Baby's got Back

I have this sweet little guy. He LOVES to be naked. he is allowed a few moments of freedom every time he is getting ready for a bath, getting cleaned after a massive blow-out (which usually results in a bath), or days like today where I just HAD to see his cute little booty walking around.

Cause you see, he has the tiniest booty ever! Seriously- little chicken legs, a little tiny booty attached...and then a cute little belly that sticks out quite large when compared to his little booty and chicken legs.

So, naturally when he is running around in his nakedness, enjoying every second of it, I have to take a few pictures of the bottom in all its glory.

Beware, you are going to see some nakedness...and I am sorry to my dear son who will hate me for it later. But come on, check out that bottom and know that you would do the same thing in my situation...

He obviously did NOT get my JLo Booty ;)

Sad Mama

Everything about Hawaii was great...except knowing that anything could happen with the kids while we were gone can always be unsettling. We learned Keaton was sick while we were gone, but had no idea the extent of his sickness until the day we were flying from Hawaii to Phoenix...

Cort's mom called us (his parents watched the kids while we were gone, stayed in our house, etc. It was great for the kids!) Tuesday morning and let us know that she was going to take Keaton to the doctor because he just wasnt getting better. When she got to the doctors office, they tested Keatons oxygen level, because he was wheezing really bad, and it was 75!!! It should have been at least 95! They took it again in disbelief and got an 84, which was better, but seriously bad at the same time. The doctor get her the option of driving him to hospital immedietly or calling an ambulance. Sue didn't have the other boys with her and took him straight to Primary Childrens where the doctor had already called and prepped them for his arrival.

We got the news when we were returning our rental car. I was so discouraged to say the least. I felt so completely helpless as a mother. I had similar feelings to when Keaton was in the NICU as a baby and I could not do anything to help him. I felt so completely far away (which I guess I was) and Cort's mom promised to call us with any new news here and there.

So Keaton was admitted, put on oxygen, getting his nose sucked every 2 hours to help him breathe. Cort's Dad and brother gave him a blessing and that really helped me during the flight to feel the power of the priesthood taking over to help Keaton. He has had many blessings in his life, something I am sooooo grateful for!

The next day, Wednesday, Cort and I made the trip from Phoenix to Utah. it was so difficult to concenrate on anything but Keaton. We knew he was where he needed to be, and that he was getting 100% love from his grandparents. But as a mother, is was heartbreaking not being there.

We got home at 7:45pm, I was on the road to the hospital with a bag packed by 8, having made arrangements for the older boys for the next day.

When I saw Keaton...I cannot even describe it. He looked like he had lost weight (and he is soooo little to begin with!). His eyes looked sunken and heavy, he sounded and looked terrible. I burst into tears. He looked at me strange for a few minutes, while being held by his Grandpa. Then he smiled and came to me and my heart melted. I held him all night, with the exception of a stretch from 2-6 where I got to actually sleep...somewhat. I have been holding him pretty much since.

He was released last night late. He is still REALLY sick, but the need for the hospital is over. He doesnt need the deep suction anymore. he is still on oxygen, going in the doctors office every day for an oxygen level check, suctioning and his overall well check. He is not drinking or eating as usual, but is getting better every day.

I want to express a special, special thank you for everyones prayers and help! Help with my kids while I was at the hospital, calls, dinners, offer for dinners. Its one thing to have a baby in the hospital, its another thing to have a baby in the hospital with kids at home! It has been so nice to feel all the love from everyone! So again, thank you!

And since I had my camera with me...a few pics of my sweet boy!

And just because Keaton is...well...Keaton... he gave the nurses a wonderful time while they were trying to put oxygen on him (so I was told). And by wonderful, I really meant terrible! My boy is such a fighter!! ;)

A few honorable mentions...

A few more honorable mentions from Hawaii that I couldnt find earlier... Snow cones with ice cream for $2?! Awesome...

Mahalo!

Soooo...Cortney and have always wanted to go to Hawaii. Neither of us have ever been. We came across a deal about 8 months ago, and decided for our 10 year Anniversary we would go. Our 10 year is not until October, but after lots of planning, we determined this to be the best time to go. Sooooo...6 days, 5 nights...It was wonderful. It was a little weird for me at first, I'm not going to lie. I am a full time mother. I have my girls nights, my time aways, but never away from all three kids for 9 days (with traveling, we were gone for 9 days away from the kids). So I almost didnt know what to do...Cortney had planned everything and it was great, but it was almost like, is this really true? I have no responsability? Just fun all the way?? I relaxed, and ended up having an amazing time with my wonderful hubby. This hubby of mine did an amazing time getting everything planned out for who, what, where, when and why and it ended up making our use of time while we were there great!! Soooo....lots of pictures, I actually did not post as much as I could have, but HAD to post at these ones:

We start off with, the Resort at Ko'Olina...WHOA Baby, It was amazing. 5 pools, waterfalls, 4 hot tubs. A-MAZING!!

This was from the 14th floor (not our floor).

Can you ever imagine staying anywhere like that? So awesome. Self-portrait at the beach while Cort was in the water...

Snorkeling for 1/2 a day at Haunami Bay was awesome. Probably Corts favorite part.

Hiking Manoa Falls to this waterfall. beautiful!!

We took a hike up to Diamondhead crater...this is from the top (these pics are kinda backwards)...but we were sweating cause it was straight up...

View from the top...

When I said straight up, this was a set of 100 stairs, one of like 3 sets of these and this was at the end of the hike!

The Sunset on Valentines Day from where we ate dinner...on the beach. Yes.

We went to see the Hawaii temple. It was closed for renovation, but beautiful to walk around the grounds. Very nice!!

We thought the carvings at the top of the temple were so beautiful.

We also checked out a Buddhist temple. (Forgive me if I spelled it wrong!) It was very sacred and cool.

Finally, my favorite of the trip was the Polynesian Cultural Center. It was a very hot day, but it was so amazing. So, there was so much that happened there, but one of my favorites was that around lunch time they have a show where they all come out dancing on canoes. Seriously, different dancing from different places. Fiji, Hawaii, Tonga, Samoa, New Zealand. WOW...

A true polynesian climbing a coconut tree.

A very attractive couple!

The final night time show was amazing, of course, lots of dancing with fire, lots of things that are

so talented!!

We also toured Iolani Palace, Pearl Harbor, The North Shore, Dole Pineapple Plantation to name just a few more wonderful things. Like I said...so many pictures, I just couldnt post them all!! ;)

But I learned a lot about beautiful Hawaii! Some of them include that everyone there has Tattoos! Men, women, boys, girls of all ages (okay, I didnt see any kids with them), but it is a way of living there, and since most people are around with their shirts off or in itst bitsy teenie-weenie bikins where they can show them off, it works for them.

Everyone there drives reaaaaalllllly slow (Can I say Boise drivers anyone? ;)) The speed limits were low, but I mean come on? I think its just the laid back feel you get in Hawaii from everyone- It was cool. hard to drive slow but cool. I loved learning everything I did while I was there- Whenever I go somewhere and learn the history of why they live the way, etc, I am always excited and want to learn more.

So, aloha, mahalo! It was awesome. Go to Hawaii. Book your tickets now.

Is this really me?

So it's weird. We are leaving tomorrow for Hawaii. Well, the start to getting to Hawaii. We are driving to Las Vegas late tomorrow night, then driving from LV to AZ Wednesday, in no hurray. Family party Wednesday night, fly to Hawaii first thing Thursday morning.

SOOOOOOO Exciting.

Now, if you know me, you know that I have no problems leaving my kids with most people at any time. Not that I don't love them or care about their well being or whatever. I just got so used to leaving them when Keaton was in the NICU...sometimes even when I didn't want to, or didn't know someone as well. I leave them for Girls Night outs and a weekend trip, etc. No problems. They are also at the age where to go to friends houses all the time. I have no problems with this.

So why have I all of a sudden in the middle of the night last night starting to freak about leaving them? I woke up at 2am and literally could not go back to sleep until 6:07am (the last time I looked at the clock before falling asleep). My chest hurt, I felt all panicky about leaving them. Is it about leaving them with my in-laws? NO. It's just that thought that came suddenly in the back of my head that said "what if I don't come back?" for some reason? Airplane crash, what have you. What if I don't ever see them again? And then my heart hurts and I fight back the tears.

Now, I know I cannot live my life this way. I truly belive it is healthy for both the children and us as parents to have our time. It is good for our relationship to get away (and we are celebrating our 10 year Anniversary, yes a few months early), and its good for the kids to see us do this, and to feel our absence and see us come back. We do date night swaps 2 Friday nights a month and I have never batted an eye about leaving them...I cannot be scared about this!

So when I say I cannot live my life this way, I also mean that no one can live their life in fear of the unknown. If something is going to happen to me or Cortney, then it is Heavenly Fathers plan, and that persons time to go. I cannot not go on a trip because of fear.

So, I have decided to sulk up these last moments with my kids before leaving on my trip. Really enjoy them and try really hard not to get really mad at them for something they might do to make me upset. I look into their little faces and love them so much, so thats what my focus is when I am leaving. I am FORGETTING about the fear that I may have and know that they are going to have a great time with their grandparents!!

The house is spotless, the fridge and pantry stocked for the family (in-laws are staying here most of the time we are gone), clean sheets on beds, clean towels set out, and 6 pages of instructions, helpful hints, medicine doses, phone numbers, insurance cards, etc. We are ready!

So, SIGH, we are ready. Its okay for me to miss the kids, but great for me to have a great time without them and enjoy this time with my hubby, who I married 9 and almost 1/2 years ago.

Aloha!

The Big 30!

Well now, I am 30. It all happened that faithful day, back on January 31st, 1980 to Sandra Elizabeth Gailey. She went to the hospital to be induced, she had preclampsia. The doctor did not realize I was her 5th child to be born, or that it was HER birthday. Had he known it was her 5th child, he might had believed her when she said..."I am slow for a little while, but then when I'm ready, I'm READY and the baby comes quick." Instead, he went to lunch. And she went quick. And I was ready. And the nurses rushed into the hallway and yelled for a doctor. In came an anesthesioligist...(I know, I cant spell big words) I came bottom first with the cord wrapped around my neck three times...I was the 100th baby he had delivered. And now, my mother, my niece and I all have the same birthday.
My mom and I celebrated together for years...

Until I moved away...

It had been 6 years since my mom and I celebrated our birthdays together! Until my sister called me and said "liz, you have to come for your birthday this year, theres an amazing airline deal for that weekend." So I begged my hubby, and booked my ticket! Me and Keaton went and I had an amazing time with my family. My brothers birthday is two days after ours, then my sisters two days after that...so we had a huge family party and it was awesome! I am lucky to have such a special bond with my mother!

I love being crafty, love getting better at sewing. I have always loved music and can't hardly listen to a song with a good beat without moving in some way. I love dancing. I used to hate reading and even in high school would skim read or do whatever I could not to read a book, and yet know the book...but I love reading now...

I love to swim. For several years during high school I wanted to become an Olympic Swimmer. I know I probably wasn't good enough to make it, but I was good, and it was good to have such a big dream.

I love to dream. I hate nightmares, especially because every dream I have is SO REAL but I love dreaming. I am a night owl. I could stay up all night if I knew I did not have to get up in the morning.

I have an amazing knack for getting ready really quickly. I HATE to be late. I believe 10 minutes early is on time.

I have always been and will still forever be...DRAMATIC! My favorite color is RED. I loooove my family. I want to adopt. I want to make a differnce. I feel extremely blessed with what I have. I have a very devout Mormon and stand strong in my faith. I have witnessed miracles.

I really love the nice shade of olive my skin has. It has been this way since I was born. I used to tell boys in grade school that I was hispanic and pretend to speak spanish...I know, what?

I once told a guy in High School that I sang the backround part "up" in an Erasure song that I cant think of the name of right now, and he totally believed me...I am not a good liar when it comes to something serious, but I can play a good joke! I am not sad about turning 30. I have big goals for this year.

Slow and Steady Wins the Race!

Soooo....I went to Arizona this past weekend. This first post is about the Half Marathon my Sister Sarah MADE me run! ;) Seriously, a few months back we talked about doing a half together. I have never run in my entire life. I wasn't sure I could do it. We set to train for a 10K and somehow a few weeks later, my sister talked me into doing the half. The coolest thing is A.-My brother, brother in law, little sis and big sis all were going to do it with me. B.-It's for an amazing cause (Londonsrun.org), and C.-It was the day before my birthday and something exciting and challenging to do the day before I turned 30!

Soooo...off to training I went. Now, the first two weeks were great cause the weather permitted me to run outside. Once the snow started sticking to the ground, it became more difficult. This is when my sweet hubs told me we could start looking for a used treadmill on ksl. We did, we bought, and had numerous problems (which is a whole other post, not going to go into details right now).

I trained anyway, even though some days it meant getting on the treadmill for 2 miles, jogging around my basement while the overheated treamill cools down, then getting back on the treadmill for 2 more miles, repeat! Some days it was running in the snow, and some days it was an easy run.

It was crazy. It was not easy. It was a challenge but I was determined and dedicated to not giving up!

Day of the Half...not super nervous, maybe too confident? Thinking the weather being nicer and road conditions/elevation would all work to my advantage. Normally it probably would have. However, about 2 minutes before the race started, so did my period! Sorry men who are reading this, but the day I start my cycle is cramp central. So I had no supplies with me. I just ran. And I knew it wasn't going to be pretty after (again, sorry for the visual), but what choice did I have?

I ran, and ran. And from mile 3, I felt like I was going to die. Why? I don't even know. But I felt completely lagging almost the entire race. It's weird because when I ran 10 1/2 during training, I felt like I could have gone on forever and never stopped. So I was shocked to be struggling. But I never stopped.

I knew if I stopped, I could never start up again. And the cramps continued, the back pain, the soreness everywhere was evident by mile 8, but I kept going. Now mind you, the further I went, the slower I went. At first I was with my sisters, then behind them slightly, then they were completely out of sight. But I never walked. I ran, slowly. Slow and steady wins the race! People would pass me, then later I would pass them, then it would be repeated. But in the end, I was slow, but made it.

During the last 1/2 mile, I was really sad that my whole family was finished and I knew they were just waiting for me. But then as I rounded a corner, my sister was running to me. She had this huge smile and was yelling "go Liz, you're almost done!" and my spirits immedietly perked. She ran with me for about 1/4 mile, then I booked it as fast as I could to the finish line and was done!

I felt to great! Even though it was hard, I felt undertrained (although I know I wasnt, its just how I felt at the time) and out of breath, it was also this amazing feeling! I felt like I could do anything!

So there you have it. I am publically admitting how slow of a runner I was, and how terrible I did during the 1/2, I am also admitting that I never gave up! it was awesome!!

This was before we started. Brother in law, sister and wife to bro in law, brother, me, little sis and little sisters niece through marriage. Good times.

After the race, sweaty, glad to be done. We have a ribbon to prove it!

Sisters!

And yes, I am posting the most unflattering, awful looking picture of me. I am trying to put all my vainness aside and show that even though I look absolutely huge and terrible in this picture, this picture shows me what I accomplished!

My little sis had enough energy to do a self portrait while running. Nice. See me in the background dying already??

And last but not least, I DID IT!