Thank You

Thank you to everyone for all your love and support the past few weeks. All the flowers,
cards, phone calls and emails that myself and my family have been receiving has been so comforting. Thank you to everyone who came to Jackson's viewing and funeral. The funeral went really well. Myself, my sister, my two brothers, my brother-in-law, and my dad all spoke. It was so nice to remember all the good times we have had with Jackson. He was such a sweet, kind, and loving person. We are going to miss him! Here is his obituary.

Jackson Dean Hammond
Jackson Dean Hammond 1976 ~ 2009 Our beloved son Jackson Dean Hammond passed away Sunday, May 10, 2009 of a broken heart and soul. He is finally free from his earthly demons and depression. We are deeply sorrowed by his passing, but are joyful to know he is with his Heavenly Father where he is able to breathe and smile again. We will miss his sweet, kind and sensitive heart along with his beautiful smile.Jax was born February 28, 1976 in Ogden, Utah to Charles A. and Barbara Dean Hammond. Jackson grew up in Kaysville, Utah with two brothers and two sisters and many friends. He graduated from Davis High and worked for Delta Airlines for 13 years. He married Angelique Lowery on September 20, 2002. Although they later divorced, they continued their love and appreciation for each other. Jackson was a member of the LDS church. Growing up, Action Jackson loved being involved in baseball, soccer and gymnastics and had a great natural athletic ability. He thoroughly enjoyed being outside golfing, camping and fishing with family and friends. The greatest joy of his life is his treasured son, Jayden of Las Vegas. He loved Jayden more than anyone will ever know. Jayden needs to know that his Dad will always be watching over him. He is loved and survived by his son Jayden Alan Hammond, Las Vegas; brothers and sisters and spouses Sunee (Jon) Redd, Las Vegas; Jason (Jamie) Hammond, Enterprise, Alabama; Micah (Ryan) Topham, Enterprise, Alabama; and Charlie J. Hammond, Farmington; parents Barbara and Charlie Hammond, Farmington; grandmother Carol (Granny) Hammond, Salt Lake; 11 nieces and nephews, his former wife Angie Lowery, Ogden, his friend Vickie Brooks, Salt Lake; Jayden's mother, Melanie Larkin, Las Vegas; and many other friends and relatives. He was preceded in death by his grandparents, Harold and Arlene Dean and Frank Hammond and his nephew Kyle Harley Topham. Funeral services will be held at 11:00 a.m. Friday, May 15, 2009 at the LDS Chapel, 1282 W. 1875 N., Farmington, UT (Orchard building). A visitation will be held Thursday evening from 6:00 - 8:00 p.m. at Russon Brothers Farmington Mortuary, 1941 North Main, Farmington, Utah (both buildings across from Cherry Hill) and Friday from 10:00-10:45 a.m. at the church prior to services. In lieu of flowers, please go do something fun with your kids. We would also like to thank the Davis County Paramedics and the Farmington City Police and Fire Departments for their kind and compassionate services. Online guest book and condolences at www.russonmortuary.com

This was at the viewing. Sorry if this bothers anyone that I am posting this picture. You'll just
have to get over it!

















This picture is comical. These are the three girls that were a part of Jackson's life at one point or another. Vicki (left) was dating Jackson recently. Melanie (middle) is the mother of Jackson's son Jayden. Angie (right) was Jackson's ex-wife. None of the three girls were to happy that this picture was taken. My sister-in-law and I saw them all talking to each other and knew we had to get a picture of it. I'm sure Jackson was not too happy about it being taken either!

















This is some of Jackson's nieces and nephews at the lunch after the funeral.

















This is Jayden at the cemetery.

My Brother

We got news last night that my brother Jackson passed away. We are flying out to Utah on Tuesday. We think the funeral will be on Friday. We will let everyone know more when we find out what is going on. Please keep my mom and dad in your prayers. My heart aches for what they are going through right now. Times like this make you wish you lived closer to home. We are all going to miss Jackson, but we know he is in a much better place. We feel that he has been able to finally find happiness, something that he seldom felt here on earth. We love you Jax and are already missing you.

No Time to Blog!

I haven't been able to figure out balancing 3 kids and everything else! Blogging has been last on the list. Our families keeps asking to post more pictures of Mya. I finally found time tonight do it. In order to make it happen I had to break Ryan's rule for our blog. "Ryan's #1 Rule" is that he must photoshop all the pictures before we post them. I guess it is a photographer thing? Well, he didn't get his pretty little hands on these pictures. Everyone is going to have to deal with them as they are. You will see red eye, lighting issues, out of focus, ect. I even went as far as using my little digital camera instead of using his "Canon 5D Mark II" (aka Ryan's baby). I better stop because I am already in trouble for breaking The Rule!
Anywho, Mya is doing well. Last week at her 2 week appointment she was 8lbs 4oz. She has been an easy baby so far (knock on wood). She is still sleeping most of the day and will sleep between 5-7 hours at night! She knows that her mama doesn't do well with little sleep!
























Kobe and Oakley are loving their new sister. They are both the best helpers. Oakley "helps" me change Mya's diaper EVERY time and Kobe has been so good with entertaining Oakley while I'm busy with Mya.


















Oakley is always wanting Kobe to take a bath with her. Kobe is so cute with her. Ever since I had Mya he has taken it upon himself to wash her hair and help her wash her body. They will play in there for as long as I will let them. Kobe will get out and get their towels and help Oakley dry off. She loves ever second of her brothers attention.























Mya trying on her new shoes

Mya Rylee Topham

Mya was born April 16th at 9:00 am. She weighed 7lbs 13 oz and was 19 1/2 inches long. Luckily, the delivery was short and sweet. When we went into the hospital I was already almost a 5. The nurses started the patossin at 6am. My doctor broke my water at 7am and was still at about a 5. I got my epideral at 8:15am. While I was getting the epideral I started having some strong contractions and alot of pressure. When they were done with the epideral my nurse checked me and I was already at an 8! Not even 5 minutes later I felt like I needed to push. My nurse checked me again and I was ready to go! She paged my doctor and said it was time and to hurry. It took 2 pushes and she was out! We love having her here finally!


























































We all couldn't believe what we saw when she came out. The cord was not only wrapped around her neck there was a knot in the cord! This is what we were trying to avoid from happening again. We were just happy that we decided to have Mya when we did and that everything was ok with her. We have been blessed to have a healthy baby.

Baby Update #2

Well my doctor decided to change my induction date once again to this Thursday the 16th! He decided to change it last Thursday while I was at my weekly check up. Let's just say I thought we were about to do round two in losing another baby. Too many things were starting to happen with this baby that happened with losing our second baby. We did an ultrasound to check to see if she would be ready to come out then. Everything looked good and she was even measuring at 7lbs already. So for my state of mind and my doctors we decided to induce me on the 16th. My doctor has been so nice and understanding. Him and his wife had the same experience as we did so he has been so good about everything. He was going out of town this weekend for Easter so he gave me his cell phone number just in case I needed to get a hold of him. We will let everyone know how Thursday goes!!!!!

Baby Update

I went to the doctor last Tuesday for my normal check up. I was 35 weeks at the time, but he wanted to check to see if I had started to dilate yet. I have been going into the hospital twice a week for the last few weeks to do stress tests on the baby. He has me doing this since we lost our second at 38 weeks. It is just to make sure the baby is ok leading into these last few weeks. Each time I have gone to do the stress test I have been having contractions the whole time I am there. I told the nurses that I start having contractions regularly the last month or so of my pregnancies. The nurses tend to freak out and call my doctor every time and ask if they should give me a shot to stop them. So needless to say, my doctor wanted to check me to see if the contractions were doing anything. To my amazment I was already dilated to a 3. I never have dilated this early before. My doctor changed my due date to the 24th of this month (Ryan's birthday!). But he doesn't think that I will make it that far. He said that if I go into labor he won't try to stop it. That was music to my ears! GAME ON!!! I decided that this weekend was the perfect weekend to redue all my flower beds. I tore everything out, tilled the dirt, planted all new things, and layed down rubber mulch. It took two good days and looks alot better (I will post some pictures soon)! But no labor. I thought for sure that would do it. All it did was make every muscle in my body sore and making my 20 bathroom runs during the night really painful! I've got to figure something else out for this week. If anyone has any ideas let me know!

Random Shots

Here are some pictures that we have taken lately.

This is Oakley and Gage at our UFC fight night. They decided that they liked sitting up on the table eating the snacks rather than watching the fights. Plus, Oakley rarely passes up an opportunity to eat food.





















I love the next two pictures. Oakley looked out the window one day and saw all the kids out playing on the play set. She HAD to go out too. She was so excited to go out that she wouldn't go to the bathroom before she went out. I knew it was an accident waiting to happen. We gave in and let her go out. A few minutes later she came walking up with wet pants. So we changed her and dressed her again. The first picture is her walking back down to the play set in outfit #2. The second picture is of Oakley and her cousin Cody running to hug each other. They are so funny together. They get so excited every time they see each other even if they haven't seen each other for the amount of time it takes to change an outfit that had been peed in!










































This is Oakley dressed up in her princess outfit.

Pinewood Derby

Kobe competed in his first pinewood derby last month. He was excited to race his "Mach 7" car. Kobe didn't have much patience when it came to actually making the car. Ryan pretty much made the whole thing. Kobe would check in on him every once in a while to make sure it passed his inspection. When the car was finished, Kobe was proud of what "they" had done! Even though Kobe gave it his best shot he didn't end up placing. We learned a few tricks on how to make it faster though. The following weekend was the stake level competition. Kobe was set on going to compete. We made a few changes to the car and went to the stake competition. His car was faster this time, but still he didn't place. He had a blast though and received a ribbon for participating. He thought that was just great!

Kite Flying

Oakley and I attempted to fly our kite the other day. We didn't have much success though. First, because the wind wasn't strong enough. Second, because Oakley was a little more concerned about her outfit and making sure it was just right the whole time.
















She had to have on her red jacket, pink shoes, and pink sunglasses.






















I was trying to give her a few lessons on kite flying. She really didn't care about what I was blabbing about. As I was talking to her she started to walk off and said, "Let's go eat lunch". Maybe we will try kite flying another time.

Mike's Critter Zoo

The other week we went to the best zoo ever! It was more like a farm. Mike, the owner, has all of these animals on his property and has built cages for them that go on forever. Mike walks you around the zoo and gives you an up close tour of his zoo. I have never been so close to some of these animals before. It was amazing, as you will see......




















Here is Oakley making friends with a black bear! The claws on that paw were huge. Ry and I got a little nervous when the bear had a good hold of Oakley's leg.






Mike had just built the coolest cage for this brown bear.














Gage shaking hands with a bob cat.














This cougar was seriously smiling for the camera. As soon as he would see a camera this is what he did.




















A Siberian Tiger















Kobe checking out the 2 month old baby tiger. This tiger was living with Mike in his house up until a week before we were there.























This is a picture of an actual Liger, a tiger and lion mix. It's not a very good picture of the Liger, but what I wanted people to see is what is in the cage. Those are the remains of a deer that the Liger had been munching on all morning. Mike said that some hunters dropped off a few deer last night to give to the animals to eat. It was nasty, but amazing at what little was left. Mike said that the whole thing will be gone by the end of the day!





















When we first got to this cage of tigers, they were laying on the ground not paying any attention to us. Mike had Connor, my nephew, run back and forth as fast as he could right in front of the fence. In no time this tiger was up chasing Connor as he ran back and forth. Mike said that is their natural instinct to chase what ever is running by them. So if you ever find yourself with a tiger, don't try to run away, you will lose.















Here is a picture of the Liger.



















This is a female spider monkey. Mike had a bag a chips in his hands and offered one to the monkey. She willingly took it. Then Mike gave the whole bag to the monkey. He then tried to get the bag back. As soon as his hand was reached out in front of her, she would freak out and scream. Mike said, "That's a female for ya!"

Christmas Morning Continued

The kids opening more presents.


















I almost started to cry when I opened my present from Ryan and the kids. It was a gift certificate for a cleaning company to come clean our house! That was one of my all time favorite gifts ever! Cleaning and being pregnant don't mix well with me and I guess Ryan really did heard my complaints about the matter!
















My attempt at chocolate covered caramels. They look better then they tasted. After I made them I realized I had bought the wrong kind of chocolate. Better luck next year!






















Kobe enjoying our present from Grandma and Grandpa Topham-The Wii. That thing has given our family hours of entertainment! Thanks G&G T!

Christmas Morning

On Christmas Eve Day I was in the kitchen all day cooking our food for the next few days while the kids were running around outside in the 75 degree weather. That night we had our favorite German meal for dinner-roast and spetzle. YUM! We delivered some gifts to the neighbors and when we returned Santa's Elves had dropped off new pajamas for the kids. We then watched Fred Clause (Kobe's request) then put the kids to bed.

Kobe sent himself to bed Christmas Eve at 9:00 pm so Santa wouldn't pass up our house. After 3 hours of anxiety and tears, he finally fell asleep at midnight. He thought for sure that Santa had passed our house because he couldn't fall asleep. We had to reassure him that Santa would not pass our house and with a little help of some sleep meds, he was out.

We all had a nice Christmas and enjoyed being home with nowhere to go. We stayed in our pajamas all day and just hung out. We missed being with family, but we were able to talk to everyone on the phone.






















Kobe with his new Alabama football. Roll Tide!


















Oakley laying on her new sleeping bag.























Kobe with his new DS. Kobe left his last DS on our flight back from Utah last month. We tried to track it down for several weeks, but no luck. Kobe wrote Santa another letter to tell him what happened and asked for a new one. We then had to send it express mail to Santa so he would receive it in time.

















Oakley opening her present from Grandma and Grandpa Hammond.
If you are wondering, Oakley has her apron on over her pj's. She decided she needed to cook some food in her room before she came out to see what Santa had brought her!






















This is what I like to call my BTS pillow. AKA the pregnancy pillow. If any of you are pregnant or going to be pregnant in the future, I highly recommend the pregnancy pillow. I have never slept so good while pregnant!