2007 the good...the bad...the fun we had

2007 as come and gone. What a year for our family. So many things happened.

Here is my year in review:

In february we bought a new van, well, new to us. (Sorry, no pictures)

In May, Matt graduated from Whitworth with a Bachelors in Organizational Management...YEAH! Except it still feels like school will never end. He walked in May but had to finish three more classes. He has one to go. He will have his diploma in hand come February.

In July we found out that our baby was sick. Lots of doctor appointments this month!
In August we took a vacation with the Erickson family to Seaside, OR for a whole week! Loved it!We also stopped by Mount St. Helens on the way home from Seaside. In September, Brinley started preschool. She loves it and her teachers!
November I gave birth to our beautiful daughter, Olivia, then had her funeral 5 days later...

Well, most of you know what's happened from there...We wish you all a hAppY 2008!

hAppY bIrtDaY mOm!

Today is my mom's birthday...don't worry mom, I won't give away your age. Every year we go out to dinner at Wolf Lodge in Idaho. Such a fun steak house. We went last night because it's closed on Monday and my Dad has to work. Usually we have a huge group go with us, but they all moved to Utah, so it was just a party of 10. My mom's sister was in town though. She reminds me so much of my Grandma Esther.

The desserts there are really good...

Actually, all of the food there is really good. We didn't get rocky mountain oysters this time around, although, I thought of Randy as I looked at them on the menu.
I come from a family of dorks!

Brinley and Cody got a little bored. Julie had brought some markers and things to keep them busy. My dad was kind enough to turn them into cats. After that, we couldn't keep them off the floor...gross!

tag, your it!

I've been tagged...yet again.

The rules of the game are posted at the beginning.Each player answers the questions about themselves.At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

5 things I was doing 10 years ago
1. I was in college...i think.
2. I can't remember...isn't that sad, obviously I led a really exciting life.
3.
4.
5.

5 things on my to-do list today
1. get out of bed. check.
2. get dressed. check.
3. go sledding, ice skating and play on the quad. check. check. check.
4. clean the house...um, maybe tomorrow.
5. make a to-do list for tomorrow.

Snacks I enjoy
1. chocolate chip cookies
2. chocolate
3. hmmm, not sure what else.
4.
5.

Things I would do if I were a billionaire
1. be debt free.
2. travel all over the world.
3. give to charities, like the MISS Foundation, PKD Foundation and NILMDTS.
4. build my dream home on acres and acres of land.
5. buy my husband his dream car...or cars, for that matter.

3 Bad habits
1. I drink too much Pepsi
2. I am bad at remembering...anything really, especially calling people back.
3. That's it...I am practically perfect in every way!


5 Places I've lived
1. Page, AZ
2. Winemucca, NV
3. Vernal. UT
4. Woodland, CA
5. Spokane, WA

5 Jobs I've Had
1. Paper Route
2. Subway Deli-sandwich maker
3. Fred Meyer- cashier
4. Motion Auto Supply- driver
5. Kempis Hotel - Assistant Manager

5 Things People Probably Don't Know About Me
1. I won $100 from a Taco Bell scratch game
2. I hate doing laundry, I would rather clean the bathroom.
3. I love stars, and have lots of them around my house.
4. I'm stubborn...actually, most people probably know that about me.
5. The only event I have ever dressed up for was my wedding, I never went to any fancy school dances.

So now I'm supposed to tag five people... hmmm, you, you, you, you and you.

Ho Ho Ho!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas with family and friends! Ours was really nice. We slept in until 9am and had to wake Brinley up at 10am. She was too excited that she didn't get to sleep until midnight. I always remember waking up at the butt crack of dawn. My dad would get out of bed, take a shower, get dressed, etc. He did it on purpose and it drove us nuts. We didn't get to open presents right away, but we could get into our stockings...one of my favorite parts of Christmas morning.

Brinley was spoiled...why wouldn't she be. She got a bike from her dad and her quilt from me and oh so many other things...littlest pet shop, polly pocket, books, board games, just to name a few.
This was my favorite gift...a memory box for Olivia that I can have out instead of having her things in a tote. It has a shadow box on top.
Matt had it engraved.
My sister, Kami, bought me this. I love it. Gives me something to snuggle with.For 5 weeks I worked on my parents and Matt's parents gifts...while at the hospital, our nurse made molds of Olivia's hands, feet and face. We had gotten them back before the funeral. My mom had been asking about them, but I hadn't told her. I wanted it to be a surprise. Here is a face mold. You can see how tiny she is.
And this is the shadow box I made for our parents. I put a locket of hair in there too. The mold of her face is velcroed on so that if they want to take it out and hold it, they can.
My brother and all of his girls were able to come to parents house this year. His two oldest live in Utah with their mom. So we don't get to see them too often. We try to get pictures while they are all together. So fun!
And this is what I did...when I wasn't taking pictures.

Christmas Eve

Every year we have a Christmas Eve party at my parents. and every year we do a gift exchange. This year we decided that we would combine the white elephant gifts with the real ones. Here is what we ended up taking home. I believe eveyone needs a wild cat head in their home. Especially one that is covered in animal print.

At least we brought something to exchange that was actually of use.
Brinley and Cody got pj's, as usual. They always open their jammies on Christmas Eve. This year, they coordinated. I swear, these two could be brother and sister. They sure act like they are!

Kunz family party

To all of the Kunz's that missed the party in Spokane, I took some pictures so you could feel as if you were a part of the excitement. We went to the Lowe's house this year and ate Taco Soup and Clam Chowder and for dessert, my famous Apple Crisp (I thought of you Betsie, with every bite).

My Great Niece, Kennady, she is getting so big! Still a momma's girl though.My Niece, Cindy. She is such a cute girl.
Brinley and Aunt Lori sledding down the hill on their property. Brinley would have gone sledding all night if we let her.
Matt gave everybody rides on the Quad. It was a lot of fun in the snow! Here he is with his sister, Ami. Love the boots Ami!
Matt's sister Lori, and her beautiful daughters, Natalie and Mandy. Brinley looks a lot like Natalie. Ami's daughter Jessie. She is so funny and kept Brinley busy all night. She would have gone sledding all night too!

Yesterday was a one of my tough days. I had woke up in a melancholy mood to begin with. We went to church, but I just couldn't stay long. We were handed a family census to make sure everything was correct for church records. I saw Olivia's paper and I just broke down and couldn't handle it. So we left in the middle of Sacrament Meeting. I love the Christmas program, but oh well.
Matt drove us to see Olivia's grave. This was the first time Brinley had actually got out of the car to walk to her grave site. We made Olivia a little snowman (I didn't have my camera with me). Brinley loved it. She rang her chimes and asked us questions...I am glad to see that she isn't as closed up about Olivia as she has been. Brinley includes her in her everyday conversations, which is a healthy thing, but she gets really sad when she sees me crying. I hope she doesn't think that I love Olivia more than her, although, I have had to explain to her, many times, that I love both of them the same.
It has been 6 weeks. Christmas is going to be emotional for me. I didn't think it would be like this, it just hits at anytime. I had been doing good for so long...and then you just have days where you wonder "what's wrong with me?". I know that it's probably "normal", but what's normal when your grieving. It just wears me out and I feel like I need to sleep all day, which probably good, since I don't sleep at night (notice the time of the post). I feel like I'm rambling...blah blah blah. I am greatful for blogging.

GOOD NEWS...GOOD NEWS...

I had my 6 week post-partum check up today. When Dr. Barrong came in he had some news for us from the lab. He had a copy of Olivia's chromosome testing and everything came back NORMAL...Yeah! The PKD was spontaneous and wasn't because Matt and I had passed it on to her. Our chances of this happening again are next to ZERO! He hasn't heard from the autopsy, but will call us as soon as he does. His comment for us was, "You can go ahead and try for another baby, but we recommend you wait 3 months so that your uterus will get back to it's normal size." I told him, "I would like to get back to my normal size also."
We aren't going to wait too long. 2008 is going to be OUR YEAR and hopefully we will get to have a healthy baby too.

When Pigs Fly...

Juli, you wondered about an ornament for Olivia, well, here it is. If you remember, she is named after Olivia, from the childrens books. They don't make an Olivia the pig ornament, but my mom found this one. I wrote her name and the year on the bottom. Brinley loves to play with it.

Olivia's Chimes

My parents got Olivia chimes for Christmas. Saturday, they took it out to her grave. Brinley doesn't like to go out there, so I usually go while she is in school. Today I went out there to take pictures. I wish they would have turned out better, but it's hard to get good color in this weather. I'll get some good ones in the Spring, when we get Olivia's headstone.My amazing Dad made the crook. He did an awesome job. He painted the flowers pink and purple.

My Mom got the chimes. They aren't loud and obnoxious, so they shouldn't bother the other tenants of Saltese Cemetery.

It's interesting to me, that in the short time Olivia was here, we could see her personality. You could just tell that she was going to be very girly. She would love dolls and frilly dresses. Her favorite colors would be pink and purple. She would have been a cuddlebug and probably easy to please...Brinley was quite stubborn as a baby, still is. She loved animals and dinosaurs more than she liked dolls. It's changed some now.

Manito at night

If you didn't make it up to Manito for the lights, then this is what you missed... I loved that they put lights on everything, including this really cool cactus.
Okay, you probably wouldn't have missed seeing us there. My mom said she looked like crap, so I told her we could look like crap together and take a picture. I look so much worse than she did. I had a sinus thing going on, slept in until 2pm and missed church, oops!

Brinley is adorable, as usual. I, however, am not.

*A note to the Erickson family, my daughter has the 'Erickson lisp'. I took this picture in the middle of her saying cheese, at the 's' part.

December GNO

Lindsay, Jill, Tracy's baby, Cole, and Me!

I know, I'm a little slow on getting this post out...Karen.

for the past 2 1/2 years, I have belonged to a Girls Night Out group. Once a month we just get out of the house, usually dinner, but we've been bowling and to the movies and shopping, etc. Our group changes due to friends moving away or new friends moving in. Most of the friends we have kept in contact with have started a GNO where they moved to. Every December we have a gift exchange. This year was no different. So, enjoy the pics...

Karen, you are a cheeseball!Julie and Marcey, I'm sure talking about my brother Jared.

Cindy, above, just hanging out. Jandre, below, opening a gift...chick flicks.

Me and Tracy's sister-in-law, I am so horrible with names, and can't remember hers. I am so bad!

Tracy, I'm sure you love this picture. What are you doing with your hair?