Happy Father’s Day!

This year was Jared’s first Father’s Day.  I wanted to really make him feel special because of how wonderful he is.  He is the biggest help and never complains.  He is such a good daddy because he changes all the boys’ diapers (when he is home and even in the middle of the night), he plays and interacts with them, he gets up and makes paci runs in the middle of the night, he works hard everyday so I can stay at home and keep the boys, and prays over the boys every night. 

 

 

Jared, not only are you an amazing father to our boys, but also the best husband and I am so thankful for you!  Thank you for being so wonderful and setting a good example for our boys to follow! I love you!

I am also so thankful for my dad on this day as well.  My dad is encouraging and a very hard worker.  He has always sacrificed to make sure our family was happy and given what we needed.   Growing up, my dad always wrote us encouraging notes for whatever we may be going through.  I hope to carry this tradition on to my boys too!  I get my organized and “list making” skills from him, although these days, it may not all get done, it helps to have a list :)  Grant, Julie, Jaxson, Gage, Graham and I are all blessed to have a wonderful dad and “Papa G” like you!  I love you dad!

 

And I can’t forget the man who helped raise Jared (bless your heart Mike).  You are such a thoughtful man and have shown Jared how to be the best husband and father he is today.  I am thankful to have you as a father-in-law.  We love you Easy!

Carroll Wedding Weekend~June 11, 2011

We had this day marked on our calendar for a year! June 11, 2011 was the date my sister, Julie, and her fiance, Jerrod, were finally tying the knot and we couldn’t wait!  We knew it was going to be a busy weekend because all four of us were going to be in the wedding.  So, Jared and I decided to drive to Abilene on Wednesday, June 8, to get the boys us settled in.  The boys are still great travelers, thank goodness.  I will let all the pictures do the talking…

Good lil travelers~ they needed to get out of the car seat to stretch

My good friend Molly had her baby Jaxon. We stopped by to see her on the way in town

My niece Gracyn and Gage

My brother Grant with Graham and Gage

Great Grandma Gregg with Reagan and Gage

With my nephew Jaxson, niece Gracyn, Gage and Graham

Cousins~ Braden with Gage, Camden with Graham

Bridesmaid Luncheon

The Bride, mom, me

Jana, Grandma, mom

Honey and Gracyn

The Bride and Groom at the rehearsal

All Smiles for the Bride on her big day!

What a fun weekend! So thankful for a new brother-in-law!  We love you Julie and Jerrod and we pray for a lifetime of happiness together!

all smiles these days

Just wanted to share two things that have our Gage boy all smiles lately.

The clock

And this fan

Every time he sees these 2 objects he smiles and talks to them.

I sure wish I knew what they were saying to each other.

Bumbo Time!

I was reading a blog the other day and noticed this mom was letting her 8 week old sit in his bumbo.  I haven’t even pulled the boys’ bumbos out yet and they were 12 weeks old.  I thought they were too little still, but I gave it a try.  Here are some pictures I captured of their first time sitting in their bumbos!

 

Not real sure about this

Trying to hold my head up

Just chattin’ about life

Graham was NOT a fan of his sunglasses.  Putting on our sunglasses was also a first that day!

(They don’t get to watch TV, I just thought it was a cute picture!)

What a year can bring!

I have been meaning to blog about our infertility, but it is still hard to go back and think about where we started.  So here it goes… 

This week will be 2 years since I had my first ectopic pregnancy.  It was the most painful experience (physically and emotionally) I have ever been through.  At the time, I was seeing another OB and she did my emergency surgery and literally saved my life and I am so thankful to her for that.  But because of some other things that happened after that surgery, I did not go back to her.  Well, December came around and I was still not pregnant, so one of my good friends, Kelly Cardwell, told me about this fertility doctor.  I looked him up on the internet and read all these great articles about him and decided to set up an appt. with him at the end of December.  I struggled with this because I wasn’t sure if I was messing with God’s will by going through fertility.  Was I being impatient?  Should I just continue to wait impatiently?  We had been trying for a year at that time.  Then, another good friend, Katie Schleider and her mom, sent me this sermon their pastor had preached about fertility and it made me feel better about the situation.  Besides, it was ultimately up to God if he wanted to get me pregnant, not a doctor. 

So we met with the Dr. Rodriguez and immediately fell in love with him and his staff. 

(Linda with Gage, Dr. Rodriguez with Graham, and Laurena.  The boys were 12 weeks old when I finally got to introduce them to these wonderful people)

We started with clomid and I got pregnant the first month (March).  When I was about 6 weeks along, we went to get our first sono and saw that there was not an embryo and knew it was probably another ectopic pregnancy.  So they gave me a shot to stop the pregnancy hormones and try to prevent another ectopic surgery.  A couple of weeks later, in April, I got to school and had that same horrible pain I remembered I had from June.  I was at school and had one of my team members take me to the hospital for another ectopic surgery.  Well, Dr. Rod had just had surgery on his shoulder so he was not able to do my surgery that morning and I was disappointed but he promised me a good surgeon.  That’s where Dr. MacDonald comes in.

(Jackie with Graham and Dr. Mac with Gage, the boys are 6 weeks here.  Jackie is actually Linda’s daughter)

He/we went into surgery thinking he would remove my last and final tube (right side) and found that my left tube was still in there and was never removed (that is another story).  So he removed both tubes and I knew my only hope to get pregnant was to do In Vitro.  With my other surgery, it took me 2 weeks to recover and after this one, I was up and walking day 2.  I knew then, what a good doctor he was and knew he was able to handle any situation so I decided to start seeing him for my OB.  He even called me several times after surgery to check and see how I was doing. 

June came around again and it was time to order my medication and start the process.  Here is the medicine I received in the mail in one day.  Overwhelmed much?

Then, after I started my medication, Dr. Rodriguez and Linda (his nurse) typed up a calendar for this process.  Here are the calendars.

On Wednesday, July 21, they retrieved 18 eggs to be fertilized.  And then on Monday, July 26, with a day 5 transfer, they transferred these 2 precious embryos.

 

The best part of that morning, is they brought us this picture and Jared and I were able to pray over these two embryos before they transferred them inside me. 

It’s hard to believe that these embryos formed into these precious miracles!

God is an amazing and faithful God.  He has perfect timing.  Through all of this, God has brought Jared and I the closest we have been to each other and to Him. 

Thank you God for these precious miracles you have blessed us with and trusted us with :) .  Thank you for these doctors and nurses you brought into our lives.  Thank you for all of our family and friends who prayed over us through this time.  We pray for these boys daily and pray as parents that you give us the wisdom and knowledge to raise these boys the way you want us to.