The Easter Bunny

The Easter bunny came by to visit the Pugh family this year as I'm sure he did yours too!!  We all got lots and lots of yummy treats as well as some other treasures too!

For Zack he brought some new t-shirts for spring.  Emily got some new running shorts and sun glasses and Elise got a BYU t-shirt, Tangled, a binky clip, and a new pink rattle!

As you can see, she really liked it!  Thanks for stopping by!

Here she is reading the back of her Tangled DVD ;)

Zack's Graduation

 I think this picture turned out so neat! I didn't even try for it!  There he is after receiving his diploma!

Zack's graduation from BYU took place this past Thursday and Friday.  The fun began on Thursday with commencement.  The speaker was Elder Richard G. Scott. He spoke to all of the students about taking what you have learned from the University and making their future better because of it.

My handsome graduate.  Looks great in Cougar Blue!

Friday was Zack's convocation from the college of Life Science.  His major is Physiology and Developmental Biology.  Hard right?!  I bet you couldn't do it!  After listening to probably 800 students names (most from Exercise Science) it was finally Zack's turn!  We are all so proud of him and the hard work he puts into every aspect of his life, and especially school.  Zack is a great student and never settles for less than he deserves!  I really admire that about him.

 Zack and Elise with is research Professor Dr. Barrow

It was a beautiful day on Friday and many people from his family were able to be there to celebrate his achievement.  His parents, mine, his three sisters and brother Brian and his wife Liz were all able to be his fan club!  After convocation we all left to eat some delicious food from Magleby's.  It was a wonderful day!  We are so proud of our Zacky!!! 

Zack with his proud parents

 Here he is with his fan club!

 Zack with my parents

 Zack with his long time best friend, Ben Ford

A Conversation with Elise

Elise is quite the talker these days!  Its pretty fun :)  We can usually mimic her voice and she'll do it back to us and the conversation goes on and on.  We love this girl! 

Elise's Blessing Day

Our beautiful daughter Elise was blessed on Sunday, March 13th 2011.  We blessed her in my parents ward (my home ward growing up).  Her Dad gave her a very special blessing. Some of the things I remember from it are:

-To know that her parents love her

-Good health and to be strong

-Have a strong testimony of the Gospel and a willingness to share it

-Have an outgoing personality and able to make friends easily

-With a quick mind and will be able to deal with school and other things

-To have good friends and good relationships with your family

Zack and I say each day how lucky we are to have Elise in our family. She is so special and fun and already has such a sweet and unique personality.  Elise you have changed our lives for the best and we can't wait to watch you grow up even more!  We love you!

Daddy and his favorite girl

The men in the blessing circle.  We were lucky to have our out of town brothers here for this as well!  It was great to have the whole family together!

The Family

Pretty much in love with this little girl!

 

My very talented mother made Elise's blessing dress and I could not have been happier with how it turned out.  I told her the vision I had for it- I wanted it very simple but beautiful.  She has such a great attention to detail and Elise looked so beautiful in it!  Here are several photos to show you all the detail work she put into it!  I am so happy that I will be able to have this for all my girls!  

Here is the full dress.

 Detail of the top of the dress- my Dad insisted that I pick these rose buttons.  He loved them- so cute!

 The lace and ribbon detail on the skirt of the dress.  Thanks again Mom for making us such a timeless piece!  She looked so beautiful in it!

Update on the Abscess

A few people have asked how I've been doing since the surgery, so I thought I would update everyone:

I am healing just as I should be.  I won't ever be stitched up like I originally thought.  The hole that was made during surgery will produce body tissue to fill the cavity.  It sure is amazing what the body can do!  The doctor said that our bodies can make enough tissue to fill a hole 20 times the size of mine- crazy!  I need to keep filling the cavity with iodine treated gauze each day and apply a dressing to it.  I am completely fine to shower and even have shampoo and soap get in it, as long as I rinse it out. I trust him, but it still scares me to get those things in it more for the sting factor!

I asked him how long it would be until I am "normal" again, and he said it would be months and that I will always have a scar :(  These are things that I was pretty sure about already, but I was hoping for better results!!  The great news is that I hardly feel any pain at all, I am still breastfeeding Elise (which I think I deserve a medal for!!), and that the lump and all the pressure is gone!

 Some people get stickers or candy when they visit the doctor.  I get these.

3 Months Old

Here's our beautiful Elise at 3 months old!!  I stayed up at my parents house for a few days to recover from the horrible abscess and my sister Nicole decided to do another photo shoot with Elise.  She was much more cooperative this time around!  I think she did an amazing job and got some great shots of our little girl!  I've added a few more below as well!  Here are some things about Elise at 3 months:

-LOVES to eat her hands

-Is 'talking' a lot more

-Still isn't rolling over quite yet

-We predict she is going to be a thumb sucker, we've caught that in her mouth several times

-Smiles back at people

-She has become quite the drooler

-Is in-between sizes.  Too big for her 0-3 months but WAY to small for her 3 month clothes.  It makes dressing her a big difficult!

The Story of an Abscess

This whole ordeal started about a month ago.  I noticed that I had a lump in my breast.  I called and talk to my sisters about it and they told me I most likely had a plugged duct and to put warm compresses on it and to try to massage it out if possible.  They also said to nurse Elise on that side first and always try to make sure that she emptied me out.  I tried to follow their instructions but had no luck.  The plugged duct turned into mastitis :(  Another fun factor in this game is that currently I have no insurance.  My brother in law is a doctor so he came to the rescue and prescribed and anti biotic for me.  I started taking it and felt much much better.  My energy level was back and I felt functional.  The lump was still there.  Everyone I talked to said to make sure to keep taking the anti-biotics until they were gone and the lump should go away.  Well, it didn't.  I kept hoping and hoping that it would work itself out, but of course it didn't.  The pain and pressure and the sunburn it was giving me from the inside out eventually became too much to take so even with no insurance, I called the doctor and made an appointment.  The night before the appointment it hurt so bad I hardly got any sleep at all.  My appointment was with an NP.  She took one look at it and went to get the doctor- it was THAT bad.  I could even hear all of the nurses talking outside my door saying things like, "Did you see it?"  "Oh that poor girl, its terrible" so on and so forth.  I was the 'show' for the day.  The NP even came in and asked if some of the workers that were nursing students could come in and see it- so I said sure, why not!  The doctor thinks that it might even be MRSA but we won't know until Monday when my culture sample comes back.  The doctor referred me to a general surgeon and I was to go to him in just 1 hour to have him drain the abscess.  Here comes the gross part!  I got to the surgeons office and got all checked in.  He gave me some shots in my breast so it wouldn't hurt as bad, and made his incision.  Yes, I could feel all sorts of puss or whatever it was run down and when he pulled out the abscess he showed it to me.  It was about the size of a nickel, and round.  He said that is pretty large as far as abscesses go I guess.  It did feel nice to have all that pressure gone.  The terrible part is that I didn't get instantly stitched up.  Even as I type this I have an open wound filled with gauze.  Zack and I have nick-named it my "gun shot wound" because that is what it looks like!  I have an appointment on Monday to have the nurse look at it, and on Thursday the surgeon will stitch me up and hopefully then I will be on the road to a full recovery.

If you made it this far, congratulations!!  It was long and gross but I want to remember this so that one day if Elise is a difficult teenager (lets hope not!) that I can hold this over her head ;)   Another scar all in the sake of motherhood, right?!