March 2017

April 03, 2017

March 2017

Hey, at least I'm blogging once a month! This month has been CRAAAZY! Some parts have been wonderful, and others have been really hard.

We started this month off with two amazing things:

1. My mom had a pretty big birthday this year (I won't tell you how old cuz I want her to still love me haha) & 2. My nephew, Travis, got baptized. Mike had the privilege of baptizing him, and then Mike's older brother, Seth, confirmed him. Travis is the first of my nieces and nephews to be baptized and hopefully he won't be the last. He has set such an amazing example for the rest of them. It was a very spiritual experience.

I didn't get any pictures with Travis, but here's a picture of Dylan (my other nephew) & I sitting together at the baptism.

Dylan will be seven in June, so he has one more year till he can be baptized.

I finished the Fast Metabolism Diet at the beginning of the month, so I got to go back to eating normal. I definitely over-did it with the junk right after I finished the diet, but I think I've now found a pretty good balance of eating healthy & treating myself. I'm still focusing on weight lifting. I've taken a little bit of focus off my shoulders. I decided I needed to give some extra love to other parts of my body.

I haven't been able to spend as much time working out this month because I was sick for awhile, then I got my wisdom teeth out and wasn't allowed to lift for a week, and then last week I did really good to make up for it. I have a trip to Vegas coming up, so I need to be extra dedicated.

Getting my wisdom teeth out is something I have been dreading for many, many years. They started growing in when I was about 16-17 years old, but I was convinced I was going to have enough room in my mouth. Well, fast-forward 6-7 years and I definitely didn't have room for all of them. My top ones did have room and they were completely grown in. My bottom ones were soft tissue impacted and pretty much growing into my jaw. I finally decided to make an appointment with an oral surgeon because my bottom right tooth was infected... It was NOT pleasant. Luckily, the oral surgeon had a cancellation so they were able to get me in pretty quickly.

The day of they did a panoramic x-ray and then we sat and waited for awhile. The nurse came back in to tell me that they needed to do a CT scan on my jaw because something looked funny. That's never something you want to hear. Turns out, the roots of my bottom-left tooth were abnormally long and they were pretty much touching the giant nerve that runs through your jaw. There was also a weird mass by this tooth that the surgeon said could be another tooth or just really dense bone. He told me that if they took the tooth out, I ran a very serious risk of having permanent nerve damage in my mouth, which would make the bottom of my face numb... forever. After discussing all my options, we decided to leave the tooth in. Luckily, this wasn't the tooth that has been bothering me. If it ever starts to give me problems, then we will reconsider my options.

The rest of the procedure went great. I was knocked out (thankfully). Mike took great care of me. I went home and just laid on the couch and watched Friends the rest of the day. I did go back to work the next day, but that wasn't my greatest idea. I ended up getting a pretty bad fever, and I NEVER get fevers. It's been about 2 1/2 weeks since the surgery and they seem to be healing really good.

One of the biggest things that happened this month was this:

McKinlee Nixon McKee was born on March 16, 2017. She is perfect. She is Sam & Kaela's baby girl. I don't think I've ever been so obsessed with a human. I can literally just sit and stare at her.

Also, in the picture on the right, you can see my lovely swollen cheek. That was the only side that swelled up.

We've tried spending as much time with this little family as possible. Mike has had bronchitis the past few days, so we haven't risked going to see them & I'm definitely going through withdrawals.

We also hung out with my cousins Samantha & Sofia while my aunt & uncle were out of town. We took them to see the new Beauty & the Beast. I'm not sure how much they enjoyed hanging out with my boring self, but I loved hanging out with them. They love to tell their stories & they seriously crack me up ♥

I wish that I could just pretend that everything that happened in March was wonderful, but my family had a serious tragedy that I can't NOT talk about.

On Thursday March 23, 2017 my cousins woke up to find their 7 month baby boy not breathing. I'm not going into much detail, but Huxley Leon Thompson didn't make it. This has been one of the hardest things of my life to watch my cousins and aunt go through this. Growing up, you don't think about these things happening to you. Now I just look at Zach and my heart aches for him. I can't even imagine. Hold your babies close. Hold all of your loved ones close. You NEVER know when the last time you'll get to see them is.

The funeral was beautiful. They had a service at a funeral home first. I'm not sure that anyone in the whole building had dry eyes. It was, easily, one of the most emotional days of my life. We then went to the cemetery and they did a balloon release for Baby Huxley. I will never be able to put the emotions we all felt into words. It's been almost two weeks and I still cry every time I think about it. One thing that did come of this, was seeing my whole family band together. We all did our best to love and support each other, but specifically Zach, Danni, and my aunt Patti. Family truly is the greatest blessing we are given in this life. Please, never take them for granted!

(Mike & I at the funeral)

(Josh & I at the funeral)

Always grateful for my amazing husband ♥

I'm gonna finish with some outfits that were my favorite for the month of March. I've tried to link as many items as possible (or at least similar ones).