Our week in no particular order, I do not have the energy to write out the whole story but here are bits and pieces.

 In recovery, at Primary Children's, Brian says he looks like he is saying, "Get me out of here." I think, I agree.

My first helicopter ride was riding in Life Flight with my son.  

 I had feed him this baby food that day before Hannah put popcorn kernels in his mouth. 3 hours later he threw it up along with the kernels and started choking and acting less responsive/lethargic.  On Friday, after getting back from the hospital I feed him this same food and he had a similar reaction (throwing up and coughing/choking) but this time bounced back.  So investigation on allergies will be happening.

 We got to ride in an ambulance through rush hour traffic in downtown Provo; I heard someone say "That is a bad sign." from the back of the ambulance (I was in the front). I still do not know what they were referring to but by the time we got to the hospital I heard his oxygen saturation was at 95.  Many hours later, I heard that his saturation had been in the 70's.

 Popcorn Kernels that Hannah fed Ryan

Smiling 

At Primary Children's Hospital Ready to go home

Happy Beautiful Ryan

Goals Update

Read the Book of Mormon as a family.  Study and read the scriptures.
We are still reading the Book of Mormon every day. Most days, we only read a couple of verses and then some days we end up reading a chapter or two.  We are on track to read the whole Book of Mormon in one year.  This week we read about putting on the armor of God.  We talked to the kids about what armor is and they colored pictures of different cartoons in armor.  

Get along with and love my family.  I am learning to appreciate and love my family even more. My mom was talking to Brian and I about how 50% of marriages end in divorce and told us not to get a divorce.  I told her we love each other and we are not going to get a divorce.  But nowadays, you can not put your marriage on the back burner you need to make it your number one priority.  I hope Brian always knows how much I love him. I would not want to share sleeping on a hospital couch with anyone else.

Go to the temple once a month.  We were going to go to the Salt Lake Temple today and then to the Cheesecake factory but with everything that has gone on in the past few days we needed to stay closer to home.  It worked out that our car ended up in the shop so we went and cleaned offices together and ate at Cafe Rio.

Run a 5k
On Monday, I went running and walking around our neighborhood for 20 minutes.  I was sore for two days afterward.  I will do more this week.

Lose 35 pounds. I am down 4.5 pounds, even though I have done some stress eating the past few days.

Invest in relationships with grandparents and great grandparents.  Today, I brought my Great Grandma Payne (she is almost 105) the laundry my mom washed for her.  She seemed to be feeling good today and was up reading a book in her chair.  I walked down with her to her lunch table and got to meet two of the ladies she eats meals with.  She also eats her meals with my Grandma Merkley.  We are going to see Grandma Merkley tomorrow night at Merkley Family Night with Leslie and Brian. 

Pay off debt and have savings.  We saved $450 last month.  We hope to save at least the same this month.  We are also going to have to pay for the car to get fixed. And medical bills are going to start coming in.  We are getting our tax refund back on Tuesday.  It will be nice to have that money to pay our credit cad off and cover the unexpected medical expenses.

Trade in car for SUV/minivan.  In the works.  Today, we put all our kids in the back of my dad's Ford escape and I do not think it is the vehicle for us.  It was a tight fit with three carseats;  our car has more room in the backseat than the Escape.

Work on goals with my kids and husband. 
We are definitely a team and I am trying to accomplish these goals with them and for them.

Pictures

Hannah pinned this house on Pinterest. Her favorite color is Pink.

Ryan has been making this face every time we feed him.  So far he has scarfed down squash, sweet potatoes, baby oatmeal, carrots, bananas and pears.  He keeps grabbing the spoon and keeping a death grip on it.  Needless to say, getting the spoon back to feed him can be difficult.

Hannah in front of Fish tanks at Cabela's

Taylor say "cheese"

The Three Musketeers

Where all good reading habits begin

"Dad, Do you want to Build a Snowman?"

Progress on Goals

Read the Book of Mormon as a family.  Study and read the scriptures.
We are still reading the Book of Mormon as a family and are caught up to read it in a year.  We do not always read more then a couple verses everyday but on other days we catch up.  We have been reading some of the Isaiah chapters in first Nephi.  It is so beautiful the love that the Lord has for all his children.  He will not forsake us.  I, Mom, have been meeting with a bunch of moms for a Scripture Study group every couple of weeks.  The last few weeks we have been studying compassion.  My friend, Nicky, comes up with questions for us to study and recommends chapters to read through.  We had about 7 women come to our house the last time we met.  And they will be here again this Thursday.  I am excited to be in love with the scriptures again.  

Get along with and love my family.
We are not perfect at this but we are implementing new strategies to make sure we understand each other more in our marriage and make time to really talk and listen to each other.  With the kids, we can lose our patience but the days we are doing things together and we get out of the house to do something fun tend to go better.  I know the kids appreciate when I am in a good mood because I get a lot of hugs and kisses. Same thing with Brian (:

Go to the temple once a month.  I got to go to the temple for the first time yesterday, since Ryan was born.  I made it in under the wire; my recommend expired the next day.  I was so glad to be able to go and soak in the quiet busyness of the temple.  I went during the same shift, Brian and I, worked on almost 5 years ago and saw many of the ordinance workers we worked with while we were there.  

Run a 5k - Brian is now signed up for his half marathon on May 3rd.  I have not signed up for the 5K that same day yet; but I will.  I just downloaded the Run5K app on the Iphone.  So let the running begin.

Lose 35 pounds -
I have lost about 4 pounds this week.  My friend, Nicky, and I decided to follow each other on Fitness Pal and have changed our settings so we can view each other's food and exercise diaries.  We help each other stay more accountable and write each other encouraging messages.  She had her little girl 3 days before I had Ryan so we are both ready to slim down. If you want to follow me on Fitness Pal my username is raemerk20.

Invest in relationships with grandparents and great grandparents.
We are going to see Grandma Merkley tomorrow at my parent's Superbowl party.  She wants to see all her great grand babies. It will be nice to spend time with her.  The kids love all the Grandparents and they love them.

Pay off debt and have savings.  The finance challenge I have been doing has been great.  We have been able to save about $500 this month. (This is huge for us!) Most of this is because I got paid from my new cleaning job.  This job has been a huge blessing and just the motivation I needed to budget and get ahead.

Trade in car for SUV/minivan. We are talking about getting our new vehicle.  We need to pay our car off first.  If we get the new vehicle this year we might go, with the kids, to Disneyland after Christmas.

work on goals with my kids and husband.
I could not reach any of my goals without them.  They motivate and encourage me everyday.