8 is GREAT!!!!

On October 13 Giovanni was able to be baptized! He had waited a LONG time for this! He was supposed to get baptized in September but his two aunties had babies so he asked if he could wait until October so that his Grammy and Papa and Bamba could be there for his special day! It was such a special day for Giovanni. He was so excited to become "an official member of the church!" and for his Daddy to baptize him!

Giovanni was so excited to have his best buddy be able to come to his baptism, too! This pic cracks me up... they are so funny together yet so serious in this pic!

After the baptism and confirmation we watched a slide show of Giovanni's life. I cried putting it together and cried watching it. I love seeing how this little man has grown spiritually. He amazes me.

We were blessed to have so many of our friends and family come be a part of Giovanni's special day! It was a room full of people we love and love us, too!!

After the baptism we had everyone over to eat Giovanni's 8 Is Great Sub from our great friend's who own Crazy Sub! I didn't tell Giovanni I was ordering it, so he was so surprised when he saw it!!

I love this pic of Giovanni and Papa... they thought they should be able to eat the entire sub themselves! ;)

I am so thankful for the Gospel. I'm so thankful for the atonement. I'm thankful for the happiness and joy that the Gospel has brought in our lives. I'm so proud of Giovanni and for his true desire to be baptised and to choose the right. I love seeing him write in his journal and read his scriptures. He LOVES having his very own set of scriptures! I can't believe the next time that we will have a child getting baptized Giovanni will be 16... and Andy will be home from his mission! I love you, Giovanni and I am so proud of you and the amazing little man you are!!!

Gender Reveal!

We were able to find out what Little Baby Garvin was on Monday! Check out our family blog to find out if Nati and I are being out numbered, or if we are being balanced out! :) www.growingthegang.com

Dream Come True

I know I don't update on here often anymore... but the news needed to be documented! After 5 1/2 long and trying years we are expecting! Baby Garvin is set to arrive around March 20, 2013! We don't know how to contain our excitement! The kids can't stop asking questions and kissing my belly. This journey has been a long one. After countless prayers and blessings we can not stop thanking our Father in Heaven for this amazing gift. We know it was true inspiration to see the dr I see, to have the treatments I've had, and to have this precious little one join our family.

We have started a blog where Bry and I both can journal our thoughts through this amazing time. Feel free to visit us at growingthegang.com

Growing Up is Hard to do!

We've had some major growing up going on around here. It's really been hard on me! My babies are not babies any more! I need to be so much better about documenting things, but life has been crazy. So... a quick little snip-it...

Andy is 12 1/2. He love Scouts and loves the monthly camp outs he gets to go on. I love his enthusiasm for going on said trips. Except when I get a call at 10pm from the 1st counselor in the Bishopric that my adorable son brought some pills to help him sleep because he was so excited. And the next afternoon my lap was covered by "illegal camp out paraphernalia" that my son brought with in hopes that he could create a larger fire. It really is a good thing he is so cute! This almost teenager knows how to push my buttons and melt my heart. He's totally going to be a heart breaker when he grows up!

Natali is 9 1/2. She loves Activity Days and bossing her brothers. She is my little mother hen and tends to need the reminder that I'm the parent, not her. She is currently growing her hair out to donate it to Locks For Love. All her idea. She loves fashion and is on Pinterest more than I am (I didn't think that was possible! ;) ) She is in advanced classes this year and I'm pretty sure has passed me in her knowledge of Math. She has a strong testimony of the Gospel and has been bringing her bestie with her to Activity Days and has informed me she invited her to be baptised. Such a sweetie!

Giovanni is 71/2. He is on count down to getting baptised and loves being in Sr. Primary. Giovanni loves playing the Kinect and is super good at it. He reads like a champ, and loves to read chapter books. He no longer will let me kiss him good-bye if his friends are there and will only hold my hand until we get across the street. I hate this age :( He loves to play Angry Birds on my Touch Pad and though he says he wants to play it together, his turn somehow never ends! ;) He still is my little tender hearted love though!

It amazes me how quickly my kids are growing up. Giovanni came in my room at 3:40 this morning because he had a "night bear" so I let him hop in bed with me. As uncomfortable as it was having his knees in my sides and his elbow in my face, I laid there awake treasuring the moments... I realize they are few and far between... I needed to hold on as long as I could.

Lights At The End Of The Tunnel

I think I speak for my entire family when I say that these past 7 months have been long. It has been very hard having a sick Daddy with no rhyme or reason to his illness. We have learned to work around it and have learned to help each other, but we miss having Daddy healthy.
After going to every dr known to man kind {PCP, neurologist, endocrinologist, cardiologist, pulmonary} we finally were pooped and had no answers. Finally one day Bry had an appointment with his endocrinologist and I went with him. He was going over his MRI report with him, so I wanted to be there. We went in and the dr kinda shrugged it off and said it was a normal MRI and set it down next to me. So I picked it up and said, "wait, what does it mean thyroid nodule?" and that question led us to a blank stare. I didn't like that. I came to work the next day with the report and showed it to all of my dr's. They all agreed a new endocrinologist was in order, but also that this needed to be looked at by someone new {mind you, these were the same people who told us Bry had bone marrow cancer and sent us to the Cancer Center within a day of test results}. That afternoon my bestie called me and gave me the number to the Edocrin department of the Mayo Clinic. I made the call and told them about the nodule and was told that because of that he didn't have to go through the approval process. We were given an appointment 3 weeks out. That day was horrifying. We got to the parking garage and I lost it. Now, I've been extra emotional for a lot of his appointments {I may have left one crying in the middle of the dr talking...oops} but I just suddenly felt overwhelmed. We had put all of our eggs in the last basket and it was do or die time. The appointment left us less than impressed with the ever so prestigious "Mayo". I was discouraged. Bry was discouraged. We just didn't know what to do next. The next day I went to work and Bry went to work. That night after we put the little's to bed I was playing with Scotty and Sophie and Bry came around the corner to scare us and started laughing hysterically, then he passed out. It was so scary. It didn't last long, but it was long enough. The next day he called his PCP and went in for a visit. They did an EKG and it showed some abnormalities and his blood pressure was CRAZY high {this was a new symptom} so they told us to see our cardiologist. I called and we were put in for the next week. We went to the cardiologist and he did another EKG and confirmed that Bry had had a heart attack. WHAT?! He's 32! How could this be?? As was our luck, with every question we had no answer. That night I prayed harder than I think I ever have prayed in my life. I was having a Daddy/Daughter talk with my Heavenly Father. I needed Him and I needed help. I needed direction and guidance. I was praying and crying for a good 10 min. {I think it's safe to say that not a word I said was understandable to a human ear} I fell asleep crying that night. The next morning I was laying in bed awake, waiting for my alarm to go off when Bry came back from the restroom and said, "honey, I'm having chest pains bad. You need to take me to the hospital" he was short of breath and grabbing his chest. I got out of bed and walked over to help him get his shoes on when he passed out. I called 911 and the ambulance came. SCARY! My kids were all home and so worried. The took us to the hospital where Bry was poked, prodded, and tested for 4 days. The hospitalist that was assigned to him knew the docs I work for and listened to all of what Bry had been going through since August. She pulled out her cell phone and said, "I want you to go see this dr and have him check you for intracranial hypertension". I called the Dr and they got us in the next business day. And then things really started moving. This dr {neuro ophthalmologist} called a neurologist who got Bry in the next day and between the 2 of them they confirmed that Bry indeed did have intracranial hypertension, which was causing his migraines and all sorts of other problems. As we've gone to more appointments we have found that this has been the problem all along. Bry was also diagnosed with empty sella syndrome, which all the dr's had been blaming everything on, though they believed that it was something that happened at birth. Finally some answers, all the additional fluid that was coming from the intracranial hypertension was pushing down even more on his pituitary and his body was going in overdrive. This caused his high blood pressure, which caused his heart attack, it's the cause of his migraines. What a mess! This Monday Bry will be going to get a spinal tap and then we will discuss surgery to get a shunt placed. Finally we have answers.
It is truly amazing to see the Lord's hand in this whole process. Had Bry not had the chest pains that morning we would have never met the dr who referred us to the dr who diagnosed him. Amazing. Simply amazing. I feel my Savior's love has never been a truer statement!

Traditions

I'm in love with this time of year. Not only do I love that it's so cold right now my fingers are permanently blue, but I love the Spirit that fills the air. I love strangers being nice to one another. I love the Christmas music, hot cocoa, sugar cookies, Christmas lights. I love the chocolate covered peppermint joe joe's that Trader Joe's sells ONLY this time of year... I love it all!

A few traditions that we have I've carried on from when we were little. Each year we drive around looking at Christmas lights and singing Christmas songs. We also as a family chose someone who is in need and do Secret Santa. This is a tradition my kids LOVE. And probably one of the only times that my kids keep a secret. ;) Tonight we did another tradition that we used to do when I was little. Bry is at a work function and so the kids and I went to my parents house for dinner and FHE. After dinner we went in the living room and my Dad read us Christmas stories. Now, I've heard these same stories year after year for probably 20 years and every time I hear them I cry... tonight I didn't disappoint. The tears were stronger than ever {I'll blame it partly on the hormones! lol} and the Spirit I felt was amazing. It was so neat to sit with my littles and share these stories. After that my parents told my kids about Christmas when they were growing up. It was such a fun night!

This year I also started another tradition of letting my kids help decorate the Christmas tree. I can remember being little and wanting to help sooo bad. My Mom would let us help and then stay up all night long re-arranging the tree to make it look perfect. A few weeks ago I told Bry my suggestion of allowing the kids to help. He knew this was a big deal for me and told me it was up to me. So I did it. It was hard at first and I took a lot of deep breaths and counted to 10 a dozen times, but we made it through it. The kids had a hard time realizing that not every ornament needed to be on the tree, and with the new pup who is mischievous we couldn't put the ornaments too low either. Once we got those rules established it became really fun. This year we decorated our tree with ornaments that my Mom had given me from when I was a kid. It was so fun telling the stories behind the ornaments as we hung them on the tree. When we got done Bry was giving me a hug and I said, "Be honest, how does it look?" his reply was, "baby it looks like a family decorated it together" my response was, "That's what I was afraid of" ;) I'm actually really pleased with the way it turned out.

Last night we watched the First Presidency Christmas devotional {another thing I LOVE about this time of year} and I told the kids the story of when my roommate and I drove up from Provo to Salt Lake to go to the devotional. This was before the conference center was built so it was in the tabernacle. Well we didn't have tickets but thought we could get in. Thankfully there was a sweet usher that told us she had the perfect seats for the two of us... stage right to the Tabernacle Choir! YIKES!!!! Our parents called us after and told us how they saw us on TV-- and noticed that I had a horrible case of the giggles! It was such a fun memory that I loved sharing with my kids. I loved the words that President Uchtdorf spoke regarding trying to make Christmas perfect. His words spoke directly to my heart.

I'm excited for Christmas. I love reflecting on our Savior and Redeemer and the life He lived. I love taking this time to recognize the things that I can do to try a little harder to be a little better. It truly is the most wonderful time of the year!

Journaling

When I went to TOFW with some of my girl friends a few weeks ago we had this wonderful idea to leave our journals on our seats to "save" them for the next day. Well, we got there and our journals were gone! We were sooo sad! Our Bishop is the manager of Deseret Book, so we went to him and told him what happened, checked lost and found... nothing. I didn't know what made me more sad, the fact I had taken such great notes the night before or that I wouldn't be able to take notes that day.

The journal loss made me realize the importance of keeping a journal. There has been so many amazing events that have happened in the past 8 months that I didn't document that I wish I would have. I have documented somethings, and I love when I find a piece of paper with a thought on it or a quote I liked. But I need to be better about writing in my journal. There is something so refreshing about writing. Or typing, same diff, right? :)

So, because I may not be back on this blog for a while I thought I would end by journaling what I am thankful for.

1. I am thankful for my Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ.

2. I am thankful for the atonement and the opportunity I get to use it in my life

3. I am thankful for the truthfulness of the Gospel, and the peace and true joy it brings to my life.

4. I am thankful for my husband and the strength he is to me

5. I am thankful for my amazing children

6. I am thankful for forgiveness; being given forgiveness and being able to give others forgiveness

7. I am thankful for the Lord's tender mercy's

8. I am thankful for my family. I never really realized how glad I would be that my parents bought a home so close

9. I am thankful for my ward family. I am truly amazed by these wonderful people that surround me each week.

10. I am thankful for the knowledge that I am a daughter of God and that He knows me, He loves me, and He wants me to be happy.

11. I am thankful for the doors that have closed and the "friends" that have left so that I could move on and welcome true friends and great opportunity in.

12. I am thankful for the knowledge that I will be living with my family forever.

13. I am thankful to be serving with such amazing women in my ward, truly a calling that I needed desperately

14. I am thankful for the scriptures... searching, pondering, and praying are daily routine and make my days amazing

15. I am thankful for mine and Bry's jobs. We are so fortunate to have the ability to have such great jobs and great benefits when so many people are suffering. We truly are blessed.

These past 8 months have been hard, but have made me a stronger, more faithful, and more loving person. I am thankful for the trials that I have had. I am so thankful that I made a decision with Bry early on that regardless of what we were going through, things were beyond our control and the only thing we could control was our attitude, and we were going to make sure it was a good one. So, with that being said, my most favorite quote from TOFW will be my good night! :) {oh, and btw, our journals were found 4 days after TOFW ended! Thankful for CVS being close by that we went and bought new ones at lunch! ;)}

"The Atonement isn't to help you get home, it's to help you feel at home when you get there" ~Brad Wilcox