Happy Valentine's

Happy Valentine's

To the love of my life. There isn't a day that has gone by since the day we met that Aaron hasn't made me smile.

Alexis Lynn Atwood

Alexis Lynn Atwood

We welcomed Lexie to the family on 11/10/10. Check out the link above to sneek a peek at our little princess. She has been the BEST baby ever. At 3 months now she fills our home with such a sweet spirit, lots of little coo's and giggles and a lot of PINK (which makes mommy very happy). Lexie girl always has a smile for everyone and anyone and is growing like a weed. We love this little girl more than words can say.

Ethan's 2010

Ethan's 2010
Because I have become the worst blogger ever over the last couple of years (which I am holding the rise of Facebook primarily accountable) I am going to be posting a series of video's over the next few days to bring my/our lives up to date. Then my hope is that by not feeling so behind I'll just move on and get a rockin' blog back :)

Check out the link for a look at 2010 through Ethan's eyes.

EASTER

Easter has always been one of my favorite holidays. When I was small perhaps it was the pretty new dress I always got, or the thrill of an easter egg hunt. But, as I got older Easter became even a bigger deal, it was like a second Christmas morning!...I know you thought I was going to say it was because I started to really understand the true meaning of Easter, or because I was a day to reflect on Christ. But, honestly, I wasn't that old yet...and that wasn't really the case. We would have huge Brostrom Easter parties with all the cousins and end up with a giant pile full of toys, candy and money! Of course I would say I understood the real meaning of Easter and that's why I loved it, but I'm pretty sure I was lying to myself and everyone else with that answer. It wasn't until I left to college, then a mission and eventually got married I actually DID learn the joy and miracle that Easter really is, and it has remained my favorite holiday without question. The Savior's Crucifixion and Resurrection are the center of all my beliefs and the purpose of my life here on earth. I have a burning testimony of Christ's Resurrection and I know that it is because of him that I can repent and live with my family again in the presence of our Heavenly Father. This is why I love Easter. However, with my Dad and Donna carrying on the Brostrom tradition of spoiling my kids rotten for Easter, I'm sure, that like me, at the moment they love Easter because of the fun, toys, treats and cousins... I guess that I'll do my best to balance that "love" out :)

This year I was not especially chipper for the Easter festivities, because I recently found out that we are having another BABY! And, unlike my pregnancy with Ethan, I was extremely sick. The car ride up to Utah a few days before was torture, the mornings were miserable and the car ride out to my Dad's house that morning was especially bad and we had to stop several times for me to throw-up. Once we finally stopped moving and I could sit still for a while, I did feel a little better...but not for long and most of my day I spent lying in the bedroom trying to not die :) So, here are some of the pictures I did capture of the kids, and next year we'll have another little one to join the family fun :)

Winter Escape

As I'm trying to get my blog "updated", or at least not completely void of over an entire year of our lives. Most of my posts may just consist of some pictures with brief descriptions. Much like this one. We came up to visit family several times this "spring" when it was in the 70's and even 80's here in Vegas, only to find snow, snow and more snow storms in Utah. You would think I would have learned my lesson after the first few times and pack like we would if we had planned a Winter escape, but alas, I never did, and without fail as the year got later and the days hotter in Vegas...I would travel to Utah with flip flops and perhaps a sweat-shirt "incase" it got cold and without fail, it would snow. In my defense, it was still snowing in April and May for heavens sake! I ended up buying more than one coat for Ethan from Wal-Mart this year (good thing they are like $10) as he would look at me so forlorn and heart-broken when I would tell him he couldn't go play in the snow because he didn't have any snow clothes.

Shoe Fetish

My little Ethan is obsessed with shoes (I wonder where he gets that from? ;-) He loves to "clickety-click" around in my high heals. Occasionally he'll put a pair of his daddy's on to go out it :-) . He keeps me laughing that's for sure.

We're still alive! :)

Wow, I can't believe it's been over a year since my last post! What I crazy year it has been. I'm going to give a brief update of the happening's of this year, so that when I look back at my "online journal" I won't totally have a loss for 2009 :). A year ago November, we moved out of our house in Spanish Fork in anticipation of our move to Las Vegas where we were opening up a new Urgent Dental clinic. Because it wasn't yet complete we spent 3 months living with my dad out in Grantsville, UT. It was a fun time I will always remember. As my dad was recently re-married, it gave me a chance to really bond with his new wife and her family, they are wonderful and I'm so glad to have them as part of my family. Also, it was fun for my dad to get a chance to spend more time with Ethan and Micah. Ethan spent most of his time chasing around the cats -especially "no-no" I think they created a special love/hate relationship with each other, and even now a year later, every-time I tell him we are going to see his Grandpa, he asks about "no-no". The first week of February we moved to Las Vegas, well I guess I should say Aaron moved me to Las Vegas, he stayed up in Utah another month working for Dr. Haynie while we got things settled down here. It was a long month without my wonderful husband, but Ethan and I explored the town and got ourselves acquainted with our new home. We spent a lot of time at the Park and watching the giant fish tank at the Silverton (just down the road from our house). March 15th we finally got the go ahead to open our doors for business and Aaron, Ethan and I all went to work. Because of the "credit crisis" our approved loans were all "reduced" and we opened the doors with zero working capital. Not the best way to start a business, but we were determined and decided we could live very frugally to make it work. We hired two part-time assistants to work a few hours each week when we got patients and put our effort into marketing. Slowly the business picked up enough that having my little 18 month old helper around the office was not such a great idea anymore - and so I had to put him into daycare. It was a "temporary" arrangement and I knew that it was only going to be for the next 3-4 months, but still Ethan and I both cried every morning when I dropped him off, and he would burst into tears each afternoon when I came to pick him up. He never really did warm up to the idea, and every day got harder instead of easier, so that as soon as we could justify hiring someone vs. the cost of daycare - I got to go back to doing what I really, really love...being a Mom. I only put in time at the office a few hours a day and I bring my little "terror" with me. The patients love him...even if he is a huge distraction. The "day-care" experience did teach me a lot about how important motherhood is as well as how hard it must be on the kids and parents who are left with no other choice.
Now, over a year later, the business is "booming" and Aaron works around 70-80hrs a week. He takes call and goes in to see emergency patients at all hours of the day and night. We have gone through 2 office managers and a few assistants, but I think we finally have it right and all the staff (7 people now) are a great fit for the office and really hard workers. We are in the process of building out the rest of the rooms and hiring a second doctor to take some of the load off Aaron. We all feel so blessed that in this horrible economy where over 130 dentist have gone out of business in Vegas, we are able to grow. I no longer even go into the office unless it's to visit Aaron or bring in food/treats. I am able to do all the back office, payroll, marketing, etc. from home - and even though a few days a week Ethan probably watches a little too much TV while I work, I think it is working out well.
Micah is able to come spend several weeks with us every time he is off track. He loves Vegas and thinks it's really fun to be able to swim often and to explore all the new adventures Las Vegas has to offer. His only complaint is that he doesn't have all the friends here that he had in Spanish Fork. We did, however, just move into a new home (only a few blocks from our old one) and it put us in a new ward with a few more kids his age, so we are optimistic about the friend potential :) (Our old ward was a lot of young families and there were about 100 kids Ethan's age, literally, we had 7 nursery's).
We finally sold our Spanish Fork home in May, and after 18 months of paying a double mortgage/rent and sometimes a triple mortgage when our American Fork home wasn't rented we are very grateful for that blessing. However we did have to finally short sale it, since the value had dropped so dramatically from when we bought it and as most of you know, I don't see it changing any time soon.
The most recent news in the family is that we are expecting another baby this fall! And even more exciting (in my opinion at least) is that we are having a GIRL! I love my boys and really was happy for either, but now that I know i'm having a girl, I'm a lot more excited about it than I thought I would. This pregnancy has not been as easy as before. I feel like I'm 90 and between the pain and exhaustion I'm pretty sure I act like I'm 90 too :)
I'm going to post some pictures that I have saved on camera's/phones and maybe give another little glimpse of the last year of our life...and then, I'm going to make sure that I keep somewhat up to date from here on out :-) Once I finally got the computer back to the house (from the office) I have been avoiding the updating process because it seemed to daunting to even begin to catch up...but now I've decided something is better than nothing, and we'll just look forward from here.

Broken Leg!

Poor Ethan, just days before his 2nd birthday he broke his little leg. We were up in Utah and I was busy trying to get a lot of yard work caught up at the rental house. Ethan was outside playing with me while I worked. There is about a 2 foot rock retaining wall between the front yard and back yard and he had climbed up it and got his foot stuck between the rocks, in his struggle to get it free he must have fallen back onto the grass. His foot stayed in place and so the fall caused his leg to break below the knee. He was such a tough little guy at the hospital, he only cried when they took the x-ray's (because he didn't like being held still and that I wasn't able to hold him.) Needless to say the next several weeks were a little tough because I had to carry him around everywhere and when he was on the ground the would squirm around to get to what he wanted, dragging his leg behind him. Often it would get caught, or stuck in a strange angle and he'd start whining for help. His let did heal pretty quickly and when they changed him into a shorter cast that he could walk in, he didn't really even need it.

The sad irony...(but it is kind of funny)

Advertising!

I know I'm way past due for an update...but thinks have been beyond crazy down here in "sin-city" :-) We've moved in (twice) and I'm almost unpacked. We've been working around the clock to get this business up and running and it looks like we might open for business this Monday! I'll be updating with pictures of the office and our new little home soon, but for now I need all of your help. After taking all the marketing projects upon myself, I've learned how important it is to get "ratings" on your website to rise it's numbers in the search engines. Therefore, I'm asking all of you to check out the first draft of our website (and offer suggestions if you have any) also, if you don't mind adding our link to your websites, facebook etc. for the next little while while we increase our traffic flow it would be supper helpful! Thanks so much for all your help and support!

Check it out at http://www.urgentdentalusa.com