Thanksgiving Basketball 2013

Basketball this year was pretty fun! It was so much fun I neglected to take many pictures. Woops!

Cousin Andrew and Tanner watching the big kids play ball.

Slam dunking with Daddy.

It's a.....

Yesterday was our 2 year anniversary.

Yesterday we also had our 20 week ultrasound! Usually people are pretty excited about it since it is when they find out the gender of the baby. After our experience with Tanner, however, I was so so scared and nervous for this ultrasound.

I felt so terrible for Kollin because I spent the entire morning before our appointment crying and pretty much freaking out. I was hoping so much for good news so it wouldn't completely ruin our anniversary, but the anxiety leading up to it pretty much accomplished that (at least in my head). Kollin said it was ok and that he understood, but I still felt terrible.

I was having such a hard time I called my dad to see if we could go find him on our way to the appointment and if he could give me a blessing. I wanted to feel peace and comfort no matter what the outcome of the ultrasound was. Of course my dad was more than willing to meet up with us to give me a blessing.

We met in the Little America parking lot. My dad had never given a blessing in that parking lot before, but he said it was perfectly fine to give a blessing in a car, so we went for it. Afterwards I was still crying a little bit, but not nearly as much as before. I can't express how thankful I am that I am able to go to him or any other priesthood holder that is available to be able to perform this special act for me. It will be even more wonderful once Kollin is able to do this for our family again in the future.

When we got to the appointment the ultrasound tech was so sweet to us. She was the same one I had when I was pregnant with Tanner. I'm sure she didn't remember me, but read my chart and knew how scared I was because of our previous experience. We had Tanner with us and she asked if he was the miracle baby 

and how he was doing now. It was so nice of her to ask that and let me know that she really cared.

As we started the ultrasound one of the first things we looked at was the gender. And it is a....

BOY!

 

 

I'll admit we both wanted a girl since I don't know if I want to have anymore kids. But this will be so much fun with two boys! I hope that Tanner and his little brother will be best friends and have so much fun together.

Then she started looking at everything else and so far so good!

Then it came time to look at the heart. She did a close up on it and I was able to count all 4 chambers! Once I saw that I started to cry. She handed me a tissue and just let me cry as we watched that beautiful little thing pump away. 

Now I know that Tanner's defects had nothing to do with have 4 chambers or not. He has always had all 4 chambers to his heart. His defects were so subtle and hard to see on an ultrasound is why they were completely missed. But in our Heart Community it is a big deal to be able to see those 4 chambers in your first ultrasound. It at least gives you peace of mind that their heart is whole. As far as she was able to see all of the major arteries where also there and in the right places.

Being able to see that has calmed me down quite a bit. I know we are not out of the woods yet. There could still be many defects going on that are not easily seen. But I am at least comforted and feeling better about this baby... until it comes time for the fetal echo next month.

I have been so nervous this entire pregnancy and  know that nothing will take that away until after he is born and we are *hopefully* given the clean bill of health. Even after that it may take a while to sink in.

But either way we are so excited for this little one to come and can't wait to meet him! Only 5 1/2 more months!

2 Years

You are still my best friend.

You are still the man of my dreams.

You have always been my rock.

As well as my safe place to fall.

Thank you for being stuck with me.

Taylorsville High School Charity Week

Every year Taylorsville High School chooses a charity to donate to during their Charity Week.

This year they chose Intermountain Healing Hearts!

A few Heart Moms and I went to their kick off assembly to speak and show off our cutie patutie Heart Warriors. Two of our Board members spoke about IHH and CHD's. Then each of us introduced ourselves, our kids and explained their CHD's to them.

As one of the Board members was speaking she was saying how you would never be able to tell that these kids had such broken hearts. That they look normal, but tire out faster than a "normal" kid and turn blue in the cold. Other than that you would never be able to tell unless you saw their scars. At that point she asked her son, Jack, if he wanted to show the students his scars. He proudly pulled his shirt up and showed off his zipper and other badges of courage. He got such a huge applause it made me cry!

While we were speaking Tanner got restless. He kept trying to pull me back to the bleachers from standing in the middle of the gym. Since I couldn't go I let him go by himself. He ended up making a game out of running back and forth to me. Each time he did it I would hear an "awwww" from many of the students. They just loved him and all of the littles!

Another thing Tanner did that I don't want to forget is he spotted the stairs going up the bleachers. He is really into stairs lately and wanted to go over to them. I still had to stay in the middle of the gym so I let him go again. He climbed allllll the way to the top of those stairs! I of course had my eye on him the entire time, but I was very touched that all of the students on each row of bleachers extended their hands to him if he needed it and made sure he wouldn't fall.

I was happy to let Tanner run around and have all of those students see that he is very "normal" and of course what a cute and tough guy he is!

He was a little nervous about the crowds, so he sate behind me between two bleachers.

The students did a relay race with a bunch of different balls. Of course Tanner wanted them. So after they were done I let him run over and get himself a ball to play with.

Then all the other kids joined in.

Our beautiful Heart Moms and Heart Babies.

One of our heart buddies is obsessed with balloons. He spotted old balloons stuck on the ceiling in the gym and kept trying to get some of the students to help him get them down. Since that wasn't possible two girls ran to the store and got all of the kids their very own balloon!

That sweet gesture just made these kids' day.

The girls that got the balloons and the BOC.

 These special kids just melted the hearts of the teenagers that I have never seen happen. They were all so sweet and caring to our little ones that it has restored my faith in humanity. For this generation at least.

First Snow 2013

Tanner was pretty excited to wake up the other morning and see snow outside.

I wasn't.

 

 

Potty Update

 He is doing so good!

We have now switched to big boy undies.

There have only been a couple accidents so far.

This was just so cute I had to get a picture. Sorry about the blackmail buddy.

His potty treat reward.

 He was driving me crazy with going potty every 5 minutes to just get a treat (and he would actually potty!), that I switched to a sticker chart. I haven't gotten a picture of it yet but it's pretty simple. It's not like he can read and knows what any words would say.

I have a star in ever 5 boxes which will be when he has earned a treat now. And then after 4 boxes he will get a toy. I have no idea if 40 is a good number but it is only 11:30 in the morning and he's already gotten one treat. We will see how it goes and if I have to adjust when he gets a toy.

Overall we're till plugging along and doing really well!

 

Halloween 2013

Halloween was a success!

During the day Tanner and I went to Grandma Stark's work for trick or treating. Everyone there thought he was SO cute and loved our costumes. Everyone kept giving him two pieces of candy that his bucket was almost over flowing by the time we left!

There was one of her co-workers that dressed as Walt Disney and had Minnie and Mickey outside his cubicle. Tanner loved to see Mickey!

Later in the evening we went to Grandma and Grandpa Cannon's for a Halloween dinner and trick or treating with the cousins.

Aunt Bippy the banana and cousin Andrew the pirate.

All the boys ready to get their candy on!

It was so cute to watch Tanner running around with his cousins and right up to doors (and sometimes going right in the house) to trick or treat.

Really bad picture, but I thought this was so darling! That's Tanner and cousin Cole.

Uncle Scott was Master Chief from Halo. It was an awesome costume and his gun actually did the same thing when it would overheat in the actual game. Pretty sweet. Tanner didn't like it though. He wouldn't go near him.

Pumpkin Carving

This year we had some fun with pumpkin carving. It was the first time we have done pumpkins as a family.

Tanner carving the pumpkins, but didn't have much fun because we wouldn't let HIM do the carving.

Other than that it was good messy fun!

Wanting to help Dad.

I got some great ideas from Pinterest to carve my pumpkin. It was fun!

My CHD mended heart pumpkin and my drilled pumpkin. They both turned out pretty cute!

Tanner's pumpkin on the top, my drilled pumpkin on the bottom.

The CHD mended heart pumpkin.

Kollin carved a pumpkin too. I had a good idea to do an Iron Man mask and drew his own template for it and everything. Then when he carved it he scratched the mask part way too deep. It ended up cracking and drying out way too fast. Oh well! You live you learn! Maybe it'll turn out better next year!