Our Family (by Hannah)

As everyone already knows, I have been having a lot of trouble with the start of school this year. Anxiety and panic have been a very large part of my days, and I've been calling everyone every day with my problems. Usually when calling people I have been on the edge of very irrational tears. I know that the way I've been feeling has been pretty irrational and crazy, but it's not easy to make that sort of anxiety go away. Even as I work on it, I still get anxious easily and it's frustrating.

But I do know that I have been feeling so much better, and that is solely thanks to everyone in this family. I feel like I haven't expressed my gratitude enough when actually talking to you. Instead it seems like I just keep complaining more. So I just wanted to thank all of you so very much. Thanks for all the advice, thanks for reminding me of what's most important, thanks for listening to me and letting me vent, thanks for telling me how much you love me and thanks for being such a great family. 

Dad, you've cheered me up so much with our talks and even when I'm feeling so anxious for no reason, you always keep cheering me up, so thank you.

Amanda, you've talked me through it all and empathized with me. You've helped clear my head and reminded me that I'm not dying just because I'm stressed out.

Mom, you've been so logical and you've helped me feel better just by leaving a message on my phone. Being able to talk to you always cheers up my day.

Caitlin, hearing about your day and talking to you cheers me up. I miss talking and hanging out, I can't wait to come down and visit again.

Trevor and Jamie, having you here in Utah is so nice. I love having you here to come hang out and having you close. I also love seeing Kendra and all the mess she gets into (like trying to trick Jamie into giving her more candy), though I'm sure it's not so fun for you.

I'm sure this is a little (well, a lot) cheesy, but I wanted to tell you all thanks since I haven't really been able to get some thoughts together. I hope everyone reads this and knows how grateful I am for all of my wonderful family.

Apology

So I need to apologize to Trevor and Jamie. While we were on the trip, I think I discouraged them with my comments about what it was like having a new baby at home right around Christmas. I was mostly commenting on the negative--like, how tired we were and how Sam was kind of a non-exciting blob. So, I feel bad about that.

Then, today, I came across this picture....

Look at how cute and tiny he was! His stocking was as big as he was. And, even though we were tired, it really was great having him there. It was a very special Christmas and I won't ever forget it. I'm sure it will be the same for you.

This year, he will probably be more like this:

Funny Sammy!

While Caitlin has been at girls' camp, I (Hannah) have been watching Sam while Amanda goes to work. Sam, while not officially crawling, is just days away and is very mobile. What he enjoys doing in particular is to roll around to whatever it is he wants. The other day, I had him up in my room, and he rolled over to my metal trash can. He thought it was absolutely hilarious, and he kept laughing and smiling at the baby in the reflection. I pulled him away from the trash can and he scooted right back over! This video is after a while of him doing it, so he's not as excited about it but it's still pretty cute.

KA!

On Saturday night the 30th, we went to the show KA as a part of a Mother's Day gift. We weren't able to go closer to the actual day, so decided that this past Saturday would be the best that we could do.

A couple of fun things in regards to the show were:

1. They do a "pre"-show as people are arriving, and during the pre-show, these strange looking characters come down from the catwalks that are used as part of the set. They are tethered together and kind of repel down. Before it started, Caitlin and Amanda went out to get popcorn and drinks, and on the way back in, one of the characters came down and landed right next to Caitlin, nearly causing her to wet herself! But the best part might have been that Amanda, in her eagerness to get back to her seat and chow down on the popcorn, didn't even notice the guy. One of the ushers (who are also dressed in character) called out to the guy, "You aren't supposed to scare the guests like that, you nearly made that one girl pee herself, but that other girl didn't even see you!!!"

2. One of the most amazing parts of the show is the stage itself. It does everything! It is hydraulic and moves up and down, back and forth, and tilts in almost every direction. (You can kind of see how they use the stage in the picture above.) The characters climb up and down the stage, and they do all sorts of amazing scenes with it throughout the production. It was awesome!

3. I personally thought that this show was one of, if not the best show on the Strip and I think everyone really enjoyed it. Mom said, "I enjoyed it very much, it was very, very cool." I guess then the whole thing turned out to be a success!

4. Finally, the last thing on the show was Caitlin's Sunday School Teacher. When she went to class, she was talking about going to the show, and her teacher told her that all the cirque du soleil shows were of the devil. She was then removed from the class. (This last part was due to the fact that they had split her class a couple of weeks ago, and she didn't want to go to the new one.) But it sounds better if she got kicked out :o)

After the show we went to eat at the Rainforest Cafe. I guess you pay for the ambiance, because we all agreed that the food was pretty mediocre. But anyway, it was still a fun night for everyone.

Not Much Going on Here

Well, no one has posted for a while, so I decided I'd just post some of the pictures from my Birthday, mainly because there hasn't been much else to take pictures of.Here's after we went to Red Lobster with Mom and Dad, Hannah, Amanda, and Tiffany. We came home and opened presents and had cake. 

I got a Wii Fit! It's totally awesome!

So yeah, that's pretty much all I've got for you.

Party Animals

Here are some pictures from Dad's birthday the other night:

Caitlin got creative and took a bunch of pictures of Sam. They turned out really cute. They were pretty hard to get, though, because he kept sliding down in the chair, putting the lei in his mouth, and kicking the balloons all over!

After the photo shoot.

It's party time!

Getting ready to blow out the candles. Mom made her famous homemade carrot cake!

Turn out the lights, the party's over...Caitlin wanted to get a picture of Sam in all the streamers, but he fell asleep, so she settled for a picture of Dobby instead.

Draper Temple Trip

This weekend, Darby and I were invited to go to the Draper Open House with a bunch of friends. It was a beautiful temple, and it was my first open house, so it was all very exciting to see. I thought it was a huge temple, but as I learned it's actually much smaller than a lot of temples. After the open house we went to a Thai restaurant (my friend Dan is going to Bangkok, Thailand for his mission so he wanted to go). Then when we finished there, at around 11:30 we decided to go to the hot springs up the canyon. It was all a very fun, but very tiring night. Since there weren't pictures allowed in the temple and I didn't want to lose my camera in the hot springs, I only have pictures of us in the restaurant. Here are just a few. 

Starting at front left: Troy (He didn't go to the temple with us, hence the jeans and sweatshirt), Gavin, Zach, Lauren, Me, Darby, Liza, Ben, our waiter (it was around 11:15 at that point and he was tired), Michael, Dan, Junya (pronounced, as he put it, "Like Junior with an accent"), Ashley, Brittany, Logan, and Jeff! 

Dan, Gavin and Junya with the cool aquarium.

Dan and Junya.

Darby, Liza, and I. I have no idea what Darby is doing.

Everyone again near the awesome fish tank.

I'm a sickly person

So, on Monday I started feeling kinda weird, mostly with just a sore throat. But it didn't really start bothering me until Tuesday night. When I woke up on Wednesday morning, I felt like crap. My throat has seemed to be getting progressively worse, and my stomach has been starting to hurt along with my head. So I didn't go to school yesterday, and it hadn't really occurred to me that I might have more than a common cold until we sat down at dinner last night and Amanda asked what was wrong with me and Dad said that I have Strep Throat. I was a little confused at first, because we hadn't really talked about this, but now that I think of it, it does make pretty good sense. My throat has started hurting really bad out of no where, and it's getting hard to swallow and I just have an overall yucky feeling. I was pretty sure I was going to go to school today, but I kept waking up in the middle of the night, feeling like crap. I tried to cough because I felt like I could clear it out or something, I'm not entirely sure what I was thinking, but it hurt like no other. I just feel like I have something stuck in my throat and it's impossible to get out. So, I think I'm going to go with the fact that I have Strep Throat. Plus, if I do, it's probably best that I didn't go to school today, since apparently Strep Throat is really contagious. But I'm drinking lots of water, and hoping I'll be better soon.

Sam's Swing

Sam is being very cute this morning! I put him in his swing while I was making breakfast for myself (Cream of Wheat, what else?). When we first put the swing together, he didn't like the actual swinging motion because it swung rather violently. I don't know if it swings less frenetically now because he's heavier, but this morning I thought I'd try it again, and he enjoyed it a great deal. He almost fell asleep, but I wouldn't let him. I'm a mean mommy like that.