2 Meets and Funeral

The rest of our February went something like this.  Brad had a work trip out to Kohl's.  They installed a video wall.  It's pretty cool.  Brad did a lot of the work to make this happen.  He is super amazing!

While he was there he went to a basketball game.  He works hard and knows how to play hard too.

Aleah and Cade's teachers made Valentine's Day a lot of fun for them.  Cade made hats and Valentine bags.

I got to help in Aleah's class making Valentine juice box people.  One of the moms did face painting.

Aleah and Cade both love their PE class.  They do a lot of fun activities and games.  Cade's teacher, Mrs. Baca, sent me this picture.

Cade got sick right before his second gymnastics meet.  The morning of his meet he seemed to be doing better so we went to his meet.  After he stretched his fever returned.  He was so tired his coach, Chris, didn't even have him do his warm up on each event.  She just let him rest and then she would have him do his routine.  It was sad.  He could barely make his chin-up pull over on the high bar.

Then I got sick too.  So Cade and I spent a few days snuggling and sleeping on the couch together.

Cade got feeling better and it was a warm enough day to ride bikes!  It is always nice to have warm days here and there to break up the cold days.

When Grandma Bushman comes to visit Aleah and Cade like to send down notes and other things to her.  They are so creative!  She had fun receiving all of their cute notes.

My great grandma Lila passed away.  We were able to attend her funeral.  It was good to be with family and hear sweet stories about her and her life.

After the funeral we rushed over to Aleah's first level 3 meet.  She did an amazing job.  I loved her routines and it is always fun to see the congratulations that she gets from her coaches.  She had a fun time.  She really enjoys doing gymnastics!

A birthday for Cade and the new Provo Town Center Temple

For some reason I can't find the pictures from Cade's birthday.  I'm sad about this, but hope to be able to find them.  Cade turned 6 this year.  He decided on a lego birthday party.  He loves legos.  He loves to build things and create things.  His plan was that by having a lego party hopefully all of his friends would give him legos.  His plan worked!  Every present he opened was legos and bonus, they were all different!  He couldn't have been happier!  Every time he opened another box of legos he would say, "Yes! Thank you! More legos!"

At his party we played lots of lego games.  We had a contest to see who could build the tallest tower with legos.  We had lego Rice Krispie treats.  It was so much fun!  Cade helped with the decorating for his party.  He made a lego guy on the wall.  

Cade is such an amazing boy!  He brings so much joy and laughter to our family.  We have loved spending the last 6 years with him.  We are very thankful that he is part of our family.

A couple of days after Cade's birthday we went with Mark and Crystal and their kids to the open house for the Provo Town Center Temple.  It was so much fun to see the way the tabernacle was preserved and remodeled into a beautiful temple.  Aleah and Cade loved being inside the temple!

As we were leaving we were asked if we could take a few minutes to help get the booties ready for future use.  We  took them out of a box, unrolled them and put them in a cart.  It was pretty easy and a fun little service project.

Since Cade turned 6 he got to compete in his first sanctioned Level 4 gymnastics meet.  It was in St. George at Barefoot Gymnastics.  He had to miss the first half of the competition season since he wasn't old enough.  He was so ready for this meet.  He was completely excited!  He did an amazing job and was so thrilled that his team won first place.  He got to bring the trophy home!

After his meet we had a birthday party for him with all of our St. George Godfrey family.  It was fabulous!

From broken eggs to Great to be 8!

Over the Christmas break someone egged our Lehi house.  The eggs froze to the house.  The temperature was so cold that we froze as we tried to scrub the eggs off of the stucco.  We used hot water to try to thaw the eggs, but we didn't want to cook them onto the house either.  It was not fun at all.  It is sad that some people can be so mean!  We were able to get it mostly off and then spent the rest of the day trying to warm up our fingers.

I love my Grandma Stone so much!  We got to celebrate her birthday with her.  I'm so thankful that I can celebrate birthdays with her, call her up when I need to talk to her, visit her, learn from her, enjoy her sweet smile and positive attitude, and just feel her love that she has for life and everyone around her!  She is an amazing woman.

Brad had to go to New York City for a work trip.  When he was buying his tickets for this trip we decided that I wouldn't go.  Since I was pregnant and by the time of the trip my morning sickness would probably be setting in, we decided that it would be best if I stayed home this year.  After our miscarriage Brad decided that I was going with him!  I'm so thankful that he took me with him.  The hard part was that we didn't get to fly together since his flights were full.  

I had a connection and I had never done that on my own before and it was a big airport!  I prayed that I would be able to find my gate and get on the right plane!  As I found my seat on my first flight I sat down next to a man who began talking to me.  He was an answer to my prayers!  I told him how nervous I was about finding my gate and he told me not to worry, it would work out.  We talked the whole flight.  He helped me to not worry about it and to not feel alone!  

His daughter is my age and she had just gotten in a car accident.  She has a baby and a toddler.  So he was flying out to take care of her.  As we arrived at the airport we discovered that our gates for our connecting flights were right next to each other  What a blessing!  He walked me to my gate and then went on to his.  I am so thankful that Heavenly Father placed him in my life!  

This trip was just what I needed.  A little time away from my life.  Time with Brad! Time with my friend Rachel.  While we were visiting Rachel and Bryant we decided to have sushi for dinner.  It was my first time.  It was not my favorite meal, but I didn't dislike it either.

I loved all the time that I got to spend with Rachel, visiting with her and enjoying holding her precious little baby.  Rachel is such a wonderful friend.  I'm so thankful that she would take the time to just sit with me, hug me, and talk with me!

Coming home I had a little more confidence in my flying and gate finding skills!  I flew from coast to coast, New York to Washington and then back to Utah.  While in at the airport in Washington I had time to get some food.  I called up my Aunt Amy and she helped me find a good place to eat.  It is good to learn how to do things on my own, but I prefer to travel with Brad and to follow his lead!

My parents helped us by taking care of Aleah and Cade part of the time we were gone.

While Cade was at gymnastics his friend Marcus somehow threw a mini trampoline and it hit Cade in the head.  I really don't understand how it happened, but that is the story Cade told me.  It cut his head open.  My Mom used her amazing skills and super glued it shut.  It looks a lot better in the after picture!

Aleah got a really bad fever while we were in New York.  Aleah and Cade were spending the day at their Aunt Crystal's house.  Aleah just slept on the couch.  Poor girl.  I was so worried about her while I was gone!

Thankfully, Aleah was able to be feeling well enough to do her first gymnastics meet for level 3!  She had a lot of fun and did a great job!

The last Sunday in January was the Great to be 8 activity.  Aleah will miss getting baptized in December by two days.  The baptism day in December is on the 10th and Aleah's birthday is on the 12th.  So she will get baptized in January of 2017!  She is very excited for her baptism, even though it is a year away.  She wants to get baptized and believes in Christ.

Angel Babies

At the beginning of the year Brad and I started feeling strongly that we should meet with our IVF doctor, Dr Foulk.  His office is now in Pleasant Grove instead of Reno which is nice for us!  We meet with him toward the end of February.  He advised us to do some testing to see how my reproductive system was doing.  After the testing one thing lead to another and we were scheduled to do another round of IVF.  We have written about this experience in our personal journal.  I just want to mention it here since it was something that our whole family went through.  

This process took up pretty much our entire year.  We prepared for our IVF cycle, and began it with complete faith. We did one cycle in May which gave us our sweet baby girl, Lottie.  She was not with us very long.  She didn't make it to the transfer date.  I was blessed to see her face in my mind.  I knew her, I felt her spirit and felt like her name should be Lottie after my Grandma Bushman's Grandma Charlotte (who everyone called Lottie).

After loosing her we took a few months off and then felt like it was right to try one more time.  We did our last IVF cycle in November.  On November 16th our twins were transferred to my uterus.  They were healthy healthy embryos.  We were so excited to have them join our family.  We all felt like they were a boy and a girl.  Aleah and Cade talked about them all the time.

We found out that I was pregnant and shared the news with our close friends and family.  It was so much fun!

About a week later I ended up having a miscarriage.  It was hard on all of us!  We miss our babies so much.  We are trying to continue on, knowing that this is how it was meant to be.  We are thankful that we have each other for love and support as we struggle thought this hard time!

Christmas 2015

Right before Christmas break Legacy Elementary always does a Christmas Sing.  The students practice christmas songs and then preform them for all of the parents.  It is so much fun to listen to all of the songs!  This year Cade sang, It Must Be Santa.

Aleah sang, Santa Clause and When Christmas Comes to Town

Once school was out we headed to Brian Head to stay at the cabin with our Godfrey family.  Brad took all the little kids out to the ski slope after it was closed and sent them down on sleds.  They would sled down to the bridge where he would pick them up in the pilot and take them back to the cabin to do it again!  They loved it.

We had an Elf party that was planned by Aunt Dawn.  It was awesome!  We all got elf names, decorated elf cookies, played and elf trivia game, and read passages from the movie, The Elf, with our elf voices that were enhanced with helium!  Aleah and Cade were a little nervous to do the helium, but after laughing as their older cousins did it, they were ready to try.

We has a blast on the tubing hill.  

Grandma Godfrey planned a fun snowman decorating activity.

Aleah and Cade rocked their parts in the nativity on Christmas Eve.  Cade was a wiseman and Aleah was Mary.  We also played the bells and sang.  It was a wonderful evening spent with our family thinking about the blessings that come from the birth of our Savior.

We didn't just get snowed on, we got dumped on.  Brad had to dig out the pilot so that we could go to church!  It was beautiful and crazy.  It just kept snowing and snowing!

After it had snowed all night Brad and I decided to go enjoy the powder on our snowboards.  We were having a great time and decided to go to the other side of the mountain.

It was a great day of snowboarding, until it was time to head back to the cabin!  They didn't groom the run that took us back to the other side of the mountain.  We ended up stuck in snow up to Brad's waist!  We had to hike, plowing our way through the deep deep snow all the way back to the cabin.  It took us over an hour and a half.  Our muscles were so dead!  What an adventure!

Uncle Mark made a fun igloo.

We hit the slopes with Grandma and Grandpa Godfrey.  It snowed on us the entire time!  I love this picture of Grandpa, Cade, and Grandma on the lift!

Soon we were frozen from head to toe.  We all laughed when we noticed that Aleah's hair was totally frozen and covered in snow!

As always, we had such a wonderful time at the cabin for our Christmas break.  We love being together and spending time with our family!