month at a glance.........

I love, love, love my family! I am so blessed to have such an awesome family, my husband, my kids, and those awesome little granddaughters!!! BLESSED!

The day after our New York trip I went and picked up the girls. Erin and Jon took a trip to Ireland, and London, so we watched the girls for the bulk of the time 9 days! It was an adventure!!! We also had our 1 year follow up with our surgeon we had to take the girls. We just said Grandma and Papa have to go to the doctor, we didn't say why. when we started to be weighed Issy said, "I remember when you were bigger, bigger, bigger." I thought that was very interesting:-) Our Doc was thrilled with us I was down 101, and Mike was down 150! It has been a very good year!

 I fed them naughty things like Mc Donalds:-)

 This is Elizabeth's favorite toy. Her raccoon Bandit, the kids actually have 3 of them because they lost him once, and that was not good!

 We had lot's of fun with the girls, they just made me happy. I loved being with them every day. Issy would say the most hilarious stuff I should have written it down because now I don't remember most of it. One thing she said that cracked me up was.... I had her sitting on my lap after her bath and I was fixing her hair. She said, "Grandma you have splinters on your legs and they hurt my bum!" I cracked up. One night Steven was telling her it was time to go to bed. She said she wanted to stay up. Steven said, "but we are all going to bed and you would be up all alone." She put her hands on her hips and said "I can handle it, I was born and I can handle it." We were laughing at that one. Mike got caught up in Dora the Explorer, he said the girls had been there much to long:-)  One day Issy was watching Little Einsteins or something like that. They ask, "can you help me find my friends?" Mike said, "no." Issy said, "Yes Papa, your in big trouble!" Mike got in big trouble a lot that week!  Erin sent Pictures of a tower in Ireland that had been built around the year1100. It was called Isolde's Tower. So I showed the picture to Isolde and told her this tower (it was mostly ruble by now) was named Isolde's Tower. She said "Oh thanks grandma!' I loved getting credit for something done around 1,000 years ago!

 Elizabeth was cuter than cute. She had started walking all of the time while she was with us, she just toddled all over the house and what a doll she was doing it! 

 It made us all so happy to watch her get around so well. I think her physical therapy has really paid off!

 Issy was so cute she was posing for me in this shot.

 Issy likes to get the camera and take pictures. This is a picture she took of me.

 Uncle Steven wasn't home very much between school and work, but the girls made good time of it when he was!

 Elisabeth gives out the kisses freely, but most of the time she keeps the binky in her mouth!

 This is a picture of my mother spider. I had hundreds of spider all over my walls. Actually Issy ask me when I was bring her home that first day, "grandma is your house still spooky?" I assured her it was, that made her happy. It was a great 9 days with the girls, but I was so tired when they left. I'm not young any more!

 Friday Jon's work had a cute little trick or treat party for the kids. Erin had come down with a very horrible stomach flu and so Grandma got to take them. They were having a great time.

 The kids brought the girls these cool capes from London, and my sweet little Elizabeth looked like a little queen  walking around in her royal cape. 

 Issy is always a darling "Princess" Tinker Bell!

Mike and I had a little fun for Halloween our selves. We dressed up and went to a party. We hadn't had good costumes for years, just black cloaks. But this year we dressed up Mike was all handsome as a King, and I was a gypsy. It was fun!

 Mike told somebody in this picture, that I wouldn't let him have a cookie, so he had to take action!:-)

                                   Nathan picked a super scary mask for Halloween. Elizabeth was not thrilled with his choice. As soon as I was done taking pictures she dove into my arms. Then when he took off the mask she gave him kisses, minus the binky! How did he get so lucky?

My Mother and Father had very bad news that week. My mom had had a part of her foot amputated in May. It wasn't done correctly and it wasn't healing. They took her for treatments every day for around 8 weeks, and after all that work it didn't heal. The surgeon told her she had a bone infection and if she didn't have part of her leg cut off it would get in her blood and be very bad. So on Halloween weekend she had the bottom part of her leg amputated. She is doing well, and I have been saying constant prayers for her and dad.



I went with Erin and the girls Friday to do a little fun shopping. Issy loves the movie "How to Train Your Dragon" and her favorite dragon is Toothless. So I found these marshmallows that were Toothless and gave them to the girls. Cute huh?

 They were pretty chewy and hard to eat. Issy gave up, but I helped Elizabeth by ripping off bites. she enjoyed it. But she was magic, when her daddy went to change her diaper the next day he panicked because it was a pretty shade of blue! hahaha They were scared at first but them Erin remembered about that marshmallow. It cracked me up! Sorry for the potty humor but I thought it was funny!

New York......

Mike took me to New York last week. It was such a great trip! We had a great bike ride came home showered up and headed to the airport. We got to NYC late that night. I was up bright and early the next day looking for adventure. Actually I had a friend that was going to be in the city that day. I got a map and headed off to find her. She was at the Regis and Kelly show, with a friend. I found my way up to the ABC studios where they record. It is right by the temple. That was way cool. When I got to the door the funniest thing happened. A lady from my old ward in Mesa came walking out of the show. It was just funny to run into somebody I knew so randomly!

I met up with my friend we had an amazing lunch in a very nice restaurant. In a place they film a TV show that I don't watch:-) I felt bad because I hadn't dressed nice,  I was in jeans and t-shirt (We were just going to meet for "coffee" but decided to do lunch)because I was going to walk all over NY.

I had such a great time with these ladies.

 Then they headed home and I headed out to explore. I went to Central Park and ran across these dog walkers. The dogs were all very nice and there were a few breeds of dogs I had never seen before.

 We stayed in the garment district. It was so great there were so many different stores, I couldn't take them all in!

 We laughed about the size of our room with the other guys who were there with Mike. But the truth is we weren't in the room very much and when we were it was very cozy!

 We went out on the subway for dinner in Soho. The places that we went on the subway were safe, and the people were nice.

 I love all of the little crazy restaurants in the city. This was a  macaroni bar, you could have mac and cheese with anything you could imagine
                                              I hit a big lego store, this was the monthly lego display.

 I went to FAO Shwartz it was humongous and I spent a couple of hours looking around at all of the fun stuff.

 I love the muppets, and they had a muppet section. You could design your own muppet!

 I had an amazing lunch, white spinach pizza! I of course could only eat half of it. But it was so good. Then I had a guy come and sit with me, it's sort of family style seating there. He looked back at a table full of girls. I told him he should have sat there. He looked at me smiled and said, I am very happy to be sitting here with you. So I figured he was gay or not into 20 something girls:-)

 As I walked around our hotel I found all these cool shops way to many to take pictures of but fun to visit! This is a wall of zippers.

 This was one of many stores of trims, buttons, zippers, appliques, and all kinds of things.

 Spandex World, there was also a Spandex House, and a silk house.

 This is a window display of one of the shops, the owner was one of those close talkers, he really invaded my personal space!:-)

 Polyester House that one made me snicker because I pictured leisure suits in the 70's!

 This was a rhinestone display, there was also a shop of all sizes of tassels, huge fabric stores that said 20 swatch limit a day after that .25 a piece. This district was swarming with fashion students. I fit right in with all those young kids!hahaha They also had a little book store full of  books about the clothing styles of the different centuries, biographies, designs, plays, and all of the artist stuff you could imagine. It was so full of people it was amazing. 
   
 Mike took me to a super fun place for dinner. He had been there before. The wait stuff are all wanna be Broadway stars so they sing and entertain you while you eat.

 This isn't a great picture of Mike but the food was sooooo good there. It was a fun night.

 On our walk back to the hotel we stopped in the middle of Time Square and got a picture of ourselves on this huge billboard. We are  kind of down on the right hand side. It was a rainy night which made it very pretty with all of the bright lights of Broadway reflecting on the streets. We were up at 3:15 AM to meet our car at 4:00 to get to the airport. We rode home in first class, but I slept most of the way, so I didn't enjoy it to it's fullest capacity!

 It it was a great trip, I really enjoy Mikes company. I loved that I ran into the Manhattan Temple, while I was just walking around. Life is good! 

My 1 year anniversary!

I was very happy and enjoying life. I was very healthy, no problems at all. I have an amazing husband, and great children, and the most awesome grandbabies. I had friends, I did fun things, and went to fun places. I ate anything I wanted and didn't feel guilty. Life was good. But 5 years ago I was reading the obituaries and noticed a "greatest papa in the world" obituary. Then it hit me clear as anything that Mike and I would pass in our 50's. But I have seen many people who watch their weight and are miserable. It dictates their entire lives, moods, and enjoyment. I didn't want any part of that misery. I enjoyed my food, loved to cook, and enjoyed finding new and exciting foods. So I felt like, if I had to be as miserable as the other people it wasn't worth loosing the weight, it just seemed like a sad, yucky life style. Then last year my knees started hurting, and I got high blood pressure. I knew it was time to do something.  So I looked into surgical help.  Mike went along for the ride. Months, appointments, evaluations, and ton's of paperwork later I had my surgery. It has been one of the best things I have ever done.  I do have to say that I feel like Heavenly Father really lead me to do this, because I would never ever consider it in the past! Here I was 1 month before the surgery.

 This was the day of my surgery. It's funny because I have had so many feeling and emotions the week leading up to my surgery anniversary.  It was quite a wild ride for me. I had a very difficult time at first, but now I see it was a big blessing in my life.

This was 2 or 3 weeks after our surgery.

                                            This was about 2 months after out surgery.

                                                               this was 6 months later.

                                                            This is 9 months later.

                                                         This is me a year later.

I have learned a lot, been through a lot, and I am even more happy than I was before. I was prepared to have to take care of and baby Mike. But Mike did amazing, he had no problems what so ever. But he kicked in and took such good care of me. He was loving and protective of me. Also I do live in a house full of guys. My boys stepped up and took excellent care of me. They would sit with me and watch over me, bring me anything I needed or wanted, and would give me lot's of affection. They would tell me how great I looked and be supportive. I've always been very close to my kids, they are all compassionate, and loving kids. Kids that their Mother and Father can be proud of. Erin was always willing to drop everything and run down to help me, or bring the babies over to cheer me up. It was a good thing for me and my family. Despite all of my sickness and hospital stays I came out of it a better person. I only struggled for 2 months, 2 long months! But when I got better I had a whole new outlook at life. I had experienced people being kind and loving. Total strangers concerned and kind to me. Ward members who were so supportive and encouraging. I felt like Scrooge on Christmas morning when my problems cleared up. I loved life and everybody in it.

I have been able to exercise, I started riding my bike in June and I have ridden 1,100 this year. That was awesome for me. I have had to learn to accept a compliment. That was surprisingly hard for me. I have had people pay attention to me now. Where before if I was out shopping or something. I was just kind of invisible. I had never noticed people staring at me, like some obese people experience. I have learned how to change some behaviors, and I still cook I just give a lot of stuff away. I can still eat yummy foods but not so often or so much. I exercise to be able to do that:-) And just before my midlife crises might have happened, I find myself married to a new man! I have never known Mike to be as thin as he is now. He had a little Dr. Pepper belly on him when we met:-)

Life is so good, and very happy, and I learned how loved I am this past year!

Happy Anniversary to me! 

My Babies......

First off a cute Issy story. You need to understand that Issy can't pronounce her "L's" she pronounces them "y", I yike that, I yove you. It's way cute. Erin called me, and as soon as I answered, Issy started crying. She had fallen in her chair somehow. Erin ask her "Princess what happened?" Issy said crying,
"I hurt my yittle ear!" She is to cute sometimes! In the picture below she is covering her mouth up because she tasted something she didn't like. Her dad was cutting up green onion. She went up and ask him if she could have a bite. He said, "sure but I don't think you will like it." It went into her mouth she chewed once and it came right back out. Then she had her mouth covered up. I said, why are you covering your mouth. She said, because I tasted that! And pointed to the onion. She doesn't have grandmas love of onions yet:-)

On to sweet little Elizabeth. She is a very special little baby, unique in her personality, very loving and snugly, and always excited to see me!
She even cries for me when I walk away. But since she was born she would never stand up. I would try to get her to stand in my lap or on the floor, she would work out her little ab muscles and hold her legs straight out like she was sitting. She didn't start crawling until she was 13 months old. I think she was just not in a hurry to grow up. But finally the doctor was concerned that she wasn't walking. So they set her up with a therapist. I was there when he came to evaluate her. He played lot's of little games with her to see if she would follow what he did, stacking blocks, putting pieces in a puzzle, pulling a string to get to the toy at the other end. He said over and over how smart she was. He said, some baby's just have a sensory thing and don't want to put pressure on their feet. It seemed like she fit right in to that explanation. She also doesn't say enough words for a baby her age.  He said, when she started walking, it would open up her vocabulary
immensely. She is receiving therapy twice a month to learn how to walk. She walks a little but, she is scared and overly cautious. On top of that she is tiny, she is in the 5th percentile in her size. So she seems to little to worry about the things she's not doing yet! It has been fun to watch her progress.


                       Elizabeth not liking the sticky grass!

Elizabeth giving little sweet sugars to her papa!

It's so hard to be a princess sometimes!

Big sister is helping:-)

                                              Walking

     

                   Grandma dropping in one morning for loves!