Halloween

We celebrated Halloween this year by voting early.  Brian thought the lines would be too long if we went on voting day.  In case anyone is wondering we both voted for Mitt Romney, and against the legalization of marijuana.

Bristol got to be dressed up as a pumpkin while Brian and I carved pumpkins. 

She hated being put in the costume at first but warmed up to it.

 

Can you guess who carved which pumpkin?

 

 

I am looking forward to next year to take Bristol trick or treating.  We thought about taking her this year but thought we might get some funny looks since she doesn't even have teeth yet. 

Baby on Board!

I had been having a lot of problems in the last few weeks of my pregnancy.  I was going in twice a week for non-stress tests to make sure the baby's heartbeat was ok.  It was supposed to only be a 30 minute test but most of the time I went in I was there for much longer, once even ending up in the hospital for an entire day because Bristol was only doing ok, but not great on the stress tests.

So when Saturday August 25th rolled around I was not in the mood to go back to the hospital.  I had just done a stress test the day before where I was at the doctor's office for several hours until they finally decided that the results looked good enough to send me home.  I had a doctor appointment scheduled for Monday to repeat the stress test.  All day on Saturday I kept talking myself out of going in to the doctor because I knew they would just waste my whole day and end up sending me home at the end of it.  I had been instructed to do kick counts and I wasn't feeling much movement.  It wasn't abnormal for me because I didn't feel a whole lot of movement throughout my pregnancy so I really wasn't that concerned about it.  But finally around 6:00 that night I decided to have Brian call the doctor and sure enough she sent me to the hospital for another stress test.  At first I was kind of mad at myself for doing it because I had $10 Kohls cash that was expiring that night that I really wanted to use.  I was hoping I would get in and out quick before Kohls closed so I could run down there.  No such luck...

After I had been hooked up to the stress test equipment we heard a really weird noise.  Brian looked at the paper and found out Bristol had a really low dip in her heart rate.  A few minutes later the nurse came back and announced that my doctor was coming up to the hospital.  I knew it had to be serious if she was going to drive up there on a Saturday night.  Once my doctor showed up she did a biophysical profile and decided that there was no other choice but to do an emergency c-section.  I didn't feel physically or emotionally ready to do this!  I knew I was having a c-section but I thought I still had 5 more weeks to prepare (freak out ) about it.

The nurses wheeled me into the operating room where the anesthesiologist gave me a spinal tap.  That was not nearly as painful as I thought it was going to be.  My body started going numb very quickly.  It was a very odd feeling.  Right away I started to not feel quite like myself.  I was in sort of a fog.  They finally brought Brian in after about the 10th time that I asked for him.  They started the operation.  I was amazed at how little pain I felt.  Even with the spinal tap I thought I would still be in some sort of pain but there was none.  But then all of a sudden I felt violently ill.  I told Brian I was going to throw up.  Someone handed him a bucket and told me to "just let it all out"  I let it all out all right.  I started heavily throwing up and feeling like I couldn't breathe.  I started screaming " I can't breathe!  Somebody help me!!"  The anesthesiologist assured me I was fine because he could see my heart rate.  But I did not feel fine and continued to scream "I can't breathe!"  By this time the anesthesiologist was screaming back at me"You're fine!!"  while he is shoving my head into the side of the table so I wouldn't affixiate on my vomit.  In that moment I remember thinking that this was the most terrible thing I have ever experienced and I would never ever do this again.  That's how awful it was.  The next thing I remember is someone telling Brian to show me the baby, so he puts her next to my head and I ask him to move her so I don't throw up on her.  I wish I could have had more joy in the moment I first saw her, but I was too miserable.

Bristol Lyn Bastings was born at 8:33 p.m. weighing 4 pounds 7 ounces and 18 inches long.  I got to see her briefly once more as I was wheeled to the recovery room.  I was disappointed I wasn't even allowed to hold her until the following day.  Because she was born at 34 weeks she spent the next two weeks in the NICU.  Little did we know how quickly this little girl would feel a part of our family and change our lives forever.

More Family Reunion

Brian's family all came out for a family reunion in Colorado this year.  Although I couldn't participate in the more adventurous activities because of my pregnancy we still had  a really good time seeing everyone.  I promised myself I would take more pictures this year, but of course I didn't.  So I will give a brief recap over the pictures I did take because they can tell a much better story then I can write.

Wednesday morning we all got to together and went to Chuck E Cheese.  Brian and I always play the basketball game and I usually beat him.  We decided to have an elimination basketball tournament with the adults.  I am sad to say I was eliminated the 1st round thanks to my brother in law Jeff.  Although I think it is worth noting that I beat him in the "practice" round.  I think I will demand a rematch when I am no longer 7 months pregnant to see if I can get a different outcome.  Being eliminated early gave me a chance to have some fun with the nieces and nephews.

Caty enjoying her horse ride

Kambria and Kayla

I love Kambria's face in this picture.

Derek stalking up the tickets on skeeball

Connor and Tanner playing skeeball

Later that day the boys went and played frisbee golf.  I opted to go with some of the girls to get a pedicure, and boy did it feel good.  The massage chair they put you in feels almost as good as the pedicure itself.  We then met up with the rest of the group for dinner.  After a failed attempt to get all 30 of us in at the same restaurant, we split up into two groups:  the Chick-Fil-Aers and the Chilis group.  Brian and I went with the Chili's group where he was able to resume his role as "Magic Brian"  Brian has always prided himself that his nieces and nephews think he is magic.  He does very complex tricks like attaching markers to a string and making them "disappear".  The older kids have caught on to his act but sometimes the younger ones are still fascinated with him.  This time it was Tanner and Halle.  Magic Brian had become a mind reader and no matter what number you thought of Brian knew what it was.  Tanner especially was very captivated with amazement.  I got some video of it near the end but that was once some of the excitement wore off.  I like this first video because you can see Jeff give Brian the number and the kids don't suspect anything.

The next day almost everyone went to Waterworld while we hung out with Brian's dad and his sister Kelsey.  We did some baby shopping and then stopped by the Coach store.  I wasn't really looking around very much in the Coach store because I knew Brian would never let me buy anything in there in a million years.  But then I was shocked to find out that Brian's dad was buying Coach bags for all of the girls and I was going to get to pick one out.  I was super excited!  It was hard to choose but finally decided on this one.

Friday and Saturday we spent up in Estes Park. I have to admit it was a little different then I expected.  It was the first time we have been up there and all of the locals talked about it was the most beautiful park in the state.  I'm sure there is a lot of it I didn't see because we mostly hung out around the campsites, but it didn't compare at all to Lake Tahoe where I went every summer as a kid.
Brian and I had a groupon to take a carriage ride around downtown Estes Park.  That was fun and we learned some interesting things about the area.  Here are some pictures from our ride.

My mother in law and my sister in laws were also nice enough to surprise me with a baby shower!  We got lots of good things and are very close to feeling like we will be prepared for baby's arrival.

Brian's mom also got us the swing we were wanting that matches our stroller/car seat and highchair.  I will get a picture of that when it is out of the box and set up.

Brian's aunt also made us two baby blankets and a quilt.  They are super cute!

If you look closely you can see she did little hearts for the stitching

And flowers on the stitching for this one

What does Pregnancy mean from my point of view

1) It means that my new job is giving foot rubs.

2 It means that Target packages seem to arive daily

3) It means the baby to be has more posessions when it is born than I have accmulated my entire life.

4) It means I get to collect ultrasound photos.

5) It means I get to put together new dressers, changing tables, chairs ect.

6) It means my office becomes a baby room.

7) Sometimes it even means more nap times for me when I get grumpy.

Our family reunion 2012

This year for our Summer vacation, we went up to Estes Park. Estes park is a national park located in the mountains of Colorado. Everyone stayed at campgrounds except for me and Angie. we probably seemed like snobs, but we were loving our hotel stay while everyone else was getting rained on. A nice plump pillow always beats a wet one. If you don't believe me, You'll have to ask my younger brother Craig all about it. Some of the highlights of our trip are listed below.
1) We ended up seeing a great big rainbow in the mountains

2) We saw wild mice and one Deer who had no problem walking through our campground. (of course the kids tried to chase it)


3) We played multiple games of Boche ball which seemed to be more a game of luck than skill, since all the balls rolled down the mountain and stopped when they wanted to rather than where you threw them.

4) Me and Angie took a carrage ride through town and everyone got to stare at us.

Brian's 35th Birthday

For Brian's birthday I told him he could celebrate however he wanted.  After suggesting several activities he decided he would like to play his favorite video game and go eat at Texas Roadhouse.  So that's what we did.  He had a coupon for a free appetizer but was concerned that they would come over and sing to him for using a birthday coupon.  I told him they only do that when someone requests to have someone come over and sing and not to worry about it.  I was wrong- our waitress arranged the singing waiters and Brian was very embarrassed.  He did get some free ice cream that he didn't want so I happily enjoyed it.


Then we came home and opened some presents




My beautiful wrapping job along with a card from his mom and a lady in the ward.

Reading his mom's card.  Although I am pretty sure there was ad libbing going on.  After every sentence he added the words "my favorite son"

His new BBQ tools to go along with his new BBQ grill.  Now that he is going to be a dad he has to learn to BBQ because that's what dad's do.  We are hoping his brothers will help us get it up and running when they come to visit in a few weeks.

He was very excited about his Oklahoma City Thunder shirt, now that he has become a fan during the playoffs this year.  I bought this before the Finals which was a good decision because I don't think I could have bought it after that terrible performance against the Heat.  Good thing football season is around the corner so I have something to look forward too.

A new wii controller because our old one mysteriously went missing.  If any one has any information about our lost wii controller please contact your local authorities or call 1-800-MISSING-WII

And last but not least his headphones that he really wanted.  We didn't even get to have any birthday cake since Brian doesn't like cake.  I will be making apple crisp today though as he was too full from Texas Roadhouse to want it yesterday.

Happy Birthday Brian!!!

$100 Corndog

A few weeks ago I had a corndog for lunch.  After eating it I discovered that I won $100.  I was excited to go home and tell Brian about it.  After I told him the story I was shocked to find out he accused me of lying.  I didn't know if I should be complimented that he thinks I am creative enough to make up that story, or if I should be concerned that he thinks I would lie.  The next day he came home and said he had a $100 burito from Taco Bell.  So here is the proof everyone knows I never lie about winning $100 from a corndog