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Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Lets start at the very begining...

It all started on May 2nd 1997 at 7th grade back to school night. Steve and I met at the ripe old age of 14. We have not left each other alone since. We dated other people but kept falling for each other over and over again. We are best friends, solemates and I love him more everyday that I live.





Steve proposed to me on Christmas Morning 2002 with all of his family there. It was (at that time) the happiest day of my life. We were married at the Granite Bay Golf Club on August 15, 2004.





We lived in San Ramon for the first 2 years of our marriage and in El Dorado Hills briefly, before moving to Draper, UT 3 years ago. We love it here and plan to stay forever!


I worked as a event coordinator & PA (as Republican politics are a passion of mine) for Weatherby Foundation International, for the last 3 years. Because of the types of events that I coordinated I had the chance to meet a lot of influential people including Generals, Past Presidents (from near and far), Vice-Presidents, Kings and diplomats from almost every continent and a huge variety of CEOs and owners of this countries finest companiesand non-profit organizations.

Once we decided to start our family, I left my job and became the Domestic Goddess I was always meant to be. I plan to volenteer for WFI each year at the Foundation's major fund raiser every January, and stay active in raising money for a variety of conservative platforms. I just don't want to HAVE to do it. But now that I stay home I should have enough time to donate some of it.

We FINALLY got pregnant in November 2006 after trying for 10 months. It does not seem like very long but when you want to be pregnant it seems like an eternity.



Day before I went into labor.


Griffin Thomas Skarda was born on August 30th, 2007. 15 days after our 4 year Anniversary.

He was 8 lbs and 21 inches long! How I ever carried a baby that size, is still a wonder to me. He is named Griffin, as that is my Maiden Name and Thomas is a middle name that he shares with his father and Paternal Grandfather.

I was in active labor with him for 52 hours most of which I did without an epidural (hoping for a natural delivery. But after a full day of contractions, I gave in. THANK HEAVENS) and ended up needing a c-section to top it off.
He had a hard time for the first few days, but came through with flyingcolors after being given a 40% chance of living. Because I was in labor for so long after my water broke, there was no barrier between the baby and the outside word. I had so many differnt people checking me & that coupled with the length of time we were open & exposed to whatever happend by we both got an infection. I spiked a 104 feever all of a sudden and eventually the baby got it too. When he was first born he had PERFECT apgar scores. He was very healthy and very big. It was not until he was admitted to the egular nursury thatone nurse noticed him start to breath funny and took his temp. They immidiatly moved him to the NiCU and came in and told us that he was VERy ill. It was so scarey and so emotional. Because I got the infection too & lost 1/3 of my blood, I was out of for the first few day and Steve had to deal with me & Griffin skating on this ice. I have never seen him so upset in the 11 years that I have known him. Ever since then he has held me a little bit tighter and never taken one minute with his son for granted. Bringing Griffin home was the best feeling in the world. I was discharged before him. We had to go home and leave our newborn son in NICU and not know if he would ever get to come home. But he did. For the first week we had to have a home nurse and Griffin had an IV in his head and it was so sad. But once he got his strength back he has not had a problem since and his as healthy and happy as he should have always been. Needless to say, I will be using a different Dr. next time. Who does not let their patients labor for 52 hours. Had I just had the c-section to begin with nin of that would have happend.


My husband Steve has an amazing job drilling for Oil, for the Company Shell Oil, that enables me to be a full time wife and mother and I could not imagine doing it any other way. I am so grateful that I get to spend all of my time with my son. I love staying home and have no plans to return work....EVER!!!!! Instead, I aspire to be a PTA/football/baseball/ going, husband spoiling wife & mom for the rest of my life. Which is exactly what I have always wanted.

Griffin just celebrated his 1st Birthday. We had a magician come and do a magic show in our backyard. They also did face-painting and lots of games. It was so much fun. Griffin and all of his friends had a blast!



Griffin looking very stylish in his Ed Hardy!!!




We are hoping to become pregnant VERY soon. Going on 11 months of trying...once again. In the mean time just enjoying our happily ever after. and counting the many many blessings.

Below are some photos from the last year... I will try to keep up on this blog and not have a year worth of photos to upload!

12 months old!


First trip to the zoo!
First Christmas in his adorable/lame outfit
At Farm Country in Lehi

Griff with his Great-Grandpa Griffin

1st Fourth of July Neiborhood BbQ
1st Haircut!
4th of July BBQ again

Bath Time!









4 weeks old!



2 weeks old!
3 weeks old!
2.5 months old
Chili Pepper! First Haloween
4 weeks old



























1 comments:

Tara Rickards said...

Ok Seriously?!! Could you be any cuter! It's not fair that you can look that amazing 9 months pregnant! :-)
I loved reading your family story! It was was fun to hang out a few weeks ago. I wish we lived closer to you guys, but we will have to keep in touch. Our blog is rickardsfamily.blogspot.com . There is a link to our pictures on the right. You can download all of the pictures I have from Asilomar there!