October 2012

       This month started out by listening to wonderful speakers during General Conference. We love to hear the words of the prophets and apostles to help us deal with our challenges. We were really shocked that the missionary age was decreased. Makes me happy to know that we will have more missionaries bringing people to Christ.
         This month, the pregnancy was very rough. After 3 weeks of doing blood tests, it was found out that I have borderline gestational diabetes. I need to avoid eating much sugar at all and have to keep up exercising. Luckily, I don't have full-blown gestational diabetes or I would have to be on medicine or give myself insulin. In the middle of the month, I started feeling very sick and lost 5 pounds in 2 weeks. They were thinking I had a GI bug or was feeling the effects of too much sugar. It didn't help that Chris and Daniel were both sick. Daniel had a cold and Chris was put on antibiotics for a bacterial infection in his nasals. Luckily, the cold I got only last 2 days.
        Katina had her last day of work on the 15th. It has taken her a few weeks to get her sleep cycle back. Luckily, she quit working before she started getting really sick. The money, though it wasn't much, has been missed, though.
         This was a also a very emotionally tough month. Earlier in the month, Katina's mom was involved in a car accident. Fortunately, she wasn't hurt. The next week, a dear family in the ward, the Kellys, lost their precious 4-year Miles due to an accidental drowning. They are a wonderful family who love each other dearly. It affected everyone in the stake and the funeral was beautiful. The Spirit was so strong and the everyone could feel the love of Heavenly Father. Having tragedies like this make the gospel mean so much more. How thankful I am for the gospel and what it teaches about the salvation of little children. I know Miles is loving being with Jesus and helping Him spread the gospel. I can't imagine living this tragedy without the knowledge of the restored gospel.
         Chris is still looking for work. He has had an average of 2 interviews a week. So far, no news, but we continue to have faith that God is in control and knows what job Chris needs and when he will receive it.
          Daniel continues to say the funniest things. Last week during family scripture study, Katina was reading in 2 Nephi. Right after she read the scripture about angels speaking by the power of the Holy Ghost, Daniel yelled out, "That's a lie!" After a few minutes of this repeated phrase, we realized he was saying, "That's a Y." He has also started telling us what each sound the letters make. He is so vocal and talks all the time. He likes to copy what people say and loves to talk on the phone, whether our real phones or the pretend one in his pocket. We have really started to see his imagination come out. We received an Amazon gift card and used it to buy a chef's hat for him. For Halloween, he was a chef. He was so cute! Before we went out, he was saying, "Trick or treat. Give me something to eat." When we actually went door to door, he  didn't say anything. Here are some pictures from Halloween.

Carving pumpkins.

The flower on his face and shirt only lasted a few minutes.

His bucket of candy.

Sept. 2012

  September was a fairly busy and stressful month. The first weekend we went to visit the Brigham City temple. Daniel really enjoyed riding the bus to and from the temple and sliding on the floor of the temple with the white booties.

The bride's room

An ordinance room

The celestial room

A sealing room

  The second weekend was regional conference where we heard some great talks from our church leaders. The third weekend we really enjoyed watching the Primary program at church. The next weekend was the Brigham City Temple dedication. It was crazy as there were 5 Sundays in September, but only attended 3 Sundays of normal church. 

   The weekend of the 21st we traveled up to Idaho where we met my mom and aunt. We enjoyed the never -ending pasta bowl at the Olive Garden before my mom went with us to Rexburg where we attended a Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra concert at the new BYUI center. The concert was awesome!  Daniel stayed with my aunt while we went to the concert. It was his first time staying in a motel and he loved it. On Saturday, we went to back to Rexburg to look around campus. I haven't seen the campus since 2007 and it had grown so much. We made it back to Utah just in time to attend the Ward carnival that night.

     Daniel is quite the character. He says so many words and says the funniest things. Last week in church, I grabbed the back of his shirt so he wouldn't fall off the pew. He told me to 'quit playing with my tail.' We have also broken him from his binky except for nap and bedtime. He has done surprising well without it.

     The pregnancy is not going too well. Katina has been sicker this time than she was with Daniel. She did a glucose test and the levels were very high. She did another one last week with the levels being even higher, indicating gestational diabetes. Today she had to take the 3-hour test to determine what type of treatment to do. She sees the doctor next week, so will know more. The main problem has been the extreme fatigue, lightheadedness, and headache that occurs almost all day. Her last day of work is October 15th, so hopefully  that will help with the fatigue.

   Chris is still looking for work. He has at least 4 interviews lined up for next week. We pray he gets a job soon.

 

August 2012

  Not too much happened during August. We went up to see my nephews in the fair as was described in the last post. Katina kept busy with her calling as compassionate service leader. As most people with this calling are aware, most of the service comes in waves. We didn't have anything for three weeks, and then one week    
Katina had to coordinate food and help with a funeral, two surgeries, and a hospitalization. It was crazy, but as always, the ward was more than willing to help.
     Daniel still continues to be a smart little guy. He loves to spell words and has fun scattering his letters all around the house. He has become quite the pro at tempter tantrums. He will start screaming and then yell, "Don't look at me! Don't talk to me, mommy!" It is very cute, but exhausting at the same time. Eating has not become his thing this month. He doesn't like to sit down for meals and has skipped meals, mainly breakfast. After talking to friends, I found out that this is very common for his age.
    The biggest news has to do with Chris's job. For the past couple of months, the construction industry has been really slow. His wonderful boss has done everything in his power to get more work, but Chris has been warned that money just isn't coming in. Today was his last day of work until the company gets more revenue or he finds another job. It is the nature of working for a small business and hope and pray that he gets some income soon. We have enough to get us through the next six weeks. Please keep us in your prayers.

Fair Pictures(Hopefully)

Merritt showing his steer.

  

RJ showing his first steer in a fair.

Merritt's poster for his pig. It says: Beefy the Next Best Thing to Beef

  

RJ and his steer.

Daniel 'driving' Grandma to JCPenney. That is where he
kept saying they were going.

Custer County Fair 2012

Last weekend, we went up to Mackay for the Custer County where Merritt and RJ both had animals this year. Merritt's steer did not gain enough weight, so he was not able to sell it. He did, however, have a pig this year. We were not able to see the hog show, but he did very well. He placed 8th overall out of 60 pigs. That is a lot of bacon. RJ showed a steer for his first time ever. He did really well. Merritt had a cow/calf pair again and made it to Round Robin, where he showed all the animals. Like all the other years, he did not win, but came very close to winning. Pictures will come another day as Blogger doesn't download pictures well on most days.

July 2013

July was a very hot month in Utah. There were over 10 days were the temperature was in the triple digits! We did not do too much this month. We did not attend the KSL Pioneer Day parade like we normally do. We did attend the Bountiful Handcart Days where were able to see 2200 young men march as part of the Army of Helaman exhibit. This comes from one of my favorite stories in the Book of Mormon about 200 stripling warriors who fought bravely and did not doubt because their mothers had taught them to believe in God. "Now they never had fought, yet they did not fear death; and they did think more upon the ^aliberty of their ^bfathers than they did upon their lives; yea, they had been taught by their ^cmothers, that if they did not doubt, God would deliver them.

 48 And they rehearsed unto me the words of their ^amothers, saying: We ^bdo not doubt our mothers knew it."

Daniel also really started loving the show WordWorld which is shown on PBS. It teaches kids to problem solve and sounds and letters. Once a word is 'built' it turns into what it describes. For example, 'pie' turns into an actual pie. From watching this show, Daniel can now spell duck, big, pig, sheep, radio, pie, dog, ant, and bug. He has stopped watching Sesame Street, which we hope he will start up again soon. 

He has also taken a break in the potty training. I guess he wants to wait until he a little older. Sadly, it looks like we may have two kids in diapers.

News!!!!

Yesterday we had the ultrasound. After finally getting the baby to cooperate, we found out that we are expecting a girl. She looks great and we can't wait till we get to meet her!