2016

2016 brought our family so much joy and was a great year for our family.  I can't wait to share with you all the wonderful things that 2016 had to offer our family.  T.J. developed a love for the snow and was so excited to make his first snow man.

My team took 1st in Pom at the Regional competiton and 2nd in Show Routine...I couldn't be prouder.

T.J. continued to thrive in Preschool and loved it!  Every day he would ask me if he could go to preschool.  He made some great friends and came home with some darling crafts.

On St. Patrick's day, our family headed to Disneyland again for Cheer Nationals.  It was CRAZY busy but still so much fun!  T.J. was tall enough to go on a lot of rides, including Splash Mountain.  He loved going on "Water Mountain" and wanted to go on it again and again.  The first time he went on it he sat in the front seat and he still wasn't scared!  The second time he went, he put his hand up.  I was afraid he would fall out so I held on to him to keep him safe.

We weren't able to go on very many rides because it was so busy and I had gotten super sick on the trip and wanted to go back to the hotel.  I pretty much went to the cheerleading competitions, rode 1 or 2 rides and went back to the hotel to sleep.  I was so proud of my team this year, they killed it!  We made it to finals and placed 4th in the Nation in Small Co-Ed Varsity Advanced.  There were over 25 teams in our division and they kicked butt!

For the past few years, we had been trying to have another baby.  We had been trying unsuccessfully to get pregnant and were only able to on clomid, which resulted in several miscarriages.  We had had enough and in January started seeing a fertility specialist.  After Disneyland, and me being so sick I was hopeful that the new treatment may have worked and I might actually be pregnant again.    It was still too early for me to test but when we got home, I took the test anyway and to my surprise it turned positive immediately.  I was beyond ecstatic and texted Tyson immediately!  The next morning, I called my doctor's office to notify them of my positive test.  Being cautious, they had me come in to check my HCG levels...sure enough, I was pregnant and my levels were really high and continued to get higher.  We were actually going to have a baby this time!  His due date was set for November 25, the day after Thanksgiving.  This was the best news ever!

Prior to going to Disneyland, T.J. kept begging us for another dog.  He would cry at night about how much he missed Max.  We decided we would let him get a small dog but it had to be the right one.  We told him that we would start looking once we got home from Disneyland.  When we got back, as promised we started looking for a dog of "T.J.'s own".  He had 1 piece of criteria, the dog had to be small enough for him to carry.

Within a week of being home, we happen to find the perfect dog for our family.  He name is Molly and we just adore her!  She was an 8 lb. yorkie jack russell terrier mix about 1 1/2 years old.  Her and T.J. clicked instantly!  Sadie even liked her which was an important thing we needed to make sure of before bringing a dog home.  Molly had a lot of interest and we were worried that we wouldn't get her because we had a young family and usually little dogs don't like little kids.  To our surprise, the adoption center wanted a situation just like ours for Molly and although we weren't the first applicants for her, they let us have her and she has thrived in our home.

 In May, my dad paid for us all to go on a cruise.  It was so much fun!  We left out of California and went to Catalina Island as well as Ensenada, Mexico.  Mexico was a blast!  We were able to experience some really neat opportunities!  We went to La Bufadora, a natural water spout.  The water blew up so high it made T.J. a little nervous.  It took quite a bit of persuasion to get him to sit on the wall for a photo but it was a great family photo op.

 Also in Mexico, T.J. and were able to hold, feed, and pet a baby leopard.  It was such a neat experience.  T.J. LOVED the boat.  He thought it was so cool.  From the boat we were able to see a pod of whales.  There was also a lot of fun entertainment aboard the boat.  T.J. loved the kids club where he could go and do all sorts of fun activities.  He loved going to the pirate activity.  They did face painting and went on a treasure hunt.  It was so nice to have a great place for him to go hang out while Tyson and I could go see some of the shows on board.  They also had a miniature golf course, waterslide, and splash pad which T.J. loved!  He loved having so many fun things at his finger tips.  We had no idea a cruise could be so much fun and we look forward to going on many more cruises.

While we were on the trip, I made it to 13 weeks and we decided what better way to announce our growing family then at the beach?!?  So we shared this sweet little photo on social media to let the world know T.J. was getting a sibling.

When we returned from the cruise, T.J. completed his first year of preschool.  He grew so much during the year.  His speech skills improved the most.  He learned all his letters and sounds.  He had a  lot fun at preschool and it prepared him to begin learning to read!  Here is a photo from T.J.'s last day of preschool.

  At 20 weeks, we had a gender reveal party to see if we were going to have a boy or a girl and there was not question about it, our baby was a boy!  T.J. wasn't thrilled, he really wanted a sister but as time went on, he came around; it may have taken a little bribery on our end but he got excited about having a brother when we told him that he could play cars with his brother and we would give him a cool big boy room.  T.J. really wanted bunk beds so in his cool big boy room, we got him bunk beds and told him he got them so that he could share with his brother.  If he had a sister coming, he wouldn't be getting a bunk bed.  After that, T.J. was thrilled to be getting a brother and kept saying that his brother was going to have orange hair.  We don't know where that came from.

T.J. was asked to be in some preschool videos during the summer.  He is my little movie star.  He did a great job in the videos and has been asked back several times.  I don't love how they treat the kids so I don't think he will do any more but it was fun to see the finished product and to see him in these preschool videos.  He did two videos, the first one he did was "No More Superheros Jumping on the Bed."  T.J. was the doctor, making him one of the most seen characters in the video.  They were so impressed with how well he did at following directions and learning his lines.  During this shoot, they were able to get him on the first take and didn't need to do several takes.

His second video was the "3 Little Pigs."  He DID NOT love being dressed up as a pig but I sure thought he looked cute.  He had to dance in this video and when people see this video, they are impressed with his moves.  Tyson thought they did a body double because his moves were so impressive.  It was a lot of fun watching him do these videos and a great experience for him.  I'm sure he will enjoy looking back at them when he gets older.

T.J. turned 4 this year.  I was very tired from being pregnant and didn't throw T.J. a big birthday party.  Instead, we had a day of celebration with the family.  My mom and I took him to breakfast at Village Inn.  Following we spent the day at Cowabunga Bay and he was so excited that he could ride a lot of the waterslides.  He was so brave and insisted on riding them all by himself.  He is so independent and growing so fast!  He had a blast!  Following Cowabunga bay, we had dinner at home, his choice...Noodles and Tomato Juice 😜(gross! He must be Tyson's son).  After dinner we headed to Leatherby's with my mom, dad, and Stephen.  T.J. was spoiled by his uncle and grandparents.  His favorite gift was a fish tank.  He had been wanting fish and Grandpa got him a fish tank and took him to pick out fish.  We let him put it in his new room and he loves it!  I can't believe how fast time has gone.  I love this sweet boy and am so lucky to be his mom.

One of the things I loved about T.J. this year was how he always wanted to catch "bad guys" and was constantly making "booby traps" around our house and he wouldn't let me put them away because he didn't want the "bad guys" to get in.  He is so creative and loves to build things.  I wonder if he will be an engineer like his dad.

The following week, T.J. started preschool again through Granite School District and an online preschool provided free through the state called Up Start.  T.J. was a little sad to be going to a new preschool but we were hoping his new preschools could prepare him well for Kindergarten.

In September, Tyson's parents and sister Rachele came to visit.  We had a great time with them.  We went to the lake and messed around in the water.  It was a lot of fun.  This was our first time paddle boarding and we had a lot of fun doing competitions.  T.J. enjoyed playing in the water and building sand castles with his cousin Ava.

 Tyson's mom refurbished a sewing machine and gave us a sewing lesson.  Tyson picked it up pretty quickly and altered one of his dress shirts and pants.

 We took Tyson's parents up to the cabin and showed them around on the ATV.  It was a lot of fun.  We later met up with Rachele and went for a walk at Draper Park to see the zebras, ostrich, horses, etc.  We love walking the Draper trail to visit the fun animals. It was so cute because T.J. and Ava insisted on holding hands everywhere we went.  It's so fun that T.J. has so many cousins and that he has so much fun with them,

 We also took this opportunity to visit Temple Square.  The kids loved exploring and seeing all that Temple Square has to offer.

Also in September, T.J. took a big sibling class to prepare him to be a brother.  He learned to feed a baby, help change a diaper, and how to hold a baby.  He passed with flying colors.  T.J. has always been a good helper and I knew he would be a fantastic helper to his brother.

3 days before Spencer was born

On November 18 around 7 am, I woke up with some contractions.  I took a bath to see if the contractions would stop but they didn't, they got worse!  I told Tyson as he was going to work to keep his phone close, we are having a baby today.  I then called my mom and told her what was going on.  She was a little hesitant to think that Baby Spencer was really on his way because it was still a week before his due date and he was scheduled to be induced on the 20, but she told me to keep her informed.

As the day progressed, my contractions got more regular and stronger.  There was no ignoring, labor had started.  To help things along, T.J. and I started walking the neighborhood, I couldn't even walk to the end of our street without bending over from the contractions.  Around noon, I was supposed to meet Tyson at the car shop to get his car fixed.  On the way there, the contractions got so intense, they took my breath away and I had to pull over a few times.

After being at the car shop for an hour, we decided that we were going to go to the hospital because my contractions were regular enough and I was in pain.  We called my mom to meet us at our house to watch T.J. so we could go.  When I went to go start my car, my car battery had completely died!  They tried to jump it but it wouldn't start, we needed a completely new battery!  Luckily, we were at the car shop!  By the time we got home, it was about 2:30.  We left T.J. with my mom and headed to the hospital.

By the time we got to Intermountain Medical Center, it was about 3 pm.  They took our information and took me to a room to get checked out.  Indeed I was in labor but was only measuring a 4 and 75% effaced.  They probably would have sent me home for a few hours but my preeclampsia reared its nasty head again and my blood pressure we unsafely high so they told me I was here to stay and that they were going to speed things up and hopefully baby would be here around 8pm.

I was given pitocin, an epidural, and magnesium to help lower my blood pressure and prevent me from seizing.  The magnesium did just that, except it plummeted which caused me to pass out.  They had to then give me medication to stop the labor completely to get my blood pressure regulated.  This was around 5pm.   By 7pm, my blood pressure was still high but  it was in the 130's veruses the high 170's low 180's.  Because they had stopped my contractions completely, they started the pitocin again and broke my water.  I was still at a 4, maybe close to a 5 and my doctor said he would see me around 7 the next morning since it would probably take awhile for my body to kick into labor again.

Spencer, was eager to make his appearance and at midnight I was at a 10 and ready to push.  Around 12:30, my doctor arrived and they prepared to deliver our baby boy.  My doctor was surprised that Spencer was coming so quickly but we sure were excited to meet him.  After about 20 minutes of pushing, Spencer joined our world with red hair!  I remember I was in shock because T.J. had been saying all along his brother would have orange hair and I never thought in a million years he'd be right!

Because of my hemorrhaging with T.J. I was so nervous that I would miss out on this birth too.  My doctor was well prepared and although I still hemorrhaged a lot, they had the medicine they needed so that I could enjoy this moment.  I was able to do skin-to-skin and snuggle with Spencer immediately after they got the meconium out of his lungs.  I never wanted to let him go.  My heart was so full that the baby we had wanted for so long had finally arrived and was in my arms.

The next day, T.J. was able to come and meet his new brother.  He was so excited and couldn't wait to hold him.  I think he was just as excited as Tyson and I were.  Spencer was such a good baby and was so patient with his brother holding him.  He had several other visitors that came to visit him and he was so sweet to let them all hold him.

Spencer was famous in the nursery.  All the nurses were talking about the cute red headed boy.  He had so much hair and they nurses loved holding him.  Everyone knew who he was and thought he was just the cutest baby!

From birth, Spencer was a snuggly boy.  He loves being held and snuggled!  We had to keep him swaddled so that he would sleep.  The swaddling helped him feel safe and he wouldn't sleep unless he was swaddled.

During Spencer's first two weeks home, we had photos taken 4 times!  We had newborn photos scheduled and wanted some family photos taken but during the first shot of us, Spencer pooped all over me!  Needless to say, we took a couple more photos and ended the shoot.  I then called another photographer and scheduled a family session, no nude photos this time :) It was so nice to have updated family photos so quickly.

The following week, we took Spencer to meet Santa!  He did so good!  I think he was still in his newborn coma but I was glad we got some good photos.  We also had a neighbor that is learning photography that took some photos.  Here are some of the cute photos we had taken of Spencer.

This is the photo where Spencer pooped on my, hence how we all have weird smiles

The week after having Spencer, we were given some lower bowl tickets to the Jazz game.  I couldn't go because we didn't want Spencer out and about so Tyson took T.J. for a Father's Son night.  T.J. LOVED being at the game and had so much fun!  He had never been to a basketball game before and he got all in to it.  He was yelling and cheering the whole time.  The other fans around him thought it was great and had fun watching him.

T.J. continued with dance this year and he killed it!  He was the star of the show showing off his moves.  Everyone was cheering him on and loved watching him!  This kid has got some moves, world watch out!

Here are some more of my favorite photos from 2016.  We sure loved 2016!  It was a great year!