favorite halloween costumes

I loved this costume. It is Nicole's daughter from Making it Lovely and she is Olivia from the book by that name. It is her daughter's favorite book which is such a sweet idea!
My oldest daughter Danielle was Hello Kitty and her boyfriend was Gumby. Danielle loves to dress up for Halloween and its fun every year to see what she is. Even at a young age I didn't have much input into her costumes. She had her own ideas and always let me know what she wanted to be.
This is a good friend of mine who was Lindsay Lohan 40 years from now. Janet is hilarious and ever since I have known her is always the life of the party. What a great idea this was!

Noah was a race car driver {his favorite activity is to race his little cars}. As soon as he put it on he was making screeching noises and racing around the house like he was a car. I love his age at Halloween. It has always been my favorite part of Halloween to see the little ones come to the door trick or treating.

Tried to get this post up right after Halloween but I have been busy at Brittany's taking care of Noah while she is sick. Her Hyperemesis continues but things are going a little bit better and I am praying they will stay that way. Will post an update on her soon.

noah at the pumpkin patch

baby costumes

Brittany and I ran across these cute Halloween costumes from Tom Arma about a month ago when we were looking for Noah's costume. He is a little bit to old this year but they will be cute for next year when she has a new baby!

hope

via: vol.25

hyperemesis gravidarum (HG)

Hyperemesis gravidarum {HG} is a severe form of morning sickness, with "unrelenting, excessive pregnancy-related nausea and/or vomiting" that prevents adequate intake of food and fluids.
My daughter has been dealing with this horrible disease since she got pregnant two months ago. It is heartbreaking for me to watch her go through this and feel so helpless in trying to relieve her suffering. The sad thing about it is that not many women get this when they are pregnant so there has been little research or studies into it. So there has been basically no progress in lessening their suffering from HG. Before IV therapy women would die with this. IV therapy helps when they can get it, if they have an understanding doctor but most of them still are very very sick. A lot of days Brittany can't keep any fluids or food down at all and has repetitive vomiting. Their are no days off when you have it as severe as my daughter does. A lot of women have abortions that have HG because they can't stand the constant dehydration and repetitive vomiting that never lets up. It is a tragedy to think these babies are dying because the medical community in this day and age can't make any progress to lessen their suffering. There is an excellent book about it that was written by a mom with it that is called Beyond Morning Sickness. Anyone who has it or has a loved one with it should read this book. It has been a huge help and source of comfort to my daughter and me. The best description Brittany has ever come across to describe what it feels like with HG is the quote below she read by another mother who suffered from it like she is.

"I SO want this pregnancy to be over. I want my mouth to taste right again. I want to eat without a thought. I want to get up, cook, clean, tend my house. I want to be my son's mommy again. I want to go places and do things and be his teacher again. I want to go to church and make a dish to bring to prayer meetings again. I want to wash dishes in the church kitchen and wipe off tables and be a part of life. I want to go to cookouts and pool parties. I want to go to the beach and pick up a bushel of oysters on the way back. I want to steam them and share them with my crazy friends. I want to be a part of the organic coop again. I want to have playdates at the park with the kids. I want to function and encourage and be encouraged. I want to live again."
image: here

a new baby

My daughter Brittany is pregnant with baby #2! We are super excited to have another little one in our family and can't wait until the baby arrives. Here she is at 8 weeks. She has actually lost 8 pounds since she has been pregnant and is quite thin. She wishes she could eat like crazy but she can't. In my next blog post I want to give some information about what she is going through. Not very many women have this disease in pregnancy so they haven't made any progress in treating it through the years.

snapshots of summer

My favorite pictures from this summer now that we are moving into fall. My favorite memories, hanging out with my family as much as possible, barbecues, going to beach a lot since we live close by, watching Noah enjoy the beach as much as I did when I was little, having a surprise visit from Danielle and Tom, Danielle coming back 2 weeks later from DC so we could have a girls weekend at Brittany's house, lunch's with Matt, bike riding, swimming now that we have a pool, heading to the farmers market every weekend for delicious fresh fruit and vegetables and then breakfast by the beach at The Crema Cafe. The funny thing is now that it is fall we finally have the first hot weather here of the whole summer!
image 4&5-Tom Jenson