Hello

So first I must apologize to everyone. I have not been checking or commenting on any of your blogs lately. So, sorry but this could be a good thing. It means I may actually have a life! I am not suppose to be up for too long so I will try to get going with the details of my life lately.

I got back from Stanford Tuesday night and got the best welcome home from my family. Ammon screamed, "Mommy" when I walked through the door and Cohen gave me tons of kisses, which is not like him, and kept laughing and smiling at me. So Wednesday morning I got up and got right back into my regular routine. Feeding the kids, changing Cohen's diapers, bathing, cleaning up the apartment, etc. Well I was feeling a little bit of pain in the lower part of my pelvis and didn't really let it slow me down. I thought maybe it was just one of those, have to go to the bathroom, type of pains. So I sat down to pluck my eyebrows, finished and got up to get a snack when I felt a sudden gush of blood run down my legs. It was a lot. I instantly starting saying, "no, no, no" and unbuttoned my paints to see that it had soaked through my jeans. I was shaking and trying to call Jody and the Dr.'s office. I finally got myself under control got on the toilet and called both. Jody came right home, went and got Alex to watch the kids, and then gave me a blessing. We obviously had to head straight to my Doctor's office. So the whole way their I had a flood of emotions. I was crying a lot. I mean once you get to 14 weeks you think, okay I am in the clear of the miscarrying thing now, and had started even thinking about when we would find out what the baby was. I never realized how emotional something like this is. To feel like you are pregnant one second and not the next is really, really emotionally disturbing.

So we got to the office and I was bleeding a lot. Then I went into the room and waited for my doctor. When he came in he made it seem like it wasn't a big deal, he thought it was because we had intercourse or something like that. Then he left the room so I could get undressed and he could do an examination. Well when I took my pants off I started bleeding like crazy again and he came back in while Jody and I were trying to clean it all up and looked very worried. He did the exam and then said he needed an ultrasound right away to see exactly what was going on. Luckily they have a machine in their office. So we walked around the corner and waited about 20 minutes for the tech to come do the ultrasound. Meanwhile I was bleeding all over the chair I was sitting on and Jody was giving me gobs of paper towels every minute to try to clean it up. It was so stressful waiting there. I just didn't know what I was going to see on the screen and didn't really want to see but wanted to know what was going on. So she came in and asked me a few questions and then started the ultrasound. I was shocked when she quickly said,"well something is definitely moving around in there." Then we saw our little baby moving and trying to grab his/her feet. We saw a good heartbeat, a perfect placenta, a closed cervix, and absolutely no reason for so much bleeding or any bleeding at all. When she was done she said everything looked perfect inside and around the baby. You have no idea what a relief this was to me. A few minutes before I was sure that I was losing our baby.

So we waited two more hours to talk to my doctor who was in a C-section at the hospital. But I didn't care. I was just so happy to still be pregnant and to see our sweet little baby. When we finally talked to him he said that once in a while this happens and that it probably has something to do with my cervix changing. At this point there is no medication he could give me to stop or control the bleeding. So I have to basically rest a lot and not do anything. I am still bleeding but it is not as often and as much. It should stop in the next few days and things will hopefully get back to normal. I have so many things to do! Finish Christmas shopping, make goodies for friends, wrap presents, clean, plan a Christmas party I am co-hosting with a friend tomorrow night, take stuff to my visiting teachers, get stuff for the family we are doing the 12 days of Xmas for, I could go on and on. But right now all I want for Christmas is to have a healthy baby in June and so for now I will sit and relax and let my body heal.

Joseph Edmondson: Bachelor of Science

I am so proud of Jody. He took his last two finals Thursday and is done with school forever! (Unless he decides to get his masters at some point, which I could see him doing.) I am so glad that he stuck with it and didn't get pulled away by other ways of making money. School is a wonderful thing and having your degree gives you so many more options. I am excited to have a husband around on Saturdays and in the evenings during the week! He is excited to be able to concentrate on two things, work and family. No more studying!

Janelle, Alex and I drove down to Stanford yesterday to spend some time with Tasha and Makynna. Tasha has been stuck in the hospital alone since Thursday and needed to see some familiar faces. Makynna is doing so good. She is such a trooper. She finished her last round of chemo yesterday and will have the bone marrow transplant on Wednesday. They are having a ward fast for her on Wednesday so if any of you would like to take part in it please do! I will post pictures when I get home.

Ammon's Christmas

Weekend Highlights

This weekend we didn't anything too exciting to blog about, but here goes. Friday night we watched our friends kids while they went to a Christmas party. They left about 9:30 and then we got Ammon to bed and Jody watched Pirates of the Caribbean, alone, because I fell sound asleep within the first 5 minutes.

This is a picture of our ward missionaries. Elder Hardy is the one on the far right. He is a really cool missionary and is leaving our ward on Monday. The other missionary is Elder Anderson. He has only been out on his mission a few months but he's a cool guy too. Jody and I are trying to set him up with Alex, a few years down the road, of course (By the way I think he is cuter in person, right Tasha?)

Saturday I ran a few errands with no kids, which was nice and then I took Ammon and his 7 year old friend, Madison, to Happy Feet. I thought it was cute and Ammon left the movie tapping his feet around like the penguin on the movie. Later that night we went to the annual trucker's Christmas parade. It was raining so we sat in the car and watched. It wasn't too exciting but good to get out and do something different. As you can see Cohen wasn't too fond of the honking each trucker did as they passed by.

This is a picture of the tree on our car. It only took Jody about 30 minutes to get it tied up to drive 2 miles. But it did get here safe and sound! Alex gets home on Friday! It will be so nice to have her home for a few weeks. We are planning on going down to see Tasha in Stanford next week for a girls only trip! Ammon is out of school now so it will be interesting trying to keep him entertained.

Season's Greetings

I am just loving this holiday season. I have already been to two Christmas parties this week. We went to Jody's work party on Wednesday and last night I went to our relief society party at the church. We had a progressive dinner at the church and just went into different rooms and there was a wonderful program to go along with it. It was so nice to feel the true meaning of Christmas and be inspired to make this year about service and giving gifts from the heart.

I've officially decorated our apartment which was completed on Wednesday with the purchase of our Christmas tree. Jody was very particular about the tree. I guess his family took their time picking out the perfect tree and mine would send my dad down to grab the first one he saw. But it's a good tradition and one that we will be keeping. I've realized that decorating is so important when you have toddlers who are excited about everything. Ammon can't wait to come downstairs every morning and see the Christmas tree. He is also loving the snowmen and tiny sleigh I have around the room and will play with them for hours. He makes the season even more magical for me.

I had a doctor's appointment on Wednesday. I am always paranoid about the appointments until I get to the point where I can actually feel the baby moving around. I guess I am afraid they won't find a heartbeat or something. So Wednesday I went in and my doctor, who is a very good doctor, seemed to be in a hurry. He listened for a heartbeat for about two minutes, didn't find one and then said, "lets just do an ultrasound to see just how far along you are." Luckily they got me in that afternoon so I only had to wait 5 hours. But I was worried and preparing myself just in case there was bad news. Jody and the kids came with me and the lady got me right in. When she first started the ultrasound she asked me if I had been feeling any pain in my right side. I nervously told her no and then she told me I had a cyst on my right ovary which she continued to tell me is pretty common in pregnancy and helps the baby along for the first 12 weeks. She said it would probably just go away. Then she finally moved to the baby and everything was just fine. We got to see the baby's tiny feet and hands moving all over and the best of all was to see a heart beat. They did a vaginal ultrasound which was really cool because you could see more of the baby and check for any deformities. Everything was a okay! With each pregnancy I am worried until I get them in my arms and then once I have them I worry about SIDS, sickness, or them getting hurt. I guess being a mother is a never ending worry! But I am getting really excited to start feeling this baby move and find out what it is. I feel so blessed to be a mother.

Santa and his reindeer

Christmas is coming and should be pretty exciting this year with Santa, his elves, and reindeer living in our home. Santa (A.K.A. Ammon) is being his usual creative, imaginative self and has decided that he lives at the north pole. If he is going to bed he will say, "come on Comet, Donner, Dasher, and Dancer." He watches The Santa Claus with Tim Allen everyday and the other day Jody rented him The Santa Claus #2 and Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer. He enjoyed Rudolph but was a little nervous when the abominable monster came on. I am planning on taking him to see The Santa Claus 3 this weekend. On the way to school the other day he told his friend Brayden not to talk to him because he was busy talking to his elves and reindeer. I was telling Cohen to stand by Ammon so I could take this picture and Ammon said, "no tell him to stand by Santa, I'm not Ammon." Needless to say, this kid never ceases to bore us.

Back to real life. Right now Jody is in the process of interviewing and waiting on call backs. It looks as though we could end up in the Bay area starting with pharmaceuticals. But he would really like to get into medical sales. He would love to dress in scrubs and be in surgery. I think he's thinking it will be like Grey's Anatomy, he could be in for a rude awakening. So we are just waiting on people to call or email him back. It's a waiting game for now!

A few of you have asked about the age difference of Cohen and the new baby. They will be 22 months apart. Hopefully Cohen will do some major growing up in the next few months because I still feel like he's a baby and I definitely don't want to take care of two babies. I am feeling nauseous on and off through out the day and have been living on satsumas, thanks to Costco and this wonderful time of year! I also enjoy kiwi, trail mix, hot chocolate (Stephen's that I brought home from Utah, and by the way Alex I will be having you bring me more at Xmas), and other random things like frito pie? I'm excited for this wonderful time of year and plan on doing a lot of fun things with Ammon since he is definitely feeling the spirit of Christmas!