Nick's last pitch

The spring not only brought the end of my schooling, but it also brought the end of Nick's baseball career. He played his first two years at Salt Lake Community College and his last two years at Dixie State College. This was a blessing because he was able to get school completely paid for (and then some) with his baseball scholarships. We both made it through our bachelor's degrees without taking out one loan!!!

The only side-arm pitcher on the team . . . and a great one at that!

It was fun watching him play as he changed roles from year to year. At SLCC, he went from pitching to playing anywhere in the infield (even 1st base), and then at Dixie he excelled in his role as the closer. I can't say I loved him being the closer because he always came in to pitch in really close games or intense situations, but somehow he always handled the pressure just fine. I think those times were harder on me than they were on him! I guess the 5'11" side-arm pitcher was a little intimidating to the opposition! (Nick was listed as being 5'11" on the Dixie roster . . . and for those of you know Nick, he's not quite that tall!)

Senior night (or day). That's us, Nick's parents, and his coaches.

It was so much fun to watch his games, and I must say I even grew to like baseball! It still doesn't quite match up to soccer, but I definitely developed an appreciation for the game! And one great thing about baseball . . . the uniforms are great!!! (Gotta' love those tight pants!)

Can you believe I let him put his sweaty hat on me?!

Congrats on a great career, sweetie. We love you!!!

A special thanks to his family and all those who supported him throughout his whole baseball career.

I'm sure he couldn't have made it this far without all the support.

Thanks!

Accomplishments

Because Tabria was born before I was done with school, we had to bring her to campus. Luckily I only had two classes, so my schedule wasn't too strenuous. My schedule (and therefore Tabria's schedule) went something like this: Send dad off to class, get ready for the day, go to school (where Nick had the hour off work so he could watch Tabs while I was in class), and then go back home again. It really worked out pretty well, and for the most part Tabria was great at school.

Just getting home after her first day at school with mom and dad.

One funny story about the first time we took her to school - while I was in class and Nick was watching her, she had quite the explosion - which not only got all over her clothes, but Nick's as well. Fortunately, we had a change of clothes for her in the diaper bag. Unfortunately, Nick did not have a change of clothes and had to go to his last class of the day with baby poop all over his shirt! Luckily he had a jacket to hide the mess under!

Another long day at school with mom and dad.

During the semester we saw Tabria develop in many ways, such as holding her head up (she was only two weeks old when we went back to school), smiling, rolling over, and increasing in her ability to grab onto things. It has been so fun to watch her grow and develop and become her own person. I can see her personality forming already . . . and I think she'll be a stubborn one, but full of personality and full of life!!!

Caught her smiling!

Tabria was blessed February 1, 2009, and it was a marvelous day. We are so grateful that so many of our family members could make the trip. We just wish we lived closer so we could see them more often!!!

Blessing day - February 1, 2009

Our beautiful angel

We all survived my last semester of school, and finally - the day I had been waiting for for many, many years had come - GRADUATION!!!

The Dixie "D" I walked through for graduation - May 2, 2009

I was super ready to be done with school, and I was lucky enough to have Nick and Tabria at graduation to support me. It was also fun to have my parents and Nick's parents down for the weekend, and we are grateful that they all made the trip down to share that time with us. Thanks grandmas and grandpas!!!

The building in the background is the Udvar-Hazy building . . .

where I spent my last few years finishing up my accounting degree.

We have a blog!!!

So, we finally decided to give in and create a blog. Mostly because I'm really bad at scrapbooking, and also so that we can show off all the pictures of our cute daughter! So I guess since we're just starting I'm not entirely sure where to start . . . so I guess we'll start with the birth of our wonderful daughter, Tabria.

Tabria was born on December 22, 2008, and she is the joy of our lives! Since many people have asked about my labor, I guess I'll include the story here. Well, my due date was actually December 14, which means that Tabria was actually eight days late. My doctor wouldn't induce me any sooner than 41 weeks, and since 41 weeks was a Sunday I had to wait until Monday.

Monday morning the hosital called me at 6:00 am and told me to come in for my induction. My room wasn't quite ready when we got there, so we had to wait about 3o minutes before we got into our room, but by 7:00 they had started my IV and put me on PIT, and by 7:30 the doctor had broken my water. I was a little surprised at how fast the process was going . . . little did I know - the rest of the process would not go quite as fast.

There was a little bit of drama during my labor. In the early afternoon I got an epidural and my labor was progressing along nicely. A little while later my contractions started becoming increasingly more painful, but I just assumed this happened as the contractions increased in intensity. I kept pushing the button to try and get more epidural, but the pain was not subsiding. The nurses had me rotating which side I was laying on to try and increase the process, and when it was time for me to switch sides, Nick switched the side that he was sitting on as well. When he came over to the side, he found puddle on the floor . . . and the liquid was coming from my epidural tube. The tube had disconnected from me, so I was not getting any epidural. The nurse called the anesthesiologist back in, and they hooked me back up and gave me a double dose. This made me so numb that I couldn't move my legs at all. They really just flopped around!

Sometime after I got my epidural, the baby's heart rate was lower than the nurses wanted it to be, so they kept me on oxygen. It got pretty stuffy having that mask over my face the entire time, but I was more than willing to keep it on if it was best for my baby!

Anyways, about 5:30 pm they told me that it was time to start pushing. However, because I was so numb, they turned off my epidural so that I could get some feeling back. After pushing for 30 minutes and not much happening, the nurse decided to consult the doctor. The doctor came in and checked on Tabria, only to discover that she was turned sideways. So they decided to have me stop pushing and turn me on my side to try and get her to turn. Thirty minutes later, the nurse told me that I was going to start pushing again. I pushed and pushed . . . and pushed . . . and pushed. While I was pushing, the nurses discovered that I had a fever, and this increased the risk of infection in my uterus. Because my fever wasn't going away, the doctor decided to give me an antibiotic. They tried to hold off, but decided it was best for me and the baby. Unfortunately that meant that Tabria had to stay in the NICU for 48 hours to be monitored for infection, and I had to stay in the hospital and receive antibiotics for 48 hours. Finally, after another two hours of pushing, Tabria was delivered at 8:23 pm. She weighed 7 pounds, 14 ounces, and was 20.5 inches long. She did have to stay in the NICU for two days, but we got to bring her home on Christmas Eve . . . the perfect Christmas present! She is the pride and joy of our lives, and we love her very much!