A Much Happier Post :)

This last week I made kind of a last minute decision to meet my family in Disney World (due to the circumstances of this last month I thought it might be a good idea to go to the "happiest place on earth" right? :) ) . My niece Kaylee, who my parents have adopted, has a life threatening heart condition so she was granted a wish trip from the Make a Wish Foundation and Give Kids the World. Some of you may know that my sister Ashley (the one at BYU) had cancer 3 times when we were growing up so she was actually granted a wish trip to Disney World also when we were 6 & 7 years old. A lot has changed there between then and now but both experiences were absolutely wonderful. I think that's the most fun I've ever seen Kaylee have. It was so fun to watch :) Brody had a really fun time to!! He was such a trooper the whole time and I'm constantly amazed by what a good baby he is. The only thing that would've made it better was if Jared had been able to come. We missed him a lot, but he was working in Kansas City. We just got back today but I wanted to get these pictures up so Jared could see what we did this week. We got to see him for an hour in the airport before he took off, which just wasn't enough time to look through our pictures and explain our trip :) I know sometimes posts from vacations can get monotonous, so I hope this isn't too bad. If you care to read all the way through it, there really are some cute pictures and funny stories of my Brody boy :) Oh, and I need to preface our appearance in these pictures. It was 90+ degrees the whole week with around 90% humidity. I thought I would die and our looks verify that. I haven't been that hot in so long, so please excuse the sweatiness!

Brody's very first ride ever was the Dumbo ride at the Magic Kingdom. He just sat back and let the wind blow in his hair. It was so funny! This is Brody, Kaylee, and I (oh, with Dumbo of course!)

This is my sister Ashley and my other niece who my parents adopted, Cheyenne :)

We all got to meet several of Mickey's Pals and Princesses. Unfortunately none of my pictures of Brody with the princesses turned out, but hopefully someone in my family's did and I'll be able to post them. When he met Cinderella his mouth dropped open and remained wide open the whole time he was staring at her. I don't know if he was thinking about kissing her or eating her, but he was enamored by Cinderella!! This is Brody with Pluto and Goofy. He's in the phase right now where he has an obsession with noses, so of course that's all he wanted to do was touch their noses!!

These pictures are from the famous "It's a Small World After All" ride. I think this was Kaylee's favorite ride, I don't think I've ever heard her laugh that hard. Truthfully I'm not sure what was so funny, but it was fun to see her so happy!! This is Kaylee and my Dad. The other picture of Brody on this ride just cracks me up. His face pretty much says it all. I think the whole week he was trying to figure out what the heck we were doing! The second day we went to Sea World. This is us feeding the dolphins. I didn't dare give Brody a fish because it would go straight in his mouth, so he watched and was very intrigued by the dolphins. Really, who wouldn't be?

Of course we saw the Shamu show, which Brody slept through (mostly anyway) I took of picture of Brody so Jared would believe me that he was still getting his naps :) hehe

This is all of the girls (and Brody) after a long day at Sea World!

So this is the point where a cute story comes in. Jared gives me trouble sometimes because I tend to talk to strangers a lot. I like to learn about people, what can I say? Well, it seems that Brody has picked up this trait. Anything different Brody is intrigued by and stares at it until he can figure it out. At the Sea Lion and Otter show, you would think he'd be trying to figure out what the animals on the stage were, right? Well, no, Brody actually didn't watch the show at all. He was turned around the whole time staring at this nice Indian couple that were just minding their own business. At first they were not very amused at this little baby who was staring at them. The lady was straight faced for a long time even though Brody was trying his darndest to get a smile out of her by smiling at her continuously. We kept trying to turn him around and he would break his neck trying to turn around to look at them some more. Well, long story short, Brody wore them down and by the end of the show the nice man was holding Brody and getting his picture taken with this strange baby who would not stop looking at him!! It's kind of fun that we could communicate with these people who didn't speak English because of a curious baby. We saw them later on in the park and they just started laughing when they saw us! This was Grandpa at the show trying to distract him for a minute by getting his picture taken :) As you can see, he's not too happy that he's being distracted!Poor little guy was so hot but he's still happy!

The next day we went to the Animal Kingdom. None of us had ever been there before, so it was really exciting! We loved it and highly recommed it :) We got to meet Mickey and Minnie here!

This is another example of Brody's friendly ways. Part of it is just that he's really friendly so he smiles at everyone. There was a Disney security lady who was taken by him and spent some time playing with him. So, Brody was an honorary Disney security guard for a few minutes :)

Everything in the parks is so expensive, so I didn't buy a ton of souvenirs, but I had fun dressing him up and taking pictures with some hats before putting them back!

At the Animal Kingdom they have a safari ride that is so cool. We went at a good time of day (thanks for the suggestion Deya!) so we got to see a lot of the animals. This ostrich thought we looked interesting and took a stroll right by our little car :)
There are two baby elephants in this picture but you can't really see them in the small picture. This tree looks like the tree on Ferngully to me, though. I thought it looked cool :)

This is Brody riding on my lap and then on Aunt Ash. He really enjoyed looking at all the animals.

I just love this picture. He's such a sweet boy :) This is how he would ride around. He's prop his feet up like he was the most comfortable person in the world.

The next day we went to Hollywood Studios and Epcot Center. I just realized I only got two pictures at Hollywood Studios and they were in the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground. I remember going in this when I was little and loving it. Kaylee and Cheyenne loved it and Brody got to sit on a big ant and go down some slides! The second picture is a big Playdoh if you can't tell, the picture is kind of cut off.

We went to Epcot Center last. I've always liked Epcot, but it's considered more of an adult park. The kiddos still had fun at the finding Nemo ride, though! The second picture is Brody exploring the tank and if you look close you can see Dori and Nemo swimming around!

Okay, I know this is not the best picture, but I was trying to get Brody's face. You can just see those little wheels turning. We're on a ride in Planet Earth in this one so there was a lot to look at! I think he's cutting his other two bottom teeth, because those fingers have been in his mouth an awful lot!

Kaylee was really happy Brody came. She really had fun playing with him!

Okay, now to the Give Kids the World Village. This is possibly the coolest place and I'm so glad it exists for the reason it does. I remember when I was little absolutely loving having this week away from the stresses of cancer and just being able to be a kid. This time I had a little different perspective and it was just as fun watching the kids in my family be kids (well, and my dad to!) Every building makes me think I'm living in CandyLand. One of Jared's family friends, Deya Graham works at Give Kids the World. We were able to see her and catch up and it was so fun to see her. She gave us some great tips and gave my dad an excuse to get a banana split at 11:00 in the morning! (We met up in the ice cream parlor that has free ice cream from 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. My dad would've lived in there if we had let him!) This is Brody and I with Deya :) Since I was so young when we came here last time I didn't remember a lot about it. One of the only things I actually do remember were the Peppermints in the tables of the place we ate. I remember thinking that was so cool! I still do truthfully :)

This is the cafeteria which they call the gingerbread house. Isn't it cute? The inside has over 2,000 dolls in the ceiling and a room with hundreds of cars. Next door to the cafeteria is a building that's a castle inside. This is the outside
Inside there are all kinds of activities for kids. Chey, Kaylee, and Brody took advantage of several of these although I only took pictures of Brody on my camera. This is in the forest playground on the slide:
This looks like a little hobbit door to me. Just Brody's size!
We dressed Brody up in the King. What a cute little King!
This mirror you come and put your face in that ring and the crown shows up in the mirror. This is another little King Brody! Jared would've loved this!
The King in his throne!

This is Brody's Knight friend
This place is the Ice Cream Parlor (you probably guessed that!) This is where my Dad called home most evenings and some mornings.
This building was called Amberville. It had a train room in it that I really wish I would've taken a picture of!
See what I mean about feeling like you're in CandyLand? The mayor of the town is a bunny named Clayton that comes and visits sometimes with his wife Mrs. Mary. It's so fun for these kids! (and their parents to!)

Last, but certainly not least, I got to see my best friend from High School, Stephy. She and I were two peas in a pod all through High School. She's an honorary member of my family! She moved to Florida after high school and I used to see her in the summers until my parents moved away from New Hampshire. It had been 5 years, which was way too long! I missed her a lot and we had such a fun time. Some things really don't change :) I love you Stephy!

An update

Well, it's been a couple weeks since my last appointment and I thought I should finally make a post on how things are going. We went in for our 13 weeks ultrasound and discovered that our sweet little babies had only made it to 11 weeks. The Drs. have no answer for why a month before they had healthy heartbeats and wiggly little bodies and then they just didn't. I'm apparently a medical mystery :) I did have to have surgery to resolve the pregnancy, and thankfully they are going to be doing some testing on the tissue to see if they can find out why we repeatedly are losing babies. We will get to find out if they were boys or girls which I'm actually really excited about. Maybe that sounds morbid, but I've always wondered about my other 3, and I look forward to knowing them that much better. It has been a long couple of weeks but things are steadily getting back to normal. Since this was our 4th miscarriage we kind of know what to expect and how to handle it, though it is still extremely difficult. We're so grateful for our understanding of the gospel and the knowledge it gives us in regards to life and death. We look forward to hopefully having our 5 that we've lost in the next life. We think we may just be meant to have a much bigger family there then here on Earth. :) We know that though this trial is very difficult for Jared and I, it is for our good and will make us stronger people. We have spent a lot of time on our knees and have received some much needed peace and strength. We are also grateful for the temple and the peace and love that surrounds us there. It is such a blessing :) We are grateful to know that although we don't always know God's will for us, He has a plan for us and this is just part of the plan he has for our little family. We are so blessed to have amazing friends and family who have helped us through this trial yet again. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart. I love you all and I know this isn't easy for you either, yet you are there for me. I truly appreciate that. Jared and I are holding on to our little Brody very tight as we know now even more than before just what a blessing he is to us. We always knew he was, but we were just reminded of that again :) Thank you all for your prayers also, as they weren't in vain. These little ones lived the longest of all of our miscarriages and for that I am truly grateful. The time I spent with them I will always treasure :) Thank you again.

Brody's New Favorite Things and the 4th of July

The last week has been quite entertaining for us with our little Brody boy. Since Grandma Karen has been here Brody has discovered many new things he enjoys doing with her. Most of all, he LOVES climbing on the dishwasher door and helping her with the dishes:

He also likes helping her pick out a movie to watch:

And after all the toys are picked up, he likes to go and sit in his toy basket:

We also had a very eventful 4th of July. We started off our day going to a park downtown Denver called Washington Park. It is a really pretty park with flower gardens, lakes, rowboats, etc. We just took advantage of a corner of the lake and the grass for a picnic. Brody has become quite a beggar when it comes to adult food. Whenever he sees us eating he comes up to our feet and says, "num, num, num". He then proceeds to grunt at you until you share. This is Brody wishing for Jared's sandwich:
Brody loves being outside and was such a happy camper!

Jared enjoyed chasing after the geese and trying to get them to eat out of his hand (one hissing goose bit his hand and then that was the end of that)

This is Jared teaching Brody to chase the geese
For dinner we took a much anticipated trip to a restaurant called Casa Bonita. If any of you ever watch the show SouthPark (which is based in Colorado) there is an entire episode based off of this restaurant. It is actually pretty accurate to what the actual restaurant is. Jared thoroughly enjoyed it as you can imagine!! The food wasn't the best, but the entertainment was great :) There are cliff divers, puppet shows, live mariachi bands, gun shows, etc. Brody and Cheyenne really liked all the action!

The front of Casa Bonita

Cheyenne, Jared, and Brody in front of Casa Bonita

This is where they had a puppet show. It resembled Baby Einstein so Brody loved it!! This lady just would not move out of the way for me to take a picture, so she's gracing us with her presence in our picture :)

Brody loved the cool high chair that had his very own tray! He also liked pretending he was drinking out of our cups and eating off our plates (which were of course all plastic) :)

Jared decided it was too hot in the place, so he stripped down to his khakis and jumped in like a professional!! Here we come Beijing '08!!

Okay, maybe that's not Jared, but he did take a good picture of someone else who is a professional cliff diver!!

The night of the 4th Brody got to stay up later than he ever has before. We knew he would love the fireworks, and boy did he ever!! The town that we live in is not that big, but we were thoroughly impressed by their fireworks display! Brody lost interest about half way through, but he did really like them. Cheyenne was really excited to!! We had seats across the street so we didn't have to walk far or pay for parking. It was great!

My mom and Cheyenne watching the fireworks

The four of them watching the fireworks :)