Keep Moving Forward: Uncreative Four Month Title

It is significantly harder to find time to actually write my blog out when I have to little munchkins running around. Or. Rolling around rather. But at least I make notes throughout the month so I have some sort of idea of what I need to talk about. Otherwise, I would be in big trouble haha. This month was four and a half weeks all pretty busy so let's see how well I can get it all down.

Week 1:

As I'm sure you remember, I had a big redo of my root canal the previous month. I had to go back to the dentist to get my crown filled properly and smoothed down. Want to know the best part of all this? Like three days after I had my crown filled, I got a call from the dentist telling me it is time for my annual cleaning. HA! I've been in to the dentist FOUR TIMES in six months. Oh geez.
On Friday night, we went to my Aunt Maurie's play, Hello Dolly. Maurie was Dolly. It was a lot of fun. I had never seen the play so I was really interested in the story. I am always interested when one of my family members is a character, but it has been awhile since Maurie has been in as a character, she's been the director for the plays. I was so excited to see her perform again; she is just absolutely incredible. Always full of life on stage and her voice is just incredible. I had a lot of fun. We brought the girls with us and they both did pretty well. Ellie had to eat once, and other than that, she was just kind of chatty. Because she was chatty, she had to be out in the foyer which Scott voulenteered to take her. So Melia and I stayed in the play, on the back row, actively engaged in the show. Melia actually did really well for being up past bedtime. She loved the fact that it was Maurie up on the stage and got excited when she saw her. Melia wanted to make sure that she could see Maurie after the play was over and of course, being her shy self, when Maurie did come out and we found her, Melia would only whisper what she wanted to tell Maurie right into my ear. Melia is so funny.

This weekend was a very emotional and spiritual one. On Saturday, we spent our morning at a funeral. Our friend Spencer was engaged to be married in August and his finacee died unexpectedly three weeks before their wedding. They discovered that she had a blood clot in her lungs. Collapsed outside her door, found by her roommate 8 minutes after her last text, passed away a quick 32 minutes after her last text message en route to the hospital despite efforts of EMS. Her funeral was this Saturday. It was an incredible funeral, we had never met Cassie but I feel like we got to know her through her family members and Spencer this weekend. Everyone talked about how much she loved God and how she dedicated her time to serving others. Spencer spoke about how she constantly put him first and how she was always looking for ways to help him and make him happy. Spencer also broke everyones heart's as he talked about how he and Cassie promised to exchange vows after they were sealed. He read Cassie his vows and it was so touching, emotional, spiritual, heartwrenching. Scott and I just sat there, crying together. Cassie led a beautiful life and was loved by everyone who knew her. She was obviously needed on the other side to help God with something. She loved Him and He knew He needed her kindness for something. Spencer also spoke on the Plan of Salvation. He said, "It's called the Plan of Happiness for a reason, and I believe that." Spencer went on to talk about how Cassie always brought happiness, even in other trials.

Immediately after the funeral, Scott and I went home to pick up our girlies and drive down to Cedar City to spend the night with our friends Daniel and Camille Forbes. They were blessing their son, Gabriel, Sunday afternoon. We thought it would be easier on us to go down the night before rather than spend six hours in the car all in one day with the girls. Probably a good choice. We stopped four times on our way down to Cedar. It's a three hour drive. Four stops. It made the ride down longer than we had expected, but we made it. Only to realize we needed to go to the store after
dinner so we missed our time to hang out with Daniel and Camille haha. But the blessing was a lot of fun. It was really neat to be there. Daniel and I have been friends for 13 years, almost 14 years. All through those years, I consider him to be a brother and so being able to see him bless Gabe was a really special thing. Gabe is adorable as can be; obviously he and Ellie are lined to get married. Daniel and I made the plans already; we will go camping at least once each year and plan other activities four other times a year. That's at least five gatherings a year where they just get to see each other and play and eventually fall in love with each other. Done deal.

On a more serious note. The blessing was really good. The chapel really only had family and a few of the members there for the summer so it was pretty personal. Daniel did a really good job and later in the meeting, he got back up and bore his testimony. Daniel also spoke on the Plan of Salvation and said exactly what Spencer did, "It's called the Plan of Happiness for a reason." so it really had me thinking about the Plan of Salvation. Both Spencer and Daniel said, "It's called the Plan of Happiness for a reason." and went on to elaborate that. God will give us challenges and trials. Some may seem impossible, while other we may not recognize at trials until we're nearing the end. But no matter the difficulty, these challenges and trials help us grow and learn happiness through God and His hand.

Week 2:

This week was just packed full of activities. It was a very active week.

On Monday, we went to a work party for Scott's office. It was pretty low-key, honestly, but it was still fun. It was at a park by his building and there was a playground there that was perfect for Melia. She had a ton of fun at the park and honestly wanted to play more than she wanted to eat. We of course let her play, but not to her heart's content. Melia played before the dinner was served, during dinner and after we had finished, but she still had hardly touched her food, so we made her eat.

On Thursday of this week, the girls and I had a play date with my friend Avonlea. Avonlea is someone I knew growing up in my ward in Alpine. She is one of the nicest people I know; always willing to help and serve others. We met at the park just up the street and Avonlea and I just talked while Melia played at the park. Ellie was pretty happy while we were there too, content to lay on the grass and she is a little flirt with anyone who will talk to her, so that was really fun to watch her smile and coo at Avonlea. We were at the park for a few hours, and it was a lot of fun; the weather was perfect. Just warm enough for shorts, but not hot enough to feel like we were dying.

The next day, Friday, Scott and I went to Kelsie and Corbin's after Scott got off work for a big play date. Heater Virgo came to town from California and I wanted to see her. Kelise hosted as Heather, myself and Scott and Deanna Anderson and her son came to join as well. Our toddlers are all really pretty close in age, Melia is the oldest by a year. The kids all played while Kelsie, Heather, Deanna and I all chatted for a couple hours. It was a lot of fun to see Heather and Deanna; I see Kelsie every once in awhile, but I hardly ever see Deanna and Heather.

Saturday morning, really early morning, my parents went out of town for the better part of two weeks. Scott, the girls and I spent the day at the park for Alpine Days. Oh was that just so much fun. Melia could not get enough of the bounce houses and the swings. She had so much fun the whole day. We spent several hours in the morning at the park and by 3:00pm, Scott and I were both so exhausted we had to basically pry Melia from the park with the promise that at the very least I would take her back if we could just go home to get some water and rest for a little bit. Melia did have a hard time leaving, but did go pretty cheerfully. We had hoped she would take a nap when we got home, but she didn't. I rebounded pretty quickly and the four of us headed back to the park. All

Melia really wanted to do was swing some more. The swings were really pretty cool, it was a set someone made with a few big industrial fans connected on the top of the bars that held the swings and the fans pushed the kids around in a circle. Melia totally loved it; it was the greatest thing to watch. Just pure joy on her face as she giggled away on the swings and asked over and over to do it again.
Saturday night Melia didn't sleep well at all and woke up sick. Poor girl. She gets sick often and I just don't know what to do about it. It seemed to be your normal cold, she was stuffy nosed, tired. But we will get more into that later. Because she was sick, I stayed home with the girls while Scott went to church.

Week 3:

Monday night we went to pick up Uncles Dal Dal and Matty from the airport. They flew in from Georgia for school. Melia was SO excited to see them. She wanted to make a sign for them, so we did. She wanted to wait for them at the bottom of the stairs, so we did. She just talked their ears off all night long. We went to Cafe Rio for dinner after we picked them up since everyone loves Cafe Rio. Melia kept talking a mile a minute and it was a lot of fun to watch her. After we finished and got back in the car (still in Salt Lake) to head home, Melia wanted to hold both Dallin and Matt's hands on the ride home. She continued to talk away and at one point both Uncles had fallen asleep. Melia had to be convinced to go to sleep because Dallin and Matt were asleep; she

was just so excited to have her Uncle's back.

On Wednesday of this week, we had to take Melia to the doctor. Not for her cold, but she seems to have some sensitive skin that we can't figure out how to treat. As we were packing Ellie up to go home for dinner, then head up to Salt Lake for a soccer game, Ellie's carseat broke. The buckle that straps across her chest just snapped. So. That was exciting. Scott and I brainstormed what we could do. Do we have one of us carry Ellie to the store across the street and buy a new carseat? Do we find someone to pick us up with a different carseat? Super glue. Let's see if the office has super glue to at least get her home or to a friend to borrow a seat. The office had super glue. I glued the piece back together, pretty aggressively, and prayed a million and five prayers as we drove to my cousin's house to borrow her carseat. Scott was able to call the manufacturer and they sent us a replacement piece. So. Fun. That was totally fun. I cried a little bit because I was so stressed. But it was solved and we all survived. We picked up a carseat from my cousin, hung out while I fed Ellie, we then went to dinner and headed to Rio Tinto Stadium for, essentially the JV team to Real Salt Lake, the Monarchs. It was a lot of fun. Oh how I love watching soccer. It is so much fun. It makes me want to find a team to play again. Melia had a lot of fun watching, and was really good the whole time, despite being out past bedtime.

Friday, Dal and Matt came over to spend the night. It was a good night for them to come because Ellie decided to roll all the way from her tummy to her back this night. As well as sleep for 10 HOURS STRAIGHT! For real. It was fantastic. It is so funny to me how completely different Melia and Ellie are. Melia didn't sleep through the night until she was almost two, seriously. We battled so hard at bedtime and she would wake up at least once. It amazed me because she would get little sleep and still be relatively cheerful during the day. Ellie sleeps really well. I do wish she would nap better, but I can still get her to nap. Melia forced herself out of taking two daily naps by the time she was one and we stopped making her nap at all shortly after she turned two. She would just get so grumpy after her nap for the rest of the night and then we would STILL FIGHT at bedtime. So Scott figured if we take the nap out of the equation, period, then she will just be exhausted and go to sleep on time. And she does and we are all happier. There are definitely days where we still tell her to take a nap, if she's sick, we have plans to be out past bedtime, etc, etc. But our lives are happier without a nap for Melia. Ellie definitely needs to nap still and I am still working on finding the right time for her to nap, but hopefully that will come sooner than later.

Week 4:

This week I had something pretty much every day. It was really busy. High school started again, and with that, my schedule got filled up pretty quickly with meetings and practices. Monday, there was a meeting at the school with just the swimmers during the usual class time/swim time about how practice was going to work and all that. Pretty basic meeting, but it still took time. It was fun, though, beacuse I brought the girls with me to the meeting. Melia was really good, just watched some shows on the iPad and hung out, snacked on goldfish crackers and talked to me about how the kids were being too loud haha. Melia is the best. Ellie slept the whole time, so that was nice.

Wednesday afternoon was our first swim practice with the team. It was hectic, but good. There were a TON of kids there, it was so crazy trying to get everyone through the water without worrying about someone drowning, simply because there were 15 other kids in their lane. Crazy, right? It was insane. But we survived!!

The next day I went back to the pool to go swimming for myself with my friend Kim. Kim swam longer than me competitively, but we both just had a baby so we were better paced than I thought. I was worried that I was going to get in with her and just die haha. Well, I am definitely out of swimming shape, but I didn't die. I had a lot of fun swimming with Kim. We talked about our girls, we talked about the high school swim kids, we made plans to swim once a week. I'm excited about it. I love swimming and I have missed it. I want to get back into swimming shape. Who knows if I will be able to get my times back, but my endurance I would be more than happy to have back.

Friday night, we set up our tent in the back yard and went camping with the girls! It was a lot of fun until we needed to put Melia to bed. Then it was not good. She fought, and fought and fought. Two hours. It was so stressful. She was so exhausted but was just so excited about being out camping that she didn't want to miss out on camping. Silly girl. But she finally went to sleep and Scott and I watched a movie in the tent. Ellie had already been asleep for awhile and she slept really well. I actually don't remember if she woke up during the night.

Ellie with Oma Karla (my dad's mom)

In the morning, I kind of decided last minute that I was going to the temple with a good part of my dad's side of the family to get Barby's endowment's done. That was really cool. My Aunt Barby is the oldest sibling on my dad's side. She was born handicapped and was told she wouldn't live a long life. She made it to 65, so I would say that was a pretty long life. Barby was always happy, so excited to see you whenever you came to visit her. She loved babies, dolphins, Disney movies and above all, her family. She couldn't speak much at all, but she knew how to communicate. She was so enthusiastic about everything and loved people. It was really something to be able to go to the temple and know that Barby's work was being done.

Week 5:

As I was taking notes about this last week, Scott was sitting next to me and I asked what happened. I mentioned that I woke up sick on Tuesday and Scott said, "Well, Yup. That pretty much sums up the week." So there you have it, folks, I have been sick all week. I will put blame on my tardniess on not feeling well. But seriously, Tuesday morning I woke up, totally miserable. I felt like I was dying. I was upstairs on the floor, moaning and groaning. Scott ended up coming home at 12:00 and I basically slept from 1:00 to 5:00. I woke up once for a short time to be sick, then I fell back asleep almost immediately for three more hours. I didn't eat anything until after 7:00pm and we still went to bed at like 10:00pm that night. Scott went back to work the next day and I felt really, okayish. By the end of the day, I actually had an appetite and was able to eat some food. Thursday, I biked to and from work. That was not my best idea. I was super dizzy when I got home, had the start of a headache. There was a coaches meeting that night as well, so I went to that. It was much longer than I had thought it was going to be, I didn't end up staying the entire time because I just very suddenly started feeling sick again. So I went home, hung out for a think a half an hour and then went to bed.

Friday was Ellie's 4 month birthday. Four months! That's incredible to me. She is growing so quickly and she's always just so happy. When it came time to take Ellie to her appointment, Melia came with me. I was a little nervous about how it would go because Melia hadn't gone with me to one of Ellie's check-ups yet and she is very protective of Ellie. I was worried that when Ellie got her shots and started crying, that Melia would get mad that the nurse had hurt Ellie. But Melia did really well and so did Ellie. Ellie cried for maybe a minute and then calmed right now. Melia just kind of looked at me like, "What am I supposed to do? How do I help her?" Ellie is growing like a weed. She is 15 pounds 5 ounces (72%), 26 inches (96%) and 42.1 head circumference (87%). She is in 6 month clothing, some clothing even up to 12 months just because her body is so long that it's all that will cover her torso. She is talking away and loves to smile. Ellie loves Melia and laughs when she watches Melia play. Melia LOVES making Ellie laugh and she does everything to try and get a laugh out of her. I love watching the two of them play together. It makes me excited to see the months and years to come. And I know I really say that at the end of every month, but it just keeps getting rekindled because they just love each other SO MUCH! I will gladly Keep Moving Forward watching these girls grow and love together.