"Uh-oh. Car broken."

Yes, it is broken.  Darwin and I have been married for 7.5 years and we've been a 1 car family the entire time.  We've never been in an accident together, and luckily the only accidents we've ever been in have been pretty minor.

Last night we were on our way to my cousin's Eagle court of honor just a few miles away from our house, but the weather was terrible.  It had rained, and then snowed.  The roads were SLICK, and the snow was coming down HARD.  We were only about a quarter mile from our house when we slid into a curb, then up over it into a ditch.  We were stuck!  We destroyed our front passenger tire and Darwin is pretty sure we broke the front axle too, plus probably some additional under carriage damage.  Hopefully we'll find out the extent of the damage when the repair shop calls later today.  Luckily we were all okay, just a little shaken, and obviously bummed we weren't going to make it to the court of honor and that our car was now in need of a tow and repair.

Looking back on the events of last night it's kind of funny to me now that I offered to try to push us out--me, being 7+ months pregnant, in a skirt and boots, no gloves, snow still coming down, completely dark outside, offering to try to push our car over a curb.  Haha!  Comical.  Honestly though, we were EXTREMELY touched by the generous offers from 30+ strangers who stopped and offered their aid.  Unfortunately we were so stuck there was no way we'd get out of it except for a tow truck to pull us out.  We had one car after another stop and ask if we needed help.  I bet if we had all those people there at the same time they could have lifted our car out of the ditch! :) (We still wouldn't have been able to drive it though because of the extent of the damage, especially to the tire.) I had a hard time holding back tears as each person came to offer aid, and surprisingly Darwin only knew one of the people who stopped to offer their help--we were only about a quarter mile from our house so I was surprised we didn't see anyone else we knew.

It totally cracked me up that after our "accents" (how Aurora says accident) she said, "Uh-oh.  Car broken."  We couldn't help but laugh at her observance of our situation.  What a little smarty-pants!  Aurora was an angel though.  She sat so still and quiet as I called our insurance and got things arranged for the tow company to get us out and get everything else taken car of, and as Darwin talked to each person coming to offer their help.

We owe a HUGE thank-you to Papa Deming who skipped a church meeting and braved the awful weather to come rescue me and Aurora and take us home and then go back with Darwin and bring him to their house to pick up their extra car for us to use while ours is getting fixed.  We're so blessed to live so close to Gamma and Papa Deming and for all they do for us.  We love you guys!

We're also grateful for tender mercies, such as knowing we have insurance to help us pay for the damage to our car, that we actually just increased our insurance coverage back in November, and especially that none of us were hurt.  Our accident very well could have been worse than it was, but we were blessed in so many ways.

Things I've been thinking about.

I love my family.  I love when things remind me how much I love these two amazing people in my life.  Of course our family is bigger than just the three of us (really almost 5 when we count our precious little Nastassia and now Savannah who will be here soon--they are very much a part of our family too!), and we love each and every one of our extended family members.  You know who you are, and we wouldn't be who we are today without your love and influence in our lives! :)

Our family a year ago on Australia Day

Dar and I went to the temple this morning and I had the opportunity to reflect upon the importance of families.  I feel so blessed to have Darwin and Aurora in my life.  I certainly have my moments when I get frustrated (especially when Aurora won't nap!) and we definitely have our challenges, but this family that I have is what life is really all about.  They are all that truly matters in the grand scheme of things.

I am so grateful to be a mom.  I'm grateful for the challenges and the blessings that come along with it.  I am grateful to be a wife.  Darwin is truly the love of my life and my very best friend.  I am so grateful to be able to laugh and cry with him.  I am grateful that we get along so well and that we make such a great team in working out the challenges that face us every single day.  We are certainly far from perfect, but what matters most is that we are working together and encouraging each other to be our best.  Not to mention we like each other, A LOT! ;)  I am so blessed to have him in my life every single day!!

I guess what really brought this on is the preparations I've been working on as we anticipate the birth of another baby girl in our family in the next couple of months.  Also with Aurora just passing her 2nd birthday, I'm working on making a shutterfly book of her 2nd year.  It has been such a pleasure to look at the pictures from this past year, to see how much she has grown and learned, and to see how much joy we've had as a family despite it being one of our most challenging years yet.  Aurora is truly a blessing in our lives.  My heart melts when I see her smiles, hear her giggles (especially when she's playing with her Daddy), and when I'm the lucky recipient of her precious little kisses and hugs.  We love having this beautiful little person in our home!

We're coming up on 9 months (can you believe it?) since we lost our tiny little Nastassia Grace.  I think about her all the time still.  I can't help it.  I'm grateful to be able to share tender moments with Darwin as we think about and continue to yearn for this beautiful spirit we didn't have the chance to raise here in mortality.  Time has certainly helped to lessen the pain of our loss, but it still lingers, and I'm so grateful for how we've grown together from our experience with her.

We have less than 9 weeks to our due date with this pregnancy and the arrival of Savannah.  It is truly a blessing to be able to carry and bear children, and I am so grateful for the opportunity, especially when I see so many other women (and their husbands) who struggle with fertility problems but want so badly to be able to have children of their own.  My heart goes out to them, especially as we have certainly had our own challenges with having children.  It's such a miracle when a child is born into this world, especially when they come healthy!

We are extremely looking forward to meeting this little one.  She definitely seems to be more of a mover than Aurora was.  She kicks me harder more frequently and Darwin says she's probably going to be our little athlete.  I joke that she's already fighting Aurora for attention and she's not even born yet!  Haha.  Darwin laughs at my response to her strong kicks sometimes, but I can't help it!  I honestly don't remember Aurora kicking me like this.  She seems to be in the same position Aurora was for all of third trimester also.  A majority of the movement I feel is on my right side, where her feet are and despite the occasional discomfort from her kicks and movement, I honestly LOVE feeling the baby move.  It's so reassuring to know her heart is still beating and that she's healthy enough to give her Momma a good kick in the ribs every now and then.  Sometimes it feels like March 28th will never come soon enough, but I'm trying to soak in all the tender moments I still have with just Aurora and me being at home together while Daddy's at work.  Savannah will be here before we know it!

I love you, my forever family!

1.11.13 - 2 years!

I obviously posted about Aurora's birthday already but I wanted to get her stats up too.  It's nice that she doesn't need any more shots until kindergarten (except maybe the flu shot) and that we're on a yearly check-up schedule now.  Man!  When did my kid get old enough to be a kid and not a baby anymore?!

Rori's 2 year stats:

Weight: 23 lbs (8%)

Length: 34 in (63%)

At 2 years:
-Aurora is a smart little nugget.  The doctor had to make sure Aurora can say at least 20 words at her 2 year check up, but I guarantee she says over 200--I'm not even sure I could guess how many words she says now.  I stopped counting at 18 months, but this girl is a chatter box and says just about everything we do.
-She can count from 1-10.  She hasn't done it completely in order, but she can count from 1-6 and from 5-10, so I definitely think that qualifies!
-She knows most of her colors.
-She knows circles, hearts, stars, and the moon.  We're still working on the names of other shapes but I'm sure she'll have them down in no time.
-She's working on potty training and doing an amazing job!
-She drinks about a quart of soy milk every day.  Yeah, that's a lot if you're wondering.  Our doctor told us we need to cut back.
-Aurora thinks she no longer needs nap time.  It's very frustrating for me but I'm seriously ready to give up trying, although I'm not ready for her to give up her nap yet.  She's currently having "quiet time" because Mommy needs a break and she won't go to sleep.
-For some reason she gets scared really easily.  Little noises (especially when they're coming from our noisy neighbors) kind of freak her out a little bit.
-She recently learned that our first names are Darwin and Kiara.  She now calls Daddy "Dar" or "Darwin" a lot, and sometimes will call me "Kara."  It's pretty cute and funny but I'm trying to not encourage it.  She also knows her middle name is Nicole.  We're working on our last name.
-She's a Star Trek fan, thanks to Daddy.  I love watching them sing the intro together and hear her say "Space" when Captain Kirk does.  It kind of melts my heart a little bit.
-She has become extremely independent and likes to do a lot of things on her own.  It's already hard for me to sit back and let her take charge sometimes, but I'm learning :)
-She likes to be in the kitchen when I'm cooking.  Her favorite thing is to stand on a chair and watch the kitchen aid mixer go around and around.
-She has gotten really good at singing along with us when we sing a song she's familiar with.  I love to hear her little voice!
-She loves all the princesses, but Rapunzel is her favorite.
-She makes her toys give each other hugs and kisses a lot.  It's pretty cute.
-Aurora now sleeps in a toddler bed in her big girl room.  It's amazing how fast she's growing up!
-She knocks on her bedroom door when she wants to come out because she can't quite open doors yet.  I love hearing that little knock!
-She is getting very excited to be a big sister and loves to talk about "Baby Vannah" a lot.

I could go on and on about our little sweetheart, but I'll stop there for now. :)  You are welcome to visit this recent post for more on our little sugar dumpling.

Happy 2 years, baby girl!

Thanks for being our Babsie!

Birthday Celebration

Aurora woke up on her birthday to balloons in her room, all over the living room, and ribbons hanging from the light fixtures.  Dar and I were sitting at the kitchen table when she woke up and we could hear the squeaking of the balloons just before our birthday girl knocked on her bedroom door for us to let her out.  We knelt down at her door and sang "Happy Birthday" to her, followed by lots of hugs and kisses.  She was so excited about the balloons and the ribbons :)

She and I did one of our favorite morning activities--we snuggled on the couch while watching her favorite choice of movie: Tangled.  When "Punzel" was over, we got to watch most of it again because it was on TV!  Rori was excited about that and she watched while I cleaned and got a few things done.  Mostly we had a nice, relaxing day together.

When Daddy got home from work he surprised Aurora with a balloon bouquet (made extra special with a "Punzel" balloon included) and a beautiful rose for our birthday girl.  He also surprised me by bringing home a bouquet of flowers for me too, because I carried her for nine months and gave birth to her.  He's such a great husband and Daddy!

For dinner we ate one of Aurora's fav's: noodles and broccoli!  After dinner we had a small celebration with just the three of us.  We ate banana cake (which Aurora helped me make) and ice cream.  We even got "special" expensive, ice cream for the birthday girl, and of course she wasn't that interested in it. 

Please excuse the fuzzy pictures...we need to get a better camera!

While we were having our small family celebration Uncle Jared came by with a gift for Aurora--a special birthday outfit to wear for her birthday party the next day.  She loved the outfit so much she made us put it on her before bed and then had a huge fit because she wanted to wear it to bed.  We finally forced convinced her to put her jammies on :)

Wearing the adorable outfit (Thanks, McSweeney's!) before bed time and watching music videos on Dad's phone

 

We planned to take her outside to play in the snow on her birthday when Dad got home from work, but it was getting late and dark by the time he got home so we went with plan B and took her out on Saturday.  She completely surprised us by sleeping in until 9:00am, which she never does.  Aurora and Daddy shared some snuggle time after a quick breakfast to head out and play in the snow.

Our little munchkin loves to swim, but she also loves to play in the snow.  She didn't seem super thrilled to just go tubing, so she and Daddy played for a long time on the playground instead.  I gladly watched and took pictures/videos.

We made two more attempts at tubing down the hill before heading home.  I wasn't ever sure if she really enjoyed the tubing or not, but at least she has experienced it :)

After an unsuccessful attempt for a nap it was time for her small birthday party with a few close friends and Gramma and Bampa.

She helped us sing "Happy Birthday" to her and was a pro at blowing out her candles this year

After cake and ice cream she opened her presents

 

Mickey was close by to help check out her new wagon from Jimmy and Becca

 

Gramma and Bampa gave her a Little People Princess Castle so the princesses she got for Christmas have their own castle now.  This is by far her favorite gift. . . she plays with it all the time :)

 

A huge THANK YOU to everyone who came to celebrate our little one's special day, and also to all the phone calls and birthday wishes she got from those of you who couldn't be with us.  We sure are grateful to have Aurora in our family.  We love you, Baby Girl!

Happy Birthday, Princess!

Our Dear, Sweet, Aurora:

We are so very blessed and grateful to have you in our family.  These last two years have been greatly enriched by your sweet spirit and the love you bring.  We thank Heavenly Father each and every day that we have you in our lives.  Words can't express how glad we are to be your parents.  Thank you for all your sweet hugs and kisses, we just can't get enough of them!  You bring so many smiles and so much laughter to our home and we appreciate everything we've learned in the last two years since becoming your parents.  It's amazing for us to look back and see how much you've grown and how much you've learned in the last year.  You amaze us every single day and we can't wait to see what our future years with you have in store!

Happy Birthday, Princess!  WE LOVE YOU!!

Love,

Mommy and Daddy

Aurora at 1.5 weeks

Aurora just before 2 years

New is Exciting!

Change can be scary, but right now for us it's really exciting.  We've been doing a lot of rearranging, consolidating, de-junking, and organizing at our house over the last few months, all in preparation of having another little munchkin running around.  Okay, maybe she won't be "running" for a while, but who's getting technical anyway?

The biggest project we've faced was transforming our old office (I'll save you the shock, and my embarrassment, of how disastrous it always looked by not posting any "before" pictures) into Aurora's new "big girl room" so that Savannah will be able to stay in the nursery when she's done in the bassinet.

Step One:  Over Thanksgiving my main man was able to get our wireless working on our computer which we moved to our bedroom (after cramming our dresser in our closet to make room for the computer desk).  This was a necessity because our only Ethernet hook-up is in what was our office.  Annoying, but resolved.  The office has pretty much been an extra room to put all of the random things we had to go through in the meantime.
Step Two: Then, over the last two days of his Christmas break, my amazingly awesome hubby prepped and painted what was the office but is now Aurora's new bedroom!  This was super exciting for all of us and a HUGE "to-do" that we can now check off our list before Savannah comes.

Prepping the room

Rori staying occupied by watching "Finding Nemo" with Nemo :)

Ahh--the first strokes of paint!  Luckily for me I've been sick with a stuffy nose and could honestly NOT smell the paint.  I was glad about that.

Aurora wanted to be involved too but we couldn't let her roam.  Good thing she still likes to play with the exersaucer sometimes :)  She was such a sweetie and a great cheerleader.  She'd say, "Go, go, Daddy!" over and over again as he was painting.  So cute!
 
Daddy's side-kick helping out

Rori, Minnie, Mickey and "Bee-Zee" testing out positions of her new bed in her new room :)

We moved all of the toys out of our family room and into the new room.  We're ALL loving this change!

Rori's first time actually sleeping in her new bed in her new room.  She's done it 3 nights in a row now, and finally napped in there for the first time today.  Hallelujah!!!!!
 
 The new room!
We still need to add curtains and pictures to the walls and a few other final touches, but it's certainly in function mode now.  A HUGE plus!

I've been trying to introduce the new changes to Aurora in stages so it doesn't all happen at once when Savannah's born.  So far, so good!  I'm glad my plan is working, but it wouldn't be a success without my 100% supportive and ever encouraging husband.  Love you, Bunches!  You're the best!!!

Get Aurora weaned from binky.  Check!
Get Aurora into new room and sleeping in "big girl bed".  Check!
Slowly start working on potty training (not a must-do before the baby comes).  Check!  And she's doing it mostly on her own--we're making great progress!

Yay for these new changes and our third trimester count down!

We can't wait to meet you, baby Savannah!