Zackie got tubes in his ears...

On Friday Zackie got tubes in his ears. It was so sad to see such a little boy dressed in a hospital gown. I was really hoping they'd let me stay with him until they put him to sleep but they wouldn't let me. :( At least they let him take his best friend bear! (Seriously, that really did make me feel better!)
It was pretty tough when he first woke up after the surgery was over, he just cried and cried because he was so tired from the anesthsia. He was really confused and in lots of pain, it broke my heart! It took awhile to calm him down but after he finally did he was back to his normal happy self within a few hours. Hopefully this will help get rid of all those horrible ear infections he keeps getting!

If only we were all this enthusiastic about doing dishes...

Zack is OBSESSED with doing dishes lately. If he even hears me turn the water on he runs at full speed to the kitchen sink begging to do dishes. This movie is the result of what happens pretty much every time we finish doing the dishes...I'm afraid my kid might be a clean freak? His main obsessions throughout his life have all been with cleaning. It started with brooms, then mops, then the vacuum (for the last 5-6 months), and now we are adding dishes to the list. What's up with this crazy kid!? At least he motivates me to clean my house. :)
I guess I didn't share enough details about the house huh? Everyone wants to know where it is....ready for this? UTAH! I never posted about the fact that we decided to stay in Utah because we decided around Christmas time and it was so chaotic that I wasn't blogging much. So if you are wondering, Trent got a great offer from the company he was working at during school so he decided to keep working there. Now we are excited to move closer to Salt Lake and settle into a house of our own. Yahoo!

We found our dream house!

We haven't signed any paper's yet but we are about 90% positive this is the house we are going to build. I know it doesn't look like anything fancy from the picture but it is EXACTLY what I had in mind. I LOVE the floor plan and since it has just barely started being built we'll be able to choose the upgrades, color's, and appliances we want. It's going to be so perfect. We are VERY excited!

Life....

Well, it's round 2. I had another miscarriage this last week. I didn't do a post that I was prego because I didn't want to have to do another one if I had a miscarriage again. But here I am, posting about it anyway...
The reason I wanted to write about it this time was because in an odd way it was actually a good experience for me. I was so paranoid after the last miscarriage that I had CAUSED it to happen. I had been running 3 miles a few times a week and I'd done a 20 mile hike the week before I found out I was pregnant. I was so worried that I had over done it and caused the miscarriage to happen. After that I got super paranoid and was basically treating my body like glass. I was SO excited when I got prego again and was super careful this time. We did blood work early on just to see how things were going. After my second blood test I got the heads up that things weren't looking as good as they should, I was about 41/2 weeks at that point. They couldn't tell me anything for sure until the ultra sound which couldn't be done until I was 6 1/2 weeks. So I just had to wait and worry. In a way that was a blessing too. I had time to prepare my for anything and I spent a lot of time praying. When I finally went in for the ultra sound I found out I was carrying a "blighted ovum" which basically just means it is a sac with no baby in it. That was pretty emotional to discover but I had Trent with me and I was sort of expecting those results. I also knew I hadn't done anything to cause it so that was a relief as well.
As soon as I heard the news I decided I wasn't going to be an emotional basket case this time. I did pretty well that day because I was so busy that I didn't really have time to think about things. But the next day was REALLY tough. I was super bitter and emotional...just what I didn't want to be.
Luckily we had planned a temple night with Trent's whole family that Friday. We made it just in time before the temple closed. While we were there I just said a little prayer asking for a little help so I could accept things better than I did with my last miscarriage. I definitely got that help. At the end of the night I just had a VERY real impression/feeling that I am being watched out for and and that I'm loved. I realized that things don't always happen in the time frame I want but that's ok, there is a plan for me and I can be happy whatever happens in the future. It was a HUGE blessing because I just felt calm after, and I have since then. I would even have to say I've been calmer than I was before I found out I was prego the second time.
I guess I use my blog too much as a journal...but I like to share my thought and feelings with you guys. I've never really been a very private person, I'm pretty much an open book...if ya never noticed. :) I just think it's cool that something that was so hard and emotional the first go around actually gave me a sense of peace the second go around. It's weird the way life works.P.S. I also have to say...all this crap has made me realize what a miracle it was to have Zackie come to us so easily. I LOVE that kid so much and I'm glad I have him to hug when I'm having a hard day. :)
P.S.S. Katie, the day you brought us those breadsticks for dinnner was the day I found out I was having a miscarriage. You must have been inspired because that meant a TON to me! So thanks :)

THE CRUISE!

We just got back from our Cruise to Mexico and it was AWESOME!!!! Honestly, we did a lot of fun things but the best part was being able to just do whatever we want. We spent a lot of time reading and relaxing and just enjoying not having anywhere we had to be. It was SO nice to be able to sleep in without worrying about switching off who get's up with Zackie. THANK YOU to both Grandma's and Grandpa's for watching Zack while we were gone! We weren't worried about him at all because we knew he was with people that love him just as much as we do. :)

The ship stopped at 2 ports in Mexico, Cabo San Lucas & Ensenada. In Cabo we walked around and did some shopping then took a "glass bottom boat" on a tour around the area and stopped at "lover's beach" and hung out there for awhile. It was lots of fun. In Ensenada we just wandered around the town checking things out. We didn't stay long but still enjoyed seeing the area.

We enjoyed the cruise activities like the fancy dinners, the dancing shows in the evening, and some of the silly activities they host. But mostly we loved just finding a nice spot and reading our books or watching a good movie. Ahhhh, it was so nice to just relax!

I don't want to be too cheesy but I must say, I fell in love with Trent all over again! It reminded how things were right when we first got married and were able to spend almost all our time together without many worries. He is such a wonderful husband, I love him SO much! Thanks Trent for the best Christmas/Anniversary present you could have given me! I love you!

We took this last picture because Zack LOVES giraffes and we were missing him. I don't think I've ever been as excited to come home from a vacation as I was to go. We sure were excited to see our boy again when we got home. :)

"Papa's House"

For the last 2 weeks EVERY time we get in the car Zack says (usually the whole drive) "Papa's house!" I didn't used to be able to tell which grandpa he was thinking about. But now when he talks about "papa's house" he'll also mention his favorite toy from the Grandpa's house he's thinking about. When he wants to go to Grandpa Nelson's house he talks about his "popper", one of those push toys that makes a ton of "popping" noises when you push it, Zack likes to pretend it's a vacuum. At Grandpa Broderick's house Zack talks about "papa's vacuum" (they have a central vacuum that Zack LOVES playing with). Anyone surprised that his favorite toy at both Grandpa's houses is a vacuum? If so you must not know Zack very well. :)
Anyway, just thought I'd post of video of Zack asking to go to "papa's house" just to make his Grandpa's happy. :)
2 days later.....
Somehow this isn't as cute anymore since he screams very loudly anytime we are in the car. When we pull into the driveway to our house he screams "No!!!" You'd think he'd like his home a little more. I guess we better find him a new one. :)

Christmas!

Did you all really think I'd let Christmas go by and not post a million pictures about it? It just took me forever because during the week of Christmas I probably took a couple hundred pictures! Life's been crazy busy so it took awhile to sort through all those! I know you guys don't care enough to want to see EVERY detail of our Christmas vacation so I just chose a few of my favorite pictures and put them in a slide show.

Highlights of our Christmas vacation:

• Spending Christmas Eve at the Nelson home (no house hoping this year!) It was so fun to just sit around and relax with everyone
• Cousin Sue giving Zack a REALLY COOL toy vacuum. That toy definitely made the top 5 (actually it is probably #1) on his cool toy list this year.
  
• Opening presents with the Nelson family Christmas morning. We were all there together, it was so fun!
• The funniest moment of the morning was when Zack opened his new snow boots and wanted to put them on right away. I told him "no you have feetie jammies on, they won't fit" being the smart boy he is he quickly found a solution to the problem, he took off his PJ's and handed me his boots. What a funny kid!
• We went to my Grandma Carlow's for lunch and had lots of fun doing a present exchange there.
  
• Then we went to my parent's house and opened presents with my entire family (minus Richie who is in Iraq). It was really fun but quite overwhelming. Zack didn't take a good nap at all and was pretty tired of opening presents at this point. He spent most of this time sitting in the corner away from the chaos playing with some silly bath letters he got. However we was VERY excited when we opened giraffe he can ride on and another vacuum that grandpa got him. Those toys also made his fav. 5 list! :)
• We spent the week living in my parent's house with 11 people squished inside! Melissa spent the week on the couch and Zack slept in a playpen in my parents bathroom! haha :) Aren't we mean parents!? We just didn't want to miss a moment of fun family time together. :)
  
• My dad got us all a Wii for Christmas so we all spent a lot of time playing Rock Band, Mario Cart, and Dance Dance Revolution. No, I never got good at any of them. :)
• My favorite parts of the week were our late night conversations, hugging my neices and nephews that I miss so much, and just relaxing and being together as a family.
  
• The last major event of the week was Steve and Alana's wedding! I so wish I had better pictures to show off but I just assumed the photographer was getting a lot of good stuff. Now I wish I had taken more with my own camera though. Anyway, their wedding day was AWESOME! It was so special to be there and see them be married. The reception was BEAUTIFUL and I really enjoyed getting to know Alana's family a little better!

Well, that was our Christmas vacation for you. If you read this far down I am officially impressed with you. :)
P.S. Sorry I always write so much. My blog is my family journal, I print it off and keep it in a binder so Zack can read about how he was as a kid. If you ever get bored with what I write you are under no obligation to read it...I'll never check up on you. :)
P.S.S. Zack just woke up from his nap and he's crying for his vacuum. Yes, you read it right. He's not crying for mommy, he's crying for his VACUUM! Can you say obsessed?