Mari turns 2

Last night we finally got pictures downloaded, so now we can share the pictured from Mari's Birthday. Our little girl turned 2 on July 8th. I still can't believe that she is 2. I can still remember the day she was born like it was yesterday, and now she is turning into a little girl.

We had a fun day on her birthday. We went to the library with Uncle David, who was visiting from Ohio, and then went and got some ice cream from Reed's Dairy. That night we went Ryan's T-ball game and then to Winger's that night. Mari was in heaven because she got to have her very on Iberts (root beer). That I'm sure made her birthday alone.

The next night my parents came up and we had pizza and opened presents. She was in heaven having an uncle and 2 grandpas and a grandma there to play with her. She was quite the little charmer, as usual, and made everyone laugh through out the whole night. It was a fun night for a fun little girl. We are so lucky to have her in our family.

Here she is with her cake. It was Pink, which is her favorite color. I had to make the "2" blue though, because that is Ryan's favorite color.
Sitting in her chair from Grandpa Johnston, also Pink, and her new My Little Pony.

She got a princess doll from Grandma Kris and Grandpa Oppie Oppie. She is loving princesses right now.

This is her new bike she got. It a tricycle, but we can steer it for her since she can't quite reach the petals yet. Once she is a little bigger we can take the handle out. It is awesome and she feels like such a big girl riding it.

Happy Birthday!!!

Today is Alan's 30th birthday, so I thought today would be a good day to say how lucky I am to be married to this man.

I honestly feel so lucky to have found a great man like Alan. He makes me laugh daily and does such a great job taking care of our family. He is one of the hardest working people I know, but still makes a real effort to be home at a decent hour so he can have time with the kids.

The other thing I love about Alan is he does such a great job making people feel comfortable and like he is their best friend. I remember there was a time when we were still dating and I visit taught this girl who was feeling a little left out amongst her roommates. She lived in an apartment full of gorgeous girls, so they got a lot of attention, especially from the opposite sex. One day my roommate Jodee and I decided to take her out to Jonny Carino's for dessert. Since Alan was working there at the time we requested him as our waiter. I pulled him aside and told him to make her feel special and to FLIRT with her. I was so impressed because he was so kind to her and was so sincere about it too. He complimented her and talked to her individually, but did not come across fake at all. On our way back to Rexburg this girl told me how lucky I was to have found such a great guy, and I had to totally agree.

I have to give a quick shout out to my in-laws, because they are the ones who raised and molded him to the person he is. This goes to my brother and sister-in-laws too. They are such great examples of what I hope my kids are like with each other when they are older. They have so much love and respect for each other, and most importantly they love to PLAY with each other. I know they had a hand in making Alan the person he is today as his parents did.

I know everyone says that they married their best friend, but I really did. We love to laugh and play together. He always puts my needs first. I am so lucky. Happy birthday Alan. I love you!

Now is the time!

I am writing this post more for myself than anyone else, so if you don't want to read it that is totally fine. I just feel I need to hold myself accountable, and there is no better way to do that then to make it public right?
Anybody that knows me knows that since I got married almost 6 years ago, I have been trying to lose weight. Growing up I never had to worry about my weight. I realize now that I was one of those girls that most people hated. I could eat what I wanted and not gain anything. If I did start to gain some weight I would just stop eating junk food for a few days and drop it pretty quick.
As soon as I got married, however, my physical activity dropped pretty quick (I wasn't running to get to class anymore), and I started to put weight on really fast. At first it was just 10 pounds, and then 30, and now 6 years later I am... well heavier than when I was in high school and college.
I think that because I never had to worry about my weight growing up I never learned to lose weight in a healthy and nutritious way. I find myself constantly getting on myself for not looking better and being healthier. I find myself comparing how I look to the people around me. I know that that is not a healthy or good road to go down.
I am finally at the point that I am done complaining and whining about it and really want to do something about it. I work out 3 times a week already with some girls in my ward, but I know I need to step that up to 4 or 5 times a week. I also need to give up my treats, which honestly is going to be the hardest thing for me to do!!!
I know that I may never get back to what I was 6 years ago, I have had 2 kids. My body has changed. I just want to get in a healthy weight zone and be healthy!!
Like I said before, this post is really more for me, but if anyone did actually read it and has good advice or good words of encouragement I would totally appreciate them!! I am hoping that in the near future I can post that I have had success. Wish me luck!

Girls just want to have fun!!!

Last weekend I had the opportunity to go to Salt Lake with some awesome friends. It was my friend Kirsten's birthday and we decided that we needed a break from mommy hood. Neither of us had left our kids before, so we were each other's support system and both of us did very well.

Kirsten had the genius idea to call some of our other friends that live down in Utah to join us. Lucky for us they could totally make it! We had a great time and it was so much fun to catch up.

We got down to Salt Lake Friday night and met up with Jennifer. Kirsten was able to find us a nice hotel right across from the Gateway. We went to dinner that night and did some window shopping. Then we ended back at our room and talked until 2:30. We all thought we would be able to sleep in since we didn't have any kids to wake us up, that was not the case. Sure enough we were up by 8:30 the next morning.

We got ready and walked to a waffle place that Kirsten had heard about. It was incredible. It was called Burges waffles. I totally recommend it to anyone who visits Salt Lake. They were heavenly!!!!

After that we met up with our friend Alita and went to IKEA. It was my first time every being there and I have officially fallen in love with that place. I got 3 things for under $10. I couldn't believe it. We then headed over to the Cheesecake factory, which was also awesome.

We went back to the hotel room and talked some more, because that is what girls do best. Alita and Jennifer left us at about 11:00 and Kirsten and talked so more until about 3:00. We are crazy!!!

It was such a wonderful weekend, and something that I hope we do again. It was great to be with good friends and not have to worry about naps or if the restaurant is kid friendly. I love being a mommy, but it was exactly what I needed. Thank you Kirsten for having the idea and letting me invite myself. It was so great!!!

I swear we are alive

So, I have had a couple people comment on my lack of blogging. I really thought that I would blog all the time once I started this, but have obviously not. Part of the problem is that I am totally not good when it comes to technology, so I have to wait for Alan to show me how to download our pictures from our camera. I know that is kind of pathetic, but it is the truth!
We have had a couple fun things happen these last couple of months. The first being that we went down to Utah to see my family at the beginning of April. This was the first time that my whole family has been together in about 5 years. My nephew Isaac was being baptized, and so everyone traveled to Utah for it and spent the week together. There was a lot of playing and other crazy things going on. Ryan loved seeing his cousins, and made me realize that we really need to be better about getting him together with them. He loves them and talks about them all the time. The other thing I realized is that I do not like being a single mother. Alan could only stay for the weekend, so the rest of the time I was alone. I was so tired by the end of the trip. It really made me realize what a big help and good daddy he is. I was so grateful for him by the time we got home!!!
Some other exciting news is that we got Ryan signed up for preschool next year. We have been doing a neighborhood preschool with him this year, but decided that he needs a more structured setting and consistency to get him ready for Kindergarten. He is very excited about it. I just can't believe that he is almost 5. Time really does fly!! He is getting so grown up and making us laugh more and more with the funny things he says and does. That is kind of a mass overview of our last couple of months. It has been fun and crazy, but I love it that way. Hopefully I can get some pictures up of our Utah trip soon. It is always fun to share those pictures.

The results are back

We finally got Mari's test results back. It took 5 weeks, but they are here.
All the results came back normal, which is great news. They wanted us to do the 4-hour test to check her growth hormone levels. We found out however, that our insurance will not cover the test. The fact that they would be injecting her with medicine to make the growth hormone be released they would not cover it. We thought about just paying for the test ourselves, but found out that the test is $300 at the cheapest.
The doctor told us just to hold off doing the test and we will take her back in at the end of the summer to get reevaluated to see if the test even needs to be done.
Until then we will continue feed her as much as we can and hopefully get her to grow on her own.
Thanks again to everyone for your concern. It was always so nice to have people ask me how things were going with the tests. It is so nice to know that we have so much support from everyone.

An update on Mari

We have had a lot of people curious about what we found out at Mari's doctor appointment last week, so I thought I would let you all know what happened.

For those of you that may not be totally aware of the situation with Mari here is a little update. Mari is very tiny for her age. She is only 15 pounds and 26 in. long, and is 20 months old. She is very petite. She was born normal size, but from the beginning of her life they have been worried about her lack of growth. At about 9 months they finally referred us to a specialist in Salt Lake. At first we were just encouraged to increase her calorie intake thinking that would help. They also ran a lot of tests to check her hormone levels. Everything came back normal, so once again we were told to try to fatten her up. It seemed to be helping because she was starting to put on weight and grow a little.

When we down last week I was pretty confident that the doctor was going to pat us on the back for doing so well. She had grown a whole inch and almost a whole pound. That was unfortunately not the case. He was impressed with her weight gain, but he is still worried about her lack of growth in the height area. He told us that her weight is following a consistent curve, her own curve since she is off the charts, but a consistent one. Her height on the other hand is not doing that.

He is having us rerun the tests for her growth hormone. We also had to get a hand x-ray to check for bone growth. If these test come back normal than we have to do a test called the 4-hour test. They will basically inject something to make her body release the growth hormone to see if it is releasing the right amount. It does not sound like it will be a fun day for her if we have to get it done.

That is what we know right now. To be totally honest I have never been way worried about the situation because I always attributed her littleness to genes, but after this visit it made me realize that there really could be something medically wrong with my little baby. I am just hoping and praying that she will be OK. It does make me extremely grateful for modern medicine and for the doctors that have stayed concerned about her and not just put her aside. We were told that if there is something wrong with her, we are lucky it will be caught so early.

We are grateful for that little girl. She may be small, but she really does bring a lot of joy into our family and everyone she comes into contact with.

We will keep you all updated once we know the results to all the test. Thank again for all your concern.