Good News

First of all, I want to thank everyone for your support and prayers regarding our attempts to grow our family. Today, Dusty and I were able to receive some great news that my pregnancy test was positive. We are very excited, but also a little nervous given our prior history with the two previous pregnancies. The numbers came back today good, but we will know more on Wednesday with a second set of numbers.

Please continue to include us, including our little one(s), in your prayers. I should have a couple more blood tests this week and then an ultrasound in a couple weeks. I will be sure to keep this updated with any new news.

I actually cheated and took this test Monday morning before my Dr. Appt. I didn't want Dusty to have to wait until the afternoon to find out. We were so excited to finally see the "+" sign. I have taken many tests in the past, and never have we seen a positive test. So for your viewing pleasure.

If you want to follow the quantitative numbers, the level for Monday was 289. I will post Wednesday's levels when I get it. The numbers should double about every 48-72 hours according the internet.

Funny Faces

We got a call from Sam & Lissy last Saturday afternoon letting us know they were up our way. We decided to meet them at Arby's and visit for a little bit. As always, Dusty spoiled Owen by sharing his chocolate shake with him, and then started making funny faces. Owen just laughed and laughed and laughed. It was short, but I always love meeting up with them when we can.

Yum - He just kept chugging

Funny faces - It looks like it hurts

Sam and little Nigel

Lybbert Visits

Dusty's brother Andrew came to town for a minor surgery on his jaw, and so we took advantage of the time and went to visit. It was so great to see him, but wished we could have seen Virginia too. After visiting for a while, we made the trek to Carnation to celebrate Carly's 2nd birthday. She is such a sweetheart. We enjoyed a great dinner with the Day's and had fun visiting and playing with Jakob and Carly.

The birthday girl

Opening presents

Blowing out the candles

Grant County Fair

The day after the rodeo, we decided to back to the fair. It was very interesting to compare the fair to the Clark County fair where I grew up. The animals were similar, but I think Grant County has more, the rides are similar, they both have delicious elephant ears, but some of the differences are the Grant Country fair sells space burgers, and they advertise Hay balers, and the Clark county fair advertises RV's and Pools. The commercial buildings at the Clark county fair are far superior to the Grant county, but the gardening stuff and animals exceed the Clark County.

Funny Story - We were walking through the Pig Barns, and a little boy asked us if we wanted to go in his pigs cage. We declined but chatted for a minute. He told me the name for his pig next year would be Pork Chop, and I asked him if he was bring the same pig back next year, and nonchalantly, he stated "No, he dies tomorrow." I thought it was crazy that a child could care so little that is pig was would be dead in less than 24 hours, but I guess that is the farming life

Dusty enjoying the pigs before the slaughter

We had a great time, and I will admit, space burgers are pretty tasty. Apparently, they originated at the World Fair in Seattle in the 60's, and they developed them in accordance with the space needle. Essentially, a space burger is two slices of cheap enriched white bread filled sealed in a circle filled with seasoned ground beef, thousand island dressing, and shredded lettuce. They are very simple, and are made with the same machines used in the 60's, and actually taste pretty good. Dusty determined it is worth it to drive to Moses Lake to go to the fair just for a space burger.

We also got to spend some great time with Grandma Libby. We stayed at her home and enjoyed a lovely breakfast and lots of chatting with her. She told us a lot of family history and stories that we didn't know. It was fun to spend to quality time with Grandma.

Dusty and Grandma

At the restaurant we went to for breakfast, I couldn't help but notice the giant brownies, cookies and rice krispie treats for sale. It made me think of Sunday dinners with the Lybberts, where typically cake is served. For the last 6 years, I have constantly been telling them to give me a small piece of cake, and still I get one that is 4 inch by 4 inches and 2 inches high. It is now a bit of a joke, and I ask for a Poe size piece, which is about a quarter of a Lybbert piece (I just don't love cake that much). After seeing these, I assume it is more than a Lybbert thing, but more of a Moses Lake thing to have giant desserts.

Moses Lake Roundup

For 6 years, my husband has told me how great the Grant County Fair and Rodeo are. Dusty grew up in Moses Lake and has very fond memories of the fair. He raised bunnies, sheep, and even a Cow (Big Mac) for the fair when he was younger, and loves all the animals. I think he will be a forever farmer :). This year as we did not have work to interfere we decided to make the trek east to visit the fair and rodeo.

I have to admit, I am a little slow when it comes to rodeo. I generally think of big mean bulls, crazy cowboys trying to hold on for dear life. I was quite enlighted during the rodeo to learn that there are 7 events. Yes 6 more than I was previously aware of.

They include the following

• Bare Back (On horses)
• Saddle bronc (Also horses)
• Calf roping/tie-down
• Team Roping
• Steer wrestling
  
• Barrel Racing, and of course
  
• Bull Riding
  

Bare Back and Saddle bronc are similar to bull riding, but is done on horses. All three have to stay on for 8 seconds to get a score. The other events are timed, meaning the fastest time to complete the task wins.

I think Calf Roping and team roping were my favorite events. In Calf Roping, they let the calf run ahead and they have to throw a rope to catch the calf around it's neck, then get off their horse, and turn the calf on it's back and then tie three legs together. A good time is about 9 seconds or so.



My second favorite was team roping. This task there is a team of two cowboys both on horses. They release a steer and the goal is for one cowboy to rope the steer by the horns, and the other is supposed to rope the steer by the back legs. There was only one team that successfully completed the task correctly and they did it under 6 seconds.

Steer wrestling is where two guys chase a steer, and then one guys jumps off his horse and tackles the steer to the ground. These are big animals, and I am amazed anyone can do it.





Barrel Racing is the only event for the cowgirls. They ride on horses and have to circle three barrels completely and then run back out of the arena. A good time is about 17 seconds or so.

The Bullriding at this rodeo was very intense. There was only about 1 or 2 guys that successfully rode their bulls for 8 seconds that night, and these were top ranked cowboys. Apparently Grant County raises some mean aggressive bulls.

Overall it was a great time, and I thoroughly enjoyed my first rodeo, and all the other entertainment in between events was great as well. I vaguely remember Dusty telling me his favorite part of rodeo were the clowns and this clown was pretty clever and really got the crowd involved. They also had some Cowgirls come and perform some pretty cool roping and horse riding stunts.

Visit with Becky

Most of the Poe family now resides in western Washington, and we love to get together for fun times; however, it make me miss my sister Becky even more as she rarely gets to visit as she lives way over on the east coast. She was able to visit for a little over a week, and I got to spend some time with her and little adorable Garrett. I just love all of my cute little nephews!

I went down on Friday and spent the night to visit with them. I also went back on Monday with Dusty to go to the Ranch House BBQ. Oh how delicious! Then back down on Tuesday to enjoy the nice weather with Melissa and Becky. We did some wonderful floating and visiting. I also got the last ski run of the Summer in as my embryo transfer was scheduled for the following day.

The following Saturday we also met up with Becky, Mom and Lissy and ate at the Old Spaghetti Factory, a family favorite, before she had to board the airplane back to North Carolina.

I didn't take too many pictures, but got a couple of the Ranch House, and the Spaghetti Factory. We love you Becky, and can't wait until you can come back for another visit.

The Family at the Ranch House BBQ

Becky and Garrett waiting for Yummy Food

Saying goodbye at the Old Spaghetti Factory - Isn't he just a doll?

Dusty and Owen stomping out of the restaurant together. He is always so good with kids.

A humbling time

Some of you are aware, and other may not be, but this next couple weeks, and hopefully months will be a hard and emotional time here in the Lybbert household. The reason for that is that yesterday, I had two embryos placed in my uterus. This is the 4th attempt, and to say the least, we are nervous.

Attempt number 2 came back negative,
Attempt number 1 was positive, but ended at 6 weeks,
Attempt number 3 was barely positive, and it took a week before they even said it was actually positive, but ended at 7 weeks.

We are of course hoping for a positive two weeks from now, but it will still be hard due to the prior history. We are asking for your sincere prayers, and fasting if you are able. It is very hard for us to be this open on this matter, but we figured that we need to humble ourselves, and ask for your help and prayers.

Below are the first pictures we have of our little babies. The one on the top is 8 cells, and the one on the bottom is 6 cells. The embryologist said they both look like good quality, and we are keeping our fingers crossed.

Below are a few frequently asked questions that you may have:

1. When is the pregnancy test? - It will be September 1st, and I won't know anything until then.

2. Do you feel pregnant? - I really shouldn't feel any signs of pregnancy before the blood test is scheduled

3. Are you afraid of getting sick like attempt 1? - No, not at all. The reason I got sick before was because we did IVF, and an immediate transfer of the embryo. These embryos were frozen, and therefore there was no risk of ovarian hyper-stimulation syndrome (OHSS).

4. How many embryos do you still have in the freezer? - We did the IVF process in May, and as we were planning to freeze them all due to the risk of OHSS, they froze them at the pronuclear stage (right after fertilization). We ended up freezing 8, and initially thawed 4. Two of them did not survive the thaw process, so we thawed one more to culture. On the day of transfer, 2 of them were good, but the third had stopped developing properly. (if all three were good we planned to refreeze it at the blastocyst stage). So we have 3 remaining at the pronuclear stage.

5. Why do these embryos look different than the ones you have posted before? - These embryos are in the multi-cellular stage, and all others were transferred at the blastocyst stage. These embryos are only 6 and 8 cells, where as the blastocysts are cultured 2 days longer and have more than 100 cells. I am not sure why the doctors wanted multi-cellular rather than blastocysts, but hopefully it work better for us.

6. Do you still have to take shots? - Yes, I get a daily shot of progesterone administered inter-muscularly by my loving husband. These will hopefully continue for another 10-12 weeks or so. They are not very fun, but Dusty is getting better, and there is not much discomfort yet. I also have other medications that I will continue to take as well.

Hopefully that will answer some your questions, and if you have more, please feel free and ask? We are trying to be very open, and feel that with your help through faith in numbers, the Lord may bless us in our many attempts to become parents. Thank you all so much for your support.

Also, I know I am behind on posts, and I will catch up, but I wanted to at least get this one out.

Happy Birthday Rylee

Right after we got back from Banks, we were able to meet up with Dusty's sister April and her family. Her daughter Rylee turned 1 while they were visiting from California, and we celebrated her birthday with the family, even the Great Grandma's came to town. The Quinton's and Day's couldn't make it due to illness, but we had a great time seeing them.

The Ladies

Grandma with Braden

Rylee and Dusty

Trying to figure out the whole opening thing

Beautiful cakes - Great job April

Banks Lake

This year we were able to attend the awesome camping trip at Banks Lake with the Poe family and friends from their stake. Banks Lake is located in eastern Washington very close to the Grand Coulee Dam. It is a giant reservoir and is a fabulous place for boating and fun. We camp at a grassy place, and then each day launch the boats, and set up the beach where we park the boats, and play all day as boats take other out on the lake for some awesome waters ports. There are always a lot of people, and everyone always has a blast.

I feel like I was pretty adventurous on the water this year. I skied everyday, knee-boarded with Melissa, skied with Melissa, wake surfed, wake skated, and swam lots. I knew I had to get in all the fun as my embryo transfer was scheduled shortly after Banks. Dusty also skied, wake-boarded, and wake surfed.

We also got to celebrate Dad's birthday at Banks this year. He can successfully say he has skied in his 60's. We are all still amazed to see how awesome he is on a ski. He makes it look so effortless and easy.

Overall we all had a great time including Bella as she got to spend lots of time outside, and Owen was always willing to take her for a walk. We can't wait for next year. I didn't take too many pictures as we were having too much fun and I just didn't think about it much, but here is what I have.

At the beach

Group Photo

Dinner at the mexican restaurant - It was a bit of a fiasco this year including Mom getting salsa spilled all over, but it was still fun and the food was delicious.

Base camp - Ours is the green tent

Papa sharing some bonding time with little Nigel