FOX, party of 4!!!: October

Oh October! It sure has been an adventure! Round 2 of artificial insemination was as successful as the first which means? Not at all. But we were blessed enough to be coming back from a business trip to New York when we figured out so our minds were occupied. We're skipping November for fertility treatments since it'll be so busy and we definitely don't need extra hormones/stress to handle on top of that. So our 3rd and last attempt at artificial insemination will be in December. We are trying as hard as we can to keep our hope, happiness and faith up although we do have our downs as well.

Ok I think i need to clear something up real quick. I'd say that about 98% of the purpose of this blog is to keep some sort of journal for our family. Much easier and faster than scrap booking or keeping an actual journal right? But here's some of that 2% left:

I feel like I have to post this not for a "journal" purpose but more to let people know something. Yes we are trialed with infertility. Yes it is very painful. Every. Single. Day. But the last thing we want is for other people to keep their pregnancy stories away from us because of their fear to hurt us. We are very well aware that people wont stop having babies because we can't. Neither will the world stop turning! Hearing the good news of a new little miracle to be born is amazing! We always are so excited to share other couples' happiness! Yes it hurts. Yes I may or may not tear up every time that someone else is pregnant. But yes it is AMAZING! Of course I'm beyond thrilled! Please stop keeping pregnancy stories away just to spare our feelings! I promise it does more harm than good! I have a friend of mine (love you btw!:)) that told me that she was pregnant and ended up having a hard miscarriage...5 months ago!! She did not want to tell me any of it because she didn't want to hurt my feelings.The reason why we are so open and exposed about this is not so people keep to themselves. It is for a personal purpose. To me publicly talking about our infertility avoids us a lot of questions and hurtful comments. People would ask all the time when baby #2 would come. Or If we had other plans than having a big family. Or if we were afraid at all that Josan would turn into a typical only child. At first I would say that the timing wasn't right. Or that we didn't know yet. After a while -and with the tact of a tired french tempered girl- I got sick of sugar coating things up for people so they wouldn't feel bad for asking such a personal question with such sad answer. So after a while I started answering with the truth: We HAVE been trying for 2 years, 3 years, 4 years...but with no success. Talk about a great way to turn any conversation awkward! Then we became super open about our struggles. So people would know and understand. Of course we still get the hurtful but innocent random comments once in a while. Like going to get groceries and having a sweet old lady tell me looking down at Josan: "Well it sure is nice to only have one left now that school is started isnt it?" Yeah...

Anyway, all that to say PLEASE SHARE WITH US! We're not gonna meltdown in your face, or yell at you, or steal your baby as soon as you push it out I promise! We'll just be super happy, probably over excited and yes... maybe a little envious of such a blessing so don't try to spare us heartbreaks please!

Alright now that being said, going through our pictures from October is quite the reminder of how much we DO have to be thankful for that's for sure. For that reason I'd rather put too many pictures instead of not enough... ;)

I could stare at Josan sleeping for hours. When he's awake he's such a huge boy. So independent and absolutely not affectionate. But when he sleeps he looks so little. So I can pretend that he is still my baby boy...

This might be a notch controversial but we cut down TV/video games almost completely at our house. I have nothing against it. But for our own family screen time was getting longer and longer and more and more addictive to a point where Josan's attitude was not at all how we wanted it to be. So we just stopped it cold turkey and had no screens for a week or two. The change that I saw even after 2 days was more than enough to convince me that it was the right thing to do for us. Josan was so much nicer, more respectful, way more creative and playful and overall so much happier! Now we do have the TV on or play video games once in a while but never like it used to be. This is a Godzilla that Josan made out of cars. Simple right? But he NEVER would have done that kind of things before.

When he was about 18 months old a lady at the store asked me if I'd be interested in Josan doing some modeling. She gave me her card and everything. This picture shows that he definitely is model material. But I sure am glad I kept this handsome boy for ourselves!!

Starting this year Josan will have his picture taken in this shirt when shcool starts until he graduates. That'll be fun to see him grow in it.

More October fun

Learning new chores...

We don't call it sleepovers anymore. I guess that's kinda lame for teenagers. So I guess the girls just came over and we all snuggled up in bed watching a sad love story, ate cookies, hot tubed and did our nails. I've always loved having the girls over. But now that they're older it's even better. I just love these babies

We always love when Grandma and Grandpa come to Utah.

Taryn asked me to do her hair for a dance. I love that kind of stuff and it's a huge perk for being back in Utah. We missed being there for everything and anything. Love to be around everyone!

We had our family pictures done! They turned out WAY good I think. I guess we're pretty good looking so that helps! ;)

Another "sleeping baby boy" moment

On the train

And another one...

Friend times!

Sometimes we like to act like normal people...

But it never lasts long

KELLI IS PREGNANT!!!!

We were gonna have a gender reveal party for them but it didn't work out. So we had a mini gender reveal right out of the Dr's. Which one is it gonna be?

And it's a............GIRL!!!!

We couldn't be happier for them! And we can't wait to meet this gorgeous baby!!

Went on a date with this handsome boy. When I thanked him for coming on a date with me he hushed back: "Mom! don't say that out loud!" Yep, He is now officially too big and think that anything lovey-dovey is embarassing...

We were supporting Canada in our own little way after the shooting in Ontario

Like I said Adam and I went on a last minute business trip to New York. Being very last minute and having a cruise at the end of November we decided -after a lot of going back and forth- that Josan was not gonna come with us so he wouldn't miss school. It was gonna be just Adam and I. Alone. For 72 hours. That had NEVER happen before. The only other time that we had left him was 12 hours. And we were only an hour away from him. This time the 72 hours felt way too long and the 2000 miles way too far. We did perfect our selfie skills quite a bit though!:)

At the airport

Little restaurant/pub by our hotel

Meanwhile at home...

The "Night at the Museum" library...:)

Empire State Building

I was so happy to find a TIM HORTONS there!!!!

Grand Central Station

Times Square

Central Park

The 9/11 Memorial was my favorite part. It was very humbling to be able to be there. To remember the very many that lost their lives in that exact spot. They have 2 big fountains where the towers use to be. And the name of every single person that died there is engraved around it.

One of the new towers.

My favorite picture of our trip

We ordered room service the last night. New York had lost its appeal and we just wanted to get back to Josan!

Our flight was pretty early on the morning. We ended up getting up at 3:30 am...which really was 1:30 am back home. Needless to say that that was a long day! But at this point we just want to see Josan and hug the crap out of him!!

See ya New York!

Back home the day after we got back. A bunch of us got together for Jim's birthday. Did I mention how happy I am to be back in Utah? Missing out on everything was not my favorite thing about Colorado that's for sure...

Walking field trip to see the biggest pumpkin in the US. It was 1860 pounds!

We went with Kara to the animal Shelter in Murray so she could adopt her new dog. I fell in love and would have brought back these two if 1: we were not in a tiny apartment or 2: Adam had said yes.

He's such a stink even when he sleeps.

Halloween was quite rushed this year. We got back from New York on Wednesday and Halloween was on Friday. So it was a little crazy. Mix that to the fact that our place is 800 sq feet so we just didnt get to do our traditional Halloween Party this year...