The Four Seasons of Utah

There isn't much construction UDOT can do in the winter time because it's just too dang cold. When they do try to patch up holes in the road, they bounce right back out and it's just the same a week later. I came to conclusion, the four seasons of Utah are no longer Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall--it is Winter, Road Construction, Road Construction, and Road Construction. No matter where you go, what city you go to, what interstate you take, there is going to be some kind of road construction. I know it's not just Utah, I believe it to be other states as well, but I have just lived in Utah my entire life, so it's the seasons I've grown up with :P Do you ever wonder what was going through their heads once they have finished the construction??? Sometimes the roads are completely retarded and you just wonder who the PM was on that job??? In Springville, as you exit onto the interstate off exit 261, they are always painting and repainting arrows, the roads are so confusing to one who has never been on that exit--I can see where road rage comes in to play. 

Yesterday (Saturday) was our yearly McKinnon reunion...YAY!!!! (if you could only hear the sarcasm in my typing.) We get to see cousins that we don't know, drive to a place that we don't know how to get to, and spend all day saturday there!! Surprisingly it turned out to be OK. My grandma is the only one left of all her sisters, so she was the bell of the ball :) I sat with my mom and her sister Geri and her husband Galyn and brother George and his wife Elaine and her cousins Mary Anne and Mary Lou--they have a great time when they're all together which made it fun. It was a challenge getting there, that's for sure. It was up in Providence, Utah at my mom's cousin, Mary Anne's . It was there about 4 years ago, but how are we suppose to remember how to get there from 4 years ago??? The address wasn't numbers, it was a number and Hillsboro Dr. with no map. My aunt Geri said Mapquest was no help at all, so I'm glad we didn't use that. But we did end up in Hyrum instead up Providence and were driving around for about 20 minutes then decided to call then drove around trying to find it after we got directions and ended up in Logan for another 20 minutes. Whew. It's quite an exiting drive up there also... I'll bring up the topic of road construction back up. (North Salt Lake) I don't think I've ever seen so many orange cones in my life...where do they store all of those???? 

i carry your heart with me

i carry your heart with me (i carry it in 

my heart) i am never without it (anywhere 

i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done 

by only me is your doing, my darling)

i fear no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet) i want

no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)

and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant

and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows

(here is the root of the the root and the bud of the bud

and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows

higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)

and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart ( i carry it in my heart)

-e.e. cummings

My Little Peanut

From the day I found out that I was pregnant I knew the baby growing inside me deserved so much more than what I could offer it. It needed a future and mom and a dad. That is where Jared and Amanda came in. They stuck by me for almost 8 months of patiently waiting for their little guy to come. June 10, 2008, Max Milton was born via c-section weighing in at 8 lbs. 11 oz and 20 in. long. 

I am so very grateful to have been able to spend those four days in the hospital with Max and Jared and Amanda. That way, Amanda's family and friends were also able to come and meet the new addition to their family and I was able to meet the wonderful family and friends. 

My sister, Kris from Boise, Idaho also was able to drive down for a day, which meant so much to me. My grandma was staying with us at the time and was also able to meet Max! 

I am so grateful for everyone's love and support!!! I cannot say "Thank You" enough! I am so blessed with an amazing family of my own, with such caring brothers and sisters who I love so much and my family is blessed with our mother. My mom is the most selfless person I know. She would do anything for anyone. She has been by my side and has taken care of me when I needed her. I don't know what I would do without her in my life, I love my mom and I am grateful for her love and her support through everything this past year. 

Me and My Little Peanut just hours after he was born

  

He has the cutest and longest little toesies! He always has them curled :)

   

I absolutely love him

All ready to go home

  

The loving mommy and daddy :)

Adoption is not a breaking of trust but a keeping of faith...not the abandonment of a baby, but an abandonment of self for a baby's sake. 

-Curtis Young

June 10, 2008

As I anxiously went to my dr.'s appointment yesterday to find out what he was going to do with me and this baby that just seemed to not want to come, he made a decision. Well, it wasn't the babe that wasn't wanting to come after all, it's my body. I have the great luck of not dilating...AT ALL. A week overdue and my cervix still hadn't come forward and the babe still hadn't dropped. I still wasn't thinning and and completely closed. The dr. said he could induce me--putting the gel on my cervix every 6 hrs, then after so long, start the Pitocin (Is that how you spell it???). He said 40% chance I would be able to have him naturally, 60% I would end up having to have gone through all that and end up having a Cesarean. Two of  my sisters never dilate. He said, given that history, he recommended a Cesarean. I looked at my mom, she recommended a Cesarean. This morning at 6:00 am I am having a Cesarean!! 

Yesterday was a weird day. Not seeming real almost. I went to lunch with Aly and walked the mall haha ---my ankles are a little swollen now, that part I won't miss ;) Last night Kenyon and Holly, Weston and Carolyn, my mom and grandma and I went to JCW's for dinner then went to Aly and Nick's where Weston gave me a wonderful blessing of comfort---I'm so grateful to have the priesthood in my family! And I'm so glad Max is going to a family where the priesthood is very important. 

We came home and I got all I could ready for Max's big arrival today. ---If I haven't told you that's what they are naming him, Max Milton...my little M&M--my little Peanut. We just don't know how little he is going to be HAHA! A week overdue! Getting to sleep last night was hard. Waking up to use the restroom, then trying to get back to sleep---I finally just woke up at 3:30 a.m. and have been laying there ever since with restless legs and thought I should let everyone know what's happening and that things are a movin' now :) 

I can't wait to meet this little guy, I have a great love for him. It IS possible to love someone so much that you've never even met. I want to thank everyone for all your love and support throughout everything! I could have never done this alone, especially without my mom. She has been such a great support and has helped me

through thick and thin!

*I stole this picture off Mrs. R's blog cause I LOVE it and I love her blog!

Family Pic Finally Here!!

The family pic is finally perfected--many thanks to my sister Emily :) We have not had the whole entire family together since 2005, and even then we were missing two of my brothers in law and photoshopped them into the picture--which actually turned out really well, thanks again to Emily! (She works at a professional photolab) It was so good to have everyone here Easter weekend, having all my brothers and sisters together and all my nieces and nephews together--which probably won't happen again for a couple more years. 

Nada...

Nope. He is still in ma belly. The countdown clocks have come to a close and this little guy just is too comfy in his little hot tub. At 38 weeks, going into the doctor, I thought maybe I would have dropped or maybe be dilated just a little--nada. 39 weeks came crawling up and--zilch. Soooo, I go in 40 weeks pregnant, thinking--OK, he HAS to have dropped, I FEEL him a LITTLE lower and I HAVE to have dilated to SOMETHING!!--nothing. That previous weekend I hadn't really felt him moving a whole lot and being that I was 40 weeks, my doctor wanted me to get a non-stress test. So, this last Tuesday, I went in and my precious passed with flying colors :) They made me another appointment for this morning--which I was hoping that I wouldn't make it and would hopefully have him by today, but I made it haha I have an appointment on Monday with my doctor, so let us hope he can get things going :) 

I am so grateful for Jared and Amanda, for their patience, love and support throughout this whole process! On Sunday they were able to come down and meet my family--all but two of my sisters. The sisters they were able to meet, afterwards were telling me how they felt like they were family! I am so grateful for my Heavenly Father that He answered my prayers and led Jared and Amanda to me.