We Went to Oregon

We do this trip about once a year because it's too far and too much money to do it more often that. Last year we went for Thanksgiving, and this year we went for a wonderful reason: the sealing of my brother-in-law's family. (Please click here to get a brief insight into what a sealing is and why it's so important in our religion.)

Thursday was a travel day, and it was a little stressful. Here's a visual on why:

(Don't freak out Garrison - it's all good.) Apparently we lost a belt, but luckily we were super close to an exit and could pull right off the interstate. A concerned citizen saw the smoke coming out of the engine and called 911 saying that our car was on fire. We had four police cars, one fire truck, and one ambulance at our car within minutes of exiting. The car wasn't actually on fire, but it was incredibly hot. My parents were superheroes and cruised out to Mountain Home to pick us up so that we could make our flight on time, and they took care of the car while we were gone for the week. We are incredibly grateful for that.

It was Sprout's first time on a plane and he did amazing! I was incredibly worried that we were going to have a hard time, but he just split his time between sitting in between mommy and daddy and sitting on mommy's lap to look out of the window. Grandma and Grandpa let him borrow Cars so that he could watch it to help pass the time.

Our first flight didn't leave until after Sprout's bedtime so we had him fly in his jammies in the hope that he'd fall asleep. It didn't work because he was too wired about the new experience, but everybody thought it was super cute.

Mr. Mitchell's mom and step-dad picked us up from the airport when we landed at 10:30pm (11:30pm our time - Sprout was a little tired at this point), and we got all settled in at our hotel. They had their own mini-catastrophe when they checked-in at the hotel prior to our arrival: the hotel had lost the reservation and didn't have any rooms for us. They saved the day by finding a hotel for us before we landed so we'd have a place to crash at right after getting off of the plane.

Friday was spent buying things that didn't fit in our carry-on bags (i.e. snacks, diapers, etc.) and convincing Sprout to nap so he wasn't a little beast. Family slowly rolled in throughout the day and we got to spend a bit of time catching up. In the evening my brother-in-law's wife, Liz, went through the temple for the first time to receive her endowment. (Please click here to learn about endowments.) It was so nice to be there with her for that.

Testing my flash on the brothers.

My brother-in-law, Luke, and his wife, Liz. 

I made them give me a smooch for the camera.

(By the by, for those who care, we're at the Medford temple.)

Saturday morning we all reconvened at the temple for the sealing. My mother-in-law was in tears before Luke and Liz were even in the sealing room. I was in tears when they knelt at the altar. Liz was sobbing once the sealer starting speaking. It was all very sweet, and I was in awe at the spirit that I felt there. It was even better when Luke and Liz's boys were brought in to be sealed to them, and I am so grateful that they have the blessing of being an eternal family now.

He would NOT look at me.

But I got him here.

California Mitchells

With Liz's parents.

With Luke's mom and step-dad.

The best picture we could get of our little family.

Brothers.

F. sharing his sippy with Sprout.

Cousins at the temple.

The original Mitchell clan minus one.

The best picture we could get of the boy cousins.

We were glad to see my sister-in-law, Rachel, and her boys at the temple. While they were visiting with everyone my son showed that he has real class at sacred places.

I did not encourage pantsless break dancing on temple grounds.
It happened anyways.

After the sealing we went our separate ways to do what needed to be done. My little family had lunch, swam, and took a rest. Then it was time to go to a birthday party. Luke and Liz's boys both have fall birthdays, and Sprout's birthday falls in between them, so they decided to have a little boy party for the boy cousins. Rachel made the super cute cake, people got to play in the splash park, and we all almost died of heat stroke. Not really, but really.

Planes, trains, and automobiles for little boys.

About two weeks less than a year apart.

First time meeting his cousin J.

The three birthday boys.

Getting cleaned up after cake.

Sadly, the best picture I could get of all of the grandkids.

It was an eventful day, and we're grateful for the love that was present for all of the events.

Sunday and Monday were chill days and no photos were taken. Tuesday my little family went to the beach with Grammy and Grandpa. When we arrived it was raining and incredibly windy. This made Sprout very skeptical. He decided he'd rather play in puddles than in the 'big water.'



We hid out in the lighthouse for a bit, and then the rain went away and the wind calmed down. Once we reached that point we couldn't keep Sprout out of the sand if  we tried. He still never cared for the 'big water,' but he had a blast playing at the ocean.

It's as artistic as I get, folks.

I am in love with his footprints. They were all
over the sand, and my heart kept melting.

On Wednesday we were done with our journey to Oregon and flew back to Boise. We arrived in the early evening and enjoyed a night of dinner and early bedtimes.

Thursday was our final travel day, but first we had to celebrate Sprout's second birthday and my parent's anniversary. We went to Toys 'r' Us and finally found a broom that's Sprout's size so that he can stop stealing mine. It's been a huge success. We also went to the park where he chased ducks to his heart's content. I think the ducks liked it.

Yummy pumpkin roll cake.

Celebration dinner at Texas Roadhouse.

After dinner it was time to head home to Pocatello. We stopped in Burley to get daddy's car and things, and Sprout got to drive the biggest fire truck in the world. (His all-time favorite activity right now is 'driving.')

I think the kid had a pretty good birthday. (We keep trying to tell him that he's two-years-old and he just says, 'No. No two.' Apparently we're lying about our ages already in this house.) After the excitement of daddy's fire engine it was a disappointment to get in our little car, but I think the kiddo was happy to be home. We got home a little after 10pm, and our journey was concluded.

Thank you so much to my parents and Mr. Mitchell's mom and step-dad. This trip would not have happened without them. Congratulations to Luke and Liz! We are incredibly happy for you, and we are so grateful to have been a part of it.

August 2014

So, the biggest thing that happened in August was finally getting to see our beautiful, baby girl. Click here to read about our adventures with baby #2. We've had a girl's name picked out since I was pregnant with Sprout and we've decided to stick with it. Her name makes it so that everyone in our family will have a 'B' in their name except for Mr. Mitchell (a.k.a. Paul). I've decided to change his name to Baul because, really, it's not that different from Paul and then he can be included in the 'B' club.

Mr. Mitchell was gone quite a bit this month on fires and so I was able to spend time with my parents and my sister's family. Unfortunately, we're learning that Sprout does not travel very well, and so we'll be cutting down immensely on our visits to family until he gets that figured out.

We were also able to receive a visitor this month: Heather - one of my best friends. We mostly just talked and watch movies, but we were able to eat out at a few places and go to the zoo in Idaho Falls. It's a small zoo, but it was very nice.

I think red pandas are adorable. I geek out every time.

They're watching the lions sleep.

He was fascinated with the tiger.

Pretty flamingos.

Sprout's favorite were the penguins. We had to go see them one more time before we left the zoo.


Sprout enjoyed Heather's electronics very much.

I think he's telling me to bug-off.

The month of August was a little frustrating because the landlord decided to have the siding on our house redone. Instead of just coming and doing the job and moving on to the next one the siding guys would come for only 2-3 hours each day. Magically, they ALWAYS came at nap time. This is not a joke - it was as though they had placed a camera in Sprout's room and decided to come once they saw me put him down. This means we had no naps for almost a month straight. On the plus side, they're done now and the house looks better. Here is what happens when a child is nap-deprived for weeks:

He passed out an 1 1/2 before bedtime and WOULD NOT wake up.

Sprout has definitely hit his terrible two's. For us that mostly means he has just decided not to listen anymore. I spend most of my days giving warnings and putting him in time-outs. Time-outs don't seem to phase him at all. In fact, sometimes he'll put himself in time-out for fun. The worst is when we're out and about and he decides to walk into the parking lot without me. I'm so afraid he's going to get hit because he won't listen.

A positive side to this age is watching his personality boom. He's had a definite personality from the time he was wee, but now it's hilarious. I love to hear him talk, and I love to see the way his brain works.

Because who doesn't wear sunglasses while eating indoors?

He is a goofball, and, even on the worst of days, I am so happy to have him in my life.

Baby #2

Hello everyone!

Well, we recently went public with our announcement of baby #2. It's been an interesting journey to get here. If we'd had our way we'd already have a 5 month old baby on our hands, but things definitely did not go our way, and I learned a lot. I am not going to claim to know what it is to be infertile (since I'm obviously not), but I do have more empathy for those that cannot conceive. I am sharing more on here than I would normally share, but I have this feeling that I should.

Here it goes: After trying for a little while I finally got pregnant late September/early October of 2013, and then I miscarried the day before Thanksgiving. I was truly devastated. I know that miscarriages don't really affect some women, but it definitely affected me. I spent a lot of time crying or sleeping. I had never miscarried, and I don't have any women close to me that have miscarried, and so I didn't realize that I should have gone to see the doctor (the nurse on the phone also never told me that - very confusing). That contributed to the next mess.

I spent the next four months getting positive pregnancy tests, and then starting my period 2 or 3 days later. Talk about heartbreak. I finally called the doctor and he prescribed birth control. That was definitely NOT in my plans, but it made sense. I also learned while at that appointment that it will always be harder for us to conceive because of some female issues. Not impossible, obviously, but I'll never be a Fertile Myrtle.

There was one week when I was on my period, and crying all of the time, that I received 8 pregnancy announcements and 2 gender reveals. Talk about salt in the wound. I was genuinely happy for these people, but I could feel myself turning bitter at the timing. I finally wrapped up my birth control and started ovulation testing with great trepidation. Luckily,  I was ovulating and didn't need to start any medications.

Finally, just after our fourth anniversary, I got the positive pregnancy test, and it seemed to stick. There is only one OB clinic here for all of Pocatello, and so they run a tighter ship than my last doctor. Unless you've had multiple miscarriages they do not see you until 10 weeks. This had me very anxious because I was so worried about miscarrying again. I was very sick and fatigued which made things worse.

I finally went in at 10 weeks, but this time I wasn't going to see the doctor. He doesn't actually see you until 14 weeks. At this point we only told parents and my sister as I didn't want to spread the news and then miscarry again, but I felt some people needed to know.

I finally went back in at 14 weeks and heard the heartbeat. It was relieving, but I still wasn't satisfied. I still had this anxious, worried feeling that something was wrong with my baby. So, I still kept it a secret that we are expecting. They don't do ultrasounds here until the anatomy ultrasound, and my doctor scheduled me at 19 weeks to go in. I figured at that point I would be ready to share.

The day finally arrived where I got to see my baby! I was feeling almost sick at this point because I was supposed to be 19 weeks, and I still hadn't really felt my baby. Maybe a slight nudge or two here or there, but that was it. I was a basket case, and then we found out that Mr. Mitchell wasn't going to be able to make it. Fortunately, my sister was able to come to record the ultrasound for him. I had decided it must be a boy because the world is expecting so many baby girls right now (at least that's what my Facebook feed regularly says), but, surprise! We're having a girl!!

We also discovered that we're about 1 1/2 weeks behind what the doctor had said. This did not surprise me as he based the due date off of my last period, but the ovulation kit showed I ovulated very, very late in my cycle. The due date has been changed from January 25, 2015 to February 2, 2015. Tomorrow I will be 19 weeks. Despite only being about 17 weeks at the time of the ultrasound the technician is confident that it is a girl. She got a good view a few times and each time she'd say, "There's absolutely NOTHING there. You're having a girl." Along with finding out the gender and due date I learned that my baby is perfectly healthy. The relief was amazing. At that point I was BURSTING to share.

I went home and had my sister take a picture that I then emailed to all the siblings as an announcement:

I actually had to shove my tummy out quite a bit to
get a picture where it didn't just look like I've gained weight.

As soon as I had a response from all of my family members and close friends it was time to share with the world. I had an overwhelming response of love and support for which I am grateful. I have been a wreck my entire pregnancy, and I can now just bask in it and anxiously await the arrival of my sweet, little lady.

P.S. Here is a more accurate picture of my tummy taken a couple of days before we had the ultrasound:

My butt is still bigger than my belly.
(17 weeks - apparently)

Thank you to those of you who have been just as excited as we are about this pregnancy. You have no idea what is has meant to me.

Mr. Tidy

A little nickname we have for Sprout is Mr. Tidy because he loves to help clean and has a little OCD streak (like his mother). Here are some of his recent cleaning endeavors:

He loves to sweep. I think we'll have to get him his own Sprout-sized broom for his birthday so he'll stop stealing mine.


Sometimes he'll ask for the scrub brush out of the blue so that he can go and scrub walls.


Any excuse to get in the toilet...


He also loves to wash dishes, put away laundry (it ALL goes in his pajama drawer), weed the flower bed, make Mommy & Daddy's bed, and put the vacuum away. (He doesn't like to help vacuum and instead sits on the couch watching the vacuum's every move.) I hope he'll always be this helpful, but I get the feeling it won't last once he realizes most people don't clean for fun.

Holdaway Family Mini-Reunion

My side of the family had a very mini, mini-reunion in July. It was pretty much my parents, my sister's family, one brother's family, and my family. (Mr. Mitchell and my sister's husband couldn't make it.) The boys had a night of camping and the girls had a night of movies and shopping. We were all spoiled rotten by my parents and had a great time. I don't have many pictures because my memory card filled up. Sad.

He wanted to go on the camping trip.

He had to sit on the edge like Ryanna.

A very tired grandma.

June and July 2014

Hello blogosphere. I am trying to inch my way back into your world even though I have neglected you for a few months. Reason: summer. I hate summer. I used to love summer. Then I got married. Now I'm a summer widow. It is what it is. It provides for our family and my husband loves his job. Anyways, this is pretty much just going to be whatever I find on my camera. Enjoy.

He LOVES being on mommy and daddy's bed.
 Probably because he's not allowed to sleep in it.

I went and bought him his own styrofoam
wreath so he would leave mine alone. 

Helping mommy with the Cool Whip.

Whether or not we have swim diapers on hand it appears to be swimming time.

He loves the August thunderstorms.

4th of July

Mr. Mitchell was sent out on a fire on the 4th of July, so Sprout and I took a last minute trip over to Mendon to celebrate.  There really aren't enough pictures to justify its own post, but, what the heck? We went over to Hyrum for a fun fireworks display. I was worried Sprout would be upset by the loud noises, but he did great and was spoiled by his cousins and aunt and uncle.

Thanks for the 4th of July shirt, Grandma Holdaway!