What's more Halloween-y than BLOOOOD!

Here's another blatant request for birthday gifts. Do you remember what I want for my birthday? Here's a reminder.

I have been overwhelmed with the response so far! Each donation of blood means so much- it literally means a gift of life for the recipient! What better gift could you give someone?

I want to share an email that I received from my college roommate & sweet friend, Jana. She married another of my good friends, Tony. (Just so you know the characters in the story) Hope this is ok to share... I should have asked before, perhaps. Every time I read it I cry. Every time I tell someone about it I cry. No one has ever done more for me!

Bean,
I must have missed your post about giving blood for your birthday, but Tony saw it the other day and told me about it. He wanted me to check into where he could give blood (I just can't do it...I pass out every time. Do you remember that from Snow? It's one of Tony's favorite stories to tell!:)) and so I went to the Red Cross website and they don't service our area and I went to a few other sites and they don't service our area either so I called our local hospital and they directed me to the blood bank in Grand Junction. So after talking with them, we're going to be having a blood drive here in Delta on your birthday!! We're hoping to have a lot of people respond especially from our ward that you can count towards your 34. I'll give you the final numbers when I get them! The lady I talked to from the blood bank asked why I was interested in having a blood drive and so I told her your story and she was pretty impressed. This is such a great idea...I may even give it a shot again...we'll see how I'm feeling that day...I might be able to make it through for you!:) So HAPPY BIRTHDAY from Tony and I!!
Love,
Jana

Holy cow! It would have been so easy for them to just not donate since there wasn't a convenient place to do so. If you are in the area of Delta, Colorado on November 9th, stop in! I am crying again...

So, if you are able, please donate blood. If you can't donate blood, donate some other act of service to someone in need. Open the door for someone, read to a child, join PTA :), help an old lady with her groceries, give some one a smile who doesn't have one. Let me know how it goes!

Some Autumn Fun, part 1

Last Christmas I was on bed rest and we were all sick as dogs. Spring was so cold & wet. All summer, I was too hot & cranky to take my kids anywhere more involved than the park. We have been living it up in this beautiful Fall! Here are a few pictures of some of the things we've done. There are more pictures on my facebook page (since they load much easier there), but here's an overview.

We made our annual trip to Gardner Village while the girls were off track. Kat, Kayla and Cayden came with us. It was actually hot, so we didn't stay too long. Aubrey was only a week out of surgery, so she didn't last long either.

Annie Oakley, Amelia Earhart, and a Go Utes cheerleader.

Last night, we had pumpkin faces for dinner. It was my attempt at making mac & cheese a bit more exciting. Good times!

Multi-tasking mama

So, I was sitting at the kitchen table with my little computer paying my bills online with one hand while I held my baby with the other. She was nursing to her heart's content. Don't picture it. I said DON'T.

The phone rings. It is the pediatrician's office returning my call. I give her my credit card number to pay for Eliza's in-hospital care from 3 months ago. (Oops) I am reading the card with about a third of my left eye, since the other two thirds and my right eye are busy with other tasks. I am listening with one ear to her and the other ear is receiving questions from the older girls about where we put hats and gloves the last time we used them 5 months ago. I answer them with jerks of my head in various directions.

Not to be out done in the multi-tasking department, Eliza proved she, too, can do more than one thing at a time as she pooped the biggest blow-out of her short career. Well done! Even I don't eat and use the bathroom at the same time. This girl will go far!

Eliza's 2 month picture- hurry before she's 3 months old!

Sad baby after her 2 month check up. She had beefed up to a whopping 9lbs 7 oz.

Leg warmers !

(the pics are all mixed up, but I'm holding a sleeping baby, so I'm not going to mess

with them more.)

Three shots in those skinny little frog legs!

This was the first time I caught her smile on film, but she was tipping over sideways.

Miss October 2011

Silver Lake with the Gibsons

A few weeks ago we went to Silver Lake with the Gibson family. Here are a few pics of the trip. That is a giant marshmallow Lydia is eating.

Crazy kids!

It was a gorgeous day!

Thanks Libby Gibby & fam!

Words of wisdom from Abi

My sweet niece, Abi, was assigned to give a talk in Primary about the purpose of the church being to invite others to come unto Christ. Sometimes we lose sight of the real purpose of the things we do. Here's the talk she dictated to her mom. Abi knows what it's all about! She lives in PA and has the opportunity to make friends from all sorts of backgrounds. Her mom & dad are doing a great job with this little angel!

I am 4 years old and I go to preschool. At my preschool I have lots of friends like Logan, Thomas, and Abbey. My friends don’t go to primary. My friends are really nice and I like to play with them. Even though they don’t go to primary they are still nice people. I would love for them to come to primary with me. For them to come to primary I could have a play date with them and tell them about primary and invite them to come with me. I would say to them, “Come to primary and I’ll talk to you about Jesus and I’ll talk to you about Primary.”
Jesus is very nice and helps kids and so I want my friends to know about Him. I want them to know how Jesus and Heavenly Father made the Earth. I also want them to come to primary to learn the primary songs so if they wake up in the night and they’re scared they can sing a primary song to make them feel better. I feel happy when I go to Primary and I want my friends to feel happy too because I love my friends.
I hope I can be brave enough to tell my friends about Jesus Christ and how much I love Him. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Her mom, Hillary said "Maybe it's just me because I'm her mom, but isn't that the sweetest, most innocent little testimony of missionary work that just melts your heart?!?!?"

It's my birthday...

...in a month. I'm giving you time now to prepare my gift. Yes, you. I want the same gift from all of my loyal readers. All 5 of you.

I'm sure you've heard mention of that new baby at my house. You may have even read the harrowing tale of her birth. Do you remember back in December when I posted this:? {not sure where to put the question mark there...}

Did I call it, or what?

So, in celebration of living to see another birthday, I am going to boldly ask everyone I know, and any strangers that happen upon my blog, for a gift this year. It's not exactly FOR me, but BECAUSE of me. Let's pay it forward, shall we?

I want your blood. I have been a faithful blood donor for my whole adult life. It's an easy act of service that I never gave too much thought before. I pictured blood going to save a car crash victim or something similarly tragic. I never pictured a mom living to raise her baby because of a blood donation. After Eliza was born, I was the beneficiary of 6 selfless acts of service by some lovely A+ donors.

Since I can't personally thank these anonymous donors, I want to ask you to fill the blood bank nearest you! I am turning 34 on November 9th and would love to have 34 people (or more) tell me they donated blood between now and then. Or even after.

If you can't donate blood for some reason, recruit someone who can. If you can't find a willing bleeder, donate some time or $ to the Red Cross, ARUP, a hospital, or some other kind deed.

If you've never donated before, it is very simple. This is one of those cases where it is better to give {blood} than to receive {blood}! Be brave. Call me and I'll come hold your hand. Plus, you get a treat after for being a good kid! It only takes about 30 minutes and then you are on your way. You can even use it as a reason to avoid house work for 24 hours after!

I am so grateful that I am here to raise my daughters! I know that my miraculous recovery was aided by fresh blood from donors. I hope you'll consider donating blood this month. Please leave me a message afterward! Thanks for the gift of life!

www.redcrossblood.org - (801) 892-4000
www.utahblood.org - (801) 584-5272

While you're at it, register to be an organ donor!
www.yesutah.org

Dinner tonight

Thanks to a great find at Smith's, we are having these pizza bites for dinner. I got Pillsbury pizza crusts for 79 cents each. (with double box tops, no less!)
We are also using the Hormel mini pepperoni slices that Aimi introduced us to. Did you know there was such a thing? The slices are about the size of a dime. Thanks, Aimi! That saves me lots of chopping!
And make sure you check out the chicken bacon ranch variety, too!

What are you making for dinner?

{I am posting this one-handed, so no pictures included!}

Lydia's summation of preschool today...

...if you know her, picture her cute little voice saying this at fifty miles an hour:

"Oh.My.Gosh. I have never had a teacher like her. She is awesome! But those kids- they're astracting, I mean- distracting me. Especially that Danika girl. She says I'm not a good scissor-er, but I'M A GREAT SCISSOR-ER MOM!"

(A scissor-er is one who uses scissors, if you didn't guess.)

She has enough attitude for a room full of teenage girls. Heaven help us!

The day they met Cayden

The newest cousin on the Lloyd side

Cayden Robert Gibson

born August 27, 2010

Congratulations to Kat & Darin and big brother Zach and big sister Makayla!

Random fact:
Kat and I both got married in 2001, exactly one month apart. Our six/five year olds are 2 weeks shy of 6 months apart. Our three year-olds are a month and three days apart. Our babies are one day shy of a month apart. We try to be as orderly as possible.

Frogurt with cousins

We were able to squeeze in one last activity with the Arveseths the night before they went back to PA. Tim and Steve had gone fishing that morning, but Steve hadn't met Eliza. We met at Frogurt in Cottonwood Heights. Luckily it wasn't crowded, because our girls used every square inch of the place. Poor Jason (second from the right) was so out-numbered! He was an angel & stayed put!

Hillary takes the smallest bites I've ever seen.

Tim takes any chance he gets to play with his nephews. It's his only hope. :)

Overheard

As we were moving furniture this morning to get ready for the carpet cleaners, Lydia found a tiny toy camera that was Aubrey's. She wanted to make sure that everyone knew she was claiming it as her own.





Lydia: "Mom, finders are the keepers, huh."


Me (not really paying attention): "Yeah, sure."


Tim: "If finders are keepers, what are losers?"


Lydia: "Aubrey and Jenna."





Are parents supposed to laugh when one child calls another a loser? It was hard not to!