Cinderella

Cinderella has always been my favorite princess. And my mom, knowing that, made this beautiful stitchery for me. If you see it in person, you can see all of the added detail that took so much time, it's stunning. I knew she was working on it and I watched it's progression, but I didn't know she'd be giving it to me! She hadn't finished it when we moved, so she brought it when they came for Christmas. I LOVE LOVE LOVE it. It's so special to me. I have such a great mom!

Infertility- the forbidden word

I hate that word. The word "infertility" makes me cringe, for all those that suffer from it... including myself. I'm sure there is lots of speculation from family and friends, and I'm sure a lot of you already knew.  We've been married 5 and 1/2 years and are almost 31... and are active LDS.  And sure I have a career that I enjoy but that is not holding us back from having children. For a long time I wanted people to think that was the case. I didn't want people to know the heartbreak we were going through behind closed doors. But Scott and I both feel strong that after three years, we are ready to be honest with those around us and not hide behind this. We think it will be a strength to us.

I am not going to give lots of details because that is just not our style. But I will give you a brief summary of what we've been through. We decided it was time to start a family almost 3 years ago. About 4 months later I found out I was pregnant but I didn't feel quite right physically. I think I knew I was going to miscarry, and about a week later I did. Although I thought I was probably going to miscarry, it was still horrible and heartbreaking when it happened. We continued on with our lives and nothing happened. Needless to say, we've been to a series of doctors, I've had a few surgeries, been on different meds, and are now waiting on another physical issue to hopefully resolve itself so that another surgery isn't required. It's a frustrating lonely journey and moving to Phoenix I've felt like we've had redo a lot of what we did in Utah before we moved.

In the future, I won't be giving you every detail of this journey. That to us is personal, but we'll be open to telling the basic details to our family and close friends. So if you are one of them, don't be afraid to ask. We'll share as much as we are comfortable with.

If you want to know how to help, please pray for us, that's all we can ask right now.

This is not an easy journey and I'm sure there are some journeys that are harder. But this is ours, and we are trying to endure it well. We know we will have kids in this life one way or another, we've been promised that. But for now we're just parents waiting for a child.

Half a year

Where has the time gone? There was so much anticipation when we were waiting to move and I kept thinking, soon you'll be there and you'll be looking back as time has flown by. It's amazing that as you are looking forward to something, time seems to drag. But once you are in a place with no changes on the horizon, time seems to speed on by. I can't believe we've been here for this long and yet it seems so long ago that we were in Price. We are loving it here (more me than Scott). Scott likes it but would rather be in a small town. I am the exact opposite. I'm so content and happy here. I enjoy the variety of entertainment, the variety of restaurants, the variety and diversity of people, and I love that I can go to any kind of doctor and it's no more than a 20 minute drive. I love my job, I love our ward, I love my calling, and I love this place we call home. I'm less homesick than I anticipated, I think mainly because we are so busy. I didn't think we could be busier than we were in Price (with all the involvement we had with the theater), but it didn't take long for us to be busier.

Scott and I are really enjoying our callings. We love being able to develop relationships with those that we are serving with and those we are serving. Each time I move wards I'm amazed at how each ward is just what we need at that time.

Here are some of the things we've done the past 6 months:

• Moved everything we own 595 miles
• Started a new job position (me), started a new job (Scott)
• One surgery
• One bout of kidney stones
• Trunk or treat in short sleeves and flip-flops
• A Thanksgiving that wasn't homeade
• A Christmas with no jacket needed
• 4 bad doggy haircuts 
• Steph's parents came to visit after Christmas
• Scott's parents and brother came to visit in January
• One dead scorpion sighting at work, haven't seen a live one yet
• Several explorations of the valley
• Two business trips to SLC
• Two Vitamin D deficient adults
• Countless mornings woken before 7am by the construction across the street
• Numerous new friends
• Endless memories

 What a fun 6 months it has been! I'm so excited for more adventures here.

A day at the park

Today Scott and I were able to spend the day with my friend Amber's kids. We decided to spend the day in the park. It was a beautiful February day in the 60's and it couldn't have been more perfect. Here are a few pictures of our park adventures.

Kiwanis Lake

Feeding the ducks

We had a great time riding in a peddle boat. We were able to feed the ducks while in the boat as well, it was a lot of fun! 

We took the kids to play at the playground after our boat ride. The kids asked Scott to play tag with them and they ran and ran for a good 20 minutes. It was fun to watch.

All in all, it was a fabulous day. I just adore these kids and was so glad we were able to spend time with them.