair!" Hahaha.

She came out screaming her entrance and was the first of my kids to not have the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck, so Steve actually was asked for the first time ever if he wanted to cut it, which of course he declined! I'm still surprised he stays in the room for the birth of our babies, he gets really queasy and doesn't like the thought of the pain it must cause.... funny, huh?! My labors with both my girls have been extremely painful, but birthing them is not.... nothing about Ry's labor and delivery were very painful.

I got a lot of skin to skin time with Hallie and she took to breastfeeding great and right away! I couldn't decide who she looked like, but Steve thought she looked more like Emarie than Ryker, and I started to see that too. She mostly gets comments on her hair and her lips. It's debatable where those lips came from since Steve and I both have pretty full lips, but her hair definitely came from me since I had a full head of black hair when I was first born as well. Either way, we both agreed that she is beautiful, and BIG! She came out weighing in at a whopping 8 lbs 10 oz beating her brother by a pound and her sister by 2 pounds! Quite long again at 20.5 inches (which is what Ry was as well, but a pound less). Her complexion was pretty dark coming out like her brother's, so I was pretty sure she'd be showing some high bilirubins like he did as well, and I was right, but I'll get to that later.

Her first visitor other than Lacey, was my mom that came just an hour two after her arrival. Other than that we didn't have any more visitors until the next day. We had a perfect first night together (Steve went home so that Em and Ry would be able to sleep in their own beds). She breastfed every 2-3 hours through the night, and snuggled with me. They gave me two vaccines that night, a flu shot on my right arm, and per a strong suggestion from them since my asthma was reported to be pretty bad during my pregnancy, a pneumonia vaccine. I had never had one of these before, and also have actually never had pneumonia, but I didn't think too much of it. I regretted getting it though!

Our next day was nice, Steve came and brought the other kids to meet their new little sister the next morning, and we had a few other visitors throughout the day (Steve's parents, grandpa Mitch ((my step-father)), my grandma and grandpa Wilde and my cousin Alexis). That night is when things started to go south. I had been feeling great postpartum (I usually do feel pretty well since I have such difficult pregnancies, I usually feel so much better when I'm not pregnant), actually I felt better than ever since I didn't have any stitches, so really just had the postpartum contractions to deal with, but even they were not very bad and didn't last nearly as long as they usually do. I actually wasn't taking any narcotics, just the ibuprofen. But that all changed when I woke at 2 am on the 24th..... I had the most searing pain in my arm where I'd got the pneumonia vaccine, I could barely move my arm, couldn't put any weight on it (to pull myself up in the bed), and honestly the pain was liken to a broken bone. I called the nurse and when she came in, I let her know that something wasn't right. So, she checked it and said, "it does look awful red, they can become irritated, I'll grab you a heat pack".... Irritated??! No, my flu shot area was irritated, this was WAY worse! And yeah, the heat pack didn't help much and I was rating my pain at 9 at this point. The nurse knew then that something was off, because she could see in my chart that I hadn't rated my pain above a 4 since having my baby. So she called the doctor and they suggested it was probably an allergic reaction and ordered benadryl. I still wasn't terribly satisfied with this, but being as I'd never had a reaction to a vaccine before, I didn't know what to expect. The benadryl knocked me out though, so I fell asleep until Hallie woke up again at 5 am, that's when I took this picture....

                                                

It started with two bright red, thumbprint sized welts and the pain was unimaginable. I knew when I saw it that it was infected. But still no one would listen to me. Every time the nurses came in, I was rating my pain and saying it was only coming from my arm. I kept saying I thought it was infected, they gave me more benadryl, even sent in someone from the pharmacy to train me in reactions and what to avoid. I told her that I knew it wasn't a reaction, she told me to keep an eye on it. By the time I was getting ready to be discharged that afternoon, the two little welts had morphed into a large red patch, but still they gave me more benadryl, then sent me home.

By that night, I spiked a high fever, tremors, was delirious and exhibiting other flu-like symptoms, so Steve took me to the ER where I was diagnosed with a serious case of cellulitis. I was given an IV and an infusion of an antibiotic, as well as started an oral antibiotic and was sent home even though the doctor said he would normally admit me under the circumstances, but with all the sickness they had and likely my immune system was compromised when it was doing all it could to fight this infection, he didn't think it would be safe for me there. So I was given the script for the orals, then given instructions on going to outpatient IV therapy.

                                 

We took Hallie's newborn pictures up in Salt Lake the next day since we already had the studio reserved. I didn't feel well all that day even after having the two different antibiotics in my system. I went to my first outpatient infusion that night and after getting home, I felt horrible, and that's when Steve noticed how much the redness had spread on my arm. It was also incredibly swollen at this point.

                                            

I was so exhausted, I ended up falling asleep, but woke up in the middle of the night with such pain in my arm and now feeling it in my side and back, so I went back to the ER at 4 am. They added another oral and another infusion. He told me that these were the strongest antibiotics I could be on, so if they didn't work, he wasn't sure what the next step would be, I became pretty scared at this point. So I went to IV therapy morning and night for up to 3 hours at a time for a total of 8 days of treatment. It took until I took my very last oral antibiotic for the pain to completely go away, but my skin is still darkened (bruise-like) where the infection was the worst, it took the longest to get out of my elbow. But I finally feel better from it all, though it was one of the hardest things medically I've gone through, and definitely wasn't fun dealing with it right after I had a baby.

                                             

                                                          My picc line I had for 8 days

All of this pretty much made Hallie completely shy away from breastfeeding, so once again I'm exclusively pumping and she is getting bottled breastmilk. So, once again my supply is ridiculously abundant and I'm making way more than she's eating. So far I haven't had any signs of infection, but that could be that I still have a lot of antibiotics in my system.... but I hope not. I've already begun donating since I'm putting more than 40 ounces in the freezer on top of what she's eating everyday. She is getting her lip tie revised next week, and I'm hoping to go back to lactation and hopefully get her back to breastfeeding again.

And yes, she had pretty high elevated bilirubin levels, actually got above the 20 mark, but thankfully our pediatrician took pity on our situation (when I was getting treatment), and she never had to go under the lights even. We just did our best to make sure she was getting enough food (and it really helped when I just gave up and let her have bottles for every feeding) and keeping her near the window and even taking her outside once and awhile. Her complexion is still quite dark though, and I know Ry's had completely corrected itself at this point, so I don't know if it is part of her coloring now.... so, we shall see.

But that's it, now for the good part.... here's her birth video (G rated again!), pictures were all by Steve and Lacey Lynn.


   

You are 1!!!

Dear Ryker,

Today you are one, and in many ways I can hardly believe that much time has passed.... but at the same time it doesn't seem nearly long enough! I cannot imagine our family without you. You have brought so much joy, hope, laughter and love to our tight knit family in one year's time. Hope is a big one. We are experiencing things with you that we never thought we'd be able to as parents. Don't get me wrong, we are so immensely proud of your sister and each and every one of her accomplishments, but there are some things we have had to face that she will probably never do. But we get to celebrate the things we will miss out on with her with you, and I cannot tell you what kind of joy that brings us. 

Here are a few of my favorite things about you at this age :) 

I love how happy you are every time you wake up and I come in to get you up. Your little smile radiates from your whole soul and lights up the whole room literally.... and it warms your mama's heart each time! I am so lucky! 

I love, love, love your curious nature! Even though it causes me a lot of anxiety (like when you try to go down the stairs or climb on top of things!). Your little mind never stops for one minute of the day! You are always trying to figure out something new, and I know you will be very smart because of this. I hope you never lose it! 

I love the way you brush my hair out of my face to look at me when I hold you, this is the sweetest thing, and it lets me know you love your mommy. 

I love when you hear a phone or small device making a noise, you immediately turn it to see it and light up when it is a video or picture. 

I love your crazy hair that I can never seem to keep tamed!

I love the sloppy open mouth kisses that you sometimes surprise me with, or give me when I ask :) But I love if I'm laying on the couch and you crawl over, pull up and plant one somewhere on my head or face, you always seem to catch me off guard and make me laugh, while causing my heart to burst all at the same time!

I love the crazy, expressive faces you make! Most especially your duck face!

I love the way you light up when you see someone you know! Whether it be me, your daddy, grandpa or grandma, or your cousins, you always make them feel very important, you are such a sweet boy!

I love how you light up when you see any young child, including pictures. You love to watch the digital picture frame and get especially excited when you see pictures of your sister, yourself, or your cousin, Adam. It was also fun to see you interact with Adam when he was here with your aunt for a visit. You two really played well together and it's easy to see how you guys will become best friends, too bad they live so far away :( But they're coming again in February, and you both should be walking by then, and I'm sure you both will give your mommies a run for the money while you're together! You also really love to look at yourself in the mirror, surprise, surprise ;) 

I love that you still love your nursing time with mommy.... even in light of mommy trying to wean you, you are making that very difficult because you love it so much. And to think about how worried I was your first few months of life and whether you would ever actually nurse :) 

I love your love of food! Even though you scream at me sometimes if I am not fast enough to get food to your mouth! I love that you will eat pretty much anything, even if it is clear that you don't really like it! I think you make most people laugh when you are eating, and you are always good entertainment for that! 

I love the clear love you have for your sister. It really warms my heart to see how excited you are to see her and play with her. Even when she is a little less than nice to you ;) You still love her unconditionally, no matter how many times she hits you, knocks you over or body slams you! 

I love the way you dance! It makes me laugh EVERY time! And you know it, so that is why you still do it I believe! 

I love how smart you are! You still find a way to amaze me each and every day with the things you pick up on so easily! You have around 8 words at this point and your comprehensive language is amazing! 

I too love your determined nature. When you see something you're after, there isn't much we can do to keep you from it! You will always find something that I try to hide, or find a way in a closed door. Trust me kid, use this determination in the right way, and you will go far in life! 

I love that you are a true momma's boy! And you are so much like your mommy it is scary at times ;) I hope you will always hold a special place for mommy in your heart! 

Now of course, just a few pictures of our squirt highlighting his first year :) 

I sure love you Ryker! So does your daddy, sister, grandparents, aunts/uncles, cousins and friends! You are one amazing little boy, and people can't help but love you when they meet you! We are so blessed to have you in our lives, and Happiest of Birthdays to you! And to many, many more!!

Love Always,

Mommy

A few of his stats:

Ryker weighs just under 19 lbs, so about 18 lbs 14 oz

He still doesn't have any teeth, and I'm not sure when they'll make an appearance!

He eats 3 solid meals a day, but still breastfeeds 4 times a day (trying to get that down to 3 though!)

Not walking yet, but standing on his own without holding onto anything, and cruising from furniture to furniture, with maybe a solitary step or two here and there, so I'm thinking walking will come in the next month or two. 

NO known food allergies, which is HUGE!! But, we will still probably get some standard testing done given his sister and daddy's history.

Size 3 diapers, clothing is mostly 9 months at this point, but some 12 month :) Shoe size 2, which is tiny I know, but he is still so much bigger than his sister was, so we are just fine with his size! 

He sleeps through the night, a consistent 12-13 hours, with 2 two hour naps during the day. 

He wears his clothes down to almost nothing with his crazy crawling and he is one fast little crawler! No more army crawling at all unless he is going under something he can't fit under on all fours. Sad about that a little because it was so stinking cute, but happy that I don't have to completely stain treat the entire fronts of his clothes, or throw them out anymore.... now it is just the legs :) 

Only one major illness still to report, which was mentioned in his last update post (hand, foot and mouth disease simultaneous with strep), but he has had quite a few colds. NO ear infections, which is quite miraculous again given his sister's history :)



There you have it! It's been one heck of a year! 

Em's 4/5 and No Hospitalization Celebration Event!

As you can see, I am slowly getting caught up on the blog.... this one backdated to June *YIKES* But bear with me, since it's not easy moving while very pregnant, and yes I am still battling the inevitable morning sickness.... but more like all day sickness in my case! And contracting off and on as well.... but life as we know it. And yes, I will still get to all the details of our move later on once I'm caught up with everything else that's still behind! 

So moving on.... 

Since Em didn't have a birthday party for her fourth birthday because of her second hip surgery, and we're not sure about giving her one this year for her fifth because we'll have a brand new baby and we're not sure about all the germs with RSV season, plus we'll still be a little chaotic with adjusting to 2, but Oh how wonderful all at the same time! We also realized we had never done anything to celebrate her going a year without an unplanned hospital stay, we figured we better do something BIG for it all! 

I have always been jealous of the mom's whose kids can have nice summer, outside parties! So if we celebrate on Em's half birthday, which is June 24, there you have it! I really wanted to reserve a pavilion at a park and get a big inflatable water slide and have a water party. But the park idea was out because they needed more notice and permits to get a bounce house rental. So Steve's parents offered their backyard, but that would limit the size we could get, so when contacting businesses about their rentals... none of them knew the dimensions of any of their rentals! Except one place that said they had them set up in their on site facility and I could come look at them anytime.... which is what we did when Steve got off work that day, and lo and behold, we just decided it would be best to pay the same amount for one rental and instead rent out their facility with ALL of their rentals! 

Turned out to be a BIG hit and I think all the kids and even adults that came had a lot of fun! We had two Chromosome 18 families join us.... the Harpers came all the way from Logan! And the Howe's came from Kaysville! We are so grateful that they all traveled so far to be part of this celebration, especially since it was in their honor as well! You see, we asked that instead of people bringing presents (since she really doesn't need anything these days), that people donate rather what they would have spent on a present, and that money was going straight to the Chromosome 18 Registry and Research Society. We also included a little about a fellow Chromosome 18 mom Mandi Fisher who recently passed away unexpectedly from an aortic aneurysm, leaving behind her husband Jason and 2 (almost 3) year old daughter Kenzie who has that same crazy 18q- like Emarie. We thought it would be nice to honor her with our celebration as well and have the donations be as much for her as for Em since that is how her family wanted her honored as well. 

Of course Em had a few presents, because grandparents got to do both! But we told them the only thing they could get her was more furniture for her dollhouse, which is what you'll see her opening. Em was very good to put donations in the box herself and we were able to send $250 to the office later! Not bad!! 

Anyway, on with the good part.... the videos and pictures, which of course will be shown in slideshow form.... what else ;) 

Enjoy! 

Remember, 720 p and full screen for optimum viewing! 

And here's a picture of Em placing her donation checks in the mail at the post office, so cute! 

The rest of April...

*Play song, "First Day of My Life" with this post

Not too much to report in the last day of this month. I started working full days again after Spring Break, which was the 16th. I guess my reward was a horrible virus :P Started off with the worst sore throat I have ever had for the first 4 days, thought for sure it was strep and that Em was getting it too, but when I took us both in to be cultured, it was negative. Thankfully the doctor took pity on me and gave me a script for something he called a "miracle rinse", which consisted of 1 part Benadryl, 1 part Lidocaine and 1 part antacid. Nasty stuff, but it brought down the swelling in my throat and numbed it. After the sore throat cleared up, it was onto lovely chest congestion, sinus pain, runny nose and a wicked cough. I am on day 8 now, and I think Em is one day behind me. Still doesn't seem as though there's an end in sight, but I have heard from others that eventually it gets better. I really wouldn't wish this on anyone else, it has been awful and medicine hasn't helped much. I hate when people think it's good you didn't test for something bacterial.... but if it had been bacterial, I would have started on an antibiotic and would have gotten relief within 24 hours and probably would have been completely rid of it several days ago! 

Anyway, so that is mostly what has been going on, Em has been taking it much better than her poor mom! She is amazing.... hope you don't tire of me telling you that! 

Before the sickness mess began, we attended a birthday party for Diane's youngest (wonderful lady who watches Em), and another little girl, McKell that Diane also watches who we've known since she was born. Her mom actually use to be Em's PT when she was in PEEP. 

Here's a slideshow from the party

We have enjoyed some insane weather for April! A couple of days with temps in the 90's! Which in my opinion is way, way, way too hot for spring when there's no pools open! And it kind of stunk that the nicest days were when Em and I were home taking sick days :P

Being sick sometimes has it's perks. Been able to do some shopping online. Found this adorable swimsuit through another Ch18 mom....

 I love the vintage look! So wish I could find one similar for me that wasn't over $80!!

This one was $26.99 in case you were wondering.... but the biggest they go is 4T :( They are quite unique in that they snap at the bottom much like a onesie. Ideal for a child still in diapers (makes changing much easier), or a young girl who's recently potty trained (makes going much faster, and the swimsuit doesn't have to touch the dirty floor!). Also, since we're planning to hit the beach this summer when we're in Texas for the ch18 conference, we thought this one would be ideal when we need to hook our girl up to her feeding pump (that is always hard in traditional suits!). Now that I've done a complete advertisement for them ;) If you'd like one, you can go here.

And I finally got my first pair of Toms! Some for Em too :) 

Love how comfortable they are! And Em's look a little big because we got them the size she needs for when she wears her DAFOs (which is about 4 sizes bigger than her regular foot size!). We thought they would be nice for practicing walking because of how light and flexible they are! 

But not much else went on, kind of happens when you're sick though! Here's hoping May is much healthier! 

Four

*Play song, "Your the World to Me" (incorrectly named though, it's supposed to just be "World to Me") for this post

My baby turned four on Christmas Eve, which is just surreal to me. At times it's unbelievable for me to think that that much time has past, it seems like it was yesterday that I was holding my gorgeous girl in my arms for the first time.... Other times, I can't even remember what our lives were like before her.

Four is an age that will forever hold a special place in my heart. It is the age my sister will be etched in my memories until I see her again. It is also the age of children I have been working with and teaching for the last 7 or so years. It is a great age. One filled with wonder, excitement and imagination. I am so excited to see what this year will hold for my dear sweet angel! 

It has been quite the roller coaster ride these four years and sometimes I wonder how we survived it all with our sanity in tact...... well, mostly in tact ;) I love my girl more than I can describe and I am so grateful for her each and everyday. So, I only saw it right that we celebrate her in the way she deserves.... and for the first time ever on her actual birthday! Christmas Eve has always been filled with way too many things that it was impossible to do any sort of birthday festivities, which is why we defaulted to celebrating in January somewhere near the day she came home from the hospital which was the 22nd. One of the biggest things that usually happens on Christmas Eve is Steve's work Christmas party, which is always a movie.... and not a kids movie, so I always feel awful having someone babysit my girl on her birthday. But this year, since it was on a Saturday, they did the movie on Friday the 23rd, so we had most of the day open! Just breakfast and presents at Steve's parents in the morning (that's when we celebrated Christmas with them since that was the day that it worked best for everyone), and then the annual Wilde family Christmas Eve party that evening. So, actually it was pretty packed, but we knew we could make it work! 

After we were done with present opening at the Peters', we had a special package for Emarie to open. A package that was packed with love from a very sweet Ch18 family in Michigan, the Bowen family. I teared up just when I saw the size of the box sitting in front of our door. And more tears came when I opened it first to prepare it for Em to see. Sweet notes and pictures adorned the top of the box, and what was inside was way more than we could imagine. Thank you Bowen family from the bottom of our hearts. You are such an amazing family and we consider ourselves lucky to consider you friends.... actually family, because we're all in this roller coaster together :) And even though we haven't met you, we feel like we know you as well as family and can't wait for the day when we will actually meet!

 Looking at the pictures of the adorable Bowen kids

 Here's a small portion of what they sent which included some clothes that their daughter has outgrown, they are all absolutely adorable! 

And the last item we opened.... Em's face says it all! 

Our card seemed a little less impressive after all this, but we gave it to her anyway ;)

 "Reading" her card.... I just love how expressive this girl is! 

 The surprise in the card was a gift card to go to Build-A-Bear and to do some other fun things (which we didn't get to, but I'll get to that later)

So, as soon as we were done here, we headed straight for the mall. Our plan was to hit Build-A-Bear at the Orem mall, then head to the Provo mall (don't have a BAB at the Provo mall anymore) to ride the train and carousel.... but thanks to a grandmother that was at BAB with like 10 of her grandchildren getting them all a bear for Christmas and they took forever, we planned to be there 30 minutes or less, which we would have.... but whatever! So since it took almost 2 hours, it was the only thing we got to do :( But, we're planning to do the other stuff when we can (trip then hip surgery, it would probably be a month before we could do it... but well, now the surgery has been postponed of course ((more on that later)), so we may be able to do it sooner than we thought).

 Choosing just the "right" one can be tricky business (see video below for just how well Em did this!)

 Holding her choice of an empty bear and waiting.... waiting.... waiting for her turn to fill it 

 Yup, still waiting..... I should also point out Em's cute shirt that says "One Cute Birthday Girl!" a hand-me-down from Kennya and Kennedy (friends)

The process of filling is in the video below :)

 Choosing the clothes is equally as tricky and important!

 Finally it's ready! I think she's happy :)

Love it!

And later we headed to the Wilde family Christmas Eve party (more of the Christmas celebrations from that in a following post) where her grandpa Mitch and grandma Jen gave her this....

 Yeah, I had the same look as Em.... thanks guys.... that's just what we needed... a Barbie bigger than our daughter ;)

And here's Em at the end of the night with all her birthday loot! The Jingle dog and book, jingle music toy, Rapunzel baby, birthday cake wooden puzzle, socks, Rapunzel gel window clings, Rapunzel purse and Rapunzel pillow and throw (plus all the clothes) were from the Bowen family.... told you it was a lot! Then Steve's mom made her the cutest little rabbit family set, complete with a zip-up carrot holder. And then of course the Barbie ;) Can we say spoiled??

All in all I think she had a great birthday.... what do you think??

Em's birthday celebrations at school

Since Em's birthday is on Christmas Eve, I doubt there will ever be a day she will be at school for the actual day. So we elected to bring a treat and celebrate our girl the day before break (20th). I picked up some store bought (health department policy) festive, frosted sugar cookies.... which Em couldn't eat.... but don't think I'm mean! I wanted something that the kids don't usually have, and unfortunately anything that's dairy, soy and egg free doesn't scream special. But one of Em's friend's from class also has food allergies and believe or not is allergic to more than her, but they can still eat a lot of the same foods, so I got the two of them some very cute Christmas (red and green) marshmallows and suckers, so they both felt pretty special too :) However, Em wanted nothing to do with either of these things, so she got her favorite from the school snacks- Alphabet Cookies.... whatever, it was her celebration after all ;)

 She enjoyed them... that's all that matters ;)

 Her birthday crown, which she wasn't too thrilled about.... until, 

She saw herself in the mirror :)

Someone payed Em a special visit for her birthday......

 What a lucky girl! And I should mention that this is the cute outfit that the Fisher family sent her last year and we're so glad we could make it work one more year! 

Not gonna let that candy cane go for anything! 

It was so fun having her celebrate with her school friends, they're all so cute together!

We had to take a picture of her wearing her crown in front of our tree that evening as well :)

I'm not exactly sure what is going through her mind with that face (she makes faces like this constantly though!), but I like to think it's, "WHAT, NO PRESENTS?!"

Haha, happy birthday Em, sure hope you have another fabulous year! 

Birthday Trip!

*Play song, 'Stars and Boulevards' with this post

Steve yet again did not fail to impress for my birthday! Just like last year, he took me to one of my favorite places, Steamboat Springs Colorado... but this time we stayed in the cutest little place- a bunker house on a ranch, so secluded and quiet.... at night it was pitch black and all we could see, as we relaxed in our own private hot tub, was the sky..... and you know, you can't really appreciate the beauty of the universe until you are in a place that is dark enough to see every star in the sky.

It was perfection at it's best. 

But true to form, Em did what she does best on a trip and that was get sick and vomit non-stop. But, we've learned our lesson from so many past experiences, so we were overly prepared and didn't let anything stop us (neither did Emarie) from having the fun that we all needed!

First, we had a quick stop off at the Dinosaur Museum in Vernal- also a place that holds a lot of memories for me. 

 Fossil Find

 See Emarie's look of "YIKES!" 

 And yeah, I know this one has way too much lens flair, but I thought we had to document the fact that she did not like being so close to this thing! She would not tear her eyes away from it, and can't say I blame her (didn't realize they were so big!), and I loved Steve's comment when we saw it, "bet those things stunk...... a lot!"   I'm sure they did.... I'm sure they did.

 She was starting to realize at this point that nothing was real..... or at least not alive!

 Just love the look on her face here!

 "Ok guys, that's enough!' (FYI, I think she's never looked more like me in these couple of pictures!)

 "Uhhh, what's that in the water?? Looks like it could swallow me whole!"

"Wow!"

Several hours later, a look at our bunker house

 Yeah, she loved it here! 

Too cute, am I right?!

I got to enjoy hot breakfast every morning!

And Em (when not feeling the best) enjoying her iPhone *post to come on this iPhone very soon!

Yeah, we were pretty lucky!

The view

I know it doesn't look like it, but Em did enjoy the hot tub! And don't worry, we turned it down!

Steve wanted to play photographer this weekend.... actually it was a compromise for the boots I wanted to buy myself (since I've never spent that much on a pair of shoes since we've been married!), so I allowed him to take a few pictures of me in my boots and he of course went a little overboard... but I promised I'd post a few as long as I could pick them (he chose the ones he posted on facebook)

 I do love these boots!

 These do remind me though, that I still need to loose some pounds!

The ranch had several dogs about the property and they were so fun (except when they tried to jump in the hot tub!), so of course this one had to come by when we were outside :)

What would a good photo shoot be without the cutest girl in the world though??

We also went back to the same Smoke House we went to last year.

It was a bit cold that night!

 She was fascinated with her mittens.... which I'm glad! I was afraid she'd pull them off!

 The pig outside the smoke house

 Was using the little camera while we were in town, so pictures aren't as great... this one being too dark, but I love the smile on her face anyway!

And before we left the next day, we got a few more pictures of the cutest girl in the world!

 Oh man has she gotten expressive!

Ok, now behind the scenes, in order to get her to smile I had one of her favorite things in the world...... did you guess it??

And true to fashion, I had to let her hold her beloved Rapunzel for a few!

 Ok, this one was just too funny, because it looks like she is trying to eat that weed that's in front of her from the picture standpoint, when in reality it was quite a ways in front of her, so I'm not sure what she was doing!

Like I said, the girl's got some expression!

 Bye, bye Colorado! See you again next year!

And hello again to Utah!

Yup, husband did good!