A few more late pics from the last month

Again, its been a month--sorry!! Here are a few pics that happened, and then a few notes about doctors appts. I've had...

Every wednesday we get together with the kids for "park group" which is now at the church for the winter.  So we bring bikes and balls for them and here is Harrison already getting "pushed around" by the girls (but when their this cute why not let them  ?!)
Another Wedn. some decided to explore the city by going to the exporitorium downtown San fran.  Well, quite the adventure....a few notes:

*three hours getting there (via BART and Bus) 2 hours there 2 hours home...next time I think we'll drive!

*5 women, 6 kids, 5 strollers + snacks/diapers/drinks don't fit on one bus...

*make sure you know the CORRECT name of the place you are going to, to ask the bus driver...

*make sure you go on the same bus as the person that is paying for you...

*Always ask strange people on the street to take pictures for you...
*enjoy the scenery...
*let the kids run around while they can...
*don't get on the bus when school is letting out...
*you must remove your sleeping children from the stroller before getting on the bus...
*ALWAYS stop at Sees chocolates to get chocolates for the ride home...
*walk home and congratulate yourself on surviving the days adventure being 8 months prego :) and having the only mom with a kid that didn't sleep the whole day...
It has been raining a lot and Harrison had to get out and of course the first thing he does is jump in the puddles, though you tell him not to...but who can deny this cute little face?

"See Mom!  I jump like a froggie!"

By the end of the jumping his pants were so wet that he had to hold them up to keep jumping, but jump he still did!!

So the last u/s on the baby's heart have been good, still growing.  I have now surpassed my normal prego size and weight (for a while now :)), and my OB wants to induce me next Friday (march 6) because I'll basically be 39 weeks, i've started dilating and because of my blood thinners and the baby's heart they don't want me to go on my own...so possibly I have one week left...I meet again with him on Monday and will try and talk him out of it!  

I met with the neonatologist and he is positive about the baby and basically said they are prepared for anything, so whatever happens the baby will be taken care of.  The surgeon I had an appt with, canceled because of another emergency surgery so I will meet him when the baby is born....So we're just waiting...  

Hope everyone is enjoying their winter!!!  

Hello Again :)

So, as usual, I'm slightly behind with things!  Hope everyone had a great Dec. and now Jan.!!  Instead of saying tons, here are some pics from the last few months (from Thanksgiving through Jan.) !


My first Thanksgiving dinner (and we didn't even get sick:)!




Harrison trying the ignore the big man in red.
Gingerbread house decorating with some friends--I think Harrison consumed his body weight in candy by sitting in his seat and just eating for a straight hour!!  Looks a little loopy to to me!






Just in time before he tore off the hat :)
Loves his Daddy!
Ry's family Christmas Eve

Christmas morning
Sledding in 20 weather with wind wan't Harrison's favorite thing.  I tried to take him again and he flatly refused to get near the edge--the things we make our kids do...
Kevin and Audrey--Another sister for me !!!

Horse riding lessons

brothers and cousins


Harrison's first snowman--he loved it!  And actually left the gloves on half the time.

Grandpa teaching him the art of "snowplowing"

snow snow and yes, snow...I wanted to make it down to Provo to see some friends (sorry everyone!)  but it snowed almost everday and not just a little!  I never made it past Salt Lake!!
Thanksgiving was nice to do things ourselves with our own little family!  Then for Christmas we had so much fun relaxing but really couldn't do much because it snowed so much up there in Bountiful (and I guess most the state!).  So we hung out with Ryan's family and then mine while they were there for the wedding and then stayed and relaxed some more while thinking how nice it would be to be back in the 60s in Ca! 

It has been nice to be back home, though sad to say goodbye to both families.  I am now 34 weeks along and the baby's heart is growing and looking the same so really all and all doing well!  I promise to write more later but hope all is well with all of you!  Thanks for all the well wishing and sorry to be MIA for so long!  Love all of you :)!

Ultrasounds...

So at the beginning of my pregnancy I asked the doctor to not do an u/s (ultrasound) because I only wanted the one at 20 weeks.  Well, since then I have had to have a few more then planed.  About a month ago we had our first u/s!  and NO WE DON'T KNOW WHAT WE'RE HAVING!  I talked Ryan into not finding out the last minute.  Thought the doc gave us a sealed envelope with a certain picture on it...and yes, I have it hidden and Ryan doesn't know where it is :)!  Well, the u/s tech was taking forever and said that he couldn't get a couple of veiws because the baby wasn't cooperating.  I didn't think anything of it (which I should have known better) so he went to get the perinatologist.  I ate some jelly beans and the baby started moving and she started looking at the heart...again.  So then I started to worry, I had the tech check everything that I was worried about like the baby has a brain, there were two kidneys, arms and legs, a beating heart...the usual.  So then I was informed that it "looked like the baby has a hole in the heart, and I'm not seeing the vessels cross...so how bout another u/s tomorrow with a pediatric cardiologist?" "Sure, why not"...I mean what could I say?

So, Ryan canceled a trip for work and the next day we had another hour long u/s and this is what out little baby has:

Tetralogy of Fallot (here's a general pic)

So this is generally what it is but this first u/s showed that we only had on of the pulmonary arteries (the blue branching "T" shaped thing)to the right lung and not to the left(so instead of a "T" an upsidedown "L").  Also the pul. valve and arteries are half the size they are supposed to be, and the hole(ventricular septal defect) is supposedly "fairly large".  So we were obviously thrilled :~( and I vow never to go to the doctor in Oct. again because it seems to be cursed for us!  But after some prayers and fasting we felt okay about it.  

SO...

We went back this past friday for the next installment of our little one's heart.  And GOOD NEWS!  well, I think it is!  Yes, the baby still has tetralogy but they think they saw the other pulmonary artery (so a "T" instead of "L").  Also, even though the arteries are still half the size they are supposed to be...they are still half the size--which means that they grew with the heart and there is still bloodflow through them with is KEY--as long as the blood flows then that should stimulate them to keep growing with the heart!! 

SO...

What this all means is that this baby is doing fine while he/she is in me.  When the baby is born is when they need the blood flow to the lungs (the pulmonary arteries are how the blood gets from the heart to the lungs, getting oxygen for the rest of the body...so kind of important) so that the baby can breath and receive the o2 that they will need.  So it all depends on how the baby does at birth.  The baby will need open heart surgery but when and how many will all depend on the baby, when they are born and how the surgery(ies) go.  

SO...

I guess we'll keep hoping it gets better and that I can cook this baby as long as I can!  

Hope everyone has a HAPPY THANKSGIVING THIS WEEK!!!!

Life is so short...

So not wanting to be depressing or anything I just wanted to share something.  A good friend of ours passed away this week.  She was Ryan's dad's receptionist as his dental office for the last 11 years and when I worked for his dad that year after Kennedy passed away she became a good friend who helped me a lot.  Anyway, she went to the doctor this summer becasue she was feeling so tired, diagnosed with cancer, given 2-5 months to live two weeks ago and was gone in a week.  

She was a wonderful person and I know where she is but it really makes you remember...  We really need to make the most of what we have.  The time that we have, the spills that we clean up, the noses that we wipe, the touch that we feel, the sticky fingers around our necks, the smells of yummy food cooking and the diapers that we change (well, maybe i won't miss THAT too much), the first sounds a baby makes or the first time they say "wuv you mommy", and even that rare moment that we actually get to spend alone with our husbands.  Make the most of tomorrow because you'll never have it again!  

YES ON PROP 8 and Halloween

I hope everyone was able to vote today!!  I was so excited to vote for PROPOSITION 8 finally.  I have been making calls for the ward and talked to some yeses, answering machines, hanging up on me, refusing to answer because it's "personal" (who knew?), and some more answering machines.  So we are all really praying that it will pass...again!   When I went to vote there were a couple people standing outside with a "Vote No on Prop 8:  it's unfair" sign and the guy asked me if I was voting "no".  I told him I was voting yes (and I almost said "what do you think--here I am a pregnant woman with a 2 year old?) but I was nice and said that I am voting yes and I am not taking any rights away that they already had and he just shrugged his shoulders.  To bad I didn't have my yes signs handy!!  

So here we are at the ward trunk-o-treating at the church--Harrison has been in love with sharks this year...well intreged/afraid/always talking about them so a Shark he is (and for those of you who don't know a shark sound is made like this--"hhhaarrrrrrrr" kind of a growl thing as he pretends to eat you!)  And yes the lame costume next to him is my "ocean costume" that I decided to make that afternoon!  I was fun putting on the sea creature foam stickers though!

there is the tail and fin but he won't put on the hood with has all the teeth so he looks like a deformed dino but what do you do??

a shy shark when a person is there...


But if there is candy with no person he decided it was far game and grabbed as much as he could!
Everyone  has cute tummy shots and  I always forget so finally here is my 21 week belly!

Locks of Love...

So It was finally time...I started growing out my hair when Kennedy passed away and for her birthday this year I thought it was time to finally give it away. So personally, this is not the haircut and color that I wanted, I wanted it shorter and to donate a little more but what do you do when they cut your hair they way they like it?? It was extremely difficult to find a place that was LESS THAN $200 for a cut and color so I guess I get what I paid for...(well, not really, it's San Francisco right? And I don't pay less than $6.99 for a lb of chicken so what do you do??).






So 12.5 inches is good enough huh? (I actually cut 4 in. off this summer before the wedding) I hope they send me back a pic if possible. Btw, thanks a ton for all congrats !! And no, I haven't gotten any think back yet from the company...but cross your fingers...I guess you never know (I'm still fighting with them!) Oh, and my due date is March 14ish