Delayed Pictures

There are several pictures that I have been promising to put up on here for a couple months now and so now I am trying to make up for that. I am still missing a few of the halloween ones but this is as good as I do right now.

This is the quilt that my mother in law Julie Browning and my grandmother Joann Adair made for Clif and I. It is really neat, I like it a lot!!

I was working hard yesterday and came home for lunch to find Clif washing my pile of built of dishes that I have been neglecting and also on the table was this plant. Clif doesn't like buying flowers since they just die so I told him that he could always just buy me a live plant so he apparently took my advice. It is a kind of cactus and the flowers are really pretty, he also got me a card to go with the flowers but I will keep that part to myself :)! He is sweet and it really cheered me up since I have been super stressed lately!

This is our Christmas tree this year with the penguin decorations that I made for Clif last year for christmas. It turned out pretty cute and fewer penguins have fallen off so far than i expected. From a distance it almost appears as if we toilet papered our tree but they are supposed to be skiing slopes so make sure your imagination is working :)!

This was the sunset the evening we finally found our tree up around Green's Peak. It kinda looked to me almost like the orange clouds were flames behind the hills. It was really pretty even if my pictures don't do it justice.

And finally some pics from my halloween party almost two month ago. I decorated the doors in my house so that my nieces and nephews in town could come over and go trick or treating inside where it was warm. The adults seemed to have just as much fun as the kids so I guess it was a success!

Tashia was behind the mummy door.

Allen was behind the ghost door.

My mom was behind the pumpkin door.

Bryce was behind the spider door.

Daryl was behind the witch door. I like he was wanting to hang out in my pantry more that he was really wanting to be a witch :) hehe!

Clif was behind the monster door dressed in his traditional gorilla costume which doesn't always go over so well with some of the smallest kids but no one got eaten by the monster!

I have more pics of the food and people and stuff but they are on Clif's camera and he keeps it with him all day so I haven't gotten them yet.

The night before the party ashlyn amie and affie slept over at my house and then in the morning they helped me with a few things for the party. Their cupcake decorating was messy but fun. and next time if I use black frosting affie is wearing a bib, she got it everywhere!

Christmas Time

I have been excited and waiting impatiently for christmas ever since the beginning of October, not really sure why, I have never had christmas fever come over me this bad before. It's nice that it is here but I am having a hard time trying to relax and enjoy it. : ( Clif and I put up our christmas tree :) it only took us two days to find one we liked on the mountain. I am thinking it is a combination of our pickiness, my inexperience, and clif wanting to explore dirt roads on the mountains rather than look for a tree. Anyway, we found one we could live with. Last christmas I had made clif 30 skiing penguins ornaments so we were both excited to put them on our tree this year. They don't hang, they actually just sit on ski slopes made of cotton batting so, DON'T BUMP THE TREE!!! :) (this of course means that we might not get to use them again next year since we will have a nine month old rolling and crawling around the house). I will get pictures up of it soon, I know that is what I always say but I really will, just having trouble lately getting around to getting pictures off my camera. I also decorated a small tree that I had with me during my college years. I mostly put it up to entertain my two year old niece I was babysitting. She had a cold and was not happy to not be with mommy for four hours so I had to be creative in entertaining her. Decorating my own house has been kind of fun even though I only have limited decorations that I have collected in my life.
Well, that is the unstressful parts of christmas. I have been decently busy designing and printing christmas cards which usually wouldn't be bad, I like designing and printing is ok but there are always all the little problems that show up here and there. Like my moniter dying at the print office, or my computer at home deciding to show symptons of dying and having only a month or two to live, or ink cartridges being bad and ruining my pictures, or ... never mind, I am sure you get my point. All things I just have to work around, without them everything would be too easy, RIGHT??
Also a little stressed about some presents I am still working on making for christmas along with getting visiting teaching done without all sorts of problems getting in the way and trying to be comfortable and brave enough to participate in our ward christmas party as Mary (with speaking parts, there is a reason I never did drama events). Well, I am just going to live for the week around christmas when hopefully I won't be working, my projects will be done and I can thoroughly enjoy family!!

Finally!!

I am having a BOY!!!! kinda weird since I am so used to girls in my life but I am really excited as is Clif. Our baby is very healthy and actually a few days ahead of schedule on his growth. It was so fun getting to see his little face, arms, fingers, legs, toes, etc... I can't wait!!! I am calling him WC for the time being since we have three possible names now that we are working through and may end not picking any of them, who knows: William Cort, Warren Cort, William Clif. Clif let me buy some baby clothes since I have been wanting to buy something for forever but wanted to wait till I knew what it was. We bought him three little sleepers, and I think Clif enjoyed picking them out as much as me even though he would deny it. Anyway, that's about it. I am just so happy to have a baby coming, I feel special to be going through all this and being able to feel closer and closer to my son. He is already so special to me that it kind of scares me. I hope I have what it takes to be a good mom to him. I love him!

I love his toes in this one

one finger up, he know's he is number one I guess!

Traditionaly face shot, not always the most attractive but still special!

3D Face, he looked like he was sucking his thumb right before this was taken!

awww! Hard to believe he is really mine!

Tomorrow

Tomorrow I will (hopefully) officially know if I am going to be a mommy or a daddy. Or in other words if I am going to have a baby boy or a baby girl in March! I am so excited its crazy, never thought I would be so excited! I don't have a preference, I will take either gender with a happy heart. Clif is hoping for a boy!! but he would love a girl too, even if he teases otherwise!

Pain!

Sunday I went to church and was enjoying since the previous week Clif and I had had to speak, so we were a lot more relaxed this time. In the beginning of Relief Society I started to feel a slight pain in my tummy area so I ignored it like I do a lot. After fifteen minutes I couldn't ignore it anymore, I figured that my nylons were just getting uncomfortable so I snuck out and went to the bathroom to rearrange a few things (some of you know how nylons can be the most annoying things ever). I went back and the pain didn't go away. When leaving church and on the way home I was starting to think that maybe it was heartburn since I was pregnant and that is a symptom of pregnancy. I got home and had clif run to Allen's house to borrow some tums. I took three and it never made a difference. Two hours after church I was still hurting and hurting bad, it was all in the very top of my tummy just below my ribs so I wasn't really worried about the baby. By this point I couldn't handle it, I wasn't getting any relief and it hurt. I cried and Clif didn't know what to do but kept giving me things that we thought might help. After trying one thing I rushed to the bathroom and threw up over and over and over. When I got up I was shaky, hot, cold, dizzy, and still in a lot of pain. I told clif that my temperature had to be wacky and suggested we go to holly and allen's again to take my temperature. We got there and I was crying most of the time (my nieces were confused and sweet affie kept coming to me and giving me pretty smiles to cheer my up). We took my temperature and blood pressure. Temperature was 94.7 and I can't remember the blood pressure. I threw up again there. Clif tried calling doctor Tindal, my OB doctor but he was out of town so we talked to Doctor Connolly another OB Doctor and he said it was most likely a bad flu or gal bladder and that to be safe we should probably go to the hospital. Clif and Allen gave me a blessing and then we headed to the ER. I just wanted the pain to go away so I hoped this would be the best choice for that to happen soon but I was out of luck. We got there and they had us fill out a small amount of paperwork, took me to a room, asked me what was wrong, and had me change into a gown. Then they took my blood pressure, temperature, blood sample (which apparrently they let me bleed on the floor since clif has a pic on his phone of blood all over the floor below my arm), put an IV in, and wrapped me in lots of blankets since I was really cold to them. They also checked the baby's heart beat which was just fine. It came time for the shift to end so we had to wait for the switch to change. The new nurses came and checked everything all over again. Eventually, an hour and a half after being there and five hours since having the pain, one of the nurses asked how I was doing and I told that I was still hurting a lot. She came back with a small amout of morphine, I was just so happy that they finally were going to try and help me feel better that I didn't really think about that they were giving me morphine, a thing I would have usually thought was used for bigger things that what I was going through. It took a few minutes but they pain lessened, but never went away completely, it also made it easier for me to close my eyes and rest which was nice, I didn't sleep, just rested some. After being there for two hours they came back after looking at my blood and urine and said it was indeed gal bladder causing the pain. They gave me a little more morphine and told me when I felt well enough I could go home. I was tired enough wanting to sleep but there bed wasn't letting me that I didn't wait long. After being there for three hours Clif helped me dress and walk to the car. They sent a pain killer (less than morphine :) ) and a perscription to get an ultrasound done the next day. I got home, Clif insisted I eat something and had a hard time getting me to eat much since I kept dozing off. I finally got a little salad and an entire apple down and he let me sleep. It just felt so good to not be in such bad pain anymore that I didn't care that I still hurt a little bit, I just slept. The next morning my tummy area was sore, like it had been run over by a car or something (maybe from the throwing up, I am not sure). I ate a handful of cheerios before I got a call from Clif saying I had to fast from then till four when he had scheduled my ultrasound. I was beginning to miss food. We did the ultrasound and I do have gal stones in my gal bladder. We still haven't had any one really tell us what to do about it besides be careful what I eat. I am watching the fat and off dairy products for awhile (I hate that, the dairy part). Clif found some herbs that are supposed to help dissolve gal stones and improve the gal bladder so we want to try some of that to hopefully help. Tuesday I was even more sore than monday, I walk hunched over cuz it hurts most to stand. Today, I am sore still but not as bad. The baby seems to have not minded any of this at all, still moving around like crazy.

New Truck

Since Clif switched jobs he had to give up Dalilia, his big blue, noisy, dodge pickup (I have a lot of memories from dating days in that truck, sniff, sniff). Anyway, we went to Hatch Toyota in Show Low to find something that wasn't really expensive but enough to satisfy our few truck needs. They had a white toyota tundra that we signed paper work on and came home with. A few days later we had to take it back since they couldn't get it financed. ARG!!! So we blue booked it and found out that no one would finance it because they were trying to sell it for 190% of it's value!!! So Clif took it back, had a few words with Chaz himself (that annoying voice on that radio that we all have to listen to more than we listen to music) which Chaz wasn't very professional about it at all and lets just say we will never go back to that dealership again!!!!
Don't worry there is a happy ending, we found a guy in New Mexico that had a nicer toyota tundra that was still in our budget. We got it financed ourselves, drove to his ranch (very pretty place), looked at it and brought it home to keep. They Rancher was reluctant to give it up because he had like it so much but was needing something bigger so we feel good about it since the previous owner took care of it and had really liked it. It is a Toyota Tundra 2002 maroon color, not that fullest back cab area but it does have a back seat that is big enough for kids and will fit adult if needed!! I will have to wait on posting a picture of it also since I don't have one one my computer yet!

Halloween Party!

All October I planned and planned and planned and on Halloween, I hosted my first Halloween party! I went pretty well, my parents, clif's parents, Holly, Allen, their three girls, Keara, Daryl, Tashia, Bryce, and Caleb all came. I made some fun foods and put together some games and I think everyone had fun. I have some pictures but I will have to add them later since they are all on Clif's camera and I never know where he has stashed it.

Baby Appointment

So last week I finally went to see the doctor. Clif went with me over to Show Low to see doctor Tindall. We got there and filled out paperwork. After waiting only twenty minutes we were called back. A nurse weighed me, I haven't gained any weight since being pregnant. She took us to a room, had me "fill a cup", checked my blood pressure (all was good), gave me a tb something skin test to check for tuberculosous (or however that is spelled, results were negative), and let us hear the baby's heart beat (162). She then took us to the doctors office so he could talk to us about the pregnancy. We waited about fifteen minutes for him to come in. He told us about future visits and procedures, reassured us that we can call him at two in the morning if we need to, and that this baby was important to him. He then took us back the room we were in before, he listened to my heartbeat and checked my reflexes. He also measured my tummy (all was good). The doctor left and the dreaded lady came in. I had to have blood tests done of course but I had never had my blood drawn before so I was a bit nervous. The lady was real nice though and only had to poke me once and it didn't hurt, I thought I was good :). I hadn't thought about anything after the needle, but I soon learned. She told me to let her know if I felt like fainting, well, I felt ok, and then a little dizzy and then a little more dizzy. I told her so and she had Clif stand on the other side of me and hold my and and touch my face to keep me coherent (I think). He did but it kept getting worse and I was starting to wonder how much longer it was going to take and if I would actually manage to stay awake the whole time. Just as it got pretty bad, she finished up and I the dizzyness started to fade slowly, whew!!!! Afterwards Clif informed me that it was entertaining to watch since my face went completely white, my pupils were so large that you couldn't see the blue in my eyes anymore and apparently my speech slowed quite a bit. Haha so funny for him, not really for me! But I didn't faint, YEAH!!!!! I think it would have gone a lot better if I had eaten something within the past 6 hours. I will remember that for next time. Last of all we got a date scheduled for our ultrasound where we find out what we are having, November 19!!!! Anyway, that was all, we left the doctors office once I was stable enough to walk without falling over. Clif took me to get something to eat and I felt a lot better.

Since then.....

I keep getting these spasm/gurgling feelings in my abdomen. I dismissed them at first but it keeps happening and during the past few days I have been paying attention to when they happen and it is almost always after I eat something. I think that means Junior Browning is big enough that moving no longer goes unnoticed by mommy! It isn't exactly what I was imagining, since everyone says its a fluttering but mine is a big enough flutter that it usually causes me to jump slightly when it happens (I am only 19 weeks so it came earlier than I thought it would too).
Besides that nothing super cool to report. I am enjoying feeling better (less tired and less sick)! I have a tiny tummy poking out but not much at all yet.

I wrote my whole last long post without really getting to the point I wanted to make, I think. I am feeling better, I have days where I can eat pretty well, I don't have stomach aches as much and I am not as tired. It is nice!! I even fell asleep fast last night, just like I used to do all the time before I was pregnant!!

random pics

She did score, didn't want to leave you hanging!

The last few weeks have been scattered with the kids of days that I was beginning to forget existed. The kind of days were I don't want to gag whenever I smell something or eat something. The kind of days where I don't feel completely drained of energy and want to just sit on the couch all day long. The kind of days where I am ok one minute and the next I am crying and completely puzzling my husband with the fast mood swing. The few scattered days when I have felt better are a blessing indeed and very much appreciated. I am not used to having so little energy that simply getting up and getting dressed wears me out. It's been frustrating, but not so bad that I didn't survive! : ) Anyway, I am feeling better which is good since I am out of the first trimester now at fifteen weeks. The whole thing is still somewhat unreal to me since the only thing I have to show for being pregnant so far is a lot of stomach aches, backaches, and tiredness. Still waiting for other proof to show up eventually. I am getting a little impatient wanting to know if its a girl or a boy but there isn't a whole lot I can do about that right now.

Clif is in a frustrating time trying to switch jobs but the process in between keeps on throwing more and more delays at us that have been discouraging. We are working on it though and hope it will work out sooner rather than later. Besides work he has been a busy body (and usually brings me along despite my inability to be alot of help). He has been preserving the fruits of his first garden by bottling and canning anything and everything he can. It doesn't stop with our garden though, he has been bottling apples from around town and peaches that we bought. Our food storage is looking quite cool if I do say so myself. The fun part about all this canning is that we have been able to do it with family, Allen and Holly have done a lot with us and his parents and sister Keara have joined in at times too! Bottling isn't Clif's only hobby lately, the elk are bugling (did I spell that right? oh well) so he has been practising at home and giving himself headaches : )! Last weekend he got to go on a horseride with his family on Escadia ( I dont' know if I spelled that right either) and took a lot of nice pictures, found an elk horn, and had a good time. On top of all this he is so sweet and makes me dinner most nights and remembers to take me on a date every friday night.
My days aren't terribly exciting since I have been feeling less than good for awhile. I get to babysit my nieces often which I enjoy. I got to babysit my nephew caleb for a few day recently also which was nice since I don't spend a lot of time with him ever. I do a little of design work here and there for wedding announcements, invitations, and photography. I have been working on a homemade christmas gift for my sister which has been slow but good. I clean a little here an there when I feel good and have found that I am happiest when I can clean at least something each day since then I feel like I actually accomplished something. Yeah!! Thats about it besides trying to help Clif with all his projects! I at least watch and keep him company which he assures me is plenty of help.
I will try and dig up the few picture I may have to post from recent things but don't get too excited since that is an area that has sadly been neglected lately.

So Far....

Well, I am definitely pregnant! Got it confirmed at a clinic and scheduled a free eight week ultra sound which will be next week on the 20th. It is also confirmed by nausea, tiredness, and several other things that I won't mention. Now that I have started into the nausea part I am impatient for it to be over. I still have several weeks of it. I haven't thrown up at all which I am grateful for, my diet has just become very selective. Fruits are wonderful, so are crackers.

Spreading like Wildfire!!

So, it's going around Eagar pretty fast and has even reached farther than that here and there. I suppose I should just make it official on here. Last Wednesday I found out that Clif and I are pregnant! We are both pretty excited! I am not very far along yet so I am still safe from morning sickness and such at the moment. According to my sisters' predictions I am due around the first of april!

Ashlyn and Affie

Ashlyn is know for being pretty silly in pictures usually. I took a bunch of her while we were camping, you can't tell she was filthy can you? :) !!! Anyway, there were severalthat were quite somber or peaceful looking and I wanted to put them together for fun!

Affie liked these yellow flowers. I thought it was an intersting group of portraits of her. Just don't pay too much attention to the obvious fact that she didn't have a mother around at the time. Daddy doesn't do Hair!

Steven Heap Camping Reunion

Clif, Allen, Ashlyn, Amie, Affie and I found a friend while at the Big Lake Dam. Actually she wasn't much of a friend, she and her baby were darting around in the rocks and once we started watching them she got a little mad and started hissing at us and darting all around. We think she is a weasle. It was fun to watch her though, I had a lot of pictures on my camera that had nothing in them since she was moving around so fast, faster than my camera could take a picture. :)

On our drive we were looking for wild raspberries but they aren't out yet. We stopped at this meadow with a bunch of wildflowers, I love wild flowers!!

During our raspberry hike, Clif headed down a steep hillside to take some pictures meanwhile Allen, the girls and I took a rest in the shade. Ashie and Amie got adventurous and climbed their own steep hillside, on the way down they sent enough big rocks flying that Allen, Clif and I would have been killed if we hadn't gotten up from our sitting position at the bottom of the hill. :)

Traditional Chicken Foot game amoung the Steven Heap Family. The boys were scobing us girls.

Cousins

Lunch and swimming pools after the parade!

Clif, Allen, Daddy Heap (Mom, Wendi, and Holly went inside before I got the pic)
Warming up after playing in cold water...

Ashlyn was twirling and the falling over...

Amie jumping in...

For the Utah Heaps, Smiths, and Harts!!

This isn't the whole parade but its some of the highlights

for my siblings that weren't able to come home!

Miss Liberty made an appearance...

Browning kids in the street waiting for candy...

Sprucedale Ranch had a train...

Not sure whose this was but I thought it was cool... Clif's Class Reunion Float... (he was not on it)

2nd Ward's float!

P.S. We missed you tons Jacob, Lisa, Brandon, Nathan, Jacob, Karen, Melanie, and Scott!!!