So I recieved these images in a e-mail and just thought they were to cute, so i had to post them, just imagine the reunion they had. It brings such a smile to my face!

TOGETHER AT LAST

Memories of a Prophet of God Gordon B. Hinckley 1910-2008

Gordon B. Hinkley

1910-2008

At the age of 97 years old our dear Prophet has passed away. I always thought that when this day came I would be sad or full of grief, but instead I feel at peace, for its because of this great man and his great example, his constant challenges, and his wonderful talks that I am able to have gained the testimony I have of this wonderful church. I will greatly miss him!

Daniels sick visit to the Doctor

I have to give him credit, he sat in a doctors office for over an hour plus he is sick and to top it off he's a toddler, but he was still his happy little self! He kept himself entertained by the paper on the table and by playing with almost everything I had in my purse, but hey it kept him happy so I'm okay with it. Well turns out Daniel needed a nebulizer, they use it to treat pneumonia, the doctor said he's not quit there yet, but with the way his symptons were and how long they have lasted he didn't want to take any risks, so he went ahead and got us started on the breathing treatment, and hopefully soon we'll have our little healthy Daniel back. Its been probably since thursday that he has had a horrible cough, and a nose that won't stop running, the poor little guy has gotten hardly any sleep due to being up all night with this cough, but even through all this, he has remained quite happy, which shocked me, but I guess he's not going to let this get the best of him. Although I hate that he's sick, I have enjoyed the more cuddle time with him, he seems to just want to sit on my lap and cuddle up(which I'm loving, he has never been a cuddly baby or toddler, so i'm enjoying this part.) So I guess now we just have to wait it out and hopefully soon this will all pass.

Bookworm

He is still our little bookworm, without doubt everytime he passes by this bookshelf in our hallway he has to stop and pull some books out, I just love it, I love watching how excited he gets looking at them, and how much he pays attention to detail and how he just analyzes every page, just trying to take it all in.

So the other morning Jason comes and get me and says you gotta see how Daniel is sleeping. So I get out of bed wondering what weird position he is in this time, although it wasn't weird it was just so cute, I guess he's trying to tell us he's ready for a pillow. We have been going back and forth on the subject for awhile, but after a couple nights of him sleeping like this, I think he made the decision for us. Also sorry I have been so bad at posting pictures and blogging lately, I have had a case of forgetfulness and well....just lately I haven't been on top of things like I should(and not just on blogging, on just about everything) But things are finally getting back to normal and I'm starting to feel like myself again.

Update for Daniel

So we have everything scheduled for Daniel. He will be going in on Wednsday February 6th for his surgery, they don't schedule the times until the day before, but we can plan on being there until at least Thursday. He will then be in a cast for 4 weeks and then hopefully all will be well! Just like any surgery its scary, but we are very confident in the Doctors and know they will take good care of him.

Another surgery for Daniel

On Monday we made a trip to Primary Childrens for one of Daniels Doctors appointment, and it ends up he does need another surgery. Luckily its not to invasive but its still scary, we met with Daniels Orthopedic Doctor and they think its time, we have put it off for awhile, due to they wanted to wait until he was a little older and they were waiting to see if it would affect him walking, luckily it will only be on one of his feet. Well first let me back up a little bit, Daniel was born with a foot deformity, or a condition called Vertical Talus, but it turns out only one of his feet has the Vertical Talus and the other foot has what is called Oblique Talus, so basically they are concerned with the stiffness in the foot with Vertical Talus, so they have decided we have waited long enough. This will be Daniels 3rd surgery, it doesn't seem to get any easier but I am grateful for Primary Childrens and how well they have taken care of my little guy, but it looks like within the next month we will be having this done.

A special Mom

So the other day my sister-in-law forwarded me a e-mail called a special mom, and I just thought I would share it, everything in it is so true in it, and it just goes to show what a mother is willing to do and all the sacrifices we make and really how rewarding it is to be a mother.

• A Special Mom

Before I was a mom-

*I never tripped over toys or forgot words to a lullaby.

*I didn't worry whether or not my plants were poisonous.

*I never thought about immunizations.

Before I was a mom-

*I had never been puked on. Pooped on.

*Chewed on.

*Peed on.

*I had complete control of my mind and my thoughts.

*I slept all night.

Before I was a mom-

*I never held down a screaming child so doctors could do tests.

*Or give shots. I never looked into teary eyes and cried.

*I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin.

*I never sat up late hours at night watching a baby sleep.

Before I was a mom-

*I never held a sleeping baby just because I didn't want to put her down.

*I never felt my heart break into a million pieces when I couldn't stop the hurt.

*I never knew that something so small could affect my life so much.

*I never knew that I could love someone so much.

*I never knew I would love being a Mom.

Before I was a mom-

*I didn't know the feeling of having my heart outside my body.

*I didn't know how special it could feel to feed a hungry baby.

*I didn't know that bond between a mother and her child.

*I didn't know that something so small could make me feel so important and happy.

Before I was a mom-

*I had never gotten up in the middle of the night every 10 minutes to make sure all was okay.

*I had never known the warmth, the joy, the love, the heartache, the wonderment or the satisfaction of being a Mom.

*I didn't know I was capable of feeling so much, before I was a Mom.

Happy New Year

Well we hope you all had a wonderful New Years, this year Jason and I took Daniel up to my moms to spend New Years Eve, so Jason and I could spend some time together, it seems like with all our crazy schedules that doesn't happen very often, so it was nice to just spend time together and not worry about anything(although we did miss little Daniel) We started off the day by going to an early movie, which many of you know having kids we don't get out to the movies very often, then, for New Years Eve we spent it with our friends Steve and Alaina, it was just a low key night, with going to dinner, watching movies and just hanging out, but after being sick for a week, that was perfectly ok with me. And then the best part, I got to sleep in! So thanks mom and dad for watching our little guy, we got some much needed time together! So with the New Year I thought I would look back as some of the higlights of 2007.

• so in no particular order, here it goes

*Daniel started crawling, and cruising, and pulling up, and getting back down!

*Jason and I celebrated our 3 year wedding anniversary

*Found out we are expecting baby #2!

*Jason is now two more semesters closer to graduating! (YEAH)

*We got to go out to Virginia for a week to spend the week with Jason family

*We moved into our new apartment(which I love so much more, more space, a extra bedroom)

*Jasons mom and dad came out from Virginia to spend Thanksgiving with us.

*Daniel now only has to go to PCMC every 6 months!(that beats going every other month, like we had to the previous year!)

*Watching Daniel learn and grow into the little boy he is becoming.

And there are so many more, but we are just so grateful for all we have and the memories we are able to create, we hope you all have a great 2008!

Merry Christmas

We don't have a fire place for our stockings so my parents were nice enough to give a stocking holder that we used when I was growing up.
Here is our Tree in our apartment, its kinda bare, we still don't have a whole lot of decorations, but I'm working on it. (but thanks mom for letting me borrow some, so we had something to put on it!)
We spent Christmas Eve up at my parents house this year, other than being extremely sick we had a good time, being able to spend it with family, and remembering the true meaning of Christmas.
Sadly this is the only picture I got of us(this pregnancy is taking a real toll on me) But hey at least I got one. Daniel really seemed to enjoy Christmas this year, when we were all ready to go out to the tree to see what Santa brought Daniel had just the reaction I was hoping for, he saw his toys from the end of the hall and went bolting for them, and was just grinning from ear to ear and just laughing and playing. He didn't care much about opening his presents, all he wanted to do was play, I would hand him a present to open and he would look at it, push it to the side and crawl right back to his new toys. But I can't complain he was the happiest little guy, and thats really all I wanted. We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and we hope you all have a safe and Happy New Year(and hopefully I'll be feeling better by then!)

I'm so bad at keeping secrets!

So we were going to wait until I was further along but I just can't hold it in any longer, as some of you know and some of you may not know, we are expecting baby #2! We are due July 23, 2008. And are so excited, and scared at the same time. But we are really looking forward to this new addition to our family! Since about the 1st of December I have been keeping a pregnancy blog, its kind of my way of venting and keeping I guess you could call it a modern day journal, but if you want feel free to check it out, I'll be keeping all my updates from doctors apt, pics and just whatever I feel like blogging about there. Here is the link: www.heatherjuly2008.blogspot.com, I also will have it posted to side in my links.

Now its not very often I get a cute picture of him smiling at me!
Everytime Daniel would crawl by this bear he thought he had to stop by it and kiss it! (so cute)

Daniel and I spent this last week up at my parents house. After about 6 months of waiting for there new house , it is finally done. So with my dad having to go to Mexico on business I decided to head up there for the week and help my mom so she would'nt feel so overwhelmed with everything that needed to get done, but we had a good time and their house is really starting to come together. These are just some random pictures I took over the week, I didn't get very pictures taken,(I always bring my camera, but I just forget to take pictures) I have been a little absent minded lately. But Daniel had a really good time, and I'm glad I got to spend this time with my mom!

Look what I can do!

Since Daniel has been crawling he has never had to experience stairs, so this last week while we were up at my moms house helping them move into there new place, I decided it was time to teach Daniel, he caught on quite quick, at first he was a little scared, he would go up a few stairs and look down and then look at me with this horrified look, but the more we did it the better it got and by the end of the week he was going up both sets with no problem and actually quite quick and no fear! So we are proud of our little man and now we just need to work more on the walking!

Girls just wanna have fun!

Daniel had more fun helping Rosie open her presents than he did on his own birthday!

I just love being able to spend time with the girls! This last week we all got together for my friend Rosie's 27th birthday, we got some dinner, talked forever, then went back to her place for cake and presents. Daniel had a blast as well, when we were at dinner he found a new game to play, the highchairs there have wheels on the bottom so he figured out if he pushed himself away from the table he would go rolling backwards, and for abot 10 minutes thats all he wanted to do, he would push himself away and then I would bring him back and he would laugh, then we would do it all over again. Sounds pretty simple, but he got a kick out of it. And for all of us we had some good entertainment watching him.

Family

We really enjoyed our time with Jasons parents this last week, it was sad to see them go, but we are just so glad they got to come out and spend Thanksgiving with us. I just wish Jason would have had the week off work so we could all be together, but I guess thats the price you pay when you work retail, but hey not for long, this last week Jason got a new job, one of our good friends was able to help Jason get this new job, but for me the best part is no more working weekends and no more nights(what more could I ask for??) So thanks Randall for helping Jason out!

Spoiled with Presents

You can never have to many books.

Instead of trying to open his presents he just wanted to stare at the wrapping paper, so Grandpa stepped in to help out our little guy. He got so excited as each present was opened, and unlike last year he had a great time and even more fun playing with the paper. But he got some great gifts, he got some new winter clothes, and some books from Grandma and Grandpa Goins, and a little bowling set and some more clothes from Grandma and Grandpa Carroll and we got him a anywhere chair from PB kids with his name personalized on it, he hasn't quite figured out how to crawl in it yet, but he has mastered getting out.

Daniels Birthday Lunch

No matter how hard we try, we just can't get him to look at the camera when we are trying to get a family shot! 2 year olds, gotta love them!

Needless to say Daniels Favorite place to eat is Olive garden, he eats those breadsticks like there is no tomorrow, so we decided what better way to finish off Daniels celebration but with lunch at the Olive Garden, sadly Grandma Carroll couldn't join us, she was on our couch sick as can be, but we all had a really good time, enjoying some good food and being able to spend time together.

Daniels Cake

This year went a lot smoother than last year, he still didn't want to eat any of it, but at least he let us sing to him without crying. He would touch it for a second then he would pull away like get this away from me. I don't know what it is, but he just doesn't like sweets. But hey that is perfectly okay with me.

2 years old!

Its hard to believe its here, but our little guy turned 2 on November 23. As I look back at some of these pictures when he was born its hard to believe that he was ever that small, but just a little recap on Daniel, he was born at 3:18 p.m at Mary Washington Hospital in Fredericksburg, VA via c-section, yes after 23 hours of sitting in a hospital bed in labor I was ready for them to do whatever was necessary to get this little guy out. He was 5 lbs 12 oz and 19 inches long. He has grown to be such a great little boy and such a joy to have around, I love watching him grow, and experience the world around him! So Happy Birthday Daniel and we love you so much!
So with Daniel turning 2 I thought I would share a few things about him.

*He loves to play patty-cake and peek-a-boo, and any other hand game.

*He hates sweet things (such as cookies, cake, ice cream)

*He loves his veggies! (I think he is the only 2 year old who prefers veggies over sweets!)

*He has to have his alone time every day, at about 3 or 4 in the afternoon he starts to get a little fussy, so I put him his bed with his tigger and he just plays and sings for about 30 minutes and then he's ready to come back out and play.

*He is the best toddler to go to bed, I try to put him to bed at the same time every night and he never fusses and within about 20 minutes he is asleep and sleeps for about 11 1/2 hrs. (what more could I ask for???)

*He is very observant of things around him, he is very curious and is always trying to learn something new.

*He loves his stuffed animal tigger and has to sleep with him every night.

*He is quite the little book worm, we could probably read the same book about 20 times in one day.

*He is not difficult to take to the doctor, when he gets his shots he doesn't even cry.

*He loves to be the center of attention! (but really what toddler doesn't)

There are probably a million things I could list about Daniel but these are just a few, but we are so grateful for him and the joy he brings to us everyday.