Sister's weekend

I just got back from a great extended weekend with my sisters and mom. We spent Thursday July 29 through Saturday July 31 in Park City, Utah. It was so much fun! No husbands or kids, except Owen, were allowed. We spent most of our days shopping on Main street and the outlets, but our evenings were filled with card making, movies and games...and very little sleeping.

Thursday morning we had my friend Rebecca come to Brenas house and do glitter toes for all of us. It was a fun way to start off our weekend, and all of us had beautiful toe nails.

We were all laughing about the flip-flop tans we all have and decided that Catrina's were definitely the best (Although in this picture Shaunda's are pretty great). The favorite color went to Mindy's blue toes and the award for "They're blue...no wait they're green...no wait they're grey...maybe they're purple..." went to Shaunda. For those of you counting toes, not counting my mom, there are six girls in my family. Yup five totally AWESOME sister's for me. I have one brother. Sadly, his wife couldn't make it for our weekend.


One of our favorite things to do when we're together is to have an ugly fashion show. We go shopping and see who can find the ugliest outfit or article of clothing. We didn't find too many ugly things. I don't know if it's because we weren't really paying attention to the ugly things or there weren't too many of them. Sadly I'm not in any of the pictures, but it's ok to embarrass my sisters on my blog, right

We ended our official weekend by purchasing a pair of totally rad, but mostly just cheap, shoes. We wrote little notes on the then threw them in the shoe tree. Shaunda and I were put in charge of throwing the shoes into the tree. My first throw was an awesome one, the shoes hit the tree and fell to the ground. So we tried again, about 15 times. Before they finally managed to snag another pair of shoes and were hanging on for dear life.
Throwing the shoes made for a good laugh, and I only wish we would have had a video camera handy.

Needless to say, I have the BEST sisters and mom in the world! Thanks for the fabulous weekend! I can't wait to do it again!

5 years

Yesterday Chase and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary, by going out for sushi, and taking this family photo. A few anniversaries ago we decided that we would take a family photo every year on our anniversary, so we could see how our family was growing and changing. It took us a few years to get Owen here, but we are so happy that he was able to be part of our family photo this year.

It's crazy to me to think that it's already been 5 years. Chase and I have had so many ups and downs, and lots of heart ache in 5 short years. I know I love Chase more today than the day I married him, and I'm happy to keep him around for eternity, and grow old with him.

Love you babe!

Great Grandpa

Due to a job my dad is working on, and had to go to Elberta, Utah to measure. Owen and I were able to go along for the ride, and then onto Levan where my grandpa George lives. Owen had not met his great grandpa yet, and I had not seen grandpas new home, since I was on bed rest when my mom and her siblings moved grandpa from West Jordan to Levan. Now that I'm not on bed rest I need to stop making excuses and go visit grandpa more often.

I was excited for Owen to meet his great grandpa, and was not disappointed when he finally did. Grandpa was in awe of this tiny being, and enjoyed holding him. Owen loved grandpa, and calmed right down once grandpa took him. We are excited to be able to have grandpa come up for Owens blessing in a few weeks and can't wait to see him again.
Grandpa checking Owen out, Owen checking grandpa out.

Owen and Grandpa having a great visit, and chatting away.

2 Months

It's crazy to think that Owen is already 2 months old, it sure doesn't seem like he's been here that long. We decided before Owen was born that each month we would take a photo of him with this stuffed zebra who we call Zeus, so we could see how he is growing. The first 2 photos, one after his birth and his first month aren't that great and you can't see his size very well, so I haven't shared them. The 2 month photo is just too cute not to share so here he is.

Owens stats (7/14/2010): 7 pounds 7 ounces. 20 3/4 inches long

He also had to get his first round of shots, and did great with them. He only cried for a few seconds after, and stopped as soon as I was able to pick him up.

We have had a pretty uneventful second month. Owen did start smiling, and is a pretty happy baby. The only thing that he seems to get angry about is when he's tired and his tummy bothering him. He is currently on some medicine for acid reflux, and I'm not eating dairy, to help things out.

We sure love this little man, and are so thankful that our Heavenly Father chose us to be his parents here on earth.

First Parade

Our Little firecracker enjoyed his first 4th of July parade (on July 2nd) by sleeping through it. His outfit was sure cute though.

Officially announcing

I found this birth announcement on shutterfly and fell in love. I however didn't love the price so much. So we copied it, and I think it turned out amazing. I also think I have the cutest baby ever so...what do you think?

Happy moments

This aught to make you smile, I know it makes us smile. This fun new friend showed up on fathers day June 20,2010, and hasn't made many more appearances until today.

Photo overload

What more can I say, lots of photos from Owens first month plus. There will be more when I can get to looking at the photos Chase has taken of Owen in the studio, until then enjoy our adorable peanut.

My first few moments with Owen after his birth. Falling so in love with this little man.

Getting weighed, holding onto the scale for dear life

After getting all checked out

Skin to skin

With his proud daddy

Lots of hair

First bath

First photo shoot with daddy

Under the bili lights

Sun bathing at home

Sleeping boys

Adorable boy with big grey eyes

Sunbathing with Gus

Enjoying his preemie hooded towel that grandma made him

I'm thinking...

Rocking chair redo

We purchased this ugly blue fabric rocking chair, and ottoman off Ksl for $40 a few months before Owens birth. It didn't look so horrible in the photos on the ad, but after seeing it in person and driving to Layton to get it there was no turning back. We brought it home, and I was so disgusted the more I saw it, so my mom offered to help me re-upholster it. One day when I was feeling decent we went and picked out fabric. I chose an awesome chocolate brown velvet (which my mom has now cursed me for), and then we got to work. Oh who am I kidding my mom did it all, and I'm so happy she did. Even if it did take her almost a month after Owen was born to finish the arm rests. I'm in love with this chair now and can't wait for it have a home in Owens room, and not my closet (where I'm currently feeding and rocking Owen, since our room is so small and there isn't much room.)

The ugly before blue sun faded, spit up all over fabric

After tearing apart all the cushions to make patterns for the new fabric

Beautiful "new"chair (crappy photography, I asked Chase to take this photo but he kept ignoring me so you get crap.)
Chair $40
Material $25 (I still have a yard left)
Miscellaneous padding and accessories $13
Loving my rocking chair...Priceless!

Testing testing 123

On Monday I had to take Owen up to Primary Children's for some tests on his kidneys, not sure what the names of them are in medical terms though. The first test was to check the function of his kidneys, they shot some radioactive dye into his system and then put him in this special machine that could see the dye. He had to be in the machine for 45 minutes, and even worse had to have his arms, and legs held down with sand bags. He had to have an IV also which they had to put in 3 times, since the first two times the fluid was not running into his veins. The third time they finally got a small light and held it under his arm to make it glow so they could see his veins. They were successful in getting the IV in the right place this time. And to top things off he had to have a catheter, which was more for the second test than the first.
While the test was happening, I was able to give Owen a bottle and watch what was happening inside his body on a small screen above the machine he was in. We were only able to see his right kidney, which is ok since we knew his left kidney was bad. We just didn't know how bad. The guys doing the test said they couldn't even see a left kidney.
The second test they were able to take out his IV, and then they shot some high contrast dye through the catheter into his bladder, while they watched on an x-ray machine. Owen then had to pee the dye out while they watched for back flow into his kidneys. They got the dye into his bladder and then were just waiting for him to pee, he wasn't quick enough so they started pouring warm glasses of water onto him to hopefully help him out. Five glasses of water, and a baby floating on the table were unsuccessful. The radiology tech administering the test finally called a doctor in to help her out. He tried a few things and was unsuccessful, so he suggested that they just take the catheter out and watch what was happening. This was a success and the doctor told me right then that his kidney wasn't back flowing. Yay! what a relief.
After getting home from the tests on Monday, I noticed a small "bubble" in Owens groin. I was concerned so I talked to my mom and sister about it. Come to find out that hernias are not only common on my dads side of the family, but they are also hereditary, so I made an appointment with the pediatrician for the next morning. Yep it's a hernia, and will need to be surgically fixed in about six months, unless it gets worse. I still need to call the surgeon that the pediatrician referred us to. We will meet with them to find out what they would like us to do, and probably plan surgery for a few months down the road, since they don't like to put such small babies under anesthesia.
We also met with the Urologist on Tuesday to get the test results. Owen does in fact have a Multi-cystic dysplastic kidney, that is non functioning. The urologist said that for now they won't do anything. Usually the bad kidney will shrink away, while the functioning good kidney will grow in size to about 1 1/2 times what it usually is and will take over the function of the bad non-existent kidney. He doesn't want to see us again for 6 months, when they will do a renal ultrasound to check the size of both kidneys, if the left is shrinking and right is growing like it should then they won't want to see us again for another year when they will check the size again. If everything looks good then we don't have to see them again.

All of these photos are from Owens first test, I didn't want to take any during the second test since they were doing it with an x-ray.

Before getting his catheter and IV, I thought he looked so cute in the little hospital gown

My sweet baby after getting his catheter

Using the light to show his veins for his IV

Super tired from screaming so much, and producing his first real tears

Having a bottle, you can see his little hand poking out from under under the sand bag

The monitor of the test. his right kidney is the yellow spot on the right hand of the screen. There should be two spots but his left kidney is non-functioning and this proved it

Still enjoying his bottle, and the huge machine

Different angle of the machine

Poor arm before taking off the splint, and taking out the IV

Adorable boy in his hospital gown (The tech let us bring this home as a memento)