Vegas Baby

For Christmas my dad rented a house in Las Vegas and all of the Earl family was together! My parents were to be leaving for another mission in January, and we wanted to have one last hurrah. It was an amazing place. We chose it for 2 reasons. First, we wanted to attend the Vegas Bowl, and second we needed a BIG place to all be together. I know my dad had worries on how it would all turn out...I thought it was a BLAST!!!

So I am going to post mostly pictures. My dad bought rock band BEATLES..it was a hit! I love his singing face by the way! The kids favorite was Lucy in the sky with diamonds.

I have to say that this kinda changed my kids life forever. They LOVE the Beatles now. They have downloaded all their songs and memorized the words. They have Beatles t-shirts, which they begged me to buy. The other day I heard Jack in the kitchen singing at the top of his voice "when I find myself in times of trouble...mother mary comes to me, speaking words of wisdom, let it be." It made me think of my dad, and it made me get a tear in my eye.

This is what our time in Vegas looked like most of the time, lots of kids....

And lots of fun sitting around talking!


There was SWIMMING!

And crafts.
And even an invalid!
This is Joey and Ty when they got home from the BYU game. They were still smiling! It was one of the best nights of Ty's life. He got to storm the field, and be on TV (thanks to uncle Justin) and he didn't even complain about the bitter cold.
We had a mini talent show Christmas eve. Grace and Carolina sang, Jack did a handstand, and Ty threw a football through a target.

Christmas morning was great and the kids loved all their presents. I had to include these two pics of Grace Christmas morning.

It was an amazing time. I love being with my family. Do you love us in our matching pjs?

December-Grandpa Christensen Funeral

In December we received the news that Joey's Grandpa Christensen passed away. We were sad, and so happy. He was 93 years old. He was an amazing man. I feel so honored that I got to know him. When we were in law school we lived in the same complex with grandma and grandpa and I had the opportunity to spend lots of time with him. He was gentle, kind, funny and charismatic.

A big thank you to Southwest Airlines for helping our family to get to the funeral! We took the boys and Fiona. It was nice to be able to see all of Joey's family, and right before Christmas too. Here are the boy cousins, practicing their musical number, Called to Serve". It was powerful. I was in 2 musical numbers as well, I Know that my Redeemer Lives and Silent Night. The funeral was wonderful.


Joey was a pallbearer.

Fiona got to meet tons of Arizona family. Here she is with "Auntie Allison".


We had a great experience. One negative though...Joey was playing football with all the little kids in the park and he re-injured his ankle. He had been limping since August on a bad calf/ankle from a flag football injury. When we got back to Utah and took him to the doctor we found out that he had ruptured his Achilles tendon and would have to go in for surgery the next day. It turns out that he had a partial tear all along, and then tore it again. Thus began one of the hardest 6 weeks in my life! He couldn't put ANY weight on it and had to use crutches to get around.

A Time of Thanksgiving

November flew by. With a newborn, night and day have no meaning. Fiona definitely had the two reversed. She struggled to gain weight and I had to start supplementing with formula. Thanksgiving was great, but kinda a blur. It was at my house. I looked back and had absolutely NO pictures. I had to take some from my sister's blog.

I wanted to include this picture so I could remember what Fi looked like...cute. I however, look tired!

Joey loves to come up with something creative (or weird if you ask me) to make for Thanksgiving. This is him making pear brulee...it had 2 sauces and was actually really good.

Cousins!! It is so fun for the kids to be together. Here are the younger ones.

My dad carving the bird. I miss my dad!

The food was GOOD! My favorite thing was Ash's orange rolls.

Another awesome thing that happened in November was that my Grandma read the Twilight books. (I insisted) I kept asking her if she liked them and she would say "NO!"...emphatically I might add. She read them soooo fast though. She even stayed up later than her 10pm bedtime a couple of nights. If you know my grandma, breaking schedule is almost unheard of...so I'm pretty sure she was obsessed! Here she is with Grace, oh and look what she is holding!

November comes with alot of football. Ash got iron on letters and we made the babies BYU shirts for the Utah game. AWESOME.

I have so much to be thankful for!

The Rest of October

We brought Fiona home. Here are all the kids wanting to meet her. They took turns holding her (after lots of hand sanitizer!)

I wanted to include this picture of my Grandma Jones (Aha) with Fi. It was so fun having my grandma live with me.

My Grandma Earl came to visit. It was so fun to have her there. She was constantly cleaning and helping with my kids.

Halloween. Tyson was a AZ cardinal football player. Jack was a bat (thanks mom taking care of that!) Carolina was Minnie Mouse (again..and she informed me today she wants to be Minnie Mouse next year too) and Grace was Cinderella. I took it easy and passed out candy, while Joey did the heavy lifting of the ward party and trick-or-treating.

Henry and Fiona, with their ghost onsies and pumpkin hats. (One of Ashley's friends made the hats...toooooo cute!) This picture shows how skinny Fi got. She was losing weight and I had to supplement with formula.

Next up, November...I'm sure you are on the edge of your seats.

Fiona Calista Arrives at Long Last

I have purposely NOT posted about having my little darling Fiona. My labor and delivery were horrible. I almost can't think about it. It is too soon. I am so happy with the result, however. So I will post pictures and details, I know that later I will want them. I took notes on a pad by my bed.

I checked in at 6:30 am. My first blood pressure reading was pretty high.

My nurse was named Sherry. I loved her right away.

At 9:00 am Dr. Baxter broke my water.
9:50-epidural
11:00 the unavoidable "magnesium sulfate"...my blood pressure was just too high. This medicine is awful, you feel hot, confused, floppy. It gives you a bad headache, it is hard for your eyes to focus and for me it brings on horrible nausea. I included this picture of me feeling druggy...

Throughout the afternoon I had a visist from my mom and Ashley and my mom in law. I felt very "magged out". I felt like I was flying or on a hot air baloon and I had a really bad headache. I threw up a few times, and progressed slowly (very slowly) throughout the day. They kept checking me and I was staying at a 6 to 7 for a long time. I really wanted to have my baby before the shift change at 5:00.

Ash and I: the pregnant sisters! We were quite the talk of the hospital.

My labor was slow going. Then I all the sudden felt like the baby was coming out, lots of pain and pressure. The nurse re-checked me and it was time. I really felt this baby get born. I don't know what was happening with my epidural. Yikes. So in a haze of pain and intense nausea, Fiona Calista was born at 6:56 pm. She was: 6 lb 13 oz, 19.5 inches long.

My father in law was able to run in and see Fiona before running out the door to catch a plane. My Mom in law stayed to help with my kids. I was so glad to have her there to hold my hand and be a great advocate for me.

Okay, so I look ABSOLUTELY horrible in these pictures. I hesitated posting them, but the truth of the matter is, this IS WHAT I LOOKED LIKE. I was so sick.

Justin and Angelique. One wierd side note, because of swine flu no kids were able to visit the hospital. Joey had to hold our baby up to the window as the kids looked in from outside the hospital.

Doctor Baxter and Fi. I love this guy. He has delivered 4 of my 5 kids, and I trust him with my life.

The night after I had little Fi is a horrible blur. I had to continue on the medication. My mom stayed with me. She sat/layed in the chair all night and held my hair back for me when I woke up to puke violently...over and over. Thinking about this makes me want to publicly thank my two moms for all their help with this birth. I am so grateful to have such amazing women in my life.

The next day I spent recovering and trying to do so quickly as my sister Ash was induced and progressing so quickly. I was able to get my cath out just in time to hop in a wheelchair (my first time up) and get wheeled 2 doors down just in time to catch the birth of Henry Ephraim.

TWIN COUSINS!! This was so fun. Ash and I ate our meals together and hung out.


I am so happy that these babies made it to earth. They are healthy and beautiful. It was all worth it.

October Here I Come

October was quite the month around here. I was on bedrest and then had a baby...oh yah, and Halloween.

The Young Women had a baby shower for me.

I had to go in to the hospital twice to be monitored, my blood pressure was too high! Here is one of the times I thought they might keep me. My doctor was out of town however, and I was DETERMINED to make it until he got back.

Abigail came to stay at my house the week I had the baby. Jason and Kaelynn took the rest of their group to Disneyland. The girls had so much fun together.

Next Post...Fiona is born!

It's a New Day

My baby Fi is now 4 months old. Yesterday, I sat around and watched TV. Then it hit me...I have some spare minutes now! And so I will resume this blog basically where I left off....September 2009!!! I am mostly going to throw on a bunch of pictures. They will do a pretty good job of documenting my crazy life.

My parents came to stay with us. It was a very eventful time for me that flew by so quickly. They are now in Madrid for two years. I really miss them.

Tyson played his first season of flag football. It was funny. Joey has decided he needs to coach next time.

This is an awesome picture of Rob and Carolina. The quote should read "Carolina had a great idea"...this is what Rob said when we asked them why they got out every single game I own and spread them over the upstairs of my house. These two get into quite a bit of trouble. It seems that Carolina is the brains and Rob the brawn of this operation.


In September the Emigs all came to Utah for a birthday celebration (we missed you Em and Jared!) The dad turned 60! We had such a blast.

I was on bedrest, so I missed alot of the fun, including the BYU game they all attended, but here we are at Brick Oven having an awesome dinner...with no kids! Nat announced she was expecting. It was a great night.

We watched alot of football. BYU had a great season, and so did the AZ cardinals. Joey would make us wear our jerseys for the games.


Go Cardinals!

Gracie spent alot of time playing computer when I was on bedrest. It is amazing to me how she can navigate this website (starfall) without being able to read.

So, I hope all my "mamas" enjoyed installment #1. Better late than never, right?