Jason's Birthday

I am a little behind getting this post up. Jason's big day was the 21st. We had all of his family over for a combined party for him and his niece Cailyn on Sunday. Here are some photos.

Who do you think looks more excited to open those presents?

"Happy Birthday, Daddy!"

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The finished product...finally

Just the beginning... what a mess!

I was looking back through photos to try and find a "before" shot of how the table looked before I began painting... and I found this funny photo. (That's kind of how I felt about 7 hours into the project.)



What I thought would be a simple Saturday project, actually turned into a week long project including 3 coats of the red paint, a return trip to Home Depot for more paint and more polyurethane, hours of touch-up work on the chairs, and a desperate attempt to speed up the drying process with fans overnight so that it would be ready for company the next day. Whew! Oh yeah, and I HATE polyurethane! We had nowhere to paint the table but right there in the kitchen. We would have had to take it apart to get it outside on our tiny back patio and with all the wind lately, we didn't want to leave it out there very long for fear of it getting covered in dust and dirt. The whole house stunk so bad and while luckily Jason did think to cover everything either valuable or that we eat off of in the area, I am still left with a yucky filmy coat of polyurethane on nearly everything downstairs. The chairs ended up looking great, the top of the table is not quite what I hoped for. The blasted polyurethane left a weird uneven texture of shiny and dull spots. I'm not really willing to sand it down and repaint, but I would gladly welcome any other ideas on how to make it look better. I do like it though, and it is a vast improvement of how the old table and scratched up chairs used to look. Mostly, I'm just glad it's done and we have a place to eat again besides the family room floor. :)

The Chicken Dance

Gettin jiggy with the Chicken Dance. Allary really loved this birthday card Jason got. Jason and I were a little bit sick of the song after the 15th time, but it was so funny to watch her open it up and bust a move.

The Carnival

Friday night we took Allary to the carnival here in town.

I think Allary thought she was the star in her very own parade on the merry-go-round. She was smiling and waving at anyone and everyone as we went around and around.

Here she is on the Circus Train (follow red arrow). I was a little unsure about letting her go on a ride by herself and how she would do. She looked so little riding by herself. She loved it and once again, was waving at everyone around, including the ride operator who smiled and waved every time she passed. When the ride ended, I was waiting at the Exit gate, the operator unbuckled her and helped her out. She didn't even look around for me, she just ran to the car in front of hers and climbed back in and proceeded to buckle herself back in. I went in to grab her and of course she cried, "Noooooooooo, bye bye Choo Choo!"

Here she is just enjoying the ride.

Cooling off

Is there any better way to cool off than with a nice cold fudgesicle?

Water Baby

Allary absolutely LOVES the water. She has never been afraid of the water. She will even dump a little bucket full of water right over her face, gasp for air, and then laugh and laugh and laugh. I finally gave in to her pleas yesterday to go swimming and so we took her pool outside in the blazing heat of the afternoon. The whole event (setup, sunscreen, swimming, cleanup) took about 1 1/2 hours, but the actual playing in the pool only lasted about 15 minutes before she said, "Hot, Mommy. All done!" I was frustrated with all the effort it took to get out there, so forced her to play for another 10-15 minutes to make it worth it.

Some of Allary's favorite things...

Allary has really loved books ever since she was only a few months old.

Pink milk! I had a hard time getting her to drink milk when we switched her off of the formula. So, I tried adding a little strawberry syrup and it certainly did the trick. Every time she asks for milk, I go to the fridge to get the milk and she goes to the cupboard to get the syrup. I like this picture, instead of a milk mustache, she has a pink milk goatee.

Allary gets so excited when her little friends come over. Here she is with her friend Mitchell, having a little picnic and watching the Wiggles. What fun!

At the Mall...

With the weather being as hot as it is here, I spend a lot of time walking the mall and window shopping and letting Allary play at the indoor play lands. It is a good source of exercise in an air-conditioned environment. Not only does it exercise my body, but also my self-control to not spend money on these frequent outings. :) So yesterday, I was happily strolling through the mall, having a nice chat with my mom on the phone and I glanced down at Allary in her stroller and saw a bit of fabric underneath her legs. I stopped and pulled it out from underneath her. It was a pair of pajamas from Baby Gap! So, we quickly turned around and headed back to return the merchandise. I actually found it quite humorous and luckily, so did the store clerk. My little shoplifter!

Matters of the Heart

I don't have any cute pictures to post, but I thought I would just give a quick update on where I'm at with my health. About 2 weeks ago, I met with my new cardiologist. My previous Dr. got called to be a mission president. Great for him, disappointing for me. Not that I was all that crazy about him, but I felt a sense of loyalty to him as he was there at the hospital when Allary was born and all this craziness started and he played a big part in saving my life. Although, I do have to say I know it was not the doctors who kept me alive or enabled me to have a full recovery. It is a truly humbling experience at each and every doctor's visit because they look over my records and marvel that I am sitting there alive and healthy. It is also hard every Dr's appointment to have to revisit the whole experience. It never gets easier to hear that I have been diagnosed with a heart condition and I can't describe the pain that rushes through me to hear that I should not have any more children. This new doctor (and the one in SLC) say I absolutely should not consider another pregnancy. The weird thing is, it is hard to hear someone tell me I have this condition that could kill me, when I feel healthy and my heart is healthy. They really just don't know much about peripartum cardiomyopathy, but they do know there is something that occurs during pregnancy that weakens my heart while also adding tremendous strain. This is so hard and of course I am emotional about it, but I never let myself forget that I am so blessed. I have the sweetest, most beautiful little girl, and I almost didn't get to be here to see her grow up. I have had a miraculous recovery and my heart is at its best. The MRI results came back and showed a perfectly healthy heart. I feel good. I convinced the doctor to take me off the last of my medication. He wants to do another MRI in December just to make sure my heart is okay on its own.

If you are interested, a good informative website I have found is
www.amothersheart.org

4th of July

We spent the 4th with Jason's family and had a great time. We drove down on Wednesday and got there just in time for the parade. Once Allary figured out they were throwing candy in the streets, she was all over it. After the parade, we roamed around the booths and activities at the park, then after her nap, she did bubbles outside with Grandma and Uncle Travis and Uncle Ruben, then went swimming at Aunt Deanna's house. That evening we went over to Jason's Grandma's house for a big family dinner (really yummy food) and to watch the fireworks from the front lawn. (Jason's Grandma was not yet home from the hospital after her major operation and we missed her very much. We are thinking of her and praying for a quick recovery.)
Here are some pictures of the fun.

Swimming. I would hold Allary in the water and she would just kick her feet and try to get away from me like she thought she could just swim away on her own. She loves the water. I am still suffering from an intense sunburn on my back from this day at the pool.

Taking a whack at the pinata at Great Grandma's house. The person operating the rope moved it as she was about to hit it and sort of freaked her out. She didn't want much to do with it after that.

..Maybe with a little help from Grandpa.


Ahhhh, Great Grandma's famous homemade root beer. This kid had so much junk food and soda this last week. Ugh.

The fireworks!

Allary's reaction to the fireworks. We haven't found much that she is afraid of, but she didn't know what to think of the fireworks. She wanted me to hold her, but she also wanted to run away and get as far away from the fireworks as possible. Oh well, last year she slept through most of them.
We had lots of fun and we were glad we were able to go.

High School 10 Year Reunion

I feel old. I can't believe that I have been out of high school for 10 years now.
The reunion was a lot of fun and it was good to see everyone. We all seem to be doing well. Some have turned out differently then I would have expected, and others are doing better then I expected.

We had a decent turnout. Hopefully more will come to the next one.
I had several conversations with some of my classmates that where longer then I think I ever had a conversation with in high school. I am glad that it turned out that way. I didn't know what to expect and was pleasantly surprised on how it turned out.

The Coolest Park Ever!

After much debating, we decided to start our very own blog just about us, and mostly about Allary. It is such a great way to journal all of the fun things Allary does and says. Plus, Jason wanted to get in on the action. :)

Yesterday, I took Allary to the coolest park ever. My very good friend Melissa told me about it and so we had to go check it out. The park is huge and really beautifully landscaped. There is a large wood barn, several pavilions with picnic tables, lots of shade from big trees, a playground, a swing set that spins around, and Allary's favorite part... a fountain/pool that kids can play in. Awesome! I got some really great shots of Allary enjoying the swings and the pool..

I didn't get a shot that took in the whole swing contraption so you could see what it is. I couldn't get it to go around and around anyway, I think you have to have more people.
Allary enjoyed it anyway.

Next was the fountain.
Having never been there before, I didn't quite know what to expect. Next time, I will just put her in her swim suit. I should have known she would have no hesitation diving right in.


It wasn't too long before she was just completely laid out flat on her tummy in the water. I didn't get a good picture of that though. I was being careful not to get the camera wet with all her crazy splashing.

And, the after shot. She was soaked to the bone and her diaper must have weighed more than she does. But luckily, I did think to bring an extra change of clothes so she didn't have to ride home that way.
It was a great way to spend a warm summer morning and we had a blast.

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