Well I wrote a lot in the girls journals about what has been happening, so I am not sure I feel up to duplicating. I might just have to combine them somehow or something into one big blog. I am not quite sure how to do that. But we have had a party month with Eden's 1st birthday and Ariana's 4th birthday and then Halloween, it has been one fun thing after another. Everything turned out really well for both of them! In the middle of that month of fun was a not-so-fun event. I was headed home from a bridal shower for Tasha Arnold and ended up in a 7-car pile up on I-15. What a nightmare. Ariana was with me and luckily no one was hurt. They had to tow away my car so that was crazy, but we were just fine. It took about three weeks to get my car back, but I have it back now and life goes on as normal. Thanks to one of Seth's co-workers who picked him up for work multiple times, it made it do-able with one car for that time.

I was able to go to Time Out For Women with my sister and mom last weekend in St. George. It is always so fun to be able to go and spend time with them. When we got there we went to visit Kirt Guerisoli who has been diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer. He and Vicki were so positive about the whole thing, it was just amazing to talk with them. They have such faith and believe in miracles. I really loved watching Jenny Oaks Baker perform at TOFW and she had her kids performing with her. It was just awesome. It makes me really want to get Ariana going on the violin. I would love it if she played and I think she would enjoy it. So we shall see. I asked her if she would like to learn and she seemed interested. I don't know how interested Seth is in having her learn though.

A Surprise....

"Well you are definitely pregnant!" Wait what, come again? That was my thought when the ER doctor gave me the news....How is that possible? Are you kidding me? My eyes quickly filled up with tears of joy. Any pain is worth it if I am pregnant. "Is that a good thing?" the ER doctor asked since she saw my tears. I quickly responded "Yes! We do not just get pregnant on our own." I proceeded to give her a little history on our two girls. She was excited along with me and told me she would get the ultrasound person to come and take a peek and see if she could see anything. She left and my mind started to race. How am I going to tell Seth? I am not going to text him this news, this is way too big, I want to see his reaction. 9 months......hmmmm I think that would put the baby due the end of April. Perfect!.... Then after awhile of laying there, I could tell another episode was coming on. I broke out in a complete sweat and and my eyes started seeing black dots that clouded out my view of everything else. I was so close to fainting. I remember thinking I didn't even know where the call button was, there was nothing I could do except lay here. After a few minutes my vision came back, thank goodness I didn't pass out.

So the ultrasound tech came in and the first thing she said was 'You look horrible, are you feeling okay?'  I was a sweaty hot mess, and I told her what had happened. She came in and took some pictures. She was in there a long time. I asked her if everything looked okay, but she said she would have to have the doctor look at them, not wanting to give any hints as to what she could see.

After she left, more time passed and the pain kept getting worse. The good news quickly took a turn for the worse when the results came back from the ultrasound. The ER nurse came back in and said she was so sorry, but the pregnancy was actually an ectopic pregnancy. Come to find out the baby had not made it to the uterus. It had attached in my fallopian tube and then the tube had burst. So I was bleeding internally and things got really serious really fast. I was losing a lot of blood, they gave me a blood transfusion, they bumped everyone in the operating room so I could go in first. I texted Seth that he needed to come. We got Heidi to go watch the girls until Kylee could make it down. Seth made it to the hopsital and in to see me before surgery. Surgery was two hours long, they did a laproscopy so just three small incisions. It all happened so fast, but they were able to do what they needed to do. They cauterized the tube, luckily they were able to leave the ovary, which they were not sure they would be able to at first. I stayed overnight at the hospital but was able to leave the next day. It has been a pretty smooth recovery. Kylee rushed down with her kids to watch Ari and Eden. She is a saint. They said it would take about 6 weeks to recover, it has been 3 so far and I am feeling pretty good. Still cannot exercise, but other than that, pretty good. Still wondering about how that even happened. How did we even get pregnant, but I remember one of my infertility doctors telling me along the way at some point that having a baby helps reset the endometriosis, it helps reduce the symptoms, so it is supposed to be easier to conceive soon after having a baby, before the endometriosis has a chance to come back full force. So I think that may be what happened in our case. It has been so soon after Eden that maybe my symptoms were not so severe that we were able to get pregnant on our own. Miracle of miracles. But now we are down a tube and we have to wait awhile. And Seth is scared to have something like this happen again. So he is pretty gun-shy now. It hasn't even been that long, so we'll see how he feels in awhile. I had been having symptoms since the Tuesday before, so nearly a week. Seth convinced me to go to Instacare on Sunday evening and they took an x-ray and just told me I was backed up. They gave me a bunch of laxatives and that helped, but the pain was still there. I called the Instacare again on Monday and they said if the pain gets worse to go in to the ER. The pain got worse, but if I remember right, it would come and go. But I couldn't really do much. I remember laying around all morning. On the bathroom floor, on the bed. Not really being able to take care of the girls. I finally called Seth around 11 and asked when he was getting off work that day (Monday). He said he would try to get someone to cover. I tried calling my visiting teacher to see if she could come watch the girls for a bit, but no answer. Seth got someone to cover his court and rushed home. I told him I would drive myself, he said definitely not. So he drove me down to the hospital. It took forever to get in as they were really busy. Probably about 3 hours. But they had taken my blood work and urine sample before I got a room so they would have results when I got to my room.

The part of this whole ordeal that is just heartbreaking to me is that my doctor who performed the surgery (not my ER doctor) came in and was talking to me before the surgery. He told me that they could still see a flutter of the heartbeat, the baby was still alive. But there was nothing they could do. They had to take me in for surgery ASAP and there are no procedures in place to move the embryo to the uterus. Oh how I wish there was a way. My heart still breaks. Our child was still alive and probably a healthy, perfect little thing. It is just so sad that she/he didn't make it to safety, but got held up in the tube. It was so close! I just cannot believe it. I know there are reasons for things and the Lord knows the big plan. I don't doubt that for a second. I haven't questioned why, I know there is a reason why. I maybe do not know the reason why, but He does. And that is enough for me. Does that mean it is easy? Does that make it less sad? Does that mean I should just be fine? No, no and no. But I do know that everything will be okay. I have faith in that. For now, we just keep going along, grateful for the two sweet miracles that I have already. They bring so much light and joy into my life. I love my girls so much!! I am so lucky to have a wonderful husband who loves me so much and two precious girls who give my life meaning and purpose. I have so much to be thankful for!

Summertime

Well here we are late August and school is starting back up. I no longer say I can't believe how fast time goes because I can believe it. It happens every year and it keeps just getting shorter and shorter. In July we went down and had a mini-McArthur reunion. We went boating, took family photos, went to Pine Valley and stayed in Jon's family cabin, did lip-syncs, did a family session at the Temple, and just had a great time. It was fun to all be together. The lip-syncs were pretty awesome. By the time we got around to doing them it was way past Ariana's bedtime so she was in no mood to cooperate so she bawled through the whole thing. Made me a little sad because it would have been very cute. She and I danced and sang to 'Mother Knows Best' from Tangled. Other big news is that Ariana is potty-trained. That Monday after we got home from the reunion I put my foot down and said it was time. I could tell she was ready so we went for it. She has done great. Only a handful of accidents so far and it has been about a month.

Also in July we went to a drive-in movie for my old roommate's birthday, Becca Haynie. It turned into one of those memories that isn't funny at the time, but makes a great story afterwards. Seth wasn't very excited to go in the first place. It was a weeknight and it was in West Valley. Two strikes there already, however I convinced him to go. We got there and looked back and Ariana had fallen asleep. Great, she was the reason (or at least a big reason) that we were there. The movie was the Minions movie which she likes the minions. Well right after we paid and drove through the gate, Ari wakes up and immediately pukes, a lot, everywhere. So Seth just tells me to hurry and park the car. We find our screen and park the car. I get out and am cleaning up the puke and getting Ariana changed when I hear Seth say "What the...." I looked over and he was holding Eden out that there was a big smear of poop across his shirt. Eden had a frontal blow out and got it all over him. LOL. I couldn't do anything but laugh, it was just too timely. Nevertheless, we got everything cleaned up and taken care of and enjoyed the movie. I think we'll have to go back and try it again sometime.

The first week in August, we had a Paul and Connie Nielsen family reunion. Sadly Jacob and Natasha couldn't make it but everyone else came to Utah and we spent a lot of time going to fun places. We first went to Steven and Luci's baby blessing for Evan. Then on Monday we went to Temple Square and then to the Aquarium in Draper.  I think the highlights there were the baby penguins and the otters. Tuesday all the siblings and spouses went out to eat at the Brick Oven in Provo while Ammy and Poppop watched all the kiddos. They made some awesome crafts, a birdhouse and a puzzle. After that we all went to the Children's Discovery Museum at Thanksgiving Point and had dinner at Luci and Steven's that evening. Wednesday we went to Hogle Zoo, Ariana loved the bird show. It was fun to see the big black bear and the gorillas. Ariana of course loved the carousel and the train ride. Afterwards we had dinner here at our house. Eden got sick at the zoo and threw up a couple times. She didn't feel well for at least a day, then she passed it to Ariana and me and we spent Friday just laying low. Paul, Connie and Marissa stayed with us that week and it was fun to have them around. Seth had his annual prosecutor conference in Moab and so we was gone for a couple days during this same time, so they were there to help out when we all weren't feeling too great. It is always fun to have people around.


Eden is growing right up and is quite the fast crawler. She loves to climb up our stairs. She has taught herself how to go down a few of them, but if the staircase has too many stairs she hasn't figured that out yet. No teeth yet, but I think they are getting closer. She does not like getting her diaper changed and always wants to roll over.

My work had its annual work summer party and this year we broke out of our usual tradition of Park City and we went to Lagoon. Let me just say, I think I left my Ariana at the gate and found a new Ariana. She had no-fear! She went on every ride she was able to go on and there were some really scary ones! I was completely in shock that she wanted to do them. She still doesn't go down the big slides at parks by herself and here she is going on these rides that take you 40 ft in the air and drop you. Or really fast rides that spin you. We had a blast and she couldn't get enough. We also did Lagoon-a-beach and Ari loved all of the water slides. We spent all day and could have stayed longer.

Then just last week, Kylee and I went to go see Shania Twain at Energy Solutions Arena. It was a blast. Way too short it felt like, but maybe because I was just enjoying it so much. I had a blast singing my heart out and dancing with my sis to some great old school songs. It was a great time. Today I spoke in church about the importance of friends and being a friend. It is always nice to have it over with, but it was a great reminder of the importance of being a friend to everyone.

Ah Dang...

I broke my two month streak. :/ Oh well, at least I am here... Let's see, what has happened since March. Busy season happened like it always does. Then its my birthday and then its time to play and enjoy summer and do lots of projects. Where to start.... Eden and I went to Lake Powell last week with my family and had a blast. That is her and Harvey on a tube right (with Kylee, Amy and myself of course!) Everyone was reminiscing this year about all of the years we've spent at Lake Powell. It really has been such a great thing to bring us all together. I cherish all of my memories at Powell. It had been a few years since I have skied and it took me a few runs to wear off the rust. I am still rusty. It is going to take going skiing more than once every few years to get any better. It was fun though, I just wish I could go more often. It is just so beautiful there! I love laying out under the stars at night. This year we had a bat that wanted to hang around and kept flying over us while we were laying outside talking at night. Missy was there for the first part then she had to leave to go to girls camp and then Kylee came out. Amy and I were there the whole time as well as Jace. Josh was the only sibling that wasn't able to make it. So we had a good crowd with everyone and all the kids. It will be one sad day when my parents no longer have a share in a houseboat. :( I don't know what we'll do. I would be sad to not ever get to go.  Seth stayed home with Ariana and they had daddy-daughter days full of fun.
They went to the zoo and to the Disney store. Dad bought Ari a doll (Izzy) from her latest favorite show Jake and the Neverland Pirates.
She was pretty stoked about that. They also went to the park everyday and just enjoyed life together. He is a good daddy and Ariana just loves her dad. That was Seth's anniversary gift to me, letting me go to Lake Powell.  He surprised me by taking work off so I could go. It was a very sweet gift, one of the best ones I ever gotten.

That week before we left, Seth had taken off the whole week, so we went bowling on Monday and had a great time. Ariana was hard to beat with her handy ball roller thing. She had a blast her first time bowling! We went out for pizza at the Pizza Factory afterwards. It was a fun little activity.


We hit the one-year mark of Michelle's passing and so she has been in my thoughts lately. It is crazy how life trudges on and how abruptly things can change. Still miss her. My cousin Denise lost her husband Kent unexpectedly this month after he had a neck surgery. We changed our Lake Powell plans so that we could attend the funeral services. Another reminder that we should not take the people in our lives for granted as they could be called home at any point. My heart breaks for her and her children. :(

My birthday was fun because Melissa had a performance at the Tabernacle and so Kylee and Jon came down. So our two little families got together for lunch at the Nauvoo Cafe (yummo!) and then I came back later that evening to watch Missy perform. She did a great job. She had a little solo in one of the songs. She is basically amazing.

In May my work invited me to a BDO work conference in Vegas, so I went and stayed for two nights. Seth did double-duty with both girls at home. He is super dad! They did great and everyone survived. It was fun to be with all the ladies at work, but it was fun to also come home to my sweet little family. We also went down to St. George for a weekend and got to hear Melissa play in her new band. They had a little performance at her home and it was just delightful. The weather was perfect, they sounded really good and they had a good crowd. It was just a pleasant night. I got to see Marchelle's new baby. He is sure a cutie. A little red-head. :)


The other thing that has preoccupied our lives was our little stint on Whole 30. I have been following people on Instagram that do Whole 30 and for a long time I thought they were crazy, but I kept following them. Then I saw they were coming out with a new book and it looked really good and interesting, so I decided to buy it. So I read it and decided that I wanted to try it, but I was really nervous because it seems a little extreme for me. So it took me 3 weeks to work up the courage and motivation to commit to doing it. But I did and Seth and I did it. Except we didn't make it the full 30 days. Going to St. George and Lake Powell made it really difficult to follow, but I have been making better choices. I needed something drastic to follow to get me going. I can say I really loved the food and the way it made me feel. But the amount of effort and time it took nearly killed me. I think that if I kept doing it, the time it takes would decrease since everything wouldn't be so new, but it was really labor intensive. I felt it was expensive but there are lots of people out there that have tips on how to not make it so expensive. I want to do it again, but need to figure out a better plan or something.

Eden is crawling as of this week (8 1/2 months)!! She loves her mama and cries pretty much whenever I set her down and walk away. She always wants her mama. :) Lately she keeps waking up about an hour after we put her down for bed. I don't understand why, but it really throws off her night time sleep because she doesn't immediately go back to sleep. Not sure what to do about that. Ari is growing up so fast. I am just waiting for the word from her that she is done with diapers. I don't know how soon its going to happen, she seems a little scared to give up the diapers. But we'll see. I don't really want to force it on her, I would love for it to be her choice. Time will tell.

We got to go to the Payson Temple Open House. It was so beautiful inside. I actually really liked the style they went with. It started to rain while we were in line outside but luckily I brought an umbrella. Except I left it in the car.....so Seth had to run and get it.

We had the boys from Provo up for Zombicide. They are a riot. They make the game really fun, it is fun that Seth still keeps in touch with them. They are a good group of guys. They are starting to get married, one is engaged and two others are close to being engaged. It is just fun to stay in touch and have some good laughs.

Our other exciting new thing is a 7 ft trampoline. I finally convinced Daddy that we needed one. He REALLY didn't want one. I wanted a full size one, but we both had to compromise and get a small one. Ariana loves it and I love to jump with her on it. This week I put the sprinkler under it and we had a blast. It has been fun for Ariana to have something fun outside to keep her active and burn off some energy. I love Utah summer nights outside, they are just magical.

Work has been going fine. I became a tax manager in January so my role has kinda shifted. I thought I would be more nervous about reviewing returns, but this year, it really hasn't been as scary as I thought it would be. I think it has been a good change. We have lost a lot of people this year that I love to work with, so that has been really sad. Things change. Sometimes it is hard to not have it be how it has always been, but life goes on.

March 1, 2015

Second month in a row? I am on a roll! ;) Well Seth just left for an interview with the Stake President....haha I have to laugh. We think we've guessed what it will be. Our guess is Elders Quorum President or counselor. Our Elders Quorum president is moving. We'll see if we are right. Well this month has been a good one. I think the highlight was probably 'I Love You Day' which we had on Sunday the 15th. Typically my family has done it the Sunday before Valentines day, but we didn't really get our act together and Valentines was on Saturday, so it was close. At least we had it. It turned out wonderful, except I usually end up eating most of the treats myself. I made cake and cupcakes and neither Ariana or Seth put much of a dent in eating them. We went and watched the Superbowl in Midway, we've gone there for quite a few years for the Superbowl. There were a lot of people there and the big game, so we didn't really get to chat, but it is always good to see family. Seth also had a birthday this month, he turned the big 3-0! It was on a Wednesday, so he just had the typical day. We went out for DP Cheesesteak (of course) and then his parents called. After the girls went down we watched a movie I rented from Redbox. I can't even remember which one I rented.

Ariana went to a birthday party of her little friend Betty Otterstrom in the ward. It was quite the party! They had two princess visitors that read to them and played games with them. They also had a pinata and of course ice cream and cake. It was the first birthday party that Ariana had ever been to, I think she is going to have high expectations for parties now.
My friend Becky has been going through a very hard time. She has had two miscarriages in the past year and a half and was pregnant again for the third time, she had made it past 12 weeks and so we thought she was in the clear, but when she went to Fetal Fotos at about 15 weeks, they put the ultrasound on and it was obvious the baby wasn't moving. So she went to the ER and sure enough the baby was dead. :( Talk about heartbreak.... She was pretty far along so they couldn't do a D&C so she had to deliver the baby. She said it was such a horrible but amazing experience. I just can't fathom what she is going through. I have had lunch with her a couple times since then and she is somehow surviving. I mean, you have to, but life can be so heartbreaking sometimes. She has felt peace and love through the experience though. I don't know if she will be able to have any more children because she apparently gets blood clots inside of her uterus when she gets pregnant which is not good obviously and basically can harm the baby. This time actually besides the blood clot, the reason Graden died was because the cord got twisted and he stopped getting nutrients. The doctor said it was very apparent that is what happened. Just one of those tragic, rare occurrences. Becky said it may have been a tender mercy of the Lord because with the blood clots, he couldn't have lived longer, but then been taken at like 20 or 25 weeks which would have been even worse. She has gestational diabetes with her pregnancies and gets really sick, so the pinched cord may have been a tender mercy of the Lord, which is even hard to imagine, but who knows. We don't know what would have happened. She seems to be doing better with each day. It is just devastating but just takes time. This is one of the pictures she captured and put on her Instagram. I think it is the most precious picture ever. Cutest little hand and fingers.

We also had one last fun excursion with Amelia and Kylee before the moved. It was free day at Discovery Gateway so Kylee and I took our girls (and Harvey). We had never been there and it was quite fun. The girls had a fun time playing and exploring the little pretend house and kitchen, the grocery store, the water area and the little tree-house area. They made little valentine necklaces and a valentine for Dad and also visited the life-flight helicopter outside. It wasn't as crowded as I thought it would be considering it was free day.

Also this month, one of my former YW, Meriah Otterstrom, from our Provo days got married, so we thought it would be good to go down to her reception. She looked beautiful, I loved her dress. They seemed really happy together. It is crazy my little miamaid got married. haha But it was fun to see some of the people from the ward and be able to talk with Stephanie Chapple for a bit. Miss that girl!

My parents came up to stay with us to help Jon and Kylee with their move. They bought a home in North Ogden to live closer to Jon's work, so Ryan/Amy, Mom and Dad came up to help with the move. Seth helped them on Saturday morning with their SL home and then we all drove up to the new home and hung out for a bit. It is always fun to see my parents and talk with my mom. Kylee's new home is adorable. I think they will really love their new place and neighborhood.

One very memorable night last week was a special fireside on Tuesday night with Sister Wendy Nelson, wife of Elder Russell M. Nelson. The title of her talk was "Could You Use More Angels In Your Life?" It was all about family history and genealogy. Not going to lie, at first I wasn't very excited about the topic, but it was amazing. She just shared her experience of her getting involved in family history, which really was only two years ago after she heard Elder Richard G. Scott's conference talk from October 2012. In December 2012 she took the plunge to work on family history and she has been so blessed. One quote from Elder Scott's address was 'The Lord will not force you to learn. We must use our agency to authorize the Holy Ghost to teach you." It is so true, we are never forced to do/learn anything." We have to be inviting and welcoming. She talked about praying and asking for angels to help us. We can ask by name and by attribute. I love that concept, we can be specific in who we ask for. I think it is good to remember that we are not here all alone and even though family may not live next door, I have family on the other side that can help. I am going to try to keep this perspective and really try prayer for that help.

We also refinanced our home this month. The interest rates have gone down from the time we purchased the home and so we went ahead and did that. As part of that, we had to have the home appraised. It came in about $8K more than what we paid for it, so that was good news. At least it didn't go down. I didn't think it would have gone down, but you never know. The market has done crazy things. I was talking with Amanda Wimmer yesterday about their home and work they've done to make it nicer and it makes me want to do things with our home that I think would really increase the value. It is hard to know what to do or not do. And it is hard to know how long we will stay in the neighborhood.

Ariana and Eden continue to grow up and amaze and entertain us. Ariana is on a new schedule now where she wakes up around 7-7:30. This is sad because she has always slept in, but without fail this past week, she is walking into our room and waking me up. Blast, I believe those days of sleeping in until 8 are over. haha. 7:30 is probably sleeping in for most people, so I really shouldn't complain. I am dreading the day when Ariana starts school at 7:40 am or whatever crazy time school starts. Eden is doing much better with the spit-up. I think the probiotic is really helping. She is happy most of the time now which is great. Ariana has a new phrase which I believe to be a combination of two phrases I use (oops!). She says 'what in the heck in the world'. LOL apparently I say what in the heck and what in the world a lot or something. I just have to laugh. Seth said that on Friday he was upstairs with both of the girls and Ariana said something to Seth like 'I have to slap your hand and you be in timeout'. That one would definitely be Seth. Eden is finding her voice and loves to just coo or squawk or just make noises. It is pretty cute. When you make her laugh, she just smiles big and puts her little fists up by her face and pushes back, it is pretty fun. She is ticklish and that is fun. It is the best thing ever to hear her little laugh.

A New Year!

Well it' my renewed goal to post more on my blog this year. We'll see how we do. I am averaging about 1-2 posts a year, it shouldn't be too hard to beat that record. Well lots has happened since last June, one thing being that we have the cutest little addition to our family, Eden!! She was born 1 week early on October 4, 2014 at 7:51 am. She has been a complete joy. She really has been a great sleeper overall. She does spit up a lot more than Ariana ever did, but we have her on a probiotic now and that seems to be helping. We had her baby blessing in December and it was fun to have so much family come for the event. She turns 4 months this week, and it is just amazing how fast they grow up. Eden loves Ariana and loves all of the attention that Ariana gives her. It is fun to see them interact. They are going to be the best little buddies.  I am so happy they have each other. We spent Christmas in St. George. We had Santa bring Ariana her gift on Christmas Eve morning, she got a big dollhouse with Minnie Mouse. She loves it and loves to play with it. Eden got a little plush doll for Christmas. Seth got a concealed carry gun and Mariah got a 3rd screen for her computer. It was a good Christmas.

We just got back this week from a 2 night stay at the cabin at Bear River Lodge. We love going each year and were really nervous there wouldn't be much snow since this winter has been very mild and we've hardly had any snow. But fortunately for us, there was snow and it was actually good snow for snowmobiling. We invited the Probst family, but only Austen, Megan, Olivia, Mitch, and Landen were able to come. We still had a lot of fun. Seth and I were discussing all of the trips we had taken there over the years and we've taken quite a few people. The first time we went in the summer with Jeff and Diana Cullimore, and then every year after that, we've done winter time. The second year we took Jon and Kylee, third year Jake and Alex Wilson along with Tom and Ashley Kline, fourth year Jason and Jordan Gleave, fifth year we took the Nielsen family clan and this year the Probsts. So it has been fun to share this wonderful spot with so many people. Seth is turning the big 3-0 this week! He has requested DP Cheesesteak for dinner, that is his all-time favorite place to eat. He is getting a new Warhammer guy for his present. Other exciting news is that I was promoted at work to be a Tax Manager, which is great. For awhile they were saying they wouldn't make part-time people managers because it is hard to 'manage' people when you aren't around all of the time, but they have been changing things up with new management and I guess that was one of the changes. I will take it. :) We have been working hard on painting the two bedrooms upstairs. We moved Ariana into the big room and made the small room my office. She is now in her big girl bed and does awesome! She stays in her bed all night and just does amazing. We are very lucky in that regard.

I have enjoyed having Kylee live so close for the past 8 months, but they are closing on a house in North Ogden and will be moving at the end of the month, so that makes me sad, but happy for them. It has been so fun to have Ariana live so close to Millie, they have enjoyed being able to play together so often. It really has been so great. I am going to miss that. They will still be closer than St. George, but its not 7 minutes away anymore.

Seth just came up on his 2 year mark at West Valley. He has been enjoying his time there. They have been great to him and he really likes the people he works with. The judge he works with really respects Seth and has made some very nice comments about how well he does in the courtroom. He thinks Seth is an amazing prosecutor, and that he is very smooth. It is always fun to hear those kinds of comments.

We are still working on getting Ari ready to start potty-training. I haven't really pushed it, I was hoping she would start to show interest herself, but not quite yet. She will hopefully soon. She started Sunbeams last month and she is getting more and more comfortable there. Today I went in and sat with her and she seemed to love singing time. She was doing all of the hand motions to the songs, which was so cute to watch. I just can't believe my little Ariana is big enough for Primary. It is just crazy how fast they grow. We are a happy little family. There are so many precious moments at this stage in life. I love watching Seth read to Ari at night and love how much they love each other. Seth will ask Ariana if he is her friend and she will say 'No, you are my BEST friend'. Melts my heart every time. I love to watch Ari make Eden laugh. And I love to watch Seth take care of his girls, all of them. We are a pretty lucky little family. I have so much to be grateful for. Sometimes I forget that and get caught up with what we don't have or what I wish would be different, but I do realize that Heavenly Father really has blessed us with so much and I have so many wonderful blessings to be grateful for. I am a lucky wife and mother.