Charlie had more attention from a girl than he ever has in his life lol
The next afternoon, we took the boys sledding up at Aspen Grove. We had these new awesome sleds from Christmas, but the snow had been so poor this year. We really had to search for the snow up the canyon. We finally found a decent hill at Aspen Grove. We had cookies and hot chocolate waiting for us in the car as we finished sledding. On the drive home we spontaneously decided to stop for dinner at Sundance, at the Foundry Grill. We decided this would represent our anniversary dinner (even though we had the boys with us). Our actual anniversary is on December 27th. Usually we are still with family on this day for the holidays. This particular year I was still feeling very sick so we didn’t really do much on the actual evening. Since I was feeling well this particular evening we went for it and I’m so glad we did. The food and atmosphere were top notch! Even the boys appreciated it and acted accordingly. Overall, it was a day of great memorable moments.
Colson and his goofy faces lately
The weeks leading up to January I had been busy taking pictures of all of the Primary kids for our 2018 Bulletin Board. The theme was I Am a Child of God.
Next to Jason’s birthday! Nancy took the boys for a sleep over while Jason and I got dinner at Maria Bonitas. Yum! And then we went to the movie The Darkest Hour. It was an interesting movie about Winston Churchill...not our first choice of theater movies, but we had slim pickin’s. The next morning I took him to Joe’s Cafe for breakfast (a very popular breakfast place in Orem). After breakfast we went to pick up the boys and the Gruber guys installed the new light fixtures for George and Nancy. We had gifted them new ones for Christmas. We also celebrated his birthday with Sunday dinners; both dinners we did sous vide Tri Tips. I had gifted Jason a sous vide for our anniversary. It was a fun, surprising gift that we have really enjoyed. A sous vide is basically a device that allows you to cook your meat in a water bath for a long period of time at a very regulated temperature, helping you to achieve the perfect “doneness”.
Our dates:
The boys at Grubers:
sous vide tri tip
Sunday celebrations:
The real birthday morning breakfast
The boys at Grubers:
sous vide tri tip
Sunday celebrations:
The real birthday morning breakfast
This month we were very busy prepping and shopping for our cruise we were about to take at the end of the month.
I finally finished the season of So You Think You Can Dance with Jaleah. She would come to watch it in the afternoons and we would have a good time eating lunch and chatting. She would bring Conrad and my boys would be happy to see them when they got home from school.
My sickness and pain continued. I was in despair and very emotional not knowing what the problem was, fearing the doctors wouldn’t be able to help me and that it would continue my entire pregnancy. My symptoms were cramps, butt contractions, hip pain, and lightning crouch. What I describe as butt contractions were basically waves of intense pain like I had diarrhea, but nothing would come out. I desperately started drinking TONS of water. And of course, that resulted in frequent peeing. I was miserable and anxious. I went to the doctor and they found blood in my urine (but then that is not that unusual because it runs in my family as a carrier of Alport Syndrome). I did a kidney ultrasound (they could only do an ultrasound since I was pregnant). They didn’t find any kidney stones, but the nurse was able to tell me that she thought the baby was a boy. By the end I was happy to be in on the gender secret early, but confused and concerned about what was wrong with me.
About a week later, I peed a giant kidney stone. I’m not sure how the ultrasound missed it; perhaps it was already too far down. No clue. But I definitely peed out a rock and from that point on I was feeling much better and much relieved that I wouldn't be dealing with this insanity while on the cruise that was a week away.
Before leaving on the cruise I got the Anatomy ultrasound at the OBGYN. Everything looked good and they confirmed that it was indeed a boy!
sweet little profile
I had a Girls Night with my PG friends. We had dinner at Bona Vita and then gelato at Harmons. We had a great time chatting all night.
Jason and I checked out a duplex in Salt Lake and put in an offer. As a way for passive income and retirement fund, we decided we would start purchasing rental properties. The duplex in Salt Lake looked like a good price and good option. It all happened a little fast, but we had to move on it in order to secure it before we left on our cruise. Our offer was accepted but we ended up backing out of it after we got back due to Meth being found during the inspection and the sellers weren't willing to deal with it. The Earnest Money also ended up being a fiasco, but I don't want to go into that.
A few days before we left for the cruise, I got a horrible sore throat. I went for a strep test, just in case there was any chance at all it could be eliminated with some antibiotics. Unfortunately, it was not strep and I just let it run its course.
And then we were gone and away on our Disney cruise with the Arbons. I will post about that next.
Here are more pictures from the month:
Our own beautiful cutting board made by Uncle Kent!
a new succulent
the name of his new stuffed dog from Christmas, "Scotty"
More sledding time with the new sleds, this time at the nearby cemetery:
at Costco
bounty for a YM activity
