Prayers

My sweet big sister, Heidi, who lives in Cedar City just had her baby boy a few weeks ago. She has three beautiful girls and we were all so excited for her to finally be having a BOY! Well, he finally made it and weighed 9lbs. 5oz! What a big boy :). Soon after giving birth they found out that he had really low blood sugar. So off to the nursery he went to get medicine and glucose. After a couple days they decided they weren't able to help him as much as he needed and so they sent him in an ambulance to St. George hospital where he could be in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU). He was there for a couple weeks and they haven't been able to help him to be able to come home :(. His blood sugar levels continue to be low despite the medicines they've tried and the glucose they've been giving him. So, they had to transfer him to The Children's Hospital of Philidelphia (CHOP). Seriously?! I cannot imagine what my sister and her husband and they're sweet little boy Link are going through. My heart goes out to them and I love them so much! I haven't even been able to meet my little nephew yet :(. If you'd like to read the full story, you can find it on my sister's blog here: http://jhhamiltonhappenings.blogspot.com/.

At CHOP they'll be running some tests, and likely doing surgery on his pancreas. They'll likely be there 4-6 weeks. DURING THE HOLIDAYS. And they are having to be away from their sweet girls during all of this.

Can you imagine having your baby and he is taken away to be poked, proded and tested, and all this time you can't snuggle him like a normal newborn due to all the tubes and wires?! I only know a TINY bit of what this feels like with Spencer being in the NICU for 4 days, but I cannot imagine what they're going through. 4 days felt like an eternity. Months is a completely different story. Can you imagine going through all of this during the holidays? Without your girls? In a completely different place with no one you know? Living out of a suitcase for that long? My heart aches for them. I have often found myself in tears just thinking about all they're going through. I wish I could be there for them. I wish I could hold my nephew! I wish he didn't have to go through all of this! He looks so healthy and strong. It's hard to believe that his body isn't functioning properly.

Can I just say that my sister has been a CHAMPION through all of this!! Seriously-I would be a WRECK 24/7! I know that she's having a really hard time with everything, but she has been so STRONG. I have come to admire her even more through all of this which I didn't think was possible. She is my hero. I love you so much Heidi, you are in my constant thoughts and prayers.

I have the PRIVILEGE of taking care of one of the three beautiful nieces-at least for this week. She is so sweet and fun to have around. She's only 8 months older than Parker so it's fun to have a buddy around for him. I'm not going to lie, I was a little terrified of having two toddlers in the house plus a baby. But I have felt Heavenly Father's help so much these past couple days that she's been in our home. I am so grateful to get to have this time to spend with her and for Parker to spend with his cousin.

I tell their story so that you can send extra prayers their way. PLEASE. We need him to come home. We need him to get better and for their family to be reunited. Their names are Heidi (Sister), Jason (Husband) and Link (baby) Hamilton for your prayers. It would be much appreciated. Thank you. Now here are some pictures:

Link's Adventures:

And here's some pictures from the park today so Heidi and Jason can see what we've been up to:

A Celebration

A big life change has taken place. Darrin got a new job! He'll now be working for EBAY as a project manager(starting after Thanksgiving)! We are thrilled. It was a long, long, long process- a test of patience, really! We've had a lot of ups and downs looking for a new job but the waiting is over-it's here-he got this job! I am so proud of Darrin! He's going to do great!

We wanted to celebrate! So, this last weekend on Friday we went to dinner with some of Darrin's family and then went and saw the new James Bond movie. Honesly, it wasn't my favorite movie. I felt like it dragged on and on. BUT this could be because as hard as I tried, I couldn't keep my eyes open...so be the judge for yourself :). Then on Saturday we enjoyed the freshly fallen snow by going sledding! Parker had a great time, while Spencer showed no reaction to going fast speed down a hill of snow. In fact, he fell asleep. haha. Pictures to come. After sleding we went to Crystal Hot Springs with some of Darrin's family. SUCH a fun weekend!

Now here comes the serious part. We are listing our house for sale. One of the reasons we wanted a different job (one of the many!) was so that we could have a little more income to be able to afford to move. We LOVE our ward, I LOVE my calling, we LOVE our renter, we LOVE our friends here. BUT, we've simply outgrown our upstairs and are ready for a change. This has been a really hard, exciting, terrifying, axious time and it's just begun! I've never dealt with selling a home before and I'm not really looking forward to it. Just think-I need to keep my house clean, perfect, smelling good and uncluttered with 2 boys at all times. Hmmm...sounds easy enought right? That's what I thought. Anyways, I'm sure I'm over thinking it. Part of me is ok with it taking a while to sell because like I said, we LOVE our ward and friends here! But the other part of me obviously wants to just get it over with so I can stop stressing and so we can get the whole moving thing over with. Don't get me wrong-I'm UBER excited to be getting a new place-that's always fun, but only AFTER all the moving is done, right?

Well, if you know of someone who is looking to buy, here are some specs of our home. First of all, it has a mother-in-law apartment. Which obviously doesn't have to be rented out, but it's helped SO much with the mortgage-half our mortgage every month is paid for. We have THE BEST RENTER OF ALL TIME who says she doesn't want to move. She loves it here to and is willing to stay if the new buyer would allow it. She's in her early 40's, single, no pets, quiet and always tells us how great it is to live with us. Oh, and she always pays rent early or on time. Moving on, all together 2,500 sq. feet, 5 beds, 2 baths. It also has my home salon. Which obviously could be used as a great craft room, even a bedroom or anything really. It's a pretty big room. It's pretty close to the 3300 South and 4500 South entrances to I15. Let me know if you know of anyone who may be interested. We're hoping it's up on the MLS today or tomorrow.

Now, for pictures of our celebration weekend.
(P.S. Can you believe it's Thanksgiving and Black Friday next week?!?! Yes, black Friday is a holiday too...)

This is Halloween

Halloween was a blast this year! It included a Murder Mystery for YW/YM, a Murder Mystery with some of Darrin's family, our annual Stake Fall Carnival (Bouncy house, balloon animals, charicatures, face painting, etc!), An awesome Halloween Party at the Waddoups (Thanks guys!), and of course Halloween night which consisted of having our Bro. and Sis. in law over, carl's jr. for dinner, trick or treating, and a scary movie (which turned out to be not that scary-thank goodness :)) This was Parker's FIRST YEAR TRICK OR TREATING. And let me tell you it was a blast to watch him catch on so quickly and have such a good time! He’d go up to doors all by himself, knock on the door and say, “Trick or Treat (sometimes with a PLEASE!)” If they didn't come right away he'd keep repeating himslef :). It was a lot of fun!

Parker was a SHARK
Spencer was a Lifeguard
Darrin was a shark bitten surfer
I was a shark bitten snorkeler/an 80's bride for the fall carnival

Milestone

The most recent milestone in our house would be Spencer scooting all over the place now and getting up on his hands and knees! Parker didn't start scooting until he was 9 1/2 months old so Spencer is 3 months ahead :). So in other words-right on time :). haha. I thought Parker would never be mobile. But I will say, it is inevitable.

Anyways, lots of fun around here. Just wanted to share some recent pictures:

Good Times

Here's what we've been up to lately:

1. Zoo Trip with Darrin's Work. Very fun. The animals were so friendly and active! Parker loves the zoo. Spencer loved to get out and be outside.

2. My wonderful sister, Heidi came into town from Cedar City and we were able to go to Discovery Gateway (Parker LOOOOOVES that place!) and wheeler farm (he was SO into feeding the ducks this time! Plus they got a new playground which of course Parker loves).

3. I threw a shower for my BFF Marta. She's having a baby girl (whom I'm sure will be just as beautiful as she!) and I'm SO SO SO excited for her!!! The shower turned out cute! But only 3 people showed up... :(. What on earth?!? I sent out invites, and a reminder on facebook...I felt terrible for Marta :(. I tried though.

4. We carved pumpkins! Parker was very fascinated by the whole thing and loved to GUT the pumpkin.

Among these things, here are some things my kids have been up to:

Parker:
-The other day Parker and I were leaving and Parker yelled to Dad, “Love you HUN! See ya!” haha. I guess he’s catching on to more than we realize :)
-We recently realized how good Parker is getting at coloring. All the sudden he’s trying to color in the lines in his truck coloring book. He’s doing great! We still need to teach him how exactly to hold the crayon but I’m so proud of him!
-Parker goes potty in the toilet every once in a while now. I usually give him the choice between a candy (something small) or the option to blow out a candle. A lot of the time he chooses the candle! He loves blowing candles out!

Spencer:
-Spencer had his 6 Month appointment. He weighed 15lbs. 4oz. (25%) and was 27 ½ “ tall (75%).
-Spencer still has big BLUE EYES and now has REALLY BLONDE HAIR (thin now-but very blonde :)). The doc said at his 6 month appointment that he’ll most likely keep the blue eyes! YESSS!
-Spencer is just starting to SCOOT! He’s 6.5 months old and when he really wants something he really tries to get it and most of the time can-this is very recent-he just wants it so bad! He’s also doing more and more push ups.