High highs and Low lows

We've made some wonderful memories this month! Unfortunately, the laws of the universe demand we have some bad luck come our way as well to balance it out. This past week has been one of the most stressful weeks, but I'm happy to report we are alive and well.

I'll start with the lows so we can end on a high note! We got home from vacation last Tuesday and got into a car accident that afternoon. Talk about a rude awakening home! The girls and I had gone to pick up Ollie from a friend's house and were on our way home. I was stopped at a stop sign waiting to turn left onto a busy 5 lane road. I checked left and saw the car coming had their blinker on, so I checked right and it looked clear as well. I checked the left again, saw the car was slowing down and still had their blinker on so I started to pull out while double checking to the right. Well, while I was looking to the right, the car coming did NOT turn and I ran into it. The girls were scared and confused wondering what happened, but thankfully we were all ok. I got a ticket for "failing to yield to the left" and we'll have to shell out some money for repairs, but in the grand scheme of things it's only money. I felt really stupid and guilty but I also felt humbled. I was reminded of things that are truly important. Alyssa, dropped everything to come and pick us up the minute I called her. Friends and family reached out to us to check on us. And most importantly, our girls (and dog!) were unharmed in what could have been a much more serious situation. So through it all, I've found so much to be grateful for.

After the accident, we had a series of unrelated injuries to each of our girls. First, Adeline got hit by a rock in the eye! Eden was helping Nate move some rocks in the yard and accidentally hit Adeline. She got a cut on her lower eyelid and a black eye to boot. 

Next, Lydia had a drowning incident on Memorial Day! I think I can safely say that looking over and seeing her with her arms extended and face in the water, was one of the scariest things I've seen in my life! We had gone swimming at a friend's neighborhood pool and the girls had been wearing their floaties the entire time. As we were getting ready to leave, we took off their floaties and Lydia wandered back over to the stairs in the pool. Nate and I both saw her and I even reminder her she didn't have her floaties on so don't step off the step. We got to talking with our friends and the next thing I know someone says she was under the water and Nate was sprinting to pull her out. Thankfully, she was fine and even seemed relatively unphased. She didn't cry and didn't have a ton of coughing. I think she knew she was supposed to hold her breath because Nate had been working with her teaching her to go under water.  It was just such a crazy experience because it happened so fast. We were right there watching but looked away for a second. I read an article last summer about how drowning doesn't look like "drowning." It's not like what you see on t.v. It's not a loud, dramatic, splashing in the water calling for help. It's quick and silent. I'll just post the information on what the Instinctive Drowning Response actually looks like. Please stay safe this summer, friends!

1. “Except in rare circumstances, drowning people are physiologically unable to call out for help. The respiratory system was designed for breathing. Speech is the secondary or overlaid function. Breathing must be fulfilled before speech occurs.
2. Drowning people’s mouths alternately sink below and reappear above the surface of the water. The mouths of drowning people are not above the surface of the water long enough for them to exhale, inhale, and call out for help. When the drowning people’s mouths are above the surface, they exhale and inhale quickly as their mouths start to sink below the surface of the water.
3. Drowning people cannot wave for help. Nature instinctively forces them to extend their arms laterally and press down on the water’s surface. Pressing down on the surface of the water permits drowning people to leverage their bodies so they can lift their mouths out of the water to breathe.
4. Throughout the Instinctive Drowning Response, drowning people cannot voluntarily control their arm movements. Physiologically, drowning people who are struggling on the surface of the water cannot stop drowning and perform voluntary movements such as waving for help, moving toward a rescuer, or reaching out for a piece of rescue equipment.
5. From beginning to end of the Instinctive Drowning Response people’s bodies remain upright in the water, with no evidence of a supporting kick. Unless rescued by a trained lifeguard, these drowning people can only struggle on the surface of the water from 20 to 60 seconds before submersion occurs.”

Finally, to top it all off, Eden fell and split her head open on a corner yesterday! Once I got the bleeding stopped and the wound cleaned, it was pretty obvious it would need stitches. Luckily, our neighbor is a P.A. and her husband is a paramedic, so they were able to help us and stitch her up. She was a brave girl, and did great while she got three stitches. 

All of this happened within the last week, and I am exhausted! I hope we've had our share of accidents for a while. But, like I said, we've also had a really great month so let's talk about some positive things! 

The girls ran their first race and Nate and I were beaming with pride! They had so much fun and they were really proud of themselves as well. It was a half mile run and they both ran the whole way. Nate and I joined in with them and made it a family affair. I really hope they continue to enjoy running and we have many more of these races in the future. 

Eden and Lydia also had their spring dance recital. It was definitely an entertaining night. There was a lot going on onstage and probably only half of it was the choreography! But, the kids all seemed to enjoy themselves up there.

We took a trip to Miramar Beach  this month. We absolutely LOVED it, so that trip will be getting a post of it's own soon!

Nathan and I went on a date to the Adult Prom! First, we went to dinner with our friends Danielle and Remington (and their 8 week old baby!), and then we hit up the dance, ready to show our moves. We were disappointed in the music selection as it seemed we were at more of a 70s disco, but we still managed to have fun. We weren't really sure how to dance to a lot of the music but we were able to bust out some of our best interpretive dance moves! I bought the fabric to make my dress months ago, but of course managed to procrastinate until the day before the dance to actually start it. I worked some magic and it came together just in time. 

We took a hike with some friends on Memorial Day. The kids had fun playing in the creek and did great on the actual hiking part. It was short (just less than a mile) but a good length for them. We tried out our hiking carrier and Adeline seemed to really enjoy riding on Daddy's back. 

What a month it has been for our family! We are grateful for everyday we can spend together and feel tremendously blessed! 

Weekend in Dallas

Anyone  who knows my husband knows that the words Nathan and spontaneous are never used in the same sentence unless the word NOT is also included. Imagine my surprise last Thursday morning when he asked me if I wanted to go to Dallas that day. What!?!? Who are you and what have you done with my husband? We have been so sick of the cold weather and not being able to get out very much with the girls. When Nate checked the weather and saw it was supposed to be 75 degrees in Dallas that weekend, he figured it was the perfect birthday/Valentine's day trip for me! What a great husband!

I quickly gathered up our stuff, found someone who could take Ollie last minute (Thanks Seligers!!!), researched some things to do, and texted my friend Hilary, who lives in the Dallas area, to see if they wanted to meet up that weekend. When Nate got home from work we loaded up the car, fed the babies, and took off! In our rush we forgot to bring our camera so we have no pictures to document the trip. We even remembered it about a mile from home, but we were too stubborn to turn around and go back. It's about a 5.5 hour drive to Dallas and it was late, so we decided to stop in the middle of nowhere at a roadside motel along the way. It looked really sketchy on the outside, but hey, we were being spontaneous! And it was surprisingly decent inside. The girls slept great in bed with Mommy and Daddy. Mommy and Daddy did not!

Friday morning, we got up and finished our drive into Dallas. Once there, we really just wanted to enjoy the weather. We brought our jogging stroller and took the girls for a run at a nearby park. (I know, who travels all the way to Dallas just to go for a run? People who have a terrible case of cabin fever due to snow and ice at home, that's who!) There is a Chipotle coming to Bentonville, and everyone is super excited about it. We've never eaten at one, so we found one in Dallas to try out. It was good, but after living in Utah and feasting on Cafe Rio, nothing quite compares. We also went to a big farmer's market downtown, got stuck in rush hour traffic (fun with two crying babies!) and wandered around Ikea. The girls were a hit at Ikea. Everyone wanted to stop and smile at them. Eden was a little show off and smiled and giggled at everyone she saw. It got a little embarrassing when we had 10 people surrounding the stroller and blocking the aisle! That night we made sure to stay at a hotel that had cribs available because the whole bed sharing thing does not work for us!

Saturday we met up with Hilary and Eric and their little boy, I-Man. They so graciously offered to watch the girls so Nate and I could go to the Dallas Temple. I'm pretty sure this was the first time, we've left them with non-family. Big step for us! To thank them, we wanted to buy them lunch, but our plans were thwarted when the BBQ restaurant we chose was doing a special promotion and our entire meal was free!!!! Sweet!!!!! Appetizers, drinks, entrees, dessert, everything completely free! It was GOOD food too. With very full bellies, we finished up the day at the Stockyards and then headed home. It was a quick two day trip but we knew there was another snowstorm coming that we needed to beat home. We are back to being confined in the house but Dallas was a much needed getaway for us  and the girls did great with their first real roadtrip. Thanks Nathan for being so spontaneous! We love you!

Since I didn't take any pictures there and I can't have a blog post without pictures, here are a couple shots of the girls.

A month ago Eden would just face plant and cry. We are making great progress!

Lydia thinks she's ready to up and crawl. I think not!

They always have smiles when Daddy takes their picture

3 Years!

Once upon a time Laurel and Nathan were sitting on the couch in Laurel's apartment. Laurel was jabbering on in her usual fashion and was annoyed to notice that Nate seemed to not be listening! Suddenly, he interrupted her and said, "Laurel, I think........I might........possibly love you." Well that was good enough for Laurel and pretty soon they were married and lived happily ever after for these last three years. Fortunately, Nate is much more sure of his love at this point :)
We celebrated our three year anniversary on June 26th. In the grand scheme of things, I know three years is not very long, but on the other hand, so much has happened in those three years and life before marriage seems to be a lifetime ago. It's been the most amazing three years, and it's hard to believe by the time our four year anniversary rolls around, we will be a family of four!

Relaxing in the hammock

To celebrate, we went to a quaint, tourist town about an hour away, Eureka Springs. We stayed at the cutest bed and breakfast. Anyone who knows me, knows I adore porch swings so naturally I was in love with this house!

Eureka hosts an eclectic group of visitors from hippies to bikers to honeymooners so half the fun of our trip was people watching. We wandered around the little shops, ate some delicious food, and survived a haunted hotel! It was a quick, relaxing getaway and a fun way to celebrate our anniversary.

Haunted Crescent Inn

Delicious Italian food at Ermilio's: "2nd best chicken parmesan of my life!"- Nate

Thorncrown Chapel- Glass chapel in the middle of the woods

Loving the Cheese in Branson

Branson is a strange little town. For those of you who have never been there, I'm not really sure how to describe it. I always thought of Branson  as cheesy, over-the-top, and out-dated. I pictured it full of busloads of retirees on vacation eager to see performers from the golden days still onstage. And while I've discovered that all of those things are true, Branson is still somehow fabulously awesome. We've gone a few different times and always had a good time. In fact, our most recent jaunt to The Live Music Show Capital of the World proved to be no disappointment.


We didn't get a chance to really celebrate our anniversary this year, so this was somewhat of a belated anniversary trip. We stayed in a hotel that was older than dirt, but you get what you pay for and it was dirt cheap. Did you know they still have hotels that give you an actual key to your room rather than one of those little key cards? Weird. It was old but well kept and Nate certainly enjoyed the complimentary dessert bar of cobbler, cookies, and ice cream. Although, Nate freaked out when he saw the sign that said the ice cream was the lactose free. What do they make it with? Soy? And refused to eat anymore. The desk clerk was a young, friendly fellow and asked what we were going to be doing on our visit. I told him we had bought a deal on Groupon for the zipline and I was shocked when he asked me, "What is that?" "What is a zipline?"  "No, what is Groupon?" Really? Do you live under a rock? If you don't know what that is, let me just turn your world upside down and tell you to go get online and prepare to find some deals!

The zipline ended up being a lot of fun.While we had a blast actually on the zip, the highlight involved a 12 year old boy. He was very afraid of heights and talked about how he wimped out when his family was in Guatemala. After his little sister went, he stepped up and exclaimed, "God is good!" before leaping off the plank. We got a chuckle out of that, and it certainly appears that God granted him some courage.

We also went to the fish hatchery and Table Rock Damn. I know, what's more romantic than learning about spawning fish on your anniversary trip? We just can't resist FREE things! Afterwards, we went for a hike in the State Park. Once again, FREE! We finished up the night at a dinner show. My personal favorite scene was the dramatic dance/aerial ribbon routine between the two lovers performed to the theme from Titanic. There was also some cool fire twirling, singing, unicycling, and bubble blowing. It was quite the variety of entertainment. Cheesy? Yes. Enjoyable? You bet!

That's How You Know He's Your Love

Disclaimer: The following post reaches new levels of cheesiness for this blog. So cheesy that Nate is embarrassed that I'm even posting it.

It's that special season of the year! You know, the one that everyone looks forward to and young girls dream of at night. No, its not Christmas.....it's PROM SEASON! Its that time of the year when you can spend a ridiculous amount of money on an outfit you're never going to wear again, you wear a flower around your wrist even though it annoys you the whole night, you take a million pictures of "the best night of your life", and dance to a cliche love song under the stars, the moonlight, the sea, or whatever overused theme it may be.

Since Nate and I obviously didn't know each other in high school, we had never been to prom together. We certainly couldn't miss out on a once in lifetime experience such as this night. We tossed around the idea of crashing the local high school prom, but upon further contemplation, realized it would be lame to be the "old chaperons" of the party. The only logical solution was to go on a prom at home date!

You could say Nate was less than enthusiastic about attending the prom and perhaps wished it really was a ONCE in a lifetime experience, but my sweet husband couldn't say no when I went to all the effort to ask him to go with me.

 

He answered Yes by making me a cd of love songs and leaving me a love note in the car. I know we're cheesy and some of you are throwing up in your mouth, but I'm in love and I don't care who knows it. Prom was lovely! We had a fancy dinner, got dressed up, and danced the night away. Well, it would be more accurately stated to say I danced the night away while Nate stood there looking awkwardly toward the window wondering if anyone could see us. I quickly realized that I was a bit ambitious when I created a playlist that was 1.8 hours long when after 1.8 minutes, Nate asked "Where are the punch and cookies?" Apparently, that's the only reason he ever went to dances.  A poor oversight on my part.

Here's Nate hand-making my corsage

I already owned this dress and just had to have my mom ship it to me. Nate bought a new studly purple shirt because it's my favorite color. However, he returned it the day after the prom.

We had a fun night (or at least I did and my wonderful husband indulged me). Thanks Baby!

A WICKED time in Nashville

For our anniversary this year in June, Nate bought me tickets to go see Wicked in Nashville, Tennessee. Ok, I actually got online and bought them myself but he told me I could :) Nashville is about a nine hour drive from Bentonville, so we decided to make a weekend out of it. After months of anticipation, our Nashville weekend finally arrived! We took Friday off from work and spent the majority of the day driving. We drove the back roads which took us a little longer but we wanted to do an experiment to see how good of gas mileage we could get with our new car. We averaged almost 50 mpg!!! We were very excited about that and actually ended up loving the drive because we were exploring the back woods of Arkansas and Tennessee. We saw probably 45 different "flea markets" along the way which generally consisted of two or three tables in someone's yard covered with junk from their homes. Basically, people just have year-round garage sales and paint a sign that says "Flea Market."

After seeing so many flea markets along the way, we found ourselves lucky enough to be in town for Tennessee's largest flea market of the year! What an exciting coincidence! When we found out it was only a couple miles from our hotel, we of course could not pass up the opportunity to attend. We scrapped our original plans for the day and hit the fairgrounds. When else would we have the chance to be a part of one of the Top 10 Flea Markets in the Nation?  We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the flea market but let me tell you, this thing was huge! We walked around for a couple hours and didn't even come close to seeing everything. I was very excited about our purchase of 1400 count sheets for $25! We continued our treasure hunting for the day at Antique Archaeology, the store front for one of our favorite shows on the History Channel, American Pickers. We didn't buy anything but we went more to say we'd been there.

Nate was thrilled to touch an actual Picker van!

 Because our temple is about four hours from us, we generally try to include a session at the temple anytime we are on a trip to a city where there is a temple nearby. There is a temple in Franklin which is just outside of Nashville. I remembered my church clothes, temple clothes and recommend. Sounds like I was prepared and good to go right? Wrong! I forgot my dress shoes! I was ready to throw in the towel and cancel our temple trip but Nate was insisted that we were going so I better find something to wear. This is a picture of the result.

I thought the bright purple tennis shoes weren't conspicuous at all........

It's fair to say I was grateful and surprised they let me in the door!

The night of the show, we decided to make it a real date night with dinner and show. We found this little hole in the wall type Italian restaurant that was actually sooooooo good! There was no parking lot so we had to park at the gas station next door, and the restaurant building looked pretty shady but Nate and I agreed that it was the best Italian food either of us had ever had. After dinner came the main event: WICKED! It was my second time seeing it and Nate's first time. We both loved it! I would jump at the chance to go again someday.

Yes I'm wearing my bright purple tennis shoes with this outfit as well. I can always be counted on for classiness!