In the recent hours of the difficult news (described in the post below) Connor drew this picture...
This picture depicts Melanie and says it all about how we're all feeling right now...
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
An unexpected turn of events...
What began as a routine check up turned out to radically shift our plans in ways we have only begun to imagine.
Melanie went into the hospital early morning of 12/29 (with 101 days before her due date) and will be confined to the hospital until she delivers Amelia and Abigail. Particularly challenging is the fact that due to more stringent CDC guidelines to hospitals (re the swine flu scare). Connor is not allowed into the part of the hospital where Melanie is. It's entirely forseeable that they'll not physically see each other for over two months. The last forteen hours have been hard. It goes without saying that it'll be a challenge.
This comes at an interesting time as many of Ammon's side of the family came down from Utah (arriving 12/28) so there's been a lot of family support and company right now. However, everyone will be leaving by the weekend, Ammon goes back to taking full-time classes and Connor's break is over on the fourth of January. It's unclear at this time how Connor will be cared for following school as Ammon currenly works all through the afternoons and evenings Tuesday through Saturday. It's purely speculative as to whether or not he'll be able to change his schedule to better meet these needs.
As we swirl through the burdens we're grateful for our convictions of safety and peace in the truth. Ammon and his father gave Melanie a blessing a few hours ago and all through the ache there is the surety of testimony than none of these events have somehow fallen out of the grand design of our Heavenly Father's plan for us. The trust that this is very lovingly deliberate comforts our souls!
We know that many of you all have had similar experiences. Please feel free to offer any advice you think would be helpful... Melanie has her phone on her and Ammon will be checking her email periodically. Feel free to call Ammon's cell or email him directly also (869-5531, ammonmelanie@yahoo.com).
I don't know when we'll be back to blogging...
Melanie went into the hospital early morning of 12/29 (with 101 days before her due date) and will be confined to the hospital until she delivers Amelia and Abigail. Particularly challenging is the fact that due to more stringent CDC guidelines to hospitals (re the swine flu scare). Connor is not allowed into the part of the hospital where Melanie is. It's entirely forseeable that they'll not physically see each other for over two months. The last forteen hours have been hard. It goes without saying that it'll be a challenge.
This comes at an interesting time as many of Ammon's side of the family came down from Utah (arriving 12/28) so there's been a lot of family support and company right now. However, everyone will be leaving by the weekend, Ammon goes back to taking full-time classes and Connor's break is over on the fourth of January. It's unclear at this time how Connor will be cared for following school as Ammon currenly works all through the afternoons and evenings Tuesday through Saturday. It's purely speculative as to whether or not he'll be able to change his schedule to better meet these needs.
As we swirl through the burdens we're grateful for our convictions of safety and peace in the truth. Ammon and his father gave Melanie a blessing a few hours ago and all through the ache there is the surety of testimony than none of these events have somehow fallen out of the grand design of our Heavenly Father's plan for us. The trust that this is very lovingly deliberate comforts our souls!
We know that many of you all have had similar experiences. Please feel free to offer any advice you think would be helpful... Melanie has her phone on her and Ammon will be checking her email periodically. Feel free to call Ammon's cell or email him directly also (869-5531, ammonmelanie@yahoo.com).
I don't know when we'll be back to blogging...
Saturday, December 12, 2009
It's an emergency!
That's what Connor said earlier this week. We had just come home from a "Christmas Hunt" (where we drive around looking at the Christmas lights), parked the car in the garage and sent Connor up to his room to get his jammies on. Not two minutes later, he came running down the stairs yelling "mom, dad, it's an EMERGENCY!" Ammon asked what happened and he said "the tree fell down" and proceeded to open the front door to show him. Ammon followed thinking it was only a few branches that had fallen off but no, he was right- our front tree had blown down, roots and all!! (Connor was able to see it fall from his bedroom window. He thought it was cool and even asked us to "do it again!")
The weather was very windy and later that night, we received a lot of rain. We knew the tree was dead. In fact, almost weekly, we have had landscapers come by and offer to take the tree down- for a few hundred dollars. "No thanks" we'd always say. We knew it needed to come down at some point but we never imagined it was weak enough to be blown over. It had some obvious termite damage and so we figure that's what finally killed the thing and all it needed was a strong wind to wrench it out of the ground. That's exactly what happened; we're just lucky it didn't fall on the house! It did, however, fall into the road. So, Ammon and I, and later a friend, spent a few hours hauling the branches out of the road, driveway and sidewalk.
The canopy of the tree amazingly covered almost both lanes of traffic in front of our house! Here's Ammon standing in the road showing how far out the tree fell.
Surveying the house, minus the tree. He's standing where the tree had fallen out into the road.
Check out the enormous grub we found in the roots of the tree! (the green-white thing coming out of the bottom left of the picture)
Here is all of the canopy that we drug into our backyard. Ammon's been cutting it up all week for firewood. The saw-z-all we received as a Christmas gift last year from my family has been so great for this! Thanks again for the perfect gift for us do-it-yourselfers.
Cutting up the huge trunk with a chain saw.
Ammon was actually a bit excited that the tree fell for him rather than having to cut it down. The kid loves to make fires in our fireplace and scavenges all year round trying to collect fire for the upcoming cooler months- he'll help anyone take down a tree and even searches Craig's List for postings of "free wood", which usually means 'come cut my tree down and keep the wood' but he loves it! He says he loves the physical labor, which is a nice break from his job.
The weather was very windy and later that night, we received a lot of rain. We knew the tree was dead. In fact, almost weekly, we have had landscapers come by and offer to take the tree down- for a few hundred dollars. "No thanks" we'd always say. We knew it needed to come down at some point but we never imagined it was weak enough to be blown over. It had some obvious termite damage and so we figure that's what finally killed the thing and all it needed was a strong wind to wrench it out of the ground. That's exactly what happened; we're just lucky it didn't fall on the house! It did, however, fall into the road. So, Ammon and I, and later a friend, spent a few hours hauling the branches out of the road, driveway and sidewalk.
The canopy of the tree amazingly covered almost both lanes of traffic in front of our house! Here's Ammon standing in the road showing how far out the tree fell.
Surveying the house, minus the tree. He's standing where the tree had fallen out into the road.
Check out the enormous grub we found in the roots of the tree! (the green-white thing coming out of the bottom left of the picture)
Here is all of the canopy that we drug into our backyard. Ammon's been cutting it up all week for firewood. The saw-z-all we received as a Christmas gift last year from my family has been so great for this! Thanks again for the perfect gift for us do-it-yourselfers.
Cutting up the huge trunk with a chain saw.
Ammon was actually a bit excited that the tree fell for him rather than having to cut it down. The kid loves to make fires in our fireplace and scavenges all year round trying to collect fire for the upcoming cooler months- he'll help anyone take down a tree and even searches Craig's List for postings of "free wood", which usually means 'come cut my tree down and keep the wood' but he loves it! He says he loves the physical labor, which is a nice break from his job.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Girls!
Ok, so for those of you who don't know, we're pregnant with TWO GIRLS!! We're very excited. We feel so blessed to even be pregnant and are just overjoyed at the upcoming changes to our family. There is some bad news about the pregnancy but I won't share that now- I just want to relish in the happiness and goodness of God's love in blessing us again with children. It has been a long awaited miracle; one we have prayed for for many years. I'm getting weepy and so grateful just thinking about.
To honor the long journey to this joyous time, we decided to give them names of significant meaning. And, we want to refer to them by their names, rather than as 'A' or 'B'. The girls are arranged like bunk beds in my stomach, one on top of the other. They're fraternal, not identical.
Baby A (on the bottom bunk) will be named
Amelia Arabella.
Amelia is a family name on my side. We have no less than 6 family members from the 1800's that bore that name. In Old German it means "to strive", "to excel", "to rival" and in Latin it means "to work". Amelia is also a combination of mine and Ammon's names.
Arabella, in Latin, means "answered prayer". We thought that was so appropriate given the many prayers, fasting, and pleadings that were offered for us to become pregnant again.
Baby B (on the top bunk) will be named Abigail Grace.
Abigail is Hebrew and means "joy of the father", "gives joy", "father of exaltation". She already brings so much joy to our family. She is a joyful baby too constantly moving and kicking me, letting me know she's there.
Grace means "grace of God" in Latin. We know it is by God's grace, after all we can do, that will allow our family to be together forever. Grace is also a family name used about a half dozen times as well.
To honor the long journey to this joyous time, we decided to give them names of significant meaning. And, we want to refer to them by their names, rather than as 'A' or 'B'. The girls are arranged like bunk beds in my stomach, one on top of the other. They're fraternal, not identical.
Baby A (on the bottom bunk) will be named
Amelia Arabella.
Amelia is a family name on my side. We have no less than 6 family members from the 1800's that bore that name. In Old German it means "to strive", "to excel", "to rival" and in Latin it means "to work". Amelia is also a combination of mine and Ammon's names.
Arabella, in Latin, means "answered prayer". We thought that was so appropriate given the many prayers, fasting, and pleadings that were offered for us to become pregnant again.
Baby B (on the top bunk) will be named Abigail Grace.
Abigail is Hebrew and means "joy of the father", "gives joy", "father of exaltation". She already brings so much joy to our family. She is a joyful baby too constantly moving and kicking me, letting me know she's there.
Grace means "grace of God" in Latin. We know it is by God's grace, after all we can do, that will allow our family to be together forever. Grace is also a family name used about a half dozen times as well.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Belly blog
Ok, it's been FOREVER, it seems, since I've posted a picture of my ever-growing belly. I've had several people ask, so please forgive me for neglecting this, but, here it is. This is 18 weeks (I'm now 20 weeks so I'm behind again). I'll post an updated one in the next few days, hopefully. ;]
Forgiveness is like...a piece of glass??
Ammon was in a car accident about 15 years ago when he was first learning to drive. He rolled the car and wrapped it around a telephone pole. He really shouldn't have walked away but, he did. He did need to have hand surgery to reattach some severed tendons though. He has had no problems with it since and it healed with only a couple scars from the incisions.
Well, just a few days ago, he dug out a piece of glass from his hand!! He said for years he could feel something there under his skin and it would irritate him. In the last few months the spot would ooze puss and then scab over. He kept picking at it and then one night he squeezed out some glass!! The picture shows the red spot and the glass there on the piece of tape laid across his hand.
He immediately made an analogy to repentance.. where you need to forgive to completely heal and that pushing things down only make them fester. Pretty good, I thought. He even used that at one of his weekly groups he holds at the jail. The guys were pretty impressed.
Kids in a hamper
You find kids in the silliest of places! These two thought the hamper was so fun, we couldn't get them out!
Halloween
I'm so sad I didn't get any pictures of the kids together in their Halloween costumes. They were so cute! Connor was a skeleton and Olivia was an octopus. Here you can a bit of their costumes in these first 2 pics. I loved that my parents were able to be here. What a treat for them to see both of their grand kids for such a fun kids' holiday. They had a great time going out trick-or-treating. I stayed home and handed out the candy.
The boys carving jack-o-lanterns.
Olivia enjoying a Halloween mix- yum!
Making Halloween cookies.
Kindergarten field trip
Connor's kindergarten went to the pumpkin patch for a field trip. Ammon went as a chaperon. I was supposed to go too but, I was still on bed rest. They had a great time and brought home a few more pumpkins.
Released
I was recently released as the Young Women's President in my ward. I was in for 2 years. I so loved working with those girls and the great leaders. The few weeks before I was released, I was on bed rest and had to rely on my counselors to make everything happen. That just wasn't fair to the girls and they were all worried about my well-being. I will truly miss being with them. I definitely feel a void. I mean, I've been in YW just about my whole married life- 8 years!!! I've been just about every advisor, the secretary, assistant camp director and then president. I wonder what I'll be doing next. Bishop did promise a few months off, especially since this pregnancy has been very difficult on me, so we'll see.
My young women made me this adorable candy-gram when I was released. They're just too cute. I'm gonna miss those girls!!
Fall Festival
Connor's school had a Fall Festival that was so fun. The kids had a great time going to each booth and winning prizes.
Connor's favorite part was getting a fire-breathing dragon balloon hat made for him. He also loved the train and jumping castles. Way fun event!
Cupcakes
We had a great time making and decorating cupcakes for Halloween. Actually, Connor lost interest until it came time to bring out the candy to decorate them- typical. Both Connor and Olivia loved eating the frosting- and getting it all over their faces. Way cute.
The swing
Our baby swing has always been a popular backyard attraction for kids of all ages. Connor is mostly too big for it now so he just hangs on the bottom and swings. But Olivia is just the perfect size. She would ask for the swing just about all day.
Here she even shared some of her precious swing time with her new buddy, Elmo.
Did you say something?
She even fell asleep to the rhythmic swaying of the swing. Aw, sleeping beauty.
Here she even shared some of her precious swing time with her new buddy, Elmo.
Did you say something?
She even fell asleep to the rhythmic swaying of the swing. Aw, sleeping beauty.
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