Update 7-26-06

I realized it's been a while since I've posted. Right now I'm working as a nanny for Joshua's sister's two boys. Brayden is 6 and Kyler is 2. I leave home at about 6:45 am and get home around 5:30 pm. It's a fun job and not too hard.

Joshua is working on getting loans and grants so he can go to school this semester at Salt Lake Community College. Hopefully we'll get enough money that we can move into an apartment soon. Somewhere in West Valley so we can be closer to SLCC and to Nicolette's (Joshua's sister) house. Joshua is currently working at Applebees in Bountiful. When we move he's hoping to transfer to the West Valley Applebees.

We've had some hard times the past couple of months, but it can only get better from here!

Our Angel Baby

Thursday, May 25, 2006 Joshua and I went to our regular monthly doctor's appointment. I was 17 1/2 weeks along. The doctor couldn't find the heartbeat. We both got really worried. The doctor got the ultrasound machine and still couldn't find the heartbeat. The baby wasn't moving either. She measured the baby and told us it was the size of a 16 week old fetus. It had been gone for almost 2 weeks. Later that afternoon we went to the hospital for another ultrasound. We didn't find out anything we didn't already know. We spent a lot of the day crying.

Friday, May 26, 2006 at 7:00 am we went back to the hospital to deliver the baby. They gave me some pills to put me into labor. A couple hours later I started feeling cramps so they gave me some drugs for the pain. It kept getting worse and they kept giving me more drugs. Two of my best friends, Heidi and Amber, came to visit and brought me some flowers. Joshua's parents came too. At about 6:45 pm the cramping started getting really bad. They had just given me drugs so there wasn't anything the nurse could do. I knew the baby was coming. Finally the nurse checked and said oh yeah, it's coming. They called the doctor who delivered the baby at 6:57 pm. They cleaned him (this is when we found out he was a boy) up a little then handed him to me. My parents and Beth got there just as everything was happening so they sent them down to the waiting room until I told them they could come in. I got to hold our little boy for a little while. He had big blue eyes. He was 7 inches long and 4.6 ounces. After the nurse took him to get his picture taken my dad helped Joshua give me a blessing of comfort, then my dad gave one to Joshua. Joshua's parents came again later to bring us some food from Panda Express, now that I could finally eat something. We didn't get to leave until about 11:00pm.

We have a little memory box for him. We have the little hat and teddy bear they took his picture with. We have a few pictures of him on a cd in the box, plus one we printed out. We found out he died of Amniotic Band Syndrome. A band had gotten tied around his cord, pinching it completely closed. If one hadn't have gotten around the cord, one was around his leg too so if he had grown any more he would have been born without part of a leg. At this point it was just a little smaller than the other.

The past few days have been really hard for both of us. We love our boy a lot and wish he could have spent more time with us. We are excited to give him little brothers and sisters and let them know they have a big brother watching over them.

Picture of us

We took this picture in one of those little photo booths. It was in Washington at the Family Fun Center where Joshua's grandpa got us free points to do whatever we wanted. We were in Washington from April 9-15 and had tons of fun with Joshua's family. I had fun meeting all of them! 

Baby's first picture

Here's a picture from our first ultrasound on March 30, 2006. The baby is only 9 1/2 weeks old here. (The head is on your left) 

Baby!

So...we're having a baby. It's due October 30 and we're pretty excited! We even have names picked out. If its a girl we're going to name her Annie Colette and if its a boy we'll name him Michael Joshua, after his daddy.

Joshua

The guy in the tux would be my husband Joshua. (Not Josh, it's Joshua) This is a picture of him with his three best friends. (Not counting his brothers) On the far left is David. He married Rose in September and adopted her cute little girl, Hallie, who always asks to go to "Joshua and Lori's house" and likes to give me hugs. Next to David is Kyle who is marrying Joyce in April. On the far right is Aaron who recently came home from his mission in Chigaco. He is currently single so if you know of a nice girl we can set him up with...Joshua loves hanging out with his three younger brothers and playing sports with them - playing on Xbox or really playing. He also loves to race, whether it's on his Xbox game Forza, at an indoor go-kart track, or entering his civic in a race. Currently Joshua works for a company called Porter Brown. He loves talking to people and has a talent for sales. Someday he would love to teach high school and coach the sports teams, especially baseball. Joshua served in the Canada Halifax mission and would love to take me there someday to see where he spent two years of his life. 

Lori

Hi, my name is Lori. My husband Joshua and I live in Bountiful in my grandparents' house while they are on a mission in Russia. People are always asking me how married life is and I always say, "Wonderful!" I love being married to my super awesome hubby. I work at Keva Juice in Bountiful - making smoothies all day. I now know how to make some pretty yummy smoothies, so if you have the right stuff and a blender, I'll make you one. :) I love playing my violin and wish I still took lessons or had a group to play with. I collect music files on my computer of all different types of music. My favorite sport is still soccer. Even though my husband has never played and his family doesn't have many good things to say about the sport. I still consider it the best. I like playing basketball with Joshua and his brothers and watching them play church ball. I love my friends, especially two of my best friends, (in the picture with me) Amber and Heidi Woodbury who I have known my entire life. (That's no exaggeration!) Amber has been on more than half of my soccer teams and we have always been in the same group of friends. Heidi was in the grade older than I was, but we became roommates when we both moved to Logan to go to Utah State. Unfortunately for her, I left her with a couple of roommates that hated us both. Luckily she is getting married in July and also gets to leave them forever.