Prego Update!

Well I am happy to say that I had about 6 weeks of feeling great! Really I was up doing stuff, I was still sleeping at night and I wasn't throwing up or sick at all. Sadly that streak has come to an end. About 3 weeks ago I started getting extremely tired and a little bit nauseous again. Of course that is just normal with pregnancy so I didn't think anything of it. Well I went to my doctors appt this week and they decided to do an iron test because at my last appt it seemed a bit low. It had already dropped 10 points in 2 weeks!!! I guess that is a lot. So they gave me a high dose iron supplement to take and told me to plan on being sick. Man they were not kidding! Within the hour of taking it I had the worst cramps and was so nauseous an dizzy! As the days went on it kept getting worse and not better. Than last night my left side of my body went numb all the way up to my face! I thought maybe I just laid on something funny or that Danny was pinching a nerve, so It took a bath and tried to stay off that side. The next morning the numbness was still there so I called the nurse. They said this was not because of the baby pinching a nerve, but that it must be something different. Since I am breathing fine and have no leg cramps, which would indicate blood clots, I AM NOW ON BED REST FOR A FEW DAYS! I have to lay on right side all day long to see if we can get the feeling back into my left side. So that is where I am at now. Just laying on my right side wishing I could take care of my little girl. But hopefully it will get better quick. They are thinking I had a severe allergic reaction to my iron medication, and I am praying that is all it is. Isn't pregnancy so much fun :) But it is worth it! 8 more weeks until I see my little boy. I can't wait.

A Day of Love!

I have always thought Valentines Day has been a little over rated as a holiday, but this year I wanted to make it a special day. So I planned a long fun date with Tyler. I took him on a scavenger hunt around Orem. We did many different activities and ate at many different places. We started at 12:30 and didn't get done until about 9pm. It was great. With Aspen around we don't get to spend as much quality time together and it was so nice to have a whole day just to laugh and talk. Tyler got most the clues pretty quick, but he did get stumped on 1 and another clue took forever. Here was my clues...

1. There's a rumbly, that needs to be in my tumbly! Time for something sweet!

2. Thank Goodness It's Fingerfood!

3. We always get free ice-cream at this place!

4. The only place to stargaze, even when there is an inversion

5. Lets go clubbing and see how many dimples you can hit on. And With Tiger in rehab, we may have a shot!

6. Quarters, dimes or pennies won't work at this place!

I wish I was clever enough to come up with this, but I must admit I had help from my friend Coco, my SIL Kelly and my mom. Thanks guys. So can you all guess where we went ?

Than on Sunday Aspen got her little basket for Valentines Day. Her big gift was a swimsuit. That may seem random, but every year my mom gave me a swimsuit and I loved it. I guess part of that was that we lived in Cali, but Aspen and I go swimming 3-4 times a week at Lehi Legacy Center so I thought I would continue the tradition. Aspen loved her candy!

Than Tyler and I made a special V-Day breakfast. Tyler made heart shaped pancaked and we had pink cool whip and strawberries to go with it. Than I made heart shaped scones, red smoothies and pink juice to go with it. It was so much fun and I plan to make this a new tradition for our family!

Answer to Scavenger Hunt (many of these are clues that just Tyler would know):

1. Chocolate Molten Cake - Chilis

2. Appetizers - TGIF

3. Dinner- Jason's Deli

4. Movie (this is the one that completely stumped Tyler, I was so excited that he was stumped)

5. Miniature Golf

6. Nickel Arcade

Our Cabin!

Probably one of my favorite places in the world to go is our family cabin. This cabin has been in the family for a long time. It was actually one of the first cabins in Sundance, if not the first cabin in Sundance. It has changed a lot over the years and right now we are in the process of doing a major remodeling and I wanted to post some pictures. I have spent so many Christmas's and holidays there it just has a special place in my heart. Many of you have been there before, whether it was with me or not. There have been so many parties up at the Sperry cabin. But you would not recognize it by these pictures! I need to go back up and take some pictures of the inside becuase we have also re-done the bathrooms!

Before

After

Tyler, Aspen and I went up for a fun filled weekend. Mike and Kel came up on Friday and Tyler's parents came up on Saturday. Tyler and I stayed until Sunday. While we were there we heard Kylee playing upstairs in the loft. Of course Aspen wanted to follow her up, but we knew there was no way she would attempt the long long stairs. Well I was wrong, and yes this scared me to death!!!! These stairs are so much steeper than they look in the pictures.

18-Month Princess

My little princess is 18 months and her little personality is starting to shine. At her check-up she was:

• 19.4lbs (not even on the chart for percentage)
• almost 30 inches (about 15 % for height)

For Christmas she got a doll, stroller, crib and high chair. I figured when Danny came she would start to use it more. I figured she was just to young to really pretend play now. Man was I wrong. She has taken that doll everywhere. She plays with it all day. I walk into the room and hear her saying, nite, nite baby, as she is giving her a kiss. Than she will say love ya and Bye-Bye. That is the exact routine we do with Aspen every night. Than she will come to get her and in a high pitch voice says, Hiiiiiiii! Other times she will say food and put her in her high chair. Than she will yell sit or stop it. I guess we must say that one a lot to :) I am amazed at how smart she already is.

Aspen is such a talker. She can repeat anything we ask her to say. She is now already starting to put phrases together. She must know over 100 words and uses them all day. Yesterday I was doing her hair for church and I guess she didn't want me to anymore because she looked up at me and said, "stop it." Aspen has such a sweet voice it was hard not to laugh at her. She still loves to sign. Aspen loves the Baby Signing Time videos and is now learning signs off of there all on her own. I thought her signing might stop as she began to talk, but now she just does both. Right now we ask her, "what is your name" and she will respond Aspen. Next we will start working on how old she is.

This week we bought Aspen a potty. Do I really think that she will be potty trained at 18-months, NO! But she has been telling us about 5 minutes before she goes poop that she is stinky. So we figured we would buy a potty and get her used to sitting on it. I am definitely not going to stress about it and probably wont even sit her on it everyday. Although Tyler was potty trained by 18-months, Aspen just doesn't seem fully ready. Hopefully by 2 though, a mom can hope right :)

Aspen LOVES LOVES LOVES the pool. We have a pass at the Lehi Legacy Center and they have an indoor pass. We go about 2-4 times a day. Aspen is fearless. She can already float on her back and swim between dad and mom. Also we hold her up in the air and she will bend in half and dive to the bottom on the pool. Just recently she started swimming to the edge of the pool and climbing up on her own and than jumping back into the pool on her own and swimming back to me. She is so tiny that it is funny to watch. We are hoping to get her into some official swim lessons this summer!

Aspen diving

Tyler had to show her a few times how to go down on her tummy, but now she climbs right up and slides down all the time. She will even go down the BIG slide with daddy.

Bringing in the New Year

Growing up New Years was not a big deal in my family. We usually went to a movie or did something low key. I always thought it was a dumb holiday that was made up so people would have an excuse to get drunk. But it was a big deal in Tyler's family. In Texas they always through a huge part for all their neighbors. So this year they invited us over to party. We had tons of great food and played games all night. Aspen got all her snow gear from us for Christmas and we decicded to try it out. We wanted to build a snowman with her, but the snow was to soft. So Tyler decided to build a slide for her. It started out a slide for Aspen and as you can tell from the pictures it turned into a slide for everyone. It was so much fun. It eventually got to dark to take pictures but as the night went on the slide got bigger and bigger. We all had a blast.

After it got to dark to ride the slide we played games. Kathy and Sarah came up with a clever game. They had numbered 60 small items. For example, peach rings, root beer, fruit snacks, air fresheners and bottles of lotion etc. Than they came up with fun phrases. Like steal any item, all girls take an item from the boys, or pick up number 7 etc. It was such a fun game and everyone came away with tons of stuff. The hot items of the night were the peach rings, orange sticks, lotion and the 2 liter bottles of soda. After the game we played my favorite game, phase 10 and than watched the ball drop. It was a great night.

Christmas Time

Christmas Eve is a special time for our family. Tyler's family has some great traditions that help us to remember the true meaning of Christmas. First we go over to his Grandma/Pa Masons house for some yummy dinner. We get to hang out and exchange presents. Than we go over to his Aunt Sandi's with all the Inkleys. We start out by singing Christmas songs as a group. Than someone in his family tells the Mclaughlan story. It is a special story about his ancestors that they tell every year. One Christmas Eve the Mclauglans were in their home getting ready. It was early 1900's and their dad was in hiding and promised his kids he would be home by Christmas. When it came time to go to bed the mom was very worried when her husband was not back yet. She was also worried because they had no money and she was not able to get the presents her kids had asked for. To make a long story short Tyler's 3rd great uncle felt inspired to walk by their house. He heard the kids telling their mom what they wanted for Christmas. He knew that their dad had gone into hiding and was not back yet. So he knew this little family would not be having a grand Christmas the next day. So he rounded up some presents and a great Christmas dinner and delivered it to the family on Christmas day. I love hearing the story. It makes me so thankful for what we have. After the story someone reads the birth of Christ and than we sing some more Christmas songs.

Christmas morning was extra special this year! We slept at our house for the first time we have been married. We woke up Christmas morning and Santa had visited Aspen. I hadn't expected her to really get presents or the whole Santa thing, but she was SO excited. Tyler's family came over to experience in the joy of Christmas morning to and it was great to have them there. Here are a few pictures of Aspen seeing what Santa got her.

After our house we went over to the Mason's for some yummy breakfast and than we opened some more presents.

In the afternoon we headed over to my parents. We opened even more presents (yes we were very spolied) and than had Christmas dinner. It was so great to be able to spend so much time with family for the holidays.

I love December!

December has to be my favorite time of the year for sure! I love the holiday spirit everyone has. Doesn't it seem that everyone is a little bit nicer around the holiday's. I had all my shopping and wrapping done in November, so I was able to play and enjoy the holidays. We had many family and ward parties that I forgot to take pictures at, but it is always so nice to see everyone. Our first event of the season was going up to the Festival of Trees. This was my first year going and we had a special reason to go. We wanted to see Gracie's tree. Gracie is my cousin's daughter who was born with a heart defect and past away last year. Instead of flowers or gifts at the funeral they asked that people donate to their tree. After looking at many trees at the festival we came across Gracie's tree. It was beautiful to say the least. Their were so many people reading her story and I was so glad I was able to go up and see it. And the best part was that my cousins friends all pitched in and bought the tree for her! How sweet!


Aspen was not exactly scared of Santa but she didn't really love him. At least we got a cute picture.
We also went up to the zoo lights! There were over a million lights and Aspen was in heaven. She kept saying, WOW to everything. It was fun for her to see some of the animals that were there to. Her favorite was the monkeys.Than we went up to the carol singing at energy solutions arena. I guess they have never had over 1000 people there and were not planning on the 30,000 they got, but no one over the 5000 people got the free stuff they promised. We only stayed for about 20 minutes and Aspen enjoyed the singing. There were not enough seats for most people and there were so many kids crying becuase they didn't get their free hot dogs. I felt so bad for parents because they were planning on feeding their kids there that night. Oh yeah and there was this lady behind us singing Opera as LOUD as she can. I am all for holiday cheer and singing, but this was WAY to much. That is another reason we only lasted 20 minutes. We decided to make a fun night out of the unexpected adventure and we went down to Temple Square. Once again Aspen was saying, Wow to everything. She has enjoyed the lights so much this year. I have been so proud of her becuase she has not broken or taken down any ornaments off our tree, but every night the lights turn on she gets so excited like its the first night it has happened (they are on a timer)!
Here is Aspen and all her cousins in there Christmas outfits. I especially love seeing little girls in their new Christmas dresses! Aspen doesn't really understand the whole Santa thing, but she does know who he is. Any time we see a Santa she screams, Santa, ho ho! Its so cute.
Anyway, as you can tell we have had a great December. I am so blessed to have the best family. And we have had lots of opportunities to think of the true meaning of Christmas. I am so thankful for the birth of our Savior. Tyler was able to give a special lesson on Sunday about the true meaning of Christmas and all the gifts the Savior has given us. I truly am the happiest I have been in my life and I owe it all to Christ. I hope you all have a Merry Christmas!