Hawaii 2016

Hawaii this year was amazing, Mac and I thought we would get away for an exciting anniversary-moon for our 7 year anniversary.  Hawaii is always my number one choice.  We looked at some places in Maui but my heart was set on Oahu! Its my absolute favorite! We thought about bringing our kids but ultimately decided that we wanted to do something just for the two of us. We stayed in our foveate place on Oahu, which is Laie. We were in the brand new Marriott next to the PCC, BYU campus, and the Temple. It was THE BEST place in Hawaii I've ever stayed!!  When we go to Hawaii we prefer the local feel, we try to stay away from Honolulu or Waikiki beach, although we only went down there one day so that we could go to Pearl Harbor, which is a must. Every time we go we always make sure we make time to go to the Arizona Memorial.  Most of our time we spent on the north sore by our favorite beaches and restaurants. We spent a lot of time at the Temple. Its my favorite place on planet earth. We always do a session when we go and meet lots of new people there and we just love it.  Most days were spent on the beach or by the pool. We love eating at Teds Bakery, and 7 brothers. This time we went we spent a lot of time up in Haleiwa which is a cool little surfer town up in the north shore. 9 days of pure bliss... Cant wait to go back!

Summer Recap

Well hello blogging world! Ive obviously been absent in posting on our family blog, hopefully I can get more consistent in posting. I've actually wanted to do less on instagram and more with our family blog, but it just hasn't happened.  Especially since not very many of my friends family blog anymore. I'm going to commit to doing better though. So I thought I would just do a little post on our summer we had! Im not a writer. Im just not. So this is really about documenting our family photos, and keeping the closest thing I have to a journal.

It was pretty low key, and we spent most of our time at the splash pad.... mostly anything that was free. We had an awesome 4th of July doing most of our family traditions. I was busy with lots of photoshoots and weddings which was nice for us. The 4 of us went down to St George for a little getaway and it was one of the best St George trips I've had. I just love my little family and the stage of life were in right now. I have those moments when I just want everything to just stay exactly like it is, but whats so awesome is that it just keeps getting better and better. My sister in law got married in June and we couldn't be more excited for them, they live just down the street from us and its so fun to have them so close.  I'm not a big fan of summer but I found myself not wanting this summer to end! We just had so much fun! I think a busy summer is a successful summer.

Halloween 2015

Halloween was awesome this year! I always tell my self I'm going to buy costumes way in advanced so  we can all dress up together, but in never happens. I always wait till the last minute to figure out what I'm doing and end up making costumes. I feel like its not worth it the whole time I'm making them but then when Halloween actually comes and my kids are put together ITS SO WORTH IT! I just love home made costumes.
This year Bostyn was Tinkerbell from the movie Tinkerbell And The Lost Treasure, and so naturally Riley had to be Peter Pan… and for reals,  he was the absolute most handsome Peter Pan ever!  Bostyns costume was easy for the most part, but the shawl was a little complicated because my mom and I didnt have a pattern, we just kind of made it up. Her wings I put together in like 10 seconds. It was just wire, clear gift wrap, and a glue gun.  For Riley I just bought white leggings, and a white shirt from walmart and died them green. I cut the bottom of the shirt and the sleeves to make it look a little bit more tattered and torn. For his hat I bought some green felt at hobby lobby, cut two triangles out and sowed them together, then glued a red feather on the side. Then put him in his Freashly Picked Mocs and he was done!

Summer 2015 Highlights

I'm getting back into blogging again! I've completely neglected this page about our family that I've spent so much time on, and that makes me sad. So…. here it goes! Time to play catch up!


Summer was great… pretty typical, we spent a lot of time at the splash pad, and the pool. We had an awesome 4th of July! We went to the Freedom Awards Gala, and had an awesome time at the Stadium of fire. Journey was amazing of corse! We went to lots of baseball games, freedom festival pool parties,  and always always love to go to Orem summerfest!! It just screams summer to me. I grew up going and watching the fireworks with my family, and its now become a fun tradition for Bostyn.  My brother Jonathan got home from his mission in Colorado and its been really great having him back close to us.

Mac turned 28 in August! I had a small family party at our place and kept it pretty low key. Were getting so old! We've spent a lot of time outside chalking, jumping on the tramp, swimming at grandmas etc… Bostyn loved doing fireworks outside, we did that a bunch!

DIY Sidewalk paint

So I've been really trying to find activities for Bostyn to do outside now that its getting warm. Bostyn loves anything that has to do with painting or coloring or drawing etc…... This paint was a WINNER and super cheep to make. She played with it outside for over an hour.

• Corn Startch
• Water
• Food Coloring. 

Rileys Surgery

Riley just had his lip and nose repair. They also did some temporary fixes to the palate which made for a COMPLETELY new mouth for this little guy. They put an artificial palate in thats pretty made out of a plastic that it tacked in, then they sowed the tissue together on his soft palate, which both are just temporary. In ways we obviously looked forward to this surgery but dreaded it at the same time. Its been a lot more stressful and emotional then I anticipated. Not only was I so sad to see the face I first fell in love with go, but watching your child go through something so intense is an experience that is challenging to explain.
To start off, the night before surgery he couldn't be fed passed 2am, and couldn't have any clear liquids passed 7. That in and of its self is torture. At 2 Mac and I tried to get him to tank as much formula as we could, and then try to keep him asleep for the ride up to Salt Lake. Riley actually did ok. He actually slept most of the morning up to our appointment at 9. So it could have been a lot worse. Once we got there,  our surgeon came in to talk to us and to take a look at Riley. Then the anesthesiologist. That was pretty terrifying.  She asked a few questions about Riley's history,  and took us down the long hall to the dreaded silver doors. She told us to give him kisses and say goodbye but that he was in good hands. You can imagine the emotional stress that puts on a parent, especially those who have had to put your kids out for something. Handing Riley to the anesthesiologist was probably one of the hardest parts. I had pretty well together until that part, I completely lost it.  We were taken to a waiting area for all parents who had their kids in surgeries. There was a desk with two nurses who would answer phones when surgeons would want to give updates to the parents. They would just call your childs name out and you would walk up to the desk for an update. Once we got an update half way through the surgery I was able to calm down a little bit.  The surgery its self was about 3 hours,  but then it took him an hour and a half to wake up enough for us to see him.  Dr. Schmelzer who was our surgeon came in and told us that he was done and that he was very pleased with how Riley looked, and that it would be a bit before he came out of the anesthesia.  We are so glad we he was able to do the surgery for us, because as you can see Riley looks amazing. Finally Riley was ready for us. When we made it back to him, he had the saddest wimpier and immediately heard my voice, and the nurse handed him to me. So many people tried to prepare me for what this moment would be like, seeing him for the first time. However,  there is just no way to be.  He looked like a completely different baby. A different nose, and a complete upper lip totally changed his whole face. We fell in love all over again, and it wasn't hard.
We were taken up to his room where he would recover in for the next couple days. He cried for the rest of the day, but we just kept holding him trying to comfort him the best we could. He was on morphine and lortab, and the other sedation meds, so he was just so groggy and emotional. He had a tongue stitch in which they would take out the next day, and told us that he most likely wouldn't eat the whole first day which he didn't. That was really hard to see him in so much pain and discomfort and be feeling and hearing his tummy growling but couldn't do anything really about it.  About an hour after being up in his room, we realized that his IV had come out which was super frustrating. They called the IV Team in to get a new one placed but this time he obviously wouldn't be out before they placed it, so they told us to leave because we wouldn't want to watch. They would just have to hold him down to do it. The nurses also had to skip a round of pain meds because they didn't know if he had gotten it or not in the IV so they had to act as if he did, and wait to give him more. That was absolutely crushing. Mac stayed with him the first night, so I could go home to be with Bostyn, then I went up and switched him the next morning. He did a little better the next day with me, but still wasn't eating, I also learned that after I left in the middle of the night his IV came out a second time. We had a terrible experience up at Primarys and things just kept getting worse and worse, but the details about that really don't matter as much. We were just eager to get Riley home because I new that his recovery would go much better at there. He was done being poked and attached to cords and being bugged all through the night as so were we.
It took him a few days at home to start eating good again. He was only eating about 20ml out of a syringe a day of formula, and thats been one of the hardest things to overcome since we've been home. That and sleep.  He doesn't sleep at all unless he is being held. Mac and I haven't slept in the same room for about 12 weeks now. We just take turns and split the night so one person can get good sleep in our room, and then we switch. He's pretty much off all his pain meds and antibiotics which is awesome! Were giving him tylenol every now and then when he's hurting but other then that, he's taking nothing which makes him so much happier when he's off the narcotics.

One surgery down!! Mac and I feel like if we can get through that, we can get through the rest. I look back  early on when we found out about Ry,  I was so worried about how this would all turn out, but I'm so grateful for it. I wouldn't change anything about Riley, or ask Heavenly Father for anything different. I don't really think I could say "This whole thing has made me stronger as a person" or, "This has made me a better mom" I just think its very much changed the way I look at what really matters, and I've just learned that we have it pretty easy. I think that was something that I needed to learn. Although this has been the hardest thing I've ever had to experience, its just something that has made me very aware of Heavenly Fathers direct hand, and presence in our everyday life. We have an amazing team helping us, and were so happy that everything went as well as it did.