Emma's Birth Story

 Today Emma turns 20. 20! I can't believe it's been that many years since my first princess was born. 

Today, I continue the goal I set for the year of recording my children's birth stories for their birthdays. Although Emma's birth story does not have the drama or details that Abbie's does, it's still precious to me and is an experience that I will never forget.

Happy Birthday Miss Emma Lemma Ding Dong!

I love you so much. 

xoxo

Abbie's Birth Story

 I come from an age of having babies before blogs and social media which means there was no such thing as sharing your "birth story" after you have your baby. 

So this year for my kids' birthdays, I decided that I would share their birth stories as a way to document them for future generations. Abbie's birthday comes first in the year, so we begin with the birth story of Miss Abigail Naomi Ogden on this day that we are celebrating the 18th year of her life. 

A very happy 18th birthday to my mini me!

I love ya so much!

I can't believe you're an adult and I now have three adult children. Where did the time go?

I hope you have a wonderful day and feel love from all around you!

"When You're Seven Years Old"

 It's been a minute, hasn't it? Between college classes, working, and the fact that blogs aren't really a thing anymore means that I haven't posted on this blog since 2019. 

But, I have something I want to post somewhere for people to read and I feel like there's no better place for this particular document than on this family blog which is the home for my thoughts and feelings of the cancer journey that changed our whole family's lives.

Abbie recently wrote a beautiful personal narrative for her English class in which she shares some reflective thoughts about what was going through her seven-year-old mind during my journey with cancer. 

I have often wondered some of the things that were going through my kids' heads during those two years of active cancer treatments and surgeries. Through this personal narrative, Abbie gave me a little sneak peak of some of the things she experienced as a 7-year-old with a mom who has breast cancer.

I really have no words except for...I love this kid. She's amazing. I'm so grateful that she was able to share these thoughts. I'm especially grateful that she has been able to take this really hard experience that we had and learn from it so that she can face other challenges in her life. This was one of my prayers during that time...that we would all be able to take this experience and turn it into a learning and growing experience that would strengthen us for future storms.

Thanksgiving 2017

We spent Thanksgiving at home this year celebrating with Mark's side of the family.  We also head over to Grandma and Grandpa O's house and cram everyone in there.  It's getting a little tough to do now that we have so many grand-in-laws and great grandkids, but we make it work and it's always a lot of fun.

We definitely missed Josh and I will admit, I did shed a few tears as I looked around at everyone and missed having his presence there.  But, we made sure he had a good Thanksgiving in the MTC.

Mark made him one of his delicious pecan pies and we sent it up to the MTC with a same day delivery service.  This is one of the reasons I am thankful that he went to the Provo MTC and not a foreign MTC.  

One of the not-so-cool things that happened over our Thanksgiving weekend was that we had to say goodbye to this little lady.

After about 12 years of hard work, she finally gave up the ghost.  Which would have been fine if we would have been able to get a new one right away.  But because of the holiday, we couldn't get one delivered for a week, so we had to pull out all of our coolers and invest in multiple bags of ice for days.  It was...a pain, but definitely a "first world problem".

One very cool thing about this weekend was that we were enjoying some unusually warm weather for Thanksgiving time and we were able to get out on the pickle ball courts near our home.  This makes me realize that it has now been about a year since we have played pickle ball.  That is sad and must be remedied as soon as the weather allows it.

November 2017 Happenings

November 2017

State Volleyball Tournament

 Emma played with the varsity team as their libero for the last half of the season.  She was so excited and nervous to play varsity as a sophomore, but she did a great job.  They made it to the state tournament but lost in the first round.  Overall, they had a really great season though.

Mommy/Daughter Bonding Time

Ellie and I had the opportunity to do a little bonding this month.  I went with her on her class field trip to the Utah Natural History Museum.  There were lots of fascinating things there and it was fun to spend the day with her.  

We also had a little Mommy/Ellie date to Waffle Love.  Mmmmm....Waffle Love

Ana

Do you think we like this cat or what?  She is still pretty much a normal bi-polar "I like you one minute, hate you the next" cat.  When she wants to cuddle though, she is a great cuddler.

UP Women's Conference in Logan

I was invited to speak at a women's conference in Logan, UT.  I was so excited, because this is truly one of the dreams I have...to share my story and motivational thoughts with people.  It was a small conference and although I did not have much success in selling many books, I did have a fantastic weekend with my mom and two of her friends, Jenny and Laurel.  We shared a hotel room and let's just say, we know how to party it up.  Just take a look at the two pictures in the bottom left side of the above collage.  This is how Jenny and I dress when we decide to take a late night trip to Wal-mart.  Lol.

Veterans Day Concert at Ellie's Elementary School

Ellie and her cousin, Penny, attend the same elementary school.  It's also the school that Mark attended...and even though it's a different building, my Grandpa F. attended this school as well.  Anyway, for the past few years they have been hosting a Veterans Day concert to honor our country's veterans.  Grandpa O is a navy veteran so it is fun to be able to have the kids honor him.

Halloween 2017

October 2017

Halloween 2017 was one for the books!  Mark and I made it back from New York the day before Halloween so I tried to make sure everyone had all of the costume stuff they needed before I left.  I think it was one of our best years for costumes, even though only 3 of us dressed up this year.

Meet 1996 Des

I decided to go as my 1996 self.  Baggy overalls, Birkenstocks, huge messy bun on top of my head, and my letterman's sweater.  Yep.  Looks like I just stepped out of 1996.

Meet Supergirl Ellie

It's a bird!  It's a plane!  Nope!  It's just the cutest Supergirl you've ever seen!  Ellie and two of her friends wanted to dress up as Supergirl this year.  I feel like her sassy red boots made the costume complete.  Maybe it was her cute glasses.  I don't know.  It's a toss up.  What do you think?

This was the year that Ellie made her haunted house at school.  All of the kids have done it in the 5th grade.  Ellie is a very creative soul and I think her haunted house turned out great!

Meet Bambi Abbie

Seriously.  Is this not the cutest deer you have ever seen in your life?  She did a great job with her costume and makeup.  It was a little hard for her this year because she has reached the age where people kind of stop dressing up, but she still wanted to so badly!  So...she did because Abbie is never one to go with the crowd.  It's one of her best qualities. :)