Airman of the Year Banquet

Who doesn’t love getting dressed up and going out on the town? I don’t know anyone.

The Air Force has an awards banquet each year for outstanding Airman. Brian and I first went back in 2002 when Brian was the Outstanding Airman of the Year for the 419^th Communications Squadron. Oh yeah, did I mention – Brian has to dress up in his dress uniform?? That is definitely the BEST part! It was fun to dress up in a formal dress and have a nice dinner and know that Brian did a good job, but it was slightly uncomfortable since I was 5 months pregnant with Chloe. We didn’t go again until last year when Brian was chosen as one of the 2 emcee’s for the event. Of course I was going to go and see him in action! Mom went with us and sat with me while Brian was up ‘doing his thing’. It was pretty fun, but I really didn’t get to dress up, since Hannah was only 2 ½ months old and I barely fit into anything, and I had to take a nursing baby with us, but it was still fun.

Well, this year we had the opportunity to go, just for fun! Just to dress up and go – with no babies and not being pregnant! I was talking to one of my best friends, Alicia, and she was talking about how long it has been since she has gotten dressed up fancy and gone out. So, we invited her to go on a ‘date’ with us! We often joke about dating with Alicia, since she is now single (almost officially) and we live in Eagle Mountain – so Brian must be looking for another wife right? LOL!!! Anyways, Brian was more than willing to take 2 beautiful women out to dinner!

I had to find something to wear, so I searched and searched. One of my other best friends, Mariah, went shopping with me (note to self – do not take 10 kids to the mall when mom needs to try on dresses!) and we went dress hunting. We found the prettiest dress and jacket at Macy’s. I just fell in love with it! It turns out that everyone fell in love with it. After I bought it, everyone wanted to try it on – now, we are definitely NOT the same size or body type, but it seems to fit all of us AND it looks good on all of us too! It seems as though we have formed the ‘sisterhood of the traveling dress!’ :) Now if they can just find somewhere fancy to wear it to!

I wish that I could say how much fun I had getting ready, but I was pretty stressed – my hair did not want to co-operate and I ended up having to re-shower and re-wash it! Then I was running late and had to do my makeup in the car! Thank goodness Alicia was driving so I didn’t have to do makeup while driving. We got to Hill Air Force Base, picked up Brian and continued up to the Ogden Eccles Events Center where the banquet was being held.

The banquet was nice but the fun definitely started after dinner when we went to get our pictures taken. Each year they have a professional photographer there to take pictures – just like your prom pictures, they come in a little black photo frame and everything. They always do 2 poses, so this year we decided that for one of the poses, we would have Alicia in the picture. Alicia was protesting, but finally she came over. I asked that it be more of a cute pose – so the photographer put Brian in the middle sitting down and Alicia and I were placed on either side kind of hanging on his shoulders. You should have seen his face! His smile was so big! On the way back inside, he slung his arms over both of our shoulders and said, “Ah come on, I have to do this at least once!” We walked in with our arms around his waist and his arms around our shoulders. I think he thought he looked like the luckiest man alive! :) Again he had that smile that looked like his face was going to explode!

The rest of the night was full of laughter. We went out for pie at Marie Calendars and had some great conversation and good jokes. We took pictures with our cell phones and made stupid jokes. It was so much fun! I definitely think that we all need some fancy dates more often!

Alicia, Brian & Me

Brian & I

Allison Performs at Halftime!

So for most people that know Allison, they know that she loves to dance. She has been dancing since she was 5 and she did gymnastics for a year before that. She has always wanted to be a ballerina. She even has her own blog about it! (allisonsgottadance.blogspot.com)

Last year, she convinced me that she should try out for the competition team at her dance studio. I don’t know what I thought would happen, but I certainly didn’t think that my baby girl would turn into a teenager!

She tried out and ended up making it on to a more advanced team than we had thought. The team that she is on now is the team that last year won a 6 foot trophy and numerous 1^st place trophies. In fact, they did so well last year, that they have to move up a division this year! The team is called the Diamonds.

I love watching her dance! She has a love for performing. She always wants to be the center of attention. J She has a talent for dancing. She is usually always on beat (even if that means she doesn’t match the other dancers ;) )

On Friday, the Diamonds performed at Rockwell High School’s Basketball halftime. It got off to kind of a rocky start, not the performance, but the basketball game. The Diamonds were performing at the boy’s basketball game but the girl’s game was playing first. We were told that the girl’s game would start at 3 pm and then the boy’s game would start at 5 pm and we would be performing at 5:30ish. The girl’s game apparently didn’t get started until around 4 and then went long. The game didn’t finish until 6! The boy’s game didn’t start until almost 6:20 and we didn’t end up performing until almost 7pm!

We had been told to show up at the high school at 5 pm ready to go (of course there was no way Misty – Allison’s coach – would have known what was going on with the games) so Mom and I had packed up all 5 girls and had shown up at 5pm at the school. AND 2 of my girlfriends Mariah and Alicia had brought their kids, Allison’s friends, to see Allison perform! There were 12 friends + my 4 kids just to see Allison! (Those are all kids – there were 4 of us Adults there tooJ) Plus all of the other people there to see the other dancers. It was a little crazy. The Diamonds did a few practices for us – kind of a ‘private show’ which was nice because Alicia and Mariah had to leave before the actual performance since everything was running so late.

When it was finally time to perform, they did such a good job! It was their first performance of this dance, the first time they had ever done it outside of the studio and the first time in front of anyone. I was so proud of Allison!

Here are a few pictures, and at the end is the video of the dance. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Allison stretching before the big performance!

Misty telling the girls to get ready.

Our ‘Private Show’ or dress rehearsal – which ever you prefer :)

Allison’s Friends that came to see her – Becca, Brayden, Lilliah, Royce, Zeke, Noah, Brooklyn, Danni, Gabe, Savannah, Chloe, & Catie (Mary, Hannah, Mazie, & Cole were playing somewhere else)

You should play too!

It is fun to read everyones answers. You actually learn a little something!
1.How long have you been together? We've been married almost 9 years!
2.How long did we date? 6 months
3. How old is he? 32 next month
4.Who eats more? Brian
5. Who said, "I love you" first? Brian did, on the phone - and then called back to tell me it was an accident! (he had planned to say it in person later that day)
6. Who is taller? Brian
7. Who does the laundry? I do the kids clothes, Brian does ours
8. Who does the dishes? depends on who cooks
9. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? when you're laying on it or looking at it? - if you're in it, Brian does.
10. Who pays the bills? I do
11. Who mows the lawn? Have you seen our lawn? - Brian.
12. Who cooks dinner? we share
13. Who is more stubborn? Totally me
14. Who kissed who first? Brian kissed me.
15. Who asked who out? I asked Brian out on a group date first, but he wanted to meet me before then, so he then asked if we could go out the day before - so who wins?
16. Who proposed? Brian - 3 times.
17. Who is more sensitive? Me
18. Who has more siblings? That depends on how you look at it, Brian has 2 sisters and a brother, but I have 2 brothers, 1 step brother, a half brother and a half sister.
19. What were you doing ten years ago? I was dating Brian and interviewing for the Florida National Sea Base job that I ended up turning down the day after Brian proposed!
20. Five things on my to-do list: fold laundry, fix dinner, plan Shonti's birthday party (Catie's imaginary friend), do school with the kids, get dressed
21.Things I would do if I was suddenly made a billionaire: Pay all the debt, take the family to Hawaii! Make Brian retire, Landscape the backyard!
22. Three of my bad habits: not folding laundry, sleeping in, procrastinating
23. Five places I have lived: SLC, UT, Hoback Junction, WY, Eagle Mountain, UT (I haven't lived 5 places!)
24. Five jobs I have had: Lifeguard, Zuka Juice, Boy Scouts of America, Robins Brokerage (food broker), Mom
25. Things people don't know about me: I was a registered Boy Scout for 6 years, I LOVE swing and ballroom dancing and I used to go 2-3 times/week, I once blew up a microwave and set my mom's kitchen on fire.
Tag - Jolene, Melissa, Alicia, Sharlon

Decorating for Christmas

Ok, I usually like decorating for Christmas. I think it is pretty fun and I usualy end up doing most of it by myself, because mom and Brian are working, but this year it has been a little different. I have run into a lot of problems with the decorations. My tree wouldn't light (it's a pre-lit tree and none of the lights work this year), we decided to hang lights on the outside of the house and realized that our ladder isn't long enough to reach most of the roof (if you are very nice and promise not to laugh I might tell you about the "extension-cord-rope-tying-Brian-and-I-together-so-we-don't-fall-off-the-roof" experience). Last night was the end of my 'death defying' decorating experiences. We have some really cool spaces to decorate in our house that I am just finding out about. They are up near the ceiling - the previous owners installed outets operated by switches so you can put decorations and lights up on these high shelves and then you just have to flip the switch to turn them on and off - it's pretty cool. I thought it would be cool to have lights ontop of the wall that separates the 'visiting teaching' room from the family room. The only problem is that we don't have an A-frame ladder, and one side of the wall has stairs next to it. I didn't think it would be a problem to just get on top of the wall and tack some lights up. I was wrong. What an adventure it was! I think I almost gave Mom a heart attack, and Cameron was sure I was going to fall and crush him to death (we had him sitting on the stairs just in case I fell - to cushion the blow).
Well - here are some pics. Enjoy!

And lastly, here's a cute one of our 'Catie Tree'.

She thought I was kind of a nerd for putting lights on her, but I thought she was cute.

Hannah's First Birthday

Hannah had so much fun eating her birthday cake, I just had to share! Enjoy!

Look what I get to eat!!!

Peek -A-
BOO!!

YUMMY!!

The Aftermath....

Question & Answers Tag

I saw this on a friend's blog and thought it looked fun! So here it goes:

Here are the rules: I have to answer the following questions with one word answers and one word only! Then I must pass it on to six others. The questions are as follows:.
1. Where is your cell phone? Lost
2. Where is your significant other? Sleeping
3. Your hair color? Brown
4. Your mother? Christie
5. Your father? Greg
6. Your favorite thing? Family
7. Your dream last night? AWESOME!
8. Your dream/goal? Weightloss
9. The room you're in? Front
10. Your hobby? Kids
11. Your fear? Dark
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Vacation
13. Where were you last night? Home
14. What you're not? Skinny
15. One of your wish-list items? Backyard
16. Where you grew up? Utah
17. The last thing you ate? eggs
18. What are you wearing? Jeans
19. Your TV? old
20. Your pet? cats
21. Your computer? new
22. Your mood? tired
23. Your car? Rocket
25. Something you're not wearing? Shoes
26. Favorite store? WoodConnection
27. Your summer? busy
28. Love someone? Totally!
29. Your favorite color? Orange
30. When is the last time you laughed? Yesterday
31. Last time you cried? Yesterday

I tag Alicia, Melissa, Jolene

What a Sicko!

Who thought that getting your tonsils out would be such a big deal? Allison had hers out when she was 4 years old, and she didn't have this many problems! I guess we should start from the beginning. Brian has always had a problem with sore throats/tonsillitis. Every winter we go through the same mess. Last year he got strep really bad and then gave it to the rest of the family, including Catie - who then developed Scarlet Fever (what a pain!). He also snores. Really Bad!! After this last bout of sore throat mess, and snoring that won't stop, we decided it was time to go see the ENT. The doc took one look at Brian's nasty tonsils and decided they needed to come out. None of us thought it would be a big deal - heck, Allison had done it, right?
WRONG! What we have since figured out is that those little things called tonsils are a BIG deal for us adults! Brian has been SO SICK since Friday. He hasn't been able to eat anything that hasn't gone through the blender. He can't talk. All he does is sleep on and off all day/night. And of course, since he is in tons of pain (which Brian has never been in - he has never even broken a bone and this was his first real hospital visit) he is super grumpy. :(
We took Hannah to the same ENT office last night (she has to get tubes in her ears this month) and we were talking about Brian's progress. I was informed that this coming weekend will be the worst part of his recovery. WHAT!! I thought he was finally starting to get better! Nope. I was told that once the scabs start falling off, he is going to "want to die". Great. What a weekend we have to look forward to.
Please pray for his QUICK recovery and my sanity! ;)

My Baby is One Year Old!

Since my baby is a whole year old today, I thought it would be fun to reminisce, and post her birth story. So, for those of you that haven't heard it, I hope you think it is as funny as it really was!

Happy Birthday Hannah!!!

When I went to the bathroom on Friday morning just after waking up, I was surprised to see thee "bloody show." This is my 5th baby and I have never had anything like that before, so this was new to me. Brian had to decide if he was going to go to his military weekend drills that night, so I was very interested to see if the ‘show’ meant that labor would be happening soon, and if so - he needed to stay home. I tried looking on the internet and calling my friends and couldn't come up with a definite answer. I called my ob's office but both my ob and my midwife were out of the office, so I left a message with the triage nurse and decided to call a neighbor who is a midwife. When I called her, I asked her if the ‘show’ actually meant anything. She responded with a few questions.
"When is your due date?"
"Today"
"Have you had any contractions today?"
"Yeah - about 5 an hour"
"Have you had any lower back pain?"
"Yes – it has been REALLY bad since last night"
"Have you had any diarrhea?"
"Yes, since yesterday"
– Her answer was then, "Honey, I think you are in labor!"
She asked if I wanted her to check me and see if anything was happening because I live about an hour away from the hospital. I said sure, so she came over to my house and told me that she thought I was dilated to a 4 and about 70% effaced and that she thought the baby would be here in the next day or two.
Just after she left my house, my ob's office called back and when I told them what was going on, they said that they would like me to come into L&D so the on call doc could check me and figure out what was going on. I told them that I would come in as soon as Brian got off work. We had some errands to run that were important, so he was planning on coming home at 3. At 2 o'clock I called him and told him that he needed to come home sooner because I was having real contractions and I thought this might be it! At 2:30 I called him again (he only works 2 miles away from home) and told him he needed to come home NOW. This was it and we needed to get to the bank to sign some papers before we headed into the hospital. My mom called a neighbor for me and she came over and picked up the other girls and Brian came home and we headed to the hospital by way of the bank. The people were very nice and even brought the papers out to the car so I wouldn't have to walk inside to sign them!
We got to L&D and the doc on call came in to talk to us. I was very nervous because I didn't particularly like this doc and I had not been impressed with our last encounter. She came in and was very nice and did an exam and told me she thought I was a 4 ½ and 70% effaced and a -2 station. She wanted to see how the baby was reacting and if I was having any contractions, so they hooked us up to the monitor and said they would be back in 15 min. 15 min later, the nurse came back and said that they were a tiny bit worried about the baby, because she wasn't reacting as well as they thought she should be, but I was having consistent contractions and my due date was today and I was GBS+ so the doc had decided to keep me. They wanted to start the IV antibiotics and after 2 doses the doc would break my water and we wouldn't be going home without a baby!!
Well, the 2nd dose of antibiotics was finished at 9:30 pm and so we asked when the doc was going to come in and break my water. The new nurse said that the doc had actually decided not to break my water anymore because I wanted to go natural and that breaking my water would make the contractions harder. I explained that this was my 5th baby and I understood that and that we WANTED my water broken, because my labors don't progress very fast until then. The nurse then said that she would talk to the doc and let us know. We didn't hear back for about a half an hour so we called the nurse again and she said that the doc was taking a nap and that she had another patient that was getting close to a 10 so they weren't going to wake her up until the other patient was ready to push, then they would talk to her about me.
It was at this point when we figured out that things weren't going to go as well as we had hoped. We waited until 11:30 and finally told our new nurse that we REALLY wanted to know what was going on and that it wasn't right or fair that we weren't allowed to talk to the doctor until someone else was fully dilated. The nurse said that she would talk to the doctor and be back. She came back 20 minutes later and told us that the doc was awake and said that she didn't want to break my water because she had 2 other patients that were actually her patients in active labor and if she broke my water, she knew that I have fast labors and she risked missing one of her patients deliveries because she would be delivering my baby – so if I wanted to get an epidural now and go to sleep, that would be fine, but she wouldn't be breaking my water before 7am.
WHAT???!! I was promised that she would break my water at 9:30pm! We told the nurse that this was unacceptable and we wanted to talk to the doc herself. She left and a few minutes later the charge nurse came in and asked what was going on. We explained what had been told to us when we checked in and that now we were being told a different story. She said that she was friends with the doc and she would go talk to her. She didn't come back for over an hour! When she came back, she said that the doc was right and that I wasn't a priority because I wasn't in hard labor yet and that I could have an epidural now, or just wait until the morning. We told them that was crap and that they knew I wanted to go natural so why would they offer me an epidural? And if I wasn't in active labor why would they offer me an epidural? The whole mood of the L&D staff had changed and we knew that we would not be getting the care we needed – so we told them that we were leaving (BTW – I was still having consistent contractions every 3-4 minutes on the monitor). The charge nurse then threatened that if we left - against medical advice, my insurance would not pay for the last 10 hours that we had been there. WRONG! My mom works for the insurance company and she flat out told her what she was full of and that we would be leaving since they said I wasn't in active labor.
I was devastated – they promised I wouldn't be going home without my baby! I was tired, and hungry. Brian and I stopped at Taco Bell to get some food, since they don’t let you eat in L&D. While we were in the drive through, my mom called to make sure I was doing ok. She had driven her own car, so she was driving home separately, and she was worried about my state of mind. She told me that she thought it would be a good idea for us to say a prayer for safety before we headed home. I thought it was a good idea also, so we said a prayer and headed home.
We drove the hour home and I was still having contractions. About 5 miles away from home we were driving down the highway and we hit a deer! I was in the middle of a contraction and all I could think of was "What a great way to end the night!!" After making sure we hadn't killed the suburban (believe it or not there was NO damage) and getting the dead deer out of the road we continued home. We finally got home around 2am. Thank goodness we said that prayer!
I continued to labor at home for the rest of the night and at 6:30, Brian and my mom decided it was probably time to head back to the hospital so we didn't have the baby at home. We got back to the hospital at about 7:50 (knowing that shift change was at 7 so the ornery nurses from the night before should be gone) and I was wheeled into L&D. The day time charge nurse from the afternoon before was on again, and actually all of the nice nurses from the afternoon before were back and were all VERY surprised that I was 'coming back'. They all thought I had my baby last night and had been moved up to the recovery floor.
It was obvious I was in hard labor and the charge nurse just told us what room to go to and that I could get in the tub and that she would be down to check us in, in a minute. We went to the room and I got in the tub and was immediately relieved. I stayed in the water for about 40 minutes until the doc on call came in. I had been told that the doc from last night was on call all weekend – but I was pleasantly surprised to find out that it was a different doc this time – the same doc that had delivered my last baby! He came in and 'recommended' that I get out of the tub, let them monitor me for 10 min while they start another IV for antibiotics and he would break my water – if that was ok with me. That was ok. I waited a little longer then got out of the tub and he came back down to the room. He checked me and told me that I was dilated to an 8 and then broke my water at 9:50 am. I started 'transition' at 11:00 am so the nurse checked me again and said I was only barely a 9 and that the baby was still pretty high. She left and 2 minutes later I was ready to push. My mom called the nurse station and told them – but no one came. My aunt ran out into the hall and realized that they didn't believe that I was really ready to push – she ran to the doc and said "Room 3 – the baby is here!" and ran back to my room. All of a sudden you could hear the stampede of the hospital staff running down the hall. The doc was washing his hands and told me to not push and I yelled back at him “Yeah right!” He came over to the bed, looked at Brian and said "I just washed my hands" as he caught our little Hannah and put her on my belly. Hannah was born after 3 pushes at 11:10 am! He then went back to the sink, re-scrubbed, put his gown and gloves on and was very proactive in stopping my hemorrhaging.
In the end, it turned out to be a beautiful experience and I was VERY thankful that we made the decision to go home on Friday night and come back to a different staff. Hannah was born in a very caring and compassionate environment. She weighed 8lbs 10 oz and was 18 ½ inches long.

What a Mess!!!

When I woke up this morning to Hannah beating me over the head, I wasn't quite ready to get up. So I decided to let her get off the bed and crawl around and play with Mary. They do that a lot, so I didn't think it would be a problem. I turned on the TV in my bedroom and made sure the bathroom door was shut and I kind of snoozed while the two of them played on my bedroom floor. They had been playing nicely for about 1/2 an hour when Allison got up to get something (she was cuddling with me in bed) and she yelped that Hannah was covered from Head to toe in frosting! I had no idea what she was talking about since both Hannah and Mary had been in my room the whole time - except for the few minutes that Mary had left to go potty, so I got up to check, and this is what I found:

Apparently when Mary went "potty", she also went to the cold storage room and got some frosting for her and Hannah to 'share'. Unfortunately I don't think she realized that Hannah doesn't share too well. Mary didn't get any.

I guess I better go clean up.

Hair Do's Day 2

OK, so after Mary and Catie got gorgeous hair do's, Chloe and Allison decided that it was their turn. So here is my attempt at doing their hair. I think it turned out pretty cute. Chloe's hair actually looks kind of curly, which is amazing!

OK, so this last picture is in here because Allison couldn't stop laughing. I was trying to take a picture of her face and she just was laughing too hard and this is what came out. When we looked at it, we decided that she looked like a pineapple!

(Can you see the resemblance?) LOL

Hair Do's

So we all know that I have a lot of hair to do around this house. (Luckily my mom helps out a lot on Sundays.) I used to think I was pretty good at keeping the girl's hair pretty cute, but lately it has just gotten into a rut - pretty much just flip throughs and pony tails. I am pretty bored. Not that I have a lot of expertise. My hair hasn't been that easy to deal with. I usually end up in a pony tail myself. Well, today as I was surfing around, I stumbled on to a couple of 'hair blogs'. I got motivated and so I decided to try their techniques out - (keep in mind that the last couple of times I have tried these things out, they have ended in total failure). I came away pretty impressed, and Catie and Mary were pretty excited. They think they look like princesses!

Catie's Hair

The criss-crosses on the back of Catie's hair
Mary's Hair
The back of Mary's hair

Four Generation Pictures

Last month we took my Nana out and got 4 generation pictures taken. I was so excited to get these pictures with Nana, Hunny, me, and all my girls! This photo will be one that will be treasured forever. Not many people are able to get this many generations all together anymore, and to have this many girls is also pretty cool! I don't think the girls understand how important this is to me, but I hope that when they grow up, they will appreciate it. I don't think Nana will be around much longer, so I am glad that all 5 girls were able to get a picture with her.

Nana, Hunny, Aimie, Allison, Chloe, Catie, Mary & Hannah!

My 5 Beautiful Princesses! -

Robyn went to Vietnam recently with the SLCC Dental Hygiene department to do some free clinics. While she was there, she bought the girls these beautiful Vietnamese outfits. Don't they all look like royalty?

Allison

Chloe

Catie

Mary

Princess Hannah

(she really is the princess)

All of the Furse girls!!

Fall Leaves

During the last couple of weeks we have really enjoyed the outdoors. We have gone on a couple of trips up American Fork Canyon to see the beautiful leaves and enjoy the fall weather. Here are a couple of our favorite pictures.

Blogging

Ok - I am really going to do it!! I am going to start blogging. I have found something I REALLY like. Digital scrapbooking. I found out that I can make my own blog pages - see I made this one! It's ok, for my first one!! (actually second, but I'll bring back the 1st one for thanksgiving). I think it's going to be fun, so Allison and I will start doing this together!

Our Ballerinas!

Here is our household of Ballerinas. I think we are going to be in trouble in a few years!!