It's a BOY!!--September '08

When I arrived back into town from St. George and after the whole scare with my pregnancy, I went to my OB for a followup appointment. Luckily things still looked good, and she told us that most likely the subchorionic hemorrhage would resolve itself by the end of my pregnancy. Well when she was doing the ultrasound the baby was moving a ton and I said to our doctor, "is there anyway you can tell us what we are having?" She said she could try and then pointed to something on the screen and said, "do you see that, normally little girls don't have those." I couldn’t believe it! She told us she wasn't 100% sure, but that we could pretty much plan on having a BOY! Unbelievable! So in a matter of a couple of weeks we thought we were miscarrying and then we found out we weren't and that we were going to have a boy! Of course Jake was/is ecstatic, and I was surprised but kind of not surprised because this pregnancy has been SO different than my pregnancy with Abby, our little boy has given me a run for my money!

The rest of our September was pretty mellow, people thought we dropped off the face of the earth because we got back from St. George and got settled and then Abby and I got sick, and Jake was gone a ton for hunting/work trainings (20 out of the 30 days!) ,but we survived and were excited for Fall to come!

St. George-Labor Day '08

So because I am still lacking in skills in the blogging department, I have decided maybe 1 post a month about what we did will do??? I am just kidding, but because we are nearly to the end of November I decided for family history purposes to still post about our September 2008 and October 2008.

Our September started out with a real bang! We went to visit my sister Emily and her husband Brandon in St. George for Labor day weekend. I went down with my Dad, Abby, and my other sister Katie and her family on Thursday, and we had a really fun time swimming and hanging out. Jake was doing the Deer Archery hunt, so he decided to meet up with us on Tuesday, September 2, because he has some business down in that area and then we would drive home together on Thursday, Sept. 4.

Jake got to St. George at about 9:00 p.m. on and we were hanging out at my sisters, and I was singing with Abby and bouncing her on my lap. Well I started to cramp, so I thought I should lie down because I had overdone it, well no sooner has I layed down on the couch when I started bleeding pretty badly. That is never a good sign for a pregnant woman because it immediately means something is wrong. I was just so glad that Jake and my family were there because we were trying to figure out the best thing to do, we called the ER and they said to put my feet up and rest and pray that it stops. Well after that my Dad, Jake and brother in law Brandon were able to give me a priesthood blessing, and immediately after that I felt comforted. I physically started feeling a little better and emotionally I was able to calm down and I knew that regardless of what happened, it would be OK.

The next day I woke up and felt better and the bleeding had pretty much stopped, so we decided to try to get in to a doctor and were able to find one that worked with our insurance that would fit me in that day. As we waited at the doctor's office I couldn't help but prepare for the worst when they told me I was miscarrying. The doctor did an ultrasound first and then they were going to test my hormone levels. Well when they did the ultrasound the doctor said, "well there's your baby, it looks like everything is ok." We were so relieved!! The doctor continued to check things out and discovered that I had what is called a subchorionic hemorrhage which basically means a pocket of blood outside of my uterus. Normally the body absorbs it but because it was larger than normal it bled out and that is why I started bleeding. At first I thought it was something I had done, but the doctor said it's a pre-existing condition and is only diagnosed later in the pregnancy via ultrasound. He then told me to take it easy for the next week or so, so we were fortunate enough to be able to stay in St. George at my sister's longer than we expected and I was able to have help with Abby because I wasn't supposed to lift her or anything. All I can say is after that I know what it would be like to be on bed rest and if it were just me it may not be so bad, but being on bed rest and "taking it easy" with a toddler doesn't exactly go hand in hand. Luckily I had my sister and brother in law, Jake and my Dad to all help me with Abby so with Jake being able to work from home we just decided to stay down in St. George for some extra time for me to recuperate. Here is a pic with Abby with her Aunt "Emmi" and Uncle Brandon, and their dog Keona.


and here is a pic of Abby being silly playing in Bree's water bucket when we arrived back home.

August '08-Cherry Hill, the greatest fun spot you'll ever know--August 2008

This last summer my older sister Char convinced me that I should buy a Cherry Hill pass because she would be visiting for a month in the summer and we could go as many times as we wanted and then I could use the pass the rest of the summer. Well the bad news was that Char had some complications with her pregnancy but the good news is that she was able to stay the whole summer and play with me at Cherry Hill. Boy, are we glad we got passes because we had tons of fun and definitely got our money's worth. Here are some pictures of when Char's husband and Jake came with us and we were able to have a fun day at Cherry Hill. Abby rode the big waterslides for the first time and didn't quite know what to think of it, but all in all she is definately a water baby! Most of our August was spent wrapping up our playtime at the pool, while Jake was scouting and on the Archery Hunt for Elk with his Dad and friends.

Flaming Gorge-July 2008

We were able to go to Flaming Gorge with Jake's family and Max and his son Carter this summer and it was Abby's first time going boating. We bought her a life jacket and I wondered if she would be bugged wearing it because I wanted her to have it on pretty much 24/7 because we were camping by the water and she would be playing all over. Well she did fantastic! She loved the water even though it was pretty chilly, and she loved being on the boat. She even took a slow ride on the tube with Jake which was fun to watch. The weather was perfect, we even took a boat ride over to the Flaming Gorge Dam which was a long and bumpy ride, but it was cool to see. We had a great time and it was so fun for Abby to have Carter and her cousin Austyn there to play with. Here are some pics and a movie of Abby on the tube with Jake, if you listen carefully you can see her clap her hands and say, "yeah!" when she is on the tube, who knew we had a pro on our hands!


Abby & Carter playing with dinosaurs in the water, Abby fishing with Carter's pole (thanks uncle Max for helping out!) and Abby riding in the boat for the first time.


At the Flaming Gorge Dam helping Daddy feed the fish that are at the bottom of the Dam, and Carter helping Max drive the boat.

Abby standing in the boat while it's slowly moving, (notice the look on her face.) In the water with Grandma, she was fearless and wanted to get in the water way before her Mommy did probably because the water was pretty cold! Abby wasn't a huge fan of the campfire and liked to cover her eyes.

Riding the tube with Daddy, and Jake riding the tube by himself, we couldn't get him off the tube! And finally here is Abby having a timeout on the boat, it was getting windy so I put a jacket on her, and she hit me so into time out she went, and as you can see she was really happy about it!

Abby's first time at Lagoon--June 2008

We went to Lagoon for Jake's work in June and had a really fun time! It was Abby's first time and as you can tell from the pic you can see she really didn't like it......and apparently either did cousin Andrew. But once we got her warmed up she really started to enjoy it....(probably more than we enjoyed waiting in line in the scorching sun at all the kiddie rides). It helped that she got to ride most of the rides with her cousin Broc, who was a super good sport considering he didn't always fit so well in the kiddie rides, but it payed off for him when Jake took him on some great roller coaster rides, especially because I didn't want to go (I have turned into a sissy, plus it was probably good because I was pregnant at the time and didn't know it) and Jake needed a partner to enjoy the "big kid" rides together.
McCall and Abby on the boats (the worker took FOREVER to get the kids on and off the ride--I seriously was going to kill him because we waited in line forever!

Jake, Abby, Aunt Char, McCall, Aunt Katie, and Megan riding the carousel, the kids really liked this one. I am sure Jake loved it the most! :)

Taking a ride on the train, although I am sure the animals that live at Lagoon aren't very happy to be there, but the kids sure like to see them! Abby really enjoyed it because she loves animals, and liked it when Jake pointed them out to her.

All in all we had a great day, the kids did fabulous and we stayed pretty much the whole day which is fun, but I can do only about once a year---I love Lagoon, especially love it when it's free!

I know, I'm a loser......

I think it's pretty obvious by the last date of my post that I am a loser when it comes to keeping up on my blog lately. We have had A LOT happen since my last post, in fact within a week of my post we find out we would be adding to our family, which was a surprise because we didn't think it would happen so quickly, and it was fun for us to have Abby share the news with our families. So here are some pics of a little of what went on, to start out with, the Webbs came for July 4th and Aunt Marci cut her hair like mine so now we really look like twinners, we lit fireworks at our house and watched more from our front yard later that night. That weekend we also hit the Hot Rod Run in Logan, spending the day with Nanna, both Papa and Grandpa Scott, Uncle Ben, and Bradeyn, Broc, McCall and Abby.
Ready to announce the big news to our families All dressed up for the 4th of July 2008!


Notice the look on Abby's face!


Funny cousins: Broc, Braedyn, & McCall

Broc and the Grandpas in their Hot Rod shirts


More pics to come of Lagoon, Cherry Hill, Flaming Gorge, and St. George!!!

The bottle

Abby loves her bottle, at least that is what she calls it. Until a few months ago I was actually giving her a real bottle, until I found a sippy cup (the tall, skinny, Nuby kind that has the soft top) that she thinks resembles a bottle, so Abby loves to have it and still calls it her bottle. She loves it so much that I was even told by the pediatrician that she was probably getting too much milk per day so now I only try to give it to her at naps and bedtime.
Lately Abby has been waking up around 6:30 a.m. or 7:00 a.m. and crying, sometimes she will go back down and others she won't. If she won't go back down I will go in and I change her bum and every time she says "bottle" because she wants a bottle. So I have been giving in and giving her a bottle when I go in and change her because then she will go back to sleep until 9:30 or 10:00 which I love because I stay up late at nights working and don't mind her sleeping in that late.
Well on Friday night we ran out of milk and I didn't go and get any because I knew I would be going to the store on Sat. I was hoping she would stay asleep and not wake up and want a bottle but that was not the case. She woke up so I went in, changed her bum and she asked for a bottle but I told her she didn't need one and laid her back down to sleep. She cried for a minute but then I assumed she went back to sleep because I didn't hear anything out of her until 45 minutes later when she cried out again and she was mad! She wanted a bottle dang it and would not take "no" for an answer. Luckily I had remembered that I had a Pediasure drink in my pantry from awhile ago so I put that in her bottle and took it in to her. Well when I came into her room she was sitting up in her crib and when she saw the bottle in my hand she clapped her hands and said, "Yeah, you did it, a bottle!" I just started laughing, so I gave the bottle to her and let her finish it because I don't like to give it to her in bed, I made sure she burped and put her back down and said, "night, night" to which she replied, "bye, bye bottle." So apparently she is a wee bit attached to her bottle and we are going to have to break her of it eventually. But I can't believe how much Abby is talking and what she is saying is getting more clear and understandable, not to mention pretty hilarious!

Sleeping Sabbath Day

We had Jake's work Lagoon day last Friday, June 20th and my mother in law Chris volunteered to take Abby so we could stay late and ride the rides together. Then Chris decided to keep Abby overnight so we could take a motorcycle ride up to Logan on Saturday. (pics to come of our fun weekend when Jake gets back into town with our camera.) On Sunday I dropped Jake off at the airport and then went and picked her up. She had the best time with her Grandma and when I picked her up at about five Chris told me she needed a nap because she had taken a really short one earlier in the day.
So we went home and got settled, I fed Abby and then decided to lay her down so she could take a little nap so she wouldn't be a nightmare to deal with all night. Well, I put her down at 6:15 p.m. and went in to check on her at 7:30, I usually don't let her sleep so long, but when I went in to check on her she was totally zonked out, she didn't even stir at all which is rare. So I just let her sleep, thinking she would wake up any time. Well 9:00 rolled around, and I had decided I should wake her up, feed her something, let her play for a bit, and then put her down for the night. Well I went into her room again, and she was still sound asleep. I even had to get right up to her to check to see if she was breathing, because she was so totally out! So I thought I would just let her sleep and see what happens, which is always a fun gamble because she would either sleep through the night, or wake up at like 2 in the morning and be ready to party. At 11:30 pm she woke up and I thought for sure she would want to get up and play right when I want to go to bed, but I changed her diaper and as I was changing her she kept saying, "nigh, nigh" and reaching for her crib (night, night). So I gave her a sippy cup of milk, finished changing her and she went to bed again until 7 in the morning. My gamble had paid off, so I got her up, changed her, and she still wanted to go back to sleep, she was snuggling with her blanket with her eyes closed, so I gave her a bottle and she went back down till 10:00 a.m! That's right, my sleeping beauty slept for about 16 hours! I will be brutally honest, it was really nice---I could catch up on the millions of the shows I have had TiVo'ed for months and haven't been able to get to, and I had the house to myself, which again was a little treat. (I know, I'm horrible.) So for Abby, her Sunday was really a BIG day of rest!

Abby's 18th Month checkup

We went to see the doctor for Abby's 18th month checkup (we were a couple of weeks late) and things went great! She is in the 75% percentile for height and weight which is shocking considering the kid eats like a bird most days. But the best thing was when the doctor asked if Abby had a vocabulary of 8 or more words and I told him "yes", he then said, "can I hear some" and then I proceeded to go into Abby's whole repertoire of what she knew, so I said,
"What is your name?" Abby patted her chest and said "Abby". "How old are you?" She holds up 1 finger and says, "2." Then I said, "What does a cow say?" and Abby proceeded to tell me and the doctor what a cow, elk, cat, rooster, snake, tiger, dog, monkey, horse and donkey say. By this time my pediatrician is just laughing, and he said, "Aah man, that just made my day! I have a really great job and I just needed to be reminded of it, it's been so fun to watch her grow up into a little girl!"
So Abby charmed her pediatrician, but still couldn't get out of her shots, I forgot the camera, but she even handled those like a champ. I can't believe our little baby girl is becoming such a big girl! Also as a side story, I had my 7 year old nephew Broc with me at the appointment and when the nurse asked if Abby can walk backwards I said, "You know, I haven't really noticed, I think she can, but let me see if I can get her to do it." (which I couldn't) Then my nephew pipes up and says very officially, "I've never seen her do it." I thought that was so funny, he totally ratted me out and sounded so grown up!

Cute Carter!

Our friends Max and Jodie Wilson have a fantastic little boy, Carter, who is the sweetest friend to Abby. We just celebrated his 4th birthday with them and it got me thinking to how cute Carter is. He is a very bright and funny little boy ( I credit his parents for that) and he is probably too smart for his own good, but he makes up for his mischievousness with his handsome looks and hilarious personality. Max and Jodie joke that they want Carter to marry Abby one day, but the way it's going he loves her more like a sister. He always wants to give her gifts and kisses, and play with her, which is a big deal because he doesn't do that with everyone, and the Wilson's love to spoil Abby which is so kind of them! Countless times they have given her cute outfits that either Jodie or Carter have picked our for and brought them over, and they volunteer to watch her for us all the time, which makes us so grateful for their generosity. I hope the Wilson's and especially Carter know how much we love him, and boy does Carter love Jake. He wants to talk about baseball or hunting with him and practically treats Jake like his hero which makes Jake feel good. It's nice to have friends that we can enjoy their kids and they can enjoy ours!
Here are some pics of Carter when he camped with Max and Jake(notice his cute messy face), of him and Abby playing together, and the outfit that Carter picked out for Abby. So cute!

and the "Mother of the Year" award goes to.....

I apologize that I haven't posted in awhile things have been busy, so I thought I would kick it off with a real winner of a story:
So I have been trying to watch the movie "27 Dresses" for the last three days. I have been catching different parts here and there and then I'd get interrupted. The reason for me concentrating so hard on finishing it is that my mother-in-law redboxed it for me and it had continued to sit at my house and charge her money, so I decided last night I would hurry and watch the end and take it back by the deadline. So I need to preface this story with the fact that all last night I was cleaning up a little before I sat down to watch the movie, I was going up and down the stairs, putting things away, organizing, etc. Abby was playing and then she would follow me down the stairs, and everything was going well. In fact I was thinking how well she was maneuvering the stairs lately and that we hadn't had any accidents.......well I spoke too soon.
I was watching my movie while Abby played in the family room and she decided to go up the stairs, I didn't think anything of it because she had been doing it all night. Well all of a sudden I heard her toppling down the stairs and and got to her right as she reached the bottom. Immediately the tears and the blood start to come and I am trying to hold her and figure out where the blood is coming from. I ran upstairs and set her on the kitchen counter as I try to access her, calm her down, and use a wet paper towel to clean up the blood that kept coming from her mouth. I thought immediately that she had knocked one of her teeth loose or something as her lip began to swell and I got the bleeding to stop I realized that it was her lip that was cut and nothing else. I felt SO AWFUL! My baby had gotten hurt because of my negligence and need to watch a stupid movie, and to boot I didn't have a car so if anything more serious would have happened I wouldn't have had a way to get to the ER. We sold our car and Jake had the truck, he was supposed to be arriving home soon, but who knows if he would have been held up what I would have done.
I just am so glad Abby is OK, and grateful her fall wasn't more serious. She could have banged her head on the door at the bottom of the stairs or broken something, so besides a fat lip and a loser for a mother, she's doing great!

Peanut, Peanut Butter and Abby!

I was trying to work today and instead of taking a nap which is what Abby normally does when I work, she decided to wake up, so I tried to keep her entertained because I needed to get my work done. I tried cartoons, I fed her lunch, and then I discovered something that kept Abby busy for 30 minutes by herself......peanut butter! I don't know if that makes me a careless mother, but I made sure to check on her continually to make sure she wasn't choking. She loved dipping raisins, banana, and her hands of course into the peanut butter. So it's not cartoons that makes my daughter happy, it's food! Here are some pictures of my messy girl!

Time flies when you are having fun!

The last couple of weeks have been filled with lots of fun family time! We were fortunate to have every one on the Mckinstry side make it to Grandpa Mac's funeral, so we had A LOT of company in town from April 23rd to April 3oth, the viewing was April 25th (my birthday) and the funeral was the next day. I was also able to celebrate my birthday with my twin sister for the first time since our freshman year in college which was so fun! We were so glad that the Ty and Jamie and their adorable little boys Easton and Trey stayed with us as well as Marci. I was able to spend some great time with my sisters who live out of town, and cousins that I haven't seen in 4 years. The great grandchildren had a ball playing and so did the grownups!

We had some family stay in town a few extra days so on Monday, April 28th we rode the Frontrunner train to Salt Lake, went to Temple Square to take pictures(which Abby was a nightmare for), eat lunch, and did a little shopping at The Gateway. It was super crowded on the train ride there and back from Salt Lake, but it was a fun and new experience especially for the kids.

Then this last weekend I had the opportunity to go and see my Grandma Roberts who lives in Canada. She was Boise, ID to visit with her family and celebrate her 94th birthday! Grandma Roberts is my only living grandparent so it was a treat to see her and visit with her. Also, Grandma, Abby and I share a middle name so I wanted to make sure to get a lot of good pictures (again Abby was a nightmare)but because I don't know when I will be able to get out to Canada to see her so I was so glad to have had the chance to spend some time with her and my aunts, uncles, and cousins on the Roberts side.

It's been a crazy couple of weeks, but also I feel blessed to have great relationships with many wonderful relatives. I have attached some pictures of adventures and hope to get some more from my sisters.

The Kindness of Strangers

I was at Walmart on Monday getting some shopping done before our company came into town, we had been there for like two hours and Abby had actually done really well. We made it to the checkout line and as we waited Abby kept saying "boon" and pointing to the balloons that were by the checkout stand. Abby actually used to be scared of balloons and so I was surprised she even noticed them. So as we waited she kept saying "boon", "boon" and laughing and being really cute. It was finally our turn and we got up to the cashier and she handed me a Minnie Mouse balloon and said, "The woman in front of you paid for this for your daughter."
I almost started crying, it was such a sweet gesture! I couldn't believe that this complete stranger would make the effort to do such a simple and sweet thing for my daughter. I didn't even get the chance to thank the woman because she had left the store. I will be honest, most of the time when I am at the store, I am on auto-pilot and don't even notice most things around me, but the the fact that this woman noticed that Abby liked the balloons and treated her to one, really made my day! There is still goodness in the world people! This whole event has taught me a wonderful lesson: It's easy to get so caught up in the craziness of our own lives that we don't notice how we can lighten the load of others around us, and most of the time it's something very simple that we can do to make their day-----like a Minnie Mouse balloon!

P.S. I promise I didn't pose Abby in the picture, as you can tell she is very pleased with her new balloon!

Goodbye Grandpa Mac

This morning at 11:15 a.m. my Grandpa McKinstry, "Mac" passed away. I got to be there at the hospital when it happened and it actually was a peaceful experience. He had been having health problems for a few months, and had to be moved to an assisted living center then this last Tuesday things started to get more serious. He was checked into the hospital and was in quite a bit of pain, so they got him some medication to be comfortable. My dad and his brothers spoke with Grandpa to see if he wanted to proceed with more extensive measures to help him and he said, "I want to go home" meaning home to heaven. My Dad gave him a wonderful blessing and told him he had been valiant here on earth and had taken good care of his family, and that is was OK to go and be with Grandma (who has been gone for over 10 years) and my Aunt Gaye, his only daughter (who has been gone 4 years).

I am so grateful I was there, and even more grateful for my wonderful Grandpa Mac. He was a simple and hardworking man, that loved and worried about his family. I got to gain a closer relationship with him in the last few years because he had been living with my parents, and I was able to see and talk with him often. We are sad as a family that he's not here anymore, but joyous that he is with loved ones again without any ailment. I am 27 years old and I have lost both of my Grandpas in the last 5 months, but feel fortunate to have had them for as long as I did. I also am looking forward to having my whole family be together again to honor the Grandpa we love!

It's about time.........

When I found out I was having a baby girl I was very excited and happily planned throughout the rest of my pregnancy for my beautiful baby girl, buying her clothes and hair bows, etc. I often wondered throughout my pregnancy what our little girl would look like, would she get my eyes, or have Jake's smile, and would she have dark hair like mine or light hair like Jake's? Well now that we have our precious Abby, all of the dreams I had of my little girl came true, except for in the hair department..........Abby has spent the majority of her life being mostly bald and beautiful! For almost a year she wore the cute big bows and flower headbands, but then she started to yank them off, so I haven't been able to do much with her hair for a few months. I have no idea if it's going to eventually come in thick, but for now we are just happy with what she's got. The sad thing is there are newborns--yes that's right NEWBORNS who are born with more hair than our little one, but things are looking up! For months I have stowed away all of these cute bows and clips wishfully thinking one day I will be able to use them----well that day has arrived people!
Thanks to my mother-in-law Chris, she helped me find teeny tiny curlers that would help make Abby's hair a little thicker so we could put something in it, and then this last week she said, "I think her hair is long enough in the back to do pig tails. Well that is just what I did for church on Sunday, and everyone including Jake and I loved it! Abby wasn't too keen on my twisting and turning the little bits of hair that she does have, she's not used to sitting still for me to do her hair, but she did great! I can't help how excited I am, I know it's so silly, but for months I have politely corrected people when they say, "What a darling little boy" I even got her ears pierced because I was fed up with it, but now, there will be no mistaking our little Abby for a boy because she will have her hair done like a girl.

I had to show you some pictures of her with her curlers in and of her tiny pig tails, Yippee!