Baby update

At our doctor's appointment at the end of October the dr. said everything looked good. Then he asked us if we wanted to guess what the baby was. Both Tally and I looked at the screen and we both said boy. The dr. said that he thought it was a girl. That he was pretty sure it was a girl, but he would be able to tell us better at our next appointment. (We get an ultra sound every time at our dr.) We were excited for a girl. How fun it would be to have one of each. We picked out a name and were set on a girl. We went to our next appointment 2 days before Thanksgiving and he asked if we had guessed last time what it was. I told him yes and that he thought it was a girl. He said "well I am an idiot because it is definitely a boy." Sure enough it is definitely a boy. No mistaking it. :) I was in shock for a little because I had my heart set on a girl. I am excited for another boy though. It will be fun for Colsten to have a brother close in age. So baby boy Thomas is coming in May and we are so very excited for this new addition to our family.

Halloween pictures

Here are a few pics that my mom took of Colsten's halloween costume. He was Chicken Little. It was a very cute costume. We couldn't get him to keep the chicken head on though. I am suprised he left it on long enough to get these pictures. Tally took him out trick or treating for about a half hour. It was a fun night. We hung out in our cul-de-sac again this year. We had our decorations up and a huge fire pit, some hot chocolate and chili. Thanks neighbors for the great times. :)
Colsten and cousin Brooklyn

News...

We are expecting. We are so excited. My due date is May 15. I have been a little more sick with this one than I was with Colsten. I am almost through this first trimester and starting to feel a little better. Just wanted to share the news. Have a fun and safe Halloween. I will post pictures of Colsten dressed up later.

Fundraiser for Natalie

Natalie's old cheer coach from high school is putting together a fundraiser for her this Saturday. If you have a facebook account you can click here for the flier on it. If not it is this Saturday Oct. 24th from 2-4pm at the North Ogden Senior Center 485 E 2550 N North Ogden. Jill is the name of the lady putting this together. She sells Mary Kay. The product she is selling is Mary Kay's baskic skin care set called "Miracle Set". She wants to sell at least 100 sets. 50% goes to cover the cost of the product. The other 50% is donated to Natalie. There are 2 sets to choose from. The full size is $100 plus tax and the Trial size is $44 plus tax.
Our family appreciates what Jill is doing. We also appreciate all of the prayers that have included our family. They have truely been felt.
Thanks for all of your love and support.

Pumpkin Patch

Tally's parents are good friends with one of the owners of J & J Nursery. He is actually the bishop of their ward and Tally's dad is one of his counselors. The nursery does hay rides to the pumpkin patch and you can pick as many pumpkins and take them home. We got to the nursery and they were having a cook out with hamburgers and hotdogs. There was a line for the hay ride, so we got in that line. Colsten was so excited about the tractor that was pulling the trailer with the hay. Tally's mom came with us. It was fun to go out into the field and pick pumpkins.

This week...

has been one of Happiness, sadness, joy, lots of family, lots of tears.
Wednesday Tally and I attended a wedding ceremony at the Salt Lake Temple for this cute couple.

This is Angie and Jared. Tally has been friends with Angie and her family for a very long time. We were so fortunate to be in the Temple with them and enjoy their special day. We are so happy for you two. While they were taking pictures we were trying to kill time before the luncheon. There was the 2 of us, Angie's brother and our next door neighbor Jared his wife Jill, their 2 1/2 month old baby girl Shelby and Leisha our other next door neighbor and babysitter for Shelby. (Leisha is 13) We were going to go to the new Church History Museum to take a tour. On our way out we passed the Relief Society building. We have a dear family friend that is the secretary to the Young Women's. I told Tally I wanted to go say hi to Kristen so we all went in. The sweet ladies made sure she was in and sent us upstairs. Jared didn't really want to go because they were working, but I finally talked him into going up and meeting her. She greeted us at the top with a huge smile on her face. Her office is right next to the General Young Women's President, Sister Dalton. She said Sister Dalton was in a meeting, but took us into her office. There was a round table in the office with 4 chairs. Kristen said that is where they hold their meetings. She pointed to the chair on the North side and said Sister Dalton always sits in that chair because of the view. She looks right out the window and sees the beautiful Temple. On our way out of the office in walks Sister Dalton.

She glowed. She was so sweet. Once she saw Leisha she had her in her arms and it was just about Leisha. You can tell that she loves the Young Women of the world and wants the best for them. She did not let go of Leisha the whole time we talked with her. It was such a neat experience. We are glad we had that opportunity.

Yesterday was a good, but sad day. It was the funeral for my very sweet cousin Anne. She was 33 years old and died of stage 4 Melanoma. She left behind the love of her life, her sweet husband Ward and 3 little girls. She will be greatly missed. The funeral services were absolutely beautiful and so uplifting. The spirit was very strong. I know that she is healthy again. No longer in pain. How grateful I am for our Heavenly Father's Plan of Salvation. She lived and loved the gospel. She radiated with goodness and light. I was fortunate to see her in July at the family reunion. Some of us didn't realize that that would be the last time we would see her. She walked in with a huge smile on her face, just as beautiful as ever. I know that we will see her again. And I know that because she was married to her sweetheart Ward in the temple and kept her covenants to him and the Lord, they will one day be reunited with one another and those 3 beautiful daughters. What a joyous reunion that will be. Seeing the life she lived and listening to the stories told makes me want to be better. We love you Anne.

We got to see a lot of relatives at the funeral. It was so fun. I haven't seen a few of my cousins in a very long time and loved seeing them.

A few weeks ago we found out that the tumor in Natalie's head had grown again. There is also a tumor growing on her temple. Today she started a 5 day surgery. It is similar to radiation. I believe they use a laser and zap it. We are praying that this will get rid of it. In talking to my mom, she said that Ewing's Sarcoma's like to take up residence some place in the body. It will live there until forced to move (such as radiation or chemo) but it is hard to get rid of, it will just migrate to another place in the body. We hope for this to be gone. We know that it is in our Heavenly Father's hands. We are grateful for the time we get to spend with Natalie and feel her sweet spirit. We love you Nat.

All in all life is good. We are keeping busy. I am finally a stay at home mom and LOVE it. I love spending time with Colsten. He keeps me going and keeps me laughing. Colsten is in nursery now and is still trying to adjust to being left for 2 hours. He isn't very fond of it. I am serving as the 2nd counselor in Primary and Love it. I work with great women. Tally is the 1st counselor in Young Men's and really enjoys working with the youth. We are blessed to be apart of the gospel and to know families are forever.

Hogle Zoo

During the summers at work, we are able to work 4-10's so some of us can have Monday's off and some of us take Friday's, and if you feel like you want another day off during the week instead of one of those they are pretty cool about letting you do it. It is just fun to have a 3 day weekend. I chose Friday's because Tally gets every other Friday off and I thought it would be fun to have those Friday's with with him.

Today wasn't his Friday off so I was trying to think of what I could do fun with Colsten so we weren't sitting in the house all day long. Especially since today was supposed to be one of the only nice days (we have been getting tons of rain). So my sister Kristen, her husband Adam and daughter Brooklyn and the two of us decided to go to the zoo.

It was so much fun. Colsten loved it. We took him when he was about 5 months old and he was still too little to understand. There were tons of people and it was hot.

Anyway we had a great time and I am glad that we went. We went to a bird show and then just walked around and saw the animals.

He fell asleep as we were walking out of the park

p.s. My Dad, Mom, sister Natalie, and brother Tyler were able to go on a cruise to Italy. If you want to check out pics the blog is www.miabelloitalia.blogspot.com Enjoy.