7 Years & Counting

Happy Anniversary Matt!

I have been so blessed to be married to you for the past 7 years! I can't believe it has been that long, yet it seems like just yesterday that wonderful day took place. They have been a wonderful 7 years.

There are so many things that are running through my head & heart that I just can't express them all. But you are my world & you mean everything to me. You are an amazing husband, friend, and partner in life. You are such a great Dad too! I am lucky to have your love and presence. The Lord definitely blessed me more than I deserve when he brought you into my life!

You always worry about me & do your darnedest to take care of me. You love me unconditionally, even when I don't love myself. You are always there for me no matter what and through it all. You help when it is needed & you are my support. You tell me what I need to hear, even if I don't want to. I love how you can be just as stubborn as me, if not more. You are understanding & compassionate, not only to me, but with all that you meet. That is one thing I've always admired about you. When I am sick, you willingly add being "the mom" to your list of responsibilities. You get up with the kids at night and in the morning too. You think I'm cute & sexy!

This is just a small list of the things I love about you. I am so grateful I am your companion for this life and for the life to come. That means I get you for ETERNITY!!!! I am the luckiest person in the world.

I LOVE YOU!!

Road to Recovery

After discovering that I had a bad gallbladder three weeks ago, we were finally able to do the surgery this past Wednesday. The surgeon wanted to wait until I was 14 weeks along, before doing the surgery, since it is much safer for the baby.

I really like the surgeon we used. The nurse that checked us in couldn't find the baby's heartbeat with the doppler machine & neither could the anesthesiologist. This baby is stubborn, whenever it gets poked it moves quickly. Well the surgeon refused to start the surgery until we heard the heartbeat. She called radiology to have them bring down an ultrasound that could be used pre & post-op. While we were waiting a cute little old lady nurse came in to give the doppler a try. She had worked in Labor & Delivery for 30+ years before going to surgery. Sure enough after a few minutes she find the little character.

The surgery went well & the nurses were able to find the heartbeat after the surgery as well. As it ended up, I only had one gall stone, but it was HUGE and there was a lot of sludge. I spent the night at the hospital so the baby could be monitored & to make sure I wouldn't go into labor. If all of the nurses are like the ones I had at the A.F. hospital I am excited to have this little one. The nurses were awesome!!!!!

I've been home since Thursday afternoon & haven't done a whole lot and won't be able to for another 4 weeks! The kids have been great not to jump on me & have been very gentle! Matt of course is taking care of me and making sure I don't do too much.

Despite the pain from the surgery, I already feel better. I haven't had as much nausea as before & I am sleeping a tons better. Whether the sleeping better is from all the meds or a lack of pain we'll find out soon!

Thanks for all who have helped out during the past few weeks!

Bless This Mess!

Tonight, something funny happened that I just had to share. We were trying to get the boys to sit down at the table so we could have a nice little dinner together. Both boys kept finding reasons NOT to sit down. I finally told the boys to sit down so that we could "Bless this mess and eat".

After convincing Nathan that he could wait to get himself a cup, he asked daddy if he could say the prayer. This is how it went, (Read this in a two-year old's voice)

"Dear Heavenly Father, bless this mess, it be good for bodies, name Jesus Christ AMEN!!!"

I couldn't help myself but burst into laughter. Oh, the ways of a two year old!

Following the devil???

About a week ago, the boys & I had to drive down to Orem to pick something up from the Doctor's office. While we were driving a man on a motorcycle passed us. He was not wearing a helmet. Ryan saw him out the window and the following conversation ensued.

R: "Mom, that man isn't being very safe, he doesn't have his helmet on."

Me: "That's right...it isn't very safe, he should be wearing his helmet."

R: "Why isn't he wearing a helmet mom?"

Me: "He is choosing not to be safe"

R: "He isn't doing what Jesus wants him to do"

Me: "No he's not"

R: "He isn't following Jesus' commandments"

Me: "Nope"

R: "He is following the DEVIL"

Me: (Holding back the shock I was in with him knowing that, as well as a chuckle from being caught off guard) "Yes, he is, if we aren't following Jesus, we are following the devil."

R" "yup, and it is best to follow Jesus!"


I thought this was not only a priceless conversation, but it really opened my eyes to just how much he knows about the basic principles of the gospel. I sure have been blessed with a wonderful boy, who tries to follow Jesus and do what is right. Love you Ryan!

What to Expect!

I decided it was finally time to make it official, we are expecting baby #3 in January! We are excited, but more so to get out of the icky stage of pregnancy. I have been sooooo tired and just plain icky with this one (maybe that means it is a girl!).

The boys are both excited, yet I'm not sure Nathan totally understands. HE thinks that if he looks at/in my belly button he will see the baby! Ryan is excited to finally be getting another baby to help take care of.

When we ask Nathan what is in my tummy, he tells a girl, but that he wants a baby brother. At first Ryan would tell us it was a boy & that is all he wanted. However, a few days ago, he asked me about GranDee (my mom) and her kids. How many of each she had? I told him two boys & two girls, and since then he has decided he wants to be just like GranDee & have a little girl next!

Since I am only about 10 weeks along, we won't be able to find out what gender this baby is until the middle of August.

Baby #3 we are excited for you to join our family.

How NOT to start a campfire!

For Memorial Day, our family met up with some friends from Vegas in the great & very populated (not) town of Ely, Nevada! We went down Sunday morning & came back Monday afternoon since Matt had to work, (now there is a shocker!) While we had a great time & the kids had a blast, there is just one story that sticks out in our minds.


Just so you all know, we did stay at a KOA outside of town. That knowledge may help clarify this scene and story.

Sunday, after dinner a friend and I were going over to the little kitchenette, a sink & a mini stove, to wash dishes. After a few minutes of talking we noticed that there was a hissing sound in the background. Since I was drying the dishes, I glanced over my shoulder & saw a man trying to start some charcoal on fire. I also noticed that there was a camping size propane bottle sitting on the ground. I told myself there was NO way that guy had opened the propane bottle and just left it sitting on the ground. Apparently, he first tried to just throw the charcoal along with the bag into the raised fire pit & light it on fire. This didn't work! So next, he proceeded to take a match and light the HISSING propane tank! Can we say genius! The tank caught on fire, and he placed it in with the charcoal. About this time he realized that was going to work either, so he picked it up out of the fire pit and threw it on the ground trying to put it out! Again brilliance! He proceeded to stomp the bottle "out" and then went and placed it in the garbage can. Oh and don't forget that he put the garbage can lid on tight.

Meanwhile the can is still hissing & my friend goes to check out the garbage after the story was relayed to him. He got the can, opened the lid & just about died because it was full of propane & it was very fragrant. As we were all shaking our heads the man came back with a brand new bottle of lighter fluid! At this point, Matt was playing frisbee with all the kids between our campsite & his "cabin". The two moms started to get nervous that the kids were so close to danger, but we decided just to keep an eye on them and knew they were in good hands with Matt.

Anyway, this brilliant mastermind emptied the bottle of lighter fluid onto the charcoal. Lit a match & threw it in (see picture above). The flames were quite large, but shortly died down. Within five minutes, he was roasting marshmallows to make S'mores. Yumm...S'mores with all the lighter fluid on them. To make it worse, he offered some to all our kids...which we gracefully declined, and told the kids we would be doing our own soon!

I may not be a expert at starting a fire, but I do know that is NOT the way to start a fire, especially when you want to use charcoal.

When using charcoal, place the briquettes in the fire pit, light them, let them sit until they turn a grey color, then roast marshmallows! See it is easy!!! I just thought I would add the proper way, so if this moron falls upon my blog he can learn how not to blow himself and the rest of camp up!

This guy needed one more thing while trying to roast marshmallows.... "HERE's YOUR SIGN!"

Life

Not much has been going on here in the Kelley family. Hence there has not been a lot of blogging going on. We are just staying busy with housework, trying to figure out our yard, the kids & spending time as a family.

Ryan has started his second season of baseball & is enjoying it. In fact on Saturday, his game was canceled due to all the rain. He was a bit sad that he couldn't go play. I forgot the camera for the first game, but I will take it to the next one and get some pictures posted.

We've been spending a lot of time at my parents' house helping them get it put back together after their huge re-model. My mom got sick & so we've been trying to help as much as possible.

The boys continue to amaze us. Ryan loves pre-school & is very excited to start Kindergarten in a few months. I just have to go get him registered!!!! Nathan can count to 29 without any help! Both boys love to read, play board games & just spend time as a family.

We are so blessed to have a great family & especially our two boys!!!! I am the luckiest mom in the world to have these boys & Matt as their dad. He teaches them so much & is a great example to the boys!!! Love ya all!!

Our Vacation: The rest

After Disneyland, we spent the rest of the week hanging out at the resort & going to the beach! The kids loved playing in the much warmer ocean than the Oregon Coast!

Ryan was lucky enough to go to Disneyland for a second day. When my mom, sister & her family were going, my dad was sick and decided not to go, so GranDee invited Ryan to go. He loved going again, but didn't like many of the rides! We've got to work on that!!!!

We had a great time on vacation & the boys were awesome. They even did a great job in the car both to & from California. Overall it was a great trip, but after 10 days we were ready to come home!


The kids playing at the beach.

Dylan (our nephew) looking

Vacation: Day 5

DISNEYLAND, the best day of our trip!

WARNING: This may be a long post with LOTS of pictures; you have been warned!

Neither Matt nor I have been in a very very long time & we were excited to go. Both the boys were excited to go. In fact, for the past several days, anytime we got in the car he asked if we were going to Disneyland.

We thought it would be fun to go with Nicole, Curtis & their boy, that way the boys would have another little friend to play with all day.

The morning started off with breakfast at the hotel Nicole was staying at. Afterward, we drove to Disneyland. There were very few cars there, & we got really excited. After getting all the goods we would need for the day we started our adventures.

First stop, the parking lot tram. Nicole's boy loved this. She said he would ride it all day if they would let him. Ryan enjoyed it, & Nathan put up with it!

We decided it was silly to make the boys stand in line while Matt bought our tickets to Disneyland, so Nicole & I took the boys over to the entrance of California Adventure & took their pictures with each of the giant letters in "CALIFORNIA". It sprinkled a few times off & on while we did this, but the boys didn't seem to mind at all.


Just as we went into our first ride, it started to rain. That seemed to be the curse for the morning. It rained off & on all morning. But it didn't stop up from having fun!

The first ride of the day, Buzz Lightyear. We walked in & Ryan thought it was cool to see a life size Buzz. Once we were on the ride, neither child liked it too much. It was quite noisy, which scares Nathan. Why Ryan didn't like it...who knows!

Next was Star Tours. Nicole stayed with the two little ones, while Curtis, Matt, Ryan & I went on the ride. The closer we got to the ride, the more scared Ryan became. We were going to have him sit on my lap, but alas, the rules stated otherwise. So Ryan sat between Matt & I with white knuckles for the whole ride. He said it really didn't like it, but it couldn't stop talking about it ALL day.

We soon discovered that any ride we took Nathan on, he didn't like. We figure between the noise and the dark, not to mention he has never been on any rides before, he hated just about everything we went on.

I think Ryan's favorite rides were, The Finding Nemo Submarine, Winnie the Pooh & Alice in Wonderland. As for Nathan is favorite part was seeing the different characters. Unfortunately do to the weather, we didn't get to see too many, and it was all in the afternoon after the rain had stopped.



It was great going with some friends that have a little boy that couldn't go on the rides either, so we would take turn watching the kids and going on the rides.

Can you believe that neither boy liked Pirates of the Carribean, despite liking the movie? The only thing Ryan didn't like were the drops at the beginning of the ride.

The best part of the day was when we finally go to see Mickey Mouse! For those of you that don't know, Mickey is Nathan's favorite character in the whole world. He has 5 different plush ones at home, plus a blanket & 3 shirts that are all Mickey. All day, Nathan wanted to see Mickey. We finally got to see him after a little bit of a wait. When we got into Mickey's stage, (he was filming the Sorcer's Apprentice), we were the first ones to get to see him. Matt put Nathan on the floor & off he ran to give Mickey a huge hug. I was shooting a ton of pictures from one angle as Nicole was shooting from another angle. Nathan got to spend several minutes with Mickey & the ushers were really nice to let him spend as much time with Mickey as he wanted. Just seeing his face when he got to see Mickey was worth all the tears and "I'm Scared" on every ride.




We also got to see Minnie, Pluto, Tigger, & Goofy. Later in the day we were able to see four of the Disney Princesses, Auroa, Cinderella, Ariel, & Belle. Ryan would have nothing to do with the princesses, but Nathan loved them.


As the day drew to a close Matt & I went on the new Indiana Jones Ride while Nicole & Curtis watched the boys. When we got done we switched places with them. While Nicole & Curtis when on the ride, Matt took our boys to go on Alice in Wonderland. They loved it! It seemed like forever before Nicole & Curtis came back. Low & behold, they got stuck on the ride for 10 minutes! Apparently a few other people on the ride with them go stuck on the same ride for 30 minutes last time they rode it! Hmm...glad that wasn't us!

We got front row seats to see "Fantasmik" thanks to Nicole & Curtis. We were a little nervous about the noise for the boys, but we had borrowed "earphones" from our friends in Vegas. Matt decided to take Nathan farther back so he wouldn't be so scared. After the show, Matt said that Nathan fell asleep 2 minutes before it started & he slept through the whole thing.

We ended the day with a ride on "Thunder Mountain Railroad" and a visit to the souveniour shop. Nathan got a Mickey Mouse ball, Matt a Mickey Mouse Tie, Mom a Mickey Mouse bag & Ryan, despite his severe dislike for Star Tours, got the Transporter toy that you sit in during the ride!

After a long & tiring day, we headed back to the resort at 10:15pm or so. We were not even out of the parking lot and Ryan was asleep. Not much later, Nathan followed suit.

We had a great time and would have loved to go back a second day, but it is way to expensive, so we'll settle for another day in a few years!

Vacation: Day 4

Day 4 of our vacation was on Sunday. We decided to go to church in the morning & hang out the rest of the day.

As we drove to church, which was only a few miles from the resort we stayed at, we noticed a statue of the Angel Moroni that seemed to be getting closer & closer. We soon realized that there was a temple in Newport Beach. We were excited to see the temple & show it to the boys. It is a small temple, but was gorgeous.

After church, we just hung out, played games & spent time with the family. Our good friends, Nicole & Curtis (who also happen to live a few doors down from us), were also down by Disneyland for a few days, so we had them over for dinner Sunday night. It was fun to see them, & to watch their boy be so excited to play with all the kids.

One thing happened that night that was funny. Nicole & I are visiting teaching companions & we hadn't reported our visits for January before either family left for CA. Sunday night, Nicole gets a call on his cell phone & it is our VT supervisor. She had asked to talk to Nicole & Curtis as he handed the phone to Nicole he told her he thought it was our VT supervisor. After Nicole hung up, Curtis made the comment that our VT supervisor could have talked to either of us. We thought it as pretty funny, that both Nicole & I were out of town, but she could have talked to either of us, because we were in the same room.