The Balloon

Last night we went to Red Robin. One of our favorite spots :) Maia LOVES it because of the Big Red Bird Daddy, the Mac and Cheese and that if she eats all her dinner she gets a balloon. Balloons can be great motivators, I previously had NO idea how powerful they are to children.

After dinner we went to our friends house to spend some time with them before they move next weekend. There were other kids there so we put the balloon in the car because fights were breaking out over who got to play with it.
After we left she was very excited to get her Yellow Balloon back to be all hers! When we got home she forgot that it was no longer tied to her hand after getting out of her car seat and as we crossed the street she let go and away it went. J jumped up for it but as helium often is it was much too sly and quickly it was bopping up past the trees and into the night.

Maia.was.devastated. She was so unbelievably sad! It broke my heart to see, her Daddy told her "It's okay Maia the balloon is going up to be with Heavenly Father now."
To which she responded "Well...I want my Heavenly Father then!"
And again my heart just ached for how sad she was. After about 15 minutes of inconsolable tears about missing her balloon we were able to talk to her about what it means to go to Heavenly Father. She has already impressed us so much with her ability to understand Gospel principles like prayer. We told her how one day we can see it again, Heavenly Father will take care of it for her until it's her turn to go and be with Heavenly Father.

She understood, all of 2 years old and she could understand that it was not the end for the little yellow balloon. She asked us if we could say a prayer to Heavenly Father and ask him to help her feel better about her balloon being gone. (How old is my kid again?! How do I have such a smart girl, it blows my mind I am so grateful that she is mine, I learn so much from her!) We did say a prayer. And she felt better.
Then we did our bedtime routine and read a scripture story, sang a primary song and said family prayer. And Jesse and I were both very impressed with our daughter and her ability to overcome such a sad state while being able to learn such a wonderful principle.

It reminded me a bit of a memorial my dear friend had at the services for her children after they returned home early. They released one colored balloon followed by several white ones, representing those lost and those to follow. Now maybe we wont see that same yellow balloon again (trust me there will be another yellow balloon) but there are some people that we wont get to see for a while. I bet they'd watch over our little yellow balloon for us, and keep it safe until it's our turn to be with our Heavenly Father again.
I know these things to be true.

Please feel free to ask me more about what I believe.

My Dad taught me that Ice Cream is Chocolate, No alternatives.

I got this email from my Dad today and it made me laugh out loud. He's hilarious, if you only listen. Or in this case read. In my original email I sent him I mentioned the ice cream I was eating while typing and said well Dad thanks for teaching me that chocolate ice cream is the best one. And this was his reply :)

And you're welcome for sharing with you my vast knowledge and wisdom on how to enjoy the good life through that frozen aforementioned culinary delight. The knowledge and wisdom that I've gained over a long and hard 51.9 years. Yes I'm talking about that dark creamy, chocolaty frozen concoction of which I derive vast amounts of happiness and pleasure, strength and understanding of life itself. The nectar of the Gods that, the life giving elixir that can solve all know problem and cure all know diseases. Yes, you know that of which I speak. Bow your head as I say the words, "Chocolate Ice Cream".  And know a moment of silence...    

That's long enough, I must now elaborate on the subject. Any brand is good but there are a few, that I might say, can increase the euphoric experience exponentially. (Did you notice the three "e" words. Kind of like Shakespeare when he wrote "headlong hurled the hags").  I'd like to mention a few brands if I may. First, and probably my favorite for a plethora of reasons, is the King Soopers brand (unfortunately the name has eluded me for the moment) which is always on sale. Then there is the Baskin Robbins brand, but make sure to get the "Deep Chocolate Fudge", it's far better than the plain chocolate which is pretty darn good as well (I just noticed that the letters "rn" in the work darn can look like the letter "m"). There's always Hagen Daz but a little harder to spell and you tend to pay a premium price for it. Ben and Jerry have put together some pretty good alternatives if you can't find plain chocolate. Unfortunately, they tend to mix in a lot of extra unnecessary stuff which can distract from the experience. Yet you can often still come away with a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment.

Then there's the soft-server. Although this is really a subject for another time and place and I really don't have time to go into it now, I will say here that it really chaps my hide when people think that it is acceptable to offer only vanilla. Vanilla! please. Vanilla isn't even a flavor. It's like offering only water at a soda fountain. When I go to a soda fountain I expect to come away with a beverage that satisfies. I want something brown with flavor. Something that is bad for me, something that will dissolve rust instantly or take the paint off your car. I don't want to settle for water. Likewise, I don't want to be forced to settle for vanilla ice cream. Yes water is the major ingredient in soda like vanilla ice cream is a major ingredient in chocolate ice cream and yes I suppose water can quench your thirst like vanilla can fill your stomach. But then what? You're left empty, unsatisfied and wanting for with no hope in sight.  You're outlook on life goes down the toilet, you become depressed, grouchy a pitiful excuse for a human been. And seeing that you're stomach is now full of this vile, unholy and outright  yuchy alternative, (and even if you're not actually full, even if you spewed forth the evil substance before totally consuming it, you still feel like you are full)  you can drink/eat no more, you are left like that retched creature Golum in this awful, hopeless state of unhappiness. Left to wallow in the pit of despair,  for what sometimes seems like an eternity.

Now don't you think it is worth making the correct choice the first time and saving yourself from the nefarious consequences. When you come to a vanilla only establishment, put your hand up and to shield your face, utter the phrase "get the behind me false oppressor", and walk away, far away. Do not allow yourself to surcome to the villainous advertisements of the evil one, who shall not be named. Make up your mind now to make the right choice and when that inevitable time comes the decision will be easy. You won't have to make that decision over and over each time. It's already made and that's it. Teach your children so they too can avoid that most lamentable mistake. Even though the world may think it is an acceptable alternative we know better and hold ourselves to a higher standard.

And that is all I have to say about that.

You're Welcome

Clearance Picture and a lil moment

I have a love hate relationship with the clearance racks at JoAnn's. You see they have such cool stuff and I don't need it but when precut fabric goes on sale it...just makes me so excited! This time around I also saw some adorable coasters for $0.97 so I though what the heck, the last coasters I had are hanging on the wall in my hallway maybe I can use some more :)

I am working on a Fathers Day present so the whole purpose for this trip was to get 1-2 pieces of scrapbooking paper and a canvas. I walked out with a little more than that thanks to them handy clear ace racks. But I did make way into the store leaving some things on the clearance shelf on my way...
They were of course having scrapbook paper 50% off so I got a few extra pieces.  When I made it to the canvas's and frame section I could hardly decide what size then noticed that they were ALL also half off!!  Thank You!!! So I got the idea to make these:

Yeah I love them.

So here's all I used: 

• 12x12 frame  (2)
• 12x12 scrapbook paper (2)
• Double Sided Tape
• Paper Trimmer
• Cork-board Coasters

Trim Paper to fit frame.

Apply double sided tape and arrange how you like.

TA-DA!

It's cute right?!?

But they look so small above my bed, I think I need to add more...

Maybe one more?

Or maybe long set of black/white and sepia photos over top?

And here is an updated photo of my littlest monkey

Look at those darlin cheeks! And her cowgirl boots fit! for now...

And for a Maia story:

I have been trying to teach Maia more primary songs lately and its been fun. Also been telling stories about saying prayers and Heavenly Father love us etc I love it. 

The  other night we were getting her jambes on and singing this song:

Faith is knowing the sun will rise, lighting each new day.

Faith is knowing the Lord will hear my prayers each time I pray.

Faith is like a little seed:

If planted it will grow.

Faith is a swelling within my heart.

When I do right, I know.

She asked me to repeat this verse 3 times, on the 3rd time through I noticed she had her hand on her heart. I said "do you feel that warmth Maia?"

M-"yes"

"do you feel happy inside?"

M- "I do mommy, can we sing that some more?"

"WE sure can. Do you know what you're feeling is the spirit? It's Heavenly Father's way of letting you know he loves you"

M- "and Jesus. He loves me. And They love you too mommy!"

It's so very very true.

It was a wonderful little moment I got to share with my big girl :)

Maia-isms

Me: We're having Lasgna for dinner, its yummy come try!
Maia: No it's yucky...
...How about Pizza Noodles?
oh that's yummy!

Daddy: Remember Baby Kicking in Mamas tummy? You know that's baby Londyn right?
M: Yes I want a baby kicking in my tummy.
Hehehe Well when you grow big and strong and get married you can have a baby kicking.
Ok I get big muscles for baby in my tummy




M: Mommy mommy I want more blue boobies!!
Me: ....You want what?
Blue boobies blue boobies blue boobies so yummy!
...show me what you're talking about, k?
-she runs and grabs a box-
OH you want more blueberries?
YES blueboobies okAY?




Did you poop your pants?
M: No I stinky bum.
 So you DID poop
 No I  stinky


Our friends sent us a gift for the girls and when I let Maia open her portion she got super excited and yelled:
M: jammies and and lipstip!! 
(dora pajamas and chapstick)

Londyn Marie

For those of you who are interested here is the story of how our little Londyn came to us!

So I was having regular contractions for just over a week, and my docs assured me this "just happens, sometimes it lasts for weeks" at the thought of it continuing on for weeks I cried. I just want to meet this baby! I jut felt like she was ready and then the contractions would die down. It was really difficult for me to handle. I asked Jesse for a blessing and was assured I would know when the time was right.

One night I went to bed with contractions 3 minutes apart I was very excited, when I woke up the next morning and they were back to 15 min I was pretty distraught. Then the next night went more like this I went to bed fine and woke up with terrible contractions! They were about 6 minutes apart but I tried not to get excited, but Jesse didn't get much sleep either. So as is protocol with my OB office soon as they opened I called to go get a labor check. Packed my bag and headed to the office! However nothing had changed, no more dilation no change in how often the contractions were coming no sign of leaking anything and baby was handling contractions well. So we went home.

Pretty much I was done. I put away any notion of using a stop watch and just went about what needed doing. Which was spending time with my family! My mom was here visiting and Jesse had the week off so we watched movies and shopped and things like that.

Early early Sunday morning the same thing woke me up, and I tried to get as much sleep as I could, positive it was another 'false alarm' One time during this alarm I went and used the bathroom, when I came back and sat down on the bed I felt a little trickle and to my self I was like "too good to be true that that could be my water breaking...so I'll assume it's nothing unless it happens again"  then I changed my underwear and went back to bed. In the morning I told Jesse all about my rough night and decided I would let him make the decision whether to go into the hospital and get checked or not. He said "whats the worst that could happen we come home?" Yes that's exactly the worst that could happen went right through my head. But I called the office and sorta took my time getting my stuff together. Maia started freaking out (as had kinda been the thing over the past week) so when I got out to the car I didn't have the bag and thought Jesse would grab it. When we got there we realized neither of s had it. Then I was like "Oh well best way to get to stay is to come unprepared right?"

So I went about sitting in the observation room and nearly didn't mention the little gush I'd had early that morning. But I'd mentioned it to Jesse and he made sure I mentioned it. They were unimpressed but said they'd check for amniotic fluid anyway. I was still at a 4, discouraging, and after an hour of monitoring they told me to take a walk in the hall while waiting to see what the test said. We walked for a bit but then went back to the triage room and played hangman on the Kindle.

When they came back and told me test was positive for fluid I about cried. I'm NOT going home empty handed!!

I was admitted and all set up in my room around 11am. They recommended breaking my water the rest of the way to get contractions rolling and I said sure. They were very impressed by the rupture and the I quote "waterfall" that ensued. Contractions sure did speed up! Every 3 minutes like instantly and holy cow were they different but I tried to endure. And after an hour or so I was pretty weak and had hardly progressed at all so I opted for an epidural. Lucky me the anesthesiologist was near by and I didn't have to wait too long by 1:45 it was in! Immediately contractions picked up to be a minute apart for about twenty minutes, I could still feel them, they just didn't hurt as bad, miraculous I tell you. They dimmed the lights and I tried to get some sleep, since I'd missed a bunch during the night anyway. 2:30pm they came to check on things and helped me adjust to a new position, then they needed to move the monitors to keep track of heartbeat etc. They checked me and I'd jumped to an 8 dilated! But as they were trying to get the monitor to pick up baby for more than a minute they had me shifting a lot and all that made me nauseated. So of course I threw up, but was glad I hadn't eaten for a few hours except for ice chips that made things not too yucky.

Since throwing up during labor is common and is known to cause dilating they went to check me again to see if it'd helped and whataya know there's a baby! So they went to get the baby team and all the gear and we all looked over at Jesse on the couch. He was keeping family updated as they were adjusting things, and missed the part where they said they could see baby's head. So he jumped up and came over and they got their stuff together and I started pushing. 20 minutes later Jesse was able to catch baby Londyn. She apparently was trying come out face up which is not good so everyone got to watch her turn herself 180 degrees to be in better position, there was lots of "I've never seen this" and "this is really amazing to watch" comments but I tried not to look too much into it :)

Londyn was born hungry! I was able to nurse her pretty much immediately, had to tear her away to clamp and cut the cord a while later. Once placenta was delivered they got a look at things, her cord was attached at the side (which made me nervous earlier on because of the same issue my friend had and she's lost 2...) but the sac was huge. There was so much fluid that it was keeping baby from coming on her own. She couldn't get pressure on the cervix like is needed cuz she was too afloat. But she did make it!

She had very big cheeks

notice my IV is slightly red there? Happens no big deal but when Maia got there she was FREAKED OUT! She wouldn't sit on my left side until they gave me a bandaid for it. HAH so cute that kid.

This was her first reaction to her sister. "EW she's dirty! You wash her off...bubble bath" 

She was much more welcoming to her once she got her bath.

My Big little girl! She weighed in at 8lbs 7 oz a full pound and a half bigger than her sister was. But she was born AT 40 weeks and Maia was born at 38 so understandable.

She may have been more excited about the Ring Pop than anything else..

The Fox Family

Jesse, Stephanie Maia and Londyn

So that's "The Story" we went home tuesday that happened to be the first day of school (great timing she had right?) and my mom had to leave the next day! I had more than one meltdown thinking about it. I've survived better than I thought I would but its still rough. Getting used to sleep deprivation already. But it's okay, I signed up for this! And seeing my big girl give my little girl kisses and say "Oh Hello Baby Londyn!" and "Baby Londyn eats boobies, that yucky" makes it all ever so worth it.

another Soothie baby? At least I had more say in what kind she took to this time

Going Home!

First Nap at Home

And besides Mom and Dad Fox are going to be here next week so more help is on the way! And I have some great friends out here that have been great helping me out too. Makes me even more grateful for the Gospel and Organization of the church, you're never far from family, even when you are at least a two day drive away from most of your family. 

We are so excited to have Londyn safe and sound at home, she is such a doll!

Maternity Pics

So my awesome friend Becky and I have been doing some trades, I have been doing some sewing for her girls and she has been taking some awesome photos for us! She did our family shots in the fall and just last week she did my maternity photos (we squeezed a quick session in between final exams!) She is moving in just a few short weeks and I don't know what I'm gonna do with myself! SHe and her family have been so great to us we will miss them dearly! BUT we are SO excited for them and that they are graduating soon and moving on to do BIG things!!

We should have photos of the little legs and feet that go in those shoes soon!

kinda annoyed and mostly grateful

So I had this whole awesome Christmas post I've been working on with photos and such to catch up on the fact that I haven't updated my bog in forever and guess whose computer died with it saved on it!!! ACK The only time live writer isn't nicer to use to write my blog...

So I am a little annoyed that our laptop has crashed and refuses to turn on because I was in the middle of transferring all of my photos videos (of my tiny baby Maia from the night before I had her to her first few hours!) and music when the computer decided it would chose that time to DIE. I nearly cried. There must be a way to get them back so I decided not to cry about it...yet. But until I figure that out I will be annoyed with it and keep it in the drawer in the desk downstairs. Laptop time out could work right?
So due to our lack of working computer our dear friend teeny decided he wanted to upgrade his mac and would gladly sell us his! Wow thanks Teeny! It's already got all the software and goodies you want on it so we wouldn't have to spend extra to get them after spending extra to get a new computer. Again Go Teeny!

That is not all for our expensive week! We are also the proud owners of a 2008 Honda Odyssey! Yes Jesse Fox owns a mini van, and he likes it A LOT! I truly never thought I'd see the day :) we weren't looking for a van specifically but lets face it they are convenient family vehicles. So we were just dream shopping (one of my favorite past times after all) and found ourselves at the dealership talking to a car guy! He had plenty to show us and was very willing to help us out. We were very impressed to see that we could totally afford this change!

Originally we were planning to trade in both our car and our truck. We still owed a bit on the car and the truck Jesse paid off while we were still dating. But unfortunately can't fit a family of 4 in a 1998 F150 with one bench seat. Not enough car seat room. Thus our thoughts to trade it in. We were looking into what we would need to do to get it imported and how long the process would take. Who better to call than the inlays who've totally done that more than once! So that's exactly what we did. AND they one upped us and offered to drive our truck up to Canada when the time comes to move!! Another one of our concerns with two vehicles was how do we move that far with one adult in each car and someone driving our stuff and not lose all our money paying for gasoline? Yeah so THANKS MOM AND DAD FOX! Truly I have married into an amazing family, I am grateful :)

So once we decided we were not gonna trade in the truck just the van we went and started collecting our downpayment from our savings. Saturday we went to the dealership sure that we could get things taken care of and still make it to my pregnancy photo shoot early that afternoon. Yeah its been that long since we've worked with getting a vehicle.
-side note-Why does it seem you are always hungry when dealing with car dealers? Maybe that's just me but you are there for so long there is always a meal missed causing more impatience...they should have more than a vending machine I mean I am spending thousands of dollars with you today you can afford to share with me that pizza I smell sitting behind that door (doubt not a pregnant woman's senses and abilities to find food in a time of such great need)

So 2 and a half hours into it and no end in site we called up our awesome photographer and she was totally cool with it! We are rescheduled for tuesday assuming baby doesn't come monday. If I'm in labor tuesday the photos may just not be quite as cute ;) So with that worry done we continued to wait on the car trade in. Note to selves don't buy a hyundai if you ever plan to trade it in they don't resale worth a snap! we barely got a little more than even with what we still owed! LAME but I'm sure they'd have pickled us out of as much on the truck as well. Good thing we didn't bother with the importing process on it. We learned I have awesome credit and J's is not quite as awesome because of the condo that has been in short sale negotiation for 12 months and counting (no end inside there yet either, anyone want to buy a condo in springville let us know we got a steal can hook you up with)3 hours and a frog balloon that Maia can make "go boing" later we totally have a van!

If the decision didn't feel so right we wouldn't have done it but lets face it everything was fitting so perfectly (even if time consumingly) that it couldn't be any better at this point. We are so blessed.

Even as students we've been able to get a new to us laptop and a new to us van all in one week! Now we just gotta make it through finals and well see when this little one decides to make an appearance. We know from ultrasound tech and midwife both doing position check that she has lots of hair! Not that we expected less but any details we can get we are excited about! I can't wait to meet my tiny dancer!

I have been extra thankful for things going so smoothly this pregnancy. My dear friend lost her second child and I cried so hard I started contracting.. and it was a few months ago. Another friend of mine has suffered through PUPP syndrome for 2 weeks before getting to meet her little guy, More recently another friend of mine's water had broken at 31 and a half weeks! She has been admitted to the hospital indefinitely. Hopefully they can keep her little guy inside until she reaches 34-35 weeks. Antibiotics to prevent the increased infection chances and steroids to help his lungs develop a little faster and lots of prayers of strength for her and her family! She is doing well and has been very healthy through her whole pregnancy which is probably why baby is still able to be inside her and doing so well!
It goes to show you never know what the Lord has in store for you, he can throw some mighty curve balls. All the better to be prepared for anything and keep a strong hold of your faith. Cuz sometimes that's the only thing that can get you through the rough patches.

Babies are such miracles. I can hardly wait to meet my newest sweetie! And I hope I never forget to be grateful for the many amazing blessings I've been granted and well blessed with.