Christmas Vacation

We had a GREAT Christmas and hope everyone else did too! We felt like we spent the whole weekend driving from one side of town to the other - since our parents weren't considerate enough to move closer together instead of further apart! ;) But it was well worth it, and even though we're making the trek back down there again this week, we're glad that we could be home with family for Christmas. As always I didn't take very many pictures but I'll share a few that I do have and make a slide show when I get the rest from everybody else. Oh, and they're backwards but oh well. . .

This is the shirt that Luke got me. I thought it was pretty sweet! Anyone who knows what it's from I challenge you to a round of it! ;)

This is Christmas at our house after we got back in town. Peanut's opening her new bath toy that she absolutely loves! We had a blast with it this morning in the tub. I'll post a video of it later.

This is the broom set that Aunt Lindsay gave Peanut. After she opened it, she wouldn't put it down! 

Peanut caught on to the whole "Santa came" thing pretty fast. All it took was showing her a stocking with a sucker sticking out and she was all about finding out what else was in there. She would want to stop and eat what she found or play with what she opened but she had a great time and there were lots of "oooooooo's!" 

Sick Mommy, Tired Baby

I was really sick two Fridays ago and was laying in bed trying to get Peanut to go get her binkie and a book for me to read to her so that she could take a nap with me. Well she didn't quite make it. I could hear her downstairs coaxing for something but I wasn't about to get out of bed and have to throw up again. Well, after a while of me trying to get her to come to me and her trying to get me to come to her, it became quiet. After a few minutes of silence, I decided I better get up and check on her and this is what I found. . .

She was completely dead asleep on the stairs. It was the cutest thing! I had to quickly snap a picture before I carried her up to bed where she thankfully slept until Luke got home to take care of her.

Sweet Video

My mom sent me this quite a while ago but I just found it on my computer and thought I'd share.

I haven't tried it out yet but it's pretty sweet. If anyone has tried it let me know if it works!

Merry Christmas!

Short Hospital Visit

We spent Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday this week in the hospital. No, I never missed it, no, I never wanted to go back, and no, I never will! Our poor peanut started with diarrhea all last week, then fevers Sat and Sun, and by early Monday morning she was up to 104! So we call the on-call doc and he tells us to just go to the emergency room. So we headed down and spent about 8 hours in a teeny tiny room, where Peanut was poked and tortured to no end, with no toys, no television, and a sick, tired peanut who refused to take a nap. It took about 4 hours after they decided to admit us to get us to a normal room where my sanity somewhat returned!

After a bunch of different blood tests, urine sample, chest x-ray, sputum culture and an attempt to get fluid from her belly, we still didn't have an answer as to why Peanut had such a high temp. Tuesday morning she awoke with a rash and the doctors had decided that it had to be a virus, but what one!? They decide they can test for two more types and alas one came back positive. Adenovirus.

Peanut LOVED pushing this baby all around the unit. It was the cutest thing ever! And she made friends with anyone who wanted to. In the ICS unit (where Peanut always has to stay from now on whenever she's in the hospital) there's a hallway that leads to offices where a secretary sits. Every time we went for a walk she had to go see if her new friend was there to say hi to. 

So we finally had an answer. Now what? We just let it run it's course and let Peanut fight it. So how long is this going to last? They don't know. With Peanut every thing's different. It's supposed to last 2 days to a week but with a depressed immune system it could take her quite a while to fight it off. There's one possible drug they could use but it usually causes more problems then it's worth so they're going to hold off on using it unless she gets really bad or if they find the virus in her blood stream (should get those results by tomorrow). So far, the rash has gone away and the fevers aren't near as bad but she's still struggling a little with the diarrhea and last night she decided to throw up. Hum... But she's been fine today, just a little tired, and of course the never-ending runny nose.

Also, while we were in the hospital we found out that it's not fluid that's making her belly so big (hence, the attempt at taking a sample of it). Supposedly now it's air in her intestines. So we've added Lactobacillus to her med list to see if that helps. 

All in all, we're doing well and are glad to be back home. Still keeping our fingers crossed that she'll get over this so that we don't have to spend another Christmas in the hospital!

P.S. I did two other posts today but the post dates are not today's date so you'll have to scroll down to find them.

Are you browsing securely?

If you are using Internet Explorer for your internet browsing the answer is a big NO. An article from BBC News goes into detail on the huge flaw that criminals have found in the browser. The bad thing is they found it before Microsoft did. The hackers can use IE to get all sorts of information from your computer. Experts are saying the best way to protect yourself is to not use IE. This is where I need to put in an extra plug for this. From a developers standpoint using IE is a horrible choice. It does not follow normal web standards and so when we write code for a site we constantly have to take extra precautions to make IE happy. So not only is IE really insecure, it is also a pain for people who make websites. My main plug here is to do me and yourself a favor and never use IE again. Microsoft says that it is always possible for any browser to have a security flaw, but let me remind you that IE has been the only one that has had multiple flaws. The others all seem to have their act together. Here is a list of completely standard compliant browsers that are very secure.
FireFox
Sarari
Chrome

Let it Snow!

Our cute little blue marshmallow. . .

Cute Butt shot. . .

She didn't really know what to think of the cold white stuff and it was a little more difficult to walk wearing a big puffy snow suit.

But isn't she just adorable! I love my little peanut!

The Old Jeep

For those of you who knew Luke in High School you might remember the Jeep he used to drive. (I don't, cause I didn't know him, but I've heard plenty of stories!) Well his dad has been working on it for quite some time now and pretty much has it all restored. Check it out! Pretty sweet huh!?

Luke got to take it for a spin around the block when we were down there visiting.

(I was going to let Luke do this post but kept forgetting to tell him to. Maybe once he see this he'll change it or re-do it...hint hint)

A Night in Bethlehem

Our ward had a very creative christmas party where we had to go to Bethlehem to be taxed. Biblical attire was a requirement so here we are as a little shepherd family. Peanut looked super cute with her little headrest thing on and I wish I would've gotten a better picture but as always we were running late so this is just a quick shot with the camera's self-timer. 

Piano Duet

The two cutest musicians ever! They make quite the pair don't they?

Looks like little Bit is aspiring to be the next Jon Schmidt!

Our Newest Neice

We also got to meet the newest addition to our family during our visit. My brother's fourth child was born the day before Thanksgiving.

She's such a cute little thing! Hard to believe that Peanut was ever that small!

Family Thanks Time

We had a great Thanksgiving and hope that everyone else did too! Peanut and I went down early with my sister and one of her boys to help get things ready and I'll tell you what! I for sure learned how hard it actually is to prepare the whole thanksgiving dinner! How my mom did it by herself for so many years I'll never know! -She's just amazing that's all!

Peanut loved my parents new house (I did too!) There were so many new places to go, so many new things to do, and so many people to play with that she barely stopped to eat or sleep!
Everyone especially loved playing the Wii (even my dad!) and we all had a great time! It was so fun to have everyone together at one time!
My parents are the best parents and grandparents ever! They have taught me so much and have helped me in so many ways! I'm so grateful to have been sent to such a wonderful family!
Peanut really loves her grandparents too! She's always way too spoiled by both sets of grandparents when we go to visit that I spend the first week back home 're-teaching' her how life really is! ;)
You can't really see it in this picture but the view from my parent's new house is amazing!
And we couldn't pass up the opportunity to get a picture of the whole fam - no matter how hard it is to try and get one where everyone's looking at the camera let alone smiling!

Hair Cut

Peanut received her first 'real' haircut while we were home for Thanksgiving.

She did a lot better than I thought she would at holding still.

And Aunt Steph did an awesome job at evening things out.

Pea's hair looks a lot better now!

Yesterday's Happenings

Yesterday was a pretty eventful day so I thought I'd share the happenings (and my review of Twilight) with you. . .

It started off with a Thanksgiving luncheon at Luke's work which was filled with lots of delicious food.

And even though I had to eat in a rush and didn't really get to visit, it was fun to see everyone and the food was yummy!

(Pictures courtesy of Roxanne. Thanks!)

The reason I was in a rush was because Peanut had an appointment for an ultrasound of her belly. It went well and she was amazingly good for not being able to eat for 6 hours and having to hold still for more than 30 min. We don't have a lot of info on the results of the ultrasound but the Radiologist (my favorite one I might add) said that she still has fluid in her belly because the portal vein isn't functioning quite as well as it should. Which isn't a surprise to me because Peanut had problems with her portal vein post-transplant. But we have yet to hear from the doctor about what this means.

I then spent two hours chillin' in the mini van while Peanut slept. Had some more food at Luke's work. Then left Peanut with Luke and went with my sisters and friends to. . .

Note: If you haven't seen the movie yet you might not want to read the rest of this post - your call though.

My thoughts of the movie:

It was good. Not great, not wonderful, not horrible, not fantastic, just good. I really had a hard time with it at first and was not impressed but about half way through I finally started feeling like I could say I liked it.

I feel like they really rushed and didn't fully cover Edward and Bella's relationship. If I hadn't read the book I don't think I would've felt the magnitude of their relationship. It was almost like they met, Edward was repulsed, and then all of sudden they were madly in love with each other. I just think they could've portrayed their relationship better with more "getting to know each other" scenes instead of spending so much time in nature and introducing everything else. The ballet studio scene was one of my favorites, minus the cheese. And I quote "Remember who you are." Did anyone else want to laugh at that? And all the other random lines?

The acting was a little poor and the movie was pretty cheesy. But I guess the book is too so what could you expect!? I didn't like Edward at first but, once again, halfway through the movie, I started liking him. Bella was okay but struggled a little bit to meet her character. I liked Charlie but he wasn't what I pictured him to be. Jasper was the worst cast pick. Loved Jacob! But knew I would. Carlisle was pretty good but his makeup was horrible! You could totally see it! Which bugged me a lot more than it probably should have. Esme was perfect. The "bad" vampires rocked! Mike matched pretty good I think. Emmett held up to my expectations. And the rest of the actors were just so-so.

This movie did make me really excited to see New Moon as a movie though. Probably just cause I've always been such a Jacob fan and he doesn't/didn't play a very big part in Twilight, but also because it was fun to see the book "come to life" the best it could. 

And last of all, I think I would like to see the movie again. It's not one that I'd go out and buy, but I would like to watch it again. Mostly because I think it took me too long to get used to the actors and like 'em and stuff, but now that I am, I'd like to give 'em another chance.

Well we're headed "home" for Thanksgiving tomorrow so we'll see ya'll in a week!

Followers

I don't get this following thing. Can anyone explain it to me. I've clicked to follow two blogs and it says I'm following their blog on their blogs but is that all? I just don't get the point of following someone's blog if all it does is say I am. I hope that made sense.

New Hair Do

Hope you all enjoyed the post from Luke. I just wanted to share a picture of Peanut I took earlier that day before I left for work. We were eating lunch and Pea decided she didn't want to eat, she wanted to do her own hair. . .

Much much better than I could ever do! She really is starting to do some of the cutest things! It's so fun to watch her and to realize just how smart she really is! One of my latest favorites is saying "no" to EVERYTHING. Even if it is frustrating at times, it's hard not to laugh at it. She's just too cute!

Peanut officially has her very first major cold. The poor thing! You'd think with everything she's been through in her life time this would be cake! But it's still just has hard watching her be sick with a cold as it was to watch her be sick from her liver. And no matter how much we try and convince her that this stuff we're spraying up her nose will help her breath better she still hates it more than anything!

We had our usual doctor's check-up today and everything was just the same. Her EBV (viral infection) is just sitting on a fence hanging out so the doctor decided to try and zap it again with an antiviral. (Yea! One more med to worry about!) The good news was that they decreased her Prednisone and she should be able to be taken off that in a month!

Things really are going great here! Even with my ever decreasing patience! ;) Peanut makes me so happy and I'm so grateful to have her in my life.

Make sure it's not hot

This is Luke. I know that I never blog but I did get Peanut cooling her food down before eating it and thought it would be a good one for one of my rare posts. She does this with all her food now. It doesn't have to be hot items. Yogurt, crackers, and bread all need cooling to Peanut.

Pretty Scarf

One of Peanut's new favorite toys is my scarf. 

She'd wear it everywhere if I'd let her.

I guess it's time to get the old knitting needles out and make her one of her very own!

(Once again these pictures came from my sister! I'm HORRIBLE at taking pictures lately! So good thing we see her every once in awhile so that we have pictures of Peanut in the cutest stage of life ever!)

Little 'Walker'

These pictures are kinda old but my sister just e-mailed them to me.

They were taken the beginning of October when my parents were here for one of my mom's follow-up appointments.

Peanut just loved pushing my mom's walker everywhere.

And I loved watching her!

Bzzzz...

Happy Halloween!

Our little bumble bee

Our friend's little boy had the same costume

I wish I would've gotten a better picture of Hadlee in her cupcake outfit cause it was super cute!

The bee family with our "trunk or treat" beehive full of Bit O' Honey

Getting ready to trick or treat

These are just some cute pictures I took of Peanut before we put her costume on.

Tagged

I usually don't do these things but since I'm sick and don't feel like doing anything else I thought I'd fulfill this one. I'm not going to tag anyone else though sorry.

Where is your cell phone? hidden
Where is your significant other? perfect
Your hair color? brown
Your mother? amazing
Your father? hero
Your favorite thing? family
Your dream last night? blank
Your dream/goal? survive
The room your in? new
Your hobby? reading
Your fear? loneliness
Where do you want to be in 6 years? alive
Where were you last night? home
What you're not? outgoing
One of your wish list items? garage
Where you grew up? ghetto
The last thing you did? coughed
What you are wearing? pj's
Your TV? odd
Your pet? no
Your computer? apple
Your mood? content
Missing someone? luke
Your car? van
Something you're not wearing? glasses
Favorite store? wally's world
Your summer? short
Love someone? luke
Your favorite color? pink
Last time you laughed? happy
Last time you cried? sad

Grandma's 90th Birthday

This last weekend we spent a few days and nights in Salt Lake City to celebrate Luke's Grandma's 90th Birthday. It's crazy because she doesn't even seem 90 years old at all! There were jokes about doing this again in 10 years for her 100th birthday and I really wouldn't be surprised if it actually happened! 

It was great to see everyone and would have been a lot more enjoyable for me if I didn't spend the whole time sick sick sick and worrying about getting everyone else sick and washing my hands 24/7 (my hands are for sure paying for the harsh soap and hand sanitizer). 

Luke and Peanut on the other hand had a great time. Peanut loved all the attention and people to play with. She got to go to the zoo for the first time and was just amazed at all the different animals. Her "o" whenever she likes something is just too cute and I couldn't get enough of it at the zoo. She'd do it for almost every new animal she saw. This video's good but still doesn't do it justice.

It's pretty sad but pretty much the only pictures I took were at the zoo. . .

The fancy spancy celebration dinner was Saturday night at The Grand America.
Here's the whole family again.
And here we are with the birthday girl. Doesn't she look  amazing! She should because she is!

Happy Birthday Great Grandma Roz! We love you!

Peanut's First Masterpeice

She's Walking!!

I was just on the phone with my mom earlier today and she asked if Peanut was walking yet. I said no, she'll walk holding one hand now but that's it. Well just a few hours later she was walking! Luke called me downstairs saying "hurry" I came down and guess I missed her walking from the laundry room to the living room. I didn't believe him so he got her to walk to me from across the room and yes it's true, she did it all by herself! See for yourself. . .

Reading

Peanut has started this new thing where she likes to do the reading. We always read books to Peanut before she goes to bed and last night we decided to start reading the Book of Mormon Storybook. So we read a few pages to her, have family prayer, and then let her down to play for a bit. She opens the book back up and starts jabbering. Turns a page and jabbers some more. It was so cute! It was hard to catch it on video because whenever Peanut sees the camera she has to hold it and push buttons. But here are two okay attempts.

I have caught her reading everything from cereal boxes to CD cases. It's pretty entertaining.

Playing at Grandma's

A Week in the Hot Hot Desert

The evening of Wednesday Sept 17th, my sister Krystal and I decided to leave the next day for St. George and surprise my mom for her birthday. We had it all planned out to arrive there and stand on the doorstep holding a happy birthday banner, wearing a birthday hat and blowing birthday horns. We were in place waiting for my mom to answer the door and here she comes driving into the driveway. I quickly blow my horn really hard hoping my mom could here it in her car and in doing so scare Peanut half to death. So she's screaming and wont settle down! So much for a good happy birthday mom! Haha!
We had to try pretty hard to get a picture of Peanut with the birthday hat on. Hence my hand still there putting it on while Peanut's hand's there trying to pull it off. She looked too cute though!
This is Peanut's "Ace Ventura" hairdo. I was getting her hair wet to tame it down and Krystal freaked out at how cute it was and had to take a picture.
We went to see my parent's new mansion where Aunt Krystal became Peanut's horsey.
And later that night, Peanut got to attend her very first rodeo and see some real horsey's in action! My parents have yearly seats to the Dixie Round-Up so we tagged along one night.
Not really sure what Peanut thought of it. She took everything in for about 5 minutes and then was back to her wiggly, exploring self.
Luke's sister and brother-in-law were in town so we got to go out to dinner and play for a little bit. Peanut had a heyday and was going crazy! She loved all the people to play and walk with.
Sunday, my brother and his family came over for Sunday dinner and once again Peanut was in her glory. She'd follow the kids everywhere! This is them playing doctor. (Glad Peanut could switch roles for once and not have to be the patient!)

I've decided that I'm horrible at taking pictures (which is probably why I don't really post anything anymore). These pictures are pretty much the only ones we have of our trip and half of them are from my sister camera! How sad. Anyways... the rest of our trip was pretty uneventful we visited some old friends, surprised Grandma Roz at work, helped my mom get ready for foot surgery and then surprised Luke by coming home a day early! It was a really fun trip but it for sure drained me! Who knew sewing two curtain panels and seven couch pillows could take so much time! Thanks mom for your help!