16 Weeks

What you are about to read are the events from the past 16 weeks of my life. One week ago today I had a near death experience which I will never forget and will haunt me as long as I live. I debated whether or not to post such a personal experience, but felt that I needed to since it is part of my life. Experiences we go through make us who we are. This experience has changed my life....

{March 1---week 9:}
Found out baby #4 was on the way!

{March 5}
"Candlelight Baby Dinner"--I made Nate a special and delicious dinner to surprise him with the news of the baby on the way.
The menu included: baby back ribs, with Baby Ray's BBQ sauce, baby red potatoes, baby asparagus, deli plate--baby carrots, baby pickles, baby olives, homemade baby loaf of bread, orange jello salad with baby mandarin oranges.

{Week 9--Week 14} Felt sick, sick sick! Never threw up, but wanted to every day!

{March 30---Week 13} First Doctor's Appointment
Nate and I saw the heartbeat on the ultra sound and everything looked great!

{April 9---Week 12} I made darling announcements for our family. We wanted to wait until we knew what we were having before we told our friends. (I only told 3 friends I was pregnant.)

{Week 16}
Monday March 18: I noticed a little spotting

Tuesday March 19: I continued to spot. I called the doctors office and was sent to the ER. We waited 3 1/2 hours for an ultra sound. We saw our baby on the ultra sound monitor--but we did not see a heart beat or movement. We waited another hour at the ER for the Rhogam shot. I asked the doctor for a D&C...the doctor would not perform the surgery and I was sent home to have it pass on its own. Grandma & Grandpa Lewis arrived to help out.

Thursday March 21: Grandma & Grandpa Lewis went home...Mimi arrived

Friday March 22:
3:30am: Started bleeding at home. Lost about 3 liters of blood. Passed out 4 times at home.
4:30am: Nate took me to the ER. I was hooked up to 2 Iv's. I had two surgeries by the ER doctor to stop bleeding. Was given two shots. OB finally came and performed D&C. 4 hours after surgery I passed out again. I was awoken by an ammonia packet. Papa arrived and visited me in the hospital. Admitted to room 110 of hospital.

Saturday March 23
Nausea, pounding headache, pain all over, dizzy and light headed. Zero sleep the night before. My kids came to visit me in the hospital. Blood levels down to 21--should be over 31. I was given 2 blood transfusions.
7:00pm Discharged from hospital. Home recovery--rest, sleep, no lifting over 10 lbs. Mimi stays for a week to help out.


What a shock to go through all this! We thought we were out of the 'danger zone'. We were looking forward to welcoming a new baby into our family.

This Easter took on a whole new meaning. How grateful I am for the Atonement of Jesus Christ. My suffering doesn't even compare to His experience in the Garden of Gethsemane or on the cross. How grateful I am that he would die for me so that I can live again. I know that the Lord was mindful of the pain I was going through and He feels my sorrow and is able to comfort me. I am grateful for the Resurrection. I don't know why this happened, and I don't know what was wrong. But I do know the Lord is in charge. He has a plan for me. I know I will have a better understanding in the life to come. I know I will see my two unborn children again (this was my second miscarriage).

This near death experience has been a hard trial for me to overcome, but through this trial I have felt the love of the Lord, I have felt closer to my Heavenly Father. I know he is mindful of me during this time. I have felt closer to Nate and our marriage has been strengthened. I am grateful for his strength and love for me. I have been more grateful for the 3 beautiful and perfect children I have been given. I feel more patience and love for them.

I know my life was saved and I was blessed in many ways. Now I must get through this grieving process and overcome this trial. I must strive to be a better person. I know I can make it through all things with the Lord's help.

Easter Egg Hunt!

A couple weeks ago we attended the Annual Price City Easter Egg Hunt!

With Easter bucket in hand the kids were 'eggcited' to gather as many eggs as they could!

We met our cute friends at the park!

Actually we saw all our friends at the park...it was the place to be! Here the kids are at the starting line waiting for the announcer to say 'go'!!

If we learned one thing from this 'eggsperience' it was to bring an 'eggstra' big container! Our little buckets we brought just didn't hold enough eggs!

Ty gathered so many eggs they kept falling out as he ran!

Mara and Caleb were not as quick at gathering the eggs as I thought they would be! They took their time and Caleb wanted to open each egg as he picked them up to see what was inside!

A beautiful girl on a beautiful day! Glad we were able to do something fun as a family!

Some of the eggs had candy, others had toys and prizes! One of the eggs had these vampire teeth! Scary!

Families are Forever

"The principle of eternal families is an essential element in Heavenly Father’s great plan for His children. Fundamental to that plan is the understanding that we have a heavenly family as well as an earthly family."---

Richard J. Maynes of the Seventy
General Conference April 2011

Over the past several weeks I have been incredibly grateful for my family--both my immediate family, extended family, and even my heavenly family. While living away from Utah for so many years My heart yearned to return to Utah and live close enough to see our family. I wanted my children to know their grandparents and have deep relationships and bonds with them. I wanted to be able to see my brothers and sisters when ever I wanted. How happy I was when the door opened for us to return and have that wish of my heart!

Three weeks ago we invited Nate's family to come on down to Price and party with us for the weekend. Although it looked like the snow was going to ruin all our fun plans, Nate's parents, sisters, and our darling little nephew was able to come hangout for a couple days.

We ate great food, hung out, laughed, talked, and just enjoyed being together. I didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked to take (probably because I was in the kitchen cooking up a storm!) so Chel or Beanie--send some of those cute photos my way so I can post them on the blog!

Here is Aunt Beanie and the kiddos admiring 'little Lincoln'! This picture reminds me of when Ty was little and we would put him on the rug and just watch him kick and play! We would get in a circle and cheer as he learned to roll and move!

My kids couldn't get enough of their little cousin! They just loved watching him and playing with him and giving him loves!

Sweet, sweet adorable little children! What fun it was to have 'bwinkie-winkie' come play at our house!

Caleb just couldn't keep his little lips off of his cousin! He just had so many loves and kisses for Little-Link!

I'm not quite sure how Lincoln felt about all the extra attention, but Caleb sure loved dishing it out!!!

Family is so precious. I am grateful for a wonderful and supportive family who is always there to help us, support us, and love us. I am grateful that families are forever. That we can be together for eternity.

Randomness!

You know if I haven't blogged for over a week (gosh it's been TWO!) that I'm either working hard on projects or playing hard with my kids! Luckily we've had a little of both!
So it's time to play 'Blog-Catchup!' So to play this blog-catchup game I am going to post a bunch of random pictures from over the past two weeks:

Ready! Set! Go!

Enjoying ever minute of Spring:
Lately we have had cold breezy weather-- so when we get a warm sunny day we basically live outside all day long!!

We love going to playgroup--and we love when it's nice weather and we can meet at the park! Caleb's playing with his two buddies Skyler and Will!

Picnics outside are one of our favorite ways to enjoy the sunshine!

I just love those little blowing bubble lips on that boy! It's quite a hoot to watch Caleb try and blow bubbles!

And another favorite thing about springtime---strawberries! Yum! Saturdays and Sundays are always our 'special breakfast' days! I woke up on Saturday and realized I had both whip-cream and strawberries in my fridge and so we had them on waffles--it was scrumptious!

Addictions
We all have addictions, some have more than others. Some addictions are good, others are bad. I guess you could say I'm addicted to painting! Not that I love to do it, just that I love the end result! I took on one more painting project (Nate made me promise to quit, but we'll see how long I last!)
Our wall going down the stairs was in desperate need of attention. It had no hand-rail, but at one time had it on both sides! It had been ripped off over and over by the previous owners! I decided it needed to go back up for Caleb's safety, but that meant the wall had to be painted first!

So I patched up the walls, but it left some parts smooth and other parts with a texture. No problem--I used a bucket of joint compound with a little water and rolled it onto the wall using a paint roller.

End result: Perfect looking walls! My name is Erica and I am obsessed and addicted to painting my house! Next painting project: upstairs bathroom!

Lewis Family Fun Night:
What's more fun than a family bowling night?! The kids had been begging to go bowling for a long time, so we decided we might as well go one Friday night! We were the only ones at the bowling alley! The kids really had a ball!

Caleb was hilarious to watch bowl--he would sit down and roll his ball and just watch it go down the lane! He had to have a little help from his dad, or his ball would have never made it!

Two bowling brothers!

Just for documentation: I was really there! Caleb wasn't too sure what I was doing with the camera!

What a sassy-little bowler!! Mara is quite good, she had practice a few weeks ago at play group!

It's good to see a smile on Ty's face, because he got rather sad when everyone else got a spare but him! He did a great job bowling, all on his own! But he really wanted to get a strike or a spare! I guess we'll have to go again so we can keep practicing until he gets it!

Check out the score! Sweet! One of my best games yet!!
Okay--confession! Although it says E has 155 points, for some reason the computer messed up on the first bowl and so we had to switch so Nate played for me and I played for him! I was glad to beat 100 though!!

This score was right, however ---it's funny that the youngest player got the highest score! I guess because Caleb had a little help from mom and dad!

Just to make you smile:
I wish I was better at writing down all the funny things my kids do and say! But this story I couldn't forget and had to write down for others to enjoy!

One day Ty was teaching Mara about money! He was telling her all about the coins and their value. She didn't seem very interested and it was rather over her head! He got annoyed and came storming in the kitchen and said, "Mara is not listening to me! I guess she wants to have the brain the size of a stegosaurus! If she doesn't want to learn her brain won't grow and stegosauruses have the smallest brains!" I couldn't help but chuckle at his analogy using dinosaur brains!!

My kids love Tom & Jerry, and Caleb couldn't resist getting in this little Tom & Jerry car when he saw it at the store!

"Spider-man!" I just love hearing Caleb try to say "Spiderman!" Match-match double-match!! Two matching brother! The spiderman jammies Caleb is wearing used to fit Ty when he was little!

Probably not the most appropriate picture for the blog--but it was pretty hilarious! Caleb is starting the potty-training, but not full force! Just occasional sitting on the potty here and there! When he does sit on the potty he usually has to have a toy, book, or puzzle to play with! In this case, an Easter bucket was all the needed!