Little Bits

Arlee loves slides and recently she has been posing for pictures like she is in this one.

Weeeeeee!

Mama slide!!!! Is what she was telling me here.

Arlee and Hans wrestling one night Hans was home

Arlee in her tutu that I am in love with. So cute!

Arlee and my niece, Kasiah playing dress up. Right here they are twirling so sorry it is blurry!

Arlee taking a moment for dress up to tell me that she is poopy.  (Thinking of potty training her since she tells me right as she is going or right after that she is poopy; which she also says when she is just wet too)

Arlee happily sitting in her carseat with her "baboon" as she calls it. We try and go see Hans when he is working until ten if she didn't get to see him any other time that day. Since he has started his rotations for school he has been leaving to get to IMC by 6:30 AM and works there until 3:00 PM and then has to be to work right after that until 10 PM. Needless to say it is a must for her to know that she has a dad and for him to know that we love and miss him. 

I love to try new recipes. Hans' sister-in-law, Amy and her mom gave me this resturant cookbook that has recipes from the Olive Garden, Ruby Tuesdays, Hard Rock Cafe and some others.  This picture is of Pizza Hut's Stuff Crust Pizza. It is Delicious with a capital D and is not nearly as greasy as the ones that you get at Pizza Hut. My side is the one with the pineapple on it. Yummmmm!

My Jeep Compass, which we bought with 12,000 miles on it hit 30,000.  My sister gave it the name... Dinky Blue. For good reason too, in order to put a double jogging stroller in the back I have to fold down part of the back seat. Hans and I hae talked about getting a bigger one once he is out of school. I don't want to have to depleet our savings again in order to have a bigger car. I guess I will just jog around my house. : )

Sorry that it is sideways, but I forgot to change it before I added it. Anyway, this is a invitation to my little sister's bridal shower that my sisters and I are throwing for her.  I got it off http://www.invitationland.com/. you can use their templates and print them on your own paper for free.  After we printed them then we added the yellow and the decals on the flowers. It was really easy. 

Sorry again about the blurryness.  First I was going to have Arlee be a cow and Hans and I were going to be a milk maid and a farmer and then I thought that might be too hard to find the costumes for us. After coming to that conclusion I thought Hans and I could dress up in black and have "Got Milk?" on our shirts and to top it off we could have milktashes.  Thinking that I am so clever I asked Hans what he thought and a typical guy response. Not much I tell ya, GOSH!!! So I we are going to do this....

Against my wishes for a U of U outfit, because Hans will burn it so he says. Arlee will be wearing BYU blue. Despite it being BYU I have to say it looks pretty darn cute on her.  Hans is going to be in BYU and I will be in U of U. Originally I was going to suck it up and wear BYU, but I went and looked at them, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. I told my mom it felt like a sin.  She just gave me a weird look. Honestly I can root for either team, but when it comes to wearing either, it just isn't going to happen. Haha!

While I was taking this picture Arlee was telling me where the eye was on this horse. Just a little tid bit for ya, this is a horse that I played with when I was a little kid. Best time ever.  Too bad it wasn't a real horse.

Arlee and her cute little self enjoying a part of my childhood.

First time for our little bitty family... Gardening

This year Hans and I decided to plant a garden since the house that we are sitting has about 1800 square feet to plant in. We planted: three rows of corn (produced a lot); six plants each of red, green and yellow peppers (18 plants which produce so much that I don't want to pick them anymore); six tomato plants (bad idea since I am the only one that likes them, even though Arlee will eat them some of the time. They also produced a lot); one zucchini (hasn't produced anything yet), one watermelon (still growing and I am not sure when to pick it... need to ask my gardening neighbors), one banana squash (died), one pumpkin (has trhree on as we speak) and one cuccumber (died...DANG quail)! We also had some room that Ulla (Hans' mom) could plant three banana squash, only one of which is still alive.  However, only one of her's is alive, but it has between five to eight squash on it.  In addition to what we have planted we have two extra tomato plants, one squash, which has one huge one that started growing when it was up in the bush next to it and just exploted into this pumkin looking squash rather than a long and skinny squash; and one pumpkin plant (which has about three on it).

Here are some pictures of a few of the gardens offspring : )

Arlee eating some corn on the cob

Our watermelon that is next to my thumb then and now it is the size of my two fists put together.

Only a few of the peppers that we picked

One of many squash... This is not the jumbo one... I might add.

Arlee's Version of Mrs. Potato Head

Arlee's version of what Mrs.' Potato Head is supposed to look like. Hans and I gave her this from our trip to California. She has learned a lot of these body parts from putting them in the little hole as I tell her what they are. Such a smartie!

By the way... She had the feet and her hat somewhere else while we were doing this at the time.  : )

Another one for me!

So it looks like it is another bad news post.... I need to have ear surgery again. With the surgeries they take a graft and place it on my ear drum to seal up the hole. Since the hole is on the very outside of my drum they can't just patch it up with a paper patch, they have to put me out.  With being put out I cannot be pregnant when I have the surgery. : ( I also have to wait until nine months after I had my last surgery for a reason that I cannot remember right now.  This would make the nine months around December 30th.  Yeah a few more months away! So right now I am not sure if I am going to wait to get pregnant until after then or get pregnant and have the surgery a few months after having a baby. I am not sure which is worse. My doctor said that it is not a surgery that is time sensitive, but I am prone to more ear infections and I cannot get any water in my ear until it is sealed to prevent the infections.
Can you believe all of this?  It is just crazy... not really sure what I am going to do, but I am hoping whatever I decide it is the right thing.

Chels

Update

This might not be for everyone to read. I didn't make it too graphic, but you never know....

So it turns out that I didn't have to have the D&C. I passed it on my own. So the day that I found out that I had decreased levels I started some light bleeding around 5 PM and then woke up at 1AM with sever cramping... It was labor pains I tell ya. After about forty minutes to an hour and sitting in the massage chair downstairs they stopped and I was able to fall asleep. I woke up about an hour after that and had to go into the bathroom and wait for all the heavy bleeding and all the stuff that comes with it to stop. Two hours later I was able to go and sleep back in bed again with some what lighter bleeding. 

Looking back at the whole experience I am glad that I could go through with it rather than having surgery (D&C), but I don't ever want to have to go through with it again. It did help me to remember what labor with Arlee felt like and to appreciate the drugs that they give you to make it comfortable.  I am all better now and can't wait to have another baby in the family when the time is right.

Thanks to all the family and friends that helped me by telling me of their experiences and to stay positive about the whole thing even though most of the time I just wanted to cry; and I did!  Even a BIGGER thanks to Hans for TRYING to understand me while going through this experience. 

Chelsey

Am I going to have a baby... or not?

Sorry to most of you this blog is going to sound depressing. I found out I was pregnant on June 24th.  It was a very happy moment. Waited ten and a half weeks before going to the doctor due to our vacation that we had planned already. Went to the doctor on August 9th. They did an ultrasound on my stomach and she said that the baby was measuring small. In my mind I was just thinking that I didn't get pregnant when I thought I did. Then she decided to do an interal ultrasound and it was the same as before... still small.  And to add to that no heart beat.  This was a shocker to me since I haven't had any problems.  No cramping, no bleeding and no spotting.  What does this all mean? My doctor started talking to us and explained that for whatever reason the baby stopped growing, but she would still like to do some blood tests to make sure she was not mistaken. She then told us that she was pretty sure it is going to be a miss carriage.  I wasn't crying at first... more shocked than sad I'd imagine at this point. Then came the tears and the questioning everything that has gone on in the last ten and a half weeks.
I was so confused why I miss carried with no cramping and no bleeding. What happened?  I guess I am not supposed to know anything other than there is no more baby.  It is probably for the better that I don't get the answers to everything. I am so thankful to my Heavenly Father for giving me the opportunity to not only get pregnant for the short time that I had been, but to have the support that I have through family, friends and the Spirit that has given me the comfort that I needed. It really helped when I thought and thought about what has happened.  Most of the time I was blamming myself for not being as careful as I was with Arlee, but then came to realize I don't know what caused the miss carry; but I do know that I am in good hands and will be comforted as I heal.
It really has made me appreciate having Arlee even more than I did before (which is beyond words of measurement).  She has been such a blessing in our lives and we couldn't be more blessed than to have her. When I would start to cry she would look at me and give me a smile, hug or start laughing and playing with me. Hans has been great too. He is such a supportive husband that really cares for me and my well being. I love them both so much and couldn't be more blessed to have them. 
When talking to the nurse today after the blood tests came back she said that my levels have decreased which means that I have for sure miss carried. I will be having a DNC to make sure everything is taken out.  I have been advised by people that have done the medication and the ones that have had the DNC to do the DNC.  I am taking their advice.  It will be done on August 25th.  After it is all said and done. We have been told to wait two months before trying for another baby.  I am not sure that I will be ready at this time, but we will see. 

Chelsey

California Vacation!!!

We just got back from vacation in California. We were able to buy a City Pass at Costco, which allowed us to do 3 days to Disneyland/ California Adventures, 1 day of Universal Studios, 1 day of Sea World and 1 day of either San Diego Zoo or the Wild Animal Park. It was a great vacation and it would be fun to do again minus Universal Studios (it was lame for the most part).  There was some really cool rides and shows there I have to say, but I would say the overall feel was a little bit short for me and Hans.

We were able to pawn Arlee off on my mom and my sister, Abbie- monsonmaddness.blogspot.com. We missed her so much, but we talked to her on the phone a few times to soften it. It is great that she talks on the phone now and it is so cute what kind of things she will respond to. Also to keep us from missing her too much we kept really busy. We had a lot to see in the short time that we were there. We would get home at the end of the day pretty late and wake up pretty early, to make the most of it. There was no movies at night as we would just fall asleep as soon as we would sit on the bed. Honestly it really was a lot of fun despite how tired we were.

Here are some pictures of our trip...

Disneyland:

This is on Splash Mountain. We got really wet this time and not on the second... I think you need to be in the front to get wet. Just an FYI

This a view from Tarzan's Tree house

This is in the submarine on the Nemo Ride (really dumb if you aren't a little kid BTW)

This is on Space Mountian

California Adventures:

This is at Hollywood Tower of Terror

Me in my "C" (Hans was so impressed that he got the picture captured while no one was in it) I have to say that I am too since it was so crowded.

Hans with the "N" since there wasn't a "H" and he has two "N's" in his name (HaNs JohaN Hoge)

Disneyland:

This is at the Fire Station in Disneyland (the people asked us if we were newlyweds and Hans said no, but I still feel like we are). Honestly 3yrs isn't that long.

We were waiting for the Fireworks in Disneyland to start (They make everyone stand up and then a lot of people put their kids up on their shoulders so they can see, which makes it hard for the people behind them. But at least the kids can see and we just have a partially obstructed view.)

California Adventures:

We saw the World of Color which was awesome!!!

Part of the show

Middle of Nowhere (Between California and Vegas):

This was the sunset that we had the gift of looking at while we sat in the horrible traffic getting into California with everyone else who was coming back from Vegas and then the Agriculture check too. AGH!

California Adventures:

Mr. Potato Head telling jokes while we waited to go on the awesome Toy Story ride in Cali. Adventures.

Waiting in line for Toy Story.

So Cute!!! Awwww... we got this picture for our nephew, Brock who loves this movie.

Mater

This is a thing that they use to do the animation. It spins and the figures are just a tiny bit different then the one next to it and so on... and then they use a strobe light to tie everything together. It was really cool!

Disneyland:

This is at Fantasmic... Not as cool as World of Color, but we still enjoyed it.

Buzz Lightyear talking while we were waiting to go on the Buzz Lightyear ride.

San Diego Zoo:

At the Zoo.  The camels humps were flopping all over the place. It was really weird since you know that people ride on those flopping things.... Think about it, makes a funny picture.

It was so crazy he came up righ to the window and just stared at everyone. Really cute though.

Universal Studios:

Jaws sight... We had Jaws attack us a couple of times

Me in front of Universal Studios

Hans in front of Universal Studios

Hollywood:

Went and saw the Walk of Fame before getting on the Freeway back to our hotel.

Thank goodness for our good gal pal, Joyce- our GPS (named her) we were able to find our way through the very narrow and curly, whurly, twisty, twurly streets. We were able to get some Germans to take our picture and I think they did pretty good.

Sea World:

This is Biff: He was hilarious!!! He was part of the sea lions show, Sea Lions Live

Sea Lions Live

Shamu Show. Didn't take too many pictures since we were so close to the action as you can see. : )

Shamu's wife before the show started.

Atlantis: A roller coaster ride at Sea World... really fun to go on.

Until next time... stay tuned for more of our life.

The Hoges