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!

A Quick (But Long-Overdue) Catch-up

I don't need even know where to start on this blog. I has been so long since I updated it! Here is a quick recap:

My family who attended the anniversary  party.

The game of who knows my parents better. David won.

November 2011: We spent Thanksgiving with my parents and also had a 40th anniversary party for them. It was great to see how much they have been through in 40 years. The food her sister made was incredible! Katina also got a new calling as the Relief Society compassionate service leader.

December 2011: We spent Christmas in Idaho with Katina's family and enjoyed that. Daniel also became a huge fan of nursery this month. He loves to sing the songs during singing time.
January 2012: We celebrated my birthday by going out to eat and went bowling. I beat Chris 2 out of 3 games! My parents came down at the end of the month for my mom to  have surgery on her windpipe.The surgery went very well and was a big improvement in her breathing.
February 2012: My parents came back down her again for the second half of my mom's surgery. Like last time, it went well.

March 2012: Daniel celebrated his second birthday. We had a small party for him and he loved all the attention. We also moved our rooms around and Daniel got to sleep in his big boy bed!

April 2012: My dad suffered another back injury which required him to stay in the hospital for nearly 6 weeks while he recovered from two surgeries. He received a pump in his back that puts a muscle relaxer straight into his spinal cord. He is doing so much better.
May 2012: We found that that Daniel is going to be a big brother in December. We also went to Idaho for Mother's Day to see Katina's dad in the hospital and to spend time with her mother. At the end of the month, Daniel had eye surgery to correct his lazy eye. The day of the surgery was rough, but he was back to normal the next day. His eyes are perfectly straight and he is more coordinated now.
 The doctors did surgery on Elmo also. Daniel thought this was pretty cool and would tell people that him and Elmo were brave during their surgery.
June 2012: This month was spent trying to stay cool in the abnormally hot weather in Utah.We did spend some time with Chris's aunt and her mother who will be moving back California this week. We attended a Beach Boys tribute band concert with our friends the Nelson/Valenzuela family. Here is Daniel dancing with Tamara: