Enjoying the weather!

On Saturday after we ran our 5k we took advantage of the nice, warm weather and went to feed some ducks.  My younger sister was in our neck of the woods so she joined us with her daughter, as well as the McSweeney's.  It was nice to spend time out in the sun making the ducks fish fat :)

Miss Koda was getting up close and personal with the fish :)

 Our beautiful baby

Amazingly when I took this picture, instead of saying "cheese" the duck said "Aflac!"

 Feeding the fish because they we hogging all the bread

 Cute picture of our Aussies

 Miss R

 Jared was letting Aurora drive around the parking lot.  She thought she was pretty cool and freaked out when it was time to be done and get in her car seat.

 Jared showing Aurora where to steer

 Jared - No hands!

Running with Angels 5k

On Saturday we were privileged to participate in the Running with Angels 5k at Thanksgiving Point Gardens (the same place we did the Walk of Remembrance last Saturday).  This is by far my favorite 5k we've done together.

• Mostly because it has personal meaning to our family
• We got to run the race for our angel baby, Nastassia Grace
• It's the first 5k we've done as a family of 3, and we ran the whole thing together 
• Thanksgiving Point Gardens is beautiful, and the scenery beat any other 5k we've done
• Everyone else running the race either had a personal story like ours, or they were there to support other family members and friends who have lost a child or more

It really was a special experience and I'm so glad we decided to do it and donate to a good cause, helping other families like ours when they go through the difficulty of losing a child.  We're excited to make this an annual event for our family and make it a special time to remember and honor Nastassia.


Before the race began, we had a moment of silence and a dove releasing ceremony to honor all the little ones we were running for.  It was a pretty emotional experience for a lot of people, including me, but in a good way!

There are 44 doves in this picture!

 Right before the race began

One thing I loved about the race was the great analogy it is to life in general.  Some parts of the course were really easy, a nice down-hill jog where things went smoothly and you could run faster with less effort.  Other parts of the course were much harder - the slight inclines that make you work a little bit, and the HUGE hill at the end reminded me of the difficult times in life where you have to try your best to reach the top of your trials and the relief you feel when you come out on top feeling like you've given your best effort.

Our family at the finish line

Darwin pushed Aurora in our awesome jogging stroller

 Our memory bibs for Nastassia - I think we'll make our own T-shirts for next year though

We were both proud of our success with this race.  I honestly felt I was able to do better than any other race I've done because I was doing it for Nastassia, with Darwin and Aurora right beside me.  Can't beat that!  Love you, babes :)

Race Results:

Chip Time: 30:44

Pace: 9:55/M

Overall Place (out of 810) - Darwin: 175, Kiara: 176

Gender Place - Darwin: 89, Kiara: 87

Division Place - Darwin: 11, Kiara: 19

Potentially Life-Threatening

Today we joined the 

"PLEASE KEEP PEANUTS
AWAY FROM MY CHILD" 

club.

We found out this morning, after finally taking Aurora in for allergy testing, that our precious baby girl has a serious peanut allergy, and it's potentially life-threatening.

Pretty scary stuff!

The doctor told us to warn all of our family and friends

and any of Aurora's caregivers about her allergy. . .

So be ye warned!!

We have to carry 2 epi-pens with us where ever we go now.

He said that about 1 in 5 kids grow out of peanut allergies, so we'll have her tested again in 5 years to see where she's at, and we'll keep our fingers crossed that she's the lucky 1.  She's also allergic to milk and eggs (which we also knew), but they're only minor allergies compared to the peanuts.

So, here we go on another adventure. . . Wish us luck!

P.S.  If anyone has been in our shoes and has any tips for us we'd be happy to take your suggestions!!

Oh yeah, and this is our 400th post, by the way.

Mother's Day Weekend

I was honestly very pleasantly surprised at how well I handled Mother's Day this year, with everything that has transpired in the last few months and losing our little Nastassia.  It was still hard, don't get me wrong, but I only shed a few tears compared to the fountains I was expecting.

Mother's Day can be bitter-sweet for a lot of people, and I'm one of those.  This Mother's Day marked the due date (actually May 9th, which was Mother's Day in 2010) of the first baby we were expecting but miscarried at 11 weeks.  It marked my 2nd official Mother's Day with my sweet Aurora, and it marked 5 weeks since we delivered Nastassia.  It was a beautiful weekend, and several things happened to help me heal emotionally.

Before I dive into the weekend's activities, I just want to thank Darwin for his love for me as his wife and the mother of our children.  He is the best husband ever, and I'm so grateful for him and all he does for me.  I wouldn't have the opportunity to be a mom if it wasn't for him.  So thanks for helping me become a Mom and be honored this Mother's Day along with the billions of mothers throughout history!  I love you!!

Also, thanks to my Mom, Omie, Mother-in-law, and Grandmother Jennings for all your love and all you do for us.  Happy Mother's Day!

To start off Mother's Day weekend, we were honored to participate in a very peaceful Walk of Remembrance at Thanksgiving Point Gardens.  We were invited to participate in the Walk with hundreds of other families who also have angel babies waiting in Heaven.  As we took our peaceful stroll through the Gardens and walked past dozens of families, I couldn't help but wonder what their stories were.  But overall, I was grateful to be there with Darwin and Aurora to take the time to remember and honor our sweet little Nastassia.  It was a beautiful day, and the gardens were healing to our whole family.

Rori wasn't in the mood for pictures

 Love the sunglasses, and she loves to wear them!

 Dar got some really nice shots of the the beautiful flowers!

 There's a pond with HUGE fish to feed.

Rori would have stayed to watch the fish all day if we'd let her

Inside the Gardens is a Secret Garden with a water fountain that Rori loved dipping her hands into

 I found a dime and let her throw it in :)

 One of the many birds we saw

 Dar showing Aurora the pretty waterfalls

After we visited the Gardens, we spent the rest of the day with my family.  We had a nice BBQ and enjoyed spending the day outside in the beautiful sunshine with people we love.

This girl loves her cars!

 Dar spent some time pulling each of the kids around in the sled

 Aurora and Dakoda

 Aurora and Liam playing in the sandbox

 With Koda and Hannah

 After everyone left Rori, got the sandbox all to herself!  She LOVED it!

 She'd put some sand on the shovel and throw it up so it'd land right on her head.

She did it over and over again.  Silly girl!

 Love this shot! :)

For Mother's Day, Dar made me breakfast, which was intended to be given to me in bed but I woke up before he got it finished.  Dar also got me a necklace I've been wanting, but especially after we lost Nastassia.  It was the perfect gift for me this year and I'm so glad I have a wonderful husband who loves me and gets me what I want :)  He also got me my favorite flowers: Gerber Daisy's, and I love any flower that's yellow! 

 

 Happy Mother's Day!

Family Night

Monday night is Family Night at our house.  We hold our weekly Family Home Evenings as diligently as possible.  Last night for family night we did our usual reading of a talk from General Conference after singing some songs together.  For our activity we played Just Dance Wii.  With Aurora's love of dancing I'm surprised it has taken us this long to play it with her!  She was super cute as usual :)

 Her "focus" face

 "Hi, Mom!"

 Thinking the remote is pretty cool

 She did a great job for her first time

 She's got some pretty sweet dance moves

 Love her expression in this picture :)

 Really getting into it

 And just for kicks, this is our cutie today :)

 Love you, Rori!