Making up for lost time....

Do I dare even try.......... So much has happened before and since my last post.

 

These sweet sisters along with two others not pictured (Chan and Melissa) threw this mama a shower

going back to before Samantha was born

My sweet Auntie's who I never get a chance to see popped in for the occasion. My Aunt and I look nothing alike huh!

Some friends from my ward in attendance!!

Bella and Lys got to be in the Lehi Round Up Parade with their gymnastics teams!!! (Bell is the itty bitty in the center and lys is behind her in the black and red)

Our hot chicks enjoying a treat after the parade

Recovered my old foot rest for my glider for Samanatha's Room!  So excited to see it so clean and nice looking again and sure nuff one of the girls came along shortly after the fact and dirtied it all up again.  At least I have a picture of it!

Made a name plaque for Bella

Loved making this fun glitter frame project I found @ http://eighteen25.blogspot.com
Which I ended up making  Halloween and Christmas ones too!

I just had to capture this pretty girl one Sunday after church!

This guy finally got his wish!  We had lots and lots and lots of concrete poured in the back yard after much debate I actually am glad we did it!

Precious little Samantha in her Daddy's arms!

We blessed this precious baby on August 7th! With the whole Loftin fam there and Celebrated that and Melayna's Bday all in one swoop!

 



This sweet little elmo lover had her 2nd birthday!


Daddy is such a good sport!



 



My sweet mama was able to come visit for the 1st time since we've moved here!



I turned another year old and got to celebrate with my mom and fam!

This cute girl played T-ball over the summer and loved it!!!

 

 

My sweet friend Andrea (what a great name eh?!?! :)  giving my girls a ride on her horse! (one the true hightlights of their year!)

 

I've decided I will catch up in doses partly because otherwise this post would reach all the way to China and secondly its 1:03 am currently and I have hit a wall and know I will be paying for it in the morning.  Hey at least tomorrow is Friday right?!?!

HOORAY I CAN BLOG AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So my trusty ol computer has been on the blink pretty much right around the time I gave birth to our baby girl Sam and it has made me very sad because of course I wanted to tell about her birth story and show her off and now that I've had a pro help me out the computer is up and runnin again. I've got a lot of catching up to do so here is where I will begin, with our story of a little babe named Samantha Jane born on July 8th 2011!!!!!

Our 4th and final little girl!!!!!!

There was a lot of this going on.......(just another day @ the virtual office)

This is the calm before the very short storm

We showed up at the hospital around 4pm to be induced and I don't know if it's due to the mass amt of babies born here in UT but I swear they cranked my pitocin way the heck up and even with an epidural I felt those contractions like never before and with 2 fast pushes around 7:30pm she was born!She was our smallest baby at birth only weighing 7lbs 8oz. and 19 1/2 inches and she was blondie which all the girls have come out dark so we were somewhat surprised with that and the bruising poor little girl! I think she was a little mad about her trip into this world not only did she come super fast, she had the cord wrapped rather tightly around her little neck, and she was jaundiced as well which we've also never experienced before (the jaundice that is).

Sweet Husband of mine looking over his newest baby girl!

The girls meeting Sam for the 1st time!

My sweet little peanut!

Ever heard of Violet Bauregaard from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory??? Samantha taking a snoozer!

Sam and all her sisters!!!!!!

Mama and baby ready to leave the hospital!

She is an awesome baby and completes our little family so nicely, we are so so so grateful to have her here with us.taken @ 2 1/2 months

Mom I'm Famous!!!

This was a fun surprise the other night.... When we first moved here to Utah our neighbor down the street who is a professional photographer asked if Alyssa and I would be models for a photo shoot in the kitchen, we thought it would be fun so we said sure! He sells these pics for advertisements but doesn't know when, where, or what they'll end up in, but if they ever hear of where our pics go they'd let us know.

So I was on facebook the other night and came across a post from my friend Heather in our ward at church asking if we had ever taken a pic making a pie, because she thinks its us in the LIVING magazine??? Could this be....one of those pictures we took almost a year and a half ago? It killed me that I was home that night by myself with the ladies and they were already in bed so I couldn't just run to the store and see for myself. I had to wait until morning and when we got to Walmart and opened it up I could not believe it..... there we were in a full page ad. The most fun thing was Alyssa's reaction. I hadn't told her why we were there looking at the magazine so when I found the page I turned it around and showed her and she looked confused for a minute and then said "Mom that's us, oh my gosh, I'm famous".

We have been told that some of the other pics they took that day have sold they just don't know where they went!

Missing my legs (warning...rated scary)

I am not (okay maybe a little) trying to brag but I used to have the best legs, until my sweet Bella was about to enter our world. Late into my pregnancy with her my legs swelled to a ridiculous size, so much so that as I was delivering her I asked our dr. when I could expect for them to get better. He told me 2-4 weeks. Well I am just here to tell you almost 5 years later he was wrong. She was worth it just to be clear.

Trying to find answers for this crazy pitting swelling (which is mainly in my right leg) I have been to a cardiologist, a vein doc, had ultrasounds, had vein mapping done and worn compression stockings (like the old ladies I took care of in the nursing home) and finally been told last year I have Lymphedema.

I have always been in control of and taken pride in my physical appearance, so this has been very humbling to say the least. When I am pregnant it is obviously worse due to the extra weight, which is a large reason that this baby girl who will be here in 3 and a 1/2 weeks will be our last baby. The doctors have a hard time understanding why I have this condition since I have none of the symptoms a typical lymph patient has such as morbid obesity, previous cancer surgery, trauma to the leg, burns, brake or fracture. The only thing I can think is Heavenly Father is trying to keep me humble. I know that there are far worse conditions or afflictions I could have and so I have to take this all in stride. There is no cure..... only treatment, which really consists of compression with the stockings and elevation which I have loads of time for. But I just have to say I really miss my legs.....

those were my legs back when Ry and I were datingthese are my legs now on a bad day......when I've been on them all day
This was an especially bad day.
pretty sexy huh?!

Kids Fun Run!!

Our girlies have wanted to enter a kids race for a while now and I was so excited to find one at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi! It is so cool to watch them compete and enjoy something that is so near and dear to my heart!

So we pull into the parking lot and were a couple minutes late and as we are pulling in their kids run is starting and I'm watching all the kids (from inside my car) take off and my heart sank. Seriously, they had been waiting for this at least a couple months now.....and originally the plan was Ry would run along side them and Layna and I would be the cheerleaders but Ry was driving when we pulled in and he looked at me and said "Mom I'll park the car you go run with the girls hurry!!!!!" So out the 3 of us jumped and we ran all the way from the parking lot to the starting line and so began our race, luckily it was chip-timed, so we would know their actual times at the end. (I know they're just kids; what's the big deal right....but it's fun to know how they did) I did feel like I was torturing them just a little because no sooner did we get thru the start maybe a minute into it and Lys wanted to walk but I pushed her to keep going and held Booboo's hand as we ran the 1 mile course thru the gardens and farm country. Such a fun race!!

Here's sissy lyssy kickin on the turbo speed at the end for a great finish!!

Here's sweet Bella boo and prego mama hand in hand!!!!
Just after the finish with their medals!!!

These sweet sisters sure love each other!!!

In the End Alyssa came in the "6 and under females" category

9th overall and 6th of the 6 yr olds with a time of 11:37 and

Miss Isabella finished 11th overall in the same category and 1st place of all 4 yr old females with a time of 11:43!!!!

WAY TO GO MY LITTLE CHICKS!!!!

Easter 2011

Easter this year was a lot of fun!! We had our family Easter Celebration at Ryan's parents new property in Lehi and it was a blast!!
These 16 little faces are a large part of why we moved here to Utah! (#17 baby Preslee was not pictured and #18 isn't quite here yet!) Love each and every one of them and yes I can tell you all their names, ages, and birthdays.

Daddy and Laynie sharing some yummy food!!!
The Loot, Easter Morning!
Our dear sweet Aunt Chani hooked lay lay up with this Sa-Weet Elmo basket after learning of her nieces' slight obsession with the fuzzy lil red guy, and yes she is in the midst of smooching him. Might we have something to do with this obsession??? Maybe a little.......
The ladies in the Easter dresses after church (unfortunately Melayna wasn't pictured she was taking a nap.)

We also had a small Easter gift given to us by my friend and visiting teaching partner Tanya this year that ended up being very very cool. If you haven't heard of "Resurrection Rolls" and want a cool and yummy way to explain the real meaning of Easter to your kids, let me know I will be happy to pass it along!

I'm Back!

Today was so fun! Back when we lived in Oregon I developed a love for running 5 and 10k's. One of the things that made it so much fun was our friends JoeLisa. I think that actually may be a big reason that in the year and a half we've lived here I haven't done one because I've been missing my running partner.

Well the show must go on and today I had something.....(not quite sure what) to prove. Maybe the fact that I am 34, have lymphedema in one leg and am a few days shy of being 7 months pregnant I don't know, but whatever it was I'm glad I did it. I ran the Easter in Lehi 5k, my first in Utah, and it felt soooo good, (- the slight amt of pee that trickled out as I ran,geez.....)!!

Ry kept putting on the pressure last night saying what if you won honey and I said I'm not doing this to win, I'm just going for a personal victory in that I've never done a race this prego before and that was my mindset going into it. Well you can guess how shocked I was when I rounded the corner close to the finish and could see the clock; 28:45 it said and I could'nt believe it. I kicked it into gear once I saw that and ran my big belly right thru that finish at full speed with my little girls that met me at the finish to run thru with me at 29:05! What in the world???? I'm not sure how I managed to do that this far along I've only trained a handful of times in the last couple weeks but whatever it was it really did feel so good to be doing one of the things I love again!!