Never Enough Time...

Emery Turned 3!!

2010-10-12T06:10:00.006-05:00

I can't believe that he is already 3! It seems like he should still be my baby. But he is growing so fast and such a big boy.

For his birthday this year we just did a small family get together. He requested a Buzz cake that I think turned out pretty darn cute! He absolutely loved it!

He also got a lot of fun presents! He especially loved his Sheriff Woody costume from his cousins. He couldn't wait to put it on!

It was a really fun day and it was good to see that he didn't cry this year when everyone sang to him. I love my little Emery and can't imagine how boring life would be without him! Here are a few of the fun things about my little man.

-he hates to have his pants pulled up high. Every time he gets dressed he reminds you that he doesn't like to wear his pants "like a daddy" and he quickly pulls them down low onto his waist. We're not sure where he came up with the idea that daddy's wear their pants hiked up, but it is pretty funny to hear him say!

-everything is chick-a in his world. So the majority of the time I am chick-a mommy, or Eric is chick-a daddy. He also thinks it is hilarious to call everything (people included) chicken booty. Don't you just love the things they learn from older siblings?

-He loves to be tickled and wrestle with his daddy. He also is the one that won't hug daddy goodbye in the mornings but the minute dad walks in the door he is the one that comes running.

He is definitely our little ham, he loves to make us laugh and he of course loves to be the center of attention. He is spoiled rotten by Ethan and Emily, (especially Emily) who will pretty much do whatever he asks. I am afraid he is going to be traumatized when this new baby comes, and he is no longer the baby. It will be interesting to see how he reacts to her.

So even though this post is almost two months late, Happy Birthday Emery!

The First Day of School

2010-09-21T06:33:00.005-05:00

Yes, folks I am slowly catching up. These posts are all really late, but at least they are coming.

August 23 was the first day of school here. I had one really excited kindergartner, one second grader who kept saying he wasn't excited, but couldn't wipe the smile off his face, and one preschooler who didn't start school until the next day so he was sad to see his brother and sister go to school without him. He had his lunch box and backpack all ready to go.

I could not get Emery to show his face. All he wanted to to do was have a picture taken of the lunch box.

Outside the school. If you look closely you can see Ethan doing bunny ears on Emily. I didn't notice that until it was too late to take a new one. He is the typical big brother.

Emily at her locker.

Emily at her desk

Ethan, the big second grader

While the kids were at school some moms got together and made these cute little bus cakes. It turned out great and the kids loved it! It is always good to have a fun treat after school.

On Tuesday (August 24) Emery started preschool. It was bitter sweet for me. I love that I have two days a week where all of them are in school. It is great for running errands and getting things done and will be really nice when I have a new baby. But at the same time he just seems so little. He is my baby (for now anyways). He was so excited though and he loves it so that makes it a little easier.

He is at the age where he is not really into pictures so these are the best I was able to get. It also didn't help that he just wanted to go to school, not have his picture taken.

The other fun part about preschool for Emery is that he gets to go with his friend Charlotte. They are the cutest. She calls him Mimi and he always refers to her as "my Charlotte". I think they love being able to go to school together. Here they are on their first day at school!

So far the school year is going great. They all love it, even Ethan, although he won't admit it. I am definitely enjoying a little bit of me time on Tues. and Thurs. before the baby comes. We are on the countdown now for her arrival, only about 1 month left. I think the kids are excited and I am a little nervous about keeping up with life when I have 3 busy older kids and a newborn. It should be exciting.

10 Years!

2010-09-14T15:08:00.006-05:00

This summer (August) we celebrated our 10 year anniversary! It is hard to believe that it really has been 10 years, in some ways I feels like these were just taken yesterday:

Then I look in the mirror and realize 10 years have passed. It has been a great 10 years and I know I couldn't ask for a better person to have shared it with. We have been blessed with so much, the most important being our 3, almost 4, cute kids! I am definitely one lucky lady! After some debate we decided that it would be fun to take a long weekend and go somewhere without the kiddos. Many thanks to family for watching the kids so Eric and I could hit the beach in Cabo San Lucas Mexico! It was fabulous! Our room was so nice and had an awesome view, the food and restaurants were amazing and of course just being there with Eric was the best! We took a nap every day, lounged at the pool and on the beach, went snorkeling, and just enjoyed having no schedule. One of the mornings Eric went and did a zip line thing and I was lucky enough to spend a few hours at the spa getting a facial, mani and pedi.

The view from our balcony

My cute hubby on the beach

Our goofy beach hats!!

It was a much needed and super fun vacation! I can't wait until the day I can do it again. Thanks Eric, for the 10 great years and an unforgettable trip!

Catching Up!

2010-09-07T06:21:00.004-05:00

Okay so here I go trying to catch up a little bit. I wish I had an excuse for not staying caught up but I really don't. Just laziness I guess.

So I guess I will start clear back in July with Emery's swim lessons. It was kind of a last minute decision but I decided to stick Emery in swim lesson this year. He was so afraid of the water so really my only goal was to get him more comfortable. I wasn't sure how he would react, but I should have known that Mrs. Carol would work her magic and he would be fine! He still asks if he can go swim with her.

At the end of each lesson she gave them a cookie. I think that was Emery's favorite part!

Swimming through the hoop

Getting the ring from the bottom

Swimming to the steps

Our goal was definitely accomplished. He isn't nearly as afraid of the water. He did learn to swim a little, but mostly he would just kind of float there because he couldn't get down the concept of kicking while his face was in the water. I think next year when he is a little older he will get it and be swimming like a fish!

Because I like to torture myself and be super busy, I had Ethan and Emily signed up for gymnastics camp the same week Emery had swim lessons. Luckily the times worked so we could do swim lessons and then go straight to gymnastics. The kids had so much fun and they even let Emery get out there and do a few things.

Getting their medals

Emery on the bars

At the end they did a little show and they let Emery take a turn. It was way too cute to not share! (hopefully it works)

Swim Lessons

2010-06-05T15:01:00.008-05:00

This year we decided to do swim lessons before school got out so the kids were ready to go for the summer. The kids did so good this year! In the past we have done a group lesson which is 30 minutes with a total of 6 kids. This year we decided to do a semi-private lesson with the 2 girls across the street so we got 30 minutes with only 4 kids. You could definitely see the difference in progress with 2 less kids. There are a lot of pictures in this post because I just couldn't leave any out.

Waiting for their turn

Goofing around on the "secret seat" at the deep end

The whole group on the "secret seat"

Jumping in like a pencil

I love how excited and happy she is to be jumping in

Taking a big breath half way across

She made it, with a big smile of course

Ethan going across all by himself

Swimming on their backs

Swimming with "big arms"

I love the confidence they have gained in the water. Yesterday at the pool Emily got a little too far out and couldn't reach the ground. Her initial reaction was to panic, but I calmly reminded her the she could swim so she put her face in the water, started kicking and made it back to the steps all by herself! She was a little scared when she reached the steps but I was so proud of her! I can't wait to see her and Ethan both get better and better as the summer goes on.

Look Out Kindergarten!!

2010-06-02T08:21:00.004-05:00

This last Friday was Emily's preschool graduation. It is a pretty big production, which is kind of funny to me but it was still really cute and fun. Also a little sad as I realize my little girl is growing up. I can't believe she is almost 6! Crazy how time flies. Grandma and Grandpa Stevens were able to be here which made it even more special for Emily. So here are a few pictures of our little grad on her special night!

Emily and her teachers! They made everything so fun for the kids this year. Emily loved Miss Meagan and Miss Kristin.

They were nice enough to provide babysitting for kids under 3 so unfortunately Emery wasn't there for the family picture. But here are the rest of us.

Our cute little grad!

Getting her diploma. You can tell they practiced the posing before hand. It was really really funny to watch each kid get up there and pose with their teacher and diploma.

Watching the slide show

Emily's friend Brooke came to see Emily! Emily was so excited to have her there!

Lastly is Emily and her friend Dylan. She informed me the night before graduation that because Dylan was so cute she was going to marry him. I must say she is right, he is a cutie. They will be in different schools next year so I had to get a picture since they probably won't see each other ever again. I don't think Emily has realized that yet.

Although it seemed slightly over the top to make such big deal, I loved it! It was fun to see the kids so happy and excited to sing there songs and show off. I laughed a lot, and cried a little as I watched my cute little girl. I love you Emily and am so proud of you!

As a side note I wanted to mention how excited I am that Eric officially booked our 10 year anniversary trip! Cabo San Lucas here we come!! I can't wait!

Our Little Dancer

2010-05-27T17:09:00.005-05:00

I know it is shocking that I have posted two days in a row. I'm really going to try and post a lot more often. We have so much fun stuff going on this summer that I want to be sure not to miss anything.

This year Emily decided to try out dance. I signed her up for a tap and ballet combo class and she has loved every minute of it. They had their big recital a few weeks ago and it was so cute. They all tried so hard to follow their teacher and remember the dances it was great! Just before the recital they had professional pictures done in their costumes and Emily's were all so cute. They were a little pricey so I had to narrow it down to one shot per costume, but here she is in the professional pictures and then also some pictures from the recital! (The pictures look a little washed out for some reason. They look much better in person.)

Our Little Ballerina

Our Little Tap Dancer

She is already excited for next year, but decided that she like ballet better than tap so she is going to do just ballet. It was so fun to watch her and see how much she progressed. She really is a talented little dancer!

The News!

2010-05-26T15:09:00.004-05:00

I guess now would be a good time to announce on my blog that I am expecting baby #4 in October! I'm little slow about posting so along with that news I get to announce that it is a girl! We are so excited to have another girl and to be honest I'm still in a little bit of shock. Myself, Eric, his mom, my mom and pretty much everyone else I talked to were convinced that it was a boy so when the tech said girl I was super shocked but really excited. I was glad that I got to see a huge smile on Emily's face because had the verdict been boy, I think it would have been tears. I think Ethan would have been fine either way and Emery is too little to really even care. So now I get to start pulling out all the cute girl stuff! I have a ton of it so it will be nice to use it again. The only part to dread is picking a name. I guess we could just go with Emily's choice, Sarafina. What do you think?

Fun Run!

2010-05-02T07:39:00.007-05:00

Every year our schools hold a 1 mile fun run and 5K. Ethan and Emily were really excited about it so we signed them up! They did such a good job and had fun running with their friends. Ethan ran it in 9 minutes and 15 seconds and Emily ran it in 11 minutes and 29 seconds. I was surprised at how fast they were! It was awesome! Here are a few fun pictures from the day

At the starting line ready to go!!

Coming around the bend after the first lap around the track.

At the finish line! I love how he had his tongue out! He was pretty tired, but he ran the whole way!

Here comes Emily! Ethan is behind here because he went back to check on her after he finished. I love her grin! She was so excited that she finished!

The whole crew at the finish line!

The next picture if completely off the subject of the run but I was so excited to see that my lily's had started to bloom yesterday. I planted the bulbs quite a while ago and wasn't sure I would even get anything from them. The flowers are so pretty. This morning I found an orange one blooming! Now I just have to keep Emily and Emery from picking them!

Shoveling Snow Texas Style!!

2010-02-12T17:07:00.009-06:00

You know you're a true Texan when you are out shoveling snow in boots and shorts and using just a regular ol' shovel!! Who thought we would ever need to own a snow shovel or winter clothes for that matter!

Here are some fun pictures from playing in the snow. You can see that my kids are really not dressed for the weather, but they didn't seem to mind. After about a foot of snow and school being canceled we have had a great day playing in the snow! It almost feels like I am back home in Colorado!

2010-01-13T08:10:00.012-06:00

So maybe I am not doing as good as I hoped, but I have had sick kids this last week so that has to count for something. Emily came down with the flu Saturday night. Eric and I were out so our poor babysitter had to clean up throw up and deal with that. She was the best though and handled it great. Emily is finally feeling better and we have gone almost 36 hours without her throwing up. The only problem is that at about 9 o'clock last night Emery came in and announced in a sad little voice "I spilled mommy". We have now learned that by spilled he meant that he threw up. So now we have moved on to him being sick. Let's keep our fingers crossed it stays away from Ethan, Eric and I. I'm not counting on it though. So, on to updating a little.

This year we were so excited to have my mom and dad come for Christmas. My mom has visited a few times with out my dad so it was really nice to have him here. The last time he was here we still lived in our apartment. The day they go here we went and looked at Christmas lights. Eric found a neighborhood that has tons of good lights. After that we went out to dinner. The second day we hit the Gaylor Texan Hotel and went to ICE! The theme this year was the Grinch Who Stole Christmas. It was so awesome. It was hard to believe all of it was sculpted from ice. At the end they have these huge slides made from ice. I think that was Ethan and Emily's favorite part, they had a great time over all. I think Emery didn't like the 9 degree temperature inside there because he was pretty cranky! Personally I had to not think about how many other people had worn that big blue parka that they gave me in the beginning. If I thought about too much it seriously grossed me out. But, after some hot chocolate and lunch everyone, including Emery was feeling much better. The rest of the week we just relaxed and enjoyed. The guys went hunting for a few days. They were hoping to come home with a doe, a turkey or a hog but struck out. I think they still had fun though. It was sad to see my mom and dad go but it was so fun to have them here. Hopefully we can get them here a little more often!!

Jumping Back In!

2010-01-08T16:13:00.007-06:00

So with the new year I am going to try really hard to keep up on my blog. Sadly I am already a little behind, but before it gets too overwhelming I better get started 1 post at a time. So be ready for lots of pictures and hopefully several posts over the next few days!

We started off the holiday season with the Christmas parade and brunch with Santa downtown. It was our first year to do this, but so much fun that I am sure it won't be our last. It has been an unusually cold winter here in Dallas so of course it was cold that day. But we braved the cold with our coats, hats, gloves and shoe warmers and with the exception of a little whining before the parade started, the kids were really good and had a great time. There were so many fun characters in the parade. Ethan loved Batman, Emily was so excited to see Hello Kitty and Emery had the biggest grin when he spotted Thomas the Tank Engine.

After the parade we went to have brunch with Santa at the restaurant in Eric's building. The food was great and Ethan and Emily were so excited to see Santa. Emery, on the other hand, was terrified. If we even got close to Santa he would scream. I was able to get some really cute pictures of Ethan and Emily with Santa, but had to settle for just some cute shots of Emery playing around.
Over all it was awesome and everyone had a great time! It was such a great way to kick off the holidays.

London Baby!!!

2009-10-02T16:56:00.003-05:00

Just thought I would post really fast to say I am so excited! My mom arrives tomorrow and on Tuesday, Eric and I will be enjoying life in London!! Well at least I will. Eric will be in meetings and working all week but another co-worker's wife and I will be exploring the city!! This is the hotel we are staying at:

It looks like such a cool building. It is also near lots of places to see like, Hyde Park and Buckingham Palace. The only places outside of the US I have been are Mexico and Canada, so this will be quite an adventure! I'll be sure to report back with lots of pictures.

P.S. The title was just for you Kayla!!

The First Day of School

2009-09-04T10:10:00.004-05:00

So I am a couple weeks late but wanted to post some picture of my big 1st grader! I am really excited about his teacher this year and he was happy to have some of the boys he knows in his class this year! I think it was a great start to what will be a great year!

What We've Been Up To! Part 1

2009-08-07T10:30:00.002-05:00

So I decided it was time to post what we have been up to the last few months. A while back I took the first year of my blog and made it into a book. I love to look back at the pictures and stories. I realized that by slacking on posting this last year I have missed out on a lot of memories. My book (when I get to making it) for this year will be missing a lot because of my laziness. So in an effort to sort of catch I am going to try and post a lot the next few days. To make it easier for me it will probably be in two or three longer, picture filled posts. So here is part one of many:

BASEBALL:

This year Ethan decided to play t-ball again. I signed him up with the expectation that it would be similar to when he played last year. One practice and one game per week. Man, was I wrong. I don't know if it is the area we live in now or just the league that we signed him up in, but they are serious about t-ball!! It started out with practice 3 days a week! I couldn't believe it was 3 days a week for 6 year olds! Anyways, it ended up not being too bad because Eric decided to help out and be an assistant coach so Ethan and Eric would just go together. After a month or so of practice pre-season games started. It was then that I realized how serious these people took this. The teams we played had obviously been practicing as much or more than us and you could tell that most of them had been playing for years already. It was crazy! We didn't do so hot in the pre-season but as we got into regular season we did much better. I found out the pre-season teams we played were in a more competitive league so that's why they were so much better. The teams in our league were a lot closer to our skill level. We ended the season in 3rd place. I would like to say the whole season was fun and great but Ethan actually got burned out on baseball about half way through. I think 3 or 4 days of baseball per week was too much for him.

The following picture is how he looked pre-game the first half of the season:
He was actually excited to play and go to the games. This is how he looked pre-game the last half of the season:

It was typically a fight to get him dressed and in the car. And he ended up in tears saying he hated baseball and didn't want to play anymore before most games and practices. Needless to say we were all happy to see the end of the season.
Even though the end of the season was a little rough I think he had a good time. If you ask him if he had fun he says yes. If you ask if he wants to play again he will quickly say no, but I think overall it was a good experience for all of us.

Here he is running for home. Since I can't remember if he got tagged out before he made it, I will give him the benefit and say he scored the run. It looks like he was going to get there first doesn't it?

Leaving first base! Notice Coach Eric in the background.

Emily and Emery were a little hard to entertain during the games so we usually ended up with suckers or snacks from the concession stand. Here they are just hanging out!

SEA WORLD:

In May we decided to make what has become our annual trip to Sea World. The kids love it and since it isn't that far away we can just make it a long weekend. This year we were lucky enough to meet Eric's parents there! It was great to see them and be able to spend some time with them.

We love to go in May because it is not too hot and there are no lines or big crowds. Ethan did have to miss a day of school but it is worth it to miss the summer heat and the summer crowds. This was the first year we were going to do the water park since it is only open on Saturdays in May. The kids were so excited! Our plan was to do the last few show and rides on Saturday morning and then spend the afternoon at the water park. As luck would have it, the morning was perfect and then it rained all afternoon so they didn't get to swim after all. They were so disappointed. We braved the rain though and were able to get a few extra shows and enjoy the rides with no lines after it stopped. They also got to put their swim suits on and play in the little splash zone, so that made it a little better.

Here are Emily and I riding the Shamu Express. This was the first year she was tall enough to ride. She had to have an adult with her, but she was so excited and wanted to ride it over and over! Thanks to no lines, she got to do that!

One of Ethan and Emily's favorite rides is the Texas Splash down! You can't see Emily in this picture because she wanted to be all the way in the back.

Here they are in the splash park. Ethan never stood still long enough to have his picture taken. And as you can see from the pictures Emery wasn't too sure what he thought. One minute it was fun, the next it was not so fun!

Last year when we went we Dined with Shamu and the kids loved it so much we thought we would do it again. It really isn't that much more expensive then eating at the cafes in the park but the food is much better. It is also a fun experience. You really get to see the whales close up . Here's a picture that Eric took from right in front of our table.

This year we decided to check out a wildlife ranch that is on our way home. It was an interesting place. The kids thought it was really neat to see all the different animals that close up.

This is an ostrich sticking his head in the car in front of us. We were smart enough to roll our windows up so we didn't pecked to death. They kind of scare me.

I wasn't too scared of the other animals although some got a little too close at times. Her is the zebra eating from my hand. The kids were so excited that it stuck it's head in the car.

I wasn't too excited about the cows. For some reason they like to lick anything they could. It was so nasty to have clean cow slobber in the inside of my car. The kids thought it was the most hilarious thing they had ever seen!

We also stayed at a great hotel that had it's own water slides and lazy river! We only wish we had more time to hang out and enjoy all the fun they had to offer at the hotel. We all had a great time but I think we decided next year we will try a new destination. Sea World is fun but after 3 years in a row Eric and I are ready for something new and different.

SWIM LESSONS:

The first week of summer Ethan and Emily had 2 weeks of swim lessons. This is the second year they have taken from Miss Carol and I am still amazed at how good she is. Ethan and Emily are turning into great swimmers. They both used to scream if water even splashed in their faces. Now Ethan will jump off the diving board and can swim the length of Miss Carol's pool. Emily can swim the shorter length and they both are doing well on their backs. It was great to see them learning so much and doing so well. We love Miss Carol!!

Ethan jumping in. She wanted them to jump in like pencils. Ethan took it very seriously and always reminded the kids who belly flopped of face planted that they were supposed to be like pencils.

Emily never belly flopped or face planted, but she had a hard time keep her legs straight. Cannon ball (sort of)!!

The last picture is Emery just hanging out. Keeping him away from the water wasn't not the easiest job.

The rest of the summer has been filled with lots of fun trips, concerts and of course swimming! Look for more posts to come about all those fun activities!

Behind

2009-05-19T10:56:00.002-05:00

I feel like am always behind. Behind in laundry. Behind in housework. Behind in scrapbooking. Behind in blogging. Behind in more things than I can even list. I wonder if I will ever catch up. Probably not.

The Big 3-0!!

2009-04-27T15:50:00.008-05:00

So today is a big day for me. The big 3-0! It's hard to believe that I am as old as I am. I still feel like I am 21 (then I look in the mirror, but that is a whole post in and of itself). Am I really that old?

Eric and the kids decided yesterday was a better day to celebrate since Eric would be home all day. After church and lunch they let me take a nap. It was fabulous!! I got to sleep for about 2 hours. Then I woke up to a bunch of balloons and a sign on my door. They also presented me with a flashing 30 pin and a beautiful birthday princess crown! I got to open my presents and we had family over for brownies and ice cream! It was so fun and I definitely have been spoiled by my family and friends.

The Birthday Princess! I kept trying to ditch the crown but Emily kept finding it and making me put it back on.

My present from Ethan was Mario Cart for the Wii. I love Mario Cart!!

Emily gave me another wheel for the Mario Cart game.

Eric got me good this year. He gave me a card that had a coupon for a free plane ticket for my mom to come visit! I was so excited and called her last night to tell her to think about when she wants to come. After hanging up Eric asked me when she was coming. I told him we would decide later, but probably in the fall. He got a really funny look on his face and said "she didn't say anything about Thursday?" He had already bought the ticket and she is coming on Thursday!!! I am so excited to see her! I have the best husband in the world. He knew that seeing my mom would be one the best gifts ever!

After dinner Bryan and Michelle (Eric's brother and his wife) came over with their 4 kids for brownies and ice cream. Emma and Rachael were so sweet and made the funniest cards.

The first one was from Rachael. She handed me a Ziploc bag with 2 pieces of gum and a crumpled up tissue. When she handed it to me she informed me that she had eaten the M&M that was in there. Then she opened up the bag for me and handed me the tissue. This is what it looked like:

The best part about it was when Michelle I realized that the gum in there was from my kitchen drawer. I guess after she ate the M&M she wanted to replace it with something. Man, I love that little girl!! She is such a nut.

This next one is the one from Emma:

She put little blobs of cookie dough on the top of it and wrote:

Cookies are sweet and so are you to. Have a happy birthday. Love, Emma

Isn't she the sweetest. The cookie dough blobs are a little gross looking, but the rest of it is so cute!! The whole tissue thing cracks me up. Maybe I should buy them some paper when their birthdays come around.

Michelle was nice enough to bring me a plate of cookie dough cookies. I would much rather eat the cookie dough than the cookie!! Yummy!

Kayla was a great friend today! She watched Emily and Emery while I went and had a pedicure! The lady asked if I wanted something on my big toes so I thought I would do it this time since I usually don't. I was thinking it would be a cute little flower or something. I am not so sure I would have gone for it if I knew it would look like this:

The pedicure it self was very enjoyable and the design isn't that bad is it?

I also got this from my friend Jene':

I was so excited! I already have 2 of these that we use fairly often to make little pizzas and of course we love to make brownies and cookies in them. Every time I use mine I wish that I had 4 of them so I could cook one for everyone at the same time. Now I can!!

So over all I can say it has been an awesome birthday. We are doing a girls lunch tomorrow and of course on Thursday my mom will be here!! I guess 30 isn't so bad!!

P.S. I was a busy blogger today so you can scroll down for a few more new posts!

Easter

2009-04-27T15:31:00.003-05:00

I am trying to get all caught up so here is a report on Easter. I wasn't very good at remembering to take pictures this year so I really only have pictures of the kids coloring eggs. I forgot to take pictures of the egg hunt and I also didn't have time to take pictures of everyone all dressed up before church (one of the drawbacks of 9 am church).

Emily showing off her Easter Bunny egg. I was really impressed with her egg drawing skills. I think she did better than I could have done.

Ethan was really concentrating on his drawing.

Emery tried to join in the action.

Everyone hard at work.

I am going to have the kids wear their Easter clothes again next week so that I can get a picture of them all dressed up. They looked so cute!!

This year we had a night time egg hunt with our neighbors. They had these awesome eggs that glow when you shine a flash light on them. The kids thought it was so fun to stay up late and do it in the dark. I think we are going to make it a yearly tradition. The Easter Bunny also visited this year and brought the kids a basket full of stuff. The only problem is that for some reason the Easter Bunny forgot that he was supposed to hide the eggs for them. Hopefully next year he won't be so forgetful ;)!!

Over all we had a great Easter weekend. The egg hunts, baskets and Easter bunny are all fun but I love Easter for it's true meaning. I am so grateful for my Savior and for the sacrifices he made for me and my family. I am so glad that because of Him I have the opportunity to be with my family forever. I hope that I will never take this granted and always work hard to do my best so that His sacrifice for me will not have been in vain.

The New Cast

2009-04-27T15:03:00.006-05:00

So here I am behind once again but I wanted to make sure to get a picture of Emily with her pink cast. A few days after the "big break" we had an appointment to have another x-ray and make sure everything was still in place. Everything still looked good but the Dr. didn't like the amount of padding in the cast from the ER so we got a new one! Emily was so excited to choose the color and had a hard time deciding between pink and camouflage. With a little coaxing from me she luckily chose the pink one.

That same day I took advantage of some one on one time with her and took her out to lunch. The manager at chik fil a loved her and felt sorry for her with her little cast so she spoiled Emily rotten. She gave her a balloon, a cow pez thing, a little stuffed cow and a free ice cream cone. It was so fun to sit and eat and just focus all my attention on her. We had a great time!!

Emily is really excited because the cast should come off in 2 days!! We go in for another x-ray and as long as everything looks good we will leave there cast free. She can't wait to have her arm back and I can't wait until she can take a bath without me worrying that it will get wet. I'll be sure to post what happens when we go in!

Poor Em

2009-04-05T20:46:00.005-05:00

I feel like we have been to the ER way too many times this year. Last week Emery had another cold and another round of breathing treatments and I was thinking how nice it was that we had it under control and hadn't been to the ER lately. Well of course that was the kiss of death...

Last night Eric left for the church at about 6:40 and the kids were super tired so I was going to put them right to bed. They asked to go outside so I reluctantly said okay but for only 15 minutes. After being outside for a few minutes Emily came in crying that she had bumped her arm on the slide. She was pretty upset but I just figured it was because she was so tired. After about 10 minutes she was still crying uncontrollably. I started to worry that her arm was really hurt. After a lot of waffling and Eric coming home from his meeting we decided it was worth taking her in to get it checked out. So Eric, being the awesome dad and husband he is, left at about 8:00 for the ER. This is the picture he took with his cell phone at the hospital:

This is my cute little Emily today:

(This is her pretending to be sad. She was all smiles once the camera came out.)

After about 5 hours in the ER she now has a cast all the way up to her shoulder. She broke it just above her elbow. Luckily it was a clean break so they didn't have to re-set it, they just had to cast it up. She will have the cast for 4 weeks and then probably another 4 weeks just trying to get the mobility back. We're so glad that it will be off before Sea World and swim lessons. She is actually in really good spirits today. I've only heard a few complaints of pain and we've had a few tears over itches under the cast that can't be scratched. She was sad when I told her no more gymnastics for a few months. She was really hopeful when she asked if that meant no school either and then disappointed when I told her she could still go to school. It should be an interesting 4 weeks. I'll keep everyone posted.

Spring Break and Catching Up

2009-04-03T16:47:00.011-05:00

Okay, so my starting again didn't quite work out the way I had planned, but at least this time I have let a little less time pass between posts.

Looking back, I see that I started many posts that I never finished so I am going to start finishing those posts as I get time. They will all post in order of the date I started them, they won't show up as new posts, so as I finish them I will post a link to them for anyone who is interested in checking them out. The first one I have finished is Emily's 4th Birthday. My goal is is to finish a few of those along with new posts about what's happening in our life.

A couple of weeks ago we headed to Grandma and Grandpa's house for spring break. We had a great time! The first day we were there we went to the Museum of Natural Science to check out the butterfly exhibit.

We were lucky enough to have all the cousins on that side of the family together. Here they are (except Brandon) sitting on the caterpillar outside of the exhibit.

Emily and her cousins Rachael and Emma

This is Ethan pretending to be sad because he didn't want his picture taken

This is Emery really sad because he didn't want his picture taken.

This one is a little better

At the end of the exhibit they had a vending machine where Eric purchased some yummy bacon and cheese flavored crickets. Then he tried to convince everyone to try them. Most of the kids pretended to eat one but I think Eric and his brother Jared were the only ones who really tried them. Yuck!!

Ethan pretending to eat it

Jared, just before he chomped one down

Outside of the museum there is a rose garden and a little park that we went to. Only a couple of the kids were interested in smelling the roses, but they all played a fun game of tag and then Eric helped them climb up into the tree.

Everyone was worn out by the end of the day, but we all had a great time. The next day we decided to go check out all the action at the annual livestock show and rodeo. We didn't have tickets to the rodeo, but we let the kids go check out all the animals and ride a few of the carnival rides. Unfortunately we forgot our camera that day so I don't have any pictures. But like the day before the kids had a great time!

The last fun activity for the kids was an Easter egg hunt and BBQ with Grandma and Grandpa's ward. It was at the park so they got to run around and play on the playground and they each came away with a basket full of candy filled eggs. After they got all hyped up on sugar, the adults were lucky enough to turn them all over to babysitters for a night out. One of the main reasons for our trip was Paul's (Eric's dad) retirement party. We are so excited for him and had a great time at his party!

I was also lucky enough to get together with a few of my friends that still live in Houston for dessert! I miss girls night out with them so it was so fun to be able to go out and catch up. Definitely something I wish we could do more often

Lastly I just wanted to add a couple cute pictures of Emery! Grandma gave him is first Twinkie while we were there. Needless to say he loved it!

Starting Anew and The Tooth Fairy!

2009-03-01T15:06:00.005-06:00

I decided this week that I am going to make myself sit down every Sunday and update my blog. I have always loved that my blog is a journal of sorts, but have been sad lately when I think of all that I have missed blogging about in the past 6 months or so. I am going to try and keep updated and also go back and fill in some of the important events that I missed.

This last week Ethan lost his first tooth!!

It had been loose for quite a while but he was afraid that it was going to hurt so he hadn't pulled it out yet. He finally decided that a visit from the Tooth Fairy was worth the little bit of pain there might be in getting the tooth out. So right before bed, with a little help from me out came the tooth! He was so excited to go to sleep so the Tooth Fairy could come that we didn't hear a peep from him after being tucked in, which is huge for Ethan. He is usually up for at least an hour after being tucked in. If only the Tooth Fairy could come every night!

Ethan started baseball a few weeks ago which is fun but a little more that I thought I signed up for. Games don't start for another month or so, but they have practice 3 days a week! This t-ball for 6 year olds, not the majors people!! The good thing about it is that his coach is really good. He actually played pro ball. He is a great teacher and Ethan is learning some awesome skills. It will be a great start for him to keep playing in the future. Eric has been recruited as one the assistant coaches. Ethan loves having Eric there and Eric likes to be able to be involved and have this fun time with Ethan. I will keep you posted once games start. Supposedly some weeks we will have 2 or 3.

Emily is still in gymnastics and loving it. I moved her to a morning class so I am not running around so much in the afternoon. Now she is in a class with only 3 little girls and has a really good coach. I think she will do great and start progressing at a faster rate with more one on one time.

Emery just hit 18 months and is talking up a storm. He in constantly running around saying "ball", and loves to find my cell phone and put it up to his ear and say "hewo". He is also starting to put several words together and saying "dit down" (sit down) and "hi daddy". I took this picture of my cute little kiddos the other day. Aren't they the cutest?

Well, that's the scoop for this week. If I fail to come back next week feel free to give me call, email or leave a comment reminding me that it is time for a new post!!

I Have a Confession to Make...

2009-01-22T13:13:00.003-06:00

Yes folks that is the Christmas tree. And yes, it is still sitting in the same place it has been since December 1. I am thinking I may just leave it up and decorate it for Valentine's day. Maybe I can start a new tradition.

Hopefully soon I will take the time to put it away, as well as update my blog for real.

P.S. Sunnie, tell the Valentine's Day Bear he can just leave our presents under the tree!!

Yes, I Am Still Alive!!

2008-12-06T14:49:00.002-06:00

Shocker, I know. I have really wanted to blog lately but it always seems to fall to the bottom of the list. Things in our neck of the woods has been good lately, just busy. We spent Thanksgiving with Eric's family. All 4 of the brothers were able to be there so it was a big family event. We were able to attempt a big family picture which, considering there were 9 children (ages 6, 6, 5, 4, 4, 2, 1, and 2 under the age of 1) and 9 adults, it turned out pretty good. The girls got up early for a little Black Friday shopping and lunch and then the boys took in dinner and a movie that night. We had a great time! On the way back we detoured to go see Eric's grandma and grandpa which was good. We hadn't seen either of them in a really long time. We realized on the way home that we probably should have taken some pictures.

The real thing that prompted me to blog (besides Melanie wondering where I was) is a really funny story about Ethan. It was one of those things that Eric said I needed to blog about because it was so funny. I am sure it won't be as funny since everyone of you wasn't there but here is the story anyway.
Ethan tends to take after his dad in the fact that he has very vivid dreams. He talks in his sleep and occasionally gets up and does silly things with no recollection of them in the morning. I have to say what happened the other night is the best story of them all. Eric and I were just getting ready to go to bed when we heard a really loud thump followed by crying. I thought for sure that Emily had fallen out of bed. As I got closer I realized it was Ethan crying and it was coming from the bathroom. I stepped into the bathroom to find him standing on the stool at the sink with his pants pulled down. Yes folks, he peed in the sink thinking it was the toilet. He was still pretty asleep but I found out that he was crying because he had fallen asleep standing there and bonked his head on the counter. I felt bad about the bonking, but couldn't stop giggling despite that fact that I was cleaning up pee. When I asked him about it in the morning he had no clue that it had even happened. He just cracks me up!!
Well, this wasn't much of a post but here's to hoping that the next post will be sooner rather than later.

Emily Turned 4!

2008-10-26T15:53:00.004-05:00

The birthday festivities started on her birthday with my mom here (Eric was out of town). We decided to get have my sister in law watch Emery (thanks Michelle!) since Ethan was in school and we went for manicures and pedicures. Emily loved it. She picked purple polish and she was so excited about the little flowers painted on her thumbs and big toes. Unfortunately since Eric was in Argentina he had the camera so I have no pictures. That night Grammy took us all out to a fun pizza place where we got to ride go carts, and bumper cars and play all sorts of games. They gave Emily a fun party bag and made her a cute cookie pizza (once again no camera :( so no pictures). The Saturday after her birthday was her party. We wanted to wait until Eric was here and it also worked out that my brother was coming to visit with his wife and 3 girls that weekend too! Emily loved having all her girl cousins here!! We didn't have all the boys, but they wouldn't have had fun anyways (just ask Ethan, he thought the party was pretty lame). At first she wanted to have a Princess party and then she decided on Barbie so we kind of did a combo of both. All the girls came dressed up and we did nails, hair and make-up. They made cute little wands and picture frames as well. Once everyone was all dressed up we took pictures in front of the castle back drop and printed them out for their picture frames. I got lucky enough that mcdonalds was doing barbie toys in their happy meals so I bought just the toy for each girl and made them each their own mini barbie cake. The girls had so much fun! The slideshow has pictures from the party at the end.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

I still can't believe that she is 4 and getting so big. Here just some of the things that I love about Emily.

She is my girly girl! She loves to put on make-up, have her nails painted and carry around her purse. Her purse usually has her (toy) cell phone, lip gloss, wallet, hand sanitizer and her sunglasses. The sunglasses go on in the car and then are tucked into her purse when we get out. It is hilarious!!

She love love loves her daddy! She has him wrapped around her finger. If I tell her no she just blows it off, but if daddy says no she breaks down into tears like her heart has just been broken.

She loves her brothers. When she went to the Dr. for her 4 year check up she had to have 4 shots. They told her she could have 2 suckers and stickers after. She was so brave and didn't even cry. She just said ouch after each one (I was in total shock). When getting her suckers she decided to get one pink and one blue so she could give the blue one to Ethan. She is always thinking about Ethan and wondering when he will be home to play with. As far as Emery goes she is constantly malling him with hugs and kisses (which he really isn't into these days)

She loves to be my helper. She loves to cook with me, clean with me or do anything I am doing. If I ask her to help me with anything she is usually more than willing to do it.

Of course these are just a few of the millions of things I love about Emily. She is so cute and sweet and I hope she had a great day!!

Testimony

2008-10-20T17:24:00.002-05:00

I worry a lot as parents we are not teaching our kids all the we should be, especially when it comes to the gospel. We try to do FHE regularly, we read scriptures every night and we always help them with personal prayers as well as having family prayer each night. I have to say that in the last few days I have been so excited to see Ethan gaining a true testimony of the power of prayer and it has given me hope that maybe we aren't doing so bad. He lost the hat to his Halloween costume the other day and I was not too happy about it. I had asked him to put it away in my room so it didn't get lost and he chose not to listen. I was not so happily helping him clean up and look for the hat and was getting more and more frustrated when he suddenly jumped up and said "Wait, I know what to do" and he immediately knelt down and said a prayer that we would find his hat. Within one minute we had found it. He was so excited that his prayer worked. The next day he was building a ship with his legos but couldn't find one of the pieces he needed. I was helping him dig through the pile legos for about 5 minutes with no luck. I was convinced it had been lost somewhere along the way. He then suggested we say a prayer. I, of course, was thinking that I was going to have to explain that Heavenly Father hears all of our prayers but he doesn't always answer them right away. After all I had looked for 5 minutes so I KNEW it wasn't there. I'm sure you already guessed that within 30 seconds of finishing the prayer he found the piece. He sure taught me a good lesson. The best part of the story happened last night and today. Unfortunately when Ethan went in for his 6 month dental check-up we found out that he had 4 cavities. They tried to fill a few of them that day but he wasn't very cooperative so they sent us home with a prescription and an appointment scheduled for today. Last night Ethan started crying and said that he was really scared, I did my best to comfort him throughout the whole bed time process. When it came time for him to say his personal prayers he asked for help to not be scared tomorrow. This morning after giving him his medicine to make him tired, we said another prayer asking for him to be comforted and not scared. He did great! He didn't fight them and they were able to get the work done without any issues. As we were driving home I told him I was proud of how brave he was and he said that he was able to be so brave because he had prayed and asked Heavenly Father to help him to not be scared. I love that he is learning to go to his Heavenly Father when he has a problem and especially when he is feeling scared or uneasy. He has reminded me of the power of prayer. Heavenly Father hears every prayer and no matter if we are asking for comfort or to find a lego, He is listening and will answer. So I am glad that Ethan is gaining his own testimony and helping build mine in the process. Man, I love that kid!

Emery's First Haircut and the Big Race

2008-09-21T20:30:00.006-05:00

We finally decided it was time for Emery to have little trim. He was looking really scruffy around the ears. I thought for sure it would be a nightmare to do and that he would cry. But I was completely wrong. I think he liked the vibration of the clippers on his head because he was just full of giggles and smiles. I dropped the ball and didn't get a good before or after picture but here are a few that I got during.

Any body that has known me for a while has probably heard me say before that I hate to run. It is something that I thought I could never ever do. Not too long ago with some prodding from neighbor and encouragement from my sister in law, I decided to give it a try. I was pleasantly surprised that the first time out I ran 2 miles without having to walk at all. After that my neighbor convinced me that we needed to sign up for an organized run and somehow we ended up signing up for a 10k! 6.2 miles! I really didn't think I would ever be able to do it, but thought worse case scenario I could walk part of it if I had to. The big race was on Saturday and, yes folks, I am still alive! We trained for the last few months and I was even able to run the whole thing. My time wasn't the best, but I reached my one and only goal of finishing without having to walk at all. My official time (including a short potty break about 2 miles in) was 1 hour 18 minutes and 23 seconds. I finished 1344 out of 1733 runners and was 193 in my age group. So when Ethan and Emily asked if I won, the answer is not even close, but I actually finished and that is all that matters. It was so fun to see Eric and the kids at the finish line. They were right there cheering me on! I also have to say that I have the greatest friends. Eric had been out of town and got home pretty late the night before my race. When he came inside he asked if I saw all the writing on the driveway. I was completely confused and wondering what the kids had done until I went out and saw this....

It's hard to see in the picture, but it says "Good luck Tori", "You can do it" and "Run, girl,run!" It was so cute and so nice of her!!

Here I am just a few feet from the finish line!

I am trying to decide what my next goal will be. I know there are a few 5k races coming up so I will probably do a few of those. So that's the scoop on my big race. Who'd have ever thought I could actually do it?

2008-09-19T07:10:00.004-05:00

So my big boy turned 6 a couple days ago. I can't believe that I have a 6 year old (am I really that old?). Since I wasn't a blogger when he was born, I thought it might be fun to share a little bit about when he was born. Ethan didn't really want to come join us. He was 2 weeks late and even then they had to induce me because he wasn't going any where. My mom had shown up on my due date so we all sat around just waiting. We showed up really early the day of my induction. I remember being really nervous but also so excited to see my little boy. It was a pretty uneventful day, we sat around and watched movies, read books and just chatted. In the early afternoon they decided to break my water and that is when I started to feel real pain. I really am a wimp so I immediately asked for the epidural and was glad to be able to rest and sleep after it kicked in. Around 7:30 that night they told me I was about ready to push. That is when the fun began. I started pushing around 8:00 and he was finally born at 9:30. When he finally came out all the Dr. and nurses could keep saying was that he was huge and boy they were right! He was 8 lbs 10 oz! When we would go look at him in the nursery he was huge compared to all the other babies. Every nurse that would bring him into me couldn't believe that I had such a big baby and that I didn't have a c-section. I am glad that my biggest baby was my first because I thought all the pain I had sitting and walking afterwards was just normal. After I had Emily (she was 6lbs 10 oz) I realized that all that pain was just because he was so much bigger. Ethan is my sweet little boy. He was an easy baby, and a fairly mellow toddler. I decided to do a fun little slide show of him with pictures from his birthday party at the end. Here is also a list of some of the things I love about my little E-boy!

He is a smarty pants. He picks things up so quickly and is always keeping me on my toes.
He loves his brother and sister. He will always take care of them and he loves to play with Emily. They will go upstairs and just play together for hours.
He doesn't like to go to sleep. He quit napping really early and has never needed as much sleep as my other 2. We do bedtime at 7:30 every night. Emily is out quick but Ethan is always up just singing, talking and sneaking in toys until 8:30 or 9:00. He also is always falling asleep in strange places. I included a few pictures in the slide show, but those pictures just represent a few of the funny places I have found him.
He takes after his dad and is always wanting to know how things work. Needless to say I have to tell him often to ask dad when he gets home.
He is always thinking of others. For his birthday he wanted to do a cake that was half hot wheels and half Barbie so that the girls didn't feel left out. He also wanted everyone at his party to be able to open a present. If he gets a treat at church he always asks for one for his little sister (and he really does give it to her too).

Of course there are many more things about him that I love but these are just a few. Enjoy the slide show and Happy Birthday Ethan!

slideshow - Powered by Smilebox" src="http://www.smilebox.com/globalImages/blogInstructions/blogLogoSmileboxSmall.gif" width=386>

Make a Smilebox slideshow

My Baby is One!

2008-08-28T17:17:00.012-05:00

One year ago today little Emery made his grand appearance into the world. For his birth story you can click here. He is growing so fast and taking more and more steps every day. Watch out, he's going to be running soon! In honor of my cute little guy here are just a few of the many things about him that I love along with some fun pictures through out the year and of course some from the big b-day party!

I love his smile. If anyone looks at him or talks to him he gives the biggest grin. No one can resist Emery's smile
He has the prettiest (hopefully that is a legal word when talking about a boy) blue eyes!
I love that he loves his daddy so much. I know he loves me too, but if daddy is any where near he would take him over me any day.
He loves his brother and sister. He gets so excited when he see them coming down the stairs.
I love his laugh and even more I love to make him laugh.
I love how his face lights up when I walk into his room in the morning or after nap time. He gets so excited to see his mommy!
I love that he has such a silly personality. He has already figured out things that make us laugh and he loves to do them to get a reaction out of us.

My list could go on and on, but I guess I will stop there. The bottom line is that I love him so much and I can't imagine our family without him. Sorry about so many pictures. It was so hard to even narrow it down to this many.

The night before his arrival

Just a few minutes old

My cute little family

A few days old

On his blessing day

Christmas time. 4 months old

Cute smiles

My kiddos

Our little frog on Halloween

Trying baby food. Looks yummy right?

Who is that silly baby?

His favorite time of the day, bath time!

Riding in the wagon

Getting bigger and starting to take steps

He got really shy when everyone was singing Happy Birthday to him. It was so cute.

Blowing out the candles

Trying to figure out what this big brown thing is

Taking a little taste and not liking it at all

Even though he wouldn't eat it, he still had fun and made a pretty big mess

Opening presents

The new shopping cart from Grandma

Opening the package from Grammy

Riding the new zebra toy from Grammy!

Happy Birthday little Mr. E. We love you so much!

Bittersweet

2008-08-25T21:27:00.003-05:00

I tried to think of a really great title for today, but after a lot of thinking the only word that really summed up today was bittersweet. Today was Ethan's first day of kindergarten. He turns 6 in a couple weeks, so he has been more than ready for a while. I am surprised he even went to sleep last night because he was so excited. He picked out all his clothes, decided on what he was going to take for lunch and got his backpack all packed up. He was ready. We got to the school a little early for the typical first day photos. I am sure we were quite the crew since we met up outside with Grandpa and Grandma and 2 cousins that were starting today too. Our whole crew of 12 started by dropping Ethan off at his class. I had been holding in the emotions since meet the teacher night and had continually told myself "no crying while in the school". Too bad I failed!! I just couldn't (and still can't) believe that my little boy is growing up. I am no longer the one he spends the most time with during the day. The only consolation I had was that I was not the only mom walking down the hall crying. After dropping Ethan off, it was so fun to go with my nieces. Rachael was a little sad to have mom and dad leave, but for Emma it was all old hat since she is a first grader this year. She was so excited and probably could have been dropped off at the door and been fine. I was not surprised to pick Ethan up and hear that he had a great day and can't wait to go back tomorrow! Tomorrow he wants to try hot lunch and can't wait to ride the bus.

THE BIG KINDERGARTNER

OUTSIDE THE SCHOOL

ETHAN AND HIS CUTE COUSINS ALL READY FOR THE FIRST DAY!

ETHAN AT HIS LOCKER. HE WAS SO EXCITED WHEN HE SAW HE HAD A LOCKER WITH HIS NAME ON IT!!

SITTING AT HIS TABLE ALL READY TO GO!

Just a side note for anyone who would like to know, our lives (Eric's especially) have just go busier as Eric was just sustained as the Elders Quorum president. It will be hard to have him gone more, but I know he will do a wonderful job and our family will be truly blessed.

Our Big Vacation!

2008-08-22T09:07:00.018-05:00

I am sort of starting to feel caught up from our vacation last week so I decided it was time to post all about it. The main reason for our trip was my Grandma's 9oth birthday party and family reunion. We were able to get some other fun things in and spend lots of time with family. So sit back and enjoy the slew of pictures.

We started out at my parents cabin. It is always so nice to relax and just enjoy the mountains and the quiet. The kids love it because they get to go boating and fishing.

Here is Ethan in his camo hat and sunglasses. It's too bad he lost the cute sunglasses in the lake.

Ethan and Emily riding in the truck to the lake. They really wanted to be like Papa with their sunglasses on the brims of their hats. Too cute!
Cute Emily ready to go on the boat.
Unfortunately the fishing wasn't that great. Ethan was the only one to catch a fish. He wasn't too into touching it so he posed with it in a plastic bag.
Emery loved the boat. Papa showed him how to honk the horn. He was so proud of himself.

He loved the wind in his face and the water splashing in his face. He would throw the biggest fit if I moved him from the edge.

What else would the girls do on the boat, but catch up on their reading? Emily thought she was so cool sitting by mom reading magazines.

After a few days at the cabin we decided to take a little trip to Durango, CO. We hit the train museum, the fish hatchery, the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory store, and walked up and down main street of the cute little town.

Here are a couple pictures at the train museum.

After visiting the Rocky Mt. Choc. Factory store we were wiped out and decided to take a break with the big bear on the bench.

The place we stayed was just outside Durango at a ski resort. To drum up some business in the summer they rent their condos fairly cheap and have a lot of fun outdoor activities.

Here is Emily on the bungee tramp. I was surprised at how high she went without being scared. She just giggled the whole time.

I wasn't surprised that Ethan loved it. I think he wished he could go higher.

I had mentioned that I thought it would be fun and the next thing I knew Eric had bought me a ticket to do it. It was so fun! I even did a few flips. I was lucky enough to have Eric get it on video! Too bad for you guys that I still can't figure out how to get it on here. I am still not sure why I didn't push Eric a little harder to do it?

The other thing that shocked me was how well the kids did on the climbing wall. The were on the easy line so it did pull them up a little, but they still went much higher than I ever thought they would.

I think the thing we enjoyed the most though was the alpine slide. You ride the ski lift up to the top and ride a little sled down a track. The ride up was so fun and the ride down was even more fun. The next few pictures are all from the slide.

Ethan and Eric at the bottom.

Eric and Emily at the bottom. I love this picture because it looks like they are about to hit the cone.

Ethan and I riding up the lift. The building behind us is the condo where we stayed. It was a great place to stay!

These are the kids at the top of the slide in the sleds. You can see the track going down the mountain and the buildings at the bottom of the slide in the very back of the picture. It was a pretty long ride. Emily makes it look like she is freezing, but it was actually a perfect day to be outside.

On our way back to my parents house we stopped at place called Box Canyon Falls in Ouray, CO. You can hike about 1/4 mile up to the top a this water fall. There is a bridge that crosses over the canyon. It is just gorgeous. There is a second trail that takes you right down into the canyon to the base of the waterfall. It is super loud, but really awesome.

Here we are at the top of the falls. It's not the best family picture, but at least it has all of us in it.

The last day of our vacation was the birthday party/family reunion. Overall the reunion was great. I was able to see a lot of my cousins that I hadn't seen in ages.

Here is my cute little Grandma with her cake. She hates being the center of attention, so she wasn't too happy about the 20 or so cameras all snapping photos at the same time.

Some how our family was put in charge of all the games for the family reunion. Some of the games we did were dizzy bat races, pie eating contest, and a watermelon eating contest. The pie eating contest was by far the most challenging to prepare for. We just did pudding with whip cream on top. As we were trying to decide the easiest way to make the pudding, the guys came up with an idea. I am not sure if it was just my dad's excuse to buy a new tool or what, but it actually worked! We put all the mixes and the milk into a clean bucket and then used a paint mixer attachment on my dad's drill to mix it up. Eric thought we looked pretty silly using power tools to make pudding so he had to bring out the camera. It really was silly but it worked like a charm!

Mixing up the pudding! Yummy right?

I couldn't convince my little princess to do the pie eating contest, but Ethan was really excited about it. He is in the bottom left corner. He didn't win, but he sure made a mess. You can see from the picture that not all the kids were into getting all dirty.

The best part of the contest was the adult round. Eric was such a good sport and got right in there!

Ethan and Emily loved the dizzy bat race. Once again I have video that is hilarious. Ethan fell down and Emily ran in the complete wrong direction.

The morning we left my mom's neighbor took some family pictures for us. Eric tried to capture a few random shots as she was getting them set up. They aren't great but they are still cute. I can't wait to get the real ones back. Here are all the cousins.

I absolutely love this picture of Emily. I am hoping it is even cuter from the photographers angle.

I am a little disappointed because Emery's face was really dry chapped. I tried really hard to keep it from doing that but by the end of the week it was looking pretty bad. He's super cute anyways, though.

Lastly, here are Grammy and Papa with all their kiddos. This was at the very end of the shoot so the kids, especially Emery and Brittney, were not at all in the mood for any more pictures.

If you made it all the way through this you deserve a hug pat on the back. I know it was extremely long and probably boring for most of you, but at least it is a new post right? There a lot of big events coming up so be looking for posts about the first day of kindergarten, and my baby's first birthday!

Just as a side note: sorry about the spacing, I kept trying to fix it and make it more even but blogger was being dumb and I just kept erasing pictures. Sometimes I just really hate blogger.

Happy Birthday Eric!

2008-07-26T09:09:00.006-05:00

Okay, so I know that like usual I am a little behind. But I wanted to make sure I didn't miss wishing Eric a Happy big 3-0!! I started by taking him out the Friday before. He loves Indian food (which I am really not a fan of) so we went to a cute little place for dinner and then saw Batman. It was fun, as usual, to get out of the house without the kiddos. And kind of fun to see a movie opening weekend. We usually wait until it has been out for weeks so there isn't as much of a crowd. His actual b-day was on a Sunday so we were lucky to have him home all day with us (except during church of course). We bought a bunch of Happy 3oth Birthday decorations and had the house all decked out. We started with breakfast in bed and then in an attempt to keep in the spirit of 30 he got to open a present every 30 minutes. It was so much fun for the kids and maybe only slightly annoying for Eric as he tried to prepare his Sunday school lesson. By the time he actually opened the present and we left him alone we were back in 20 minutes later. Because he is so practical, we showered him with fun gifts like socks, work shirts, ties etc. I did throw in a bag of candy and a container of his favorite nuts. The kids also made fun coupons for date nights with them. That night after dinner we had some people over for cake and ice cream. He made me promise I wouldn't make everyone sing, but thank goodness the 8 or so kids there wouldn't let him get away with that! All in all I think he had a great day. I, of course, forgot to take pictures of any of the festivities, but following are a few of my favorite pictures from the last couple years.

This WAS (notice the emphasis on was) Eric's motorcycle. He only had it for about a year and then he sold it. I know he was so sad to sell it and some days I feel bad that I was so glad. Maybe someday when we don't have kids at home he can get a bigger, badder, better one (maybe I shouldn't sayt that because now he will have that in writing).
He loves to cycle. This year was the 4th or 5th year (I can't remember) that he has ridden in the MS150 (180 mile bicycle ride from Houston to Austin). You can usually find him and his brother out riding somewhere on Saturday mornings. I love that he has something that he enjoys doing so much.
He is the best dad ever!! Most nights after dinner he is found upstairs either playing games, reading stories or wrestling around with the kids. He loves to play with them and make them giggle. They are so glad when daddy comes home!!

Another cute thing is how much his little princess loves him. She always saves him a place right next to her! If she has to choose between mom and dad she chooses dad 99% of the time. She has him wrapped around her little finger for sure!

He's also my handy man. He loves building things and working outside. His latest project was this little playhouse for the kids. His next is a play gym for them in the back yard. If he had more time I know he would love to build all kinds of furniture and fun things for the house. I already have a headboard and a shelf that he made for me. I look forward to the day when more handmade things will come!

These last two pictures are two of my favorite. He is so much fun, and couldn't ask for a better husband or father for my kiddos!

I hope you had a great day honey. I love you more and more everyday! You will always be my superhero!

Happy Independence Day!

2008-07-14T21:34:00.008-05:00

I know, I know once again I am little behind the times. But I guess better late than never right? We had a great 4th weekend. It all started out with our little towns 4th of July festival. They had all kinds of fun stuff for the kids, lots of food and treats and then of course a firework show! We didn't get a ton of pictures but I thought I would share some of the ones we have.

This first bunch are of the little bungee jump thing they had. They had so much fun. You can see from the pictures that Emily was a lot more timid than Ethan.

Eric's parents and brothers were in town. Here is everyone taking a ride on the train.

This is Emily with 2 of her cousins waiting for the fireworks.

I added this last one because it is about the only picture of Emery and of course he had his eyes closed. But you can see my boys in there cute little matching outfits!

The Happenings Around Here

2008-07-02T22:05:00.007-05:00

It seems like we have been fairly busy lately. Although as I look back I can't really say with what. The first 2 weeks of June Ethan an Emily were in swim lessons, which was great! If you know how afraid of the water my kids were you would be amazed to see them now. They are both loving the water! Ethan is getting so good at swimming under the water and is started to dive down for things. He is even jumping off the side doing cannon balls these days. All this from the kids who the Saturday before swim lessons cried like the world was going to end because his face accidentally went under the water. Emily is doing really well too. She is still a little more timid than Ethan, but will swim under the water and jump in from the side as long as I am there to catch her. If I am not there she is still not (or maybe more that I am not) confident enough with out her water wings. We are leaps and bounds from where we were before Miss Carol (the swim teacher) got a hold of them. We have a great neighborhood pool and lots of fun neighbors to swim with so the lessons have made the pool much more enjoyable these days. I actually remembered to take my camera and get some pictures yesterday.

Ethan has discovered that he can sit under the fountain. It is his favorite "hiding" spot

As hard as we try we can't get Emily to go under. So she posed in front of it
Here they are with 2 of their cousins and another neighbor. There are several other kids we swim with regularly but they were being shy

Ethan swimming to the steps (and losing his shorts!)

I didn't get any pictures of Emery. Unfortunately he is not always the biggest fan of the pool. He would usually rather sit in his stroller and eat crackers or cheerios. He is crawling like crazy now and just discovered that he can climb the stairs. If you set him down he heads straight for the stairs. He is in the process of getting his top two front teeth so he is not real happy these days, but other than that he is happy as can be. I still can't believe that will be celebrating his 1st birthday in a few months. Just for fun I will add a picture of him. He loves his Cheerios and shoves as many as he can in one handful. Yesterday he ended up with one stuck above his lip. Ethan and Emily thought it was so funny and wanted a picture of it, so here it is.

This weekend we have a lot of fun plans. Eric's parents, his brother Jared and his brother Tyler with his wife and 2 kids are coming to town. It is always so fun to get everyone together. We will be going to watch fireworks, swim, BBQ and Saturday is a baby shower for my sister in law who is having a baby in a few weeks!! I will hopefully have lots of pictures and report early next week. Have a great 4th!!!

It's About Time Right?

2008-06-20T15:35:00.003-05:00

Once again I am a blog slacker. I really need to get in gear. I have tried to do several posts with video but I can never get it to load so I just give up and say forget it. So lately I think several people have tagged me and I have never done anything about it. Sorry. It wasn't intentional, I just kept telling myself I would do and just never did. Anyways, I got tagged again by my sister in law, so I thought I would actually do it this time so I could get rid of the preschool graduation post. So here ya go Julie!

1. 5 places I go to over and over - Wal-mart, the swimming pool, Target, Michelle's house,
2. 5 people who email me regularly - Eric, Gymboree, my church, Disney, my grandma
3. 5 favorite places to eat - BJ's, Chipotle, La Madeline's, Pei Wei, any Mexican restaurant
4. 5 places I would rather be -Disney Land, Disney World, Hawaii, Colorado, the pool
5. 5 TV shows I watch all the time- American Idol, So You Think You Can Dance, Survivor, Ace of Cakes, The Amazing Race. I used to watch Grey's Anatomy but after this year's season finale I won't be watching anymore. I was seriously disappointed.

So there you go! I am going to make Eric help me figure out how to post a video so I can put some new things up. The kids finished swim lessons this week. I promise that if I can't get video to post I will at least post a summary of how they did.

Our Little Politician!

2008-06-04T12:08:00.004-05:00

Yesterday was Ethan's preschool graduation. I can't believe he is going to be in kindergarten already. I felt sort of silly because of how emotional I have been about this. The program was really cute. They sang several songs, including the ABC Macarena, which was hilarious. If I could ever figure out how to download a video I would so sorry. As part of the program the teachers gave them diplomas and, based on their personalities, chose what career they think they would have if they tried to get a job today. I'm sure from the title you could guess they picked Ethan to be a politician. I wasn't sure how I felt about that so after I asked why they chose that. They said because he is always so proper when standing in front of the class and he has an answer for every question. So I guess I'm okay with that.

After we moved Ethan started preschool with his cousin. They loved being in the same class and are both looking forward to starting kindergarten next year!

Here is Emily with her teacher. I can't believe how quite and shy Emily is at school. Her teacher said that she barely says 2 words all day. Home sure is a different story. She is our little chatterbox!! She also said that in the 25 years she has done preschool she has never had a child be so obedient all the time. I guess Emily has been the line leader more than everyone else because she is such a good little girl!

On a totally different note- My sister in law came over and helped me can some peaches yesterday. I had never done it before. So here is the finished product. Hopefully they will taste as good as they look!! Thanks Michelle!!

Family Vacation!!!

2008-05-04T20:35:00.009-05:00

This year we couldn't really decide what to do for a vacation, so we decided that we would just schedule a few weekend trips. We asked the kids where they wanted to go and Ethan was quick to answer "Sea World". In April of last year when Eric switched jobs and had a month off work, we took the kids to Sea World. It was a perfect time to go because spring break was past and school wasn't out for the summer yet. We went on a Thursday and Friday and missed all the crowds and the heat. So we decided to go at the same time this year. It was a little hot, but still not too bad and there were absolutely no lines! We had so much fun and even ran into our friends The Kirkham's from our old stompin' grounds!! So hold on tight and once again, grab some snacks and enjoy the million pictures to follow.

The first day we dined with Shamu for lunch. It was really neat. The food was great and the kids loved being able to see Shamu so close.

This was the view of Shamu from our table. At one point he swam up to the side and was spitting water right at our table. Luckily we were far enough away that it didn't get us.

After the meal they did a little show for us. Here is Shamu posing for us.

Emily was still too short to ride a lot of the rides, but luckily she was able to go on the Texas Splash Down with mom or dad. She rode it 3 times and was scared every time, but still wanted to do it again! This next picture us hilarious! I love that Emily has her eyes covered and Ethan looks so freaked out!
The second day the kids wore swim suits and spent quite a bit of time on the little spray ground. Emily didn't want to get real wet, but she still had fun getting her feet wet. Ethan wouldn't get his head wet, but he still had fun!

I love this next picture of Emily! She was so excited to pose in front of the horse. Ethan didn't want his picture taken but I thought Emily looked so cute!!

In the afternoon they somehow convinced us to buy cotton candy. They made such a mess, but loved every minute of it!

Emery was such a trooper. He spent so much time in the stroller and missed lots of naps over the two days, but he was so happy most the time. Here he is just chillin' in the stroller with Ethan's sun glasses on.

We also got to feed the dolphins on Friday. The kids didn't really like touching the fish, but they loved that the dolphins swam right up to them. Ethan was so excited that he got to touch one of them and see what they felt like.

This was the last show we went to and the one Eric and I liked the best. They had lots of acrobats and divers and this was the show with all the dolphins. It was a really cool show. Here is one of the dolphins posing for us.

So as you can see from our pictures, we had a great time! The kids are already asking when we get to go back. The one thing I didn't get pictures of was them being splashed by Shamu. They decided they wanted to be really close so they moved a few rows in front of us. All it took was one splash by Shamu and they were running to us crying! It was pretty funny. Needless to say, they wanted to stay clear of any major splashing at the other shows.

Sorry for such a long post again. Next time I will try and keep it a little bit shorter.

The Novel

2008-04-22T14:25:00.014-05:00

So here it is! The update of all updates. This is a recap of some of the fun things that have happened in the last few months. You may want to go grab a snack and drink, because this may take a while.

I will start with the Trike-a-thon. I was going to skip this, but several people have asked about it so here you go. Ethan and Emily's preschool sponsored a trike-a-thon for St. Judes Children's Hospital. Ethan was so excited about it. He came home telling us that he need to get money so he could ride his trike and help sick kids. It was actually taking place on a day that they usually don't go, but after hearing that how could I say no? Now Emily really could have cared less, but I thought she might have fun anyways so she did it too. Their Grandma's each sponsored them. For Emily is was just a set amount of money and for Ethan they said they would do a dollar per lap. The day of went just like I thought. Emily struggled to pedal so she only made it around 2 or 3 times. Ethan on the other hand was speedy!! He did 25 laps!! He was so cute. After about 10 laps he would ride by me with very exaggerated panting and say he was getting tired. After about 15 laps, he was wiping the sweat (which wasn't really there) from his brow. It was the cutest thing. They did it in the gym so the lighting was horrible. I tried adjusting my camera but could never get any real good pictures unless they were close up.

The next event I wanted to recap was our trip to Grandma and Grandpa's house. Emily ended up being really sick the whole time so unfortunately she missed out on most of the fun. The first night we got there she was fine and we all had dinner with friends. I am sure most of you have seen these pictures on Sunnie and Nicole's blog, but I had to post one here too because I think it is hilarious to see how many kids there are in the picture. It was so fun and the kids loved getting together and playing again!

The next morning Grandma and Grandpa took all the kids (and some of the parents too) to see Horton! They loved it. It was after the movie that Emily got sick. She has never been that sick before. Because she was so sick someone had to stay home with her during church. She was so sad to be left behind when all the cousins and Grandma and Grandpa left for church. The next day she was even more sad that her and daddy had to miss the trip to the space center. Ethan had a great time! I think he loved that he had mommy all to himself (Emery stayed home with Eric and Emily).

Here are all the older cousins standing in front of the big rocket.

This isn't the greatest picture but Ethan was pretending to hold up the moon!

If you have made it this far I give you a great big round of applause. I am almost done for now, and will possibly do part 2 in a couple of days.

The next big thing was Eric and his brother riding in the MS150. Can you imagine 180 miles on your bicycle. Eric figured that his rear end was sitting on the seat for a total of 13 hours in two days. Needless to say he was a little sore. My sister-in-law and I decided it would be fun to take the kids to see the dads cross the finish line. We left here on Saturday morning and got a hotel for that night. The hotel had an indoor pool so we took the kids swimming, ordered pizza and just had a great time. The next day we met Eric and his brother at the end! The kids had made fun signs that said "#1 Dad"! They were so excited to hold them up and see dad cross the line. The whole trip there they were saying how they hoped dad would win the race. I tried to explain to them that it wasn't a race like that and he would cross the finish line with lots of other people. I didn't want them to be disappointed when they saw a bunch of people cross before him. After they crossed the line we were walking to our meeting spot and Emily turned to me with the biggest grin and said "I am so glad that my daddy won!" She was so proud. The only picture I have right now is one that Eric took, he had the camera so I don't have any of the cute signs. I will try and get a copy from my sister-in-law.

Anyone who read my blog last year might remember that last years picture of the MS150 was a little more exciting than this years. I am a huge fan of the Amazing Race and last year Eric came home with a picture of him with Joyce and Uchenna from that show. It was pretty funny. So although he didn't meet anyone famous (or semi-famous) this year, he had a great time and is ready to go again next year!!

The last is just an update on cute little Emery. He is growing so fast. I can't believe that he is already 8 months old. He is trying really hard to crawl. I want to try and get a video of it to show off, but we will see. Here are some cute pictures taken recently.

In the last few months he has started eating baby food. At least I think he might eat some of it. In the beginning most of it ended up on his face, as you can see from the picture above. A couple weeks ago he got his first teeth. The two bottom ones came in right about the same time. One day he will cooperate and I will get a good picture of the two cute little teeth. It seems lately he has had lots of trips to the Dr. I took him in for an ear infection and they gave us a prescription for amoxicillin. This was the second time he has had it, but after about 4 days we woke up to this:

I was pretty sure right away that it was an allergic reaction to the amoxicillin. Some of you may remember that we had a similar thing with Emily. Her reaction was way worse than Emery's. You can check it out here. So I took him in and found out that he is allergic just like his big sis.

Well if you are still here, you made through my novel!! Thanks for reading and I will try really hard to keep up with things so I don't have to do a monster post like this again and so that you all don't have to spend half your day reading it!!

Changing My Look Again.

2008-04-17T09:57:00.002-05:00

So I decided to spice things up a little in hopes that it would help me get more motivated about blogging again. There are so many fun things that have happened lately that I have failed to even mention. Things like the trike-a-thon, our trip to Grandma and Grandpas, and Eric riding his bicycle in the MS 150 to name a few. I haven't posted any pictures of Emery and how big he is getting. I feel like I am just missing so many things. Rather than feeling overwhelmed and going back I am just going to start fresh from today and try and do a better job of keeping up with out crazy life. So stay tuned. Hopefully there will be a lot more to come!

Excuse the Mess!!

2008-04-16T19:01:00.002-05:00

Don't pay attention to all my mis-matched colors. My blog is currently under construction and since I really don't know what I am doing, it may take a while to get it just right!! Thanks for your cooperation!

Daddy's Home!!!

2008-04-06T20:16:00.002-05:00

So once again it has been way too long since my last post. We have been busy having fun with Grammy! Eric was gone for about a week and a half for work so I called and recruited Grammy to help me out. It was so nice to have her here to help out. We were glad to have daddy back home, but sad to see Grammy leave. We spent this weekend being pretty lazy. Eric is still trying to get over the time difference from Thailand so he has been sleeping a lot! We will all be glad to get back to a normal schedule this week.
On a not so good note, Emily threw up twice tonight. She ate dinner and went to sleep without throwing up so we are hoping it was just a quick thing. The last thing we need is for her to be sick again. She just got over this 2 weeks ago. Hopefully this time it will pass quicker and we won't end up in the hospital like last time. I will try to keep everyone posted as to how she is doing.

Happy Easter!

2008-03-24T08:08:00.007-05:00

We had a great Easter this year (except the speaking in church part). Saturday afternoon Ethan and Emily had an egg hunt with their cousins and the neighbors across the street. After hiding 130 candy filled eggs we let the kids go and they had a great time! Here are some picture of all the fun.

Here are the kids all dressed up in their Easter clothes before church! They looked so cute!

I hope that everyone was able to take a few moments and ponder the reason for this holiday. Although I hate speaking in church, I must admit that it was nice to spend the week reading and studying about Jesus Christ and the atonement and ressurection. It made me really remember and focus on what Easter is really all about. I hope your Easter was as great as ours!

Snow!!

2008-03-07T08:28:00.004-06:00

Okay, so there really isn't that much snow, but any time you see snow in Texas it seems like a miracle. The kids couldn't wait to go play in it, so I bundled them up the best I could and out they went to play. Like I suspected, it didn't last long. I think they thought there would be more and it didn't take them long to figure out that it was really cold.

Guess Who Came to My House Today?

2008-02-25T11:57:00.002-06:00

That's right Kristin!! It was so fun to see her and sit and chat for a couple hours. The kids were sad that Aubrey wasn't with her, but they still had fun with Andrew. Ethan especially had fun wrestling with him. Thanks for coming to see me Kristin. I can't wait to have more visitors!

Stevens Look-alike Meter

2008-02-22T21:59:00.002-06:00

So I saw this on happymom's blog and thought it looked like lots of fun. I never would have thought all the kids would favor me. I think everyone should try it out!

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celebrity - Collage - Morph

Stevens Look-alike Meter

2008-02-22T21:57:00.001-06:00

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebs - Collage - Morph

Stevens Look-alike Meter

2008-02-22T21:53:00.001-06:00

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celebrity - Collage - Morph

Blog Fog

2008-02-22T13:46:00.002-06:00

I think I have had a post in the past with the same title, but I have been in a blog fog again lately. I don't feel like I have anything interesting to blog about and I haven't had the motivation to sit and think about it. As I was blog jumping I found this and thought it would be fun to get me going again. So join in and do it yourself if you would like.

A: Attached or single: Happily attached for the last 7 1/2 years!!

B: Best Friend: Eric of course, also my mom!
C: Cake or Pie: Cake I guess, I am a junk food junky, but pie and cake don't even come close to the top of the list

D: Day of Choice: Saturday, because Eric is home all day

E: Essential Item: Dr. Pepper, sad I know

F: Favorite Color: Purple

G: Gummi Bears or Worms: Bears, especially cinnamon and chocolate covered ones

H: Hometown: Montrose, CO

I: Indulgence(s): Chocolate, ice cream, Dr. Pepper, alone time

J: January or July: July I guess. It is a toss up though because July is so stinking hot here

K: Kids: Ethan, Emily, Emery

L: Life is incomplete without: Family

M: Marriage Date: August 5

N: Number of Siblings: 1 brother.

O: Oranges or Apples: Apples, I really don't like the texture of oranges, they are too stringy

P: Phobias or Fears: I was never afraid of hurricanes until I lived in Houston, I also hate when Eric is out of town.

Q: Quote(s): "People are just as happy as they make up their minds to be." Abraham Lincoln

R: Reason To Smile: Baby giggles

S: Season: Spring. I love the flowers and it is the perfect temp. Not too hot, not too cold

T: Tag Six: I won't tag anyone, but I think you should all do it for the fun of it!

U: Unknown Fact About Me: I am very shy. I have a really hard time when it comes to meeting new people. I feel like I never know what to say or how to act. It is hard for my to just relax and be myself.

V: Vegetarian or Oppressor of Animal: I couldn't live on veggies alone. Let's just say they are not my favorite thing in the world

W: Worst Habit: Dr. Pepper!

X: X-Rays or Ultrasounds: Ultrasound because they are usually done when I am pregnant. The only times I have had x-rays is usually when something is wrong.

Y: Your Favorite Food: I love, love, love Mexican food!

Z: Zodiac: Taurus

Just a Few Things...

2008-02-07T13:09:00.000-06:00

First of all, we made it into the new house! Like usual we had a few gliches with the phone and sattelite. I went about a week without a phone, and we still don't have tv. I haven't missed tv during the day, it is a night that I just want to scream! I like to veg and watch all my reality tv! I finally went out and bought rabbit ears so we can get the local channels. Survior starts again tonight and I must say that I am so excited to see all the old favs!!

Here is a picture of the house all finished! I don't have too many pictures of the inside that I haven't already posted, so I am only posting the outside shot. Maybe I will post some new pictures once all the boxes are unpacked!

The next exciting thing this week was Emily's first day of preschool! She was so excited. I was really sad that I didn't get to take her because Ethan was throwing up that morning, but her Aunt took her and said she just walked right in without even looking back. Here are some cute pictures of her all ready to go! Because she is in the younger class, they have quiet time right after lunch so she has to take a blanket and her stuffed animal, that is why her backpack looks so packed! Even though it is bigger than her, she still insists on wearing it! So enjoy!

Ethan was really sad to miss the first day in his new school. He woke up Tuesday and threw up. When I told him he couldn't go to school he just cried and cried. It was so pitiful. He kep saying, "but mom I promise I won't throw up at school. I want to go meet my new friends." It was hard for him to see Emily getting all ready and leave. He asked me about 500 hundred times when she was going to be home. Luckily he hadn't thrown up since Tuesday mid-morning, so he was free to go today. I took them and was kind of sad to get back in the car and have them both gone. My original plan was to only put Emily in on Tuesdays and keep her with me on Thursdays, but after going once, there was no way I was going to keep her away. She would have thrown a fit to see Ethan go today and her not get to. So as hard as it is (I won't lie, it's a little nice too!) I guess my little princess will be going two days just like her big brother! Well I am off to get a few more things done before I go pick them up! Oh and for anyone that is curious, I will hopefully be posting pictures of Emery soon. He is getting so big. He's only 5 months and I had to pull out the 6-9 month clothes already.

It's Done!!

2008-01-28T12:15:00.000-06:00

We are now the proud owners of a mortgage!!! We closed on our house Friday! I have been searching around for the camera and can't seem to find it, I think I left it at my sister in laws house, so the pictures will have to wait. We are moving on Saturday, so now the fun really begins. We were originally going to move this last weekend, so I the phones and internet will be switching over today. I guess the good thing about that will be no distractions as I try and get everything packed and ready. The internet seems to suck up a lot of my time these days, it will be nice to have to take a mandatory break. Once we get in I will post pictures and let you all know how it goes.

On a side note, the kids are doing well. They are excited for their new rooms and our new house. Ethan is a little sad about changing preschools, but it worked out great for us because Emily gets to go one or two days a week as well and we will be paying the same amount we are paying now! It will be great while I am trying to unpack and get organized. She is so excited and asks everyday how much longer it will be until she goes to school. Emery is getting so big. At his 4 month (Jan. 2), he weighed an ounce under 16 lbs. I found a great cure for his spitting up the last few weeks. Someone suggested putting a tsp of rice cereal in every ounce of formula. It is a miracle. He still spits up a little, but not nearly as much as he did, so we are all very happy about that! I will try and post pictures of the kids soon as well! Enjoy your week and I will check in as soon as I have the internet back!!

My New Addiction!

2008-01-17T12:25:00.000-06:00

For Christmas Eric bought me Photoshop Elements. I have been wanting this for a long time so I can start doing digital scrapbooking. I figure if I can do it all on the computer without the mess of regular scrapbooking, I may actually do it! After hours of playing around and trying to figure things out I have done quite a few pages already so I thought I would share. I am having so much fun and having a hard time walking away from it. After I post these I must leave the computer for the rest of the day! So here they are, I feel like some are better than others, but the most important thing is that I am getting pages done!! Yay!!

This is the first one I did. After I got it all done, I wasn't sure I liked the colors and paper, but it took me forever to do so I didn't want to go back and change it. Now that I am a little quicker I may change it some day.

This next one is a 2 page layout so page 2 is just below it.

Christmas, New Years and Everything in Between!

2008-01-09T08:40:00.000-06:00

I don't know what my problem has been lately with blogging. I just haven't been able to make myself blog anything lately. So today I am making myself sit down and catch up a little on the happenings of the last couple weeks.

Trip to Colorado:

The following story is going to be very long so I will take no offense if you just choose to skip right on past it!

We took off for our long drive on Friday, December 4 pm. There was a storm going through Colorado at that time so we choose to only drive as far as Amarillo (about 6 hours) and stay there for the night. Leaving Dallas, we got stuck in the Friday afternoon traffic which was horrible, but other than that it was very uneventful. The next morning we woke up to a little bit of snow and strong blowing winds. The first 60 miles out of Amarillo were pretty slow, but after that we made good time. With very few stops we made it to my parents house at about 6 pm. So although it was an 11 1/2 hour day, it was really not too bad. Ethan was perfect, Emily was okay except for us having to hear "mom, dad I am so, so hungry" every 10 minutes, and Emery only had a crying fit once that lasted about 15 minutes.
Once there the fun really began. My mom's parents were divorced when my mom was very young and my grandpa got married shortly after that. So as long as I have known him he has been married to Ellie, so to us kids she has always been a Grandma Ellie. Not too long ago she was diagnosed with cancer, and was told in October or so that there was nothing more they could do. All of her kids were going to be there for Christmas so she wanted to have Christmas Eve with all the family. So Christmas Eve was spent at my Grandpas house. The plan after that was to open presents Christmas morning at my parents house and then pack up and head to their cabin until my Aunt Shelly's (my moms step-sister) wedding on Saturday. After opening presents and just as we were about to walk out the door my Aunt Shelly called and said that they hadn't been able to wake my grandma up that morning. She was still breathing, but just wouldn't really respond. The nurse had just been there and said she wasn't going to make it much longer. So we rushed over there to say good bye. It was very sad. My timing was not so good as I went in right as she took her last breath. That is something I could do without being so close to again. My grandpa, my mom and all her children were right there as well. It really put a damper on everyone's Christmas, but at the same time, it was good to know that she wasn't suffering any more. She had been in lots of pain and having a really hard couple of days before that. Because we had all the little kids (they were all outside in the car at the time) we still went to the cabin. My grandma chose to be cremated and there wasn't going to be a service until January. My mom stayed with the family there and my dad took us all up to the cabin. The cabin was fun as usual. It was nice to be up in the mountains and enjoy the quiet and the beautiful snow. My aunt decided to go ahead with the wedding, she knew that is what her mom would have wanted, so we headed down Friday night. Saturday was the wedding. It was in a beautiful little white church in a town about 1 hour away. It was a bitter sweet day. My aunt is a couple years younger than my mom and this is her first marriage. She has waited a long time for this. It was sad though that her mom was not there. After the wedding and reception we headed back to my parents house to load the car for the drive home the next day. As luck would have it, Emily woke up around 12:30 that night throwing up! She went back to sleep and woke up seeming to feel okay, so we decided to go ahead and take off. We got out of there around 8:30 am. The worst part of the drive is the first 3 or 4 hours. There are lots of winding roads and one major mountain pass in that time. We were on the road for about 30 minutes, when Emily threw up all over. I was not very prepared at the moment so of course it went every where. All over her clothes, car seat, and blanket. We pulled over in the freezing cold (10 degrees) and had to change her clothes and do our best to clean things up. After that I was prepared with a bucket, so I caught the next round in the bucket. We finally made it to the mountain pass, just as it started to snow. It was a nasty slow drive to make it over. We found out that a few hours after we passed over it was closed completely. After we made it over we had a very lite lunch in hopes of no more throwing up. Unfortunately the roads were still super curvy so Emily lost what little lunch she had eaten. Once we got out of Colorado, it was smooth sailing. Emily didn't throw up anymore, she ate a good dinner. We hit Amarillo at 8:30 pm. We had 3 sleeping children and two parents who just wanted to get home, so we decided to just keep driving. The kids slept the rest of the way and we pulled into our apartment around 2:30 am. It took us 17 hours total. It was an experience!! We have decided that we would do it again, but not in the winter. We got pretty lucky with the snow, but the few times we hit snow it was pretty stressful. We figured with driving to and from the cabin, and the wedding, we were in the car for a total of 42 hours that week! When I think of it that way, I realize that the kids really did do a great job. It was fun to spend time with my brother and his family, and especially good to see my grandma one last time. We were also able to take Emery to meet his other great grandma. She is the spouse of the great grandpa that Emery is named after. It was fun for her to meet little Emery!

Now that that long story is over I can move on to some other sad news from our Christmas. The gift for my Grandma Ellie was one of those digital photo frames. Eric helped my mom put a bunch of pictures together for it, but we needed one of the little camera cards to put them on and give to her with the frame. Since our camera was right there we gave her ours thinking we would just buy a new one when we went to Wal-Mart that night. Well, long story short is that we could never find the right kind for our camera. Apparently you have to have a specific card for Olympus cameras and we were never able to find one there. So I have zero pictures from Christmas morning, sledding at the cabin or any of the fun things we did. My mom didn't have a digital camera, but had a video camera so she has video of everything, but I am so sad. I have no pictures of Emery's first Christmas. I can't think about it too much because it makes me want to cry. On a happy note, my grandma loved the photo frame on Christmas eve, so that does make it a little easier. My mom said that also had the frame up at her funeral service as well.

Story 2: New Year's Eve

Our New Year's Eve was pretty stinky. We planned to spend it with Eric's brother and his family. We were going to put the kids to bed and play games and just have a great time. Eric and I were a little tired because the day before had been our long drive. Emily seemed to be feeling better. She had thrown up since the day before at 11:30 am and had eaten well and been running around all day. We got to there house, had dinner and were getting ready to put the kids to bed when Emily ran up to me and said "I need to throwed up" I ran her to the bathroom and sure enough, she lost everything. Luckily we made it to the toilet. So needless to say, we packed up and headed home. Since we were home and so tired, Eric and I hit the sack at 9:30. Exciting aren't we?

Emily is fine now and has talked non stop since Sunday about being a Sunbeam!! Ethan was more than excited to go back to preschool yesterday, and I am glad to be getting into a more normal routine. I am so ready to get into my house. We have a walk through on Friday, and our closing date is set for the 25th of this month. We are keeping our fingers crossed that all goes well and these dates hold.

As I typed this out, I realized that I have been putting off blogging this because Christmas was hard for me this year. I feel kind of silly saying that because maybe I don't have the right to say that. It never really felt like Christmas though. It was wonderful to see my parents and my brother and his family, but I just never really got into the spirit of things. I fell like I failed my kids because everything got rushed. We never read the Christmas story or really talked about Jesus on Christmas or Christmas Eve like I would have liked to. I have felt somewhat depressed coming back to this apartment. Half my stuff is still in boxes, and what isn't is so unorganized and I am sick of it. I have no motivation to do anything and I feel like everywhere I turn I see messes and piles and unorganized chaos. My initial intention was to not be negative in this post, but I hoping now that I got it all out, I can move on, cheer up and focus on how good things really are. I am very blessed and know that compared to some, I have no reason to feel this way. So thanks for listening and I hope you enjoyed our Christmas adventure!!

In Case You Were Wondering...

2008-01-04T12:41:00.000-06:00

I am still alive, but blogging hasn't been high on my list lately. I know I need to update soon, but today is not the day. I just spent way too much time catching up on everyone else's posts and need to stop neglecting my children and my messy apartment. I can't promise a new post anytime soon as we get ready to move into our house in the next few weeks. I will try and post pics soon and update everyone on all the happenings.

Funny Little Emily!

2007-12-12T15:32:00.001-06:00

Emily informed me the other day that this is what she wants from Santa:

I kindly reminded her that Santa brought her a kitchen last year, so he may not bring her one again this year. Her answer to that was, "that's okay, I can just sell the old one so he can bring me the new one."

Silly me, why didn't I think of that? Where do kids come up with this stuff?

I was glad to see that she wasn't disappointed with what Santa did bring her. We are driving to Colorado for Christmas this year so he left these (see pic below) on Saturday with a letter saying that if he brought them to Grandma and Grandpa's house we wouldn't be able to get them home, so he was bringing them to them now.

Updates on the House

2007-12-10T19:38:00.001-06:00

It's been awhile since I've posted pictures of the house, so here are some recent ones for anyone who is interested. We should close mid January! We'll be expecting people to come visit more often after that!

Here is the outside. They still need to paint the shutters and finish the trim.

Here is my kitchen! It is still missing the vent hood and the tile backsplash.

Here is my kitchen tile. It is one of my favorite things! The entry also has a similar tile and pattern.

Here is the living area (looking in from the kitchen).

Santa Claus is Coming to Town!!

2007-12-01T12:31:00.000-06:00

One of my traditions with my new babies is to have their picture taken with Santa on their first Christmas. It is the only time I can justify forking out the $15 for 1 5x7. So last night Ethan and Emily sat on Santa's lap and told him what they wanted and Emery got his picture taken. I just had to share because it is so cute!! Merry Christmas!!

Elf Yourself!

2007-11-29T15:46:00.000-06:00

I know I posted these last year, but I just couldn't resist posting them again!! Enjoy and go elf yourself!!
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1116174358

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1116037829

Christmas Pictures!!

2007-11-21T22:38:00.000-06:00

I took the kiddos to get pictures taken today. The group shots didn't turn out so great, but I love the individual ones! What do you think?

Breakfast with Santa

2007-11-17T10:51:00.000-06:00

I went to the mall earlier this week and saw a flyer for Habitat for Humanity Breakfast with Santa. The tickets were $3 each and included all the activities and a breakfast sandwich and drink from McDonald's, Chick-fil-A, or Sonic. I thought it sounded like fun and a good deal so we decided to go. It was so much fun! They had face painting, cookie decorating, hard hat decorating, ornament decorating, silly balloon people, a magician, a puppet show, and of course Santa! At the end they had machines that made snow. Here are a few pictures. My camera isn't very good so I didn't get very many that turned out, but you can still see that the kids had a great time!

Here is Ethan with Santa. Emily was excited about seeing Santa until she actually saw him, then she wanted nothing to do with him. So Ethan is the only one who got his picture taken.

These next two are showing off the face painting or in Emily's case the arm painting they had done. Emily was afraid to have it on her face and she didn't want anything Christmasy that we suggested. She was dead set on having a butterfly. You can also see the hard hat that Ethan decorated.

Emery had fun too!

Here they all are in the winter wonderland. You can't see the "snow" in the picture, but they were in the middle of the snow flurries!

I Finally Put My Foot Down!

2007-11-08T12:27:00.000-06:00

Any of you who know Ethan well, know that he has a very limited menu of things that he eats. I have not helped the situation by catering to his pickiness. I have spent the last 3 or so years making dinner for us and then feeding him PB&J, quesidillas, oatmeal etc. I have tried a few times to make him eat or at least try what we are having, but I have always given in and let him have whatever. Well I made the decision a few days ago that that would happen no more (I know I should have done this long ago). The first few nights were pretty easy. We had spaghetti one night, I let him just eat plain noodles. The next night was a little harder because we had homemade pizza. At first he turned up his nose like he usually does, but after a little coaxing he tasted it and ate the whole piece. As I planned dinner last night, I knew it would be the ultimate challenge for him and us. I made feta stuffed chicken, rice a roni, and, per Eric's request, spinach (yucky if you ask me). Now I know the kids wouldn't like feta cheese so I just made a plain chicken breast for them. I didn't say much to Ethan leading up, I just filled his plate with 3 bites of chicken (I know 3 isn't much, but I didn't want to overwhelm him) and a small scoop of rice. I didn't even try the spinach because I knew that would be way too much for him. I set his plate down, called everyone to dinner and got the usual reaction from him, "this is yucky, I want a PB&J". I said no, you either eat this or go to bed hungry, you choose. The tears then began. He sat there a cried for about 20 minutes while we all ate. He would stab the chicken, get it really close to his mouth and then just stare at it. He was trying so hard. When Emily finished we let her pick a treat from the Halloween candy hoping that would be more incentive for him to eat. Eric finally set the timer and said in 5 minutes we are going to the bath. If it wasn't gone, he would be really hungry when he went to bed. He finally said he would eat it if I helped and guess what? He did! He ate all the chicken and rice! It took a really long time but he did it!!! So here is a picture of him eating like a big boy. He was so proud of himself. I hope that will help him want to continue to do so well. I knew all along I just needed to be strong and not give in and it worked. I know we will still fight and he will still have tears some nights, but at least he knows I am serious and that chicken really doesn't taste all that bad!!

Carving Pumpkins

2007-10-30T15:03:00.000-05:00

Eric brought these awesome pumpkins home the other day. A lady he works with grows them and then sells them. I think he picked some great ones. They are perfectly round and huge. The color is not really orange, but I think that it gives them a little personality...Sunday afternoon we got around to carving them. The kids were not into at all so it was really just Eric and I. They each picked the picture they wanted me to carve and they just sat around coloring and riding bikes while we carved away. I think everyone had a fun afternoon!

The kids coloring their pictures!

Ethan's Diego Pumpkin

Emily's Dora Pumpkin

Our huge cat and spider pumpkin!

Here we are posing for the camera. Poor Emery was asleep so he missed out on all the fun!

All lit up!!

Halloween Happenings!

2007-10-25T14:29:00.000-05:00

This year in celebration of Halloween we actually have a lot of parties and most of them are ones where the kids get to dress up. I never spend a ton of money on costumes, but I usually feel like we never really get our moneys worth, but this year is a whole different story. It all kicked off last night with our first party! Eric has helped coach Ethan's t-ball team this year and in the process has become friends with one of the dads on the team. They are a great family and Luke (their little boy) and Ethan get along great! Last night they invited us to their churches Halloween carnival. It was so fun. They had bounce houses, a petting zoo, and tons of games and candy. The kids had a great time. Especially Ethan and Luke. They were both superheroes and they were caught several times comparing muscles! It was so cute. Tomorrow night we have a party at Emily's gymnastics, Tuesday is Ethan's preschool party and then Wednesday we are going with Luke's family trick or treating. They were nice enough to invite us since there probably won't be much trick or treating in our apartment complex. So here is a picture of all my cuties last night before the big bash.

Ethan is Mr. Incredible or Dash (it changes every time you ask) Emily is Cinderella and Emery wore his little pumpkin outfit. Oh yeah and Eric is something?!?! It is some coverall thing he got when he worked at Exxon. I think he kind of looked like an astronaut.

Just as a side note because I know Rainie will be wondering, Emery is going to wear his frog costume to the next party and on Halloween! I will post a picture of him then! I had to make sure he wore the pumpkin outfit at least once!

We're the Doodlebops!!

2007-10-23T16:42:00.000-05:00

Okay so WE are not the Doodlebops, but Ethan and Emily had the fun experience of meeting the Doodlebops today. I ran to Wal-Mart this morning and saw a flyer that said the Doodlebops would be appearing there this afternoon so I thought it would give us something to do. My kids aren't the biggest fans of the Doodlebops, but they do watch them occasionally on the Disney channel and they were excited to see them in real life. Luckily we got there a little early so the line wasn't too long. We had a DVD cover that they signed and the kids got to give them each a high five. The pictures I took aren't the greatest because they try and push you through the line so quickly, but here they are anyways! So enjoy Deedee, Rooney and Moe!!

My Little Gentleman!

2007-10-15T07:05:00.001-05:00

It seems like I have had so many things that are post worthy lately so if you haven't checked here in the past few days you may want to scroll down and check the last few posts. Anyways, on to my little gentleman. Ethan's favor tie church outfit is his blue suit jacket. He is so cute in it and I'm sad that it is going to be too small soon. Last night we were talking about primary and he said that he was hot during class and there was a girl who was cold, so he had a great idea, he took off his jacket and gave it to her to keep her warm! How cute is that?

Emily's Birthday Party & A Pat on the Back!

2007-10-14T20:00:00.000-05:00

We'll start with the birthday party first and then move on to giving myself a big pat on the back!

Yesterday we had Emily's birthday party. She had a few friends from nursery come, her cousins, and Charlotte, Rozlyn and Mason. Of course Emily chose to have a princess party with a princess castle cake. I found some pictures on the internet and did my best to copy. It didn't turn out as cute as the picture, but Emily absolutely loved it and that's all that really matters. Because our apartment wouldn't accommodate that many people we went to a fun little park and just let the kids play, open presents and have cake. I think everyone had a great time and Emily got lots of princess toys! Lucky for you I took lots of pictures so here are a few!

Here is the semi-cute princess castle cake

Our little actress pretending to blow out the candles. It was way too windy to even light the candles so we told her to pretend. She did a great job!

Showing off one of her presents!

Eating her yummy pink princess castle cake!

Ethan loved the Barbie and car. He played with it more than Emily. His dad was so proud!!

Now on to the second part of my post. A while back when I started blogging I decided to copy it into windows so that I could print it out, and put it in a cute notebook. I figured this was the closest to a journal I would ever get so I wanted to make sure I had a hard copy to keep. Looking back today, I realized I hadn't copied it into windows for a while so I should get caught up. After getting everything copied I realized I had 119 pages! Like I said earlier I have never been a journal keeper, so I am so proud of myself for keeping better records of the past 1 1/2 years! Now I have lots of fun stories about my kids recorded and just day to day things about our life. It will be so fun for the kids to go back and look at and read as they get older. I know that it is good to be humble but this is one thing I wanted to brag about and give myself a big pat on the back!!

My New Look!

2007-10-12T07:50:00.001-05:00

So what do you think? I don't like how light the font is in my header. It is really hard to read. I will try and fix that. Someone pointed out new cute templates here. It was really easy to change. Go check it out!

He Broke My Heart

2007-10-10T19:01:00.000-05:00

So I know I already posted today, but Ethan just broke my heart. Out of nowhere he said "mom I miss our old house." I asked why and he said "because I had friends at our old house." I know I am hormonal because of the baby, but I just started crying. It made me so sad. Poor guy. I guess I need to make a better effort to meet people and invite people over.

2 Posts in 2 Days!!

2007-10-10T14:02:00.000-05:00

Can you believe it? 2 posts in 2 days. So a couple days ago I was tagged by my sister-in-law so I thought I better do it before I forget, so here goes!

What were you doing 10 years ago?
10 years ago I was living in Provo with some pretty great girls (Kim, Sierra, and Melanie)! It was such a fun time! Those were such fun days! I was going to dental assisting school and just having a great time with my roommates and friends! They were fun days weren't they girls?

What were you doing 5 years ago?
5 years ago I was taking care of 3 week old baby and trying to get settled in our new house. I was just enjoying being a mom and finally having a house of my own! No more apartments (I thought)!

What were you doing 1 year ago?
One year ago is when Eric was interviewing a new job (the one he has now). We were trying to decided what was best for our family. It was a pretty stressful time. At that time we decided that it wasn't the best time and we would re-evaluate in a few months, which we did and.... well, you all know the rest.

What were you doing yesterday?
Yesterday we were having the pre-drywall meeting at our new house!! They said they will be done early to mid December!! Yay!! Ethan had preschool and then after that I was brave and took all three of the kids to get the 5000 mile check up done on my car. They were actually really good! Emery was cranky yesterday so I spent a lot of time holding him.

5 snacks I enjoy...
Only 5? I love love love Oreo cookies, chocolate ice cream, Dr. Pepper, cookie dough, and Twix candy bars. This list could go on and on. I am a big junk food junky and it is starting to show!

5 things I would do with a million dollars...
I would definitely like to help others. I would also put a lot away for kids school, missions, weddings and for our retirement. Then I would buy all the new stuff I have been dreaming about for my new house. It would be the best decorated house ever! Too bad a million dollars will never come my way!

5 places I would run away to...
Hawaii, Paris, Colorado, Disney World, anywhere beautiful with my family!!

Your 5 favorite TV shows...
Dancing With the Stars, Survivor, Grey's Anatomy, Don't Forget the Lyrics, Desperate Housewives

5 things I love...
My kids, my husband, date night, girl's night out, a good book

5 things I hate...
Laundry, Dishes, Cleaning showers and toilets, waking up in the night with kids, being hot.

I tag anyone who reads this and thinks it would be fun to do! Come on you know you all want to!

The last thing I wanted to do was post this great picture of my 3 little cuties!!!

Never mind blogger is being dumb and won't let me post pictures right now. I will try and post it next time.

Happy Birthday Em 'n Em!

2007-10-09T13:28:00.000-05:00

So my little princess turned 3 on Saturday! I can't believe she is already 3! We didn't do a lot of celebrating on her birthday because she is going to have a princess party this weekend. She is really excited and keeps talking about her birthday party. In her honor here are some of my favorite pictures! Happy birthday Em! Mommy loves you!!

The Verdict

2007-10-06T19:08:00.000-05:00

So I made it to get my hair done today. Thank you for the advice. I decided on #3 because I was slightly worried about the flip up in the back (I didn't get science teacher mommy's comment until after the fact darn it!). So I took the picture and said that is what I wanted but not quite as short. I wanted something chin length. I am not sure that it turned out exactly like the picture. I think it looks more like #5 but you be the judge.

I don't know why I said I would post pictures of the finished product. I really hate pictures of myself. Oh well, enjoy because you won't be seeing too many more pictures of me on here. By the way, don't you love the little piece sticking out on the right side? The other picture that didn't have that piece of hair sticking out looked really bad. Thanks for participating and I will be posting again soon since I was tagged by my sis-in-law! Thanks!!

Help!!

2007-10-04T13:01:00.001-05:00

My hair is driving me crazy. It is in desperate need of style. I haven't had it cut in months so it is looking really blah. I am also hoping with a new cute cut I will feel a little more put together. I have the after baby blahs and need something to make me feel cute. So here are some options. Give me your opinion and I will post a picture of the end result.

I know that some of them are similar but tell me your favorite. Oh and hurry because I want to go get it cut on Saturday! And don't look at the color, just the cut. Thanks for your help!

When It Rains it Pours

2007-09-27T10:28:00.001-05:00

Okay, so I know that my last post was a lot of complaining, so I will apologize now for another complaining post. It really seems like we never get sick. We usually get the occasional cold and the kids have had the flu a time or two but since Emery has been born we have had one thing after another. A couple days before Emery was born Eric came down with a nasty cold that he held onto until a few days after Emery was born. By that point it had spread to Ethan, Emily and myself. So we brought Emery home to a house full of colds. The colds finally went away. Fast forward a week and that is when I got the call from Ethan's preschool that he had a fever of 102. That lasted for 3 days and then 2 days later Emily had the high fever. I thought we were finally over everything until the end of last week I started getting a sore throat and cough. Yesterday Emily woke up and was coughing a little and acting like her throat hurt. I debated taking her to the Dr. because I thought maybe it was strep, but figured I would give it one more day. Last night at 11:45 I woke up to Emily sort of crying. I went into her room and she was wheezing (sp?) really bad and couldn't catch her breath. It was almost like she was hyperventilating. I was scared to death but trying to keep calm so I didn't upset her anymore. I figured if she started crying it would only make things worse. I woke Eric up and we decided we better take her to the ER right away. Eric took her and I got to sit at home and worry and take care of Emery and Ethan. They ended having to do an IV and breathing treatments. They say that it is croup and that it is worse at night. They put her on a steroid medication and she has an appointment today with her Dr. to see if he wants to do anything else (like continue breathing treatments). So the family that is rarely ever sick has had nothing but one sickness after another. Luckily Emery has been completely healthy (knock on wood) thus far. I just hope this croup stuff is not the one thing he catches. So once again, sorry for the venting. I promise my next post will be happy and positive, even it means I don't post for the next few days.

Top 10 Reasons I Hate This Apartment!

2007-09-26T10:19:00.000-05:00

In case you haven't figured it out, I am more than ready to get out of this apartment. I am glad we decided to wait to buy a house, but I wish that we had found one in the area we wanted that was already built. So here are my top ten reasons for hating this apartment!

10. Gnats or fruit flies or something little that flies. Since we moved in we have had these little gnat things flying around. I have stopped buying bananas because the love those and I make sure dishes are done regularly because they like dirty dishes to. It doesn't matter what we do they won't go away. It makes me feel like the place is dirty and not clean. YUCK!

9. Lizards. Yes, you heard me lizards! We have found 5 or 6 little lizards inside the apartment. Just the other day I went to put Emery in his car seat and there was one in there. Once again YUCK!

8. Everything is in boxes. I have tons of cute Halloween and fall decorations but of course they are in a box buried in the garage. I can't tell you how many things ended up in boxes in the garage that we have needed.

7. No toy room. I know I am spoiled but because we had a designated play room in our old house it has been hard to have all the toys in the kids bedrooms. They are getting better but it takes them a lot longer to go to sleep and when they finally do we have to go in and unload there beds of all the toys.

6. Sharing a room with Emery. He is the loudest sleeper ever! With Ethan, he was in our room for about 2 weeks and Emily was pretty much in her own room from the beginning. Poor Emery has now been demoted to our bathroom (it is really big). That way I can shut the door and then he is not quite as loud. Still too loud to really sleep through, but better than right next to me.

5. The Pantry. I am lucky because our apartment actually has a big kitchen, but the pantry is dinky with little wire shelves. I can never find anything and there is not even close to enough space. Also because of the wire shelves everything falls through.

4. Carpet in the eating area. Why do people design houses and apartments with carpet in the eating area? I not only have to sweep the kitchen all the time, I have to vacuum every day. Weekly I get down with carpet cleaner and clean the spots, but it still looks really bad and I know we are going to get charged for it when we move out.

3. Did I mention the gnats and lizards?

2. Small living room. The living room is tiny. We have huge sectional couch that doesn't even come close to fitting. We have one big piece of it in the garage and the other two pieces are split apart in the living room. You can only see the TV from one spot and there is only space for 3 people to sit. I guess it is good that we don't know that many people so we rarely have company over.

1. 3 young single guys live next door. You wouldn't believe how hard they slam their door. We are kind of used to it, but in the beginning it would scare me every time. Ethan and Emily still think that someone is knocking on our door every time. This goes on all day and all night. They also have little get togethers and blare music and stand outside their door and talk in loud voices. The other day I went outside and found cigarette butts all over the patio that we share. Eric put them in a nice little pile on their door step.

So maybe I am spoiled, but I am more than ready to have more space and neighbors that are far enough away they won't bug us. Thanks for listening, or reading, my vent. Sorry!

Update on the House

2007-09-23T13:31:00.000-05:00

I am sure not everyone is interested in seeing weekly pictures of our house, but there are some people who might care so here is what we found on Saturday when we went to check out our house...

They seem to be going fast at this point. I am sure in the next few weeks the progress won't be as noticeable, but it is so excited to see so much more done this week! Thanks for looking!!

Happy Birthday Mister E!

2007-09-16T09:00:00.000-05:00

Yesterday we celebrated the big #5 for Ethan! I can't believe he is already 5. It wasn't that long ago that he was little like Emery (actually he was never as small as Emery, but you know what I mean). Since we just moved here the party list was limited to his cousins that live close by. We don't know anyone well enough from preschool yet and there really aren't that many kids his age that we know at church. I think he was a little sad at first to not be sending out invitations and doing the whole big party, but I think he was more than happy by the end of the day.

He decided he wanted a Thomas the Train cake. We actually used James on the cake since James is train #5. After his t-ball game we headed over to Chuck E Cheese for an afternoon of fun! The kids had a great time! They got lots of tickets and each picked out some little prizes. We opened presents and ate the yummy cake! So although he didn't have all the friends on his party list (cousins in Houston and Colorado, and all his friends in Houston like Elle, Brooklyn, Aubrey, Jacob, Jayden) he still had a great party with his cousins here! So Happy Birthday to my little Mister E! Here is a now and then shot. Isn't he just the cutest??

On a side note, we headed out to check the progress on our new house yesterday afternoon. Last Saturday this was the picture we took:

And this is the picture this week! They are actually making great progress! We are so excited!

A Post for Me!

2007-09-13T13:35:00.000-05:00

The following post is mainly for me! I occasionally go through and print out my blog so that I have a hard copy that acts as a journal because this is the closest I have ever come to keeping a journal for more than a month. Because of that I like to post cute stories about the kids that I want to be able to look back on. So this is one of those posts. You may find it funny and enjoy reading it but if not that's okay because this post is for me!

Emily's new favorite song is "I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus". I thought she knew the words really well until she was caught singing "I'm trying to be like Jesus, I'm following him to exercise"! Maybe we need to work on the words a little more.

The other day Eric was driving with the kids and they started there usual argument, Ethan kept saying Emily's name and she was acting like she didn't hear him. Ethan gets more and more upset as she continues to (with a smirk on her face I'm sure) "pretend" like she doesn't hear him. She then begins singing "I'm trying to be like Jesus....."! Maybe we need to work on the meaning of that song a little more.

Sleep?

2007-09-12T11:50:00.000-05:00

Sleep? What is that? The last two nights I have gotten a total of about 6 or 7 hours of sleep. Emery has decided that at night he wants to eat really really slow. I am talking 1 hour and 30 minutes to finish 3 ounces. During the day he only takes about 30 minutes start to finish. To top it off he then decides he wants to cry every 10 minutes or so. Just when I think he has settled in for a little sleep he starts crying. It doesn't matter if I am holding him or he is in his bed or swing. To top it all off, I got a call yesterday at about 12:00 from Ethan's school that I needed to come get him because he was sick. Luckily no throw up, but a fever of about 102. He seems to be feeling better today, but last night he was awake from about 1:30 to 3:30. So things here aren't great, but I keep telling myself, it could be worse. This morning Eric did take over with Emery at 6 and let me sleep until 8:30. He also said he will take tonight so that I can get some sleep.

2007-09-10T09:14:00.000-05:00

Can you believe it? My first day on my own with 3 kiddos and I am actually blogging! I shouldn't mention that we are all still in PJ's and Ethan and Emily are vegging in front of the TV, but hey at least I can get a second to post some promised pictures of Ethan's first t-ball game. He did such a good job. They make it so everyone gets to hit the ball and run the bases twice. They don't count outs and they don't keep score in this age group. It is a great learning experience. It teaches them to hit it and run to first and then also when they are in the outfield to watch the ball and if they get it throw it to first. He had a great time! Eric has volunteered to help coach so that is fun for Ethan too. Dad went and got a team shirt and everything! Emily didn't really like dad helping because that meant there was no one to hold her. By the end she was okay with it and was excited when dad took her out on the field after to throw her her princess ball so she could attempt to catch it in her princess mitt! She wants to play with Ethan so bad. The pictures aren't the greatest. It was hard to be photographer while trying to keep Emery and Emily happy. So here is what I have. I will try and get some better shots in the next few weeks.

I was trying to get the shot of him hitting it. I missed the actually hit, but here he is taking off for first base.

Here is another shot of him running; this time for third! Isn't he so cute in his batting helmet and little uniform?

After the game enjoying a nice cool Capri Sun under the tree!

The last thing I wanted to share was a cute picture of Emery! He is still such a good baby. Let's hope that doesn't change. Isn't he cute?

Time For an Update

2007-09-06T14:06:00.000-05:00

So I guess like the title says it is time for an update. Life here has been pretty good. Emery is doing really well so far. He has had a few somewhat rough nights but overall I can't complain. Since he is bottle fed he usually goes 4 hours between feedings so that is really really nice. It sure beats the every 2 or 3 when nursing. We have had a few problems finding a formula that agrees with him, but I think we found it so it should be better. With two other kids life has had to go on as usual. Ethan started preschool this week. He loves it! He feels like such a big kid taking his lunch with him. He also started t-ball this week. He had his first practice and they have the first game this Saturday. Like school, he absolutely loved it! There are only 2 teams in the league so they will end up playing the same team 8 Saturdays in a row. That will probably get old. I can only hope that the teams are evenly matched. Today Emily started gymnastics. I finally found a place that would let her do a class without mom even though she is not 3 yet! She had so much fun. It will be good for her to have something to do while Ethan is at school. Next week I will probably go crazy with so much to do and no one around to help. My mom was here last week and Eric's mom has been here this week. She has been taking Ethan (besides the first day) to and from school and she stayed home with Emery so I could take Emily to gymnastics. Next week everyone gets to pile in the ol mini van and go everywhere. So hopefully this won't be last post as I get ready to dive into being mom of 3 on my own (Eric will be home in the evenings of course, although there has been talk of a busy season in his new job, Sept-March, let's hope it's just rumor)!

He's Here!

2007-08-29T18:38:00.000-05:00

As you have probably guessed, he's here! We woke up at 4 am yesterday, called the hospital and were glad to hear that they had room for us! We gathered all our stuff, and arrived at the hospital at 5 am. They got everything going and we just sat around and waited. The hospital staff was great and offered my epidural at the first sign of pain, so by 8 am I had the epidural! It was great because I was able to spend most of the day just reading and sleeping and waiting for the little munchkin come. At noon the Dr. came and broke my water and by 1:45 or so he was ready to come. Unfortunately, the Dr. wasn't ready. He was in the middle of surgery and couldn't get there right away. Waiting was the hardest thing ever, but we managed to wait the half hour or so until he got there. Emery John arrived at 2:35 pm! He was 6 lbs 13 oz. and 17 3/4 inches long. So congrats to Forecast who was the closest! She guessed 6lbs 12 oz, 20 inches and that he would arrive at 3:00 pm! He was really ticked off when he arrived. My other two kind of cried when they first came out but Emery screamed for the first 5 minutes or so. He also managed in the first few minutes to pee on the Dr. and the nurse. Since then he has gotten Grammy, mom and the pediatrician. He's got great aim! So here are a few pictures for now but I will post more pictures the next few weeks!

Emery is named after my Grandpa (I will blog more about that later) and John is Eric's Great Grandpa's name (also Eric's middle name)

Here is proud big brother Ethan! He is so excited that the baby's name starts with E just like his!

Here is the big sis! All she wants to do is hold him. She is going to be quite the little helper!

The Final Post (we hope)

2007-08-24T11:54:00.001-05:00

So I think this will probably be my final post before baby. My mom flies in on Sunday and then Monday is packed with a Dr. appt, registration at the hospital, the grocery store and of course just resting and making sure we are ready for Tuesday. Tuesday morning I get to wake up and call the hospital at 4 am to see if they have room for us. If they do we are to check in by 5 am and then the fun will begin! If they don't Tuesday will be spent hanging out with everyone being slightly disappointed that there is no baby. I will be sure to post Tuesday morning if there is no room so no one will be wondering. If there is no post then you will all know that the baby is on his way!
So I thought it might be fun in this post to do a little game of guess the stats for the baby. We can all go on the assumption he will be here August 28, but anyone who wants to can guess the weight, and time he will be born. Here is a little background info to help with your guesses. My actual due date is Sept. 5 (so I am being induced 8 days early). I was induced with Ethan 10 days AFTER my due date. He weighed 9 lbs 10 oz. They started pitocin at 7 am and he was born at 9:40 pm. Emily was born 6 days early and came all on her own. We went into the hospital at 10 pm and she was born at 4 am the next morning. She weighed 6 lbs 10 oz. Off the top of my head I don't remember their lengths, but if you would like to make a guess about this babies length you are welcome to do that too. Have fun guessing and there may even be a prize for the person who is the closest.
Have a great weekend and hopefully my next post will be pictures of the new babe!!
PS I think we agreed on a name.....stay tuned to find out what it is!!!

Not Much to Report

2007-08-21T09:19:00.001-05:00

Like the title says there is not much to report here. I am just waddling along trying to get all the last minute things done before baby!! I finally made room for him in the dresser and got all his clothes washed and put away and Eric got his cute little bassinet put together. The car seat is ready to be put in the car and Emily keeps asking if the baby came out of my tummy yet. I think that we are all getting excited for him to get here. The only dilemma is a name. We still have no front runner in the name department. I don't even know that we have any big contenders in the name department. My mom thinks we are just being sneaky and not telling anyone. I wish that were the case but unfortunately we are still at a loss. We are wide open for suggestions. Eric is trying really hard to convince me of Brandon. Ethan is pulling for Thomas and Emily just wants to call him baby. So if anyone can help I could use it. I have a Dr.'s appt. tomorrow, I will report any exciting news! Have a good Tuesday!

Fun Weekend and Our New House!

2007-08-13T09:07:00.000-05:00

My night away was wonderful! It actually worked out that my sister-in-law could watch the kids so Eric came with me. We just lounged around, watched TV, read and slept in! It was heaven. I think I would have still had fun being by myself, but it was actually really nice to have Eric with me. We walked over to the mall that was about a block away (something I would not have felt safe doing by myself) and found a cute little bakery that overlooked the ice skating rink on the floor below and had a great dinner. Then we just walked around and window shopped. It is so nice to do that without the kids! It is always so nice to just have time to be together, just the two of us. We can have uninterrupted adult conversation and just not be mom and dad for one whole night! Plus it was great since we didn't do much last weekend for our anniversary.

Moving on to our new house. I have had a few people mention wanting to see the floor plan. Before we decided to build this house, the kitchen, laundry room and breakfast area was laid out differently. After the builder built the original floor plan they decided that layout wasn't very practical so they changed it. After we saw the changes we decided it made the house much more livable so we decided to go ahead and build. After much prodding we were finally able to get a decent drawing of the new layout so I thought I would share it. There are a few options that we are adding so I will try to not make this too confusing. Also, I made the pictures as big as I could and they are still a little hard to see but at least you get a basic idea. So here we go....

Here is the outside of the house. I love it because it has the brick stone combo.

Here is the first floor plan. The only thing that will be different here is that we added a 3 car garage.
This is the second floor. This is the floor that will be the most different. Instead of it being open to the loving room below we have added on a fifth bedroom with its own bathroom and walk in closet (check out the next picture). There has been debate as to what that room will be. We will definitely have some sort of extra bed in there for guests. I am voting for a craft room. Eric is voting for anything but a craft room. We will see who wins.

Here is the 5th bedroom and the 3 car garage.

So there is the new house! I am really excited and wish it would be done a lot sooner. They told us it would probably be the beginning of December. Hopefully we can be in and settled by Christmas! I will keep you posted and probably have lots of pictures throughout the whole process.

P.S. Only 2 weeks and 2 days before the baby!!!

My Final Fling Before Baby!

2007-08-08T08:30:00.000-05:00

So I am feeling really stressed out lately. I can't really say that it is for one specific reason, it is just that everything is driving me crazy. Seeing how I am very large with child, I am not sleeping well at all. My hips hurt all night long so I roll from side to side trying to get comfy, but it never works. On top of that when I finally do fall asleep I have to get up and go to the bathroom, I finally get situated again and it never fails that one of the kids wakes up with a nightmare or has to use the bathroom. So I had this brilliant idea that I just needed one night away before baby comes. One night to not have to feed kids, one night of not putting kids to bed and one night of no kids waking me up in the night. So I presented my idea to Eric and even though he doesn't really understand it, he has agreed to hold down the fort while mom takes some time away! This Friday I am escaping to a great hotel just up the road. I got a great deal on a king bed suite with room service pizza and a movie! I am going to take my book and just go escape to my own little world. I do feel slightly bad leaving Eric to deal with everything. I did look into having someone keep the kids over night so that he could join me, but that fell through and my resources for people here are limited. So off I go by myself, feeling slightly guilty but super excited for my final fling before the real fun begins (only 3 weeks left)!!

Lucky Number 7!

2007-08-03T13:54:00.001-05:00

This weekend we will be celebrating our 7th wedding anniversary! In some ways it seems just like yesterday that we were preparing for the big day and other times I can't remember what life was like not being married to Eric. So today I thought I would post a few pictures of us through the years. My pictures are few because I didn't want to dig through too many boxes but it was still fun to look back. While searching for pictures I found the collection of cards and notes from one another through our dating months. It was funny to see how romantical (not really a word, I know) he was then. I was going to add the story of how we met but then remembered I had done a post about that not too long ago so for the story of how we met you can click here.
Some of these pictures are hard to see and one is a cheesy scrapbook layout but like I said these were all I could find without digging too far.

This is the night Eric proposed!

This was the picture in some of our wedding announcements. We couldn't agree on a pose so we sent out a few different poses. The funny thing is that I can't remember who liked which poses. They all look good to me now.

This is the cheesy scrapbook page. If I wasn't so far behind on my kids' books I would be really tempted to redo this.

Here is the picture from our first Christmas card.

And last but not least here we are more recently (summer 2006).

So here we are 2 almost 3 kids and 7 years later and still living happily ever after! I know Eric doesn't check out my blog too often, but I hope he knows that I love him lots and could never ask for a better husband! I don't even want to think about what life would be without him! Here's to many many more years of happiness!!!

Pictures

2007-08-01T19:27:00.000-05:00

So as promised in the last post here are some of the pictures from our little photo shoot last week. Like usual there were so many cute ones that it was hard to choose. The nice thing is that I bought enough sheets between Ethan's 5 year pictures, Emily 3 year pictures and the ones of them together that I got the disk with all the shots taken. So here is a pretty big sampling of some of the cute ones!

The Count Down!

2007-07-30T10:50:00.001-05:00

After a long, not so fun drive we have returned from yet another fun vacation! We left Houston around 3:45 and didn't make it home until almost 9 (it usually only takes 4 hours when we stop once for lunch or snacks). The traffic was horrible coming out of Houston and then there was a huge wreck on the road somewhere in the middle. They had the whole road both directions closed for a while. All I can say is I am so glad we have a DVD player in the car. I think I would have gone crazy without it. We had a fun week catching up with Grandma and Grandpa and lots of friends that we hadn't seen in a while. I must say though that I am glad to have the kids back in their own beds and am hoping to return to a normal schedule for a few weeks. Which leads to my the title of this blog! The count down to baby has begun. So according to my little blog countdown I have 37 days, but I am lucky enough to have a Dr. who is willing to induce me a week early. He already put me on his schedule for Aug. 29. That means only 30 Days!!!! I am starting to feel a little frazzled though as I think of all the things I would like to get done. I have decided that today is the start of the master list. I am going to sit down and make a list of all the things I need to get done (pick a name, finish announcements, buy a car seat etc.), and then all the things I would like to get done (take the kids to the dentist, organize closets, Emily's scrapbook etc.). I hope that I can make it through both, but with only 30 days left I am not so sure. I also took the kids for their 3 and 5 year old pictures, I am hoping to get some of them posted in the next day or two. They all turned out really cute!

The Fun Trip To CO!

2007-07-18T07:03:00.000-05:00

So once again I have slacked on my blogging. I really had intentions of posting fun pictures from vacation a lot sooner. But I guess better late than never right? I also realized that I don't have very many pictures. But here is a run down and a few of the pictures I do have. I was lucky enough to be the solo parent on both plane rides this trip! The kids actually did a great job both ways, even with no DVD player on the ride home (I was the smart one who left it on and ran down the battery). Tuesday when we got there I came down with a really nasty cold so the first few days were spent just hanging around my moms house trying to get up the energy to do anything. Friday Eric flew in and then the fun began. That night Grammy wanted to have a birthday party for all the grand kids since she actually had them all in one place at the same time. So needless to say my kids were spoiled rotten by Grammy and Papa and also there Great grandparents that were there. Here is a very small sampling of their gifts!

The next day my brother blessed his new baby. Grammy had purchased matching clothes for all the kids. We tried to get in some good pictures, but as you can tell from the first one, Brittney was not in the mood for pictures

The next day we took off for the cabin! Grammy has made this a kids paradise. She has a game room with ping pong, skee ball, a basketball hoop, darts and a popcorn machine. She also has a snow cone machine and a cotton candy machine. Let's just say my kids ate more junk and sweets than should ever be allowed. I think there favorite was the blue cotton candy!

We had a fun BBQ on the 4th with my grandparents and an uncle that I hadn't seen in about 7 years. The older guys (my dad, my uncle and Eric) spent a lot of time on the 4 wheelers. They even took a day trip over some mountain pass. It looks like it was a beautiful ride.

Ethan spent a lot of time tagging along with daddy and papa. They also took many 4 wheeler rides and quite a few fishing trips on the boat. Emily wanted to tag along too, but she got to stay with mommy and Grammy and play at the cabin. After a few tears and popcorn, and pink cotton candy I think she figured out it wasn't so bad to hang out with the girls! Over all it was a really fun trip for everyone! This last pictures was my favorite from the trip. You can see how hard Ethan was trying to be like daddy with his hat and sunglasses. Don't I have the cutest family ever?

On a side note, we are taking another little trip next week to good ol' H town! We are excited to go see family and friends, but that means another blogging hiatus! I would like to say I will get a post in before we go but I seem to be struggling to come up with anything interesting or worth blogging. Also, we are officially binky free! Naps have been hit or miss since then, but I guess that is okay. At least we no longer have the binky!!!

Could It Really Be That Easy?

2007-07-13T07:18:00.000-05:00

Yesterday after a trip to the pool, Emily walked into my room with a binky in her mouth and one in each hand. I again realized that this is getting out of control. I told her to go put them away because we only get them at naps and bed. She left the room and came back empty handed. As we got ready for bed she asked me where they were. Since she had left my room with them earlier that day, I had no idea. After some searching we decided that this was the time to try no binky. We put her in bed and she asked for a binky. Eric told her they were lost and she started to cry. I thought this was the beginning of a long night. She cried for about 30 seconds and then was asleep in about 10 minutes! I still went to bed skeptical. I knew she would wake up in the night and cry and cry when she didn't have a binky. At 1:30 am she started to cry so I went in to her room, scratched her back for about 1 minute and she was out until 7:00 this morning. So I know this is just the beginning, since we have not tackled nap time yet, but I wake up asking myself, why didn't we take them away sooner, and could it really be this easy?

On a side note, we did end up finding all the lost binkys and hid them away so there is no chance that she will find them later.

I still feel like I am drowning in the after vacation mess. Maybe later I will get the energy to blog about our fun trip.

See You Later!

2007-06-25T07:54:00.000-05:00

So I thought I better post a quick update of the happenings before our much needed vacation. This last week has been crazy, but ended with a fun date night on Friday!

The week started with our usual home buying issues. Do we build? Do we keep searching for a nice used home? Where exactly do we want to live? So Tuesday afternoon and evening were spent checking out the neighborhood we were thinking of building in, and then also trying to check out a few used homes without a realtor. We got lucky and found the back door unlocked on two of the used homes (they were vacant by the way, we didn't break in on any families) and were given the code to the lock box on another home over the phone. After checking those homes out and finding out that they had some good deals going on where we were thinking of building, we decided to go in with a low ball offer on building a new house. We figured the worse they could do is say no and then we would continue to look for a used house. So Wednesday morning Eric trekked out to the neighborhood and signed the papers and put an offer in. After waiting 2 days we found out that they actually excepted our low ball offer! So we are starting the process once again of building a house. I am excited and overwhelmed. With our previous house I got to choose most things like flooring, counter tops etc. After moving in I was not the most excited about my choices. They looked really different than I expected. I hope that I learned a few things and make better choices this time. So I only have to endure the apartment for another 5 or 6 months.

Friday was a much needed date night. I am so sad that I forgot my camera because I could have taken some great pictures. The night started out a little crazy. I was going to drop the kids off with my sister-in-laws and then venture downtown to pick Eric up. Deep down I am just a little country girl so the thought of driving downtown or getting caught in traffic just causes my stomach to churn. I left our apartment in plenty of time (I thought) but got caught in traffic on my way to my sister-in-laws. A trip that normally takes 15 minutes, took my half an hour. So I ran the kids in and then put on my brave face and headed towards downtown with 30 minutes to spare before our dinner reservations. Of course I got stuck on traffic again (after all it was 5:30 on a Friday). I picked Eric up right at 6, we parked as quickly as possible and high tailed it to our dinner reservations. Once we got there I was able to really enjoy the evening Eric had planned. Dinner was at this restaurant on the 50th floor of his office building. We had a private room that had a great view! When they brought us our menus, it was fun to see that they had been printed especially for us. They had our names at the top and everything. The food was great and I ate way too much! From there we moved on to the entertainment. I have to start out by saying that I have the best husband ever! A few weeks after moving here I was really stressed and not the nicest wife or mom in the world. He could see that I needed something to look forward to so he bought tickets for the Dancing with the Stars Live Tour. I am sure there are many other places he would have liked to go, but he bought the tickets because he knew how much I would enjoy it! And let me tell you I did! It was so much fun! The professional dancers were so fun to watch and the stars were great! Joey McIntyre (New Kids on the Block), Joey Fatone (N Sync), Drew Lachey (98 Degrees), and Joey Lawrence (Blossom). It was like a trip down memory lane. I loved New Kids on the Block back in the Day as well as N Sync. I never really got into 98 Degrees, but I always thought Joey Lawrence was so so cute! They really played the boy band thing up. They were constantly joking about it and even sang some songs and did some typical choreographed boy band dancing as they sang! It was hilarious! They were a bunch of men trying to relive their glory days! Even Eric enjoyed himself.

Today is packing day. We are taking off for Colorado tomorrow for two weeks. I am so ready to get out of this apartment and have a little vacation! I am not real excited about flying with the kids by myself. We have gotten lucky again and found a straight through flight from here to Montrose. It is only 2 hours long, so they can just watch a movie on the DVD player and then we will be there. Eric will join us on Friday for a week so that will be fun! I will be sure to remember my camera and take pictures to post when we return. Sorry for the long post but you won't have to hear from me for a couple of weeks. (Unless I get bored and decide to posts from my parents)

Our Kingdom

2007-06-15T07:32:00.000-05:00

As I was in the kitchen yesterday Ethan came up to me and asked me if I knew that Emily wanted to be a Princess when she grows up. He went on to tell me that that would be great because he would get to see her all the time because he was going to be a Prince. I said that was great and asked if mom and dad could come visit their kingdom and he said that we wouldn't have to because dad would be the King. I said great then I guess that means I would be the Queen of the kingdom. His reply was, "no mom, we don't need a queen but you can be the dog."

Just as a PS... the Dr. said that I no longer need to test by blood sugar as long as I promise to watch my sugar intake! I am so excited, no more poking!!!

2007-06-13T11:28:00.000-05:00

So once again I have been slacking on my blogging. I am still trying to work with my Dr. on this whole diabetes thing. At this point I am supposed to be testing my blood levels 4 times a day. I felt like a pin cushion and was seeing no problems with my sugar levels without really even changing my diet. I have an appointment tomorrow to talk with my Dr. again to see if this is really necessary. So hopefully after tomorrow I will not have to check at all or at least not 4 times a day.

We are still on the house hunt. The original plan was to stay in this apartment until Feb. I am fine with the original plan, but for some reason Eric is antsy to get out of here. It is slightly cramped and it would be nice to have more space so I won't complain if we buy a house sooner. We have the kids sharing a room and that really is not going to well. I am about ready to get rid of the toy room and put them back in their own rooms. They are playing until about 9 or 9:30 and waking up between 6 and 6:30. Needless to say I have been the cranky mom. That may be why Eric is so antsy to buy a house, maybe he thinks I will be a happier person then.

On a good note, the rain has stopped and we have been spending a lot of time at the pool. The kids love it. The pool here at our apartment is great for kids. It has a kiddie pool and then the main pool has a big ten foot section the is 6 inches deep. They are also loving their water wings. If I put those on them they will both swim all over by themselves in the deeper water. I would probably enjoy it more if I didn't feel like a beached whale, but it is fun and nice to get outside for part of the day. I have slacked on taking pictures since we got here. I am hoping to take some fun swimming pictures this week to post.

Well I know this was a long post and not that exciting, but at least it is a post.

I Failed!

2007-06-07T11:24:00.000-05:00

Well, today I had the joy of doing the diabetes test at the Dr.'s office. I hadn't really thought much about it, except that I didn't want to drink the nasty drink. I have had two kids and taken the test many times with no problems, until today. I failed! I now have to go see a dietitian tomorrow. I will have to make changes to my diet, which I know will mean no more sweets, or at least limited and I may have to start poking my finger daily. I am not excited about any of this to say the least. I have wondered many times why they continue to do this test after I have had no problems in the past and I guess today I got my answer. Every pregnancy is different and things can always change. So wish me luck and I will keep you all posted on my new way of life.

The Crush

2007-06-03T09:10:00.000-05:00

Ethan has a crush!

We have started going to the library again recently and every time we go the kids get to pick 3 books and 1 movie. Usually Ethan picks something like Thomas or The Wiggles. This last week he just had to have the Kim Possible Movie. I had never really seen much of Kim Possible, but after looking at I decided we could get it and watch it together. He loves it. A few days later while at the mall, we stopped at the Disney Store. As they were looking around they came across the little play cell phones and Ethan found the Kim Possible phone! It was on sale for $2 so I gave him the choice of riding the train, which cost $2, or buying the phone. To my surprise, with no hesitation, he chose the phone. He has mentioned many times how this phone is his favorite toy ever and he takes it everywhere. He calls Kim often and updates her on his day. As I have thought about this crush I have figured it out. Little boys loves superheroes, so why wouldn't he have a crush on Kim? She's cute, she's a girl, and she saves the world every day. What else could a boy want?

Potty Training Update....

Emily is doing great. I keep waiting for it to get hard or for something to happen, but excluding the first day, it has been a breeze. We have had maybe 2 accidents in the last few days. She wakes up dry from her naps, and has been dry about half the time when she wakes up in the morning. During the day she always either goes by herself or yells for me to help. I am sure that we will still have our share of accidents and some set backs especially when the baby comes, but over all it has gone really well. I guess she really was ready!

On a Happier Note (I think)

2007-05-31T08:02:00.000-05:00

Okay, so I already feel the need to blog something so that the not so happy blog is no longer the first thing you see. So yesterday we officially hit the potty training. It started with a trip to Target to pick out new underwear, potty treats, and stickers for her chart. Upon paying I realized that is was pouring rain outside (imagine that?) so we had a treat of popcorn and icees before heading out into the storm for home (all the time worrying about how bad my fireplace was leaking since I had moved the barricade of towels to the washer last night when the RS pres. came over). We got home, sat on the potty for a while and changed into the new Curious George panties. After 2 min. in the panties she peed all over the floor. I must admit that I was ready to quit already, but I kept going. The rest of the day went well, we only had one more accident and luckily it was right before bed and she had a pull up on so I didn't have to clean the floor. This morning she woke up dry, but is being stubborn and holding out on me. She has been awake for almost 2 hours and still has not used the bathroom. She has got to go eventually. We can only hope that she makes it to the potty when she can no longer hold it.

On a very happy note, I have a new niece!! She was actually born early Monday morning. I still haven't seen a picture, but I hear she is a cute little thing. Her name is Brittany, she was about 3 1/2 weeks early so she only weighed 5 lbs 13 oz. Although she was early and is tiny she is doing great. They came home from the hospital yesterday! So now I have 6 nieces and 1 nephew. It is a good thing we are having boys, because they seem to be hard to come by in both my family and Eric's. I am excited to see her in a few weeks when we go to Colorado.

So I apologize to everyone for my very negative blog yesterday and will try to keep things happier from now on. If you don't hear from me the next few days, it will probably be because potty training is doing me in, but I will try to keep you posted!

If You Don't Have Anything Nice to Say...

2007-05-30T11:13:00.000-05:00

blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah! I have not blogged much because I am trying to follow this old saying. I am just going to say that I am sick of rain, sick of a leaking roof and fireplace and sick of towels all around the fireplace. I could go on but will spare you all. I will probably post later with the adventures in potty training. Needless to say, it is not going well.

Ethan's New Favorite Thing

2007-05-24T06:55:00.000-05:00

Ethan loves for Eric or I to read to him. About a year ago at the library he found the book James and the Giant Peach and would not put it down. I thought we would give it try and see if he would listen well enough for Eric or I to read it out loud. He did a fairly good job, but really a lot of it was over his head. More recently we tried Charlotte's Web. It was the same, he listened but it seemed a little old for him. At Costco a few days ago I found this four pack of books. It is the first four books in The Magic Tree House series. It caught my eye because Ethan has been so into dinosaurs lately and the first one is called Dinosaurs in the Dark. They are perfect for him. They are not too long, each chapter is only about 2 or 3 pages, and they have quite a few pictures. The books are about a brother and sister who discover a tree house filled with books. As they look at the books, the tree house takes them into the scenes of the books. It has been lots of fun to read with Ethan and I would recommend them to anyone looking for a more than a picture book to read to their older kids. And by the way, the whole set was only $6 at Costco (as compared to $10.85 on Amazon). They have sets 1-4, 5-8, & 9-12. I may have to go back and get the rest of them!

Help!!!

2007-05-22T08:04:00.001-05:00

Do you have those daily tasks that you just hate doing? My list is pretty long. It includes things like dishes, laundry, sweeping up after kids etc. But the top on my list these days is bath time! Ethan has always hated taking a bath, it used to be a fight to get him in, but once he was in he was fine. Now I have the opposite problem. They are both quick to get in, but I can't get them out. They both have this horrible fear of water in their faces. If they get splashed they will scream and cry like they have just been seriously injured. So needless to say when it is time to wash hair, all heck breaks loose. They used to be fine if I gave them a wash cloth to hold over their eyes, but even that doesn't seem to work. I have recently gone with the method of just hurry and dump and get it over with. The problem with that is I worry that my neighbors think they are being brutally beaten by the sounds of them screaming bloody murder. So help me!! How do I get them to realize that a little water won't kill them? We've resorted to bathing every other day, which works until we start hitting the pool more often. So I need some major help fast. Does anyone have any tricks that have worked for them?

I'm Back!!!

2007-05-11T15:29:00.000-05:00

I am sure that you thought we moved and I just disappeared off the face of the earth but I didn't! We have been having problems getting connected to the internet. It has taken them over a week to fix all the issues and get us up and running, but here I am back in the blogging world and super excited about it!

The most important news is that I finally made it to the Dr. and we found out that we are having a boy!!! We are really excited (especially Ethan)! It will be fun to pull out all my boy clothes and use them again. As soon as my scanner is connected I will post the newest picture of the little guy!

We are finally getting settled in our new apartment despite some minor set backs. The second night we were here there was a major thunderstorm. We lost power at about 7pm and didn't get it back until 8am the next morning. All of our flashlights were in boxes somewhere, but luckily I knew where all my candles were so we had some light. About an hour after losing power, we realized the the fireplace was leaking. We had several boxes sitting in front of it that got wet, but luckily nothing got ruined. The carpet was soaked about 4 feet in from the fireplace. After 3 days, they finally got the carpet all dried, and the roof fixed. It was in the middle of no power, with water leaking in, and Eric having just stubbed and broken his toe that we looked at each other and said what have we done? We were thinking of our nice home and normal life that we had left behind. I feel better now that I have unpacked most of the boxes, and I am starting to find my around the area. I am having a hard time getting used to Eric's later work schedule, but I am sure after another week or two we will be doing better.

Well, this was just a quick update. Now that I have internet again I will post a lot more often! I am glad to be back!

Is the Glass Half Full or Half Empty?

2007-04-24T07:51:00.000-05:00

That is a hard question for me to answer today. I am trying to look at the bright side of things but after finding out yesterday that the people that were going to buy our house lost their financing, it is slightly hard. So here we go again. The house is back on the market, we no longer have a closing date, but yet we are all set up to move into our new apartment on May 4th. We have decided to just go ahead and suck up the double housing payments so that Eric doesn't have to travel back and forth and I don't have to be a single mom during the week. So that will be nice, but we then have to find someone to take care of the yard and sit from a far and hope that our house sells quickly. So this post isn't too sad and depressing I decided to go ahead and post pictures from our fun trip to Sea World last week.

We got to San Antonio early Thursday afternoon and decided to spend some time on the river walk. It was nice because it wasn't too crowded. We took a boat ride around the river and then decided to eat dinner at the Rainforest Cafe which was a lot of fun for Ethan and Emily.

Friday and Saturday we woke up and headed over to Sea World. We all had so much fun! The shows were great and the kids and Eric loved the rides. The weather was perfect and there were no lines. Eric was able to ride all the big roller coasters several times in a row without even getting off! Here are a lot more pictures with explanations! It was a great family vacation and definitely worth the extra 4 or 5 dollars per ticket to do 2 days!

Here they are feeding the dolphins. The kids were too scared to touch the dolphins but they loved feeding (or throwing) the little fish to the dolphins.

Emily loved all the rides, she wanted to ride all of them! I love this picture because she is has her head thrown back and she was laughing so hard! It was the cutest thing ever.

Another ride that Emily wanted to go on again and again. She was a dare devil and would throw her hands in the air and not even hold on.

This is Ethan and Emily with their whales that Dad won for them. They cost $35 each in the gift shop, but after only $15 on the boardwalk games Dad had won one for each of them! What a deal!

Here we all are at the entrance. Not the greatest picture, but we were all in it.

This was by far the favorite ride! You can see that Ethan is a little scared, but he still loved it. He was ready to do it again! I was surprised (and slightly nervous) that he was brave enough to sit up there all by himself without daddy holding on.

So you can see from the pictures that it was a fun trip. We will definitely go back again in the future!