San Diego - Spring Break

With Kylee now in preschool, we have reason to celebrate Spring Break! We took advantage of the fact that Kylee didn't have school this week and that David has Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday off. So we headed up to El Centro and then to San Diego for a few days. It was beautiful, but on the warmer side. We got an early taste of summer.

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We drove up to El Centro and stayed with David's parents for the first day. Then we went up to San Diego and stayed there for 2 days and one night. We went to Anthony's Fish Grotto and had yummy seafood and steaks. This was the view from our table...

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And this was my attempt at taking a picture of us with my camera phone! Hahaha! My old blackberry used to have a flash so normally this would've come out just fine, but come to find out.....my new blackberry does NOT have a flash! LOL! After I took this picture and saw how it came out, I think I laughed for about 10 minutes straight. You had to be there! Don't we look beautiful!? Hahaha!

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This was Kylee on St. Patrick's Day. I forgot to pack her a green outfit so she carried this green egg around all day. She just thought it was pretty at first but then she carried it around because she said it was green. Funny girl! She had a BLAST with her Grandma and Grandpa.

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David and I went and saw Avatar in 3D while we were in San Diego. It was an AMAZING movie! I totally prejudged it and had zero desire to go see it, but with nothing else showing in the movies that night that looked interesting, we decided to go see what all the "hype" was about. And I must say that it is truly one of the best movies I've seen! You MUST experience it in 3D too. Awesome!

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Here I am with our COOL 3D glasses on!

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And David with his.....

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We had a great time!!! We wish it could've been longer but we are so lucky that we even had these 3 days to go have some fun. We had a little "bump" in the road on the beginning of our trip. We borrowed a DVD player from some friends of ours and let Kylee watch a movie the whole way over to California. This was Kylee's first experience watching tv in a moving car. Needless to say, she got a little car sick and threw up. Luckily she warned me ahead of time and we were able to catch most of it in a princess bucket that Kylee brought. She was sad that we had to throw it away though! I'm just glad that it was only car sickness and not a flu bug. I guess we won't be investing in a portable DVD player anytime soon!

Feeling GREAT!

I first need to comment on this picture......THIS IS NOT MY STOMACH! Even with me losing weight, my stomach will never look this smooth (considering the heeping amount of stretch marks all over my stomach!)

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I feel the need to blog about this because I have never been this successful with losing weight before. I'm officially the weight I was before I got pregnant with Kylee. I'm feeling great and extremely healthy! My face is more clear than it's ever been and I have more energy. It's amazing what eating right can do for your body all around. I'm sure you all are curious as to what I'm doing right??? For those of you who don't know yet, I'm on the HCG diet. I've been doing it for ONLY 3 weeks and I've lost 17 pounds and 3 inches off my waist. That's why I call it the "miracle diet"! I'm eating yummy foods, I'm never hungry because I eat 5-6 times a day, and I hardly ever crave the foods I am missing out on. I seriously feel so wonderful that I can't ever see myself going back to my old HORRIBLE eating habits.

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The wonderful thing about this diet is that it has kept my mind and energy busy with focusing on myself and not thinking about my infertility issues. Of course I still think about having another baby HOURLY, but it isn't consuming my life and making me depressed. I feel so wonderful about myself right now that I don't have the energy to feel sad (if that makes any sense at all). This is actually one of the reasons why I started this diet so quickly. If I wasn't going to get pregnant anytime soon, then I was going to take care of my body and feel good about myself again. It has worked! I still have 2 1/2 weeks left of this diet and I'm hoping for 10 more pounds to melt off of me! I'm confident that it will happen.

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So anyway, once I'm done with it all I'll be sure to post before (nasty) and after (yay) pictures of myself. It should be fun to see!

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Life is good!

Life is good

It's amazing what life brings us each day. I never realized how loved I really am. I have the most amazing family and friends. I also have the most amazing Father in Heaven who loves me more than I could ever imagine someone loving me.

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I have been on a long emotional roller coaster these past 3 1/2 years. Infertility is not fun and I don't wish it upon anyone........well, maybe drug addicts and child abusers! (that was my brief comic relief for this post)

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It's crazy how many opinions and suggestions I've had from my 3 different specialists. All I know is that only one opinion matters.....and that is my Father in Heaven's. He knows what is best for me. He knows what my body can and cannot handle. I feel such comfort and peace when I think about my future children and family. Hearing the worst news possible, and growing from that news, has been a huge turning point for me with this trial. I'm not afraid anymore. I'm so willing to adopt, use a surrogate, or attempt to get pregnant one more time! I feel so free of worries, stresses, and fear. I'm so excited for our future family and can't wait until we are complete.

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I feel confident, and say with confidence, that my everything (spiritual, physical and mental) has been placed in the hands of the Lord and I'm willing to go and do whatever he needs me to do. I know He is waiting to bless me with more sweet spirits and I'm doing all that I can here on this earth to be able to receive those blessing in my life.

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I'm so thankful for this gospel and the knowledge that it gives me. It's amazing how happy I can be with this knowledge....even despite my worse trials and fears coming true. I'm almost happier than I was before I had this trial. I'm more thankful than I was before this trial. This isn't to say that I don't have hard days and get sad.....because I do. But it is just a momentary lapse of sadness and then I'm back up again and still very much excited about our future.

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As I always say....."Life is good"!

Yee haw!!!

Today we had our super fun ward rodeo. Both Jacey and Kylee are exhausted and resting and David just left for work, so I have some "me" time and I feel like putting these pictures up already! We always have so much fun at our ward rodeo's but this year was even more fun because we got to enjoy it with Jacey girl! Kylee and Jacey LOVED the horsey rides....

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Kylee got to participate in the potatoe sack races. This girl is JUST like me with her competitive nature. She realized that she wasn't winning half way to the finish line, so she stopped right there and didn't want to finish. Instead she took the bag off her legs and walked back to the starting line and gave her bag to the next girl in line. She then found me pouting and said...."Mom, I didn't get to win"! Geez!!!! I'm in trouble for the next 14 years!

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The girls had so much fun on the playground!

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They are so cute!!!

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David also participated in a race. Here he is getting ready to start....

And he's off!!! Hahaha! Looks like he's diving into a pool of sand. He ended up losing this race. Awwww.....so sad!

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And this picture below is just for fun. This was Kylee all dressed up for her Valentine's party at preschool Thursday morning. She was so excited to hand out her "personally addressed" fun-dip valentines to all her class mates.

Mommy-isms

It's amazing how and what our kids get from us. Kylee looks like me......yes, Kylee has a competitive personality like me.....yes! But little did I know that she would even sleep like me!

I have woken up numerous times and found my legs crossed just like these pictures of Kylee above. David also has told me numerous times that he has found me asleep in this very position. Kylee has apparently inherited this fabulous gene from me as well! I don't see how she sleeps at night but lately during her nap, I always find her in this position. It cracks me up! In my opinion....Kylee just wants to look "cool" while sleeping! She's posing in her dreams for all the cute boys. Hahaha!

Random life happenings...

The Pew household gets excited over the little things! We love spending time together.....just the 3 of us. We love it when Daddy has his 3 days off during the week. On those days, we love to just hang out around the house and do whatever we feel like doing. Today Mommy was REALLY excited (not sure why I'm speaking in "Kylee" version) because we got to do yard work. Here is Daddy working his magic on our beautiful GREEN grass!

And Kylee doing her part!

I had to get a big picture of our yard because this is the best our grass has ever looked!

Mommy and Kylee picked up all the toys off of the lawn in the back yard and made sure it was nice and ready for Daddy to mow.

Kylee doing her part by staying out of the way and jumping on the trampoline!

Woo hoo!

Our backyard is a tad bit neglected.....especially when you just saw what our front yard grass looks like. We didn't feel like spending the money for winter rye in the back yard. It still works though!

We also had some fun inside baking......EASY baking that is! Kylee got an Easy Bake Oven from her cousin Ella. She has been dying to use it and I finally remembered to buy the right light bulb, so we whipped it out and baked a yummy little treat.

Kylee concentrating hard to make sure the frosting is just right!

She was very patient! I didn't realize how long it took for these things to bake. 37 minutes later (after a 15 minute pre-warm up, 12 minutes of baking, and 10 minutes of cooling) she was ready to eat it all up!

Friday was my 28th birthday.......yes, I'm nearing the big 3-0!!! Awwww!!! I had one of the best birthdays this year. On Wednesday, David took me out to yummy Red Lobster and then to Ulta 3 where he let me buy my Chi flat iron! LOVE IT! We then went to the mall and he let me splurge on a new pair of jeans. I of course went straight to buckle.....the BEST place to splurge on jeans. I found the perfect pair but they are too long so I'm now waiting for them to get tailored. I hopefully get them tomorrow! Woo hoo!

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Then on Thursday, Tera and Natalie took me out to my most FAVORITE place ever......KABUKI! Sushi is our favorite thing to pig out on. So it was no question as to where they were taking me for my birthday lunch. After Kabuki, we went and got pedicures. And when I say pedicures....I mean an hour of heavenly massaging, primping, soaking, foot scrubbing, and toe nail designing. It was absolutely AMAZING!

The finished product!

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I don't have pictures for the rest of my birthday celebration but on Friday, Jaime took me out to lunch at Costa Vida (our favorite place) and then to Yogurt Jungle (our newest favorite place). We hung out for the rest of the day and she helped make my actual birthDAY special! I had so many pre-birthday celebrations that I didn't know if anything was left for my actual special day. Thanks to Jaime, it was filled with greatness!

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Then yesterday my Mom accompanied me to my doctor's appointment and took me out to a yummy Mexican dinner afterwards to celebrate my belated birthday with me. It was all perfect and I couldn't have asked for anything more! My birthDAY turned into a birthWEEK! It was the BEST!

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I am LOVING David's schedule. He works Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday and then has Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday off. I love that he has week days off. We can go out without the rush of the crowds and we can feel like he actually has 3 FULL days off instead of a short little weekend with only Saturday to really do anything. I've been busy with volleyball on the weekends so it works out perfect that when David works, so do I! So it makes for a quick weekend and then a nice 3 days off together as a family.

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Quick update.....I'm proceeding with IVF! My post-hysteroscopy appointments have been good and we are free and clear of scar tissue! Woo hoo! If all goes well, we will be doing the actual IVF sometime during the end of March/beginning of April. We are very optimistic and hopeful. Whatever happens will be according to Heavenly Father's plan and we are ready and willing for whatever is going to happen, to happen! Life is good!

Snow Day!!

We have been wanting to take Kylee up to the snow for a while now and since it's been raining these past few days, we took advantage of it and went up to Strawberry to have a fun snow day! We brought Cole with us because we knew Kylee would have so much more fun with a friend. And we were right! These two were so cute together and had a blast! We can't wait to do it again soon!

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We knew that it had snowed quite a bit but we didn't realize just how much until we got there! It was pure white everywhere! I've never seen so much snow in my life!

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The first place we stopped was beautiful! We saw wide open slopes with no trees or shrubs in the way. The slope was perfect and so we pulled over and got dressed. The second we stepped into the snow, we sunk up to our waists! It was so DEEP! The kids started to panic a little. We decided to keep going and trudge through the snow and make it down that perfect slope. The kids went down once and on our way back up the slope, we kept sinking further and further. By the time we got to the top (with the kids riding piggy back), we thought our lungs were going to burst out of our chests! It was insane! So we got back in the car and found a new spot. This slope below was AWESOME!

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Cole and Kylee preferred riding down together! We had two sleds when we first got there but we lost one at the first place we tried sledding at (remember the thick snow!). After we made it to the top of the slope at the first place, one of the sleds slipped and went back down to the bottom. We looked at each other and both decided that it was a gonner! Neither of us wanted to go back down to get it and make the trek back up. Hahaha! The one sled was great though!

*Goof balls! Loving every minute of it!

*Below is David throwing a snow ball at Kylee. She had no idea it was coming! David was the bully of the day. Poor Kylee! She had no idea what was coming!

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Yep......evidence that David nailed Kylee right on the head with that snow ball!!! She kept smiling and loved it all regardless of mean Daddy! Hahaha

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I think David is a LITTLE excited that he finally got his turn down the slope! He is such a big kid!

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Evidence of David being a bully to me too! He pushed me down in the snow and quickly snapped a picture right after. Thanks honey! Love you too!

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Making a classic snow angel!

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Daddy and his little snow bunny!

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Mommy and her little snow bunny!

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She was in transition of running up the snow hill but I asked her to stop for a picture so she did and even gave me a little head tilt! That's my girl! She's been behind Natalie's camera lense far too long and knows all about "posing"! Hahaha

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Making a classic snowman!

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And eating the chocolate donut holes off of him before we left! Mmmmm

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We had so much fun! The weather was perfect and the area we found was perfect! It makes me want to go back already today. I hope this weather keeps up so that we can go again in a few weeks. I love visiting and playing in the snow but I always say that I could never live in it. It's just too cold and wet! I'm so thankful for David's schedule and that we have the freedoms of doing things like this as a family. Life is good!

MY GIRLY GIRL

Kylee has made some new friends! This is Kirsten (aka: Kiki) and Mattie. She absolutely LOVES playing with older girls. She is a year to two years younger than both of them but she fits right in because she always has acted like an older "big" girl! All our neighbors that she plays with are at least 8 years old or older. So she just thinks she so big and "cool"! Hahaha!

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One of her most favorite things to do is play dress up (typical girly girl). These girls kept coming out in cute dresses and costumes. They begged us to let them put make up on and when we finally gave in, this is what we found.....(make up everywhere)!

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Final product.....cute girls!

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I love having a girl!!! I would be so happy with all girls! But I really want a boy for David. As much as he LOVES this girly girl stuff, I'm sure he wants a boy soon so he can teach him all his mad "sports" skills!!! Haha! One day!!!

Dance Class!!!

As of this morning, Kylee is now a dancer! My Mom has been begging me to put her in a dance class since she was 2! Now that we found a dance class that fits in with her preschool schedule, we are super excited for her to get started. Today was her first lesson. They are starting with tap and will go onto ballet later, and then tumbling. She is so excited!

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Here she is with her brand new tap shoes and all dressed up ready to go to her first class! (and she's wearing the CUTEST sandals ever!!!!!)

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There are 6 other girls in the class with Kylee. She knows 2 of them from church so she was excited to see them there!

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She's got this toe-tapping "talent" from her Dad! He's famous for dancing with a toe tap! Hahaha

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Her teacher Miss Judd!

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She will have her first concert in May. I can't wait for that day! My little dancing girl!