December 2018

We started off December with the Festival of Trees with friends. Olivia loved this My Little Pony Tree and it was still for sale. Too bad I didn't have an extra $5,000 laying around to get it. :)

December 1, 2018

The boys went off on their own and enjoyed the concessions the most but Olivia loved looking at all of the trees. 

There were some pretty amazing gingerbread houses too.

Cousins Austin and Victoria came over to play and Austin wasted no time dressing up.

December 3, 2018

Victoria loved coloring and playing with the kitchen.

While stopped at the light Santa pulled up next to us. Olivia thought that was pretty awesome.

December 8, 2018

On December 11th we had an appointment at the IVF Clinic for an ultrasound. I had been worried about the embryo splitting because my numbers were so high even for twin levels but thankfully there was just one baby in there. We were officially discharged from the IVF clinic and I made my next appointment with my regular ob. Crazy to see all of the appointments and the year that led up to this point. We started with my first appointment in January and in December I was finally pregnant. Although in December all I could think about was how far away August 3rd seemed. I guess when it took a year to get to this point and we still had 8 months left it seems so far out. Thankfully it's been flying by though!

December 11, 2018

Olivia had her winter dance recital and they danced to Peppermint Winter.

December 15, 2018

I was off to the side of the stage for the first performance so I took advantage of being so close and took some pictures since from the audience they never turn out very good.

She always practices smiling when she dances so that she smiles during the performance and I love seeing her big grin the whole time.

Posing for the camera between shows.

Kaleb is in a 3-D Art class at school and has done some pretty cool projects. These were 2 of his clay projects.

December 23, 2018

This girl was so excited for Christmas to come. She loves all holidays and any reason to decorate, celebrate or have fun!

December 23, 2018

I usually host Christmas Eve and this year we had Clam Chowder and Rolls, some appetizers, fruit and dessert. I also only took 4 pictures really quick during our gift exchange and then didn't touch my camera all night.

December 24, 2018

I love how excited the kids get to leave out treats for Santa and the reindeer. Ashton and Olivia both had notes they left for him too.

Ashton thought he might get lucky if he asked for a phone last minute. Unfortunately Santa thinks he's still too young for that! :)

Santa came and ate all the food he could!

We're lucky and our kids like their sleep so they don't usually stay up really late or wake up super early. I think they were up around 7:30 excited to see what was in their stockings.

December 25, 2018

Olivia really wanted an American Girl Doll. Luckily, she doesn't know the difference between the actual brand of dolls since actual American Girl Dolls are ridiculously expensive. It has been her favorite present since Christmas too and she plays with it everyday.

Kaleb didn't want anything which made Santa's job tough. He did find a couple things he wanted like his snow hat, a wooden watch and some games.

 He's all about soft things and being comfy.

Ashton is our military guy. He reads books all about wars, soldiers, etc. and loves all things to do with World War II. Inside the ammo box he got was a grenade. He was pretty excited. He also got an air soft rifle he really wanted.

It was a great Christmas morning. While we opened presents the breakfast casseroles I had made the night before were cooking and my parents and sister came over for breakfast. Typically after a couple of hours of playing games and hanging out we're all wiped out and the adults all take a nap until it's time to go to Christmas dinner at my aunt and uncles house.

Matt took the kids to a ninja type obstacle course on one of his days off. The kids loved and and were sore the next day!

December 31, 2018

November 2018

Matt's facial hair had grown quite long since he let it grow out for Halloween. Instead of shaving it all off he left this horrible mustache and wore it to work for one day. I was glad it only lasted a day!

November 2, 2018

We've had a hawk around the neighborhood and Matt took this picture when it was in our backyard.

November 3, 2018

This diva was fast asleep, curlers in her hair for church the next day.

November 3, 2018

At church they had to draw ways they can serve. Olivia drew her and Jesus, I can't remember what she was giving him, second was her giving treats to our neighbors dogs, 3rd she was helping someone up who fell down and 4th was her doing laundry.

November 4, 2018

Another reason I hate being behind on blogging is I can't remember where Matt and I were this night, but even blurry I love any chance to get a picture of the two of us.

November 5, 2018

We started doing the Lego Monthly builds that they do for free again. We hadn't done them for awhile but the kids always love doing them. (Unfortunately they stopped doing them after March 2019.)

November 6, 2018

Matt took the kids to Nickelmania one evening and they had a blast.

November 8, 2018

The boys were out doing something fun without us and Olivia asked if we could get ice cream at Macey's which is one of her favorites.

November 14, 2018

I guess I should give a little back story leading up to the big IVF day.

Originally the transfer was going to happen in August. Unfortunately at my first lining check my lining wasn't even close to being thick enough. They said that they had been noticing those with an IUD in before weren't having a thick lining right away. Basically they needed to let my body go through a natural cycle to get back on track. We did up my estrogen quite a bit and had 2 more lining checks to see if they could get it where it needed to be but it never did. So basically we just needed to wait.

After not having a true cycle right after stopping meds I waited until my next cycle to make sure my body was ready since the medications aren't cheap and I didn't want to waste another cycle trying if it wasn't going to work. Thankfully this cycle my lining looked great and we were ready to move ahead with the transfer. August 15th was the big day. I stopped my lupron injections in my stomach and moved on to the really big, not so fun progesterone injections. The only plus side to this was that Matt gave them to me and for me the anticipation of poking myself is half the battle.

It was weird walking into a doctors office knowing you were there to get pregnant. I definitely have a greater appreciation for those women who go through IVF and other fertility treatments.

November 15, 2018

All 4 of us were there since there were documents that had to be signed.

They gave Liz and Logan this picture of the embryo. At first I thought it was 2 but it's just one embryo "hatching" already as it is a 5 day old embryo.

The entire process wasn't very long. The hardest part was the fact that I had to have a really full bladder and then she pushed on it with the ultrasound wand the whole time. So I was more focused on that than anything. :) They show you live feed of the lab next to you where they suck up the embryo into a syringe type tool and they walk it in to the room and give it to the doctor to put in.

Here they are placing the embryo. Modern science is amazing! After I was able to go to the bathroom and we were on our way. The next 2 weeks would be the hard part, waiting to see if it worked.

Ashton was one of the 4 kids essays chosen to be presented at their DARE Graduation. He always reads with great expression and he was so excited. He even dressed up with a collared shirt but then they gave them t-shirts to wear over their shirts.

November 19, 2018

He also received this stuffed lion for being chosen.

I helped out in Olivia's classroom for their Thanksgiving Feast day. The kids were excited to get a taste of some school lunch.

November 20, 2018

Then they made a book and thanksgiving bead bracelet that went along with the story.

Shortly after that was the school's turkey trot. They have a boys and girls race for each grade. Olivia did great and ran the whole way.

November 20, 2018

This was towards the end, she finished in 3rd and it was funny because they all just kind of ran behind each other not really passing each other just having fun running together.

The older grades are much more competitive. Ashton still had fun even if he didn't win.

Olivia saw these pajama's and just had to have them. She loves onesie pajamas and it can be hard to find them in her size so she was thrilled with her new Christmas pajama's.

November 22, 2018

Matt went pheasant hunting again with an attorney from work. He loves going and this time he had to  prepare the meat at home after. The kids loved watching it.

November 23, 2018

The morning of my blood test to see if the transfer worked I went straight over to the hospital after dropping Kaleb off and waited for them to open at 7am. I figured I was already up and anxious to know so why not. As I left the hospital there was the most amazing golden sunset I've ever seen. I wish the picture showed how gold and glowing it really was. I'll never forget it.

November 27, 2018

Just over an hour later and my results were in! I was officially pregnant and the IVF worked!

48 hours later we did a repeat of the blood test and they like to see the numbers double. My numbers the next draw were 1821 just where they should be.

Our ward Christmas party is always the first Friday in December but how it lined up they ended up doing it November 30th. It was a Polar Express theme and Santa even came at the end. The kids all did a nativity program with costumes and singing that was fun to watch.

November 30, 2018

That night Matt and I had tickets to Wiseguys Comedy Club to see Whitney Cummings. We've seen her on tv and loved her show so we really wanted to see her when she came to Salt Lake. She did a really good job and we loved the show. After she said she would pose for pictures from the stage so she made sure to look at each phone so you could take a picture.

November 30, 2018

We always have family pictures taken the end of November and we had them taken at Camera Shy again. Here are some of the pictures.

And here's the Christmas card we sent out. Unfortunately I had issues with Costco's cards this year, they printed really light and there was almost no color to them. After another fiasco with the reorder not actually being reordered on their end I wasn't left with any time to order anywhere else so I had to send them out anyways. I might try somewhere else next year because it was such a bad experience.