Turning 29! Celebrating the Last Year of My 20's

I was so excited for this Birthday! Josh had a whole big weekend planned out for me that included my Mom watching the kids and me getting LOTS of TLC! It was going to be perfect.... and it would have been if that week hadn't turned into the week from hell :(.

You see, it all started with  my alcoholic Mother getting wasted and driving her car off a cliff. Yes, you heard right. I still can't get over the shock of it myself. So my sisters and I spent a very crazy night in the hospital with my drunk Mom (who by the way, can't remember anything from that night). It was awful, annoying, exhausting, basically all the bad things. Then she was discharged and we had to figure out what to do with her! She couldn't go back home because obviously she has a very big problem and although we knew she drank, we didn't know how bad it had become. We were also worried about Nathan coming home from working outages and losing his mind on her (which would not be helpful). So another stressful day went by with no sleep and severe anxiety. We finally talked her into going to Rehab and tried our best to get her out of the house before Nathan came home but that didn't work out. Oh my gosh, talk about stressful! Briana stood guard and took the brunt of his anger while my Mom packed all her things as I was on the speaker phone talking her through everything and going over everything that needed to be taken care of while she would be away. There was a lot of crying, a lot of screaming, and a lot of bad memories :(. But by the end of that night we got her checked into Rehab and I was hoping to get at least 4 hours of sleep before I had to go to work early the next morning. Wrong again! I then spent that night answering phone calls from all my Mom's siblings who had just learned about our current situation. Then I went to work for 14 hours, and all day at work I felt terrible. I kept getting really dizzy and had to go sit down. I knew something was wrong with me but I figured it was due to not sleeping for a couple days + intense stress. I was wrong again! I woke up the next day feeling beyond awful. I couldn't breathe, I couldn't talk, and I had zero energy. After waiting 6 hours for my Grandma Wiegel to drive from St. George to help with the kids so I could go to Urgent Care, it turned out I had pneumonia :(. It was quite the shocker! The doctor said it was pretty bad and told me both my lungs were totally filled with fluid. She couldn't believe I didn't know I had pneumonia and I admit I was surprised too! All I could figure was my body was trying to ignore my own pain while I was busy trying to solve everybody else's. Josh couldn't take time off work so luckily Grandma stayed with us for a couple days while I slept. I felt like I could have slept for weeks, I was that exhausted. We also had plenty of well wishers and meals delivered from my sweet friends in the ward.

Sitting on the couch waiting for Grandma to show up while my kids destroyed the house around me...

This is what I did for three straight days!

All our plans for my Birthday were ruined and my spirits were so low.... like below zero low. It was too late to get our money back for our hotel and we didn't know how we would be able to go anywhere anyway with me being super sick and the little fact that our babysitter was currently going through detox :(. Then my sweet sister Briana came to our rescue! She and my cousin Jessica slept over and babysat the kids while Josh and I stayed at Mandalay Bay! Obviously it wasn't a "party" kind of hotel stay. It was more like an enjoyable relaxing day/night sleeping and lounging by the pool kind of stay. Josh had also bought me a 90min massage which I enjoyed immensely, even though I lied to the lady and told her I wasn't really that sick.... It was different from what we had planned, but great all the same!

So thankful for my sweet hubby. He makes me happy when skies are gray!

Lounging by the pool on the man-made beach (which by the way was super cool) and soaking up the sun was just what I needed!

We woke up the next morning, grabbed breakfast at Starbucks, and ate in our bed while we enjoyed our last few kid free hours. I also took two hot baths in the giant Jacuzzi tub! It was just what the doctor ordered :). Then we checked out of our hotel, picked up Cafe Rio for lunch, and headed home to our babies. We got home to a beautiful surprise! Briana and the kids had made me a cake! It was crumbly and falling apart with a large layer of icing and sprinkles on top but I started tearing up when I saw it because it was so obvious how much love had gone into making it! Austin was so proud of himself and couldn't wait to tell me all about how he made it :). Honestly, it was the greatest cake of my life! And it was yummy to boot!

My sweet boy and the "Happy Birfday cake" he made for his Mama :).

So all in all, my Birthday actually turned out to be pretty awesome. It took me a good two weeks to recover from the pneumonia and the drama with my Mom just continues.... but I have a beautiful memory of my Birthday weekend to remind me that there are so many people who love me... and that makes me the luckiest 29 year old in the world :).

I am so so blessed!

Sadie came over that afternoon with a beautiful vase of flowers and hung out for a couple hours with us. She has been in Paramedic school and hasn't been around much (which has been annoying since I could have really used her help that past week). But she apologized and explained that she failed her test the day after Mom went into the hospital and she needed to separate herself from all the drama. And she also made this cute collage with the sweetest note to go with it so of course I forgave her ;).

I hope you know how grateful and lucky I am to have you as an older sister. Despite the fact that you wanted them to, "send her back." ❤ Happy Birthday to my first friend, and best friend I've ever had or will ever have. From being dressed in the same outfits, playing with dolls, teaching me how to ride my bike, 4th of July dinners on great grandma's lawn, selling pies to buy a dog, adventures with dad, stealing your clothes, fighting in the bathroom we shared every morning, making dumb decisions and you loving me anyway, to watching each other grow into the women we are today. I don't want anybody else by my side. You have taught me so many important things in my life, and I don't know what I'd do without you. Thank you. I hope today is filled with love. ❤ you are amazing, sis. You have created a beautiful family, and you work so so hard. I'm very proud of you. Happy Day of Birth. Love Sadie.

Oh how I love my beautiful little family! At 29 years old I feel like I have it all!

I am so grateful for these two sweet girls and their loving acts of kindness so I could enjoy my wonderful Birthday!

!

Happy Love Day 2017!

Love my cute Valentines :).

Valentines Day this year was wonderful and full of so much love! Austin is at such an adorable age where he finds every holiday so fascinating and exciting! He asks a million questions about what we do for each holiday, when we do it, and why we do it :). For days he has been writing us love notes in his own unique scribble-language. And Evie of course just follows along like his ever faithful follower, always ready for something new!

We started off the holiday a couple days earlier with a trip to the dollar store where they each picked out valentines cards and then took them home to color them for all their friends :). Their excitement over something so simple was so stinking cute! Austin chose Minions valentines and Evie of course chose Minney Mouse. That girl has a serious obsession with Minney! She literally starts screaming and jumping up and down if she sees Minney on TV and she insists on wearing her Minney Mouse pajamas every. single. day. Of course that is disgusting and I don't allow it but she puts up quite a fight when I try to explain this to her!

It's Valentine decorating time!

Austin took the job very seriously.

Oh how I love my little man and his excitement for life! He makes the holidays come alive for us!

Mid-morning on Valentines Day, we had a Baby-Valentines Day party with all our little friends in the ward and neighborhood! We met up at the park and decorated cupcakes and sugar cookies and ran around wild on the playground. Besides the wind, it was so picturesque. The sun was shining and the temperature was perfect. The kids had a blast playing together and us Mom's had a great time catching up on each others lives. Austin sweetly handed out all his valentines cards to his friends and their Mama's (which was too cute for words) and we ended up taking Evie's valentines back home because she was more interested in going down the super high slide all by herself over and over and over. She is such a dare devil! And heaven help the person who tries to tell her she's too little to do something!

Decorating cupcakes! I love Evie's little chocolate mustache on her "I mean business" face!

MMMmmmmm!!!

The whole gang!

The kids took the  job of decorating and eating so seriously and meanwhile us Moms were having a blast while we watched! haha!

Evie likes a little booger to go with her chocolate ;).

The little girl next to Austin is Blakely, Evie's best friend. They are so cute together and love to give each other hugs and kisses. I can't wait to see where their friendship goes as they get older!

Evie getting down to go run off all that sugar before she came back for seconds :).

While the kids were napping I stayed true to tradition and made everyone their homemade giant pink sugar cookie! Made with love by Mom :). It is a tradition my Mom started with us when I was a little girl and I absolutely loved it! Now I carry on this tradition with my own family and it gives me so much joy to see how it lights up all their sweet faces! When Josh got home from work he came bearing gifts (Roses for me and candies for the kiddos)! Then we sat down and finally got to dig into the cookies! Austin had been begging to eat his cookie for hours so he was frustrated that we had to stop and take a picture first haha :). But these pictures are something I treasure because it shows our little family as it grows each year. The kids also got to give Daddy their Valentine cards! Austin kept reading his out loud and changing the words to make it more silly each time since we laughed so hard at how cute his original card was hehe :).

The moment he had been waiting for.....

That cookie was bigger than her head! LUCKY GIRL!

Later that night, Josh watched the kids while I got to skip making dinner and go to a Pure Barre class! He spoiled me rotten that night with jewelry, chocolate, and flowers, but the gift of an hour to myself was by far the greatest gift of all! After putting the kids to bed, Josh and I had a romantic Valentines evening together with Sushi, chocolate, and lots of kisses ;).

I came home from Barre class so refreshed and in love with my sweet hubby. It was the perfect Valentines Day!

Austin snapped this pic and I am so sad that it's blurry because it's so sweet! I love my life so much and all the sweet people in it!

Welcoming in 2017 With a Fiesta Bowl New Years!

The National Championship trophy!

We decided to make this New Years Eve a little different from our usual lights out by 9pm after we watch the ball drop in NYC. We decided to take a trip to Phoenix for the Fiesta Bowl Football Playoff Game with Josh's Mom, Step-Dad, Brother Nick & his whole gang! Originally Tony's gang and our kids were all going to go too but when Tony dropped out we decided to leave our kids at home and make a romantic trip out of it!! Yay!

I dropped the kids off for a weekend at my Mom's house and then Josh and I headed off on our adventure as soon as he got off work! It was possibly one of the scariest drives of our lives when we hit an intense rain storm up in the steep passages of the mountains. It was a two lane highway and we couldn't see the lines on the road. Every car that drove by was possibly going to be the one that killed us. Luckily we survived though! Our navigation system also took us all over Phoenix before actually finding our Hilton Hotel so to say we were exhausted, frustrated, and irritated by the time we got in Friday night is an understatement. We stopped at Nick & Jenn's hotel door to say goodnight and then we passed out in our hotel bed, thankful to be alive! Janis and Steve flew in later that night.

Saturday was game day! Before the game we all went out for lunch at Rodizzio! This wasn't just any Rodizzio however...... it's the restaurant we are all part owners in! We were all so excited to finally see the fruits of our labors! I can't remember if I mentioned this previously so I will catch you up if not. When Art died, we all inherited a large amount of money from his life insurance. With that money we paid off our house and then invested the rest into a family restaurant with Josh's two brothers! It has been a whole year in the making and we are still yet to see the monetary fruits of our labors but it was so cool to stand in a restaurant and be able to say we are the owners! We got a private tour throughout the place and met all the important people running the show while we all live far away. It was amazing!! Our meal was completely free (of course) so we ordered it all from the expensive drinks to the amazing desert!

The gang in front of our restaurant!

Good food, good people, good times!

**NOTE: We all decided to invest in this particular Brazilian restaurant because it was one of Art's favorites. Every birthday was held there. In fact, on the last trip we took to Utah the week before he died, he handed us a wad of cash and told us to go out on a date to Rodizzio while he watched the kids! So it has sentimental value and it just felt right to invest his life insurance in that way. Also, Nick somehow knows someone high up in corporate to make it all possible! Nick and Tony own a much larger portion than we do, but that's because we decided to use half of our money to pay off our house. We felt that the financial security and freedom that comes from being completely debt free was more important than a large risky investment. Our family goal (since we were given permission by corporate to be the sole owners of the Arizona region) is to open a chain of these restaurants in the near future! We will see how that goes!***

Anyways, after eating we headed to the big game! Josh is a HUGE Ohio State fan (although he does like Clemson too) so we wore our Buckeye apparel. There was a really fun pre-game party that we enjoyed walking around and then we headed inside University of Phoenix stadium for the game! Sadly, the Buckeyes lost miserably and now won't be going to the National Championship, but the game itself was really fun! Plus, Josh and I got to take a picture standing next to the National Championship trophy which is a once in a lifetime opportunity so that was good enough for us! We spent the rest of the evening after the game at a fun Mexican restaurant by our hotel eating wayy too much chips and salsa and enjoying each others company. We had all sorts of stuff planned for ringing in the New Year but Nick and Jenn's family was super tired and had to get up early the next day so we said goodnight to everyone and did the countdown by ourselves in our hotel room. We never get a chance to be alone these days so this was just fine with us!

The Pre-Game Party! 

Walking around the pre-game party!

It was so nice to be "us" again!

Such a cool stadium! Josh's first job when we were newly married was as a Financial Advisor for University of Phoenix :).

The famous Ohio State Band! They were incredible!

It really hurt to know that Art should have been with us at that game. We love Steve so much, but sometimes it just isn't the same. We love you Pops :(.

Game Time!

I have no idea who that random guy in the back is but he got to be the center of our picture! haha!

AMAZING SHOW!

The band spelling out OHIO! So cool!

The next day it was just us and Josh's parents because Nick's group left for home so we enjoyed it by sleeping in, going out to breakfast, hot tubbing in the rain, watching movies in our hotel room and taking a nap, and then later going out to dinner. It was the perfect Sunday!

SOOOO RELAXING!!!! And much needed!

We were so sad to go home the next day. We missed our kids but have missed freedom so much!! Luckily our drive home wasn't the white knuckler that our previous drive had been, so it was actually quite enjoyable! It was like old times, singing in the car, talking while holding hands, and laughing about the silly things. This trip was exactly what we needed!

LOVE THIS GUY!! And I LOVE the life we have together!

Even though she isn't showing it, Baby Girl was happy to have us home again haha! Oh silly baby!

And Austin was excited to ring in the new year AGAIN! Grandma Janis sent us home with all sorts of fun noise makers for the kiddos and they were a big hit!

While we were away, my Mom sent a couple pictures of the kiddos. Evie had a great time at Grandma's house riding her horsey!

And Austin got to stay up until midnight for the first time in his life! So basically we were all having a great time! :)