Oh No! Shots!

Yesterday was one of the worst days of my life! OK, maybe I am being a little dramatic, but it sure felt like it at times! Yesterday was Paige's two month doctors appointment, and that mean immunization shots! Gasp! Her previous two doctors visits I went alone, Jared had to work, but I made him come to this one because I didn't know what to expect, and mostly because I knew I would need moral support.
We got to the doctors and Paige was a little fussy but not bad, I think she knew what was coming lol jk. When we got back in the room everything was fine and normal. They weighed her (12lbs 5oz), measured her (23 1/4inches), checked her heart, ears, lungs, etc..... the norm. Then the two nurses came in. This is where the traumatizing part started. They made her drink a vaccine. that wasn't too bad, Paige just started fussing towards the end. Then they pinned her down, counted to three, and shot her poor little legs up! Three shots!! Paige was screaming my this point, and I wanted to cry. My baby was hurting and I could not do anything to stop it, in fact, I brought her here for that exact purpose. Oh I felt so bad!
After the shots I was just holding her and wanting to cry (but I didn't mind you). Jared was trying to get us out of the doctors and back home, but I could not put Paige in her car seat! I felt like I was abandoning her! (drama queen, I know). Jared pointed out that I was more traumatized that Paige was, because by that point Paige was fine and calm. I put her in her seat and took her home and Jared went back to work (and would not get home until 11pm).
When home thats where the drama for Paige began. She went down for a nap, and when she woke up she would not stop crying. Screaming for that matter. I tried EVERYTHING I knew and she would not stop!! Change diaper, feeding, medicine, holding, rocking, etc. I eventually put her in her crib and called my Mom crying. I was completely overwhelmed, my baby had been screaming/crying for the last 45 mins and there was NOTHING I could do about it! My Mom helped calm me down and explained that immunizations make babies sick, so Paige was crying because her little legs hurt and she felt like crap. I could understand that. And she also suggested putting Paige in a warm bath (because she REALLY LOVES baths) to see if that would get her to stop crying. I tried that. Paige stopped crying for about 4 mins, and then it started up again. By this point I had been calmed down (HUGE thanks to my Mom) so I felt a new wave of energy that I could help Paige thru the crying. I sat down with her and just cuddled her. She screamed for about 15mins more and then fell asleep in my arms. HALLELUJAH!!
After her long nap (2 hours) in my arms she was better. Not back to her normal self, but not having a huge breakdown. We made it thru the first shots!! Wahoo! And now to look forward to doing it all again in 2 months. Oh joys. haha

Happy Father's Day!

Today is Jared's first Fathers Day as a father!! I think I am more excited than he is. => I wanted to do something special for him, so i decided to make him a nice cake (Jared doesn't like presents, mainly to spend money on presents, so I have to think of other ways to celebrate. & he can't get upset for me cooking haha. So a cooking treat it is!)

On one of my craft blogs I am addicted to they have a lady come and teach something about cake decorating each week. I have been reading and learning, so I figured I was up for the task of making a four layer fondant cake. The first step was to make the layers. Check. Second was to freeze them for at least 24hrs (make them not as crumply and easier to manage/frost). Check. Then I was supposed to stack them and frost them. I didnt even out the cake layers before I froze them, figuring it would be cleaner to cut a frozen cake than a warm one. BIG MISTAKE! Frozen cakes are HARD (who would have thought?) So I had to put even more force to cut the cake, and ended up slicing my finger pretty bad. Luckily Paige was asleep. So I cleaned the cut as best I could and got a paper towel to put pressure on it. After 10 mins I had soaked 1 1/2 paper towels in blood. I was getting nervous, so I called Jared and told him to come home. 20 mins after I cut my finger it was still bleeding. Jared got home and examined and cleaned it. Needless to say I was a little handicapped in the cake decorating department. While I was waiting for Jared to get home I finished dirty icing the cake (luckily I cut my non-dominant hand), but there was no way on earth I was going to make and mold fondant now. And Jared really wanted to eat the cake, so I let him. No more cutting frozen cake for me =>

As for Jared being a father...
His little girl just LOVES him! I can not believe how much of a Daddy's girl she already is! Whenever she hears him talk she will look around and turn her little body until she can see him and then she just stares. (She only does that for me when she is hungry, figures haha) And he can always make her smile!
And he is such a good Dad too! He loves taking care of her! He even changes diapers willingly, watches her when I need more sleep or to get out of the house, and anythign and everythign else needed to take care of a baby! And he never complains!
When I cut my finger yesterday Paige desprately needed a bath (her spit up got EVERYWHERE!) and Jared jumped right in and did it! He is such a dream! => Side note, Paige LOVES the bath! She will just lay there so calm and peaceful, and she is even starting to smile in it now! What she does not like is putting clothes back on. haha

This is Jared and Paige on their first Father's Day! You can often find them just chilling like this! They love eachother so much!!

And what kind of blogger mom would I be if I didn't post more pictures of Paige for her Grandmas (and anyone else who likes to see) => We took some pictures of Paige today to send to her Grandpas for Fathers Day, so that is what they are from.

Paige's little legs are getting so strong! She can hold herself up in a standing position for a couple seconds (i think 45 is her max) All we have to do is help her with balance! What an impressive trick at 5 1/2 weeks old!
She really does like to stand. She gets so frustrated sometimes and the ways to calm her down is to either stand her up or switch her around so she can see everything (social and curious baby)

I really need to hone my camera speed to be able to catch her smiling. This is the tail end of her smile, and its the onyl shot I got of her smiling spree. She went on smiling for about 10 mins and I either would not have the camera in my hands or had just taken a picture and it was loading. One of these days I will get a picture of her great, oh so adorable smile!
HAPPY FIRST FATHER"S DAY JARED!!!!

New Year Festivities

I forgot I did not write about our new year festivities, and I suppose now is as good of time as any.

As any good celebration party should have, we got a cookie cake from the Cookie Co. That place is so good to us! We asked for extra icing (because thats the best part) and they gave us a good amount! And my Mom had to show it off like Vana White. =>
The giant cookie was not our ony food. Our whole breakfast table was covered with delicious snacks! I took this picture about halfway thru the getting out food process. We later took al the paper goods off the table and replaced it with more food, which is of course, the best part of parties. =>
While waiting for the big moment we played charades, watched a movie, chatted, then finally it came! The ball dropped and poppers were popping.
Happy New Year!! Welcome 2010! => I like that in the picture of my family I caught my Mom and Dad going for their New Years Kiss, and Jared and I have a picture of our New Years kiss! Oh so romantic! =>
January first the fam went to see Avatar in 3d. Jared has taken some of the boys to watch it earlier in the week and they loved it, so we figured it was worth it, and it would be cool to see in 3d. And for some reason in this picture I look totally fat pregnant. I find it kind of depressing, but I guess such is life. There are flattering pictures and not, this is the latter. But is was a good movie, and worth it =>
After the movie we dropped Kalyn off at home (she was feeling under the weather) and the rest of us went to eat at Tommys! JAred had never been there before, and of course my Dad could not pass up the opportunity to educate his son-in-law on the finer foods in life. => We were going to go to the original one, in downtown LA, but it was too far away and my Mom was nervous about taking all the boys down there, so we settled for the closer one.
Look at all that delicious, greasy, chilie filled food! Yumm!! The little boys were excited to be there, its like better than McDonalds for them, because they only get to go once in a blue moon.

My Dad was entirely too excited to be there and eating this food. Jared liked it, he said it was very good. And this picture catches Jared enjoying his food/chuckiling at my Dad raving about it, and my Dad bursting with satisfaction and joy. haha Priceless.
The next day was Kalyn's little incident. She fainted int he bathroom, hit her head on the floor, and then couldn't feel or use her arms/hands. Jared was down the hall and saw the whole thing pan out, got to her right as she was making contact with the ground. He and my Dad gave her a blessign and then the paramedics came. They were really nice and calm men. What a blessing they are! They put Kalyn in all this gear then on a stretcher and out to the ambulence.
It was a cool sight to see the fire engine, paramedic truck, and ambulence in front of our house. Mom rode in the front of the ambulence to the hospital and Dad drove his car and followed them. After all the hospital tests and stuff Kalyn was released, and now she is all better and partying in London!

After we found out Kalyn would be ok and my Dad came back to get the boys Jared and I headed back to Utah to start the other exciting phase of this year, his surgery. Yep, all this excitement within a week. What a week. haha But hey, we can say that 2010 definately started off with a unique bang =>

He is Amazing

It has been six days since Jared had his mouth cut up. And let me tell you, those six days have been one heck of a roller coaster. From Monday to Friday the most sleep I ever got in one night was 3 hours, and the least sleep I got was 45 minutes. I kid you not! Needless to say I was exhausted! Jared got that much sleep too, but he took naps during the day. I couldn't, I was at work. So its no suprise when my body tries to give up and catch a cold, but I will not let it! Health will prevail!

As for Jared, it really depends on the time of day whether he is feeling good or crappy. Sometimes he is up and moving around, getting food and medicine himself, and others he is just able to hang in there. The recovery time period for this surgery is 3 months until he is "almost normal", so in all reality more than three months. Adn the worst it is supposed to be is in the first 2 1/2 to 3 weeks. So, he is right in the thick of it, but doing temendously.

He never ceases to amaze me, and having this surgery is no different. Yes there are moments when he wishes he never did it, or when he is having a hard time, but those can be expected and they are few and far between. He is so strong about it all. He tries very hard to not be so dependant on everyone, and even to help. Even what he has to do becaue of the surgery is amazing. He has to learn how to function his mouth. And that is no small task. He needs to learn how to move his mouth to talk (although that is later in the recovery process), how to chew (also later), and he needs to teach himself how to swallow. Teaching yourself how to swallow is what amazes me the most! No one has to naturally do that! You naturally have to learn how to walk, talk, ride a bike, etc, but you come out of the womb knowing how to swallow. You even swallow in the womb from 20 weeks. I am just amazed that he is teaching himself something that should be natural and instinctive. Just thinking about al the times I swallow, and everything that goes into it makes me exhausted. Swallowing is hard work. And if swallowing with a whole new, and swollen mouth is not difficult enough, the only thing Jared can feel is his tounge. (because they stretched out the nerves in the surgery they will stay numb for at least 2 weeks, most likely months)His jaw, cheeks, and lips are all numb.

Ok, I will continue raving how amazing my husband is another time. Now its time for pictures! =>

This is Jared before the surgery, just waiting to be rolled up. He is trying to pretend that he is out of commission and all sick, but he had no idea what was coming to him. haha
This is the day of surgery, a couple hours after the surgery was finished.This is Tuesday, the day after surgery. He has swollen a lot in this picture, but he is even more swollen now. We do take a picture at least once a day to track the swelling and de swelling progress, I just have not uploaded the most recent ones to my computer yet. But I can describe him. I will quote from his surgeon "He will look like a Who from the Grinch, with sausage lips". Yep, I think that is pretty accurate. But also add that his eyes will swell to little slivers, not even close to the big eyes he has in the last picture.

That is our little update. To summaraize, we are still alive and fighting thru this recovery process. =>

Starting Off the New Year.... Right...?

This year has been an eventful one. Yes, I know it has only been four days long, but those four days have been full of interesting events.

It started off on January 2nd when Kalyn had her little "event". She started feeling sick on the first, with just the thing going around (sore throat and cough). Then on the morning of the second she threw up, and shortly after she fainted. A whole full on faint while standing up and brushing her teeth. She fell in the bathroom and hit her head on the floor and was unconscious (for about 45 seconds) Jared was walking down the hall (we were leaving that moment) and saw the whole thing and was able to catch her hands as she was falling. So 911 was called, while we waited Dad and Jared gave her a blessing, they came, started doing their little tests on Kalyn, and she could not move or feel her arms and hands. They took her to the hospital in an ambulance and did a CAT scan and all other sorts of tests. By the time the doctors were done with their tests Kalyn had regained the use and feeling in her arms and hands, and they sent her home. What a great manifestation of the power of the priesthood!!

That was hospital encounter number one.

Hospital encounter number two came somewhat voluntarily (I was not willing, Jared was). It is for Jared's jaw surgery. This is the surgery all doctors had been telling Jared he needed to have since he was like 5 years old. To shortly and briefly sum up the purpose of the surgery: one side of Jared's lower jaw grew longer than the other, so they had to cut both sides of his lower jaw and move it back, then cut both sides of his top jaw and move it forward. This procedure could not be done until now because the doctors had to be sure Jared had stopped growing and get his mouth properly set up for it.
This surgery took place today. That is where I currently am, in the hospital. Jared's mom came down on Sunday and is going to stay for the week to help look after Jared. All three of us got to the hospital at 6:00am and started all the pre-surgery stuff. They began Jared's surgery at 8:30am. I had to leave then and go to work but Karen was able to stay at the hospital and be here when Jared got out. His surgery finished around 1:00pm (yes a 4 1/2 hour surgery) I came back to the hospital after work (around 3:30pm) and he was just coming out of the anesthesia.

The surgery went well. Jared's jaw did not crack so they did not have to wire his mouth shut, which is a huge relief. And Jared did not die on the table (what I was so scared for) and that is an even bigger relief! Now it is just the long recovery process. He is not going to be able to chew anything for at least six weeks, which means all liquid meals. The doctor said that the surgery will significantly change his appearance (no joke, moving his whole bottom half of his face around), but in addition to that his face should be swollen to almost the point of nonrecognition for the first two weeks. After that the doctor said he will still be swollen and look like a Who from the Grinch. And to fully get to normal should take at least three months, most likely more.

I don't know how I feel about that. I love Jared so much, and I hate seeing him uncomfortable or in pain. And believe you me, he is in a lot of pain right now, and I can't do anything about it. It is driving me crazy!! I just want to make him all better! But I can't. All I can do is sit and watch, and aid in any minute way I can. But I also know that this surgery needed to be done, and we are greatly blessed to have the opportunity and ability to have it done now. This will be a good lesson of patience, hopefully I can learn to have some so I only have to go thru it once haha. And I know both Jared and I will learn to rely on our Father in Heaven even more, for He is the only one who can truly do anything to help.
I am grateful for the opportunity and ability Jared had to get this surgery done. And I am glad he will have a better and easier time because of it. I am especially thankful that the surgery went well and that Jared is alive. And I am so thankful and indebted to my Father in Heaven for all He has done for me and my family. And even though this year started out with two dramatic hospital trips I hope its not an indication that this is how the whole year will go. I am shooting for just one more visit to a hospital (in May to get my baby out of me) and then not to be back for a looooong time. => So here is to a Happy New year, and to its very interesting start! =>

Sensitive Skin VS Hypo Allergenic

I have ultra sensitive skin, thats no secret nor is it a new thing. I have to be super careful on what I put on it. No scented lotions bodywashes ect, only certain kinds of perfumes and hair sprays, limited kinds of chapstick and lotion, etc..... trust me the list goes on and on. And there is not one ingredient that I have to stay away from, its a plethora of things, which basically means I find out what I am allergic to by trial and error. For most major things (lotion, make up, shampoo, bodywash) I have found some that work with me and not against me. But I have not found any lip gloss that works with me. All I can wear is the vasaline and the plain chapstick brand chapstick. This drives me crazy!


I love lip glosses and feel so pretty when I wear them. So last week I was at Target restocking on my makeup and I saw this "hypo-allergenic" lip gloss in the perfect color! I read the ingredient (like that would help, but it made me feel better) and it was 98.5% all natural ingredients (it was advertised on the pouch it came in) I thought this could be my momentous occasion, to finally have a lipgloss that I could wear! So I bought it, brought it home and couldn't wait for Sunday so I could try it out and look drop dead gorgeous for Jared!


Well Sunday came around, I got ready and put on my lipgloss. I looked good! => It was just one of those days when you know you look good and its a major confidence booster. That night Jared had some friends come over for dinner. That went great but my lips were starting to be irritated just a little. Like a faint burn/itching sensation. I didn't think much of it because as soon as I started eating it went away. But as the guests all left I began to notice it more. I still didn't think it was an allergic reaction but I knew the lips were not happy with me. So I put on my lip medicine and went to bed.

The next morning I woke up with swollen lips that just burned. Thats when Jared and I decided the "hypo-allergenic" lipgloss was a fake, and it should be called hypER allergenic. This was one of the worst reactions my lips have had in a long time. But I just put more lip medicine on and went to work.

I took this picture at work because my lips were burning so bad I wanted to see if ther was an outward physical sign of the burning. Yes I half expected fire or something. But there wasn't, and this picture you can see the swollen lips. (yes htta night we went to the basketball game and you can see my bigger than normal lips in that picture too)

This is where the story gets gross, so I will omit details. just know that when I got home that night and went to bed my lips were still burning like all get out and puffy. I hardly got a good nights sleep because my lips had swollen as big as they could go, but apparently wanted to swell more, so they started making little puss bubbles that would leak. So when I woke up for work the next morning with HUGE lips that were burning and stinging (basically hurting like the dickens), and crap coming out occasionally, Jared and I decided it would be a wise thing for me to stay home and go to the doctors to see what I can and can't (can't because I am pregnant) do for this. The doctor gave me some pills to take, told me to keep putting the medicine on my lips and that I would have to "tough it out" until my body got through this little reaction. (and at the doctors is where we found out that puss was happening because it could not swell up anymore)

I did not want to take a picture of it because trust me, it was gross. But just imagine the picture above but with double the lip size. No joke! Jared nicknamed me Alyssa-lina Jolie. And now, a week later my lips are back to normal size but still not completely healed. Moral of this story: Alyssa has dumb sensitive skin and hypo-allergenic stuff does NOT get along with it! And hypo-allergenic stuff is sometimes hyper-allergenic.

Hazards of Working at a Pest Control Company

At work, there are these rat traps just chillin on some peoples desks. They are not loaded or set, they are there for the people to play with. Well yesterday one of these was on my desk. I was super tired that day, so not really paying attention to what was around me. Like half way thru the day I notice that one of those traps is sitting on my desk, and I had never played with it before, so i decided to open it and see what the big deal was. I open it a little, but then couldnt keep it open because it was too strong, so smart me, I stick my left hand in the mouth of it to see if I could open it with both hands. Well it slowly closed on my left thumb, which hurt quite a bit. I think I had an adrenaline rush or something because I opened it all the way to where it set and then I set it on my desk, because I was done playing with it and I needed to go copy things. ell, while I was gone copying I totally forgot about it, and went back to my desk. I didnt notice it there again, and put the papers down with my left hand and somehow got my right thumb in the trap to where it set it off and......yep thats right, it snapped down on my thumb!!! These things are designed to snap rats, not mice, rats necks in half!!! Now saying it hurt is a HUGE understatement!! It like killed my thumb!!

Yeah, needless to say, my eyes started to deffinately water! There was only me and the permanate secretary there, but we just started cracking up!! So I am laughing so hard I can hardly breathe, crying lots so my shirt is wet, and my thumb is throbbing and already like twice its size!! Oh but even thinking about it now I am laughing!! We didnt have any ice at the office, and there were only two of us so we couldnt leave to go get some, so I filled up a water bottle with cold water from that sparklers jug thing, and stuck my thumb in water! => Later that night I went to the temple, and it was interesting changing clothes with my thumb hurting that bad! But luckily the swelling has gone down a TON today! It is almost back to normal size! And it still does hurt, but its good enough to function somewhat normally. (Have you ever tried typing without your thumb? Its kindof tricky) =>

So thats my little pest control office adventure! Oh and this is that happened to that poor little pen I demonstrated the devils rat trap with. The picture is not so clear, but this pen was torn up! It had chunks missing and cracks everywhere!Moral of the story, dont work at a pest control company! And if you must, Never touch the rat traps!! They aim to kill!!! =>

My Tough Little Man!

So Wednesday night was the playoffs for Jared's basketball team! If they won they would be the best in the school, and get a t-shirt! => So I,of course, went to go support my man and watch him win the game! => I should have known this game was going to be interesting from the beginning. While Jared was warming up an official came up to him and told him he couldnt play unless he shaved his soul-patch. Now, you have to know Jared is an avid facial hair lover, and was pained to shave his beard to play these basketball games, but he has been able to sneak this soul-patch for a month now. And for what a good wife I am, I just laughed. => So Jared misses the first three minutes of the game because he is shaving. When returning he is going full force and loving it. Their team is winning by 10 points throughout the whoel game. In the last 15 minutes of the game Jared steals the ball from a rebound by the opposing team and starts heading towards his side of the court. Well like litterally at half court he collides with a member from the opposite team. The other guy is just knocked backwards, but Jared is like flipped, twisted,trucked, bounced, and flown across the court. Believe me, it was way cool to watch!! => And after all that the foul gets called on Jared, for I dont even know what reason. => and Jared just gets right back up and plays. And me being the good wife I am, I am like cracking up in the stands. I dont think you can picture how cool/funny it was to see this big guy fall so acrobatically. hehehe. Another like five minutes into the game and the ref stops the game and tells Jared to get off the court because he is bleeding. Jared runs over the the score table to get some band-aids (which for some reason they dont have) and I see his arm. From his elbow to the middle of his forearm was just covered in thick blood. It looked way scary, but Jared acted like it was nothing so I was not too worried. => So he ends up having to go to the sports doctor and they say that they can see ligaments and he needs to go to the ER and get stitches right away. This is all during the last half of the game, and Jareds team won!!!! Wooo!!!! => So again after the game, he tells me he needs to go to the ER and get stitches and what do I do..... laugh => Sometimes I wonder why he married me => We go to the ER and I am taking pictures and playing around with the nurse and doing like fake pictures (one witht he q-tip touching the top of the wound then break the q-tip in half and put it in the same place, so it looks like it went in way far =>) and Jared is completely fine and joking around with us. Thedoctor comes is and examines him and explains the situation, so we can decide if Jared is to get stitches or not, and then the doctor starts cleaning Jareds cut. I am right there by the table watching in fascination. The doctor litterally took a medicine saoked q-tip and put it and inch into Jareds elbow!!!! AN INCH!!!! Oh it was crazy to see! => And the whole time Jared never complained or anything. Even when the doctor was shooting the nummer into him (which the doctor said would hurt a heck of a lot) Jared didnt even flinch! I was so impressed!! He is like superman in dealing with pain!! => And because he was such a good boy and help so still at the doctors, I took him to Jamba Juice after => I just thought I would tell you the recent adventure we had => And here are some pics from it. => (wow this is a long post =>) The pics are of Jareds cut after wiping down the gross stuff and after he got all bandadged up! =>