Hooray for Change!

Among the things that have been changing around the Skousen household is my figure. I have been frustrated with it for quite a while, so I decided to do something about it. My friend told me about Weight Watchers and at first I was wary because I didn't want to do a diet plan where I would get to eat nothing and have to buy special food that tasted like crap and be unhappy all the time. Once she explained it, though, it sounded like the plan for me. The way it works is depending on your height and weight and activity level, you are given a certain amount of points each day, plus an extra 35 for the entire week for you to use as you wish. I love this part about the plan because it allows you to "splurge" if you want, or if you just want to eat a little more each day, you can. They also help you to make healthier choices by telling which foods are "Filling Foods", or foods that will leave you filling full for longer, such as fruit and veggies. I really liked it because you can eat whatever you want, but you have to be held accountable for it as well. So I decided to give it a try and in five or six weeks I have lost 11 pounds!! It really has been a good change for me, helping me to make better eating choices and make myself more aware of what and how much I am eating.

The Craftiness Returns!

I am proud to announce that my craftiness has returned once again! I took the difficult step of getting my sewing machine out and using it again, although not for the project above. For those of you who don't understand why this is so, it is because just about everything I did with my sewing machine since getting it for Christmas was to make things for Kaylie, so it has been really difficult to go back to using it. The lamp shade project was one shown on Make It & Love It a while ago and I thought I would give it a try since I have TONS of ribbon just sitting around and I think it turned out quite cute! And yes, this is for MY lamp shade, not Robert's! (I think he would kill me if I dared to even try to cutesy up his!)

The first order of business for me and my sewing machine to attend to were FIVE pairs of Robert's pants that needed mending (I know, I'm a horrible wife!), but after the work came the play. These are two grocery bag stuffers I made for my sisters, who had requested them eons ago, so I figured I might as well start there. These are made out of the fabric left over from the sheets I made for Kaylie and I happened to have great ribbon that went with each one. Anyways, just to show everyone what I've been up to lately - the craziness with craftiness returns! :)

Unique Giveaway

For those of my friends and family living in the Arizona area, on my favorite craft blog Make It and Love It another sponsor is doing a giveaway. This giveaway is for a photography session from a well-established photographer. It is worth $250!! The giveaway closes tonight at midnight, so get your little booties over there and get in the drawing! Hope you all have a great weekend!

Crazy Cowboy!

I know I've posted several movies of Sammy on his horsey already, but they just keep getting even better and I can't help but share them with you all because they are so fun to watch! It just shows his personality and what he has become over the days, weeks, months, and nearly year and a half (where did the time go?)

Summer Fun

Yesterday was finally warm enough to bring out this fun hose I bought a few weeks ago for Sam. It has little extensions that flip all over and make it fun to play in the water. As you can see, Sammy loved it!

Sammy enjoying his favorite snack - poptarts! He is just so dang cute, I can't get over him!

And here is my happy little guy sitting in his room. I was working on the computer in the office, when I heard him talking to himself. So I sneek a peak to find him sitting on the floor between his dresser and changing table, reading to himself. I didn't tell him to go read or anything, he just went in there and started entertaining himself - so cute! I am amazed that he has a love for reading already and am really excited, too!

Fish Story

So for Father's Day this year, Robert got a fishing trip to Flaming Gorge with my Dad and little brother Matt. This is a picture of the 30 pound fish he caught!!! I could not believe it when he called to tell me he had caught such a whoppin' fish, but I believed it when he brought home all the meat! He brought home 3 fish total, but it was enough meat for 10 dinners!! Sheesh! He had a great time, though and I'm glad I let him go do something fun - he deserves it!

A Bad Day Turned Good

So yesterday started out really terrible. I didn't really know why, but I was just sad all day. I just thought it was because Robert was gone and I was missing him. He surprised me by coming home early from his fishing trip and when he saw how sad I was, he said "Chica, go put on a nice shirt and I'm going to take you out on the town." Of course, what do we end up doing? Going to Sam's Club, but wait, the story gets better. Turns out Greg Olsen is there selling and signing his artwork!! I love Greg Olsen and Robert said to pick out whatever picture I wanted. So the above picture is the one we selected and we had him sign it to Kaylie.

Of course I started crying when he asked who we'd like it for and it was when we were telling him about Kaylie that I realized why I had been so sad - it was the two month anniversary of Kaylie's passing. Not that I didn't miss Robert, but I was also subconciously aware of the date as well. The above picture is of the sweet message he wrote to us on the back of the picture. He is such an amazing guy, let me tell you! And, when he wasn't talking to people, he was working on a painting right there in Sam's Club!

This is the picture in the beautiful frame we were able to get for it, thanks to Aunt Steph and Uncle Reeve! We both liked this picture the best for Kaylie because this reminds us of where she is right now - in the loving arms of our Savior.

And of course our shopping trip wouldn't be complete without Robert buying me two dozen GORGEOUS roses! :) He is so good to me!! So what started out as being a really sad, depressing day, ended with love and happy thoughts of our little angel in heaven.

(And just to clarify, I love shopping at Sam's Club and getting their polish dogs and pretzels afterwards, so it really was to cheer me up. We also got tons of frozen stuff to put in my new chest freezer, which was so much fun!)

To My Sam

I just have to make a post about my Sam Sam. He is so sweet and wonderful and I am so grateful I have him. He just makes me smile, no matter what he is doing. He just knows how to look so cute! I am so grateful Heavenly Father blessed me with this special little guy and that I get to be his buddy day in and day out. Even though I get frustrated with him when he hits or runs away and I can't find him (yeah, that happened for the first time yesterday, I about had a heart attack worrying if he had fallen in the ditch in front of our house; turns out he decided he would go play with our neighbor's toys), I can never really be mad at him. He brings so much joy and fun to our home, I can't imagine life without our Sammy.

News and Pictures

Our sweet Kaylie bug. She had had the breathing tube in for so long that it had given her a scab on her upper lip and her mouth wouldn't close all the way. She looks so beautiful and peaceful here, though. It took 45 minutes for Kaylie's heart to stop after removing the breathing tube, but we both felt her spirit leave long before.

We recieved the rest of the pictures from Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep and I thought I would post a few of my favorites. This is a wonderful service provided to families free of charge for children who have passed away or are going to after removal of life support, like Kaylie. The photographer came at 10:00pm to take these pictures for us and I will be forever grateful for the images she captured during Kaylie's last moments with us.

Her poor little feet were poked so many times. Her feet were so long and skinny, Robert's mom said she didn't have enough room for five toes, which is why they were all "jankity" (according to Aunt Candace). Her right toes were all squished up with two below and three on top and her fourth left toe was turned down and underneath all the others.

The picture of Kaylie holding Robert's finger is the best, but I like this one of me holding her hand in mine, too.

The nametag Candace made for Kaylie's bed while at Primary Children's Hospital. The warmer kept melting the glue, so we had to tape everything back on.

While in Utah, I also met with Kaylie's neonatologist to go over her liver biopsy and autopsy results. Again, we are left with no concrete answers and several major things ruled out. They believe that her genetic condition may have been the cause of the liver damage, ending in liver failure but because 50% of all infant liver failure cases never have a cause, they cannot say that with certainty. Kaylie's genetic condition was this: her #1 chromosome had a section that was missing and another section right next to it that was duplicated. Specialists have seen these in other people, but never both together in the same person, so it is difficult to know what that would have meant for Kaylie. So now the plan is we are having my genetics looked at to see if I have the same abnormality as Kaylie and if mine are fine, then we will look at Robert's. If his are fine, too, then this was just a fluke and we have very little chance of this happening again. If one of us has the same abnormality, then there is a 50% chance of having another child with the same condition. We don't know if that means that every child that has this will die just like Kaylie, though, so it is just a waiting game to see what the results tell us. Each set of testing takes weeks to come back, which is agonizing, but well worth the wait to at least be prepared with each pregnancy rather than being caught completely off guard again.

Trip to Utah

So my mom's knee surgery went really well and I am so glad I was able to go down and help out for the first little bit. These are the beautiful flowers Candace did so my Mom would have something beautiful to look at while in the hospital.

And, unfortunately the only other picture I took during the whole trip is this adorable picture of my little brother Matthew dead to the world with his hair all crazy. I just love my little brothers and the joy they bring to our family. I'm so glad my parents didn't give up on trying to bring some little guys into the family!

Awesome Giveaway!

There is a giveaway going on at Make It and Love It again, but this one is so cool! The lady is offering a pair of earrings or a baby bracelet as the giveaway item, so rush on over there and check it out, all my lady friends. The giveaway closes on Monday!

Playing with the Fishies

Need I say more? SO cute!!

Fishies!!!!

Yes, it has finally happened: we bought Sammy some fishies! You can see the amazement in his body language! When we got home, he went down for a nap and Daddy set it all up, so when he woke up, there were the fishies!

He absolutely loves them, and that they are at his level so he can see everything! We bought 10 bigger goldfish and the whole aqarium, light, filter and decor stuff. We originally bought a used tank and little table at DI and went to Petco to get the fish and the accessories. But when we checked out, we could not believe the total! How could these little tiny things cost so dang much? So we went over to Walmart and got an aqarium starter kit for less than half the price and will return the stuff to the other store. It still was more than what we were thinking it would cost, but we know it is worth it for our little guy. He just loves them so much!

I really like the little castle that we got for the fish to swim in and around! Once we determine that we can keep fish without killing them, we will consider getting bigger and prettier fish, but the goldfish are great for right now.

Saturday

So I tried my hand at renting a vendor's space at a flea/craft market to see how I would do. Here is a picture of my "stand" with Sammy keeping guard. I had around 70 cards available to sell.

And of course it was cold and drizzly, so I had to go buy this canopy at the last second, but it worked pretty well until the microbursts started coming. It was then that I decided to pack up and call it a day. All in all, it was a good thing to try. I made four sales, but with paying back the price of the booth and sales tax, I only made about 75 cents. Oh well!

These two are pictures of all the birds that were in our backyard yesterday. With all the rainstorms we have been having over the last few days, there are a ton of worms out and about and the birds have been enjoying quite a feast!

Haircut Time!

I finally got around to cutting Sammy's hair this morning. It has been way too long since the last time, but he looks adorable no matter what! I love the short, spikey hair!

All the hair I cut off, quite a bit for such a young feller! :)

Sammy likes to help comb his hair in the mornings. We usually get up, get dressed, have breakfast, then we spray his hair with water and either comb it or spike it, depending on how rebellious Mommy feels that day! :)

Flowers

These are the beautiful silk arrangements my fantastic older sister Candace helped make. The two she's holding are for Kaylie's grave. The light blue vase that says "Hope" goes by the front door and the other vase is the leftover Gerber daisies that I will have in my room.

A more detailed picture of the flowers for Kaylie. We ordered a vase with her headstone, so we will alternate these two arrangements so she will always have beautiful flowers to honor her.

This is my little table next to the front door. The picture is of Kaylie holding Daddy's finger - my favorite picture the "Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep" photographer.

And this is the other set of flowers on my "nightstand" (really just a box covered with the awesome quilt my older sister Corinne made for me). The plaque I got from Robert for Christmas reads "twinkle, twinkle little star, do you know how loved you are?" He knew he had to get it for me when he saw it because when we were engaged, he used to call me "estrellita", which means "little star" in Spanish. The willow tree box is one that my older sister, Candace gave me for Christmas one year and the picture on the right is my best friends and me from nursing school graduation.

Hammock Time

Mommy and Sammy going for a swing

Sammy is in heaven with Daddy and the hammock

Sammy doesn't like posing for pictures with Mommy

Look at that view! I think this was probably the best picture of the night

I look like a mummy in this one! Just monkeying around