BLESSINGS

The last couple of days have been full of trials and blessings. Thursday Afternoon I found out that my baby was breech. The Doctor gave me basically two options: hope the baby would turn on her own and have a C-Section if she didn't, or have an "external cephalic version" (which is where the doctor tries to turn the baby from the outside) with the risk of having an emergency C-Section if the baby showed signs of distress. I have always had a huge fear of C-Sections so, this was NOT welcome news. But after many prayers and a priesthood blessing, I felt surprisingly at peace about it. We decided to have the version done and it was scheduled for 7 am this morning.

The other thing that happened was quite traumatic and is difficult to write about. On Friday morning I received the shocking news that my 6 yr. 0ld nephew, Dallin, had spent the previous night in emergency rooms and in surgery where they removed a ten pound tumor from his lower abdomen. When put all together it was the size of a small soccer ball!

Now here's where the BLESSINGS part comes in!

While official news has not yet arrived, the doctor's believe the tumor is benign! Dallin has been such a brave little trooper and is doing very well. He's safe and well and was SO excited today to FINALLY be able to eat and drink (the poor thing hadn't eaten for three days and was so hungry)! They hope to be able to return home tomorrow. I believe my sister and brother-in-law have been blessed to be able to handle this ordeal better than anyone could have imagined. It is a HUGE trial and they definitely still have many obstacles they have to tackle, including how in the world they'll pay for his treatment, but there's no doubting the Lord's hand in this instance. We can't wait to see Dallin jumping off the walls again!

And we couldn't have been more blessed in the procedure they performed this morning. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I knew it would be painful. When the doctor finally got there, it took all of one minute for him to move the baby to the right position. It took me a minute to realize it was really all over. Even the doctor and nurses were quite shocked; they had never seen a version go so effortlessly and so quickly. It was painful, but who can complain about one minute of pain when many have to endure it for 20 minutes or more before their babies turn? Our prayers were DEFINITELY answered beyond what I could have imagined. After the baby was turned we had to stay so they could monitor her to make sure everything was all right and a sweet old couple came in to give us the sacrament (only in Utah). The lady shared the following thought and I just thought it couldn't have been more relevant or more true!

"Have faith in your Heavenly Father. He knows who you are. He listens to you when you pray. He loves you. He is mindful of you. He wants the best for you."
- Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin

"Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them."
- Mark 11:24

So.... What have I been up to lately?

Many of you know that I have been having CRAZY nesting urges since early DECEMBER! I don't know if I'm just panicked about having three kids or if I'm trying to escape the harsh realities of the past year (with Dan busy at school and not being able to find a job, etc.) or if it's just normal pregnancy hormones. (It's probably all three and much, much more.) Many of you have heard me refer to myself as a "crazy woman," well that's because that is how I feel inside my brain. And now that I just have a few precious weeks left until my little kicker is born, I am in super panic mode. I feel like she's coming TOMORROW and I have to do everything TODAY! Here are just a few things that have been occupying my mind as of late:

decorating

This whole mess started when I decided to move Emma out of the crib and into a twin bed. Two years ago I found these INCREDIBLE matching antique bed frames at a yard sale and have been DYING to use them ever since.

When we moved back into our house, I was so excited to finally get my chance; unfortunately, we couldn't fit both beds in the room with the wide dresser we had at the time. So, in November I decided to sell the dresser on KSL and bought this really cute taller dresser instead.


And, of course, I already had my ADORABLE vintage quilt to complete the look. The problem was that now I had to find another quilt to put on the other bed that "matched" this one!


All my time was CONSUMED by looking for vintage quilts on EBay, KSL, Craigslist, Etsy, and several cute boutiques in Salt Lake. It really drove me crazy. I finally found this incredible quilt and actually bought it, but the lady couldn't find it and refunded the money (luckily) which is probably for the best since I don't think it would've matched anyway.


I finally realized that I wouldn't be able to find "just the right" quilt and couldn't really afford it right now anyways, so I just got a solid blue quilt that was on clearance at target. It actually looks pretty good.

crafts

In the process of looking for quilts, I stumbled upon THIS! These are pre-cut squares of vintage chenille that I found on EBay and just fell in love with. After many justifications, which I now somewhat regret, I decided I just HAD to make a baby blanket out of these squares. Well, now I've gotten myself into a project that's WAY over my head! If anyone out there knows how to sew chenille, I'd love some pointers!


And then there is the lovely distraction that my dear friend Amber introduced me to: homemade hair bows! Here is a picture of Emma with one of my homemade bows in her hair. They're super easy and fun (I think), and if anyone is interested, I think we should have a bow making party sometime!


And finally, in the "crafts" department, I have some antique picture frames that I want to use in the girls' room, but one is new and doesn't match the others. I tried painting it and antiquing it with sand paper, but it didn't turn out well. Does anyone have any pointers on how to "antique" things?

shopping for baby

Besides the normal urges to clean and organize every inch of my house, there have been some things I've needed to do to get ready specifically for baby to come. Back in November we got all our baby stuff out of my sister's basement where we had been storing it while we lived in our two bedroom apartment. Thanks to those good ole' nesting urges and not much storage room, I decided that much of my stuff was superfluous and/or too old to use. As mentioned above, I was already addicted to KSL Classifieds, so I got on once more to sell the old and buy the new (well, new for me anyways). I learned about expiration dates on car seats, and cringed a bit as I threw our old one in the dumpster. But all was forgotten when I found a cute one year old Graco Snugride (my personal fav.) on KSL for ONLY $25! I also bought a new-in-package boppy with a cute cover for only $15. And I had planned on selling my old swing and bouncer (which I did) and using the money to replace them both with the more compact portable swing. My sweet sister-in-law Chersten saved me the time and money by offering to let me use her adorable portable Boppy swing. It's SOOO cute and I'm super excited to use it!


There's probably more, but I'm tired of typing and I'm sure you're sick of reading. I still have three weeks and SO much to do, so, until next time...