Good Friends, Turkey Day, Life and Death

What an emotional week this has been! I love how the holidays bring us all together. It sounds so cheesy but really, holidays have given us an excuse to come home, and excuse to say I love you, and an excuse to be unnecessarily happy!

So, I'm pretty bad about picking up the phone and calling my family. I mean, REALLY bad. I have about six weeks left in my pregnancy and had yet to call my Grandma Johnson and tell her that I was expecting. She had found out through the grapevine that I was, but I know it's not the same as hearing it from the horses mouth. It seemed like something was always getting in the way and the longer I waited, the more guilty I felt that I had waited so long, so I would wait even longer..... yeah, it sure does make a lot of sense, right?! Anyway, I was hanging out at my mom and dad's on Wednesday when my Grandma came down from Rifle to spend Thanksgiving with our family. One of the things I love best about Grandparents is that they ALWAYS love you, no matter what mistakes you've made. They are the true definition of unconditional love. Well, Grandma walks through the door, looks down at my 8 months pregnant belly and says "You horses' tit!" and throws her arms around me and gives me one of the best hugs of my life. I can't explain the relief that I felt that she could laugh about how ridiculous I've been.

This Thanksgiving was one of the best I can remember for a long time. My parents bought a new dinning room table, one that's big enough for all of us to sit around at once! Our family has grown to the point that most get togethers we have, we all end up spread around the kitchen, dinning room, and living room with our meals. It was so great to be able to sit around the table and see everyone faces, and have ONE conversation instead of 5. My heart was so full, and the food was so great that my stomach was also full.... to the point where it's not even fun to be that full. LOL. We spent the rest of the night playing games, planning our route of attack for Black Friday, and laughing.

The next morning my sister, Jen, and I woke up before the butt crack of dawn to head out to get the good deals. She picked me up at 3:30am and we finished up around 1:30pm. I was pretty exhausted by the end of the day....my back and feet were killing me. My head was writing checks that my body was not able to cash. It was a great time though! Jen and I had a great time laughing and shopping without the kiddos. I'm really glad that she went with me!

Like I said earlier, the holidays always bring people together. One of my best friends has been living in Provo, UT for a while now and we've been trying to meet up when I head out there or when she comes home but were not having any success. Until yesterday!! Cammie was home for Thanksgiving and we were able to meet for dinner last night! Jon and Gavin came too and we all had a great time eating good food and catching up on what life has thrown our way in the last 6 months.

Over the last few weeks I have found out that a girl I went to high school with, as well as one of the Coach's/Teachers I had in high school had both passed away very unexpectedly. Both of them left this life long before they should have. I found out a few more details of one of their death's today and found myself feeling really down in the dumps and overall just sad. I was poking around on Facebook today and found a link that one of my friends posted. It was a song that he had written. I listened to the song and it made this pregnant lady burst into tears. It was the perfect song to put me back into a good mood. His song talks about telling the people that you love them before it's too late. Wanted to share the link with you all and also tell you all that I love each and every one of you. My life would not be the same without each of you.
http://www.garageband.com/mp3player/artist/mattgriffith

October Update

Slowly getting better about posting updates! Things have been consistently crazy this last month.

Jonathan has been covering vacations in Price and Moab almost every week. Luckily, my job allows me to go with him SOME of the time. AND this should be the last week he has to cover a vacation out of town for the rest of the year! His manager was nice enough to make sure that the last few weeks of the year that he will not be out of reach just in case the baby decides to come early. As crazy as his schedule has been, we're really lucky to have the solid work right now. Most the other drivers checks are coming in pretty small and Jon has made himself a valuable asset to the company. His position is very safe. Thank goodness for that!

Zoey had her first parent teacher conference tonight.... dun dun dun. We were a little worried before hand because we had been getting back some bad reports from the teacher. It seems our bright little girl gets a little bored in class and likes to do things "her way." Her teacher told us that if it's not on "Zoey's Agenda" that it's not going to happen. LOL that statement is sooo accurate! So knowing beforehand that she had been in a little trouble, we were afraid to see how she was performing in class. BUT, she's doing great! She's already improved so much from her pre-kindergarten testing. Her teacher is even putting her in the advanced group in the class because she feels it will provide enough challenge to keep Zoey focused in class. She'll be sent home with "spelling words" - more a sight recognition program that will prepare her for reading. We are so proud of her! Zoey has also started girl scouts! We have only had a few meetings and Zoey has already memorized the Girl Scout Promise and earned the center of her Daisy that she'll sew on her vest!

Gavin is turning 3 on Friday! What has happened to the last 3 years? Jon spent all morning putting the finishing touches on his Super Why cake. Gavin is really into Super Why right now. It's a PBS cartoon that has super heroes solving problems by reading stories. His personality is growing stronger every day! He most definitely is keeping us on our toes. We're having his birthday party on Saturday. A fall harvest/Super Why birthday party. We're going to paint pumpkins and make Carmel apples and play games. It should be a lot of fun!

I'm now officially in my third trimester and have only 11 weeks left. Boy, how time flies! This pregnancy has been much different from when I was pregnant wit Gavin but it's overall going well! It seems I may have reached an agreement with my boss that will allow me to work from home once the baby is born. I'm pretty happy about that! I love my job but know my priority must be my family or my whole life will fall apart. So I think this will provide a pretty good balance for us all. I've volunteered to be Zoey's Daisy Girl Scout Leader along with my mom and one other parent, Kate. It has been so much fun so far! I love all the girls and especially love the feeling that I'm contributing something to my community now. I'll let you all know when cookie sales are coming up so that you can help miss Zoey out ;)

That's about it for now. We love you all!!!

Back to School

Oh man, I really need to get better about updating this thing! So much has happened since February! Let's see where do we start?

Well, things with Jonathan have been moving pretty smoothly lately. However, back in the middle of July he was having some unusual pain in his lower abdomen and on an eventful trip to the shoe store he was dropped to his knees in pain by simply sneezing. We took a trip to the emergency room and they told him it sounded like a hernia and suggested he see a surgeon. We made an appointment for Wednesday and Thursday morning Jon was in surgery. He recovered pretty quickly and looking back seems much easier than it probably was. He's back to work now, lifting and carrying on like his normal rock star self.

Our little Zoey is growing up before our very eyes! August 20th Zoey had her first day of Kindegarten. Her preschool teachers had suggested that she be enrolled in an all day class because they were afraid a normal Kindegarten cirriculum may not keep her intrest. So we enrolled her at Dos Rios Elementary in Mrs. Saers class. She was so excited on her first day and picked out her outfit all on her own. When we walked her in to her class she was ready to say goodbye. She pretty much just waved and went on her way. Jon had to go to work that day so when I picked her up she called him to tell her how her day was. She talked non-stop about all the fun things she did for almost 20 minutes before the call was dropped. She sure loves school!

Gavin is nearly potty trained. When I say nearly, I mean he has pretty much got it down as long as he's in big boy underwear. If he has a pull-up on he just lets it go. It's been a long ride but we're pretty sure we can see the light at the end of the tunel. He was sad to see Zoey go to school. He misses her being at home all day long and always cries when we drop her off. He sure loves his big sister.

Well, most of you probably already know this, but we're getting ready to have another baby. We had an ultrasound in August and found out that we are expecting a little boy. We've played around with a few names but nothing is set in stone yet. I'm working part time for Dr. Adams' and training a few girls to help take over when I'm gone. I'm also thinking about being a troop leader for Zoey's Daisy Girl Scout troop. Just not quite sure how it will all work out when the baby is born.

That's pretty much it for now. We'll try to do better about keeping this updated. TTFN!

A little mommy insight

Last night Jon packed up his bags and left to cover his first vacation out of the Grand Valley. I'm not the type of person who can spend too much time by myself, and lucky for me today was President's Day and everyone had the day off. So I loaded up Gavin and drove across the river to spend the day with my mom. I LOVE these kind of days. There is nothing better to me then sitting down with the television turned off and reminiscing about days gone by and getting a little mommy insight. You know the kind where you have heard a million people tell you the exact piece of advice but when it comes from the mouth of your mom it strikes a new cord and finally makes sense? That's exactly what I mean.

The last 6 months have been seriously rough on me. It's been a roller coaster ride from super exciting highs, to life altering lows. And my solution for dealing with these experiences has been to sweep them under the rug and pretend that everything is fine. Basically I deal with things by not dealing with things. I really just haven't been myself lately and I am pretty sure everyone has noticed.

I just had the opportunity today to make myself vulnerable to one of the few people in my life who I know love me unconditionally. She helped me pull out all the little dust bunnies that I've swept under the rug over the last 6 months and deal with them one by one. On my drive home tonight I knew exactly what I need to do in order to heal over and I felt a huge weight lifted off my shoulders. I am so grateful to have such a wonderful mom who has been the perfect example of what a mom should be: a friend and a mom. I'm so lucky!

First Blog

How exciting, it's our first little blog!!! I suppose a great way to start a blog is to tell everyone a little more about our family. I'm asuming that most would know the details of our family but for those of you who don't, here is almost everything you need to know about our "Happy Stanley Family".

Jon and I met each other in 2004 when both of us were working at Startek. We started out as friends, both of us involved in relationships at the time. Eventually our existing relationships were no longer and our friendship quickly evolved into a relationship. When we went on our first date I was introduced to little miss Zoey, his 9 month old daughter from his previous marriage. It was love at first sight! Jon had mentioned that Zoey was very teritorial and did not like to be held by people she wasn't very familiar with. To both of our surprise, during the movie we were watching, Zoey crawled out of her Dad's lap and into my arms where she fell asleep. From that point on, it felt like we were a little family. We dated for almost a year and on my 21st birthday, Jon asked me to be his wife. We were married on September 24, 2005 in Grand Junction, Colorado.

After a few months, we decided it was time to let our family grow and I became pregnant. I had a nearly perfect pregnancy. I was lucky enough to have no morning sickness and puking. The only thing I had to deal with was a little one who REFUSED to cooperate with the ultrasound machine, and some toxemia (sp??) at the very end of the pregnancy. It ended up being very special not knowing if we were having a boy or a girl because when I delievered, Jon was able to be the one who told me "Meet our beautiful son". Gavin Edward Stanley was born on October 23, 2006.

The last couple of years have really flown by quickly. Zoey is now five years old and loves to play dress up, babies, and color. She is all girl through and through. She loves to change her earrings to match her outfit, make her hair pretty, and paint her nails. She also LOVES going to preschool and is so excited to start Kindegarten in the fall. She is so beautiful and smart!

Gavin is now two years old and has given a new meaning to the phrase "terrible twos". LOL. Gavin has given us a run for our money this last year, keeping us on our toes and letting us know who's boss. I make it sound like he's awful, but he really is a sweet little boy. He loves to give hugs and kisses and cuddle time is the best part of his day! He is working really hard on potty training right now and LOVES to be called a big boy. Mommy and Daddy can't wait until we're out of diapers 100%!

Well, that's about it for now. This is a really long blog and I promise that it wont be this long in the future. We love you all!!!

-The Happy Stanley Family