I love my kids

We didn't get much of a Halloween this year because everyone got sick (yet again...) but they got to dress up for the Church Halloween Activity that we put on. We're on the activity committee so we actually were a part of it. That was different just seeing a little of the work that goes into it. The pressure you have to put on the different people to do different activities and everything. It turned out really well and Emma loved it. She followed princess after princess around since they are her favorite. All you need is a big dress and you are a princess in Emma's eyes. So she would follow them and point saying, "Princess, princess..."

Here she is as a fairy queen. I curled all of her hair and pinned it up but with Arizona and all of the sweating (isn't it weird that we are sweating in October and November?) it quickly died. You can't tell by the picture but she has homemade rootbeer all down the front of her skirt. She had about 3 glasses of it. She is definitely a fan. She went to all of the activities except for the actually trunk or treat since both Andy and I had to clean up but next year will be her first time and Jackson will be able to go too. Jackson was Tigger, Andy was Christopher Robbin and I was Darby. We didn't get pictures of the rest of us but we will dress Jackson up again just for the picture. He was adorable.

Jackson is slowly adjusting to the idea of cereal and stuff. He goes in spurts. Some days he has a couple of helpings while the next day he will only eat a couple of bites. He gets upset because he has to do so much. He thinks he would be doing less and getting more if he were just on the bottle. If only he knew what world this would open up for him. We are still working on it, though.
I love my kids. Jackson adores Emma and she loves being his older sister. She loves him and gives him love. He just lights up when she comes over to be with him. They make me happy in a way that I never understood before them. Their accomplishments, kindness and growth are amazing to me.

We are excited to pack up this week and come to Idaho for the Holidays. It's great being with family. We are terrified to come to the cold. It was the low 70's and we thought it was jacket weather. Emma came outside and started shaking saying it was cold and she needed a coat. We are in for a lot of adjustment. We hope we get to see most of you while we are there but time always flies when we come up. Hopefully, this time is different.

Hammer's Puppies

Hammer might be a weird dog but he makes some cute puppies. They are a little bigger than a dollar bill. They are so cute. I only hope we get to see them when we come back to Idaho for the holidays. Once again, I can't make it smaller.

Jackson's hairline & Emma's brilliance

I had to talk about this before I forgot that it even happened. Both of my kids were born with black hair. Emma's slowly turned blonde but Jackson's turned quickly in the front and he was left with the little Jewish hat (that I can't spell for the life of me so I'm not even going to try) and neckline that remained black. This picture doesn't even do it justice because it was finally changing when we remembered to take a picture of it. It really made us laugh.

These two are so much fun. They just adore each other. Emma will run up to love Jackson and when he is upset, she will come and play with him to make him laugh so hard. He just glows when she plays with him. She helps me so much. I'm truly lucky that she wants to help. Emma has started tantrums that she has learned in nursery, will suddenly stop mid sob and say, "I'm crying..." Yes. We know. It's so hard to keep a straight face when she does it. I think she knows that she'll get off easy at the end of a tantrum to stop, look at us, hold out her arms and say, "Hug." I know that isn't all you wanted but I'll act like it was. You are too smart for me, Terminator.

My brownie tester

I was making brownies tonight when Emma came up with her puppy dog eyes. She is going to step ever so bravely into her cousin's role of brownie tester. She licked her beaters oh so well when she noticed the bowl and scraper that she decided she would help with. I was attempting to taste it when she kept taking it from me. Apparently, there can only be one in the family. Andy had already snuck off with his share without her even noticing. Sneaky little man.

My kids make me laugh. We just got a batch of hand-me downs when Emma found the hats. She immediately put one on and insisted that Jackson have one on as well. She thought this was fantastic. Jackson is so easy going and saw that his sister was enjoying herself so he too was happy and laughing with her. How could life be any better than those moments? I don't think it can be.

Hammer's puppies

So Hammer, our mini-Pom, is a papa again. Andy's aunt has a white mini-Pom as well so they are purebred. She is barely 5 lbs and Hammer sometimes hits 6 lbs. These puppies don't get bigger than 5 lbs and end up looking like teddy bears as they get older. I'll be sure to post pictures as they get cuter. Let us know if anyone is looking. I'm posting these especially for Debi. She always says I don't tell her about it. We're hoping the puppy will buy a water softener for the house in Idaho Falls for us. We are blown away because all of the puppies here in Phoenix that are just like ours are selling for almost $2,000. We don't go that out of control. Sorry I couldn't make the picture any smaller. I got it off of facebook from his aunt.

Summer Update

This summer with our families was so much fun. The kids got to know the family again before we ran back for school again. It was hard leaving again but we'll be back for the holidays before you know it.

Jackson is growing by leaps and bounds. He is a lot smaller now than Emma was but that's being a preemie. If you take him back a month on the chart, he is about what she was. It's hard when you realize your kids are almost off the charts and then go to regular numbers. Tall and skinny kids. Definitely not my genetics doing that for them. Jackson is laughing and loves his sister so much. She will go to him in his swing and cuddle with him and laugh. We don't have to worry about her being mean, it's her loving him too hard. While with my parents, she tackles him to hug him. It's funny to see how much she adores him.

I can't believe when the whole family gets together. We went to Jackson Hole, WY as a family this summer. It was a lot of fun and not nearly as stressful as I thought it would be with all of the kids. Emma and Abby get along so well and Alex adores Cory. Emma was so curious of Asher the whole time. We needed her to keep giving him back his Pooh Bear but she always did it willingly. We went on a couple of hikes, watched the gun show, stayed in a cabin and everything. That really was a lot of fun. It was fun watching Alex and Abby on the slide and on a bungee cord trampoline thing up there. Abby loved it and smiled the whole time but I think we found out that Alex has a fear of heights with that experience. Asher is built like a brick and loves his mom with all of his heart. If she leaves his side, he has such a heartfelt cry like his world is shattered. He is going to give Alex a run for his money when he gets bigger so Alex better be nice to him now. It is amazing that the toy that is sought after is a doll stroller that Andy's parents gave Emma last Christmas. There were quite a few arguments on whose turn it was.

We got to go to the zoo with the whole family. It's amazing that we got to enjoy so much with everyone. It's too bad that people have to go back to their lives and we couldn't just keep having fun.
It was Emma's second birthday. We had everyone from my family and Andy's parents over for her favorite meal of waffles and a cake that I (with Dad supervising) made because she loves cats. It was my first time even trying something like that so it has to only get better now, right?

Jackson was blessed on July 19th so more family would be there. It was amazing how many people did come. I love when family is together so this was fantastic. I want to thank everyone that did come. Jackson's great grandparents (my mom's parents) came for the occasion to make it even more special.

Emma and the Door

I have to tell the story of what happened today before I update the stuff that happened this summer.

We had some people coming over at noon to buy our desk that is just taking room in our small apartment so it had to go. I was hurrying and making a dinner in the crock pot and Andy was painting the front room that has been in limbo since I got really sick with the pregnancy. (It's still not done but a lot closer.) I had finished the dinner and so Emma was done watching me when I started cleaning up. I hear her little running feet going in our bedroom. It wasn't a big deal because she has become obsessed with our bed since Jackson lays up there to play and get changed. All of a sudden, we heard the door shut. She does that a lot too so it's ok. It wasn't until the little click that we realized how that suddenly went badly. Emma locked herself in the bedroom. We had both unlocked those types of locks all of the time but this one wouldn't budge. We decided to just take the doorknob off. That's when we realized that our phillips was the only tool that was nowhere to be seen. Andy kept trying to get the door open while I went to find anyone we knew to get the screwdriver. I went through 3 different people in our ward who weren't home and the landscaping guy that doesn't speak english and kept trying to give me keys to something when I saw some people that I had never talked to on their patio smoking. I had to ask them if they had a phillips we could use. They lent me a whole case. By the time I got back, the buyers for the desk were there, they had tried to open the door as well, and had no success. Emma had been crying the whole time when she figured out that she couldn't get out. We finally got the doorknob off and we couldn't get the lock undone when my little finger feels a push. Emma was pushing my finger on the other side thinking it was our regular game that usually happens without the door. Needless to say, when we opened the door to a girl that had already forgotten what had happened, we put the doorknob back on and a little cover immediately went over the knob to make it a little harder for her to lock the door. Funny thing is that our usual roles were reversed in all of this. Andy was freaking out and I thought it was pretty funny. I knew it would be ok. Don't get me wrong. I hated hearing Emma crying and not being able to help her but I knew nothing bad was going to happen and it would turn out alright. And it did.

Jumps for the blog

So I have told so many people how stupid I feel about the whole blog situation. I'm almost hesitant to even post since I don't know how to do anything but I will figure this out. My coworker had to show me how to do the blog links. Her daughter had shown her how to do that. Thank you, Debi. I feel so pathetic. I used to think I wouldn't be in this situation like older people but it's amazing how quickly you fall behind when you're not around it all of the time in school. It doesn't help when you only get the computer for about an hour a day and that is even checking e-mails and such. Not a lot of time to explore. I am now determined and will do better.

So much has happened but I need to find my camera cord in the chaos since we are packing up to head back to Arizona. It has been a crazy and fast trip that I cannot believe is coming to a close. We thought we had all the time in the world. I guess the sooner we get back, the sooner Andy will be out of law school. I am excited for that. Even though we will be paying back so much money but it will be worth it. I am filled with mixed emotions of excitement and remorse. It's hard to be away from family and everything we know but Arizona is exciting and we have good friends there. The weather we will be going back to will be rough but it will be nice to get the family on a schedule again after all of this time. I will update soon with all of the pictures.

Jackson

For those that didn't know, we just had a recent addition to our family. We don't tell a lot of people because we have a lot of miscarriages and bad experiences. It was a really hard pregnancy but he was totally worth it. He is such a great baby. He was 36 weeks along when he didn't want to wait any longer. Labor started on Mother's Day in Relief Society. When we got home, I waited while Andy ate dinner and we grabbed our bag to head to the hospital. After they tried everything to stop the contractions and 23 hours, they decided they couldn't put it off. He was born on May 11, 2009 at 1:53 PM. Andy was the trooper doing his finals all of that week spending as much time as he could with me and then running to school. I don't know how he survived. I think he was as grateful as I was to get all of that out of the way. This is the compact version of the whole thing but everything turned out for the best.

Phoenix Zoo

I don't get the computer very often for long periods of time so I need to sneak it to blog better.  Plus I don't have a lot of stories since I'm sick a lot of the time.  I have to tell you that I look at a lot of people's blogs regularly but I have no idea how to add them to mine.  I need to sit down and figure that out or just suck up my pride and ask someone to help me.  Yeah.  I'm pathetic.

This experience was almost a year ago but we loved it!  It was amazing.  We went on a day that you and a guest got in for free and Emma was free because she was so young.  It is a HUGE zoo.  We were amazed at it.  It was a lot like the San Diego Zoo but not that big.  Emma really liked the giraffs.  They were about five feet away from us.  They even had little babies that were trying to eat with them as well.

Andy and my favorite spot was the tiger.  We sat there for a good 30 seconds searching for the tiger when I noticed other people were looking up.  Who looks up at a tiger exhibit?  So I followed their gazes and what do you know?  The tiger had

 climbed up a 20 foot tree and was in the top.  She was just sitting there watching the lions.  I honestly think she was hu

nting them.  (It wasn't that hard since they just lay there and ignore everyone.)  Can you tell I'm not good at this formatting?  I can't get it to go straight.  You have to look closely for the tiger in the green.  It was an amazing sight.    I can't wait until they have the next free day later this year.  Definitely worth it.  It would be worth it even if we had to pay full price but if you can save over $40, why wouldn't you?  

Emma

I am amazed at how much we laugh at our house.  Emma is so amazing and changes everyday.  Andy loves attacking her for the "hug machine".  This isn't a picture of it but it's close.  She loves it.  When she finally can get out of it, she'll act like she's trying to get away, but tease him by staying close.  It's funny that she still acts surprised when he catches her and does it again.  How can someone so small be so smart?  I'll tell her to do something that I'm pretty sure I've never told her before and she'll end up doing it.  How can that happen?  Isn't sad that we can't catch on like that when we're older?  I can't even imagine what we would be able to accomplish.  Cancer would be taken care of for sure.

First week in Arizona

I don't know why I would put this picture after it being so long ago but it makes me laugh.  This was the first week we were in Arizona.  We had NO furniture so we had to pull the backseat out of the back of the Tahoe to have a couch or anything to sit on until we had something.  Emma loved it since she was able to get up and down without problems.  We had to get that phonebook from a woman that we kept asking questions.  We needed to get so many numbers to even get the internet to start putting things together.  It was amazing how much we enjoyed everything since we didn't have anything.  Plus Andy didn't have school for that first week we were here so it was a lot of fun.    

My resolve to do better

So I see everyone is better at this than I am so I'm going to get better at this even though my skills are insufficient.  Andy has been so busy since getting here but we have been able to get out and make some great memories that I can share.  My first is when we went and explored the Mesa Temple.  It is so beautiful and majestic.  My grandparents were married there so that was something that we could link to it and associate our lives to.  Both Emma and I are in the world because of this temple.   Emma loved running around the grounds while Andy and I are still amazed at the huge assortment of cactus that even the temple landscaping has utilized with their palm trees.  It seems like it is mocking the colder regions it has something they don't.  I know that isn't the case but we're terrified of living in the cold weather again.  It is beautiful.  We had the opportunity to spend 3 years of our lives in paradise for what is going to be the hardest part of Andy's life.  It could be a lot worse.  If we could figure out how to move this weather and beauty to Idaho, we'd be set.