The Lloyds

Jackson Tyler Lloyd

2011-12-13T15:28:00.000-05:00

I know I am a little late but here finally is a post to welcome our wonderful little guy to our family and to tell his birth story.

Jackson Tyler Lloyd was born November 5, 2011 at 11:53 pm. He was born here in Gilbert, AZ and weighed 8 lbs 6 oz. and measured 20 inches long.

Jackson came to us much easier than his older sister (thank goodness! :). I had already decided before hand that I wanted to try to do a VBAC and if possible to do it naturally since the epidural seemed to slow me down last time and I had a time limit on how long I got to be in labor before I needed to have a C-section. So before the time came, Tyler and I watched a natural birth class on DVD and got as prepared as we could since we were too late to actually take a class once I started looking into it.

Well as before my due date came and went and I hadn't yet really felt anything to make me believe that this baby was coming anytime soon. I had pretty much accepted that my time was going to run out and that I would end up in a C-Section. (After having a C-Section I wasn't allowed to be induced into labor) So the day after my due date, a Saturday, Tyler and I decided to get in one more trip to the temple. While we were sitting in a session, around 1 pm, I realized that I was starting to feel what seemed like some regular contractions. They weren't really very painful or super close together yet so while I mentioned it to Tyler I tried not to get my hopes up.

After the Temple we went to Tyler's Dad's house to pick up Katelyn and stayed to watch some of an ASU football game. I still seemed to be having somewhat regular contractions so I'll admit it, I got my hopes up. :) Next, around 7 pm, we went to Tyler's Mom's house and I decided it was time to start timing them. They were definitely regular and were coming at about 6 minutes apart. (wahoo!) Tyler's Mom said she would be happy to have Katelyn sleep at her house while we went to the hospital but we hadn't brought any of her or our stuff with us so we went home first and then brought Katelyn back.

At this point my contractions were about 4-5 minutes apart and starting to get painful. I felt like I could probably wait still a little but Tyler's Mom thought we ought to call Tyler's Uncle who is my OB. (I think I probably owe her one for this) So Tyler gave him a call and he said we ought to head in right away. When we got there we sat in registration for about 20 minutes and then headed in to triage to decided whether we got to stay or not.

So as we're waiting, Tyler and I are using all our coping methods and such that we had practiced. That lasted all of about 2 contractions and then my water broke. When I very first came in to triage I was dilated to a 5 or 6. About 15 minutes later after my water broke I was easily at a 7. The nurses started getting me ready and moving me as fast as they could to get me to a labor and delivery room. As for me, as soon as my water broke the contractions got 10 times as painful and started coming one right on top of another. I was not prepared for how much it was going to hurt. I was also not prepared for the fact that i was going to feel like I needed to push as soon as I got to seven and not be able to stop myself no matter how many times the nurses told me it wasn't time yet. I started asking Tyler for an epidural, which I had previously told not to let me have even if I asked. Poor guy tried to help me through it and tell me I could do it but I was having a really hard time, especially trying to keep from pushing too soon.

Well when we got into the labor and delivery room they tried to put an epidural in but my contractions were coming too close together and I couldn't hold still enough. Then during one short break when I was already at a nine they did get it in but at that point it was too late for it to really do anything. At one point they weren't even sure my OB was going to make it and the nurse told me she was going to deliver my baby. But just as it was time to actually push for real he got there. I started pushing (which was actually a bit of a relief since I had been trying to fight it for so long) and pushed for about 20 minutes when they realized the cord was wrapped around Jackson's neck not once but twice and his heart was getting very distressed. My doctor decided that I would need a little help to get him out faster and get the cord off him so he gave me an episiotomy and used the vacuum to pull him out quickly. He came out fast after that and was just fine once they got the cord off of him.

I can't tell you how wonderful it was to actually get to hold him afterwords. And even though I had a little healing to do from the episiotomy it was a million times easier than after the C-Section. I feel very blessed that everything went so well (and so fast!). Jackson is such a beautiful and wonderful little baby and we are so grateful to have him in our family. And now without further ado here are more pictures of our little guy.

Daddy and his little man.

Grandma Rapier

Katelyn meeting her brother for the first time.

Getting to hold baby brother.

Katelyn loves her little brother, sometimes a little too much. :)

Grammy Lovinger

Loving his first bath. :)

Going home!

We think this one looks like a pretty cool action shot. :)

We love you Jackson!

Halloween, Some House Pictures and Our New Addition (No Not the Baby Yet)

2011-11-02T18:24:00.001-04:00

Happy Halloween Everyone! I have been the biggest blogging slacker lately but I'm going to go ahead and pull the "pregnant and buying/moving into a new house" card as my excuse. :) Anyway, here are some of the most recent events and I hope to get one or two more in before our little guy comes (that's not actually true though since I hope he comes as soon as possible :).

Katelyn was the cutest duck around for Halloween, and though she can't quite say "Trick or Treat" yet, she's had "Quack Quack!" down for ages.

Showing off her duck wings

Tyler and I didn't dress up this year, though someone on our street did ask me if my pregnant belly was a costume. :)

Alrighty, the disclaimer before I go through the pictures of our house is that these are just a few random ones I took while we were still in the process of buying it. I promise sometime soon I will take pictures of us actually moved in. As for the house, we love it and are so excited to have a home of our own. We feel so blessed to be able to be so close to family and for Tyler to have a job that he enjoys.

Our House!! :)

My kitchen. (No point in pretending it's anything else right? :) The house was a flip so we were lucky that they had done a lot of work and fixed up a lot of things that we wouldn't have been able to afford to do.

The family room, this is taken standing in the kitchen.

The backyard.

The pool. Have to admit, growing up in Spokane I never really imagined having a pool.

The master bedroom.

Master Bathroom.

Cupboards at the top of the stairs. (They were one of my favorite features when we were first looking at it.)

Upstairs bathroom (kids bathroom)

What is now Katelyn's room, Baby Boy Lloyd's room is pretty much identical.

This is the point at which I realized I had no more room on my memory card so there is more to come. :)

Now for the last update in this post I wanted to introduce our newest addition. Tyler and I have both wanted a pet for sometime but with all our moving and living in apartments it was just never really the right time. Mostly, we have talked about getting a dog but once we got into our house we were so close to baby coming that I really wasn't ready for the idea of a puppy and baby at the same time. But the perfect answer came when Tyler's sister, Tiffany, told us that a friend of hers had some Sulcata Tortoises for sale. (Thanks again Tiff! :) I won't recount the whole sad history but Tyler had a Sulcata when he was growing up that sadly burrowed his way out of their yard and they never saw him again. Needless to say Tyler was pretty excited about getting a new one. So without further ado, here is Ace the tortoise!

To explain really quick where the name came from, when we went to pick out a tortoise they had so many and they all look pretty much the same at this age that the owners had written numbers on all of the shells to be able to keep track of them. Our little guy had the number 1 on his shell and was the first one they had found, and thus the name Ace. :)

Even though Ace will eventually be pretty darn big (probably 100 lbs. or more) He is just a tiny little guy right now and will live inside for a couple of years till he gets bigger. Tyler didn't like the idea of him being cooped up in a terrarium for all that time so he built Ace his own turtle habitat with his dad.

Here it is with all the rocks, pellets and uv lights. The dark space under the rocks is a place where he can burrow down to sleep. I don't know if you can see but Ace is actually on the rocks in this picture so you can get an idea of how small he is.

Welcome to the family Ace! :)

Beautiful Spokane

2011-08-26T00:27:00.000-04:00

First off, we need to give a big shout hurray! that Tyler has finished taking the bar. He put a lot of work into getting ready and actually taking the test so we were glad to get to go spend some relaxing time in Spokane when it was all over. Most of our first week there we spent time with family and helped to get ready for Sean and Melissa's wedding. We did take one day off however to go enjoy the beautiful weather at Silverwood.

Katelyn and Grant all ready to go!

As we might have expected Katelyn really enjoyed going on all the rides that she was big enough for and even seemed to be bored by some of them, apparently a roller coaster is still nothing compared to the air tricks she does with Tyler. :) Here she is on a ride all by herself. She is in the red plane. Unfortunately, she wasn't strong/big enough to pull the lever that makes you go up and down but she was still happy the whole time.

Riding the kid roller coaster with Daddy. I think Tyler even got her to put her arms in the air.

Whee! The "Dumbo" ride with Grammy.

On the 13th the wedding finally came. Everything was beautiful. My Mom, Dad and Scott (assisted by others :) put a lot of work into their back yard and it was absolutely perfect. Unfortunately I did not keep my camera close enough to get a picture of the happy couple and I also missed a couple of cute ones of Grant and Katelyn together but here a few of just her.

Showing off her dress.

We've been trying to teach Katelyn to smile with her mouth and not just her shoulders by prompting her to show us her teeth. This is the result. :)

One of my most favorite pictures.

Jumping on the tramp with Grant and Uncle Cameron. Hair is looking good . . .

After the wedding was over and just before we left for home we went downtown with my Mom, Dad and Scott to feed the ducks and ride the carousel. Here is Scotty trying to get a Canada goose to eat out of his hand.

Tyler had a to keep a tight hold of Katelyn to make sure she didn't just jump right in.

We also showed Katelyn the classic tradition of feeding the goat. I think she was pretty startled at first but thought it was pretty fun after that.

And of course we rode the carousel. Katelyn had lots of fun shouting "neigh" (or "naa" as she pronounces it) when she saw the horses. She also had fun riding with Daddy and then with Papa.

We had such an awesome time in Spokane and always wish we could stay longer. We were so glad to get to see so much family and so many friends and can't wait until next time! :)

Welcome Home to Arizona!

2011-07-26T12:46:00.000-04:00

Now that our time in Boston is over we are officially Arizonans. It is so fun to be around so much family and Katelyn especially is loving getting to be around her fun cousins so much and getting to swim all the time.

Katelyn and her cousin Quinn are just about 6 months apart and they have been having a great time playing around together. Here Tyler put them in a wheelbarrow together and took them for a ride. :)

Katelyn also loves having a backyard and getting to go outside everyday to play (except when it is crazy, crazy hot). She really loves jumping on the trampoline with Tyler or just running around like crazy in the grass.

Looking pretty awesome after jumping on the tramp.

Katelyn also got her first haircut shortly after we got to Arizona. Goodbye mullet! She went with me and Grandma Rapier to Le Studio where Grandma gets her hair cut and got a cute little bob. :)

I don't know if you can see it but she is holding the Ipod in her lap and watching Toy Story. Watching a show is the best way for me to get her to hold still when I want to do her hair so I figured it should work about the same for a haircut. :)

Sporting the new do.

The End of our Time in Beantown

2011-07-19T02:12:00.003-04:00

I think it is safe to say that I am late enough finally posting all of these that this is really just to make sure that my favorite pictures are saved one more location. :) But I also wanted to make sure to record all the fun things we did at the end of our time in Boston. I cannot believe that it is already over, looking over these pictures has made me realize how much I really do miss it and all our good friends.

Trip to New York

Around Spring Break, Katelyn and I took a fun day trip down to NYC with my good friend Annie and her sister-in-law. It was fun to see the city one more time though I realized at that point that it's not super toddler friendly. Here are Annie, Katelyn and I at Rockefeller Center. We miss you lots Annie!

We also got to see Falycia finally for the first time in forever! It was so great! She had never even had a chance to meet Katelyn yet. I'm sad that our time in the Northeast didn't end up overlapping a bit more but I so glad we at least got to see her and little and now we just have a good reason for going back. :)

Easter

We had a wonderful Easter this year. Katelyn got to try Easter Egg hunting and found that she didn't see the point in looking for lots of more eggs when she already had some perfectly good ones in her basket. :) We also had a wonderful dinner with friends which unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of but we are so grateful for the amazing friends we made in Boston and hope we will get to see them again before too long.

Katelyn was particularly excited about finding the chocolate bunny. At first when we got it she thought it was just a bunny toy and so when I tried to show her you could eat I was afraid she would be sad about breaking her new bunny. But it turns out she must be my daughter because as soon as she realized it was chocolate she had no problem biting right into it. :)

Having a great time with Daddy.

At her second Easter Egg hunt of the season.

Katelyn with her good friend Josh watching the fountain after looking for eggs got old. We miss you Josh!

All ready for church Easter morning.

A Visit from Sean

Later in April, after his semester at BYU was done we were lucky to get to have Sean come and visit us. He was the only one from my family who hadn't had a chance to come see us in Boston yet so we were super happy that he got to come before we had to leave.

Ready to go on a Duck Tour, Quack Quack!

Playing on the crazy toy at the park.

Walking through the Public Gardens. This is definitely one of the places I will miss the most.

Katelyn got a ride on the "Make Way for Ducklings" ducks. It seemed especially appropriate since they are her favorite animal.

One of the other places I will miss the most, Walden Pond.

We mad sure to take Sean to get awesome Italian food and Gelato in the North End and then even went back the next day to get Italian Pastries at Mikes. :)

Sitting on the cannon of the USS Constitution.

Standing outside the Old North Church. Thanks so much for coming to see us Sean we loved having you!

So unfortunately, I didn't get many good pictures from it but we had a super fun camping trip in the White Mountains in New Hampshire with the Zellers. We were a little early in the season which meant we didn't have any crowds and had a great spot right by a beautiful creek. It turns out this is only camping we are going to get to do this summer so we are so glad not only that we got a chance to get outdoors but also spend so much fun time with our good friends.

Graduation!

We are so proud of Tyler for all his hard work while he was going to Harvard Law School. It was a wonderful day to finally see him get that diploma that he had definitely earned. You're amazing Tyler!

Thank you so much too, to Dad and Linda, and Mom and Dave. It was so good to have you come and see us and I know Tyler was glad to have you share this special event with him.

With Dad and Linda.

With Mom and Dave.

With the Zellars. We miss you guys already so much! I hope New Orleans is treating you well and that we get to come and see you soon!

Katelyn got to walk with Tyler, she looked very cute up there in her little white dress next to all the graduates. She even ended up in a picture on the Harvard Law School website afterwords with Tyler and Dad.

Receiving his diploma!

Here are just a couple of random cute pictures of Katelyn to end the post. Cuz ya know, why not? But I also just want to say what wonderful time our time in Boston was. It had its ups and downs as most places do but there are a lot of things I love about and especially a lot of amazing friends we made there. I'm so grateful for the chance to have such an awesome experience.

Spring Break in Sunny Cleveland

2011-05-08T22:26:00.000-04:00

So this is a long time coming. It's actually been sitting mostly finished in drafts for quite some time so it's about time I got it up so I can finally catch up with all the other stuff I've also been waiting for, enjoy!

This year for Spring Break we decided to go hand out with Cameron, Hillary and Grant in Cleveland while we are still living "close." I must admit when we were having such freezing weather here in Boston many of our friends were a little surprised we didn't pick a warmer climate as long as we were getting away. But we were so happy to have gone to Cleveland and had a blast with the Lovingers and were so sad to leave them when our time was up. So now we are just crossing our fingers that Cameron will get into school in Arizona so that we can see them more often. :)

Here is cute cute Grant. He is such a happy guy and always gives the best smiles.

Here is Katelyn showing off her toy from Arby's that she got on the way there.

Yay cousins!

Nothing like a good cousin bathtime. :)

They have an awesome indoor pool at the community center where they live. We had a great time going swimming.

We also went to this really neat place that had a bunch of animals and science display type stuff and was free!! Katelyn had a great time looking at turtles and crawling through this big, hollow log.

We also got to go to Kirtland, OH and see the temple there. I had only ever driven by it so it was really neat to get to go inside and have a tour and everything.

Another shot of the Kirtland temple.

We also went and saw the church sites like the Whitney store. It is amazing to think you are standing in the same place that Joseph Smith and early Saints stood.

We had such an awesome time in Cleveland!! Thanks so much Cam, Hill and Grant for letting us come stay with you! Here's to hoping we'll be hanging out in Arizona before too much longer! :)

Just a side note to end. On our way home we went to see Niagara Falls since I had never been there. It really is pretty incredible. Luckily Katelyn likes windy days because it was super windy there, mostly though I think she was just happy to get out of the car.

And finally I just had to post a couple of pictures of how Katelyn looked when we finally made it home. Poor little orphan child. :)

Big Sister

2011-04-02T18:18:00.000-04:00

Katelyn is going to be a big sister! :) We are going to be blessed with another little one in our family coming in November. I had my first appointment yesterday and so far everything looks good. We are so excited to welcome one more in our home!

Boston Children's Museum

2011-02-13T16:47:00.006-05:00

A couple of week ago we were able to get the library passes to go to the Children's Museum here in Boston. (Hurray!) The local library has free or almost free passes to most of the museums in the area but there are only a couple for each day and the Children's Museum ones are always the hardest to get. Anyway, after hearing how much fun this place is ever since we got here we finally went to check it out for ourselves and we were not disappointed. We started off in an area designed especially for kids ages 0-3. They don't even let the older kids in so they can just run around and not have to worry about getting knocked over. Needless to say, Katelyn had a blast running around, playing with and on all the toys and talking to every other kid and adult in the place.

Enjoying the slide with daddy. She also was very into some of the dolls for quite a while.

Katelyn loves smashing her face up against things. :)

Having a great time!

Next we went to a room based on one of Katelyn's favorite shows, Peep and the Big Wide World. There is all sorts of stuff about shadows and other things they learn about on the show and a big water area based on the pond one of the characters lives in. Here are Katelyn and I with Peep. She was pretty excited to see them, though you can't really tell here, I think she was a little sad that they didn't move.

Playing in the water.

We also saw a room full of different bubbles contraptions and another where you can run golf balls on all sorts of tracks and we didn't even see half of the stuff they have there. It was a great time. Hopefully, we'll be able to get passes again before we go.

Finally, you may have noticed Katelyn's new pigtails in the earlier pictures. I recently discovered that her hair was long enough to put up this way. The best part however, is how awesome her hair looks when we take it out at the end of the day. Tyler likes to refer to it as her Wolverine look. :)

From Snow to Sun!

2011-01-30T16:46:00.004-05:00

After having lots of fun in the snow in Spokane we were lucky enough to be able to go down and have the best of both worlds by enjoying the sun down in Arizona. It was really nice to be able to just go outside without the long process of getting all bundled up first.

Katelyn and Tyler enjoyed the warm outdoors playing on this scooter at Grandma Rapier's house.

We also got to go up to the LeBaron cabin and enjoy some Arizona snow. Unfortunately, poor Katelyn had a bit of a cold while we were up there and so she looks pretty sad in most of these pictures. But despite how she looks she had a great time playing with all her cousins. Here is Liam snuggling on the couch with her.

Again, I promise she was much happier than she looks right here, she and Quinn just hanging out on the counter.

We tried to have Katelyn and Quinn sled together. As you can tell Quinn is having a blast and Katelyn, well . . . not as much.

Later she went sledding with Daddy and had a bit more fun.

White Christmas

2010-12-31T17:49:00.006-05:00

Merry Christmas! We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and got to enjoy lots time with family and friends. We have had a great time here in Spokane having a white Christmas. Katelyn is still a little young to really understand what Christmas means but I think she has still really loved being with so many fun people and playing with lots of fun new toys. Here is Katelyn on Christmas morning sporting some awesome bedhead. I tried all day to get it down with very little success.

Getting ready to open presents.

The rest of the clan.
Katelyn with Daddy and some of her new toys. The Kangaroo sings in both Spanish and English and whenever it gets switched to English she always switches it back to Spanish. If only Tyler and I could speak it a little better . . .

Katelyn got a new Elmo phone for Christmas since phones are pretty much her favorite thing in the world and she is just beginning to love Sesame Street. It's pretty neat because we actually downloaded her name on it so that Elmo talks to her when she presses the buttons. I think we may be more impressed than Katelyn though at this point.

Tyler took some great pictures of my parents backyard after we had a big snowfall. It's beautiful.

Another angle.

After all the snow fall we decided to bundle Katelyn up and see how she would enjoy playing in it.

Unfortunately, she wasn't really a big fan. But she sure looked cute!

Going for a sled ride!

Katelyn has gotten to spend time with her cousin Grant while we've been here and she loves to give him hugs and kisses. He is such a cutie we're so glad to get to see him.

Dancing cousins!
Katelyn giving Grant hugs. I think maybe he'll like it more when he can get away when he's had enough.

We have been having such a great time in Spokane and a wonderful Christmas and we can't wait to get to go see all our family down in Arizona in a week!

Christmas Extravaganza!

2010-12-31T17:16:00.005-05:00

As is our tradition we went out the day after Thanksgiving for our Christmas Extravaganza. Katelyn got to ride around in the sled while we looked for a tree and had a good time, except when it got too bumpy.

Katelyn and Tyler with our tree. Katelyn was pretty impressed with Tyler cutting down the tree.

Katelyn helping to decorate. She actually was really good about not pulling things off the tree. We didn't even have move all the decorations up to the top half of the tree.

The finished tree.
The lit up tree. Sadly, we just have the cheapy lights on our tree so by the time we left at least one strand had gone out so it wasn't looking quite as brilliant.

Just before we left Boston Tyler's mom sent us a Christmas package in this box. Katelyn enjoyed pulling everything out and all her new fun books and movies but even more she enjoyed playing in and with the box.
Our best present.

The Game and a Visit From Melanie and Jeff

2010-12-31T16:49:00.004-05:00

So apparently I only like to blog in marathons so here is our catch up through Christmas. We had a really fun November this year. We had a great Thanksgiving with all our friends here in Boston and my amazing friend Angie hosted 20 of us plus several babies all in her apartment. It was wonderful! Then we got to go The Game. The Game is the longest running football rivalry game between Harvard and Yale. I must admit that after BYU football games it was a little less than impressive but still super fun. The stadium is built in Roman Colosseum style so it's pretty neat just being inside it. So we got decked out in our Harvard finest and cheered the Crimson on to victory.

Here is Katelyn and her little buddy Josh in their matching Harvard Law sweatshirts.

Earlier in November Tyler's sister Melanie and her husband Jeff came to visit us. We had a great time seeing the sights and beautiful fall colors for our last year. Here is Katelyn sitting on a cannon on the USS Constitution.

We went down to Boston Common one day and had a photo shoot in the leaves.

Here are Melanie and Jeff on our balcony. I am definitely going to miss that view out our window.

Our whole group on the deck of the USS Constitution. Thanks so much for coming to visit us, it was a blast!

Halloween!

2010-11-03T13:49:00.005-04:00

We had great fun this year going to our ward party for Halloween. Katelyn was just about the cutest cow that there ever was. (It's possible I'm a little biased) All the kids got to trick or treat from classroom to classroom and then did a costume parade around the gym before dinner. It was super fun.

Katelyn actually did really well walking up to the doors pulling a candy out of the baskets and putting them in her bucket. Though she usually wanted more than one. :)

Katelyn and Mommy after the costume parade. I decided last minute to "dress up" so this is my lame attempt at a "cowgirl/farmer"

These are our pumpkins this year. Tyler as usual worked very hard on his and even made his own stencil, it's Gandalf fighting the balrog for those who have seen the movie or read the Lord of the Rings.

Here are a couple of videos of Katelyn trick or treating. One is here at our ward party and then we did another reenactment at our apartment since it was pretty crowded at the church. Enjoy!

Our Big One Year Old

2010-11-03T02:14:00.004-04:00

I can't believe that our little Katelyn is one already. I always believed parents when they would say that kids grow up so fast but I don't think you can really understand how fast it really is until it's your own. Even though we have had some rough times over the past year we have had so much fun with our little Katelyn and cannot imagine our lives without her. She brightens up our day and we are so grateful to have her in our family.

The Birthday Girl with her Uncle Cam and cousin Grant, we ended up doing the "party" a little close to bedtime so she and Grant were both a bit tired :)

Katelyn pushing around her new grocery cart from Grammy and Papa. She also got that frog from Uncle Cam and Aunt Hillary and loves to take him with her all the time.

The cake. My mom and I made it together, it was a lot of fun.

Looking thrilled about the whole thing :)

She was super dainty about trying her cake. She only wanted to get just tiny bits on her fingers and then lick them off.

Mom and Dad trying to show her how it's done

the end result, I think there is definitely more on her face and hands than actually ended up in her mouth but I suppose that's the point right? We love you Katelyn!

Fall leaves and Apple Picking

2010-11-03T01:47:00.008-04:00

We had so much fun when my Mom and Dad, Cameron, Hillary and Grant came to visit us this fall. They came out for Katelyn's birthday and we got enjoy the fall (which is my favorite time here) by going Apple Picking, going on a Duck Tour of Boston, and seeing Walden Pond. Thanks so much for coming out to see us it was so much fun!

At Honey Pot Hill Orchard, we are still working on the apples :)

Grant is obviously thrilled about his first apple picking excursion :)

Katelyn trying to figure out what to do with this thing :)

Katelyn loved looking at the animals in the petting zoo

On the duck tour Katelyn liked to look at the window as far as she could, especially when we were on the water. I'm sure she would've loved to dive in if we would've let her.

Getting ready to take off. Cameron and Katelyn apparently got distracted somehow. :) Grant was an angel and slept through the whole thing, though I'm guessing Hillary got quite the arm workout since she held him through the whole thing and then the long trip back to our place.

The Lovingers in front of the boat
We also went with my parents up to Vermont to see the Joseph Smith birthplace memorial. It was beautiful up there and a wonderful place to feel the spirit. (Afterwords we finished off the trip by stopping by the Ben and Jerry's factory for some ice cream :)

We also went out to Walden Pond. It is one of my favorite places in the Boston area. I can see why Thoreau would pick here to spend his time in solitude. Katelyn also loved it here since I let her get in the water. She was not at all dismayed by the fact that is was really cold. In fact I had to chase after her a one point cuz she was ready to get all the way in.

Bringing her back after chasing her down. :)

This is a bit of a random picture but I thought it was a good one. We took a trip to the zoo shortly after we got back to Boston and one of the highlights was seeing the Gorillas. At one point one of the Gorillas walked right up and sat down next to where Katelyn was standing by the glass. Katelyn was pretty interested by that . . . until shortly after when she noticed the pieces of bamboo below the window :)

Camping and the Cabin

2010-11-03T01:15:00.005-04:00

We were lucky enough to get to go camping with both Tyler's family and mine this year. We got a new tent for Christmas last year and we were glad to already get to use it so much. Katelyn actually did pretty well as a camper except for the whole sleeping at night thing. :) Pretty much she spent a bit of time down by the fire late at night with Dad and most of her sleeping ended up taking place in the car. Other than that though we had a blast. We also got to spend a bit of time up at Tyler's family's cabin which is always really fun. We even got quite a bit of rain one week while we were there which I have learned to be especially appreciative of after living a couple of summers in Arizona. :)

Katelyn enjoying time by the fire in Arizona

We had a lot of fun just sitting around enjoying the campfire.

Katelyn playing around in the tent in Arizona. The ground was a bit rocky and she was only crawling at this point so this was here favorite play place.
The Lloyd family :) We had a great time and are so excited to get to be coming back to Arizona in May.

Enjoying the rain up at the cabin

Katelyn enjoyed the rain as well :)

Katelyn and Daddy relaxing on the swing

Tyler and the Stuart kids. We had so much fun living with them this summer. Thanks so much!

With Cash and Landon too. We have the greatest nephews and niece. :)

I'm so glad we got to keep up the Glacier tradition this year as well. Hopefully next year we'll be able to get everyone there. Here we are up at Avalanche lake, one our favorite hikes.

Such a beautiful view

Tyler down by the waterfall

Katelyn and Daddy hiding out in a tree :)

Family Reunion and the Oregon Coast

2010-11-03T00:38:00.006-04:00

So my mom's side family reunion was on Oregon Coast this year. It is one of my favorite places. The beaches and coastline are so beautiful and it had been a long time since I'd been there. Also, it was so great to get to see the Green family. We all have such a great time together and I am looking forward to being on the West Coast again where hopefully maybe I'll get to run into them more often.

Will and I battling it out at a Minute to Win It game. I'll get you next time Will . . . :)

It was wonderful to get to know more about Grandma and Grandpa Green. I am so grateful to have such amazing people to look up to.

We had the best game of 4 square going pretty much all weekend. Apparently though I was the only one wussy enough to need a jacket after family pictures. :)

After the reunion was over the Lovinger clan drove down to Eugene to see my dad's brother Kurt and his family. Along the way we stopped at the lighthouse along the coast it was so beautiful there. And we had a great time together. (I won't mention the disaster that was getting to the reunion in the first place. :)

Katelyn and Grammy on the beach.

Catch Up Blogging Marathon

2010-11-03T00:22:00.003-04:00

So I am finally getting around to updating the blog. I have some really cute stuff of Katelyn from Halloween but felt like if I didn't get this stuff up first I would never do it. So here are a few posts to document Summer 2010. First off, I was able to go up to Spokane for Scott's graduation in June. I can't believe my baby brother is all graduated and off at college, crazy!

The Siblings: with Hillary standing in for Cam, we were sad Cam had to work but glad that Hillary could be with us.

Tio Loco and Katelyn :)

The Proud Parents

Don't Drop Your Laptop

2010-09-03T09:12:00.002-04:00

So earlier in the summer I made the mistake of trying to pick up both Katelyn and my laptop at the same time and the end result was that I dropped my laptop. :( Sadly, it didn't work after that. So I took it into the Apple store yesterday and found out that my hard drive is totally done for. And because we never quite got around to getting an external hard drive to back everything up on that means all our pictures and everything are gone. :( I'm going to send it to a data recovery specialist to see if it's possible to get anything off but even if they can it will probably cost $1000 or more. So first off if any of you have pictures of Katelyn that aren't on our blog I would love to get them from you and also if you don't already back up your computer some how I would strongly recommend that you do so.

Beware of Flying Objects

2010-07-07T13:44:00.003-04:00

A couple of weeks ago one of the attorneys at Tyler's firm invited us to go a Diamondbacks game with him and his family. The firm has a box at the stadium so we were having a great time there. Around the 4th inning one of the other attorneys came up to the box to use the bathroom and told us he had a couple of extra seats next to him right behind the Dbacks dugout and invited us to join him. I have decided that this is the only way to watch baseball. Not only are the close enough to feel like you are part of the game, but with foul balls and other things you really can be part of the action! Right next to where I was resting my feet was a sign that said, "Beware of flying objects leaving the field." The attorney we were sitting with even told Tyler that his job while we were sitting this close was to protect me from these flying objects. :) Luckily the only thing that came very close was bubble gum from the guys in the dugout but it was still definitely the most exciting baseball game I've ever been too.

4 Years and Counting

2010-07-07T13:40:00.003-04:00

So I'm a little late on this post but on June 2nd Tyler and I celebrated our 4 year Anniversary. To celebrate we went out with Cory and Allison to a restaurant called The Melting Pot. For those of you who have been there you know how amazing the food is and how fun it is to eat. For those of you who haven't been there I highly recommend it. It is a little spendy so probably it is a special occasions only kind of place but it was well worth what we spent. Tyler and I have had an amazing four years together, only made better the addition of Katelyn to our family. I'm so grateful to be married to my best friend and I look forward to all the years to come!

Learning from the Master

2010-07-07T13:34:00.002-04:00

So Allison is really talented with couponing and saving money when she is shopping. I have been trying to learn all her ways while I am here so that hopefully I can apply them myself. A while back she discovered a really good deal on huggies diapers and so after printing off coupons on as many computers and we could and going to three different stores we came home with our cheap diapers. This is a picture of just my half. Looks like Katelyn should be good to go for a while. :)

Random Katelyn Post

2010-06-04T20:07:00.004-04:00

So there isn't any particular story to go with this post just that we have some cute pictures of Katelyn and really what more do you need?

Sadly, the Suns got out sooner than we would've liked but here is Katelyn and her Daddy already for a playoff game. Go Suns!

This is Katelyn in an adorable outfit from her Grandma Carole. I also picked this picture because this is one of Katelyn's new favorite things. To suck her lips in and then see if she can let them out so they make a popping sound. It cracks her up. :)

Katelyn, almost smiling.

So Katelyn likes to fall asleep with a binky in her mouth and at least one in her hands. So usually I put three or so in with her just to make sure she can find one. :)

Her is Katelyn helping us pack to leave for Arizona. :)

Katelyn all dressed up for church mostly this is one of the rare instances when I could keep shoes on her and I think those jellies are too darn cute!

Katelyn and Daddy.

So Katelyn has cradle cap (basically bad baby dandruff) and a friend told me that putting Vaseline on her head would help. So we tried it and it didn't seem to make a big difference but it did make her hair look pretty great. :)

Girls' Movie Night!

2010-06-04T20:00:00.003-04:00

I have been blessed with some very awesome friends out in Boston. For the most part they also have husbands going to the Law School. Well after discovering that we had pretty much all read the Twilight series we decided to start Girls' Movie Nights to watch them (and laugh at them) together. It's so fun to all get together and everyone always brings delicious things to share. :) The picture is actually from the last one we had before we all left for the Summer and we watched The Fantastic Mr. Fox, which was really cute. Sadly, we are missing our good friends Sophie and Jennifer in the picture. They weren't feeling well this evening but we love having them with us!

Cleveland Rocks!

2010-06-04T19:08:00.004-04:00

So for any of you who also read my brother and sister-in-law's blog (Cameron and Hillary) feel free to go ahead and skip this post. Seeing as all the pictures are stolen straight from their blog you have seen it all already. :) Otherwise there are some great pictures so continue on! Tyler, Katelyn and I recently made the big move from Boston to Arizona and we were lucky enough to get to stop in Cleveland. Tyler only got to stay for a night before he and his dad (who flew to Cleveland the night we got there) drove on to Arizona and made it in two days! Katelyn and I got to stay for the weekend and we had so much fun. We were sad to leave. Luckily Hillary is a much better picture taker than I am so this trip is more documented than most.

Katelyn just loves her aunt and uncle and smiled at them all the time. Here she is snuggling with Cam. :)

Hillary was skilled enough to even catch one of her smiles. So fun!

The Sunday I was there was Mothers' Day and not only was Cameron sweet enough to make breakfast but even got flowers and wrote nice notes for both me and Hillary.
I love that Katelyn found her way in to both pictures. :)

We made pizzas one night for dinner. They were delicious and super fun to make. Here are the finished products.

Hillary and I with our pizzas.

Cameron rolling out the pizza dough.

Cam and Hillary also took us their local rec center which is awesome. We took Katelyn in the pool and had a really fun time.

Here is Katelyn in her giant inner tube having a good time. :)

Uncle Cam and Katelyn dancing!

One day we went to Little Italy and had lunch. Afterwords we went to a bakery and had the most amazing desserts. They both looked beautiful and tasted delicious!

Katelyn at the restaurant in Little Italy. She had carrots for lunch but the color makes it looks like she shared some of the spaghetti or something.

Here is Cameron at the same restaurant having a very traditional spaghetti and meatballs which he said were very good.

Thank you Cameron and Hillary for such a fun time! We are so excited to come back and see you again!

A Day at the Beach

2010-04-18T16:31:00.003-04:00

So about a week ago or so we had 85 degree weather here which is crazy but so nice especially after all of the rain. So Katelyn and I, along with some friends headed up to Revere Beach to enjoy the sunshine. Sadly the water was still ice cold so Katelyn was none too appreciative when I stuck her feet in to wash off some sand. :) We will be headed to Arizona in just a couple of weeks so there should be many more sunny days in our future. :)

She fell over immediately following this picture- thus her leg up in the air. :)

Looking so cute in her little beach outfit. I also love that her little friend is in the background eating as much sand as he can fit in his mouth.

And just for fun a cute picture of Katelyn in the tub. Though she does looked a little shocked that I would be taking her picture at such a time. :)

Happy Easter from our 6 month old!

2010-04-06T15:18:00.004-04:00

Happy Easter! It's hard to believe but our little Katelyn is 6 months old! She is getting big so fast but we are having so much fun with her. Especially because her tummy problems get better everyday and she is all the time becoming such a happier baby. She loves to be tickled and to sing Itsy Bitsy Spider (or at least watch Tyler and I sing it). She can roll from her front to her back and back to her front but hasn't yet connected that the two together will get her from one place to another. :) (I'm not sure I'm ready for her to be that mobile anyway). She can also sit up on her own and even has a tiny little tooth bud. :) She also has started some solids and discovered very quickly that while she likes applesauce and pears she is not a fan of squash. She is so much fun and we are so grateful to have her in our family.

Here she is in her cute little Easter dress with all her Easter toys. She loves her bunny and chick but was a little sad that she couldn't chew on the Easter eggs very well. :)

So Katelyn got this super cute bunny from her Grandmama and Grandpapa Green and she will often just sit her in seat and hold it while she watches me doing dishes and such. I was barely able to catch the moment though because as soon and I got the camera out all the wanted to do was figure out what in the world I was doing.

I'm sure many of you saw the ridiculous amounts of rain we got here in Massachusetts recently and luckily we didn't have to deal with any flooding ourselves but we were stuck inside for many days and so the first day the Sun came out we headed down to Boston Common and the Public Garden to enjoy it.

One other thing Katelyn loves, and I mean loves, is hanging upside down. If she could I imagine she would spend the majority of her time that way and only be right side up when it was absolutely necessary. :)

Katelyn also loves to spend time in her jumper. Her feet are just long enough that she can bounce on her own and she loves to spin around and play with all of the toys.

This last one is from a trip we took down to Cape Cod during Tyler's Spring Break a couple of weeks ago. We had a fun time, though it was definitely the off season and so we didn't spend much time on the beach. But we did dress Katelyn up in this swimsuit and take her to our hotel pool. She was okay with it but was much happier when we finally brought her back to our room and put her the warm bathtub. :) Oh well, at least she looked adorable in her little suit right?

Our Adorable Little Girl

2010-03-23T21:23:00.002-04:00

So lately Katelyn has been all smiles and giggles, which is so nice after a few months straight of her being fussy. But almost any time we break out the camera or video camera she looks either bored or mad. This is one of the few times we've been able to capture her happy on camera, and we love it! Hope you enjoy it.

Our Spokane Trip

2010-03-04T14:57:00.004-05:00

So this is pretty late but I wanted to post a few pictures from the trip we took to Spokane in January. It was supposed to be just Katelyn and I, but luckily Tyler was able to come for a few days and share in the fun, it was great to have him there. I was especially grateful to have him on the plane ride out there when Katelyn decided she was not happy to be traveling. Three hours in to our six hour flight after just about non-stop screaming, the flight attendants ended up offering free alcoholic beverages to all the passengers sitting around us. :) I'm guessing that is not standard practice for your average crying baby. Anyway, other than the flight out there we had a great time and got to see everybody, even Cameron and Hillary who were home for a couple months and Sean who got to come home for the weekend. Scott had his Eagle court of honor while we were all there so Sean, Cam and Tyler all got to sit in his eagle's nest which was pretty neat. Thanks mom and dad for bringing us out we had a great time!

Despite the fact that it looks like I am forcing the binky in Katelyn's mouth she really did pretty well. She just likes me to hold it in for her so she doesn't have to do all that work. ;)

Here is one of the four generation pictures we took while we are there. Katelyn and I are lucky to have such great women to follow after.

Our other four generation picture we were so lucky that (Great :) Grandma Carole and Keith could come see us.

And I most definitely had to share this great picture that my Grandma Carole got of Katelyn. Tyler and I are never skilled enough to catch these moments so I think this is still her only documented smile. :)

Happy Valentines Day from Katelyn!

2010-02-20T13:50:00.002-05:00

Katelyn, the Bib Queen

2010-02-04T11:55:00.003-05:00

Our beautiful little Katelyn has some pretty bad reflux. But she does not like getting dressed. So in order to keep from having to change her clothes she wears a bib 24/7. This first picture shows her first set of cute Winnie-the-Pooh bibs that her Grandma and Grandpa Rapier got for her.

Lately, however they were starting to get a bit tight so on our recent trip to Spokane Grandma and Grandpa Lovinger got her some new cute ones.

First, here is Katelyn with her Uncle Scott (aka Tio Loco) and Uncle Cam in her "I love my Uncle" bib. (Sadly, Uncle Sean was already back in Utah when we got the bib)

She also has an "I love my Aunt" bib but we ran out of time to take a picture with her Aunt Hillary- sorry Hillary! Here she is in her "My heart belongs to Grandma" bib. :)

And finally, here is her "I love my Grandpa" bib. It was Grandpa Lovinger's idea in the first place to get these bibs and we were glad to discover them. She definitely does love all her uncles, aunts, grandmas and grandpas and it was so fun to get to see them.

Katelyn just recently started seeing a chiropractor so hopefully between him, the GI specialist and her pediatrician we can help her get ove her reflux and maybe not need a bib quite so often. :)

2010-01-08T11:24:00.004-05:00

Well we are back in snowy Boston after a great Christmas. Katelyn and I got to start our break early by going to Spokane for a week while we left Tyler at home to take his finals in peace. :) We had lots of fun hanging out with my family and Katelyn got to meet lots of new people.

Then after Tyler had finished his finals we meet up in Mesa to spend Christmas with his family. And I must admit while I do miss my white Christmas a bit, it's pretty nice to be able to go outside without the long ritual of bundling both myself and Katelyn up just to get from one place to another. We had such a great time with Tyler's family and Katelyn loved getting to meet all of her aunts, uncles and cousins and getting to see her grandparents again. They are all so great with her and think they maybe even got to see some moments of her not crying. :) We are all excited to get to spend this summer in Mesa.

I wish I had some more pictures to post but I think most of the best ones are all on other people's cameras so here are the ones that I have. :)

Since everybody was all in town for Christmas (aka we came into town :) we were able to have family pictures. Here is a good one of the Lloyd/Rapier clan. You'll notice that Katelyn is just a bundle in a blanket in the picture because by this point she had had enough of picturing taking.

Luckily, Tyler's family was nice enough to let us take our own little family pictures first while Katelyn was still being tolerant of the whole thing. Here is one that we really liked.

Our favorite ones though were some close up ones she took of Katelyn. What an adorable little girl we have been blessed with. We are so grateful to have her in our family.

We've discovered that Katelyn loves TV, especially football (she's her momma's daughter :) so she decided to hang out with Grandpa Rapier one day and watch the bowl game. :) She's also starting to get better at holding her head up and being able to sit up with some support too. So fun!

Grandma Rapier got Katelyn this adorable Christmas dress and shoes. She even wore it all day without spitting up all over it- it's a Christmas miracle. :) However, since she has lately discovered she loves sucking on her fingers I wasn't able to get a picture of her without them in her mouth. :)

Poor Katelyn Had to Go to the Hospital (don't worry she's okay) But At Least She Looked Adorable :)

2009-12-10T22:55:00.002-05:00

So poor Katelyn has reflux and is a bit colicky and often fussy. We have been trying many ways to help: Mylicon drops, sitting her up after eating, I'm off dairy and she even takes some medicine for her reflux. Yesterday we saw a GI specialist at Childrens' Hospital and she wanted to do a procedure that would check to see if Katelyn had any kind of blockage in her rectum that was keeping things blocked up. So we took her in today and they had to stick a tube up her bottom and shoot some dye up there to make sure everything was working right. Not fun as you might imagine. She was really good about it all, though obviously she didn't enjoy it much, poor thing. Thankfully everything is okay she is just a bit on the fussy side. Before the did the procedure though they had us put her in this tiny little johnny which she looked just adorable in. Sadly I only had my phone camera so sorry for the quality but she's still pretty cute. :)

Halloween, Katelyn's Blessing and Some Other Cute Pictures

2009-11-07T11:08:00.005-05:00

So this last weekend we were lucky enough to have my parents and Scott and Tyler's parents come to Boston to participate in Katelyn's blessing. It was so great to have them here and fun for them all to meet Katelyn. It made me excited for a time when we can live closer to family. I was even more fortunate that my parents and Scott got to stay for a couple of extra days and hang out with Katelyn and I while Tyler was at school. This first picture is my parents and Scott in front of Peacefield- the house where John and Abigail Adams lived in the latter part of their life. We also got to see the houses were John Adams and John Quincy Adams were born. It was really amazing to see all the original artifacts there and stand in the places where they must have stood. (Yes, I am a history nerd).

My mom, Scott and I outside the house where John Adams was born. Katelyn is also in the picture- can you find her? :)

Katelyn with her Dad, Grandpas and member of our bishopric who participated in her blessing.

Katelyn just hanging out and looking cute :)

I thought it would be nice to put a picture of Tyler's pumpkin on here since he didn't get to carve it until 11 pm on Halloween night

Also, not really seen on Halloween was Katelyn's adorable princess costume that my mom and I made. She wasn't in the best of moods that night and so she spend very little time in it. :)

For those of you who know Tyler very well you know that he likes to make comments when he is in class. Well, aparently Katelyn has subconsciously inherited that trait. When she is sleeping she likes to have her hand raised in the hopes that she too might get called on. :)

All bundled up and ready for a New England winter

Just hanging out . . .

Bath time!

Ben Affleck Sighting and More Pictures of Katelyn

2009-10-20T21:09:00.003-04:00

So today my mom and I were walking to Katelyn's doctors appointment and when we got to Harvard Square I noticed there was a lot of fancy camera equipment around. As we were speculating as to the reason a women standing next to us reminded me that Ben Affleck was shooting a movie in Cambridge. Then all of a sudden this women grabbed my shoulder and said, "There he is! In the hat right over there!" And lo and behold there was Ben Affleck about 5 feet away from us talking with some of the camera crew. :) Now I do have to admit up close he still pretty much looks like most people, but still it was pretty fun to practically run into him like that. :) My mom and I contemplated sticking around to see if we could make it in as extras but eventually decided against it. Anyway, so that is our fun story for the day and now without further ado here are some more cute pictures of Katelyn. . . . :)

Katelyn Marie Lloyd

2009-10-11T23:26:00.008-04:00

I know we haven't been very attentive to our blog this year, but I couldn't let one of the most significant events in our lives go by without some attempt to share it with others and record it for ourselves. Nicole and I just welcomed into our family a beautiful little girl whom we have named Katelyn Marie Lloyd. We were leaning toward Brooklyn Norene, but she looked more like a Katelyn to us. We still think at some point down the road we'll have a little Brooklyn as well.

Nicole's due date had been Sept. 28th, and since she was nearly a week overdue and her doctor (who is herself pregnant) was going to be done working soon, Nicole decided to be induced. Nicole's mom had come into town at the end of September to help out, and the three of us went to the hospital early in the morning on Saturday, Oct. 3rd.

Nicole developed a fever during labor and the baby's heart rate kept dropping, so after a very long 22 hours of labor and 2 hours of fruitless pushing, the doctor decided a c-section was called for. Nicole was nervous, and we were both very glad that her mom was with us, as she has had a c-section herself and was thus a great support for Nicole. I sat near Nicole through the procedure (side note: I don't do well with blood) and was impressed by how brave she was. We could hear the doctors on the other side of the screen laughing because the baby was stuck. She finally came loose at 8:33am on Sunday, Oct. 4th.

I avoided looking at the scene on the other side of the screen as I made my way across the room to watch the doctors clean and weigh the baby. She came in at 6lbs. 9.6 oz, and 18.5 inches (.5 of which was due to a rather severe conehead -- unusual for a c-section delivery, but as I said, she was wedged pretty tight). Other than her conical head, the baby was quite beautiful right from the start: she was very pink with light-colored hair and big bright eyes. It was amazing to finally hold this little baby that I had felt moving inside Nicole for the last few months. I sat down by Nicole again so she could see the baby, and I helped Nicole touch the baby's cheek with her finger. Nicole cried.

Because of Nicole's fever, our baby had to undergo a series of tests to ensure she did not have an infection. I went upstairs with the baby to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit while Nicole's mom took my place at Nicole's side while the doctors sewed her up. The baby was really good throughout the tests and hardly fussed at all, despite being hooked to dozens of different wires and tubes (it was a rather sad and horrifying sight). Over the next few hours I went back and forth between the NICU and the room where Nicole was recovering, and eventually grandma and daddy got some sleep.

Nothing really significant happened the rest of that day or most of the following day (Monday). Nicole and the baby were finally able to be together, although Nicole wasn't strong enough to hold her for very long. It was at this point that we decided on the name Katelyn Marie, and I discovered (over a long sleepless night) that she shares her daddy's fondness for Billy Joel songs.

Monday night at about at about 10:30, after Nicole's mom had returned to our apartment to get some sleep, Nicole started to hemorrhage. We didn't realize how serious it was at first, but within a couple minutes we had at least a dozen nurses in the room. I heard them muttering to each other their amazement at how much blood Nicole had lost (repeat: I don't do well with blood). As soon as Nicole's doctor arrived with a rapid response team they wheeled Nicole away to another operating room to try to find and stop the bleeding. I was left sitting in the hallway outside the operating room while Nicole and the doctors went inside, Nicole's mom jumped in a cab heading back to the hospital and my mom jumped on a plane headed to Boston. This was probably my low point in terms of feeling alone and afraid. I remember gaining some measure of comfort by humming the tune to Families can be Together Forever.

Nicole's mom arrived shortly, and soon enough Nicole was back out of the operating room. The surgeon that I had been pestering for information the whole time told us that the bleeding had stopped on its own, but (mixed blessing) this kept them from identifying the source of the bleeding. They decided to monitor her overnight on the labor and delivery floor. We made them pull a second cot into the room, and the three of us had a short family prayer and bunked down for a somber slumber party.

At about 7:30 Tuesday morning, Nicole hemorrhaged again. As they prepared to wheel her to the operating room again, I remember regretting that I had not given her a blessing after the previous incident. Nicole was shaking terribly (a side-effect of the anesthesia made worse by her obvious fear) and crying, as was her mom. I think this was their low point, and I may have been more in shock. It was a difficult moment.

When they brought Nicole back the second time, they reported that again the bleeding had stopped on its own and again they couldn't identify the source. This was obviously not satisfying news. They took her a third time to try a procedure which amounted to inflating a balloon inside her uterus in an effort to provide pressure and stop the bleeding. They quickly returned with more bad news: the balloon kept slipping out, and they were running low on options. The doctors were concerned that another massive bleed would put them in a position where removing Nicole's uterus would be the only way to ensure that she did not die of blood loss (she had already received three units of blood by transfusion).

The final attempt to avoid a hysterectomy would be by a team of Interventional Radiologists. They explained that they would, under the guidance of x-ray, inject into the arteries on either side of Nicole's uterus an agent which would significantly impede blood flow to the uterus. They called this the "shot-gun" approach, since it affected the whole uterus without any attempt to identify a particular source of the bleeding (I think they felt by this point that the bleeding was from multiple small sources). The downside to this approach was that reduced blood flow to the uterus posed a risk of infection in the short-term and possible impairment of future pregnancies. This was obviously preferable to a hysterectomy, let alone a risk to Nicole's life, but was difficult to take nonetheless.

I had called my home teacher to come and help me give Nicole a blessing, and to his credit he came right over even early on a weekday. Unfortunately, the combination of Boston traffic and hospital over-security delayed him until just after Nicole was taken for her fourth trip to the Operating Room. Just before they wheeled her out I asked for a minute of privacy and gave her a priesthood blessing. Without going into too much detail here, I will share that I felt directly prompted to command Nicole's body to heal and respond to the treatment. The doctors were also blessed to operate with skill and inspiration.

After Nicole left for the procedure, her mom and I immediately began calling everyone we could think of to ask for prayers in her behalf. Thank you to all of our friends and family who prayed and fasted -- I know you made a difference. After that we were back to the waiting game. When the doctors finally came to give us the news, they were pleasantly surprised with how well things had gone. The shot-gun approach had turned out to be unnecessary, as the x-ray revealed almost immediately the elusive source of the bleeding.

As it turns out, some time during the c-section one of the surgeons nicked an artery (maybe a vein - I'm not a med student) in Nicole's uterus. This vessel had been swelling with blood and then releasing it in bursts, which accounted for the strange on/off pattern of the bleeding. The radiologists were able to repair the cut vessel and were very optimistic that Nicole would experience no further problems (other than the usual discomforts associated with labor, c-section, and multiple trips to the operating room).

We spent the next few days in the hospital, and Nicole got stronger every day. On Friday we all came home, and now we are enjoying the pleasures and challenges of being first-time parents with a new baby. I'm so proud of Nicole and how tough she has been throughout this whole ordeal. I'm grateful to her mom and to mine for being here to support us. I'm in love with my darling little baby girl. And I am humbled by God's mercy, his mindfulness of us, and his power to bless and heal.

We'll keep you posted on Nicole's progress in healing and try to supply a steady amount of adorable Katelyn photos. Enjoy these for starters:

Go Cougars!!!

2009-09-06T14:47:00.002-04:00

Just wanted to post quickly about what an amazing game BYU had last night. The defense looked awesome, the O-line held their own, Hall, Kariya and many others had great games and overall we looked like a team that belonged on the field with the #3 team in the country. Hurray for BYU- GO COUGARS!

We're Back!

2009-08-23T16:51:00.004-04:00

We are back in Boston. Sadly, my already lacking blogging skills only got worse over the summer. But, we had a great time in Spokane and even got to spend some really fun time in Arizona. It was nice to be back West for a while and have a little breathing room. Tyler really enjoyed his internship at the Washington Attorney General's office and I had a great time doing stuff with my mom. :) We also got to go to Glacier National Park with my family and Lake Powell with Tyler's, both places are gorgeous. A couple of weeks ago we were lucky to get to go to Tiffany's (Tyler's sister) wedding and everything was beautiful. It was a really nice summer. As far as pictures go I am still working on getting better at that as well, but I do have a couple of pictures of the fire pit that Tyler and my brothers built in my parents backyard.

Tyler personally chiseled all of these lava rocks out of the wall in my parents' house where they used to be a fireplace that my mom hated. :)

This is the whole firepit area that all the boys built together. It was really fun to get to use a little before we left.

Tyler after a few very long days of hard work with his masterpiece.

Other than that we are just looking forward to the arrival of our little girl in about a month. :) We got to pick up her crib that mom and Dave gave us (it's beautiful thanks!) and we will post pictures of her room soon once we get it all put together. This last picture is just one of my and my ever-growing middle since I always want to see those kind of pictures of everyone else when it's their turn. :) So here it is . . . :)

My one and only contribution to our blog...thus far.

2009-07-02T20:45:00.002-04:00

Since this is my first time posting, I guess I'd better introduce myself. I'm Tyler - the lesser half of the Tyler and Nicole blog. Anyway, I've received a few requests for a poem I wrote a few years back, and thought this would be the easiest and most accessible way to share it. Feel free to use/share/take credit for as much as you like:

Precious Above All

By Tyler Lloyd

From far away I saw the tree,

And grasped the iron rod,

And pressing forward through the mist,

The narrow path I trod.

But faltering along the path,

I must have dropped my gaze.

From shining light I turned and saw

A building through the haze.

It towered high above the ground,

And people fine and proud,

From ev’ry doorway beckoned me

To come and join the crowd.

It seemed both great and wonderful,

Yet filled my heart with dread.

I turned away and fixed my view

On path and tree ahead.

But ever as my feet moved on,

My thoughts dwelt on the crowd,

Which mocked my struggle down below,

In voices harsh and loud.

The mist pressed close around me now,

I felt its tender strands,

That pulled so softly at my feet,

So gently at my hands.

One strand sang sweetly in my ear,

A soothing melody:

“Why walk this path so long and hard?

Come with us and be free!”

Relaxing grip upon the rod,

And view upon the tree,

I slowed my pace and looked around,

Intrigued by what I’d see.

The fog obscured the distant scene

That I could not resist.

I soon had left the pathway and

Was walking in the mist.

The threads of shadow pulled me on,

My face and skin felt cold.

Yet warmed I was by thick’ning cords

That now took greater hold.

And now and then from distant tree,

A beam of light would shine,

And I perceived these gentle cords

Were chains of dark design.

Before the beams the chains gave way,

Defeated by the light.

But fearing now to lose their touch,

I turned into the night.

I stumbled down my unseen path,

Uncertain and confused.

O’er rocks and pits I fell until

My hands and knees were bruised.

The cords that led so gently once,

Now pulled me to a race,

And tripping down one final slope,

I fell upon my face.

Then glancing up my eyes beheld

A river dark and deep,

And kneeling on that sandy shore,

I soon began to weep.

I shuddered at my bitter fate,

Afraid and lost, alone.

Why had I wandered from the path,

And left the truth I’d known?

I stood once more on weary feet,

And summoned all my will,

Determined to retrace my steps

Back up the treach’rous hill.

But though I tried to climb the bank,

The cords would give no slack,

And whipping at my arms and legs,

They roughly pulled me back.

Then wrapping ‘round my chest and waist,

And strengthening their hold,

They dragged me down the sandy bank,

Into the water cold.

These chains, not soft but sharp and hard,

Now muffled out my scream,

And laughing in my ears they pulled

Me ‘neath the murky stream.

Then sinking down into the depths,

My mind caught on the tree,

And straightway from my heart I cried,

“Dear Savior, rescue me!”

Then suddenly a light appeared

Above me on the sand,

And Jesus, kneeling on the shore,

Reached down and took my hand.

And as he made to raise me up,

My heart was filled with peace,

But still the heavy chains would not

Their rightful prize release.

I wondered then “what could He do?”

I knew the law’s demand.

But reaching down he grabbed a chain

With his almighty hand.

The razor edges cut Him, but

The chain broke with a crack,

And lashing back in fury left

A gash upon His back.

He reached again and broke once more

A heavy chain of sin,

It too recoiled, biting deep

Into His precious skin.

And each strong cord that He undid

Sprang back with all its might,

And threw upon His arms and back

The fullness of its spite.

When I could bear no more I cried

“I don’t deserve such grace!

It is not fair that you should bleed

And suffer in my place.”

With no response, He carried on.

I heard one final crack.

He lifted me, from bonds set free,

And placed me on His back.

Then slowly climbed back to the path –

His blood mixed with my tears.

Somehow His love had conquered sin,

And banished all my fears.

I hoped that He would take me to

The tree with no delay.

Instead He put me on the path

Where first my feet did stray.

Then very gently placed my hand

Back on the iron rod,

And for a while walked with me

The pathway home to God.

And someday when I’ve reached the tree,

I’ll fall down at the feet

Of Him who drank the bitter cup,

And made this fruit so sweet.

Yes, Even at Harvard

2009-03-19T09:34:00.003-04:00

So this will just be a quick post but I just had to relate my story of coming to work today. . .

So I was walking through Harvard Yard on my way to work this morning (Harvard Yard is the big area enclosed by the main dorms and buildings that make up Harvard College). Normally at quarter after eight there are some students milling around but it is more or less quiet. This morning however there was a big gathering of students who seemed to be formed into groups and were each wearing matching colors and holding big signs and banners. Needless to say I was slightly intrigued about what would bring these students out on a cold morning. I quickly found out. As I stopped to watch for a minute, a group of about 20 students burst out from the middle of the pack and began a lap around the Yard. . . in speedos and bikinis, yikes! :) I can only assume this had to do with some sort of initiation or something for the campus Frats and Sororities since they were chanting something I did not understand as they ran. Anyway, it was about the last thing I had expected to see but could only think, Yes, even at Harvard there are students who will run around in almost nothing in freezing temperatures. :)

Yeah, it's been a while

2009-01-26T10:12:00.004-05:00

So it has been quite a while since our last post. And because we are lame we didn't even get our camera out during Christmas break. (I suppose in Tyler's defense he was studying for his first set of finals so it was probably my job to take the pics, oops). So here are some more recent things that have been going on in good ole bean town. Last Monday, Tyler and I got to go to the Celtics/Suns game at the Garden (thanks Mom and Dave!!). It was a lot of fun especially since Tyler is a pretty devoted Suns fan and I am quickly becoming a devoted Celtics fan. We even each had a t-shirt for our team.

You can kind of see our T-shirts here. For any of you who didn't watch or hear about the game, Tyler is making that face because, well, it wasn't such a hot night for the Suns. Luckily though, they won a game last night and have a chance to take out the Spurs this week so hopefully they can redeem themselves. :)

This is a picture of the scoreboard at halftime. You can't see it too well but the score is 64-34 and for the Suns it didn't get much better from there, but for any of my fellow Celtics fans-Go Celtics!

These next pictures are from Saturday when we went Candlepin Bowling with some of the other 1L (first year) law students in our ward. Candlepin bowling was actually invented here in Massachusetts and is actually a pretty big thing here in New England and Eastern Canada. It is mostly the same as regular bowling except for the pins are skinnny and straight up and down and the balls are much smaller. The place we went to has actually been around since the 1930's so it was a fun thing to get to do.

Here is Tyler in action he actually did really well, despite the fact that he would usually use his other arm. As you can see there is only one pin left.

Here's me also in action, though for anyone who has seen me at regular bowling, I am just as bad at this. :) This is a good shot though to show the size of the ball.

Here is a pretty bad picture of the pins, because the place is so old it doesn't have amazing lighting but I think you can kind of get the idea.

This is the group that we went with, all of the husbands are 1L's at HLS and one of the other girls also works at HBS with me. The girl in the middle works with molecular biologist at BU as a research assistant. Anyway, it was a ton of fun and for anyone who comes out to visit you'll have to give it a try!

Yay for Christmas!

2008-12-04T16:10:00.003-05:00

So since our Thanksgiving consisted of Chinese food and Wii playing we were anxious to move on to Christmas. So I instigated a Christmas Extravaganza the day after and we got everything all ready for the season to begin. So Friday we drove out to Marlborough, MA and went to "The Tree Farm" and we actually got to walk around their little grove of trees and find our favorite and then we got to saw it down. Which, considering Tyler only has one arm and I am not much of a woodsman was quite the event. :) We also got some ornaments and lights and then took it home to decorate. Once we were done putting up decorations we had gingerbread cookies and watched Elf, hurray for Christmas. :) The other picture here is of the wreath I made at our ward's Wreathmaking Enrichment night. Now let me tell you, this is serious business. This activity has been going on in New England wards for the last 50 years and actually started in our ward so it is a very cherished tradition and has all the characteristics of an event that has had that long to grow. I was part of the committe that planned it and it was a bit nuts getting everything ready. But I must admit that it was a really wonderful night and I think my wreath even turned out pretty well too. :)

I think this picture doesn't quite show how big the wreath actually is, but it is bigger than you might think.

Here is a picture of pretty much all our Christmas decorations.

This is the nativity set I got last year for Christmas that I have been looking forward to putting up all year. I love the WillowTree statues and I especially loved the nativity. It always puts the right spirit in my heart when I see it. Tyler thought to put the tree pieces around it so that it didn't completely blend into the white blinds and window sill.

This is just a picture of our tree that we chopped down. Hurray for Christmas!

Head of the Charles, Halloween Pumpkins and Finally Pictures of Our Apartment

2008-11-03T14:48:00.005-05:00

Sorry our posts are always so big. Hopefully they're not too big of a pain to load. The first pictures in this one are from an event we went to here in Cambridge called the Head of the Charles. It's a whole weekend-long rowing competition that apparently is really big. There were teams from all over the country that came to compete and race down the Charles River. I have never been into rowing much but it was pretty fun to watch,especially when you can hear the yellers in the front of boats when they are trying to pass each other. :) The other pictures are of our Halloween pumpkins and we finally put up pictures of our apartment for those who were interested. :)

In case it wasn't obvious Tyler's is the one of Gollum on the left and mine is the cutesy one on the right. :)

We love our stools-thanks mom and dad

Hurray for New England Fall!

2008-10-14T11:40:00.001-04:00

So Tyler and I had the fun opportunity to go apple picking this weekend (apparently its way bigger here than in Washington, who knew? :)) Anyway, we had a blast. We took about a 45 minute drive into Central Massachusetts to get to the Apple Farm and the drive there was beautiful! The fall colors here are amazing, they made me really glad we are getting to spend some time here. The apple picking was also great fun: I got a carameled apple, Tyler got to climb trees and we both got lost in the hedge maze, what more could you ask of life?

Tyler at the center of the maze

This is actually a tree that is right across the street from our building.

This one is along Tyler's walk to school

Dream Dinners, Boat Tour and our Crazy Church Ceiling

2008-10-06T11:07:00.000-04:00

So Tyler and I tried this thing called Dream Dinners where you sign up for online for a menu of different meals and then you go to a Dream Dinners location where they have all the ingredients prepared and set up so you can just put them all together and go home with 8-9 meals all ready to cook. We've had a few so far and they are great. They have these all over the country so if anyone else is thinking this sounds like a good idea let me know. :)

These next two pictures are from a boat tour of the Charles River that we took with our Ward. Our Bishop has actually written a book about the River and so he was our guide. It was really fun and we got to see some parts of Boston we hadn't seen yet.

This is the bridge that goes from Boston into Somerville where we live.

This is a picture of the Old North Church from the River. This is the church were the lantern was hung to let the American Revolutionary forces know whether the British would come by land or by sea.

So this is a picture (as is the one below) of the ceiling in our church building. It used to be a boiler factory before the church began renting it for Sunday services. Every Sunday when we get to Church Tyler and I can't help feeling like we are getting ready to get on Thunder Mountain railroad at Disneyland or something, it is pretty great. :)

Pizza and goggles

2008-09-18T22:42:00.000-04:00

So Tyler and I decided to bust out our pizza stone for the first time the other day. Apparently it is a little like a dutch oven in that you have to rub it with cooking oil and then it seasons while it is in the oven before you can put pizza dough on it. So by the time it was ready to put the dough on the smoke was pretty strong and our apartment is pretty small so there was no real way to get away from it. But being near the oven was almost impossible. So in order to get the pizza on the stone without our eyes burning out of our heads we decided to put on our swimming goggles. :) It actually was mostly better once we had them on so we just kept them on for most of the night while the smoke was still in the apartment. It was great. Here is a picture of us with our pizza and goggles.

Just an added note. We also did not have any blinds yet for the windows behind us which go out into the parking lot so we were able to show off our fashion statement for all to see. Also great. :)

Trip to Boston

2008-09-09T16:06:00.000-04:00

Well, we finally made it here to Boston. Other than the fact that we get hopelessly lost when trying to drive anywhere we really like it here so far. Tyler is enjoying school and I am about to be employed (hurray! :). Here are some pictures from our trip from Mesa, AZ to Boston. We will post pictures of our new place soon. :)

My brother Cameron and his wife Hillary were so kind as to come with us and actually drive the Penske truck. This is all of us in front of the temple in Nauvoo.

The trees in Nauvoo were actually hollow so Tyler decided to climb inside. It was hilarious.

We stayed with our friends Ryan and Sarah who live in Washington DC now. They were kind enough to let us stay with them and even bought us the most amazing cupcakes. :)

The toll roads along the way up the east coast were killer especially with the truck, yuck!

Boston, finally within sight!

We actually unloaded most of our things through the window. It was great.

After we got unpacked we went to NYC for a day with Cam and Hillary. These pictures are from Times Square and Central Park.

Finally, before Cam and Hillary left we got to go to a Patriots game where they got creamed. It was fun. :)

Hurray for Graduating!

2008-07-10T13:24:00.000-04:00

On April 24 Tyler and I both graduated from BYU. Tyler graduated with degrees in both Political Science and Economics and I graduated with a degree in History. We are excited to move on to the next stage but we will miss the good ole days in Provo.