roper family

Winter is Here!!

2012-02-01T11:04:00.000-08:00

After since about November for snow to finally come...it finally came! It may have come a few months too late, but it was well worth the wait! Troy officially decided he loves to play in the snow. The first thing he asked when he saw the snow falling was...Mommy, can we go outside and play in the snow with my "bums"!! (translation...bums=gloves) Troy wasn't scared of anything when he got out there, he had so much fun throwing the snow and me, Tucker and the house... he didn't seem to mind the cold and he screamed when it was time to come inside.

Tucker on the other hand took a good twenty minutes or so to warm up. He stood on the wet porch just watching Troy play, making sure it was safe and all was well...after he decided to give it a try, he loved it too! He wasn't too sure of how it felt when he tripped, but he got right back up and was happy.

Needless to say, we need snow clothes for the boys. After playing in the snow this one time, I realized that we needed to break down and get some snow boots and possibly some snow pants for them so they can play in the snow and not get too cold. We bought Troy some boots finally and if it snows again, I can justify buying him some snow pants too, but I'm waiting for snow again....it could be a while.

it's...still a girl!

2012-02-01T10:51:00.000-08:00

Jake kept telling me to stop buying girl clothes and to stop telling people we were having a girl because the Dr. said that he was only 99% sure and that I should keep receipts. Therefore, Jake was using that statement to tease me and tell me it still could be a boy.

Yesterday we had our official ultrasound and we found out...once again that we were having a girl. The only think was that this time, it was a different Dr. and he said he is always only 92% sure.....OH GREAT! All afternoon Jake was telling me, but it's only 92% a girl. I was ready to hit him, he was making me so frustrated!

Anyway, the Ultrasound went well, everything on the baby squared away and we saw everything we were supposed to see for a healthy baby. Here are some fun pictures of the ultrasound that the Dr. printed out for us. You can click on the picture to make it a lot bigger!

It was so cute! The 'scratching head' picture was such a fun moment!! The Dr. was trying to show us a profile picture and our little one started to scratch her head! It was so cute! I'm so glad they record the ultrasounds onto dvd's for us because I will definately wanna show that part of it to our little girl when she's a little older. We are so excited for her to come! We are officially now half way!

morning flights

2012-01-30T14:47:00.000-08:00

Jake gets to fly around 7 am before he goes off to his class. He finally has all of the cross country flying done that he needs for his Instrument Rating, now it is just a matter of passing the Stage Check. During his last flight, he pulled out his phone and shot some beautiful pictures. I am so jealous he gets to see this most mornings. I can't wait til he finally takes me up. It'll be so awesome!

it's a.............

2012-01-18T06:59:00.000-08:00

We are so happy to announce that we did a sneak peek preview yesterday at the Dr.'s office and we found out that we will are having a little girl! We are so excited to welcome a little princess into our family and I know her big brothers are very very excited!! Woo hoo!!!!

first appointment!

2011-12-20T07:46:00.000-08:00

Today was the first appointment for little Baby 3. Jake worked for the morning, but he was able to get off early enough to make it to our 2:20 appointment. Grandma and Grandpa took Troy and Tucker so we were able to go and enjoy this moment without other distractions. We went in thinking our due date was June 14, but I didn't really keep track of things that well... With my other two babies, the due date always ended up being pushed back 2 weeks so I was 2 weeks less than what I thought I was and that is such a depressing thing to have happen so I went in today prepared to hear the same news… Fortunately, I was right on for what I thought the due date was. June 14, 2012 we will be expecting a beautiful new baby to join our lives! We are so excited! We did the ultrasound of the baby and the Dr. said that everything looks good so far, we could distinguish the head from the body and we got a pretty good picture from the ultrasound printed off.

He also printed a picture that showed the heartbeat and where the heart was. That was pretty cool. I felt so happy coming out of the appointment that we had a healthy baby and that I was right on the due date, no disappointments for when I could meet the sweet little one! Our next appointment is in 4 weeks and I am so excited!

the "LURP" reunion

2011-09-08T11:39:00.000-07:00

Last year was the first LRP reunion. Since it was so much fun, we've done the second official one. This year we didn't 'rough' it quite as much. This year we went to St. George, stayed at the Temple RV right in the middle of the city. There was a cute little patch of grass for us to pitch our tent on and that was how we spent our Labor Day weekend. It was so much fun!

Jake and I decided to leave Friday morning--beat out all of the travelers for the holiday, and I'm so glad we did. We took down the trailer for my parents and had everything ready to go for them...they didn't get there until 11 pm...they did hit the traffic unfortunately. Once again, so glad we left earlier!!

The next three days were filled with lots of fun! We had delicious meals, went swimming, did some outlet shopping, saw the beautifully white temple, went to Zion's National Park, did some four-wheeling at some dunes and of course, made a trip to Walmart and Costco.

As you may know...things are always an adventure with my Dad! We all had a great time! Thanks for an awesome reunion Mommy and Daddy!!

Seven Peaks

2011-09-06T07:29:00.000-07:00

We bought in on the best season pass ever! I don't regret one penny we put towards the pass. It was called...the Pass of all Passes. It's the new thing around here, a bunch of fun places got together and made one pass for unlimited access to their parks. Trafalga and Seven Peaks being the main two. With that being said...Me and my kids have been swimming a ton this year! Sometimes we went with Jen and Mason and other times we went with my Mom or Jake. It was lots of fun being able to go and not worrying about wasting the full day ticket, but just swimming for an hour or two and leaving guilt free :)

Troy loved the pool this year. We went to St. George in May and that was his first introduction to a swimming pool this year and it took some forcing him into the pool to get him used to it, but once we forced him--he decided he loved it! At Seven Peaks we couldn't get him out of the pool at all. He was a little fish swimming and splashing all over, he even went on a big slide with me one time. Grandma bought him a tube that he could sit in and float around and he thought that was the coolest thing so we spent a lot of time in the lazy river and wave pool.

Tucker was born a little fish. He has always loved his baths and at seven peaks, he didn't cry once when we put him in the water. He would splash as he'd sit there with me, then splash as he'd crawl around when he learned to crawl. My fearless little one even crawled straight into the pool down the slope to the deeper water. The life guard was walking past me and said "That kid has no fear, his face had a smile on it the whole time, even when the water was splashing all over his face as he got deeper." Tuck also loved his tube. He would lay back and relax when we were in it. It was the cutest thing ever!

Our little family!

2011-08-28T20:51:00.000-07:00

Here is just a little update on how we're doing and what we're up to, I'll try my hardest to keep things caught up from now on. I promise to try my hardest to post things on time and not like a year later. lol. (I am still going to post past events and such just so I have them for memory on the blog...)

Jake is still working for the post office and is going to school full time--to be a professional pilot. He still loves the flying, I don't think he'll ever get sick of it. He should be done with school next year summer or fall semester! We're so excited for that time to come! As of two days ago, Jake is offically done with his signed term in the military! Woo-hoo! I can't tell you what a relief that is for our family!

(The pic is Jake flying.. what an awesome view)

I am just loving being a Mom and am trying to keep up with and clean up after my 2 crazy boys! I try to find time to do crafty things and I am really trying to get into photography. I have always loved it so why not start capturing the moments earlier rather than later...right!?

Troy is almost 2 1/2 now and is almost potty trained (minus the naps and at night). He loves pretty much any sport that involves a ball, four wheelers and motorcycles, wrestling people and getting dirty...after all, he is a boy! Troy loves having a little brother, someone to pick on and steal toys from...and give hugs and kisses every once in a while!

Tucker is 9 1/2 months now and he is so active! He is impossible to hold, he's a little wiggleworm. He always wants to be crawling around and loves getting into things. He can crawl super quick and he will stand up to anything that has height, then he'll let go and stand on his own. I know he's just wishing that he can walk. I think he'll learn quick so he can catch up with Troy! He is so smiley, I love the way he lightens our home! He is such a sweet heart!

**family picture and pictures of our kids were taken by Danna, my awesomely talented sister-in-law! Thanks Danna! You're the best!**

35 weeks and 5 days!!

2010-10-18T20:53:00.000-07:00

Today was the mark that I wanted to make it past for this pregnancy. I had Troy when I was 35 weeks and 5 days along and it was my goal to do everything I could to stay healthier and keep Tucker in for longer...Yes, we are hoping that he'll stay in for at least another week and a half..but everyday here on out will be one more day than Troy had in the womb...meaning one more day to develop and hopefully one less day in the NICU! I am feeling pretty confident that I'll hold him in my belly longer and that we wont have to go through the stresses of the NICU again, it'll be nice to experience the real first days of having a newborn at home!!

We can't wait to meet this new little guy.. Troy is just as excited as we are. Tucker ("cu-cu" as Troy says it..) gets kisses whenever we ask him to give them, but I hardly ever get a kiss from Troy when I ask for it.. I have to wait until he wants to give me one, but Troy is always willing to give Tucker kisses. The cutest moments are when Troy is hugging my belly or giving my belly kisses. He'll be such an awesome big brother to Tucker, I just know they'll be the best of friends!

we planted... IT GREW!!

2010-09-26T08:02:00.000-07:00

You know how I didn't think our garden would grow from the seeds....? Well.. sure enough about 5 days after we planted, we had 2 sprouts starting to come up. I was thrilled..even if they were the only two that would grow!! After about 2 months we had everything popping up from everywhere. Our corn stalks are about 3-4 feet tall!!

This was a picture of our garden at full growth. We did very well for our first garden. Our cucumbers taste so yummy and fresh and we grew enough that we were able to share them with some family...same as our tomatoes. We would pick them once a week and pick about 25 each time we picked. We were handing those out to everyone and anyone who wanted them! Our squash came in pretty well, although it did overtake our garden a little more than I thought it would. We planted it on one side and found them growing on the other side of our garden with the corn. It was crazy! Our sugar snap peas came in pretty well, even though we had birds picking on them at the beginning. And the corn was great! We didn't get any of the melons we tried, but thats ok, something has to fail the first time you grow a garden right?! We will definately be planting a garden next year...but we'll probably pick a few different things to plant.

Governers Day

2010-09-18T21:07:00.000-07:00

It was that time of the year again.. the time to go sit in the heat and watch the guardsmen and women of Utah march for the Governor. This could just might be the last time we are able to watch our Daddy march in this--we're hoping he'll be out of the guard by the time it rolls around again next year. We had lots of fun this year tho, Grandma got Troy a balloon and we walked around the upstairs of the Rice Eccles stadium and got a whole bunch of freebies. Freebies are the best! Woo-Hoo!! Then while we waited in the stands for the thing to start they shot shirts up to us, we scored a few of those too! The ceremony thing was nice and short but it was, once again, very touching to see all of those people out on the field, willing to give their lives so that all of us can have a better life. Thank you!!! Afterwards, we went to the parking lot and they had some of the combat machines there so the kids could get inside and look around. Troy loved the apache and the blackhawk, he was so fascinated by it all. Maybe we'll come back one day to watch this presentation all again, but I'm hoping for our families sake that we wont be coming again to watch our Daddy march onto the field.

18 months!

2010-09-01T21:10:00.000-07:00

It is so hard to believe that Troy is already 1 1/2 years old! He has grown up so fast, and will have to grow up even faster once he's got a little brother to look after. He'll be the best big brother ever! He's already got tons of words down and he has a very wild personality. He loves being outside, he will go out any chance he gets. He loves slides, helping sweeping and cleaning up, being shot into the air by Jake (sometimes too high I think, but Troy loves it) and playing in the little red car. He'll come give us kisses and say bye bye before he drives off in the car, its pretty cute!

first official day in nursery!!

2010-08-29T21:09:00.000-07:00

Troy stayed in nursery for the whole two hours for the first time... I was there substituting for someone so it made it a whole lot easier on him. When it was time to go home I would definately say that they broke him in well. One of the older boys in his nursery class was chasing him around with a crayon and somehow managed to draw ALL over Troy!!--Even on his face! I didn't even know that was possible, who knew that crayons drew on skin??? Too bad he wore a white shirt that day I guess... The pictures don't show justice of what it really looked like...at least Troy didn't seem to mind it too bad I guess right...?

By the time we got home he was very worn out and tired and it was definately time for a nap!!

our camping adventure

2010-08-28T19:19:00.000-07:00

We have been stuck at home for a long time because Jake hasn't been able to get any time off of work, but since he's started up school full time, he's cut back to 3 days a week and has Saturdays off so we decided to take advantage of this and head down to Oak City to go camping. We took the four-wheelers and the dogs and it was actually very fun! Other than the fact that we got there at like 9 pm on Friday night and had to set up in the dark, we had a blast. We had a cute little fire and Troy had the time of his life playing with his dump truck, the rocks and the dirt!! We rode the four-wheelers around for a litte while on Saturday morning (all of us on one) and the dogs followed right along behind us. I wish we did this in the beggining of the summer so we knew how fun it was so we could do it more. I'm glad we have the Pettit Reunion coming up so we can camp again this year before the cold weather comes!

18 weeks 5 days!

2010-08-23T20:39:00.000-07:00

I've been horrible at remembering to take pictures throughout this pregnancy...so there aren't that many. And on top of that, the ones that I did take, I haven't posted so whats the use right...? Oh well, I'm posting them now so you can see!! Here is me at 26 weeks and 5 days...and still growing!

four wheeling!!

2010-08-21T20:10:00.000-07:00

We have been seeing a pattern with Troy... He loves anything that is loud. Whenever I vacuum, he always chases around the vacuum trying to catch it. Whenever he hears Jake mowing the lawn, he'll chase that around outside. He'll stand in the kitchen and watch the blender with amazment everytime I turn that on. I thought kids were supposed to be scared of loud noises, but Troy isn't! I think his favorite loud noise though would have to be the motorcycle or four wheelers. His Grandpa has both and whenever they get turned on, he'll run up to it for a ride.

We thought we'd borrow the four wheelers to take up the canyon for a ride--so we loaded everything up and off we went. Troy had so much fun riding around the parking lot with his Daddy.. we forgot to bring him a helmet so he couldn't go up the canyon trail with Jake. Riding on the pavement or the dirt, he still had so much fun. Everytime they came back around towards me Troy would look at me with the biggest grin and start clapping. It was so cute, I'm just glad he likes them and isn't scared of them because I think it'll be something him and Jake can go out and do for some fun outdoors time!

A Solo Flight

2010-08-20T20:16:00.000-07:00

Tonight Jake had a solo flight scheduled so I decided we'd go and get some pictures of him doing what he loves. After watching him do his take off I have a little bit of the worry lifted off my shoulders. Watching him take off I could see that he really does know what he is doing. He looked so professional going through the list of things to check before he was able to take off in the plane, and then the take off just sealed the deal. I'm so glad he's finally able to start doing something that he loves!

a week of fun!

2010-08-15T20:10:00.000-07:00

Shel, Corey, Asher and Beckett decided to come visit... It's been forever!! We're so glad they came, Troy had so much fun playing with Asher. It makes me wish he had a big brother, but instead he'll get to be the big brother.. He'll probably enjoy that more--being the bully instead of the one who gets bullied. And him and Beck were like two peas in a pod. It was so fun to see them together. Last time they were together they both were stuck laying on the ground, no sitting up or walking around. Now they were chasing eachother around the room and they could actually interact with eachother. I wish all of Troy's cousins lived closer, there are so many around his age, they would all have a blast together if only they could actually play together.

It was my birthday while they were here and Jake got off early and made it home before I did and he made me a cake. It was fun to come home to a birthday cake that I wasn't expecting! After that we did a birthday celebration with my free meal at Tucanos. It was so yummy and since we were planning on going back with everyone in a few days, I knew I didn't have to stuff myself with all the yummy food.

A day in Salt Lake at the Childrens Museum and lunch at McDonalds followed by shopping at the Gateway Mall...can't get any better than that!! Of course... Troy and Jake could have done without the shopping part probably..but oh well :)

One of the nights they were here Asher and Troy started wrestling. I couldn't get the video to upload, but it was definately way too late for them to be up and Troy was so out of it that he thought it was funny when he'd fall on the ground and bonk his head. Poor kid...at least he was having fun I guess....

Lunch at Tucanos...Love that place!

We're sad that they had to leave but look forward to the next visit.. who knows, maybe we'll head down to their house sometime if Jake can ever get work off. I know there isn't many pics with anyone other than Troy but Shel seemed to take all of the cute ones with her nice camera so I'll have to get them from her...

little mr. trouble maker

2010-07-30T21:04:00.000-07:00

Lately, our little man has been a trouble maker around the house. He's been getting into anything and everything possible. He is so curious about everything! I know that's what toddlers do, but he is to the extreme I think. He usually makes up a noise to go with whatever he's found to play with...and he can turn any daily-used item into a toy or something fun to play with.

We usually try to keep the bathroom door shut so Troy doesn't go in there and play in the toilet or anything like that. Well one day I couldn't find him and he had gone in the bathroom, shut the door almost all the way and climbed on the toilet seat. When I went in there he gave me the biggest cheesy grin I've ever seen....it was so cute! He was trying to turn the water on to brush his teeth with mine and Jake's toothbrushes. OH BOY!

Who knew that brushing your teeth could be so fun?!?! Look at his beautiful, CLEAN teeth!

Jakes "Not" Surprise Party

2010-07-10T11:02:00.000-07:00

I thought it would be fun if I could have a part for Jake this year with some of his friends so I decided to put together a surprise party. Everything was going just as planned, I let everyone know about it about a week before and the day of I had all the food planned out and I had everything made except the brownies (Jake doesn't like cake). The plan was that Jake was going to get off of work around 5:30 so I still had a couple hours to get things ready. I was in the process of making the brownies when I heard the squeak of his breaks pull up to the house. I didn't think it would be him but I ran to the front door to look outside and sure enough...there was my hubby. I was so mad at him for not telling me he was on his way home, then I would've had time to hide everything so that by the time he got home he wouldn't have known...however, he didn't tell me so I had no way to fulfil the surprise I wanted. He walked in and saw everything and it was all ruined. He said to me... "I had no clue that you were doing this so it would have been a surprise!" Then he said.. "Surprise!! I'm home". I guess he surprised me instead...bummer! It would have been so cool if I pulled this one off because I can never surprise him with anything.. I always end up telling him or he somehow finds out if I ever try.. Guess I'll have to try again some other time.

Other than the surprise being ruined, everything else turned out perfect! Our birthday presents this year from my parents was a barbecuer so I had that there to have a bbq on and I even bought a transformers pinata to have for the party. When I showed Jake he said... "Thanks Mom" lol. I guess he thought those were for little kids, but we all had fun watching him try to hit it... Even though his birthday isn't for another 2 days, it was a fun night spent with some good friends. Thanks to everyone who came and helped! We will definately have more BBQ's through the summer..

And I just wanted to say Happy 25th Birthday to my perfect Husband! I want him to know how much Troy and I love him and how grateful we are for him. He is such a hard worker, a great example and the best Dad anyone could ever have. He is truely a blessing in our lives! We love you Daddy!

Double the Trouble!!!

2010-07-06T10:56:00.000-07:00

We're gonna have ANOTHER BOY!! We had our ultrasound today and found out that we are going to be adding another little boy to our family. I am very excited! I love little boys, Troy is such a blast and joy in our lives that I can only imagine our adventures will be even better with another one around. Everything was good and he's growing healthy from what they could tell in the ultrasound which is awesome! We're still thinking on some names, we have one that Jake chose, I just have to make sure I like it before I can start calling my tummy that name. We'll let ya know..probably sooner than later what we decide on for a name!

Jake has so much sympathy for me...don't ya think?!? I haven't posted any pics of my belly growing yet so here is one... half way through!! Yay!! (You can click on the ultrasound pics to make them larger)

July 4th Weekend--not as fun being sick!

2010-07-06T10:07:00.000-07:00

It was kind of a bummer to have July 4th on a Sunday this year... I didn't notice as many fire works, I think it was because people didn't know when to do them. But we still had a fun time spending time together as a family. We were driving home late Saturday night and were able to see the Stadium of Fire fireworks while we were driving and watched the end of them when we got home. On Sunday we had a normal day at church and afterwards we went and met up with some friends to save a good spot the big Provo Parade the next morning. I'm glad that Jake had the day off so we could go watch the celebration together, I really didn't wanna go by myself. We were going to just leave some blankets out on the grass but the cops said that any unattended blankets would be taken and we didn't wanna loose our sweet spot so we decided to camp out. Jake and I put up a tent and blew up the air mattress and made our bed to sleep in. We stayed up until 1 or 2 am watching all the crazy people drag University Avenue. That was definately the hoppin place to be at that time I guess. There were motorcycle gangs and scooter gangs cruising the street. After a while some cyclists got together and started their own little gang to drag the streets with. It was a very entertaining night watching that and watching all the people that were walking up and down the streets. It was very hard to get to sleep because everyone was so loud playing their music or just talking, but we finally managed to get to sleep. We had Troy sleeping in our friends house that was right next to the spot we camped out at and put the monitor on...it was a perfect little set up.

I woke up bright and early because I couldn't sleep any more with all the noise everyone was making. It was fun to see all the hot air balloons...nothing compared to the Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque, but it was a good reminder of what it is kind of like. Then we ate breakfast and watched the runners pass by. At 8:00 they had a "pre-parade" it was about 30 min long.. I have never in my life heard of a "pre" parade, but I guess it gave us something to watch while we were waiting. It got very hot very fast! Finally it was time for the parade to start... The parade was pretty long, but very fun to watch! We bought Troy a cute little flag that I thought he might like to wave around, but he didn't seem to be very entertained by it. He was acting very different during the parade...we weren't sure what was up, but he fell asleep in the tent towards the end of the parade and then we got him home to rest there. He had a high fever of 103 all day that we couldn't break with anything! I was pretty worried about him as night time rolled around and decided that I would take him in the next morning if he still had the fever. I also talked to Laurie and she said to check his throat for sores because it could very well be hand, foot and mouth with the way he was acting so when it was time to give him more medicine we checked his throat and sure enough he had white sores on his throat. I felt so bad for him because there was nothing we could do for him. We decided that we would wait until the morning to take him in because we were going to be in American Fork for my Dr's appointment any way (the ultrasound!!). Morning rolled around and Troy woke up every 4-5 hours throughout the night and just wanted to be held for a minute then he'd cry and point to his crib--so I'd lay him down and he'd go to sleep...it was kinda cute! Sure enough, after taking him to the Dr. we found out he had just the mouth part of what we thought it was...the dr. called it herpangina and said that it was a virus so there was nothing we could do for it other than let it run its course. It was a couple of miserable days for Troy, but kinda nice for the fact that he slept all day!

While Jake's Out...

2010-06-19T07:48:00.000-07:00

Jake has been busy the past two weeks with his summer drill.. he was gone overnight for 4 nights out of the two weeks. While he was gone I went to my Moms every day and sewed. I made some pillows for the front room (with some cute fabric we found) and for Troy's crib (out of some fabric that came with the set to use as a valance) and I also started some curtains for the front room. My Mom made some adorable curtains that inspired me to finally get some curtains up on my windows...it really adds touch to the room I think. Though Troy and I missed our Daddy, we had lots of fun spending quality time with Grandma and making things to decorate our house. I think our new additions will help make our house look a little better.

Roxy

2010-06-14T07:39:00.000-07:00

Jake and I were looking online at puppies and he talked me into just going to look at the cute pups we found online...I agreed to go, just to LOOK at the pups. I think he knew deep down that once I saw them, he would get his way. We went to look at the puppies, and of course they were so cute! Troy even loved the puppies--so how could I say no if Troy liked them too... We ended up putting down a deposit and we would pick up the puppy once Jake got back from his overnight stays at his drill because that was when it would be ready to leave its home. Sure enough when Jake got back from his overnight stays, he had the puppy with him in the truck. I guess its a good thing we got her.. now Cooper has a friend, Troy can play with the puppy, and we can breed them and get cute little pups to play with every once in a while. I must say that Roxy is the cutest little puppy and Troy can't get enough of her. They'll be best buds! Happy Father's Day to Jake!!

our first garden

2010-05-31T06:26:00.000-07:00

I can tell that Jake really misses the farm life... We obviously aren't living on a farm but with the things Jake wants you'd think we were.... There are several different things he's asked me to get him for different occasions... For Easter he wanted a chick, a duck, and a goose...I called the animal control to see the rules on that and we couldn't get a duck or a goose, just a chick and we'd have to get a chicken coop and a license and stuff..too much hassle. For Father's Day he's asked me to get him another dog... I don't think we have room for another one but he's made some good points as to why we should get one.. we'll see if that happens or not, but the one thing I could give him that he really wanted was a garden. A while back he marked about 1/3 of our yard that he wanted to be our garden. I laughed when he said that would be our garden, but thought it was the least I could do to let him try to grow stuff. The best part about it, was that we went to the store to buy the veggies and fruit that we wanted, and he insisted on getting seeds. Yeah, it was a lot cheaper, but I'll be very surprised if they grow. He said its the only way he's ever done it so I have faith in him that he knows how to make it work. So finally on Memorial Day we planted our garden... We have lots of fun foods coming so I hope it really does grow!!

We had lots of fun planting our garden. Jake made the rows, I planted the seeds and Troy ate the dirt.. I guess he couldn't wait for the real food to grow. After eating it he realized he didn't like the way it tasted--but it didn't stop him from eating more. We took lots of breaks to play with Cooper. Troy is such a boy and had so much fun playing in the dirt, he was so dirty by the time we were done.

San Diego--woot woot!!

2010-05-28T07:37:00.000-07:00

For the longest time now we've wanted to do a family trip and Jake was finally able to find a good time to get work off and go. I have been planning and waiting for this time to finally come and finally did!! We woke Troy up and left really early thinking that he'd fall right back asleep in the car and he'd sleep most of the way--we were wrong! He was awake until right before we stopped for lunch. He had lots of fun playing with his toys and reading his new book. Our friends Janae and Tyler came, and they kept him very well entertained in the back..or maybe it was the other way around?? It was still light out when we got to our hotel so we decided to head out and eat dinner somewhere on the beach. It was pretty windy and cold when we got there, but we'd already taken all of Troy's other clothes in the hotel room so we put him in one of our hoodies.. he thought that was pretty fun. There was a fun little cafe on the pier so we ate there. Troy loved watching the waves crash from the window of the cafe.

When we were done eating and heading back to our car, we saw a little abandoned baby seal on the shore. We watched that for a little while, but it got to be too cold so we headed back to our hotel room. The second we got into the car Troy was out like a light..poor little man, he must've been so tired! The next morning we headed out to the San Diego Zoo. We started off with the bus tour around the zoo then walked around and saw all the animals. Troy had a lot of fun looking at all of the interesting animals. We also rode the sky tram across the park and he thought that was pretty cool too!
I would say his favorite part of the zoo though, was the little kid petting zoo they had. He walked around and would pet/hit all the sheep, goats and pigs that were in there. His favorite thing to do in there though was to fling the ears of the goats, and luckily, they didn't seem to mind very much. After the zoo Troy was wiped out and he crashed the second we put him in his car seat. I think he'll start to realize that if he wants a nap he'll have to take it in the stroller or the car seat because we wont be going home for his naps... After getting home it was still early so we went to the beach. Troy was holding on to us for dear life, he hated it which surprised me. He wouldn't even let us put him down to walk around in the sand. I held Troy while Jake, Tyler and Janae went and played in the water for a little bit..it didn't last too long though because the water was freezing! The next morning we went to Sea World. We were there bright and early right when they opened. It was a perfect day to come here, it wasn't too crowded and it was nice outside. Troy really loved standing right up to the glass watching the "ishhh" (the whales and dolphins). It was so fun watching him get all excited about all of these fun animals. We also discovered that Troy LOVES corn on the cob! It was a very long and eventful day for Troy and he was so exhausted that he fell asleep with his head on the bar of the stroller (the bottom right picture..I felt so bad, I thought he was biting the bar at first but it never stopped so I looked and sure enough he was sleeping!). He slept the rest of the afternoon pretty much.. waking up only to transfer from the stroller to the car seat, but when we got back to the hotel, it seemed like he was alert and ready to go...even though the rest of us wanted naps. After taking a half hour rest we headed out to the beach and this time, Troy had no choice but to like the beach because Jake buried him in the sand.
Once again, the second he hit his car seat...he was out. His feet were all sandy and there was sand all over his face.. poor little fella, he definitely had a bath when we got back to the hotel. I'm just glad he ended up playing in the sand, that made me happy! Our last adventure in San Diego was the Wild Life Zoo. It was a pretty cool zoo, the animals were in a more natural habitat and were able to roam a huge amount of land. It was a very hot day, and we had to walk pretty far to the middle of the zoo to get to the bus that took you around through the animals living area. After doing all of that walking it was nice to sit and drive around to the animals. I think Troy had the routine of our trip down by today..he sat in the stroller and snacked most of the time. When he was tired, he didn't try to fight the nap in the stroller..he just happily fell asleep. It was a very fun day--despite the heat and all the walking we had to do!

We definitely had a very fun trip! I am so glad that Troy enjoyed himself and wasn't cranky!! We all were very tired after the trip..but life got right back into its routine. I need to start planning another trip so we have something else to look forward to!

Jakes First Flight!

2010-05-12T19:15:00.000-07:00

After our whole marriage of us saying that Jake was going to go back to school, he finally made the choice to do it! He changed his dream of flying helicopters (for now) and has decided to go into airplanes instead. He is going to get his degree through UVU as a Professional Pilot. It should cost a lot less than the heli's so that is good! For the summer semester he is going to fly after work and do couple online classes...it'll probably be pretty hectic with him working and doing school--hopefully Troy and I wont feel too neglected. We just have to remember that it'll all be over soon I guess. I made Jake get a picture before he headed off for his first flight. I put Troy in the cutest outfit that his Great Grandma bought for him (I bought him one too, but he outgrew it before Jake acutally decided to finally start back to school--she must've known that this would be the time when Jake would go back because it all fits so perfectly). Now all we need is to get Jake a cute aviator jacket just like Troy's...He got the cute hat from the Dr. who did his medical exam...I am surprised he wears it, but I'm glad, cos think its cute!--And the glasses..lets just say they're perfect!!

Happy Birthday Troy!

2010-02-28T08:01:00.000-08:00

We had Troy's birthday party tonight. It was so much fun getting our family and friends together to celebrate our little one! You could probably say that I went overboard on the decorations, but I had so much fun putting his little party together. It is so hard to believe that he is already one year old. We started the night off with some awesome food, very yummy and thanks so much everyone for contributing to the dinner. After dinner we watched a slideshow of a bunch of Troy's pictures from throughout his first year. Then it was time for the show...We brought Troy's high chair into the front room, and brought in the cake. He got really excited when he saw the lit candle on the top of it. He really wanted to play with the fire...so Dad had to blow it out so no one got hurt, and we let him at it. I thought he would have gotten more into the cake than he did, but I guess he is following after his Daddy for now--by not liking cake. It's probably for the better. He tasted the frosting and that was about it... I tried to feed him some cake and he wouldn't eat it. Bummer. After sampling the frosting, he wanted his bottle...until he saw the presents--just waiting for him to rip open. He did pretty good with that, he made it through all but a couple of them and then he wasn't interested in the paper anymore--just the toys. Thats when we decided it was time to let the cousins join in on the fun and open some presents too.

Troy is such a great example to me already and I love him so much. I don't know what I did without him. The best thing about tonight was that Troy knew that this was his night, he knew the party was for him and he put on his big smile and enjoyed every bit of it. He loved being the center of attention. He is so precious to Jake and I and we are very grateful for him!

Cornbellys

2009-10-15T08:11:00.000-07:00

We went to Cornbelly's at Thanksgiving Pointe tonight night with Jakes Mom and his brothers and sisters. It was so much fun, they had a huge jumping pillow, some pig races, a cute cow train, a haunted monster "iguana" thing, and lots of other fun things for the kids to do. Troy was too young to really enjoy any of the things there, but we had fun watching all the other kids play on everything. The best part about it was all the little ones wore their Halloween costumes. It was so much fun to see them all dressed up so cute!! We were able to get some pictures, there were some I wasn't able to get because it was too dark. Oh well I guess, there will definately be more to come!
Above are all the grandkids on Jakes side of the family, we have the witch, the frog, the fairy princess and the cute little tiger...aren't they all adorable!! And below, I thought it was a cute place to get a picture of Troy but I woke him up to get this picture so he wasn't co-operating very well...its ok..it still turned out good.
We thought it was cute to get the Princess kissing the frog...he is a cute little prince charming now :)

Land of the Free, because of the Brave.

2009-09-19T18:41:00.000-07:00

Well, it was that time of year again for us.. We went to the Rice Eckles stadium today for the Governers day parade. This time I invited my sisters to come, we had a blast watching Jake march onto the field with the rest of the Utah National Guardsmen/women, and saluting the Governer. Though it was hot, it was worth the wait to go play in the black hawks and some tanks. Koleson loved the "hewocopers", he wanted to fly away in them and was very disappointed when we said that he was only able to sit in them.. poor kid, hopefully one day Jake can actually take him up... I am so grateful for the people who fought and continue to fight for our country. It really means a whole lot more when someone you love very much is acutally right in the middle of it, so thank you to all those brave troops who spend time away from their families to keep us our freedom!!

Trafalga Fun!!

2009-09-18T21:00:00.000-07:00

Kylin was in town and he and Laurie wanted to get out on a date without the kids so they left their kids with his parents (except for Jocelyn) and they headed down our way. We made plans to go to Trafalga with my parents. We had a very serious game of mini golf...

We got vicious riding the Go-Karts... The boys, then the girls.... (Jake and Kylin had to do rock, paper, scissors to see who got the fast car..the looser had to drive the pink car)

And last but not least..while we were golfing.. we saw some skills I don't think anyone of us knew Jake had....

Afterwards, we enjoyed the Dippin' Dots that came with our package deal.. this was a very fun and eventful night!!

Oak City Canyon

2009-09-07T08:23:00.000-07:00

When we first met, Jake went on a hike with his brothers and sisters up the peak that is behind their house. Up there is where he carved our initials and the year. This was right before Skyler left on his mission. Well Skyler is back now and they all wanted to hike to the peak again before Micah left on his mission. So when we found out that Jake had Labor Day off, we packed up our things and headed down to go camping in the Oak City Canyon. Jake was our chef, he cooked us hamburgers and we had a fun time sitting around the camp fire talking.

We even brought Cooper with us, he loved the ride down the most I think, he sat on the toolbox in the back of Jakes truck the whole way. I thought he was going to fall off, but he knew what he was doing i guess.

Even the babies had fun! Micah held Troy around the campfire, and he loved to look at the fire because it was so bright. I'm glad that they were able to spend that time together before Micah got to leave, Troy will be so different when Micah gets back..

That night we slept in the tent with Troy and Micah camped outside on a hammock with Cooper, everyone else went back down the canyon. The next morning they came back up the canyon for the pancakes and bacon that Jake made for everyone. He loved being the cook for everyone.

After we ate breakfast, we headed up the canyon to find that tree that Jake carved our initials in, and he was going to at a TJ for Troy and a C for Cooper. Unfortunately, the hike was a little too long and far for Troy. We already hiked for about 45 min and got to the "Saddle" when we decided it was way too windy and we had at least another 2 hours so we turned back. Its too bad that we didn't make it to the tree, I really wanted to see it, but we will always have next year to try!! It was really fun to go camping though and the part of the mountain we did hike was very beautiful!!

....aren't my 3 boys so adorable!! I love them all to death!!

6 months!!!

2009-09-01T11:46:00.000-07:00

Our little Troy is already 1/2 year old!! So crazy!! Anyways he is growing so fast, when I look back at the pictures of him as a new born it is so hard to believe that he has grown that fast!! A quick glance at the 6 months of Troys life...

We have come so far since he was first born and had all the oxygen tubes and connections on him.

Then he came home after being in the NICU for about 2 weeks and we couldn't get enough of him!!
He wasn't allowed to go outside because it was RSV season so we put him in the sun from the window and he would "sunbake" from inside.

By the time we got out and about (when RSV season was over) Troy was 2 1/2 months old and it was time to bless him.

Since then he has grown so much and is still growing. I look back at these pictures and can't believe how much he has changed!!!

3 months...

4 months...

5 months...

6 months....

the new truck

2009-08-23T11:56:00.000-07:00

After Jake got off from work today, we went and saw something that he has been dreaming about and wanting to get for the past couple of days. He has been looking online for the perfect truck to get and I told him that if he sold his motorcycle and the mazda protege then he could get a truck..(there is no sense in us having 3 cars and a bike, so that was the only way to justify it).. Well during his nightly search about 2 nights ago, he found that one truck that he wanted. So after Jake got home from a long day of work we got in the car and drove up to Heber city. Once I saw the truck I knew that we would be driving it home tonight, I could tell that Jake loved it!! It is a 1990 Dogde Cummins W-250. It is white with a red line on the bottom. The guy that we bought it from has had this truck since day 1 and has babied it like crazy!! The inside is in perfect condition, and anything that the truck didn't have when he bought it he was sure to add it on to update the truck. The guy was very sad to see it go, but I could tell that Jake was very happy to see it come home with us!! Im kinda starting to really like the truck too, and Troy loves it because it has a vibration to it when it starts up!! Maybe it can be Troy's truck when he turns 16.. (if it lasts that long)!!
If you click on the picture that shows the back half of the truck you can see Jakes addition to the back window...

some firsts for out little one...

2009-08-20T12:44:00.000-07:00

It's always fun to go through the firsts with Troy. Here are a couple of the firsts that have happened recently.
His first Rice Cereal!! Very exciting for us, we had to go buy a high chair and spoons and bowls, I thought it was pretty fun getting everything he needed for this simple event!! He wasn't sure what to think of it at first, but then he grew to love it!! It would always end up all over his face and we found out the hard way that it dries like cement on his face, he hated the part when we would clean him up!! lol.

He had his first bus ride!! We recently went to pick Jakes brother, Skyler up from the airport, he was coming home from his mission!! Jake wanted to park out in the boonies for some reason so we had to catch the bus into the airport from the parking that is way out there... I guess it was kinda fun taking Troy on the bus.. :)

He had his first real phone call with Daddy.. I'll put the phone on speaker and let Troy talk to his Daddy, but this time I figured I'd let him try the blue tooth!! It was hard because Troy couldn't figure out where the noise was coming from, but he knew it was his Daddy so he started jabberin on about who knows what.. I love it when Troy talks.. he is such a talker.. n

He has made his first real best friend!! Troy and Cooper are buds!! Cooper does all he can to help troy out, when he spits up on the floor, Cooper will clean it for him. When Troy is crying, Cooper will run to his room to see make sure he is ok, then he'll come get me to go check on Troy. It is fun having Cooper around the house, I'm glad Troy can grow up with a friend that he can always count on!! Every boy needs a little doggy!!

Troy has also moved on from the rice cereal once a day to baby food twice a day!! He has tried all of his veggies and some of his fruits. His fruits and the squash and carrots are his favorites, anything green he isn't a big fan of.. figures!!

our little rolly polly went swimming!!

2009-07-31T12:09:00.000-07:00

Troy is now our little rolly-polly bug.. We went to seven peaks with the fam and while everyone else was off playin on the slides, Troy was hard at work. He was trying so hard to roll over for the first time, and finally, he did it! Now, any time we lay him down he'll stay on his back for all of about 3 seconds and then he is trying to roll over to his tummy. It is so cute the way he does it, he first turns to his side, then he'll lift up his legs and head and push and push until he finally makes it over his arm onto his stomach. He used to cry when he got sick of being on his stomach, but now he has learned that he can go back to his back when he is ready to. So now he is rollin all over the ground.. it is so fun to watch Troy grow, but crazy that he is growing so fast!

With all of his hard work, he was ready to hit the kiddy pool. It was nice of seven peaks to think of the little ones and make them a heated pool!! Troy had his first experience in the pool today.. he wasn't sure what to think at first, but then he decided it wasn't so bad.

The Roper Family Reunion...

2009-07-12T13:33:00.000-07:00

This years reunion was up in Idaho. We went up to Kimberly and camped out in the tent trailor in Jakes Uncles front yard. It was lots of fun, we went to Twin Falls and the Nat-Soo-Pah hot springs, went to a bridge in Twin Falls where there were people jumping off (it was pretty cool to watch that, we were lucky to happen to be there when they were jumping), had lots of fun activities going on, and we also had a pretty awesome firework show... We left very early in the morning to head up to Kimberly. Daniel, Ashlie, and Damien came with us in the truck, we had a full load. This was Troy's first real road trip, he was a very good boy!! Troy rolled over for the very first time here, we were at the Nat-Soo-Pah hot springs just hanging out at the tables and he started to try and he actually made it over. Troy and Damien had lots of fun playing together on the little floor mat...

Our newest addition...

2009-06-24T12:51:00.000-07:00

We've been wanting to get a dog so bad since we've been married and finally made the decision to get one. His name is Cooper and he is an australian shepherd. He is the cutest little dog i've ever seen. He is almost 3 months old now. We thought it would be a good time to get him because then Troy can grow up with him and they can be best buddies.... they're friendship is already starting to grow... I'll try to find cooper and he'll be laying next to Troys carseat or if Troy is fussing or crying cooper will follow the noise and make sure he is ok.. its so cute the way cooper acts around troy. It'll be lots of fun having cooper around.

Memorial Day..

2009-06-02T19:39:00.000-07:00

We had a very fun and eventful Memorial Day. To start off, we woke up in the wee hours of the morning and went fishing with Jakes brother and his wife. It was kinda chilly because they had to choose a spot in the shade, but after a few hours of being cold we decided to move into the sun. I wasn't doing any fishing because I don't have a licence, so I just held Troy and watched Jake fish. The funniest thing happened though. Jake had to go to the bathroom, so passed off his pole to me, went to the fence behind us and as soon as he got back there I felt a tug on the pole. Ha! I just caught a fish and Jake had been holding that pole for a couple hours now. He was just a little guy, but still.. I acutally caught a fish!! Poor Jake!We had to bundle Troy all up so he could be nice and toasty...he looked so adorable, like always!!

After fishing for several hours, and only catching two fish, we decided it was time to end it. We went to the store and had to grab some last minute things for a family BBQ we were going to and headed up to Centerville for the BBQ.

Grandma and Grandpa Pettit got lots of time holding Troy!! Grandpa has a funny face in the pic cos he is doing his weird quacking noise that all of the grandkids love.. i think troy is a little too young to appreciate the noise just yet. lol. We tried getting a picture of some of the new grandkids in the family.. Here are 3 of the 4 newest. My parents were lucky enough to double their grandkids within the last year.. they have 8 now..crazy!! Troy had no clue what was going on.

my first Mothers Day!

2009-06-02T12:16:00.000-07:00

We haven't had an internet connection for a few weeks, so its a little late, but this year I had my first real Mothers Day. It was the best day ever! I spent the whole morning with my little family :) Because today was going to be a busy day Jake decided to give me my mothers day present the night before. He gave me a glider and ottoman!! It was something I really wanted because I wanted to be able to rock Troy. I was so excited about it!! So after going to a farwell on Sunday, we came home and Ryan and Danna took some awesome family pictures of us!! Thank you guys again for doing that!! :)

After the pics, we had to get ready for Troy's blessing. I am so excited that we were able to bless Troy on Mothers Day, that was the best thing anyone could ever give me on Mothers Day! Im very grateful that Jake is a worthy Preisthood holder and that he was able to give Troy a name and a blessing, and let me say, he gave an amazing blessing! Troy and I are so lucky to have such an amazing Daddy to take care of us!!

NOV 20 09'!!

2009-06-01T09:28:00.000-07:00

I am so excited. I was reading some news stuff on the internet and I saw that they said that the first New Moon trailer came out. I can't wait for the move, it's comin out in November!! Yay!!!

it's "Freakin' Amazing"

2009-04-24T09:15:00.000-07:00

So after much searching I am so excited to say that I have finally found a recipe that tastes just like the Winger's Freakin' Amazing Sauce!! I think it tastes as close to the sauce as you can get! For any of you who would like to try making this amazing sauce, here's the recipe I used...

3 Tbsp. Frank's Hot Sauce
3/4 Cup Brown Sugar
2 Tbsp. Water

Mix it all together and heat it up on the stove and thats it! That's how you make the famous Wingers Freakin' Amazing Sauce!! It doesn't make a whole lot so you have to double the recipe, or even triple it depending on how much you want to make. You have to use the Frank's brand for the hot sauce, it works the best. You can find Franks Hot Sauce in the store by the BBQ sauce. I got mine at walmart and it was less than $2.00.. I think it's a great deal for how much of the Wingers sauce it makes.. Let me know what you think when you try it out!!! :)

Goin Camo...

2009-04-20T08:46:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a beautiful day so we decided to get outside and get some fresh air. So we bundled Troy up and went out to take him on his first walk. We found some grass and layed Troy out on a blanket for a while, he loved it. It was so cute to watch him sprawl out to get the warm sun all over him. We are so excited for the warm days to be consistant, we are gonna be outside enjoying the sun lots!! Can't Wait!! I thought it would be cute to get some pics of Troy with his Daddy in his Army stuff. The pics turned out pretty cute.. here are some of them! :) Then I took some pics of Troy with the hat on and his dads dog tags around his neck.. I think it turned out pretty cute!!

the BOTTLE...

2009-04-13T16:27:00.000-07:00

After talking to a few people, we decided that it was finally time to give Troy his first bottle....and he LOVED it!! He moaned and gulped the whole time he was drinking it. Jake was pretty excited about being able to finally feed him. And I am so glad that he is able to take part in feeding him now because it has given me and Troy so much time to bond, now Jake can have some of that bonding time too :)

Look how professional Troy is at this..already! He was holdin it as he was drinking, it was like a natural instinct..crazy!! He drank down this bottle so fast, it only took him like 7 or 8 minutes...I thought it was supposed to take longer than that...but i guess he is just a good sucker. Look at the picture below.. Jakes hand is still so much bigger than Troy's head..ha, at least he's growin!! Yesterday Troy was 6 weeks old, my little boy is growin up so fast!! We measure him every Sunday to see how big he's getting and yesterday he was 20 inches!! That is so crazy to me, he has only grown 3 1/2 inches since he was born. It seems to me like he has grown so much more than that!! We love him so much, he's so much fun to have around!!

HaPpY eAsTeR!!

2009-04-12T15:49:00.000-07:00

Troy had his first Easter today!! He hadit all... a cute little outfit (that is Newborn size, but still too baggy on him) and the Easter bunny brought him a basket full of lots of good baby stuff :)

Here is the best daddy ever and his adorable little son with their easter baskets!!
As I was taking pics of Troy he decided to stop being so innocent and give me one of his gas faces... it is only one of the many cute ones he has.

It's the perfect size, just about as big as he is!!

We went through so many of our boiled eggs trying to get the white crayon to work.. for some reason the writing kept coming off...weird!!

Look at the fun stuff he got in his cute mater bucket... The lil' baby einstein dvd's, the lil' baby einstein pic book, a binki (since he loves them so much), gas relief and some bum cream...it was so much fun puttin it all together!!

Well.... Happy Easter everyone!!

1 month old!!

2009-04-01T19:26:00.000-07:00

4 weeks already!!

2009-03-30T11:18:00.001-07:00

It's so hard to believe that Troy is already 4 weeks old!! Last night at 7:16 he was officially 4 weeks old. He is so much fun to have at home and brings so much joy and love into our lives. It's so weird how something so little can do so much!! He is such a sweet heart!! (Above: he loves his bath time, especially being wrapped in the warm towel afterwards!!)

Above: I love how cute Troy's little feet are!! Baby feet are so adorable how they are so small!! :) Below: Troy is his Daddy's little cowboy...

He loves his binki.. its so cute how he holds it in his mouth with his little hands..he's done it since day one!

sun baking!!

2009-03-18T11:16:00.001-07:00

It's kind of hard to get anything good from the sun when you aren't allowed to be outside!! RSV season isn't any fun because we have to stay inside the house and can't enjoy this nice weather that we have been having! I guess we have to take what we can get, and let Troy get some sunlight through the window... at 6:00 pm every night after Troy eats, we strip him down and let him have some relaxing time in the warm sunlight..and we have come to find out that Troy loves it!! I can't wait til we are allowed to go on walks outside..I think he'll like that even better!!

Troy's first St. Patrick's Day!!

2009-03-17T11:06:00.000-07:00

Troy wanted to dress for the ocassion and show off his cute little onesie that Grandma bought for him!! It may have only lasted a few hours on him before he wet through his diaper, but it sure was cute while it was on him!!

Our little one...

2009-03-15T12:27:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, March 1, 2009 I had our sweet little boy, Troy Jacob Roper. He wasn't quite ready to come yet, but due to a condition I had, he didn't have a choice. I had symptoms of the flu about a week before, bad headaches, a lot of swelling in my hands and face, and horrible stomach pain in the upper right side, that Tylenol wouldn't even help. I wasn't sleeping due to the pain and was getting very tired of relying on the Tylenol, so I talked with my Mom about the pain. She told me to call Shel because she had similar symptoms when she was pregnant with Asher. When I called her, she told me a little bit about what she had and told me to call the Dr. on call and tell him I want some blood tests to see if I had something similar. I called the Dr. and he told me the only thing I could do was to go into Labor and Delivery and have them hook me up to the monitors to monitor the baby and my contractions. We were on our way to Adalee's baby blessing when I called the Dr. so we decided to go to the blessing, then leave straight from there to the hospital. (Below is me just before I went into the hospital, 35 weeks and 5 days.)When we got to the hospital, they hooked me up to the monitors and drew some blood. Jake and I did a whole bunch of waiting and after about 2 hours they came back with the blood results, they told me I had very low platelets and my liver enzymes were very high. I had the signs of a rare pre-eclampsia condition called HELLP syndrome, the exact same thing Shel had. After they called the Dr. to tell him of my levels things were very quick and urgent. They put an IV in my hand and started to drip the Magnesium Sulfate. They told me that I wasn't going to be able to get an epidural and that I probably wouldn't dilate fast enough for the baby to come out safely so I would have to have a C-Section.They gave me the spinal tap and for some reason, it didn't numb my right side. They had to do a local numbing in the areas I could still feel and that didn't make much of a difference. I'm glad Jake was right there to hold my hand through all the pulling and tugging. He was able to watch them pull Troy out when the time came. It took them about 8 minutes to cut down to where he was. Jake said it was pretty cool, there was one Dr. holding all of my insides, and the other Dr. was pulling out Troy. (Jake suiting up for the suiting up for the surgery.)I remember feeling a huge tug on my whole torso area and hearing the Dr. grunt as he was trying to pull Troy out, then I heard Troy cry! He was finally here, after carrying him around for 9 months I was pretty excited to finally see him!! At 7:16 pm, our precious son was born. He weighed 5 lbs 2 oz and was 16.5 inches long. They held him by my head for about 30 seconds before they rushed him down to the nursery to get him on the c-pap machine to help his breathing. Because he was so early, he had many problems which kept him in the newborn intensive care unit (NICU). Luckily, he was only on the C-Pap machine for the first few hours of his precious life. When I saw him for the first time 4 1/2 hours after delivery, he was breathing on his own, but just about every single vein had been poked and blown. They had to resort to using his umbilical cord to put the IV fluids in him, which meant I wasn't able to hold him until they had the IV in a vein.(Above is Troy in the nursery just after he was born, his daddy sat watching him the whole time to make sure he was going to be ok!! He's got a great dad!!) (Below is Troy about 4 days old, still in the NICU. He was put on oxygen the day after he was born because he couldn't keep his levels up (although I don't think he needed it, it spent most of the time out of his nose or in his mouth, he loved to pull it out). This was the second IV they had in his head. Every single IV they put in him either leaked out of the vein or came out (because he pulled it out)...After a long 12 day trial in the NICU, Troy was finally able to come home!! (Above is his 1 1/2 hour car seat trial to make sure his vitals stay up while sitting in that position. He barely fit in the car seat, he is so little!!) We are enjoying every second we have with him, and we definitely aren't missing the routing trips to the hospital every 3 hours to feed him. Life is so much easier and a lot less stressful having him at home with us!! Here are the many adorable faces of our sweet little one!! He is so much fun to have home!! He has only been home for a few days now, but is the most entertaining thing ever!! (Even when he is sleeping, he makes the cutest noises and faces!!)

He already has so much personality to his expressions, I love my little man so much!!This picture below shows how small he is... his little doggy blanky isn't that big, and it's almost bigger than him!! He loves having his tummy time and lounging in the boppy... he fits perfectly!!

the pistol...

2009-02-17T17:37:00.000-08:00

Finally Jake got to go out and play with his Christmas present...his 357 pistol... yeah, i broke down and bought him the gun he wanted for christmas!! At least I learned how to use it too so if I ever needed to I could...and now I know that we have some sort of protection in our home if we ever needed it...things are getting scarier these days, you never know if you might ever need one...but for now, im totally fine with shootin targets on top of a truck.. :)

I'm HUGE!!

2009-02-16T17:21:00.000-08:00

So I never realized how big my stomach was until I had Jake take some pictures and looked at them!! I can't believe how big I am!! I don't feel that big, which is good I guess...

Me at 26 weeks.....(above).....and below is me now at 34 weeks....I can't believe it, in 8 weeks Troy has gotten so big in my tummy...We can't wait for the little squirt to be here!! I'm so excited.. only 6 weeks left if I go full term.

i can't believe it!!

2008-12-18T06:41:00.000-08:00

So Jake had the week off and we had planned and saved our money to go to Salt Lake for the night for our first anniversary.. I know, crazy that we've already been married a year!! It seems like it went by so fast. People say that the first year is the hardest year of marriage, but as Jake and I were talking about that neither of us agreed that it's true. We didn't think it was very hard at all...we had the hard times, but we had a lot more of the good times. I can't say how much I love Jake and am so grateful for all that he does for me. I am so lucky that I met him and that he chose me to be his wife!! I am also so excited that we're gonna be parents. I think that Jake will be the best daddy ever!! He is so good with kids and I know that he'll have a lot to teach Troy!! First we went to the Gateway mall and had a fun day of shopping, Jake didn't even complain!! Then, we went to a movie at the Theater the had there, we saw the 007 movie that came out, and had a great dinner after at Tucano's. MMMM!! After dinner, we went to the temple and looked at the lights they had. They didn't seem to have as many as they used to have, but it was still cool. One thing I did like there this year was the nativity scene. I have never seen it before, but it was on the reflection pool they have in front of the temple, and then on the sides they had the wisemen and the shepherds.After the temple lights, we went to our room at anniversary inn, we stayed in the Log Cabin themed room. It was a cool room, we had a tub that had a bucket up top for the shower and it was like the bucket had holes in it and was pouring water over you. It was pretty cool. We had an old fasioned oven in our room, with an outhouse bathroom (the moon in the door reminds me of an outhouse).We wanted to do a session on our way home and that was an adventure. Of course, the first thing Jake does when we get there is find out how to work the TV, he was so excited that we had a 52" tv with surround sound. The next morning we got a pretty good breakfast. After we got ready for the day, we were planning on going to a session at the Salt Lake temple. When we were in the car driving around to do that, we realized that there wasn't any close parking to go. Me being pregnant and lazy recommended that we went to another temple, so we went to the South Jordan temple (because we wanted to go to one that we hadn't been to together) and that temple was closed for cleaning. The third time was the charm, the Provo temple wasn't closed, and they had close parking...so not only did we get see the Salt Lake temple, we also got to see the other two temples and their nativity scenes.

He's for sure a BOY!!

2008-11-19T17:31:00.000-08:00

Today we had our ultrasound with our Dr. We got to find out for sure if Troy was for sure a boy.. and sure enough, I was very happy to hear that he was a boy because we had already celebrated that thats what he was!! Haha. This ultrasound helped to comfort me because our Dr. told us that our baby was growing healthy. He looked at his spine, his heart and checked all the important things like that to make sure that everything looked healthy. We were able to record this ultrasound and get pictures too, I think that is so cool that they can do these ultrasounds and see how the baby is growing. The picture on the Left is of our little guy's arm.. he's flexing for the camera.. he takes after his Daddy!! The picture on the right is TJ's profile, I know one thing for sure...He will be one cutie!!

Troy's Crib!

2008-10-18T06:38:00.000-07:00

I had a fun filled day today with lots of shopping and a late night of setting stuff up!! It was all so much fun though, I wouldn't trade it in for anything! The morning started off with my Mom picking me up early to go shopping!! Now that I knew I was having a boy, we had to go look at boy clothes!! I also was going to get the crib today. We went to an outlet store where Jake and I both liked the cribs that we saw, and now it was time to decide which one to get. It was a good thing I had my Mom with me to help me make the decision because I am the worst decision maker in the world!! Of course, Jake was happy with her help too because we chose the one that was $100 cheaper. Lol. After finding the crib we went to Burlington and got Troy's mattress, now he has a full bed to sleep on, bedding set and all!! :) After being at Burlington we went to Mervyn's. They are going out of buisness so we found all sorts of good sells there. We found the cutest clothes, we even found a little aviation jacket that Troy can where next fall while his Daddy is going to Helicopter school! I am so excited to dress Troy in all the cute clothes we found-if only time would move a whole lot faster than it is right now!!

These are pictures of one excited Daddy who decided to put the crib together now and didn't make me wait until it got closer!! I am so excited, i just wish Troy could have his own room, but I'll live with what we have!...And the final product...the bedding, his crib, and all of the fun little things we already have for Troy. He will be one very loved, and very spoiled little boy!!

cute little helicopters...

2008-10-17T18:29:00.000-07:00

Today Jake and I went shopping for some clothes for Troy. We decided not to get clothes in case we got a lot at my baby shower, but we did go to Babies R Us and get the bedding set I had picked out and had wanted ever since I knew I was pregnant!! I think it matches our family perfectly, especially with the career Jake wants to get into. Hopefully our little TJ will love helicopters! He'll have plenty of time to go up for rides with his Daddy in them, so it'll be good for him to learn what they are early in life! :)

it's a.......BOY!!!

2008-10-15T07:10:00.000-07:00

Jake had today off so I decided to get work off so we could spend time together, and I am glad I did. We went around and ran all our errands, then we went shopping! We went around and looked at baby stuff. We found two that we both liked, it will be hard to decide which one to get! We will probably get the cheaper one...of course. I think shopping around for cribs made Jake very excited about our little Henry coming because he asked me if I wanted to go to Gender Ultrasound to find out what we were having!! I was so excited when he asked me this! I am only 16 weeks along and our Dr. wont do the ultrasound until I am 21 weeks. I didn't want to wait that much longer, so we went! It was such a cool experience to be able to take our time and look at our little one through the ultrasound. We were given a DVD of the whole experience and about 10 pictures! It was so awesome!! Jake and I are so excited, we already had a boy name picked out. Troy Jacob will be his name, Jake's excited cos we can call him TJ.

The Heartbeat!!

2008-09-26T05:30:00.000-07:00

Today we had our second appointment with our OB-GYN doc. It was a very short appointment, but we did get to hear our little Henry's heartbeat!! I am so excited for Henry to come!! Im really weird I guess because I wanted to have a pregnancy test that showed a really good line to use for scrapbooking in Henry's book later, so I took one a few days ago and it was just how I wanted it too look!

Afterwards we went to Micah's (Jakes yonger brother) football game!! They kicked North Sanpete's butt!! They won 48-0. The undefeated Delta football team is doing very good this year!! Maybe they'll take state like they did when Jake played!

In memory of BAXTER!

2008-09-17T08:16:00.000-07:00

For those of you who don't know who Baxter is, he was my ferret. He was born March 12, 2006 and he was the champagne color. He was the best ferret ever!! But due to my pregnancy, I wasn't able to hold him or change his litter any more, so I decided to give him away to a family that could love him and play with him how I used to! They picked him up about a month ago, I miss him so much, but Jake promised me that we could get another ferret after we're done having kids!! :) (then our kids can have fun with it too!) I was so sad after the Lady came and picked him up, but it made me feel a little better when she called me about a week later just to let me know that he is the best ferret she has ever had (she has had a lot of ferrets she said). She said she takes him on walks at the park by her house, and he is so playful and never bites! That made me happier to know that Baxter was a good little guy for them too!!

Above: Baxter would fall asleep on me wherever we were if he had been running around playing. This picture was just a few months after I got him.
Below: He would hide in anything that was on the floor. He would randomly pop his head out of things when you called him, even my dirty snowboarding pants! It's a miracle he never got stepped on while he was hiding.

Above: If you stood in front of him while he was running around, he would plop right in front of you. I thought it was so cute!
Below: He loved shoes!! If your shoes were on the floor, his head was in them one time or another. He would always go inside of my Uggs like he's in these boots.

Above: Here is Baxter sleeping when he was just a baby! I think he looks so cute just layin there!

Below: Here is me the last day I had Baxter! I was so sad he was leaving!! I really miss him, he was my little baby (but I guess I have Henry coming to take Baxters place.

Governers Day

2008-09-13T10:15:00.000-07:00

Today was Jakes monthly drill for the Guard. This one was a bit different though. This one was up at the Rice Eckles Stadium and it was with all the other Army dudes in the state of Utah. They call it Governers Day and the governer of Utah comes and thanks them all for serving. I was talking to Jake about it last night trying to tell him how to use the trax and when to get off and switch to go up to the U, and by talking to him, I found out that this is a family event. Jake didn't think it was important to invite me, so i invited myself!! We woke up and had to catch some trax at like 6:30. After changing in down town Salt Lake to head up to the U, we finally got the the Stadium at like 8:00. He didn't need to be there until 8:30 so we went to sit in the stands until he had to leave. Luckily, I remembered to bring my Ipod so I could listen to some music or watch a movie or something while I was waiting for it to start. It didn't start until 10:00 so I turned a movie on and took a nap. The whole ceremony thing had all the army guys march in with their units and of course, Jakes was towards the end. Then the Governer saluted the Commanding Officer of each unit. They had the Apaches and Blackhawkes fly over then later they had some big planes fly over in formation. That was pretty cool too! It was way cool to actually see Jake march with his group and stuff... next year I'm for sure going again, even if I have to invite myself!

Top: Jake getting ready to head out a few months ago. (He really liked Corey's look and decided to try it to help him cool off!!)

Bottom: The Governer saluting the Commanding Officers in Jakes battalion.
Video: Jake is in the second row of 4 people, third from the right.

our little HENRY!!

2008-08-29T20:43:00.000-07:00

Today we had our very first appointment with the OBG-YN!! We were so excited for the appointment. It was the very first one of the day, 8:30, nice and early!! We got there, did all the paperwork, then had to sit in the doctors room for a long time. A little through that we were told he was over at the hospital helping with a C-Section...we thought that would take forever, but he was back not too long after that! He talked to us for a few minutes then took us to the ultrasound room. He put that nice warm gel on and he moved it around to find HENRY!!! We were so excited to see him. The doctor did change our due date to 3/31/09 though. Jake and I are so excited for the opportunity we have to be parents and raise this little one!!! (He's the little circle at the top right. He has two plus signs from the head to the bottom.)

try it out!!

2008-07-30T21:27:00.001-07:00

It's been fun to leave memories on other people's blogs, so I figured why not try it out myself?As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together.

It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember! Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you (if you already haven't). It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

One wasn't enough..we needed 4!!

2008-07-20T19:06:00.000-07:00

So it turns out that the cramps I was having yesterday was a new little addition to the family telling me to stop running! Today Jake and I took a pregnancy test because I wasn't feeling good and I was very tired. When I saw a tiny pink line I knew that I might be pregnant! Jake was telling me that I was seeing things but a few hours later after a second test, the partial pink line was there again. I knew by then was pregnant but didnt really believe it yet! We went over to Mommy's house and Laurie had some of the clinic tests for me. I took one of those because they would be way more accurate...After taking the test, I wasn't sure if it had to be solid pink or what so I showed Laurie. She was like yeah, you're definately pregnant! Congratulations! I couldn't believe it!! It was so hard to comphrehend that I am going to actually have a little baby growing inside of me!! We are so excited!! Jake wants a little princess and I want a little boy, so either way we'll be so excited when he finally comes!!!! We're due March 22, 2009! :)

The 1/2 Marathon!

2008-07-19T08:44:00.000-07:00

Laurie, Kylin, Jake and me all ran a half marathon this morning. 13.1 miles! Yesterday Mommy and Daddy drove down to Bryce Canyon with us, and we camped out over night. We went around Bryce a little bit yesterday, and got the traditional ice cream cone from Daddy. Koleson loved his ice cream!! We woke up at 4:00 AM and got ready for the run. We had to meet a shuttle bus at the end of the race (which was right by our camp) and it took us up to the top of the run. The drive seemed like forever long!! At 6:00 the run started, and for the first mile or so everyone was shoulder to shoulder. I started feeling really bad cramps so Jake told Laurie and Kylin to go ahead of us and we'll see them at the end!! Jake and I ran for about 8 miles straight then ran mixed with walking after that. We finished in 2 hours and 52 minutes. We averaged a 13 minute mile which was pretty good because we walked the last 3 or 4 miles. I was in so much pain by the end of the marathon. We were sore for the drive home and I could barely walk! It was lots of fun tho!! Jake decided to have some fun with his hair for the run. He shaved a mohawk and colored it blue. He decided to be cool and take his shirt off for the run too! bless his heart! Koleson was chillin in our car while we drove around. Jake and I converted him to the U!!

Jakes Birthday

2008-07-12T09:06:00.000-07:00

Today is Jakes birthday! He is 23 now!! He is so old! ha ha just kidding. We had fun though. He had work in the morning, but got off pretty early. We did his presents and cake before we left for the night. We almost started a fire in our house!! We set off the fire alarm with his candles....I thought that trick candles went out after a few times blowing them out. His cake was pretty much on fire!! It even set off the fire alarm. Tonight was the Ute Stampede Rodeo down in Nephi. He wanted to go so we went with Daniel and Ashley. It was pretty fun... He even picked up a coyboy hat sometime throughout the night. It was a very good rodeo. They had a jet fly over the top of the arena, and a guy jumped out with a huge american flag. He landed in the middle of the arena and some of the army guys caught it. It was so awesome!! (Sorry the video is sideways, i dunno how to turn it so its the right way... and also, ignore my voice, its kind of annoying!! :S )

Our First Take Off!!!

2008-06-06T15:14:00.000-07:00

Ok...I know its been forever since I've been on here, but me and Jake have been so busy with moving out, working, and school... Jake has recently made up his mind on what he wants to do "when he grows up"...haha... he wants to be a helicopter pilot. So we looked around and found a good school for him to do classes at.. he'll be starting soon and it'll take him a little less than a year to get all the different licences and ratings he needs to be a pilot and an instructor. We were lucky enough to even get a free ride out of it all... :) when we were in talking to one of the instructors he said... well i'll take you guys up sometime just let me know when you can.. so we called him up..of course.. and got to go up today!! It was so much fun. Jake even got to fly the helicopter by himself for about 50 minutes!! He was very scared at first but i could tell that he loved every minute of it!!

Pictures:

1. Jake before we took off...

2. Me scared to death when the blades started goin...

3. Jake took over the controls.. :S

4. The beautiful Utah mountains..still with snow... CRAZY

5. Me happy we landed safely!!

6. Yay!! I Flew!!!

Thats all Folks!! :P

Love You All!!!

oUr HoNeYmOoN!!

2008-01-11T20:14:00.000-08:00

After being married for 2 weeks and 3 days Jake and I finally left for our HONEYMOON!!!! :) On Friday the 4th of January we caught an early flight and started our trip to Tampa, Florida. It was a very long day with our connection in Dallas Fortworth International Airport. We finally got to Florida at 3 or so and stayed at the Westshore Marriott Hotel. We had a very nice room and a way comfortable bed!! After getting settled into the hotel we decided we were hungry so we got a ride to the closest Chili's. We had a very good dinner then called the shuttle to go back to the hotel. We were so tired since we woke up at 4 to catch our flights so we decided to take a little nap. When we woke up we bought one of the pay per view movies off the t.v. then ordered in some pizza. It was way good!!

The next morning (Saturday) we woke up and had the good continential breakfast the hotel provided for us! MMMMMM! We had waffles and egg mcmuffins and all sorts of good foods and fruits. After getting the food on the plate we went back up to our room to eat it (we didn't get ready before going down so we still looked like we were half asleep). We ate then got ready for the start of our "Fun Ship" adventure. After getting our bags all packed up and ready to go we got a shuttle ride downtown to the Seaport around 11:30. There, they took our luggage and we headed off through the security. We finally made it past all the security and got our room key and credit card for the ship, then onto the boat we went. It was so amazing when you walked inside. It reminded me of the Titanic, all the people dressed up and the lights were so bright and colorful. It was so cool!! We weren't allowed to go into our rooms until 1:30 because they were being cleaned from the people before us still, so we found the Lunch Buffet. :) They were serving hamburgers and hot dogs with chili, onions, mushrooms, chicken and the most amazing fries ever!!

We ate then walked around the boat and kind of got an idea of what we had on the boat and what we should be expecting. It was hard to know where everything was. I was so turned around the whole time!! We ate again like an hour later just because we could!! We then found out that there was a whole other buffet which usually had different foods, plus a salad bar, plus a pizzeria, and also a guy that made sandwiches. It was like all the food you could ever imagine, it was awesome!! Ha! We went and layed out on the top deck in the back of the ship and waited to leave Tampa. We were supposed to leave at 4:00 so we had plenty of time to go down to our room and check things out there too. It was a pretty nice room, it had everything we needed; a toilet, a bed, and a shower, Oh!! and dont forget the t.v.!!!

After exploring the boat, and practicing putting on our life jackets at the saftey meeting thing, we realized it was 4:00. Time to watch the boat leave the dock. We rushed down to put our life jackets away, then went to the top deck to say farwell to the poor souls who could only wish they were with us. We waited........waited some more......and then waited again.....

It was now around 6:00 and I was hungry again so we left to get some more food then hurried back up to the top deck to....wait some more. It finally got dark enough to see the beautiful sunset and believe it or not....we were still waiting!!!! Come to find out we had to wait on some truckers to bring boxes that needed to be on the ship. We watched them load those on and finally... WE LEFT!! We were running about 2 hours later than scheduled, but other than all the waiting we did, we were pretty happy with where we were so it didn't really matter. It was now dark and kinda windy outside so we went and watched some movies in our room. They had 3 newer movies playing on 3 different channels. We watched parts of each of the movies then heard the announcement saying we were about to pass the international bridge which meant we would be in international waters. I guess it was a big deal since the captain announced it so we went to the front of the boat and waited out there til we passed it. It was a really tall bridge that the cruise boat fit under! After bein up there for a little bit we went to the dinner we had scheduled at 8:30 in the Mardi Gras Dining Room. Our table was 183 and we sat with 3 other people. They were all older than us and didn't really talk much so we didn't get to know them that well. We had some really nice waiters though. I liked one better than the other, but they both were really good. The dinners in the dining room were the really fancy ones, they put my napkin on our laps for us, they gave us bread, then a starter, then the main dish, then dessert. I am not too fond of the fancy dinners, they always end up being really awkward, however, it was fun to have that experience.

After we got back from dinner our room steward person left us an elephant animal on our bed. It was pretty cool, he made it out of towels. We slept pretty well that night!! The beds were pretty comfortable and the comforter we had was really soft!! The next day was our first "Day at Sea". It was about 9 and we decided to go up and get our breakfast before they closed the buffet. They had eggs, pancakes, lots of fruit, milk and chocolate milk, sausages, bacon, and they would make omletts for you if you wanted one. It was a really good buffet, if they had waffles it would have been perfect!! We went back to our rooms and got more ready for the day. After getting ready, we walked around the boat and shopped at the different little shops they had on it. We didn't buy anything... although we almost bought a snickers because i was really craving one. After shopping we decided to have a little snack from the buffet. They had lots of different foods again. We also had some ice cream this time too, it was really good and creamy!! Even the chocolate flavor was so good...im not the biggest fan of chocolate ice cream.

We went and took a nap after eating. Pretty sure all we did this trip was eat and sleep then eat some more and sleep some more. Haha. We spent the day snacking and watching the movies they had on tv. They had 3 new movies every day. That night we had our "Formal Dining Night" for dinner. It was kinda fun because everybody got all dressed up. For the dinner that night we got all ready then left for dinner at like 8. In the half hour spare time we had we got our pictures taken by the photographers they had on the ship. We ended up buying the 8x10 formal picture that they took. For dinner I got the yummy steak again and Jake got the crab and shrimp.. he said it was really good. We got back from the formal dinner and had a little frog on our bed. They left us a different animal everynight made out of towels. I loved it, i thought it was so cool!! We finish eating late like every night so we just come back to our room and go to sleep watchin the movies everynight.

The next morning at 9 we dropped the anchor at Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands. The excursion we planned for that day was the Sting Ray and Snorkelling in the Coral Reefs. We were so excited to swim with the sting rays but i'll admit I was pretty scared. We couldn't go all the way into the shore because it was so shallow so we had to anchor the boat a little ways away and then get on a little transfer boat which took us to the shore. We waited around there for a while til it was time to get on the bus that would take us to the other side of the island about 10 minutes away. We finally got to the other side of the island and there we boarded the little boat that would take us out about 30 min into the ocean. It was a windy ride out and the people who were on the bottom of the boat got splashed lots on the way. When we finally got there it was so cool because you could see all these dark spots in the bright blue water. The dark spots were all sting rays. It was so awesome to see all the people on the sandbar feeding and touching these wild animals. I was a little hesitant to get in at first because i was scared it would sting me or something but eventually i got in. When everyone was in the water the guide got us in a circle and explained how to feed them and what to do and what not to do. While we were standing in the circle on the sandbar, waves would crash on our backs. It was anywhere from waist deep to shoulder deep. It was so scary when the waves would crash because it would knock the sting rays against us and that freaked me out!! I even jumped on Jake a few times because I was so scared! We got the squid in our hands and fed the sting rays. They had their mouth on the bottom and their eyes on the top. It was such a weird feeling to have the sting ray swim over my hand and suck out the squid!! They felt rubbery and soft, it was so awesome to actually swim with them, feed them and hold them!! I would definately recommend it to anyone thinking about it!! After about 25 minutes there we got back on the boat and went about 2 minutes away where we jumped out and snorkelled. There wasn't really anything to see out there...it wasn't very colorful and there were very few fish. Definately not anything like what I've seen before. I wish Jake could've seen better becuase this was his first time ever seeing the ocean!!...maybe next time though. The waves were huge there too and it was getting water in our masks and so the whole time we were clearing out our masks trying to breath!! It wasn't very fun at all trying to snorkel in that condition. After about 20 minutes there we got back on the boat and left back to the island. When we got back we shopped around a little then got back on the cruise ship. Grand Cayman was an awesome place to go see!! The sting rays was something we'll never forget thats for sure!!

After showering and getting all the salty ocean water off of us, we went and ate some lunch. After eating lunch we watched transformers and took a nap then it was time for dinner. We got ready for dinner and left to the Mardi Gras Dining Room. When we got back we had a little dog (I think) waiting for us on our bed. We were so tired and worn out from the day so we turned the t.v. on and fell asleep watching the movies.

The next morning we woke up early and went to the formal seating for breakfast... It was really good!! I was craving waffles and sure enough they had them!! I got whipped cream and strawberrys on it!! We hurring back after breakfast to get ready for our excursion. Today was our day in Calica, Mexico. We had the Mayan Ruins of Tulum booked as our shore excursion. We got off the boat and walked over to the bus that was assigned to our excursion. We waited for like 30 minutes for everybody else to get to the bus and finally we left. On the way our guide was pointing out things and what they were. We stopped at a little Mexican shop about half way there then after shopping around for like 20 minutes we continued to go the rest of the way. When we got there we were a 10 minute walk from the acutal ruins. We walked to the ruins and through this little rock thing and there they were. It was so amazing to see them!! Our guide told us the history and a bunch of other information about why it was built a certain way, etc... It was so cool to listen to the reasonings of things. We were sure to take lots of photos here to tease my dad with because he wants to go here so bad!!

It was so cool to me how they built their little civilization right on the beach. It was so pretty I would love to go back and learn more about the history of the ruins at Tulum. It seemed like a long bus ride back to the dock where the boat was. When we finally got there though we got back on to the boat and ate lunch. It was always time to eat on the boat!! We (as usual) went back to our room because we were so worn out and took a nap and watched one of the three movies that was playing... I think we ate one more time before dinner, and when we got back from dinner, we had two little walrus' made on our bed tonight. (I think thats what it was at least) We went to bed shortly after eating because we were so worn out!

The next morning we slept in for so long!! The rooms without windows are nice because you can never tell what time of day it is. It is so dark in the room unless you turn the light on. I really liked that, it made it so easy to sleep in longer!! :) Today was our second and final full "Day at Sea"...I was kind of sad to wake up and think that this was our last day on the boat!! We ate lots and rested lots too. We went to the deck and actually laid out for about an hour today. It was so windy though that you couldn't really even feel the sun beating on you, I was acutally kind of cold!! Today seemed to go by very fast! We went and ate lots!! We got ready for our last dinner at the dining room. That was just as good as any other night!! After dinner we went back to our room and there was a heart on the bed. I was so into all the animals we had on our bed every night. I was always trying to guess which animal they would put on our bed... I kept all the animals from every night and I told Jake that he could

mess them up tonight so after i got the picture i put them all on the bed and he had some fun attacking the towels. Ha. We had a great nights sleep and when we woke up we didn't wanna leave!! It was kinda sad to get off the boat!! We hurried to a taxi before they were all taken and got to the airport. Luckily we were able to catch an earlier flight which got us home at 4 pm instead of 11:30 pm.... Jake was so excited when he saw his Dallas Cowboys Stadium as we were landing in the Dallas Fortworth Airport. That is his favorite football team so he was happy he could point it out to me!!

We had a great honeymoon!! I would love to go again!! :) Sadly though, its time to get back to real life!! Jake has to go back to work at the Post Office tomorrow, and tomorrow night he has the Guard. He has that all weekend so he doesn't really get a break! He is such a hard worker and I am so proud of him!!

we're engaged!! :)

2007-09-23T22:16:00.000-07:00

I woke up on Sunday morning and had Jake come over at like 8... My mom made us waffles with whip cream and bananas on top... It was very yummy!! I went up stairs and got on a hoodie because Jake wanted to go to Bridal Veil Falls.

We jumped into his truck and headed up the canyon. We had been planning on going up there all week and today was the only time we found time to go (at least thats what i thought i guess jake had that day planned all along!) When we got there he started to get into the back of his truck and told me to wait by the front of his truck because he got me something. I waited for him to get whatever he got me but he said "Dang I must have left them at my apartment. I got you sweatpants because I knew it'd be cold up here but I must've forgotten them." (or someting along the lines of that). I believed him and we started walking up to the falls. We were holding hands but my hand was getting very cold so I tried to put my hand in his hoodie pocket. Instead of letting me put my hand in his pocket, he tried to fit both of our hands in my pocket. It was really small and they didn't fit so I moved our hands to his. When he let our hands be in his pocket I had some thoughts running through my head wondering if he was going to propose because he was acting kind of different, I thought no he couldn't be because he seemed so set on buying the ring together on September 29 or sometime that weekend. He was keeping my hand toward the right side of his pocket while distracting me by asking me lots of questions that would make me look away to show him the answer. While I was doing this he must have had time to put two ring boxes in the cargo pocket of his shorts. It was when both of his hands were touching mine that i realized he wasn't holding anything in his other hand so i forgot about the idea of him proposing and kept walking.

When we got to the Falls, he was asking me all these questions about where the girl from BYU fell from and if you could hike to the top etc... I answered him by looking to the top of the Falls pointing to the places you can hike up to and stuff. I guess me looking up there and pointing gave him time to pull the boxes out of the cargo pocket without me noticing. He changed the subject and said "Can I ask you a question?" I of course said yes, not expecting anything and he pulled two ring boxes from Wal-Mart out of his hoodie pocket. I was so happy when i saw this because he totally surprised me which was just what I wanted. He told me to "Pick the right one" and so after thinking about which one I should pick I finally chose the box he was holding in his right hand figuring it would be the "right one". As soon as I chose the box in his right hand he threw the box from his left hand into the river that runs down the canyon. I was freakin out because I was so worried that I chose the wrong one, but I figured he knew what he was doing, so somehow I must've chosen the right one. He got down on his knee and opened the box. It was empty! As I was looking at the empty ring box he was asking me what was wrong. I didn't know what to tell him other than "the box is empty?" Right when i said that he started to stand up while saying "Dang, Im such an idiot". He was totally leading me on to believe him because he was asking me questions like "Do you see the other box in the river at all?" and "Do you think we'll be able to find it?" I wasn't completely worried for him because I had told him that i would rather have him propose sooner with a .25 cent ring, than to have to wait til October 5 for the real ring. To me, it wasn't the ring i wanted it was knowing that it was official so i figured he bought me a quarter machine ring and we would get the real ring next week like we planned.

He was still worried about getting the other box out of the river and then he told me he had to get into his pants. I thought that was werid but figured he was hurting where he previously had his hernia surgery so i turned around and waited for him to say he was done. He told me when he was done and i turned around and he had a black box in his hands. I was freaking out telling him how good he was because he totally got me to believe that he had thrown the ring into the river. I was hugging him and he finally pulled me away from him so he could get down on his knee.

He got down to his knee and started opened the box. I couldn't believe that this was really happening. While he was down he said the most amazing things to me! He asked me if I would be his wife and of course, I said YES!! I couldn't think of anything more in this world I'd ever want!! He stood up and started to get the ring outta the box. I could tell he was scared because he was shaking while he was putting the ring on my finger!

We stayed there for about ten or fifteen minutes hugging, kissing and laughing at the reactions we had when he threw the box in the river. We decided to leave because it was so cold and windy outside. We went back to my house and there was a sign up saying Congratulations or something like that and my mom took a few pictures. I called everyone and told them I was engaged. September 23, 2007 was the best day of my life so far!! I love Jake so much, I cannot wait til we can get married for time and all eternityin the Mount Timpanogas Temple. It'll be "absa-freakin-lutely" amazing!!

roper family

Winter is Here!!

it's...still a girl!

morning flights

it's a.............

first appointment!

the "LURP" reunion

Seven Peaks

Our little family!

35 weeks and 5 days!!

we planted... IT GREW!!

Governers Day

18 months!

first official day in nursery!!

our camping adventure

18 weeks 5 days!

four wheeling!!

A Solo Flight

a week of fun!

little mr. trouble maker

Jakes "Not" Surprise Party

Double the Trouble!!!

July 4th Weekend--not as fun being sick!

While Jake's Out...

*Roxy*

our first garden

San Diego--woot woot!!

Jakes First Flight!

Happy Birthday Troy!

Cornbellys

Land of the Free, because of the Brave.

Trafalga Fun!!

Oak City Canyon

6 months!!!

the new truck

some firsts for out little one...

our little rolly polly went swimming!!

The Roper Family Reunion...

Our newest addition...

Memorial Day..

my first Mothers Day!

NOV 20 09'!!

it's "Freakin' Amazing"

Goin Camo...

the BOTTLE...

HaPpY eAsTeR!!

1 month old!!

4 weeks already!!

sun baking!!

Troy's first St. Patrick's Day!!

Our little one...

the pistol...

I'm HUGE!!

i can't believe it!!

He's for sure a BOY!!

Troy's Crib!

cute little helicopters...

it's a.......BOY!!!

The Heartbeat!!

In memory of BAXTER!

Governers Day

our little HENRY!!

try it out!!

One wasn't enough..we needed 4!!

The 1/2 Marathon!

Jakes Birthday

Our First Take Off!!!

oUr HoNeYmOoN!!

we're engaged!! :)

Roxy