Longest Post Ever

I have a lot to catch up on....so get comfortable!

A few weeks ago Abby had her VERY FIRST HAIRCUT. I took her over to her aunt's house and she trimmed it up a bit and gave it a nicer shape.

My, oh my. Almost 4 years old and this is her first haircut! She wasn't too happy about sitting in the highchair, but overall she did pretty well.

Spencer had his 18-month check up....a little late...like almost 3 months late...that's just how we roll these days.

 He is still in the 10th percentile for weight (he only gained 2 pounds since his 12-month visit!) but he is 95th for height. The other night we were watching old videos of Abby from when she was a baby. So many times Anthony and I looked at each other and said, "That's a Spencer face." Her laugh sounded just like Spencer's does. And when she would say "hi" it sounds just like Spencer. There are a lot of things about Spencer that remind me of Abby. I will admit that I was less than excited to find out I was pregnant with him though. He was a major surprise and it took me several months to finally be ok with the idea of having another baby at that time. But having him here in our family (and having him come at the time that he did) has been quite a blessing throughout all of this. Some days he is the only reason I have to smile. He definitely pushes my buttons and makes certain aspects of our crazy life even more stressful, but Heavenly Father knew what He was doing when He planned this one. He knew how much I would need Spencer. And He knew that if we waited until we thought we were ready (meaning when I thought I was ready) then I would most likely have been pregnant when Abby went into the hospital. I think it goes without saying that I am grateful Spencer was born before  that. He is a very active young man and almost has more energy than I can handle! He is very talkative and picks up new words almost every day. His favorite book is "Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?" Actually, that's the only book he will sit down and let you read to him. I think his favorite place to be is sitting on my lap. And I most certainly will not complain about that! He gives real kisses now and I just can't get enough of them. I thought about a lot of other things I wanted to say about him, but now I can't remember what they were...so I will end by saying that he LOVES his big sister. He loves to pull her hair and steal whatever toy she picks up... But I can tell that there is still a special bond between them. When I go in his room in the morning he doesn't acknowledge me, but instead says "Abby?" He wakes up thinking about her. And he is so sweet when he gives her hugs and kisses. I love that in his mind there is nothing wrong with her. I have been showing him old pictures of Abby where she is smiling and he knows instantly that it's her. It surprised me when I didn't have to tell him. He already knew. That made me happy.

We made another trip to San Diego in the middle of July and stayed with my parents for a long weekend.  The main reason for the trip was because Anthony signed up to run a 5K with this guy.

 This guy is one of Anthony's best friends (and he just happens to be the husband of MY best friend... how convenient). The run was put on by the San Diego Chargers - definitely Anthony's favorite football team (and will be until the day he dies!). My friend and I waited with our kids at the finish line, inside the Chargers' stadium.

Breakfast time.

Abby wouldn't sit still in the seats, so I strapped her into a stroller for her breakfast.

Spencer would not be his father's son without proper Chargers attire - from head to toe.

The first person to finish the run came in at just over 15 minutes. Fifteen minutes! To run 3.2 miles?! Crazy. Can you spot our men?

Yay Daddy!

A congratulatory pat on the back...sort of.

First attempt at a family picture.

Final attempt at a family picture.

Theirs turned out better.

 

And here is Abby, doing what she does best these days...shoving her fingers down her throat until she pukes all over herself.

She does this when she is upset about something, or in other words, all day long. I won't go into too much detail about it because it makes me so mad. I should explain though, that her previously random vomiting stopped shortly after her eye surgery at the beginning of the year. It was her crazy eyes that were making her sick. That makes perfect sense. A few weeks later, she started making herself throw up, and I have no tolerance for that whatsoever.  But my friend caught this picture of Abby in action after the run, and I decided I just had to share it.

Because of what you saw in that last picture, I do a ridiculous amount of laundry. When we went through our last jug of Costco laundry soap in just over a month, I decided it was time to make my own soap. I came across a really great 'recipe' and decided it was worth a shot. I bought about $28 worth of 'ingredients' and went to work.

 Spencer helped...by eating the Zote soap.

Both kids helped stir it all together.

Isn't it pretty? I've been using it for a couple weeks now and I just love it! I smells nice and it gets the clothes clean, which is all I really care about. But the best part is that it will last FOREVER! One regular sized load only uses 2 TBS of detergent. Two tablespoons!! So cool. My only complaint, if you can call it that, is that since my washer and dryer are in the garage, and it is still the middle of summer (yes, I said middle  not end ), the heat makes it clump up and get hard. Meaning, I have to pick at it a bit to loosen it up. But picking away at 2 TBS really isn't much of a chore, so I'll take it.
 If you are interested, you can find out how I made this wonderful stuff here.

I also read another book. An 804 page book. In 3 weeks! Go me. I said I wouldn't. I said I couldn't. But a week after I finished that other book, there was a huge void left behind. I was so hungry for a book that I couldn't stand it. I tried going back to "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff" and also finished ALL the conference talks from April, which I have NEVER done before. I was proud of myself. But I needed a story. I decided I wanted to read about pioneers. After watching the movie, "17 Miracles" several months ago, I have been aching to learn more about pioneers. I have never been interested in pioneer stories before. They always seemed so boring to me. Well, I must not have been listening very well because there is nothing boring about pioneers! They are amazing and full of faith and inspiration. I was hoping some of that might rub off on me if I read a book about them. So I decided on "The Undaunted" by Gerald Lund (who also wrote the "Divine Signatures" book that Anthony and I read while Abby was in the hospital. I had remembered that he used a lot of pioneer examples in that. He also wrote "The Work and the Glory" series). This book is the story of the Hole in the Rock pioneers. I'd never heard of them before. No surprise there though...seeing as how the only thing I knew about pioneers was that the 'pioneer children sang as they walked, and walked, and walked and walked.' But this was a remarkable story about a remarkable group of men and women. I started it the week before we went to San Diego. When we arrived at my parents' house, I was surprised to see a copy of the book sitting on the desk in the room Anthony and I were staying in. I told my mom that I was reading that same book and she told me that my Grandma had given it to them. My grandma had written a little note inside explaining that a man in this group of pioneers was my father's Great-Great Grandfather. Super cool! I was excited about that. This man, Jens Nielson, had previously been a part of the Willie Handcart company, and now was one of the leaders of the Hole in the Rock expedition. The book goes into some detail about this man and his experiences, but I definitely want to learn more. So I have some research to do. There were a couple of other things that I liked about the book too. One of the main characters is named Abby. And the day that the main company left to begin this trek was on my Abby's birthday...in 1879. I really did love every minute of it though. And instead of going to bed on Friday night, I stayed up until 2 AM to finish the last 150 pages. Crazy? Yes. But Friday was a really hard day and that night I just needed to get lost in something. It worked out great.

 

I almost forgot what today is. One year ago today, Abby was discharged from the hospital and we finally got to bring her home. We were so excited to actually be home, together, after 11 weeks.

 

Just before bed the night before.

We finally got the discharge papers and were cleared to leave just before 7PM.

Home at last. She fell asleep before Anthony even finished the book.