JANUARY
The day we left for our Las Vegas vacation, Fernando and Kristin were having a "gender party". What they did was when they went to the doctor to find out what they were having they had the doctor put the result in an envelope, then took that envelope to a baker and had the baker make a cake with either blue or pink icing in the middle. Then they waited until the party to find out what the baby would be. I think that would have been so hard, but thought it was so thoughtful for them to share with us. It was so much fun, they had pink and blue punch when we got there and we had to fill our drinks with the color we thought the baby would end up being.
Because Kristin and Fernando felt it was a boy, I did too. Well most of us were wrong because it's a girl. Thank you so much for sharing that moment with us.
Also in January I had decided to start school. What was I thinking? I figured this time was better than none, I decided to only take six credits a semester since at that time I was working full time.
MARCH
This was a very emotional month for us. To start off, the 18th was the anniversary of losing our little Hannah. But a week before that date, we received a call from Dave's family. They let us know that his mom had taken a turn for the worse. She was diagnosed with cancer in December of 2010, but doctors felt she had a fighting chance. So we were surprised to know she was not doing well. After talking to her and praying about it, we decided to make the trip to Minnesota to see her. Thanks to my bosses at the time, and Vanessa I was able to take a whole week off of work with last minute notice. Dave, Ash, and I rented a car and drove to Minnesota. Once we arrived I was so glad we did. I was glad Dave was able to see his mom, and I know I would have regretted if we didn't.
We got a call early morning on the 18th from Dave's brother letting us know that Judy had passed. My first reaction was really? Why did she have to pass the same day we lost Hannah? It was very emotional. Later that day I received a text from Mandy. She let me know she was sorry we lost Judy, but said how lucky Hannah was to have her grandma with her today. Thank you Mandy for helping me see it that way. Leave it to me to feel sorry for myself.
After a couple days visiting Dave's family and helping make funeral arrangements we were on our way back to Utah.
Now you would think that was it for March, but no. Before we had left for Minnesota I had a feeling that I might be pregnant. I had tried to keep it from Dave because I didn't want to get his hopes up. I told him that when we returned to Utah I would take a pregnancy test. Well the day came and I did not want to. I was scared. I had decided to start school in January because I was sure that I was not going to get pregnant. We had tried for five years after losing Hannah. I was 33 and would be 34 years old when this baby came. I just felt that after trying for so long I had accepted that no babies were in the future for me. Well I was wrong after three days of Dave begging me to take the test. I really didn't want to and just kept telling Dave no. So he finally went to Mandy and told her I had to tell her something. She came right to me and wanted to know what had been on my mind. I let her know and of course we took the test right away and it was positive. What a blessing.
MAY
On the 5th day of May we welcomed my new and beautiful baby niece Penelope Ranae. She was three weeks early and couldn't be more perfect. We were all so excited for our brother to finally be a dad. Kristin was amazing through everything. We are so happy to have her in our family.
Then that same month Vanessa and I got some bad news. The company that we had worked for for almost 5 years had been bought out by a company up north. They offered to let us keep our jobs, we would just need to move with it. I of course was not able to, so by the end of the month I was unemployed.
JULY
We all got together for the 4th of July. It was kinda of cloudy, but it made playing water games outside fun. We didn't get pictures, but EVERYONE got in a huge water fight outside. Ashley got all the girls decked out in their cute red, white and blue attire.
AUGUST
Two exciting things happened this month. Ms. Allie had her 1st birthday, and Ms. Lindsay was baptized. It was so fun to get together with the family for two days. Since Allie's birthday was the day after Lindsay's baptism.
SEPTEMBER
Jacob has joined karate, and had his first tournament. He came in first and he had so many people there cheering him on.
OCTOBER
The first of October was my baby shower! Ashley, Mandy, Paola, and Kristin did such a good job. I loved everything about it. I also loved to see my friends and family that I hadn't seen in a while. The same day that I had my shower, my family surprised me by going in together and buying me a new crib for Brooklyn's room. My brothers had set it up and put it together in her room, while we were at the baby shower. When I got home everyone was upstairs and surprised me. Everyone was squeezed together in her little room. I was so happy to have Aunt Kathy and Vanessa there too. Thank you Vanessa for taking the pictures at my shower.
My reaction when they surprised me with the crib. I cried of course!
Then just a few days later, on October 6th we got bad news. Our grandpa Eric had passed away. This was such a shock to us. We had known that his health was not the best, but didn't think he was going to leave us.
Grandpa was such an amazing guy. Growing up with a single mother, we didn't have a huge male influence in our lives, and he was one for us. He was such a giving person, and taught my brothers a lot. Thank you for being there for us Grandpa. We will miss you so much. We were able to have a beautiful memorial for him, to honor his life. It was so nice to see family from that side of the family, and get together to remember all the amazing memories with Grandpa.
And finally we have Halloween of course. Ashley always seems to come up with a clever way to carve her pumpkin. This year she did Harry Potter with lighting bolt scar and all.
All the kids were so cute with their costumes. As you can see we had 3 nerds, 2 transformers, 2 ninjas, and a Utes cheerleader to start off the night.
We were later joined by Fernando and his cute family. Can you guess what he was dressed up as? Well if you look closely to his name tag it says Mr. Brill. Mandy, Paola and I could not stop laughing. It was perfect.
Ash and I decided to join all the kids in trick or treating. Now by this time I was only a week away from having my scheduled C-section, but was so ready to be done with being pregnant. Paola kept telling me that if I walked it could cause me to go in labor. I didn't go into labor that night but I think it definitely kicked started everything, because I ended up having Brooklyn on November 2nd. I will post her birth story as well.
I am just going to end with some random pictures of my crazy family!
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