May 2010

May brought another first for us, as we kicked off the month by sending our little girl to preschool for the first time.  It is a strange and exciting, but sad experience to watch your first-born becoming a little lady!  What happened to our baby girl?!  She was a little hesitant at first, but quickly let her excitement overcome her nerves.  She attended the BYU-Idaho preschool from May 4th to July 14th, 2010, and it was a really good experience for all of us!  I especially appreciated that her Aunt Sam was the head teacher and could help keep an eye on her and report any problems to me.  I always worry as a mother that Abby won't behave appropriately in a social setting, but she always comes through like a champ!  She did really well and her teachers always had such nice things to say.  She learned a lot, but mostly, I think she just enjoyed the interaction with the other children.

 Mommy and Abby excited for her first day of school!  May 4, 2010

  Heading into school!

Abby's "locker"

 

 Daddy was so proud of his BIG girl!

To celebrate her first day of school, we went on a Mommy/Daughter date to the bowling alley.  This was Abby's first time bowling, and I think she did pretty well! 

 
 

May was also the month for us to show our support for loved ones who are/were struggling to over come potentially life-threatening diseases.  The first weekend in May was the Susan G. Komen "Walk for the Cure" in Boise, ID.  We decided to surprise Nate's mom who had been under going treatment for breast cancer for several months.  She, of course, got teary-eyed when she looked up and saw Abby running towards her in the crowd of people!  We loved the experience, and it was definitely moving to see the survivors of breast cancer and those who were honoring their loved ones celebrating their victories and showing support for one another!  Way to go, Grandma Law!

  

The following weekend, we also joined Abby's Aunt Sherri in the annual Walk for Multiple Sclerosis.  Sherri found out a little over six years ago that she has MS, and we were honored to walk with her and my brother, Martin, in order to try and raise money for research.  It was definitely great as a parent to show Abby the importance of standing behind some great causes, and the significance of caring about those around you!  We love you, Aunt Sherri!  We hope someday they will find a cure for you and all the thousands who suffer from this horrible illness!

 

Memorial Day weekend was spent relaxing with Rita, Aaron, Mary Alice, and Kirsten!  We are so grateful that they could come visit for a few days!  The girls played so well together all weekend, and we enjoyed a fairly low-key visit.  On Saturday, we went to our favorite restaurant for all-you-can-eat Sirloin.  The girls had fun pretending their napkins were hats! 

 Beautiful, Mary Alice!

 Kirsten Paige ~ Such a cutie!

On Memorial Day, we took the girls for a little photo-shoot at a really cute park in town, but the look on their faces says it all:

 When we told them we could stop taking photos and go feed the ducks, instead, they couldn't run fast enough!
 

 

And on the way home, we got a phone call from a friend saying someone was selling Basset Hounds in front of the Sportsman's Warehouse.  Even though, I swore I would never own a dog (they are just too messy for me), we had finally caved and told Abby she could get a puppy.  We did our homework, though, and even attended a breeder's event to learn about lots of different kinds of dogs.  In the end, we had decided we wanted a Beagle, but (with a little lot of encouragement from Rita and the girls) we figured it couldn't hurt to check it out.  One look at this face...

 

and we were goners!  Who could say no to that saggy, adorable face!  I just wish that in all the excitement, we would have thought to take a few more pics of her first day home!  We settled on the name of Chloe (much to Daddy's chagrin) and she instantly became a part of the family!  Poor Aaron and Rita had to deal with two very unhappy girls when it was time for them to head home!  Douglas definitely didn't share in the excitement of the family addition, but since then, he has really warmed up to our little Chloe girl!  In fact, he now frequently seeks her out to cuddle with her and to nuzzle one another.  Puppies are certainly hard work, as I had expected.  It took a couple weeks to get Chloe house trained, and she still needs a little work in the obedience department, but overall, she's doing pretty well.  Just know that if you decide to get a puppy right after buying a brand new wooden swing set, it WILL get chewed to bits!  

PROOF:

 

By the way, they will also chew up stairs, base board trim, socks, flip-flops, and their FAVORITE, little girls' stuffed animals!

Perhaps the biggest and best news for the month of May, was that Nathan started a new job with CH2M Hill at the Materials and Fuels Complex of the Idaho National Lab.  He is a Hazardous Reduction Technician, which is just a fancy way of saying that he is now qualified to tear down buildings and structures that were/are hazardous.  (i.e. - radioactive, highly explosive, etc.)  The new position and accompanying salary, allowed me to negotiate a part-time position with my company, and beginning on June 1st, I started working on Mondays and Tuesdays only!  May was definitely a great month for the Law family!

 

 

 

APRIL - 2010

It was so neat to have Easter Sunday fall on General Conference weekend this year.  I loved decorating Easter eggs with Abby as we listened to the Apostles testify of the Resurrection and Atonement of Christ!

 

My little Easter Bunny!

 She was so proud of the finished products! 

We went to my oldest brother's house for an Easter egg hunt later that afternoon.  Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate with us this year, and we had to have the hunt in their basement.  I don't think the kids minded though!  Everyone found their eggs, and all the grandkids were excited to get a special treat from Grandma Gail.

 The next morning, Abby was excited to get her basket from the Easter Bunny.  Even Douglas seemed pretty anxious to try out that chocolate bunny!

Daddy seemed pretty happy with the Bunny's gifts this year, too!  

 

Happy Easter ~ 2010

On April 10th, Abby got to attend her very first friend birthday party!  It was a princess themed event, so she dressed for the occasion!  Too cute!  She had so much fun, and got to bring home a new tiara (that lights up!) and a sparkly princess scepter!  Thanks for the invite, Kylee!

Another first for Abby this April, was getting her very first swing set/toy structure.  We found a really good sale at Toys R Us and bit the bullet.  It felt like it took FOREVER to get it built and positioned -- due in part to the weather deciding to NOT act like Spring!  (It snowed a couple times after we got the boxes in the backyard!)  But it was worth the effort once we got it together!  Abby has enjoyed playing in the tower and learning how to "pump" herself on the swings!

   

 

Enjoying the picnic bench!

On April 24th, we made our first trip to Yellowstone Bear World, and after the experience, I have to wonder why we waited so long to go!  It was really fun to see so many wild animals up close -- and especially the BEARS!  There were playful ones, grumpy ones, fat ones, skinny post-hibernation ones, and hungry ones!  Because we had gone on a special promotional day in early Spring, they had a family special for the curator tour.  Brady and Sam were with us, and we were able to all take the special tour for $15!  Can't beat that!  You travel the same route as you do in your own vehicles, but you get to stand in the back of a special truck.  It has really tall sides, so even though you are in the open, the bears can't really get to you.  They've learned that the truck means food, so they follow you all over the park.  Occasionally, the curator van will stop, and the bears come right up to the sides and beg for food.  We had trays of doughnuts and bread to throw for them.  A couple of the bears would sit on their hind legs and start waving their hands at us!  As if to say, "Hey, you!  Throw me a doughnut, please!"   We also enjoyed the petting zoo and watching some of the staff getting to hold and play with the brand new baby cubs.  To top it off, Abby absolutely loved the little amusement park!  It was a little chilly, but definitely a great experience!

This photo album personalized with Smilebox

And what trip to the Ribgy/Archer area would be complete without a stop at Big Jud's for enormous hamburgers and ice cream cones!?

      

To round out the month, after quite awhile of dealing with "symptoms" that are less than pleasant to discuss, Nate decided to finally see a doctor.  He found out he had an umbilical hernia, as well as a hiatal hernia.  Because he had just had an amazing job offer from one of the contractors out at the Idaho National Laboratory, and was supposed to start this new job on May 10th, we went ahead and scheduled a surgery to repair them just 4 days later.  We hoped that the couple of weeks time would be enough for him to heal.  It took him a little longer to feel back to 100% than he'd anticipated, but thankfully, the new job was postponed a week anyway!  A funny side note to this story:  even now after MONTHS since it happened, Nate is still giving me a hard time about not grabbing the camera to snap pictures when he passed out and fell off the toilet in the middle of the night a couple days after the surgery!  The first argument in my defense:  I was a little more concerned about the fact that my 260 lb. husband was wedged between the wall and toilet and only semi-responsive to me, than grabbing a camera.  I was actually on the verge of calling the paramedics when he finally started coming around.  The second argument in my defense:  he was buck NAKED.  No joke.  He'd taken off his tops because they rubbed against his incisions, and obviously he'd pulled the bottoms down around his ankles to use the restroom!  Who would want to see pictures of that?!!  Maybe someday, he'll forgive me for worrying more about his health and dignity in that moment, than missing out on a photo op!

He decided to take some snaps of the after-math himself, anyway!

All in all, I'd say April was quite the month!

 

Broken Promise

I just re-read my last post, to see where I'd left off, and I realized that I had "promised" not to wait two months before blogging again.

So... do I have any good excuses for breaking that promise and not blogging for seven and a half months?  No.  Not one.  At first, when I'd think about doing it, I just didn't feel in the mood or I was too tired.  Then after it had been awhile again, I felt overwhelmed by the prospect of, once again, having to "catch things up."  I've decided to take the bull by the horns and just go for it.  

I think the easiest way to get from the end of March to our current date, is simply to post the highlights of each individual month.  And so the madness begins...........

Call me Slacker...

I guess I shouldn't take such long breaks in between posts, and then I wouldn't have to feel so overwhelmed at the prospect of trying to catch things up!! Because this post will be extremely lengthy in order to detail the events of the past couple of months, I decided to do a photo slide show for those of you who just want to see pics of our adorable Munchkin without all the exhaustive reading!! Hopefully, the captions on the pictures will be enough to figure out what we've been up to! For my own sake, and for those who have the patience to read it, I'll include a more involved run-down after the slides.

Create a photo slideshow

On January 23, 2010 our little Munchkin was able to attend her very first Primary Activity Day. I can't believe she is old enough to be a Sunbeam! The theme was "Tang and Testimonies" and all the kids and teachers got to wear PJ's while the Bishopric made them a pancake breakfast. Abby was kind of hesitant at first, so I hung around for a few minutes until she eventually got caught up in the fun of it!! By the time I came to pick her up, she was having so much fun she didn't want to leave!

We haven't really had a chance to play outside and enjoy the snow this year. Between Abby being sick, there not being much good snow, and sub-zero temperatures on days when we COULD have gone outside.....

We finally had a beautiful clear day on Jan. 29th when we got on our gear and headed outdoors. Unfortunately, the snow was so hard and "crusty" from the constant snow, melt, freeze, snow, melt, freeze cycle this year, that we couldn't do much of anything. We tried having a snowball fight, but it would just crumble in your gloves before you could even make a ball!! Which, of course, also made it pretty tough to try and build a snowman. Even an attempt at snow angels was disappointing, because the snow was so hard that Abby couldn't make any kind of impression in it! She finally resorted to just eating the snow...




Luckily, we got some wonderful, wet, fluffy snow a few days later, and we were able to make a snowman, snow angels, and have that snowball fight!

It wasn't all fun and games in the month of February, however. Thank goodness for my patient and insightful husband who reminded me that the adversary usually works hardest on people when something wonderful is about to happen. I thought that last year was a pretty difficult year, but if this first couple of months is any indication of what 2010 will be like.... well, I'm not sure that I want to think about that! On January 24th, after having a special Stake Conference, we had a surprise visit from the two councilors of our Ward's Bishopric. I wasn't sure what they could have wanted, because Nate and I had only just been put in as the Nursery Leaders a couple months back. Turns out, they were there to give me a new calling as the 1st Counselor in the Primary Presidency!! I REALLY didn't see that one coming, and in truth, I was pretty anxious about it. I haven't had a calling that required that much time and effort for awhile now, and it just seemed to come at one of the busiest times we have ever had!!

I think that the adversary really wanted to try and capitalize on that fear, because the very next day, I discovered that everything in our freezer had thawed out. I was able to get a repairman out to the house the next day, but it wasn't good news. In the end, we decided it would be better to just buy a new fridge. Three days later, we had to take our truck in to the shop to have the brakes looked at, and $430 later, thought we were done with car problems only to be forced to turn around and spend another $400 a week later on fixing the transmission! (We stopped being able to go in reverse!)

One of the first things I got to do as a new Primary counselor was assign Abby to give her first talk on Feb. 7th. The theme for the month was "I know that Jesus is my Savior and Redeemer," so we had her share the scripture from John 3:16, and then talk about how when she is scared at night, she looks at her picture of Jesus and it helps her feel safe and loved. I was a little nervous about how she would do.... normally, Abby loves to be the center the attention, but lately, she has kind of gotten "freaked out" at unfamiliar circumstances. Plus, while practicing with her the night before, she kept improvising instead of just saying the things I was prompting her to say!! Thankfully, she was a real trooper when it came to the actual time to give the talk. She said everything just as we had planned, and she didn't get too crazy with her volume, etc.!! Although, she did enunciate a few of the words a little too much, and it made some of the kids giggle. Like, when she came to the part at the end when I had her say, "I know that Jesus loves me..." She ended up saying Jesus pretty emphatically, and I think everyone in the room had a little chuckle about that one! The saddest thing.... her Daddy was so sick, he didn't get to come listen! :(

In fact, Nate ended up being really sick with some bronchial troubles the whole first week of February, and, unfortunately, Abby caught it too. By my birthday on the 9th, she was so sick that the Dr. was contemplating hospitalizing her! Her oxygen saturation levels were down in the 74% range - normal would be low 90's or better. They gave her a couple of breathing treatments, and sent her home with oxygen. It is really difficult to come home and see your little angel hooked up to an oxygen tank! Happy Birthday to me! :( So, other than the hysterical Barbie doll cake that Brady and Sam brought me for that day, this year's birthday was a bit of a downer!

Abby seemed to improve in behavior and oxygen levels over the next couple of days, but by the 12th, we still hadn't been able to get her fever to break. The Dr. decided we'd better do x-rays to see what was going on, and sure enough, she had pneumonia! I wish we would have done the x-rays sooner, because less than 24 hours after starting the antibiotics, Abby's fever was gone and she was back to her normal hyperactive self!!

Believe it or not, Valentine's Day weekend ended up being a mixture of chaos and relaxation!! We had my youngest brother, Brady, and his wife, Sam, move in with us that Saturday, and then conned them into babysitting Abby overnight while we went and enjoyed massages, dinner, and an evening at the Candlewood Suites! It's been really great to have Sam and Brady with us. We invited them to come live with us in order to help ease the early morning stress of getting Abby to the sitter. (Nate leaves for work by 5:30 am at the latest - sometimes much earlier, and I leave by 5:15 am most mornings.) So, they help get her ready and take her to my sister Kami's house two days a week, and Brady watches her the other two days that we work. Hopefully, it is working out as well for them as for us.

A side effect of having Sam and Brady with us, has been some interesting conversations with Abby over the past couple of weeks! Sam is expecting their first baby, and Abby has been fairly curious about bodies and babies, etc. I'm going to make a separate post to list some of the funny things she has said or asked!! We are excited for Sam and Brady's baby (due in June), but she'll probably have more questions when the baby actually comes.

The weekend of February 19 - 21st brought a fun-filled trip to Utah for Abby, myself, and my Mom. We drove down Friday morning, dropped my mom off at some friends in Riverton, and then continued on down to see Rita, Aaron, Mary Alice, and Kirsten. Aaron was busy with work when we first got there, but he was able to meet up with us at McDonald's for ice cream. That night, the girls went to The Princess and the Frog (which I think Abby really liked), and then after putting the girls to bed, Rita, Aaron, and I stayed up (way too late) playing games and just laughing and talking.

The next morning, I had the wonderful privilege of attending the sealing of my cousin Heather and her husband Greg to their beautiful adopted daughter Ellie. She fussed through the entire ceremony, and it brought back so many great memories of our own sealing day with Abby! The sealing took place at the Mt. Timpanogas temple, which was so convenient because it's just a few short minutes drive from Aaron and Rita's place! After the ceremony, I picked Abby up and we attended a luncheon at the Spencer's house. It was so fun to see my cousin and get to hold her precious little girl! My cousin and I have always seemed to have so many things in common, that it is so neat to be able to share our adoption experiences with each other!

That evening, we went to dinner with the Law's at a fun little Mexican restaurant and spent the rest of the night relaxing and visiting. I'm so thankful to Aaron and Rita for their hospitality and generosity! We love getting to visit them, and hope that we will see them again very soon!

We rounded out the weekend by attending Sacrament with my cousin for the blessing of Ellie, as well as, Heather's brother John's new baby. As if the weekend wasn't eventful enough for the Spencer family, Greg was made the new Bishop of their ward!! It was a huge surprise to everyone! It was so great to see the love, respect, and pride that Heather has for her amazing husband, and equally as wonderful to see Greg's humility but excitement and commitment to his new calling! I'm sure he will be an amazing Bishop! And Heather will be an incredible "mother" to the ward!!

After the meeting, we headed for home, and even though, I had an awesome weekend, it was nice to get home and see my husband! I'll be really glad when his EMT course is finished, and he can actually participate in weekends like that with us again!

While we were gone, Sam and Brady got a new kitten that they named Puck. It has been both fun and a little stressful!! I only say it's been stressful, because Abby is having a REALLY hard time keeping her hands off the kitten, and unfortunately, she's not very gentle sometimes!! Hopefully, the newness and excitement is wearing off now, and we can stop nagging her to "PUT DOWN THAT KITTEN!"

I have been thinking about painting and decorating Abby's room for awhile now, and because things have been pretty crazy with Nate's work and school schedule, etc., we decided she deserved something fun and nice. So, on the 26th, we got everything prepared and went to Home Depot to pick out some paint. We finally settled on Cornhusk Green. It turned out pretty good.... not quite Sage, but not neon green, either! Kind of a bright, yellow-ish green, and it has really livened up her room! I painted her shelves to match the trim, made her a magnet board in brown and pink for one wall, and bought her a little pink bean bag. To finish the room off, I was able to purchase some pink and brown sheets of vinyl from a local craft store and I used my sister-in-law's crickett to cut out different sizes of brown and pink flowers for her wall. I also did her name in brown and pink, and I think it turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself!!

We also rewarded Abby for being so good lately, by taking her to Blastoff on Feb. 27th. Basically, it's an indoor playground with mini-golf, laser-tag, and play structures. It's relatively inexpensive to go, and we've decided we need to start utilizing it as a resource more often until the weather decides to warm up!

We finally got to attend one of Nate's hockey games to cheer him on!! Unfortunately, it was the last game of the season -- the CHAMPIONSHIP! His team played their hearts out, but just couldn't quite pull it off, and ended up taking second place in the league. Nate was awarded the Most Improved Player and he is already looking forward to next year's season!

On March 14, we had our traditional St. Paddy's Day celebration. I have really come to love this holiday. It doesn't really mean much to me because of ancestry or anything.... I just love the corned beef and cabbage!! Seriously.... have you ever tried it! AWESOME! We played Irish music and enjoyed a good meal with Sam, Brady, my Mom, Martin, Sherri, and Sherri's sister and her fiance. I was so happy to have them join us, and it was fun for Abby to get to play with her son, Carter!! I hope we can continue this tradition for a lot of years to come!!

Other than that, we have just been trying to muddle our way through life! We try to have fun with our Munchkin as often as possible. I think we have "guilt" issues because we work such weird and long hours for four days of the week! We have a tendency to spoil Abby on the days that we can be with her! Oh, well! Hopefully, she won't grow up to be a spoiled-rotten nightmare!

I applaud your efforts if you were able to read this entire post, and promise to not wait two months again before updating!!