Alora got sick :(

So after a year of being the healthiest child ever Alora finally got sick. Last Tuesday night I noticed that she was feeling a little warm, but since she wouldn't stay still to have her temperature checked I didn't know how high it was. By the next night she was super hot and I knew something was up. Bobby volunteered at 6am to go to the store to get a thermometer that would test her forehead that was quicker so we could know how high her fever was.

By the time he got home and we checked she was running a fever of 102. We gave her some tylonel and it went down some, but I could tell she definitely wasn't feeling well. I was confused because I thought she would be having other symptoms, but besides the fever she didn't have anything else going on. We went ahead and took her to the pediatrician, and he checked her out. He said one ear looked a little red and so he proscribed some antibiotics.

We went home, but by that night Alora's temperature was now up to 103. Being first time parents Bobby and I freaked out. We tried to check online to see when a temperature is too high and when you should really worry, but of course our internet was down. So we made the split second decision to take her to the ER. When we got there they said that her ears, nose, and throat looked fine and they weren't sure why she had a fever. They said to just alternate tylonel and ibuprofen to help get her fever down (so wish the first doctor would have told us that).

Finally by this weekend Alora finally started to feel better. I'm still not 100% sure what caused her to get ill, but I'm glad that she is starting to feel good now. This experience definitely helped me be thankful for when she is her normal happy self and to not take that for granted.

Healthy and Happy Alora hanging out with her Disney Pals :)

Alora meeting Santa

On Saturday we took Alora to meet Santa. I was a little hesitant at first because I know that at 1 year old now, there was a very good chance that Alora could freak out and cry. But since Bobby had grown up always taking pictures with Santa we wanted to start this tradition with our kids too. In order to prepare Alora for this experience Bobby would point out any Santa we saw, whether on TV, the computer, or different Santas we have around the house.

When we arrived at the Mall where Santa was Bobby put Alora down so she could decide if she wanted to walk up to Santa or not. Bobby pointed out Santa and showed Alora how excited he was about seeing Santa. She hesitantly walked up to Santa where we then put he onto Santa's lap. She was a little subdued at first and just stared at us like she didn't know what to do. But eventually we got a great picture and it was a wonderful experience :)

Heavenly Father is part of every aspect of our lives.

On December 1st (Thursday) Alora had to go in to get her shots, but when we went to start the car it was dead. Thankfully our neighbors were able to jump our car, but as soon as we stopped to get gas it died again. So we decided to take it into Checkers (a car part shop) and have them test our battery. We were bummed that it would be about $100 for a new battery, but we were hoping it wouldn't be anything major. After the employee tested our battery he said that the battery itself was fine, but the alternator which keeps the battery charged was dead and to get a replacement one it was going to be $182 +labor to have it be put in.

Now we were getting a little more worried. $100 is something we were planning on but close to $200 we weren't. We had them go ahead and order the new alternator, but they said that they price match so if we could find a better price online then we could pay that price instead. When we arrived home I immediately jumped online and found a site that had alternators for only $95, but since it wasn't a store that we could walk into Checkers said they couldn't price match it. So after talking it over with Bobby we decided that it would be worth the money we saved if we ordered it online, but had to wait 4-5 days for it to arrive.

On Tuesday we had to go to our tithing settlement (which we forgot to sign up for earlier). Bobby was very sweet and offered to walk over to church so that we all didn't have to walk in the cold weather. While he was there Bobby mentioned to the Bishop how our car was dead and the alternator needed to be replaced. It was then Bishop said that Brother Ricks in our ward knew a lot about cars and could probably install it for us. (Now originally I was bummed that we had missed the earlier appointments for tithing settlement, but I know that the Lord had a plan for us because if Bobby hadn't talked to the Bishop we would have taken our car in to a regular repair place and probably would have cost us a lot more.

The alternator arrived on Thursday and on Friday morning Brother Ricks came over and was able to put in our new alternator. It now works perfectly and only cost $120 for the part and labor. I know that though we weren't planning on our car dying, our Heavenly Father was very aware on what was going to happen. I know that everything that happened, happened at that time for a reason. All in all I'm grateful for this experience, though Bobby may disagree since it was him who had to walk in the freezing weather to class each day while we waited for the part to come in :)

Our life since getting Married!

Bobby and I got married on Aug 7, 2009 and since then we have been really busy. Since I have so much to catch up on this first post will cover Aug 2009 to Dec 2010. : )

We moved into our first apartment in Issaquah, WA and lived there until December.

In December we got to go on our amazing honeymoon to Disneyland and had a blast in the rain!

On New Year's Eve we left Washington to move to Idaho to go to school.

(Bobby is pointing to towels we had to put by the window because when it rained the water would come through. Gotta love the time we spent there haha)

Bobby turned 25 in February

I turned 20 in April.

We found out we were expecting our little gummy bear :)

We found out we were having a little girl

We went on a cruise with my family to the Western Caribbean and celebrated 1 year of marriage.

We went to a Parker family reunion in Helena, Montana.

Slowly but surely looking more pregnant. (7 months pregnant here)

Sam threw me a wonderful baby shower in October (8 months pregnant).

Had a kind of uneventful Halloween (hard to trick or treat when it is snowing and was on a Sunday)

By November I was very much done being pregnant and so we decided to make a snowman to maybe get contractions going. Here is Bobby with Mike Wazowski.

Finally on November 12 around 11pm we headed to the hospital. Alora was on her way!

(Here we are around 2am walking the halls of the hospital...we were kind of excited)

Proud daddy.

Beautiful Alora Lynn.

Daddy holding Alora all 5lbs 10oz of her who only would fit into premie clothes.

We were now a happy family of 3!

In December Bobby gave Alora her name and a blessing. Such a proud moment for everyone.

Alora turned 1 month old. And we all had a wonderful first Christmas as a tiny family.