Easter Weekend

Luckily I had Saturday, Sunday, and Monday off work so Sean and I were able to have a nice Easter weekend. Saturday I made a scavenger hunt around our house and at the end was Sean's easter basket. Then we colored easter eggs which is always fun. I bought the "dye kit" at the dollar store so I wondered how good it would really be. It turned out to be the best kit ever. The colors were so bright and vibrant--we were pleased with the results. After we colored the eggs we bought groceries and came home to make our homemade version of Subway's "Spicy Italian" sub complete with homemade sweet onion sauce just like they have there at the restaurant. They were very yummy. Sunday we enjoyed our church meetings and then spent the evening in Salt Lake with Sean's extended family. It was a great weekend.

I made a plastic table cloth out of grocery bags and tape. I wanted to keep our table protected from the strong blue dye that stains everything.

Here are Sean's 6 eggs. Very vibrant huh?

Here are 2 of my 6 eggs. The yellow one has my name on it and the pink one is just cute because it's pink.

Lately...

I've been debating in my head back and forth whether or not to post this on our blog. I've come to a conclusion: this is a huge part of our life right now and blogs are not meant to glorify and fictionalize reality into only smiles and laughs. Reality is happiness and sadness, smiles and frowns. This is reality.

Last month Sean and I experienced our second devastating miscarriage. We were thrilled to be expecting again and couldn't wait to share our happy news with everyone. I loved the idea of being a mother and Sean was excited too. As women, all our lives we're taught the importance of motherhood and how nourishing and raising a family is the most important work of all. I thought that after one miscarriage (last August) this would be our second chance. Things would work out and baby would be healthy and well.

Heavenly Father has a different plan for us right now. After hours in the emergency department and many tears later, we came home just the two of us. This has proven to be extremely difficult, frustrating, and sad and it is on my mind every moment of every day. I know that many others couples face similar trials and for you I am so sorry. Miscarriages are quite common but the pain is still very real.

Sean and I have faith that our loving Heavenly Father will make all things right and fair. We try to submit our will to Him and know that if we let Him guide us, we will not go wrong. When I hoped that my prayers would be answered with physical healing, they were instead answered with the strength and patience to bear the burdens placed upon me. He hears us. He loves us. "[He] will not leave you comfortless: [He] will come to you." (John 14:18)

6th Picture Tag

Rebecca tagged me so here it is.

Post the 6th picture in the 6th folder and blog about it.

This is one of our engagement pictures taken a couple of years ago. A friend took them for us so we could save money. I remember at first our "photo session" was a little awkward and forced, but I think by this time we were having fun. We had to take our engagement pictures early (in April and we didn't get married until August) because I was leaving to go to Argentina for my internship a couple weeks later. Good times!!

I'm officially a cake decorator

A few months ago Sean was encouraging me to try out something new and fun. Since I'm not in school anymore I needed to find an outlet besides nursing. So I decided to take up cake decorating. We're not huge "cake fans" but I still think it's a fun skill to have under your belt. So here's how the last four weeks went.

Week One: I went to cake class and learned lots but didn't have to bake my own cake.

Week Two: We had to bring a layered cake with filling in the middle and completely frosted. Here is the blank canvas.
Here it is after I decorated it.

So proud of my very first cake. (The class was from 7-9pm and right after this picture I had to run off to work from 10pm to 6am. No time to enjoy the cake at home so I took it to work with me and the other nurses loved it.)

Week Three: We learned lots of new techniques including the clown. It looks kind of creepy with the flash from the camera but actually it was kind of cute.

This week's assignment was cupcakes. I've always liked cupcakes because they are a perfect little size, easy to share and pass out, and yummy too.

Week Four: Our final project was the rose. It was kind of difficult but once you get the hang of it, no sweat. This is my bouquet all made from frosting.

I put the roses on the side of the cake thinking that I'd want to put words in the blank spot. I couldn't think of anything to write so I left it empty. Oh well.

I encourage everyone to step out of the box and try a new skill or talent that you've never tried before. It was pretty fun.

Recipe for Fun

1. Fly to Arizona for a long weekend.
2. Welcome Elder Eric Oborn home from his mission to Uruguay.

Norine and Eric

Elizabeth, Sean, and Eric (yes he is 6 foot 5 inches)

3. Have an authentic mariachi band come to your home and play great music for 2 hours.

4. Spend time with lots of family members. (There were 40 people--all family.)

Sean, Steve, and Laura

Norine and Brynlee

5. Rent a soft-serve ice cream machine and have as much vanilla ice cream as you want. (no picture, but we really did have one)

6. Take family pictures. (I'll post them when I get them.)

7. 75 degree weather in the middle of January. Wow!! The 2 things we forgot to pack were shorts and swimsuits.

Record Breaking Stats!!

Happy New Year to you!!!

Working in labor and delivery on New Year's Eve has some exciting aspects to it. For one, I helped usher the first baby of 2009 (in the county) into this world at 12:31 am. It was a fun birthday party for sure. Also, I got to find out the 2008 stats. The total babies born at our hospital in the year 2008 ....drum roll please...................................4,798!!!! That's a lot of babies. This is the hospital's highest yearly total in 27 years. Just some random facts I thought I'd share.

Christmas in AZ

We had lots of fun in Arizona spending time with both our families over the Christmas holiday. Here are some of the random things we were up to while we were there.

We never did this on our one-year anniversary so here we are, 4 months late, cutting the top layer of our wedding cake. The cake wasn't too yucky actually but the frosting had seen better days. Sean thought this was a silly tradition but he did agree to at least take this picture with me.
We went to the Mesa Temple on Christmas Eve to see the lights and listen to the beautiful music. It was a fun outing and the weather was so mild. (Compared to Utah at least.)

Grammy and I spending quality time together. What a cutie she is. Love you Grandma.

We were lucky enough to go to the Orpheum Theater in Phoenix to see the play "The Forgotten Carols". I loved it even though I had seen it once before. We went with Sean's family and it was lovely. I think we should make it an annual tradition.

My mom received 8 hand bells from her visiting teachers as a gift and we thoroughly enjoyed playing songs together. Each of us got two bells and would ring them when our color came up. Here is the music below. It really was so much fun. We just laughed when we messed up and had a blast.

Santa was very generous to us this year and for that we are so grateful. Sean got his beloved I-Pod Touch and I got two tickets to the musical "Wicked" in April. We're thrilled. But even better than the gifts was the time we spent with family. Unfortunately I had to fly back on CHristmas night to work the next morning. We are so excited to return to Arizona in a couple weeks when Sean's brother Eric, returns home from his mission to Uruguay. Hooray for family.