Cute Hair for a New School Year

This week we went to Evans hair school (because Ashley is a student there) to have hair do's for school. Cassidy has been dying to get her hair dyed! So she got a cute color and new style - she looks so amazing and so grown up - people keep telling her she looks like me and I take it as a compliment! Ammon also got his hair colored - it was a good trade off because he was willing to get a nice cut and style - he looks so handsome- Can you believe he is almost as tall as me? Rachel got small trim - she loves having long hair - and a feather extension. She is thinking she would like a perm too so we might just go back next week. Kerri got the cutest little perm you ever saw - I love it!

Learning to be Grateful

I am constantly amazed at the difficulties that we are asked to pass through. I see it everyday in my role as a nurse. So many people suffer things everyday. I have been blessed (or cursed) with a soft heart and I have a tendency to get attached to my patients. I have become friends with many of them and some I was friends with before they became my patient. Last week I had an experience I will never forget - although I wish I could. A good friend of mine (who also happens to be my patient) came into the office last week for a routine 34 week OB check. Up till then everything had been very good. At this appointment we discovered that her baby had passed away sometime the week before. I knew that when I became a nurse I would see sad things - I knew that I would have to be professional about it. I couldn't help but cry - in fact I excused myself for a few moments to try and gain some composure so that I might be some help to them. This person has such amazing faith and is dealing with this sad situation so well. She may not like Heavenly Fathers plan but she is accepting it. I have another patient whom I did not know before I came to work here. I have a soft spot for sweet little old men and they get wrapped into my heart pretty easily. This guy is kind of gruff and not always soft spoken. He can be pretty mean if you take what he says to heart. But its all surface - underneath he is just a big sweetheart and gives me a hug whenever he comes in- which won't be too often now - he is dying. I will miss him and its sad to see his family suffer with him until his time comes. I have another patient who had a baby a few months ago and would sometimes seem sad when she came into the office. A few weeks ago she came in for her 6 week check and at some point in the visit she broke down and admitted that her husband had cheated on her several times during her pregnancy. I was asked to visit with her and help in anyway I could - she was heartbroken and felt sure that she wasn't good enough and never would be. My heart broke for her. I have another paitent who in the space of a year lost two babies at around 22 weeks. She then adopted a sweet little girl and is expecting another son in about a month. She gets a sister for her little girl anyday now. We have sorrowed with her and also shared in her joy as God's plan isn't always a trial to endure. We have a sweet sweet little boy who is about 2 years old but the size of most 5 year olds. He loves me! He runs to me with open arms and I love him. We have a sweet little old lady who cusses up a storm and thinks nothing of calling me a "dumbass" and in the same sentence tells me how much she loves me and how glad she is that I am here. She probably won't be around much longer and the world will be a sadder place without her. When my friends baby died last week there was nothing I could do or say that would fix it but I sat by her as her husband held her while she cried and I think this is what it means when we promise to help carry each others burdens. We can't take them - we can't fix it for them - but we can be there and listen. I love my job - on so many levels. I love my patients, so many of them have changed my life for the better and make me want to be a better person and rise to their expectations. I love what I learn here - I am learning to be grateful for my trials, and if I can't be grateful quite yet to at least be willing to accept what might just be God's will for my life and be grateful for the trials that I don't have.

Pictures!

Sunday was a great day!

Almost 13 years ago I was working on reading the Book of Mormon for the first time by myself. I had read it with my family, in seminary, and of course at church but I had never taken the time to read it all the way through from cover to cover all by myself. My husband and I and our little daughter of about 7 months were living in Layton Utah and I was working with my wonderful bishop to get to the temple. He was helping me work through some things and had made the suggestion to read the scriptures daily. It was fun to mark my progress on my little chart each day and I was amazed as I read the stories I had heard my whole life and realize somehow for the first time that they really were real people - not just stories but journal entires - little peaks into the lives of an ancient people. I fell in love with this book (and it gets worse all the time!) As I read the story of Alma the younger and his friends Ammon, Aaron, Himni, and Omner - it seemed to call to me and assure me that I was not the only one who had made mistakes. I loved the story of thier sincere conversion and their desire to make right what had once been wrong. I loved how towards the end of the story they are describing Captain Moroni and it says that if all men were like him then satan would have no power - and then it says that he was a man likeunto Ammon - I love that.
Anyway - so I was going about minding my own business - happy for the most part with were I was at. I began having spiritual promptings that I had a strong spirit who wanted to join our family. I felt very strongly that his name was to be Ammon and he was ready. I almost laughed to myself and thought - but I already have a baby. We didn't think we were ready for another one - yet. But the same thought came a couple or times - my son was ready to come to earth - he was a strong spirit who had alot to accomplish and he was ready to get started.
A few weeks later a bout of flu hit our ward. Everyone was sick - but then they got better - and I didn't. I was still sick everyday and so so tired. I was still nursing Cassidy since she was only about 9 months old and I still hadn't had a period since she was born. I finally told Jerry that I either needed to go to the doctor because there was something wrong with me or I was pregnant. The next morning I took a test and there was that little pink line before it even got to the top. Early the next week I went to the doctor and they did an ultrasound since I didn't have any dates to track the due date with. They said I was about 12 weeks along and that I was due July 21st. I knew in my heart that this was my son.
Ammon's pregnancy wasn't a difficult one as far as pregnancies go - I was in a car accident a few weeks after our first appointment and a part of the placenta detached from the wall of the uterus. They were concerned that I would lose him - somehow I knew that I wouldn't - but I had an ultrasound each visit after that. It was fun to see him grow so much between appointments and I was not one bit surprised when they told me we would be having a boy.
We moved from Layton to Sugar City when I was about 37 weeks pregnant and so my doctor decided to induce me so that I wouldn't be making the drive while in labor. Early in the morning of July 12th my little sister Mary and I drove down to Layton. His dad who was working out of town flew in to meet us at the hospital. They started my induction about 8am in and Ammon made his entrance early in the afternoon. With Cassidy I was too afraid of needles to get an epidural but decided to chance it with Ammon. It was amazing! I laughed the whole time I was delivering him. The doctor laughed and said push or laugh its all the same to me. I only had to push through 3 contractions (instead of the 1 1/2 hours with Cass). Ammon was so alert when he was born and so so cute. Even in the delivery room you could see his dimples and the nurses just oohed and awwed over him. They laughed about him being a "real man" when he insisted on being nursed for about 1/2 and hour right then and there. He would just look at you with those big dark eyes - it was already pretty apparent that they would be brown. I thought he looked just like my dad or my brother Charlie. And he was Ammon right from the start. With Cassidy and the other girls after we called them "the baby" for several weeks - "the baby is hungry, the baby is so cute, look how sweet the baby is while she is sleeping" - but with Ammon he was just Ammon from day 1.
At the end of the day after Jerry had left to get some sleep and Mary had fallen asleep on the couch I remember - as if it was just yesterday - late in the night after waking up to nurse him. I was sitting in my hospital bed holding this little man and just admiring him. He was quite awake and looking at me as if he could hear all my thoughts. Again I felt his spirit - so strong. I could almost feel a little frustration on his part of being such a big spirit stuffed in a tiny little body. As I looked at him I could feel his desire to serve a mission and hold the priesthood. I have always always loved the priesthood and been so thankful that our loving Heavenly Father allows His power to be used here on earth. And I could tell that my little son had so so much to do here. I have been waiting (anxiously) for this little boy of mine to be 12 and recieve the priesthood ever since. When he was a little boy (2 & 3) he would ask "how much longer till I'm a grownup?" He has always been such a sweet boy - always with a hug for his momma. I love him so so very much. There is something about his spirit that speaks to mine and although I love having him young and feel like he is growing up way to fast - I am also excited to see what happens as he grows. He is my Ammon - It was so great to see hands laid upon his head and Sunday and the power of the priesthood bestowed upon him. Next week he will pass the sacrament for the first time. I get a little thrill in my heart everytime I see our Hayden passing and it will be great to see Ammon up there in his white shirt and tie. It's always amazing to have a dream come true - thank you Ammon for helping me with mine! I love you!

I promise to add pictures soon!

We love Nashville Tribute Band!

Our family loves the Nashville Tribute Band. They were back in Rexubrg this week to celebrate their new album The Work which is a tribute to missionaries. If you have never heard of these guys they are a group of LDS Country Singer/Songwriters from Nashville who back in like 2005 got together and put together a Tribute to Joseph the Prophet - it was/is amazing. Since then they have done a tribute to the Pioneers and now to missionaries. Three members of the band are also a up and coming country group called Due West - they are awesome. My kids can all sing most of the songs from the first two CD's by heart - it was such a fun night. They will be back in Rexburg as Due West on the 13th of September and I can't wait to see them again!