A couple of weeks ago Gracie gave us a scare when she stopped breathing and turned blue. We rushed her to the local hospital where they sent us, by ambulance, over to the Primary Children's hospital in Salt Lake City. That day, she saw 5 doctors, an EMT and who know how many nurses. The final verdict? She's ok. The neurologist (who we were scheduled to see that day for similar episodes in the past) said that it is fairly common condition that young children go through and is something that she will go out of around age 3. He said that she will always regain her breath on her own (which she has) but that we have to stay calm to have the confidence that she will be ok.

Since then she hasn't had any more episodes, and is doing just great. Thanks to everybody for all their prayers and phone calls of support.

She enjoyed the xray room.

Hooked up to the EKG machine.

Gracie's ambulance ride, originally uploaded by eyenology.

I'm waiting for Lisa to get home to post more pictures from Gracie's experience in the hospital(s), but I just remembered I took this one with my cell phone. Lisa is with Gracie in the ambulance on the way to Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake.

Gracie and Lisa are in Washington still, and Gracie is doing just fine now, but she did give us a good scare.

I was messing around in Lightroom and came across some photos over the past 6 months featuring Gracie, thought I'd share.

Lisa and Gracie are in Washington and seem to be having a great time. They've been shopping and hanging out a lot with Lisa's parents and sister. Expect some photos next week when she returns.

I've been trying to be a little more creative with how I run things at the store, and while I'm not sure it's more effective, it certainly is more fun. We're redesigning all of our cases and trying to make things run a little more smoothly. My crew is great, and really pitched in while Lisa and I had to make an emergency trip to Salt Lake with Gracie. (She's ok)

I'm busy as ever with the store, but help is on the way, I'll finally have an assistant manager. She's transferring to our store from Pocatello, Id. Can't wait until she starts next month.

Lisa serves in the young women's program and I am a counselor in the elder's quorum in our ward, which keeps us pretty busy. We're getting to know more and more people in the ward and really enjoying it. We are also checking into the possibility of moving in May when this contract is up. The tax credit that is being offered in the Obaminators stimulus package is making it a little more tempting to try to buy a home this year. We shall see.

TRP_4410, originally uploaded by eyenology.

We wanted to take a second and snap a family photo before we went to church on Sunday.

Last week we spent a few days in Twin Falls, ID for some training. It was nice to get out of town for a few days. Top that off with a 3 day weekend and we've really had a nice week.

Gracie is crawling everywhere and is starting to get curious about climbing stairs.

Gracie is mobile now, especially when enticed by tasty things like bread crumbs or shiny things like belt buckles. We're excited, but are starting to realize how unprepared our home is for a crawling baby.

This is officially my first post on our web page! Gracie and I have safely arrived to the wonderful city of Rock Springs and are loving life as a family. Tim is anxiously awaiting the arrival of Christmas so work can slow down a bit and we can spend some real time together. Gracie is convinced that crawling is a unidirectional operation- backwards only. I am thinking of as many things as I can to avoid unpacking the mountain of boxes that are taking up residence in the garage. Most importantly, we are together, as a family, and that is making this time of year something to be cherished. Christmas is about family and we are a cohesive family now!! Merry Christmas everyone- remember the reason for the season and think of others at this time of year :)

So with the dust of the presidential election settling, and as the next four years of this country begins to take form, I've been thinking. What are the issues for next year? I decided that I need to start now with taking a stand and seeking out a presidential candidate who can make changes that will make a better America for me and my family. Let's start with this one:

Issue #1.Unsolicited music on websites. This is my hot button issue of next election. I can't stand it when I am following a link to a blog or other website and somebody has decided that they want me to listen to their theme song. Photographers are notorious for this. Have you ever worked in an office setting and had somebody play music that you didn't like? Well, it's like that, except the person who likes the music isn't even in the room to hear it!

Not to mention the looks I get from Lisa when she's trying to put Gracie to bed and I've forgotten to turn down the sound... Not a good thing.

Not to mention the confusion caused when I've got iTunes playing and a websites theme song starts.

Well, I guess that's it. Not the economy. Not the war in Iraq. Sappy unsolicited songs. Make America better.

I voted today, for the first time in my life. I must admit, it felt pretty good. Now maybe I can get one of those "Don't blame me, I voted for..." Stickers. We'll see.

I just wanted to say thanks to all of our friends and family who have helped us out so much during this transition period in our life. There have been a lot of challenges the last few months, but we have such a great family and network of friends that have pitched in and helped everything. I just wanted to say thank you.