Memorial Day

So, for the first time since my Grandma passed away in 2001, we were able to make it back to the grave sites in good old Gunnison, UT; my old stompin grounds. It was very interesting to learn more about my genealogy from my Aunt Sharon. She is amazing! She does so much of the genealogy work for the family, I don't know what we're going to do without her. I was also able to show Brian where I was born and lived until I was 7, it was kinda surreal. But, the best part was being there around Memorial Day (the Saturday before), and to remember my Grandpa Rosenlund who had served in WWII. It's hard to imagine that he was gone for 3 years!!!! My poor Grandma! And I thought that Brian being in Iraq for 10 months was rough...geez! It was also nice seeing other ancestors of mine, which was a lot that are buried in this cemetery. I don't know if I'll get back down there before we leave this area, so it was really nice to take the time and go put some flowers on their graves.

My Grandma's sister
My Grandparents. I love the headstone (is that weird?). I think that Brian and I will have to see about getting our headstone made in Utah so that we can get the Nauvoo temple put on it.

All decorated with our flowers

One of my great-grandpa's wives (not polygamist, just died then he remarried)

great grandpa

the other wife

another headstone of the 2nd wife (couldn't get it to turn the right way for some reason)

My grandpa's military plaque

more great grandparents

Katie's Graduation

So, after hanging out with Brett in Yellowstone, we went down to Manti, UT for Katie's High School Graduation. I can't believe my baby sister is all done with high school! I'm so old!!!! (Yes, I have my 10 year high school reunion this year!). I'm so proud of her, even if she's 4 inches taller than me:)

Her graduating class...much smaller than it would have been at Olathe South!

Us and Kate...awkward pic because my dad was taking it from a different angle, our camera had died...sad!

A calm moment during the ceremony. He was squirming or jumping around the rest of the time!

Darren and Kate

So cute!

Who knows! Nice shot of Kate's hat hair.

Must have been a good story

YEAH KATIE!!!!!

Precious

The graduate

I love water!

Also while Uncle Brett was in town, we went up to West Yellowstone and spent the night. Where we stayed had a pool that we all decided to go into. There were 2 hot tubs there, one nice and hot and the other was perfect for little Landen Man. He loved it! We might have swimmer in the making.

I know, it's a super hot picture of me with all my mascara running down my face!

Not sure what to think of the cold pool!

Like how huge his shorts are on him? Yes, he's still just a little guy!

Uncle Brett's Visit

Uncle Brett came to visit last week and he and Landen just hit it off...it was so cute! They just became the best buds. On a side note, Brian and Brett went dirt bike riding and tried to kill themselves (more like Brian tried to kill himself, and Brett tried to kill himself by trying not to run over Brian...forgot to take pictures of the damaged bodies).

Newest Trick

Landen has learned a new trick this week that is absolutely adorable! I call it the "army crawl", and I'm sure dad is so proud ;). It's so cute, if he has a toy a little to far away in front of him, instead of just rolling all around to get to it, he's learned that if he brings his legs up under him (sticking his little bum in the air), and pulls with his arms (hence the "army crawl") he can get to his toy. I love it, and he gets better at it everyday. But, that means I also need to start baby proofing my house since he's found a new fascination with electric cords...dang! Oh, and he also turned 8 months old yesterday! I know this is very repetitive, but I can't believe how quickly it goes by! He's so much fun, and gets soooo excited about everything. Oh, and his most favorite thing to do these days is jump, so we're going to see if we can find him a johnny jump up! I love this kid, and I'll try to get a video of his army crawl...cause it's soooooo dang cute (in case you weren't picking that up).

Bloody Mess!

LITERALLY! So, as some of you may know, my purebred, inbred boxer BJ has allergies. And to what, you may be asking...to his ENVIRONMENT! That's right, he's allergic to trees, grass, flowers and every other thing that is normal in a dog's environment...hence the inbred comment (his parents were brother and sister I'm pretty sure). Anyway, we've been giving him allergy shots, which I guess can take up to a year before you really notice a difference (AWESOME), but he still itches like crazy. Well, he was itching so bad this week that we took him to the vet, because he'd created sores on his ears and face from itching so much. Well this morning, he started itching AGAIN, and itched a scab off his ear and it wouldn't stop bleeding. Seriously, we tried everything! The vet had given us some little cauterizing sticks to try and stop it, didn't work, tried bandaging his ear, didn't work because he'd just shake is head, and the bandage would just come right off. So, after getting blood all over the walls and multiple floors, including the carpet, we called the vet and were told to bring him in. So, I ace wrapped his whole head, which he ended up shaking it all off anyway until it was around his neck, threw him in the car and took him to the vet. I tried to keep him in one spot, but it didn't matter, because he kept shaking his head, so there was blood all over the passenger window, seat, windshield, my glasses and clothes and on the outside of the car (he was hanging his head out the window at one point, for all I know he was spraying the cars behind us too!). Anyway, they ended up having to knock him out and do surgery on his ear, so his ear is a little smaller now. Apparently it wouldn't stop bleeding because it was right next to a big artery. So, now my poor dog is home and acting like a drunk. He can't walk in a straight line, and he can't even get up on the couch without some assistance. Poor baby! It only took a half hour to clean up all the blood...not too bad ;).

Random

Since my last post was pretty depressing, I decided I should probably put some pictures up of cute boy to lighten the mood a bit. So here's some pictures of ALL my handsome men/dog ;).

Now he'll just pull his glasses off his face and eat them.

A Mother's Day Tragedy

WARNING: This could be very depressing and rate high on the crying factor....you've been warned. So, I had to work today, which wasn't the tragedy by the way. We're talking about a person who's birthday is on Christmas, so working on a "holiday" isn't that major. Plus, Landen's not big enough to really care about Mother's Day anyway, but I digress from my story. I've found that writing out my thoughts helps me to cope with difficult situations, and today was VERY difficult. Without giving away too much information, because I want to keep my license, I had a very young patient pass away today. In fact, I had only seen this certain patient for a total of about 25 minutes before they stopped breathing, and their heart stopped beating. As a nurse, all I could do during the whole code was think, what could I have seen, what more could I have done!? The worst part of it was when the doctor went out and informed the family that the patient didn't make it. All I could think of was in the scriptures when they described a "wailing". Even the babies of the family members were screaming. It was the most horrible, traumatic experience I've been through! And, I just kept thinking of my own precious baby at home, and what I would be doing if that were my child that had just unexpectedly passed away, on Mother's Day of all days. This patient had literally gone from living a normal life 24 hours earlier, to passing away. Having the beliefs that I do, it's very comforting to imagine this patient being welcomed "home" by all previous family members, and what this patient, who had so much to look forward to, and to do in their life, was now going to be doing to continue on our Heavenly Father's work. I am continually amazed at how much Heavenly Father utilizes me to help some of his children, and it was comforting to me at least, that I was in the room, and attempting to do everything I could when my patient passed away. So, tonight I came home, shed some more tears for this poor mother who lost her "baby" today (even though I'd pretty much been crying off and on all day anyway), and snuggled my own just a little tighter. I am SO grateful to be a mother! The biggest thing that I can say from this whole experience is that mothers really do know when something is not right with their child. This mother did not leave her child's side the whole time, even though they were at the age to be considered an adult and could make their own decisions. She KNEW something was wrong, so trust yourself as a mother. Heavenly Father will help you protect your babies. Again, sorry for the depressing post, but I needed to get this off my chest. Brian really was sweet in trying to make the rest of my day a good one, but my heart is still aching for this poor mother and family on this Mother's Day.

Nothing better!

No one can make Landen laugh as well as Brian. They could seriously laugh all day, I love it!

Liz's Wedding

Yeah Liz for tying the knot! Dave is perfect for you!

What's going on?
Ahhh, presh!

The newly Mr. & Mrs. Batt

Ah, L'Amour

Roomate Reunion

So, I've been meaning to put these up here for awhile, but finally got around to unloading my camera today. Anyway, we were able to have a roommate reunion since our little Liz got married. It's been 8 years since we've all been together, which coincidentally was in Rexburg, so it was kind of fun reuniting right where we left off. It was so awesome seeing everyone again! We have been through so much together and quickly became best friends as roommates. So, 8 years and 12 kids later, we were finally able to hang out and reminisce over the "old days." (don't worry, not all 12 kids came along for the trip...just the mommies and most recent babies). Love ya girls and miss you already...let's not make it 8 years until we are ALL together again!

Linds (top), (left to right) Laurie and Issac, Me and Landen (duh), Kim and Kyle (Liz was off honeymooning, and Mel and Bella her baby had already left).

Here we all are with the blushing bride...yeah Liz!

Mel, Kim, Me, Laurie and Linds waiting for Liz to come out of the temple...so awesome that we could all be there!

Man, that was soooo long ago!

At our old apartment...Nauvoo 111

And the results are...

NEGATIVE!!!!! Landen does not have cystic fibrosis, but he most likely has restrictive airway disease, AKA "baby asthma" which our doctor tells us will most likely go away. We still haven't heard anything back about the chest x-ray, but having that one test done is a big sigh of relief. Thanks so much to all of you for your concern and prayers!

Holy Wow!

So, I was walking into sacrament meeting today and wondering what all the hold up was with the previous ward taking forever to exit the room, until I finally made it into the chapel and there was ELDER BEDNAR!!!!! He was up here because he was doing the CES broadcast in the Hart Auditorium later that evening, but it was kind of a shock to see him right there in person. It's not like I'd never met him before, because back in the day when I was going to Ricks College, and he was still the president, we'd see him all the time. I even chatted it up with his wife in a bathroom once, but it's amazing how different a person can "seem" when they are all of a sudden meeting with the prophet all the time. It was pretty amazing seeing him though, and too bad Landen was asleep, or I would have taken him up there to meet him. This is one of the things I love about Rexburg, and what I'm going to miss about our student ward!

More doctor visits, more tests, more drugs

We took my poor baby to the doctor AGAIN today as instructed by the doctor if he wasn't getting better. Now, we have a new prescription to try a different steroid, we have to go get him a chest x-ray today, and on Monday he's going to Idaho Falls to be tested for Cystic Fibrosis...scary! Since he was intubated at birth, he's at higher risk for what they call "baby asthma" which eventually goes away, and the doctor thinks that with as many times as I had pneumonia growing up that I probably have asthma and that's where he could get it from. Awesome! I only ran track for 4 years, and no one caught on then that I could have asthma? Really nice of me to share. He's doing all these other tests to make sure nothing major is going on. To be honest I'm really hoping it's just baby asthma and not Cystic Fibrosis...nasty, scary disease! So, if you could keep our little man in your prayers, that would be awesome (and maybe mom and dad so they don't go crazy!)