Random Thoughts...

This weekend was the KSL telethon for Primary Childrens Hospital. Last year at this time our heart journey was just beginning. I remember watching it in picu while Daxton was recovering from his first surgery the BT Shunt. The story that had a huge impact on me was Paul Cardall. He and Daxton had the same heart condition-minus Daxtons coronary anomaly-I remember crying and thinking that if he had made it to age 35 there was hope for my son. I remember the feeling of overwhelming comfort. If there were ever moments that Paul wondered "Why? Why do I have to go through all of this?" One of the answers to that question is that Hilary needed to hear your story so that I could have hope and faith for me and my child. I thank my Heavenly Father and Savior for their love for me in knowing that I would need to hear Pauls story. Paul is currently on the Heart Transplant list waiting. We pray that his miracle day will be in the near future.

A few years ago I had started seeing a counciler for some issues from my childhood-the therapist told me at our first visit that the positive would far outweigh the negative in this experiance. I first I thought "um, ya right there is nothing positive in what I have been through." But as the years have passed I now know that he was absoulutly correct. I have learned some lifes lessons that have made me the person I am today. I can honestly say that I am thankful for what I have been taught. I have been thinking about that a lot lately and I feel the exact same way about this past year with everything we have had to go through. The positive has far outweighed the negative! My marriage is stronger, I have a deeper appreciation for living in the moment and to not take anything for granted. We have met so many spectacular people who we feel honored to know and be associated with. We have witnessed many mighty Miracles, our faith and testimony have grown. We have witnessed first hand the love and compassion our Heavenly Father and Savior have for each and everyone of his children. There are many many more lessons we have learned and many more to be learned.

On a side note-I have decided to train for a half marathon. I have not yet signed up for one but I will be starting my training tomorrow with a three mile run...wish me luck!

Happy Birthday Daxton!!

My baby boy is One year old!!

We got home from our trip Sunday night at 10:30 p.m. Ryans mom made Daxton his blue elephant cake and had the house decorated for his birthday. We sang Happy Birthday and gave lots and lots of kisses.

The next day was memorial day so at the park we sang again and ate cake. Daxton was more interested in the plate than the actual cake. He shakes his head now when he doesn't want something and he was shaking it everytime I tried to give him a bite of his cake. I wanted to give him a really big birthday bash but transplant team said that we should wait until a year post transplant. So we will have a big celebration in September!

My sweet baby boy, You are our little miracle. Not a day goes by that I don't feel blessed to have you as my son. You have taught me things I never could have imagined. I love you with all of my heart! You are my little warrior, Daxtonious. Lets have this next year just be full of fun and good times.

Cruisin....

St. Thomas was our first destination. Ryan and I got to go scuba diving, it was awesome. We had so much fun. It was so beautiful.

We went to Antigua the next day and relaxed on the beach all day long. The water was beautiful. This day I learned that Ryan is not a good bargainer. I love to bargain and could always get the seller down a little. Not Ryan they would tell him a price and I would try to bargain with them but Ryan would just say Hilary thats ok that sounds like a good price. It was funny. Cute guy!

Our third and final destination was Bermuda. Oh my was it beautiful. This was our favorite port. The homes were spectactular even the "slums" were beautiful. We went shopping and went sight seeing and then I had heard that the sand in Bermuda was pink so we went to the beach. Yes the sand was pink and soft and georgous. The water was so crystal clear. We would love to go back and spend a whole week just there however the average cost for a room there is $300 per night. That won't be happening anytime soon. It sure was beautiful.

This is our cruise ship

The last night we were walking around the ship and talking about how much fun we had, we commented on how we would have liked to see a dolphin and literally one minute later there were about 10 dolphins jumping out of the water right in front of us. It was so much fun. They were so cute.

We ended our trip in New York. I was so bummed that we couldn't stay and see anything but then we found out we would be docking right by the Statue of Liberty. We were up at 5:30 am so that we could see her. It was a very humbling moment for me. I pondered on all my ancestors and what the emotions they must have had when seeing this beautiful statue. I am so glad we got to see this.

We had a wonderful time and came home feeling refreshed and ready to go. We missed our kids but enjoyed the time as a couple.

*Funny story-on our flight to go to the cruise Bronco Mendanhall was on our flight. He is the head coach of BYU football. It was funny because I was wearing my Utah sweetshirt and Ryan his Utah hat. We were going to ask him to sign Ryans hat but we decided we didn't want to get it dirty-hehe

We're leavin on a jet plane....

Here we go Ryan and I are off on our vacation. We are currently in Georgia waiting for our connecting flight. We are flying to Puerto Rico where we will start our cruise. Yahoo!! We are super excited and in much need of some R&R.

Busy Bees.....

So far we have had a very busy fun month. Starting off with Dinner Theatre. It is such a fun
production put on by Woods Cross High. It is a collaboration of a lot of differant songs, and dance numbers. Mary O. and hubby were able to come and see it, we had a lot of fun.


My Dancing Queens....Mady, Ellie and my little sister Mallory. Their spring concert so cute!!


Daxton can now sit all by himself!! This is him and his girlfriend Hazel.


My favorite boys getting hair cuts.

The race for the cure! My mom is a survivor of Breast cancer. She has had it twice and went through a masectomy. She is a super trooper and has endured it so well. Every year we do the race it is a very humbling experiance.

We needed to get out and have some fun as a family so we went to the Lagoon Walkway. It was a nice hike/walk. I highly recommend it for a nice family outing. You walk behind Lagoon and can see some of the animals. It is very pretty well kept paved hike. We had a lot of fun.

Early Mothers Day present...

This morning I asked Ryan if I could have an early mothers day gift. Being the wonderful, amazing, supportive, fantastic husband that he truly is he told me of course. I told him I would like a few hours of being home all by myself. So he packed up the kids and took them to his parents house for the evening. So tonight I picked up my book laid in my bed and read for 3 solid hours. HEAVEN!! And on top of that it was raining and thundering outside. Is there anything better than being curled up with a good book on a stormy afternoon? It felt so good, I feel like my engine is charged I can now handle the whining, screaming, fighting, meds, feedings, homework, breakfast, lunch, dinner, dance, recitals, cleaning, etc. much better now. I really have a wonderful husband. Thanks baba I love you....

Update.....

So lots going on. I am still doing the boot camp thing. I had my measurements taken last week. I have lost 5 lbs and 13 1/2 inches. That made me really happy. My clothes are defianatly fitting better. I still have a long long long way to go to reach my final goal but I am now one step closer.

I took Daxton in to the Doctor last week, he ended up having a double ear infection. Poor little man and silly mommy, thinking it was teething. He is back to his happy go lucky self. He is progressing so fast. He is now putting pressure on his legs and sitting up all by himself. He still hates his tummy but will hold himself up alittle with his hands while on his tummy. I know these are all very minor milestones to most normal little babies but hey we are far from normal. I have been having a lot of uneasy feelings lately. It is almost a year since our nightmare began. I feel like somedays I am reliving every emotion that I have felt in the past year, and most of those are not fun emotions. It has been a hard year to process and maybe it will take a lifetime to process....Life is good, I am so incredibly grateful for the gifts we have been given and the support we have seen. Out of the bad always comes more good.