A little of this, a lot of that!

Top to bottom: Allie and Aaron (Ok, so I need an updated pic of you two!); Tanner and ?? other Elders; A Russian family-not sure if they are investigators or members!! (all we get are the pics-no explanations); Sam and Zach (our cutie great nephew) opening one of Sam's B-day presents!; Ashley showing off her sexy pose- hand on belly and all!!!; Taylor waiting to go in for offense. A "scary" Halloween game!

Wow!It's been almost two weeks since I last posted!! Imagine that! How the time does fly! We've had Halloween (no big whoopie here. It was sooooo anti-climatic from the week end before and our lovely costumes, parties and such!). There was nothing going on party wise for us ON Halloween, and Taylor had a football game that night. So that was our thrill!! I didn't even buy candy or pass any out. We weren't home!! Oh wait, we did go to the Browns for chile and cornbread!! Thanks Tricia and Rod!! That was fun and oh so good!! But we had to eat and run to make the game!! What are these schools thinking, putting silly football games on Halloween night??

Well, besides that I have been doing a lot of babysitting my "baby girl" Ash! She is still hangin' in there. Yesterday, she had a doctor's appt. and the latest is that the baby has some fluid around his heart. I guess that means that it is having to work harder for some reason. So we are still praying for her and him to hang on tight!! See the above picture of her comfortable position she's had to stay in for the past couple of weeks and hopefully a lot more too! Now some of you may say, "she is so lucky! She gets to lay around all day and night too!" But I can tell you--not as one who has lived through it herself, but one who is witness to it and all, it is not what it is all cracked up to be!! She can lay only on her sides. So she shifts back and forth. She can get up to use the restroom and to shower, but that is the extent of her getting around. No sitting up, on her back, stomach, sitting in the car for any longer than to my house(a block maybe) and to the doctor. While Mark is at work and school, I am her personal, and loving, caregiver! This is in no way a complaint, but it has definitely put a damper on my carefree, come as I go way of life! I have been in that state for far too long and so am adjusting to "having" to be somewhere at a certain time and place! I have been trying to come up with a cause or a way to give more. I think the Lord decided to make the next move for me!! Sorry Ash, that it involved you and the baby!! Ok, I am kidding. Really! Truly!! IT's NOT just all about me in this life!!! Anyhoo, life goes on and we live it!!! Ain't it great???

Another new thing, Sam turned another year older on Wednesday. Happy Birthday my love! Don't want to give away his age but he is one year shy of THE biggie!!! I leave it to you to figure out which one is THE biggie!! (when you look at us and realize the age of our kids, it's not that hard to figure out!!!)

Also, Thursday was my dear dad's 84th birthday! Wow! Keep on keeping on Dad!!! And MOm too!!

So that is what this family has been up to! Not too exciting. I could tell you lots of stories of creative stuff I do all day long and night too.(haha OR show wonderful, adorable pictures of my kids -- oh, wait, I did that, didn't I???

Update on Aaron and Allie:

Aaron and Allie are cute as always, and busy, busy, busy with school and work as always!!! Lately, we have seen them, but not together. For instance, for my birthday, Allie came on the Sunday before, without Aaron. He had some major midterms to study for. Then the next night, on my b-day, Aaron came, without Allie, cuz she had class!! So it's a great treat when they both come and together!! Just remember what our bishop told me and Sam when we were students. He said that life will just get busier and to enjoy the time you have now!! (We honestly thought he was crazy, back then, but in some respects he was right on!!)

Speaking of Aaron and Allie-- they did come to Taylor's football game on Halloween. They came about 3rd or maybe first part of 4th quarter. NOw up to this time, Gilbert was ahead and doing fine. As they walked up to the paybooth, they heard the announcer say something about Gilbert fumbling, on the 1 yard line!! Yes, he was about to make a touchdown, got tackled and fumbled!!! From there, it just got scarier, than worse, then in overtime, just downright disgusting!!!! (Gilbert lost to Chandler 35-42!). So here's the spooky part!!! Aaron and Allie have only come to 3 of Taylor's games. Not that that is bad, actually it is great that they came to 3! But, and here's the freaky part, the 3 games that Gilbert lost this season, are the 3 that Aaron and Allie came to!!! Think about it!!! Could it be they are cursed??? I mean two of the three they lost in the last few seconds or in overtime!! The other, well, actually, I think Aaron and Allie came earlier than usual!! I don't know Allie!!! I just don't know!!! Maybe we need to have you two exorcized or something!!!

Tanner update:
Tanner is still doing the Elder stuff in Russia. I was just going through the last pics he sent (which are pretty old by now!) But was enjoying the videos he sent also. He is a funny guy! He is in Sochi now. It is where the winter Olympics will be in 2014. I'm still waiting for pics of there. He is not real timely with his pictures! Maybe I'll actually see them when he gets home!! Or maybe, just maybe, Kelcey, his girlfriend has them!! No, I won't go there, AGAIN! But we anxiously wait to get his emails every week. I DID get my very own birthday, handwritten letter, in the actual mail, for my birthday!! It came a week or two after, but, boy was I thrilled!! It's great! Another of those wonderful paydays!!

Just to quote a few lines:

"So mom, do you know that I love you!? Because I do very much!! YOu are the bestest mom that anyone could ask for. I miss annoying you with all that I do!! haha But that was just my way of showing you that I love you!! You have always been such a great example to me mom both in things of the world and with gospel things. Thank you so much for stressing the importance of the gospel always!! It has helped me so much and I can already see so many blessings I have received from being part of this family and church!!!! . . ."

Isn't it so so great!!?

Well, enough is enough and I still have to see if I can figure out the picture vs. the words thing. I need some expert help, someone out there!!!

Have a great one!

Comedic Relief

ON Saturday night we had the great opportunity to attend an annual Halloween party with Sam's brother, John and his wife Mylie!
"Brother Brigham" and 3 of his favorite wives attended also! It was a wild night and fun was had by all!!
Oh, and by the way, the "lovely" wife with the red bonnet was wife number 1! As you can see in the first picture. They have a "special" relationship!!!

Otherwise Occupied!

So it has been a week since I posted last. It seems like it was a year!
Funny how fast life can change!
My Ashley has gone from a regular 20 week pregnant gal, expecting her first little guy (a boy) to the relm of high risk pregnancy -- due to a ruptured amniotic sac. Or in other words a hole in her sac. Or in other other words, her water has broke but only in leaky form, rather than the gushing you get at the end of pregnancy at time to deliver.
There is no reason that they know of, why this happened, no blame or fault--just a freak of nature that we get to deal with.
But the scary part is that if she gets an infection in it, they will have to immediately deliver our little man and he is just too little and not fully ready for the outside world and would not survive.
So as all would understand, this week has been one hellish, roller coaster ride of a week. I wish I could say it is over and all is well. Boy how I so wish I could say that.
Instead, all I can say is that Ashley is on bedrest, at home, now, and it is a very precarious waiting game. This morning she called and said she was spotting and needed to head to the hospital. Mark was at work and I was planning on getting over there to sit with her, but this happened before I got there. So we had a nice ride to the hospital and a tense hour or so, while they did a blood test to determine if she had an infection or not. Everything seemed to be normal and fine, as far as white blood count, and oxygen levels and all. No tenderness or any other indication that there is a problem right now. It is a very helpless, scary, anxiety ridden time for Ashley and Mark, and for us as her parents. I don't like it. Not one bit!
If she can hang on until she is 24 weeks along, little Miles has a good chance of surviving. So that is our prayer. Any time after that will be an even better blessing. So we go through each day, holding our breath and . . . praying!
YOu would think in this day and age with all the amazing things they are able to do, that they could easily go in and patch up a hole in a sac, wouldn't you?? I mean come on, they can operate on a fetus before it's even born and fix it's heart! Why not this? From what I've read, this would definitely save many a baby that are born too early.
But, I don't want to sound ungrateful. We DO live in a time that promises so much more than any other time for babies still in mommies tummys and all.
I do have to say that I am SO very grateful for the knowledge and testimony I have of our Heavenly Father. That he lives and loves us. That He is definitely aware of us and our situation. I just am trying to trust Him and rely on HIm --no matter what the outcome may be.
Who ever said that it might not be easy but it would be worth it???? I am not sure I really like that saying right now!!!
But we, especially Ashley are hanging in there. And I have to admit-- it has definitely made my prayers more sincere and intense lately!!
I just hope what we are supposed to be learning is being learned!

Here's to you, my favorite party animals!!!

Hats off to my wonderful, silly, and fantastical friends:
(back row: Fina, Tricia, and Deena(my sis)
front row: Susan, Patty, me, and Shannon

It's my birthday and I can laugh if I want to!!

    Trisha & Fina- yeeha!!

Shannon the "supa star" of the bunch!

                                                                            Sista's-oh what beauts!!

                                                                                                                           The three muskateers!

                             Captain, O Captain!!

                                                                                                                 

 First and foremost!

                                                                                         You've been whitewashed

                                                                                                                               

                                      We are ready for fun!




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Ok all. I don't normally go around and broadcast my birthday. (Well, only to my family that is!!!). But I have, no I MUST share the most awesome, crazy, fantastic, hysterical, pee my pants fun I just shared with 7 of my favorite people in the whole world!!! Here is it in a nutshell, and then the pics will tell the rest of the story!

A couple of months ago, I was wondering, "What would be a fun thing to do for my birthday, coming up in a couple of months"? I mean, Sam will ask me, "What do you want to do for your birthday?" and it will be about the 17th of Oct.(my b-day is the 20th). He is not the biggest birthday party or event planner. He always comes through, and is so great to me. But I know it is quite a stress to his life to do so.
So anyway, somehow, someway the thought came to me that "Hey, we own a boat now! and Hey, I love to go out on the lake! And I would love to take some of my closest friends out on it!" Great friends, and one of my favorite things to do, with my one and only true love along (he is the captain, and the driver of the boat! I am not comfy with this yet!!) What could be better than this???
So I told Sam immediately then, that is what I wanted to do for my birthday! We figured out the best date and planned from there!
To make a long story short -- it turned out to be a perfect day, weather wise. Wasn't too cold, in the low 90's. The water was cold but bearable! The company was superb!!! And the laughing was unstoppable!!! With a group like this, how could it go wrong?? And you know what?? NOthing did!! (except the bump on Fina's head from Rhea!! so sorry Fina!!!) She'll live though!!
So without further adieu, here are the pictures that are worth a thousand words!!!

P.S. Sorry the captions don't match up. I still have not figured out all the tricks to blogging. And lining up pics with their captions the way I want is one of them. So you'll just have to play the match up game!!! Or tell me how to do it!!!

It's a . . . .!!!!!!!

So our Ashley went and had an ultrasound yesterday and found out what she is having!!!!
Wanna guess??? 50 50 chance!!!
Heres' some hints:
1) We were all excited, of course!
2) It'll fit right in with the Dahls.
3) I've got heartburn from the spicey-ness!
4) My new favorite art is "Blue Boy"
5) I just painted one of my walls in my living room a "blue" -ish shade!
6) My favorite band is 'Boyz to Men'!
7) My new fave movie is "Sons of Provo"
8) we are thinking that we need to memorize "Little Boy Blue"
9) It starts with a B and ends in a Y
10 It's a B - O - Y !!!!!!!

Yes I am going to be 'gramma dahly" to a sweet (I hope), little boy!!! Yes! We are all excited to welcome this special little guy into our family!!! Boys basically rule on the Dahl side, by number anyway, so he won't fell left out or anything!
So that is our great news of the week!
I say let the good (and mischieveous) times roll!

Taylor's 15 seconds of fame and glory!

So Taylor made the Tribune "varsity xtra" this past Friday in the article about the "Big" game against Chandler Hamilton! A great shot of my boy, don't ya think?? Unfortunately, the game didn't play out even remotely how the Tigers had practiced for and hoped for. IT was ugly! That's all I can say! It was downright painful for us parents and fans in the stands! So just imagine what the players felt! I guess the coach (Coach Parker) commented that "anything that could've gone wrong did!! And the score 12-49 pretty much says it all!! I was still proud of my studly son, who didn't let it get him totally down. His biggest concern was the next day's practice and how bad he figured that would be. Turns out, coach wasn't as hard on them as he imagined.
Actually, the coach couldn't possibly have been as hard on them as Taylor imagined!!!
Other than this very disappointing game, the Gilbert Tigers have played very well. And Taylor has done well on the offensive line!!
So I say, Go, Go Tigers!!!