Welcoming Mason David Kuiper!

Again, way overdue, but still an amazing time in our lives! We welcomed our little man, Mason David Kuiper on September 6, 2011. He was born 3 weeks early after 2 days of induced labor, on Labor day itself, as well as our 1st anniversary. I had signs of preeclampsia (high BPs, swelling of my hands and feet, lab changes with bloodwork, and dizziness/shakiness with the elevated BPs) and the ultrasound they did just before they admitted me showed that our little guy was no longer growing well so they decided to admit and induce. I wasn't making progress very quickly at all but on day 2 of induction meds and breaking my water, he decided to make an appearance. Mason was born at 4:12 am, weighed 6lbs, 9.4 oz and was 19 inches long. That day, he made us the happiest parents in the world. We're so in love!

Catching Up

A lot has happened since I've last posted on this blog...

We were married on Labor Day weekend (9/6/09). It was one of the rainiest labor days the Seattle area has seen in quite some time. Rain on your wedding day is good luck though, right? It stopped raining long enough for me to walk down the aisle though.









We bought a house on 11/16/09, obviously not wasting any time.



I love, love, love the kitchen!



And we found out we were pregnant on 1/16/10, again, not wasting any time. :) Baby boy Kuiper's due date was September 25, 2010.



More updates to come soon!

Did you know that April is National Organ Donor Awareness month? Are you on organ donor? And if you are, do your loved ones know that you are? If not but you want to be, it's easy... just let your loved ones know your wishes. There's also the option to have it placed on your driver's license when you renew. I urge all of you that aren't but would like to be to take those steps... there's many more children/adults waiting for a transplant than there are organ donors every year.

On another note, I will have the pleasure to work with children waiting for/receiving organs in a different way. I have worked with all types of transplant patients for the past 10 years on the surgical unit at Seattle Children's, both pre and post transplant. I have just accepted a transplant coordinator position with our transplant team. We have an amazing team of people that work with our patients and I'm so excited to work more closely with them! I will mostly be following liver/small intestine transplant patients. My first day at my new position is May 4th. Although I'm sad to be leaving the surgical unit after so much time spent there, I am excited to start this new journey in my life. My last scheduled day on the surgical unit is April 22nd. I am happy to say though that the wonderful nurses that I work with now I will see as I work on a different level with their patients. I know that new and great things are ahead of me!

Wedding plans in full swing!

Well, we've nailed down the date and place for our wedding! I will officially be a married woman the evening of Sept. 6th. That's less than 5 months away! Yikes! We're getting married at Sander's Mansion in Auburn, WA. It's on Washington's Historic Registry. It will be an outdoor ceremony as well as an outdoor reception... we're praying for nice weather! Our colors are hot pink/fuschia, dark orange and brown as an accent color. We have our caterer... she's quite a character but is really good at what she does. Our photographer is awesome and already took our engagement pics. She's a couple years into her own business and I highly recommend her! Her website is www.imprintsphoto.com I also bought my wedding dress last week! It's sooooo beautiful and I can't wait to wear it in full hair and makeup and have Dave see me in it for the first time! We still need to pick a DJ, a cake person and a florist. My bridesmaids have been with me to look at dresses and will soon pick one out... two of them are pregnant and one just had a baby. None will be pregnant at the wedding though, so they can embibe with us on our champagne toast! There's some decorations that I still need to get as well as favors but that will be easy enough. Things are coming along! I'll keep you all posted with updates!

Emotionally Exhausted

The past month and a half have had their fair share of ups and downs.  As noted in my last posting, Dave asked me to marry him on December 27th.  I was so happy that I'd finally found my prince charming and he'd wanted to spend the rest of his life with me.  The next day, on Dec. 28th, we flew home and I was met with the news that my Grandpa Lyons, whom I love dearly and saw almost every day it seems like throughout my childhood growing up in Spokane, had been diagnosed with metastatic melanoma in his brain.  He and my grandmother were in Yuma, where they spent their winters and were going to fly back to Spokane the next week.  They made it back home on Jan. 5th and on Jan. 6th, my Grandpa was taken to the hospital via ambulance because he wasn't feeling well.  That for him was huge, since he didn't like hospitals.  He stayed there for a while and then returned home, which is where he wanted to be all along.  Hospice was helping my Grandma to care for him while he was there and my mom stopped everything she was doing to be at my Grandma's side.  I am fortunate enough to have been able to spend a few days with him while he was in the hospital and a few more days with him this past week while he was at home.  His health declined rapidly and he had a hard time talking when he was in the hospital, which was very frustrating to him, and it was almost impossible for him to walk and stand.  This was extremely hard for him and his loved ones to take in, as he'd always been the type of person that was out working in the garden or around the house... he was never one to sit still for long.  When I visited him this last week, he spent most of his time sleeping.  He didn't have much of an appetite and was not really talking at all but still was able to interact a little.  The highlight of my trip was when I finally got my engagement ring via FedEx.  I was so excited when it came and he was awake at the time.  I was able to show it to him and I got the biggest brightest smile out of him that I'd seen in a while, and also the last one that I would see from him.  For the remainder of my stay there, he mostly slept and didn't really interact with others.  He became more agitated and confused and then stopped waking much at all.  I left on Saturday morning (Feb. 7th) to return home to Seattle and gave him a big hug and kiss and held his hand for a while and told him that I loved him.  Of course, I left crying... I had a feeling in my gut that that was the last time that I'd see my grandfather.  No more than 15 minutes had passed when I got home when my phone rang and it was my mom telling me that Grandpa had just passed away.  I knew it was going to happen, but I never imagined it would hurt this bad. It takes everything I have to not burst into tears at random moments. I can't even imagine how my Grandma is feeling. (This made me think about my future and how much loving someone enough to want to spend the rest of your life with them can hurt so bad as well.)  I loved and still love my Grandpa so much and I know he had a long (he was just shy of his 86th birthday) and good life full of wonderful memories that everyone will cherish.  I wish him peace and happiness wherever he is and one day hope to give him a great big hug and kiss again.  Rest in Peace Grandpa!  I love you!

We're engaged!

He finally popped the question!  We've been dating for almost 2 years and I was thinking and hoping that we'd be getting engaged soon, but still, when it happened, I was completely surprised!  We decided to travel to Las Vegas on Christmas night... Carolyn (Dave's younger sister) and her husband AJ were there and we'd wanted to go, so what better time than then?  We'd had a great time and seen lots of sights.  We were going to go to ride the Stratosphere rides but they were closed because of the cold temperatures.  Apparently, that's where he'd planned to propose to me, but since that didn't work out, he waited until the next night, which was Sat., Dec. 27th.  We'd spent the day going to Cesar's Palace to eat at a famous restaraunt, browse at all the high end shops, look at all the gorgeous Christmas lights and just walk around.  We were hoping to see the water show at the Bellagio Hotel but had missed it.  Dave was adamant about crossing the street to venture to the top of the Eiffel Tower to have a drink and watch the show from there.  We sat for a while in a booth and ordered a drink but were able to move to some bar seats to better see the show.  When the show started, Dave asked me if there was anything else I wanted to do while we were there before we left the next day.  I said no, and before I knew it, he was up out of his chair, saying that there was something that he'd been wanting to do for a long time and next thing I knew, he was on one knee proposing to me.  It was so romantic.  I started crying and didn't answer him for a long time.  I just kept saying "Are you serious?", "This can't be happening" and "Is this really happening?".  Finally I said yes, although I barely remember saying it.  He told me that he'd asked for my dad's permission and that's when the waterworks really started.  We ordered a glass of champagne to toast to our new engagement.  After that, we met up with his sister and brother in law and celebrated more with them.  I'm so excited to be marrying him and to be gaining three sisters!  

As for the ring, he gave me a "token" ring when he proposed.  It's not real.  We looked for rings on Saturday, which was so much fun... I found many pretty ones, but one that I really loved.  Can't wait to actually have a pretty new ring on my finger!  :)  For now, I'm immersing myself in information about wedding planning and trying to figure out what it is that we really want to do.  Updates later!  :)