Keeping Up with the Jones

So I think it is actually Summer in NWA. We had beautiful weather this weekend and the sun makes me so happy. I like how the sun feels on my skin and how it warms my body... what a great feeling. I just hope the sun and bright blue skies stay for awhile.

On Saturday we had are good friends the Jones, with their kids, and Kendall's mom over for dinner and a few games of corn hole. I made a jalapeno chicken, steak fries, broccoli salad, strawberry pretzel dessert, and strawberry limeades. It was a wonderful dinner with great company. If any one wants the recipes please let me know.

The reason for my post is to share a few pictures of Kendall and Shawn's kids they are so much fun and are getting so big. Right now Gavin likes to act like a princess or mermaid and I put flowers in his hair like a crown. Addison on the another hand let me put flowers in her hair and than she would knock them out with her hands. So please enjoy the pictures of the kids and their flowers... Gavin might not like these pictures 10 years from now, but what a great memory!

The kids also had ice cream... yummy and look at the mess! I had white shorts on and YES those are now ruined... so if any one knows how to get chocolate out of white shorts please let me know. They are new and I would like to safe them if I can....

A few final pictures of a perfect evening outside enjoying the weather with great friends and creating great memories. The Jones Family thanks for taking the time to visit us at our home.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday everyone... I know we will we are going on a long sunny walk with our dog Bella.

IT'S FRIDAY

I am so happy it is Friday. Yes it has been a short work week, but I think that this week has been VERY LONG! Usually on Friday I participate in the Show Us Where you Live Friday at Kelly's Korner, however this week it is on Nursery/Children's Rooms. I don't have children yet so I have nothing to share. Which is fine, but I will be taking a look at every one of the tours and take note of all the baby rooms out there for my future baby room. So please take a moment and check out the tours on Kelly's Korner.

I enjoy watching reality TV and I thought that I would see how many people have watched Tori & Dean Home Sweet Hollywood? I love watching this show it is always a great laugh. It takes me away from my worries and thoughts. So if you have not seen the show it is on Oxygen, check it out if you like reality TV. Last August Chad and I went to Cancun with our friends and I read the first book by Tori Spelling and it was so funny! It is about her life growing up in the spotlight and if you watched 90210 it highlights her career during this time. It is a entertaining memoir called STORI Telling. It was a great read and I felt like I was watching reality TV through a book.

So when I was at Walmart a few weeks ago I saw that she has a new book called Mommywood I had to read it and let me tell you it was GREAT! If you are a new mommy or love reality TV you should pick up this book and read it. She tells the funniest story about her first experience with Liam, her son, pooping in the pool at swimming lessons.

It made me laugh when I have sad days and Tori's stories are great. I have not had a chance to watch season 4 of Tori & Dean, but it is on this weekend and I have it recording on our DVR. YEAH :)

I am excited for the weekend as it is going to be sunny here in NWA. Chad is running in a 5K on Saturday morning and I am walking the 5K with our friends Kim and Brad Fisher. After the race we are doing a few things around the house and on Saturday evening we are having our friends Shawn and Kendall Jones over for dinner. I hope to do a lot of walking with Bella and enjoying the sun. Have a great weekend to All!

Thankful Thursday

I am thankful for many things in my life and I thought that I would list my thoughts as I have had a tough week with my thoughts and feelings. As many of you know I spent last weekend with my sister Amie's family and we had a wonderful time. I enjoyed spending time with her boys. I thought that the trip might be tough for me to deal with the fact that she has kids and I don't, but it wasn't I enjoyed my time and I did not think once about the fact that I don't have kids. I just enjoyed every moment playing with Aidan and holding Drew. However on Tuesday it was a tough day for me I was sad and lost on what to do next when it comes to having a baby. I am not going to get too much into the thoughts and feelings as this post is about being thankful. So the reason I bring up the past weekend and the feelings I had on Tuesday is that there are two people that I am most grateful for right now my darling husband Chad and my beautiful sister Amie. As I was having a tough day on Tuesday and pouring my thoughts and worries to Chad that evening he just held me and helped me get through my concerns and always seems to make me feel better at the end of the day. So I am grateful for Chad and his sense to stay positive in times of trial and for his sense of humor to cheer me up and make me smile. I love you Chad for these wonderful qualities and thank you for being my rock during these difficult times. Amie is a wonderful mother and I only hope that some day I will be as wonderful as a mother as she is. I am thankful for Amie for her strength as a mother and her ability to always be there for me during my sad days. I have a lot to be thankful for in my life, but during difficult times I seem to forget the wonderful things in my life and I just wish I had the strength to focus on the positive things in life and not worry about the negative things currently in my life. What are you thankful for?

Here are a few photos that we took this weekend and I am very thankful for these boys! They truly make me smile :)

Weekend with the Hansen's = FUN!

As you know Chad and I spent the Memorial Weekend in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. It was a fun filled weekend with the Hansen Family. We went to see the new addition to their family, Drew Preston Hansen. He is adorable and looks just like Aidan. He is happy baby and I enjoyed snuggling with him each day we were there. With a new baby we spent a lot of time at home, which was good for me because I like spending time at home and enjoying family. However we did take a few adventures.

We went to Chuck E Cheese per Aidan's request. His parents tell him that when special guests come to visit that they can take him to Chuck E Cheese...smart parents! If you know me personally you know that I am not a FAN of Chuck E Cheese. I think Brian and Chad enjoyed the visit to Chuck E Cheese as much as Aidan did. Aidan and I went on a ride together and it was a neat ride, even though I thought it would have scared him, but it didn't... in fact we rode the same ride three times in a row. That evening we enjoyed a game of Phase 10 Master's Edition and brownies. I love brownies, but these brownies were very RICH. Note to self do not use dark chocolate fudge icing.

Our next adventure was the ZOO. I got to hold Drew in a moby wrap the entire time, which I loved and we walked around the ZOO looking at all the different animals. If you are a new mom and you don't have a moby wrap you should get one they are great! We saw Bears, Reindeer's, Monkeys, Giraffes, Zebras, Birds, and much more. The most interesting part of the trip was Aidan... he was so funny! I don't know if he was tired or just scared of the animals. He would scream if he did not want to see something... keep in mind everything was behind a cage and could not get Aidan, but he screamed any ways. Which is so funny because he loves animals. It will be interesting to hear if they go again and see how he reacts next time. Here are a few pictures of our Zoo Trip!

That evening Amie and I made Jalapeno Chicken for dinner and took more pictures of Drew while he was awake. While we made dinner the boys played corn hole and enjoyed the nice weather. Chad and I are grateful that we choose to go to Sioux Falls this weekend as the weather was nice there and we have heard that all it did in NWA was rain! Okay back to our visit we finished the evening playing another round of Phase 10 and the big winner was Amie. The rest of the evening we just helped with the boys, played, and held baby Drew. Our evenings ended late every night and we were up early. In fact last night at 11:00PM I was in Aidan's bed laying with him because he was scared and around 30 minutes later he was asleep, how can you say no to a three year old asking you to sleep with them... I can't. I hope you enjoyed the short version of our trip to the Hansen Family.

We are back in NWA and enjoying the evening with our sleepy dog Bella. She had a great time with her sitters and was so happy to see us. We are blessed to have Amie, Brian, Aidan, and Drew in our lives. Going to Sioux Falls was a needed visit for us, we needed a break from our life in NWA. I appreciate all the love and support the Hansen Family give to us each and every day. I wish you a happy and restful week ahead Amie and Thanks :)

I hope that every family enjoyed the long weekend.

Fun Friday

We are in Sioux Falls, South Dakota visiting with the Hansen Family. We arrived at 1AM on Friday morning and we sat up and held baby Drew for about an hour before we went to bed. When we got up in the morning Aidan thought that I was JJ (JJ is my little sister Jessyca, Aidan calls her JJ) until I told him that I was Auntie Lissa. He was excited to see Uncle Chad and asked us all day when are we going to Chuck E Cheese or can you take me to Chuck E Cheese. We had a Fun Friday just hanging out at the house. We played outside with Aidan while Brian and Chad made Cornhole Boards for the cornhole game. Hopefully it will be nice this weekend so we can enjoy a game of cornhole. Aidan is getting so big and loves playing with water guns in fact his Uncle Chad bought him sword water guns and it was great fun watching him play with Chad and spray everyone. I spent a lot of the day holding Drew... he is so small and such a happy baby. Later in the afternoon we made a trip to Target and came home and had Peanut Butter Noodles and helped get the boys ready for baths and bed. We took a few pictures today so enjoy the pictures and have a Happy Memorial Day Weekend! Love the Stafford Family!

Guess what Aidan wants to be when he grows up?

A Photographer...how is he doing so far?

On The Road We Go

For this Memorial Weekend Chad and I are heading to Sioux Falls, South Dakota to visit the Hansen Family. I am looking forward to meeting our new nephew Drew and playing with our three year old nephew Aidan. We will have lots of pictures and memories to share with you when we return on Monday.

Our dog Bella will be staying here with her sitters Bella and Bobby Debocca. She loves going to their home and playing with their dogs. She gets totally spoiled at their home. We will miss Bella, but we are happy to be getting away this weekend.

I hope all our friends and family have a great Long Weekend! Enjoy the Sun!

Closing the Chapter

As part of our IVF journey we received our first picture of our two embryos that they transferred on April 19th, 2009. I know that the cycle did not work out, but I want this picture as a memory in our blog to share our story with our kids some day. And yes I just got around to scanning the picture in my computer.

This will be my final comment about our failed IVF cycle as I am closing this chapter and moving forward into the summer with positive and happy thoughts of the future. It will be tough, but I know that this is the best thing for me and GOD has plans for us! We just don't know the plans yet. What I do know is that I am a wonderful person and wonderful people deserve wonderful things in life. I do have wonderful things in my life, I have my wonderful husband who has been our rock through the ups and downs, I have my loving and caring dog Bella who is always happy and excited to see me and be with me every day. I love you both so much!

I have my loving and caring sister Amie and her adorable family Brian, Aidan, and Drew.

I have my positive and outgoing sister Meahgen who makes me smile. (BTW... thanks for the beautiful flowers)

I have my amazing and strong sister Jessyca and soon to be niece Marley that love unconditionally.

I have my caring and loving mom, Shelly, who will do anything for me to achieve my dreams.

I love all my family and friends for there unconditional support. I have my friends that I lean on for support here locally, but I also have an amazing friend Katie Cummings who has given me more support than she will ever know. Finally to all my blogging friends I would have not gotten through the sad days without your thoughtful comments and support. Everyone seems to have a story and I am just glad that thru your stories I am able to find support and love in one place. Love to All!

So whats next since I am not talking about infertility and IVF for awhile. I need to find interesting topics and stories so that all my blogging friends keep stopping by. Any ideas?

Questions of the Moment

I get the following questions... Are you going to try again? What are your next steps in trying to have a baby? What did the doctor say? What went wrong? How are you doing?

So I thought that I would take time to answer the pressing questions.

Chad and I have decided for now that we are not trying IVF again. My body needs a break and I think it is okay for us to be sad and take time to get over the failed IVF cycle. I don't want to jump back into IVF at this moment as I am weak and I don't think I would handle the shots and the drive back and forth to Tulsa very well. I was getting tired of the shots and the drive can get old after 12 times going for the past month. I am not saying that we will not try IVF again, but for the moment we are taking a BREAK!

Yes we still want to have a baby, but we want to enjoy life. I want to stop for a moment and not think about IVF or infertility. I want to enjoy my friends and family. I want to be happy again before we try to have a baby. So our next steps are to enjoy life and just maybe we will be blessed sometime this summer. I promise to keep everyone posted on the baby front, but for now we are focusing on each other and the people around us. It is a much needed BREAK!

The visit to our Doctor in Tulsa stated that it is possible for us to have a baby we just need to have more eggs to play with, which means more medicine, and we need better fertilized embryos. Which means instead of a three day transfer we need to get to a five day transfer. They said we can start a new cycle when we are ready, but as I said before we are taking a BREAK!

What went wrong during this cycle? We did not have the best fertilized embryos. That is all that went wrong. He would like us to try IVF again and they would like to adjust medicine and hopefully after the egg and sperm come together we get a fertilized embryos. But at this moment we are taking a much needed BREAK!

How am I doing? I am doing okay. I have good days and bad days. I have the days when I can't believe we spent so much time and effort getting pregnant with a BIG FAT NEGATIVE at the end of our journey. It is sad! Than I have a few days when I don't think about it because my husband Chad helps me get through the day. The reason for the BREAK is that I need to have a positive and happy feeling about the journey of IVF again and know that it will work. For now I don't have those feelings and this is why we are taking a BREAK!

BREAKS are good! Even though I would like to be pregnant and hold a baby in 9 months I am at peace with me decision. This BREAK is what I need. Thank you for the continued support and prayers. I hope all the couples that are trying to conceive a baby have their dreams come true soon!

With love Melissa!

MY GUEST ROOMS - SHOW US WHERE YOU LIVE: BY KELLY

First I want to start by saying thanks Kelly for doing this I love Friday POSTS. I especially love it this week as every post I have done this week have been sad and depressing. I actually get to post something FUN and EXCITING!

I have three guest rooms in my house. Hopefully some day soon we can change one of the rooms into a Nursery. I love all three of my guest rooms. I hope you like the tour of my guest rooms.

The above picture is of our first guest room it has twin beds and is great when my two younger sisters come to visit. In addition if you can see the curtains they are sheer blue with flowers I got them at Pier One and I love them. I always like to have a picture of the guests that stay in the room on the night stand. The picture in there today is of my little sister Jessyca. I change it up each time a new guest stays in our house. I just think it makes them feel at home in our home.

This sign is hanging on the wall in this guest room and I love it. I got it at Labor of Love Creations.

The above picture is me standing by the closet doors and it is our second guest room. I took this picture not only to show you our bed, but the pictures on the wall. I love them. We got these pictures at a Art Gallery in Bee Branch Arkansas. The bed is from I Home in Rogers, Arkansas and the bedding is from Linen N Things.

I have brown silk drapes and I love the double windows in this room, some day this will be our nursery bedroom. I have a vase with purple flowers and a white antique picture frame of my nephew Aidan. He was our last guest in this room in December.

This armour is in our guest room and it has blankets stored in it and above is pictures of friends and family.

Our final guest room. This is our old bed and it is a bit big for this room, but we could not part with it. I just love this bed and it is so comfy. The bed linens are from TJ Maxx.

This is looking into the final guest room from the hallway.

I have this sign hanging in our final guest room and it says:

Good Friends are like stars...you don't always see them buy you know they are there

I hope you enjoyed our guest rooms. Please stop by Kelly's blog and view the many guest room tours.