Happy Birthday Maeve Lillian

Wednesday the 22nd was Maeve's Birthday. Bryce and I brought lots of beautiful fresh flowers to her for the cemetery. I was also planning to give a gift to the parent network at the UVRMC NICU, but I still haven't heard back from them on what specifically they need. We could just write a check I suppose, but I would like the gift to be more personal for the families that need it and I would also like the service opportunity of purchasing and/or creating and delivering the gifts to the hospital instead of just handing them money. I still plan to do something though. If I don't hear back this week, I will just make a donation to the CDLS foundation. I would be doing so anyway, I just like to alternate and do the NICU on her birthday and the foundation on her angel day.

Someday soon, I am going to start posting the story of Maeve. It is difficult to do, but so many memories fade, and I know I need to write everything down so that I can hold on to it. For today, I just wanted to share one thing.

There were two songs that I used to sing to Maeve the most. One was "Three Little Birds" by Bob Marley, and the other was "House at Pooh Corner" by Loggins and Messina. Those are her songs and now hearing them is bittersweet. At her funeral, Doug and Brandy made a video montage of her pictures set to music and included both songs. "House at Pooh Corner" had an extra verse that I didn't know before and never sang to her, but I thought the lyrics were beautiful and so appropriate somehow.

It's hard to explain how a few precious things

Seem to follow throughout all our lives

After all's said and done I was watching my son Sleeping there with my bear by his side

So I tucked him in, I kissed him and as I was going

I swear that the old bear whispered "Boy welcome home"

Believe me if you can I've finally come back To the House at Pooh Corner by one

What do you know There's so much to be done

Count all the bees in the hive

Chase all the clouds from the sky

Back to the days of Christopher Robin

Back to the ways of Christopher Robin

Back to the days of Pooh

I love you, Bug. Happy Birthday.

I've been sick:(

Well, I am already behind on my blogging. I have had a nasty cold for the past week and have not done much of anything, but there have been a few highlights that I will mention.

I am the ward activity days coordinator for the primary girls. For their final activity before school starts back up, we took them to the Living Planet Aquarium in Sandy. This is supposed to be a preview of a bigger better aquarium that is still under construction. Honestly, I was not too impressed. I think that the displays at Cabella's are better (and we could have taken them there for free), but the girls seemed to have a great time, especially with the touch pools where they got to pet stingrays.

We went to church last week in Bountiful at Bryce's cousin Ashley's ward. She has just returned from her mission or Singapore/Malaysia. It was great to see her again and her talk was wonderful. We are so proud of her! Afterwards, we went to her families house for the usual get together. While we were there, we got to visit with tons of family including another of Bryce's cousins, Michelle. She and her husband live in Kentucky but have spent a month in Utah visiting before school starts back up for her husband. They had a baby (Lucy) 5 weeks before Isaac was born. Isaac and Lucy got to hang out together and someone even asked if they were twins! I don't think they look a lot alike, but they are about the same size.

Finally, the biggest news of the week... My mom graduated with her Masters in Business Administration from BYU! We are so proud of her. She is such a great example to my brothers and I. She moved us all to Utah as a single mom long ago to finish her Bachelors degree. She did it, while working full time and raising us. I am so glad that she decided to go back after more years away from school and get her MBA. We attended both the graduations for all of BYU and just her school and they were actually pretty good. We heard some great talks and of course, great songs by the choir.

Isaac Enjoying Thursday's Graduation at the Marriott Center

My Mom Singing in the Choir
Isaac has had enough!

Last Week in Review

We had quite an interesting week last week. It started off pretty fun for Isaac. I will try to avoid telling too many icky diaper stories in the future, but this was one for the record books. When Bryce was getting Isaac ready for church last week, Isaac decided to surprise him during his diaper change by peeing all over himself and the bed behind him. Bryce quickly stopped the problem, but Isaac was determined to finish the job. Just when Bryce thought he was safe and resumed the diaper change, Isaac decided to pee some more and made sure to cover any areas of our comforter that he missed. We decided to document the incident for your enjoyment and to embarrass or blackmail him when he is older.

On M0nday, The Deseret News published an article on CdLS. They included some information about our daughter Maeve, and a picture of her. I am an awareness coordinator for the CdLS foundation and I am so glad that even after her death, Maeve is still able to teach others. You can read the article here:

http://www.desnews.com/cgi-bin/cqcgi_plus/@plus.env?CQ_SESSION_KEY=RRJZBCZAPBZL&CQ_CUR_DOCUMENT=1&CQ_TEXT_MAIN=YES

Ruthie and Katie Callahan were here to visit from Wednesday through Friday. We met them during our stay in the Utah Valley Regional Medical Center NICU with Maeve. Katie was born a couple of weeks before Maeve and was 26 weeks gestation. Most babies born this premature have significant problems and delays but Katie is doing very well. She and Ruthie (her mom) were here for her 2 year Dr. appointments.

Ruthie and I took Katie and Isaac to visit our friends in the NICU and do some shopping at University Mall on Thursday. Although it was nice to see some of the people who helped care for Maeve, I realized that I was ready to move on from the NICU. I will never move on from Maeve and I will always treasure the memories of her and lessons she taught me, and carry it with me everywhere, but I think I can finally separate her from the NICU itself. A lot of NICU parents have a problem leaving at first. You actually miss the NICU and feel like it is home. I had that feeling for a long time too, but I think I no longer need to visit. I would love to see the nurses and docs if I run into them, but I won't be bugging them at work anymore:). It helps having Isaac. He is not tied to the NICU and his presence has really helped turn our house into our home. Maeve's place is not the NICU or the cemetery, it is in our hearts.

On Saturday, we took my mom to the Salt Lake Parade of homes. We were only able to get through five houses, but they were pretty amazing. The Parade goes through the end of this week, so we may see some more still. Although we will not be moving into a 3.5 million dollar house anytime soon, I did get some fun decorating ideas, so I am looking forward to doing a little shopping this week to get started!

We have a blog now!

This is probably how most of these sites start huh?

I have always thought it would be cool to have a blog, but have never had the time or know how. Since Isaac has been here, many of our friends and family have asked for pictures and I have been having a hard time keeping everyone posted, so I thought this would be a great way to share the fun with everyone. I keep trying to send pics around, and they are frequently kicked back because the emails are too large to be sent or received.

Anywho, I hope that this will be a fun way to journal, keep everyone informed, and help motivate Bryce and I to take more pictures:). Keep in mind that I am totally new at this and cut me some slack if it is not always up to date or entertaining. Enjoy!