Baby's First Pictures

So we went to the doctor last Tuesday for the first ultrasound. The doctor said that the baby looks healthy, is developing normally, and has all its necessary parts, including the parts that make it....

A BOY!!!!!

Danny struggles to see it, but apparently that white arrow indicates masculinity...

He apparently has already inherited the Holmgren talent for fitting his hand in his mouth. (No, don't ask Danny to demonstrate for you, he can't do it...)

Miss Sparrow

Her real name is just Sparrow, but we always feel the need to add the "miss" since Gibbs is "mister". Anyway, she's a little sweetheart! Little more vivacious than Gibbs, she's always looking for something to be doing (cute, but a little troublesome sometimes) and very curious, but always looking to be held and loved. She and Gibbs are getting along great! A few spats now and then, but for the most part, they've loved having a sibling and are actually helping each other with a lot of things. She's as good as he is at house-training already! They're favorite game is stealing toys and rawhides from one another and then running away, seeing how long they can get the other to chase them.

Here are some pictures of her! We got her on Friday but both Friday and Saturday were just packed! Hence the late blogging (we really do love them the same, this is just second child syndrome, you know). But I finally got some good pictures of her while they were taking a nap with Danny on Sunday afternoon:

You can see she has a lot more flashing (white) than Gibbs - very feminine! Her neck marking is actually really cool! It spirals from the top of her head, down under her neck, and over her right shoulder.

This is proof they do occasionally calm down and quite enjoy one another! It's not a very cute picture of her, but they like to sleep curled up together whenever possible. Look how big my baby boy is! Sniff.

She's still small enough to fit under the couch (Gibbs, much to his dismay, has found he is too large already - stop growing, babies!) and apparently loves to hide under there as much as she can - even nap under there! How cute is this?

Welcome Mr. Gibbs!

Tonight we brought home puppy number one. We call him Mr. Gibbs, but he's already taken on the names Gibbsy, Gibbsabee, Gibbles and Bits, and of course, Gibbs.

Jack Holmgren - April 2008- August 6, 2009

As most of you have heard, Jack left us today. It is very difficult for me to express my feelings right now.

I had a dog growing up, but she was an outside dog and I'm afraid to say we never really got to know her. After 4 or 5 years, we decided it was best to give her away and she went to live on a farm where she would be happy. I didn't feel much emotion at that time. I had no idea of the loyalty, friendship, love, and awe I could feel from a dog.

I felt all of those feelings with my Jack. Recollecting on our short time together, I figure that Jack and I probably spent an average of 2 hours per day separated from each other. Besides that, he was my little companion. I'd wake up in the morning with him at my feet. He would follow me around the house as I got ready for the day. He'd lay under my desk while I worked. Then when I had to leave for installs or other errands, it was always evident that he would rather be with me than at home, no matter how hot, cramped, or lacking water the truck may be. He was so genuine in his love for Maddie and I. My heart is broken, something that I never knew could happen over a dog. But I've known for quite some time with Jack that when this day came broken is all my heart would be.

This year for the 24th of July, because my mom's house was all torn up refinishing floors or something, we got to have our first holiday celebration at our house! My Utah-resident family all came out to partake of Danny's marvelous barbeque skills. Danny's rightfully proud of these ribs - they were AMAZING!!!! So I decided to play with my new lenses (Danny's birthday gifts to me) and see what kind of pictures I could get. With such tantalizing subjects, I'm not sure I could have failed:

Also a quick update on my little garden! It's grown a lot! Not huge and flowery yet, but I'll give them till next year before I'll expect that. But the plants themselves are bigger, and there are a couple with little flowers on them! I'm so happy. I have a semi-successful flower garden!

Whoever thought Utah was boring...

I'd had a really long day on Saturday. There was a Primary activity early in the morning I'd signed up to go help with and then it took me three hours to get from my house to downtown (due to the major I-80 closure, I had to go all the way down to Lehi!) for a wedding that night that was really long and a little boring - so just a long and mildly frustrating day. But, on my way home, I passed the Great Salt Lake, and I saw this:

How can you still be tired and annoyed once you realize you live in a place like this?! If you still think this lake is ugly and smelly, you ought to try driving past it everyday. This kind of view is pretty typically gorgeous. I love living out by the lake (and it's never smelled at our house)! I just loved this picture and wanted to share.

The seed is planted (sort of)

We have been waiting for almost 2 months for our pre-planned flower garden to come.  Maybe we don't have the greenest thumbs, but we want to have a splendid garden, so we ordered a whole garden of plants out of a catalog.  After a couple of frustrating phone calls with the company's outsourced call center (eh hem) we finally had our plants arrive "on time" today.

Maddie spent a couple hours this evening shoving the things in the dirt.  Sure hope they grow and look beautiful!
While Maddie was cleaning up, she had me go outside and take a picture of it.  We will keep a little photo journal of the progress.  Hopefully in the future there will be more colors than just brown with specks of green......
P.S. (From Maddie)  The "blank" spots really do have plants in them.  I promise!

Jack vs. Technology

For the last two months, Jack has been chasing his nemesis.  After several weeks of battle, he thought he had defeated the foe.  Then tonight, the enemy reappeared.  Fortunately, this time it was caught on tape.

Just so you know, he's still fighting the cardboard...

Mystery Solved!!

After all of the trouble we've gone through, Danny and I finally have an answer as to why I've been sick all this time!
The last three months have been just about the weirdest and, physically, the worst of my life so far. Most people know I had my gall bladder out at the end of November because I was so sick. That worked for a little while, but pretty soon the pain was back and getting worse day by day. When I asked my surgeon why his procedure didn't work, he recommended I go get an upper endoscopy and hope that it showed me something more useful.
So I went in last Tuesday and got it done. Two days later my doctor called to say she'd found something, but she wanted me to come in for a blood test to make sure. Yesterday she called and told me I have celiac!
Celiac is when your small intestine reacts badly to gluten, the protien found in wheat, rye, barley, and a few other things. It hurts the villi on the walls of the intestine, which make it impossible for them to absorb nutrients from the food I eat. Basically, the more gluten I eat, the more malnourished I become. The only way to fix it is to go on a completely gluten-free diet! That sounds kinda sucky (no bread, no cookies, etc.) but it's pretty easy compared to living in pain. In a few months, my insides will have fully healed and I'll feel a lot better!
I don't know how long I've had this problem, but I'll have it for the rest of my life. It's getting pretty easy to live with, though. It's becoming a more common allergy these days, so restaraunts and grocery stores are becoming more knowledgable and starting to carry a lot more gluten-free foods. My older brother has it too, so I've got a lot of family help and support. Danny has been amazing putting up with me over the last few months (I make just about the worst sick person that ever lived - I'm a pain!) and we're both glad to have a solution! I'm relieved this is all that's wrong and that it's so easy to fix!
Man, life is weird, huh?