Happy Birthday Emma!!!

The date on the camera was wrong when we took these, so please ignore. She really was born on the 1st of Aug. :)

Today is my little Emma's birthday (OK technically speaking it's 10 minutes till her actually birth day, but I can't stay awake waiting for midnight any longer). I can't believe that five years have gone by already. She has been such a joy in our lives. She is probably our sweetest child. We just want to tell her some of the things that we love most about her.

1. You always put others feelings before your own. As long as they are happy you are too.
2. You are always singing a song. I love hearing your little voice singing in the house or car. It always brings a smile to my face. Especially when you're singing "Hey, Soul Sister".
3. You want to be just like your big sister. It cracks me up to watch you try to be like her. You love her more than anyone in the family (at least that's what we think). She is your best friend and I love to watch you with her.
4. I love your voice. It is so small and sweet sounding. I wish it could stay that way forever.
5. I love that you still love to cuddle with me.
6. You are so compassionate. It's one of the things I love most about you.

7.I love you for exactly who you are. You are an amazing girl and I know that as you grow you will only become more special.
There is so much more that I want to say, but I don't have the words for the feelings I have for you. To say you are loved is an understatement. We are so proud to be your parents. Thanks for a wonderful and loving five years. We love you peanut!!

Happy Birthday from Mommy, Daddy, Faith, Charlie and Hyrum.

IT'S ALIVE!!!!

That's right, my sewing machine is still alive and well. I have taken an almost five month absence form sewing (not like I have a good excuse or anything). I owe this comeback to our new little nephew, Connor. Jason's brother, Sean and his wife Liz, had their baby last week. So I decided I should probably get his gifts made before he left for college (one down, one to go). I had forgotten how much I loved sewing. I love how it just starts out at a piece of fabric and turns into something that you created. I love it. Now I have lots of projects to get done before our baby arrives in two months.

Baby Connor's Car Seat Tent

Baby Update

Went to the doctor today for a check up. My doctor had us do another ultrasound (so happy because Jason got to see our little one). Baby is doing great, still don't know what we are having, but do know that the baby already weighs 3 lbs. Hopefully this baby will stay under the 8 lb mark like all the other ones. Only about 80 days (hopefully less) till we get to meet this little one.

Time Well Spent and Serious Picture Overload

I must apologize for the long absence. I don't think I realized how busy I would be when Jason left. Much has happened since my last post. Jason has begun his deployment (we are now a quarter of the way done), Hyrum started walking, girls had their annual dance recital, the school year ended and Jason is now home on R & R.

While Jason has been home on R & R we took a much needed family vacation. We took the kids to Myrtle Beach. It was so wonderful. We had a couple of days that were rainy and we didn't get to do much (because of these we extended our trip one extra day), but the rest of the time it was warm and sunny. Our hotel was a one minute walk from the beach. The kids had so much fun playing in the ocean, well maybe not Hyrum, but he loved playing in the sand.

We also spent a lot of time at the pool (you can only take so much sand in your pants). The kids had a blast. They had six different pools at the resort. Two of which were perfect for Hyrum and Charlie (Charlie is still a little hesitant about the water). The girls really have begun to come along on their swimming. Emma now loves to swim with her head under the water and she loves to jump in the pool as well. Faith is quickly following in her footsteps. I guess their isn't a better motivator than your little sister doing it first (Faith was a little upset that Emma starting swimming under water before her).

We also enjoyed some really good food. Our favorites were the Brazilian Meathouse. If you've never been to one you need to go. If you love meat you have to go, they serve like 15 different meat dishes (they also had fruit and seafood). They bring them out on giant skewers (my favorite were the bacon wrapped chicken, the garlic steak, the chicken legs and the cinnamon covered pineapple). They also have a salad bar as well as an amazing dessert selection. All the kids ate free (my kind of place). Another favorite was a place called Friendly's. It was an awesome ice cream parlor. They had some of the best ice cream I've ever had. They also serve breakfast, lunch and dinner. But really for us the best thing they serve is their ice cream and sundays. We also took in a show called "Dixie Stampede". You sit in a giant arena and are served a four course dinner and you get to watch a horse show. The kids were mesmerized. The dinner they served was really good. It was a wonderful evening and a great end to our vacation.

We loved Myrtle Beach so much that Jason and I are hoping that when we reach the age of retirement we can buy a small home up there close to the beach and live out our golden years watching the sunrise and set on the beach (it would also be lot of fun for our grand kids to come and visit us for the summer).

This R & R has been some of the greatest times we have had as a family. I was pleasantly surprised that the kids were so well behaved. It really was the perfect vacation. In fact we only had one thing go wrong. On Monday (our first full day) we went to the beach. We placed our camera and sunblock in the diaper bag and went and had some fun. Well I bet you didn't know that SPF50 can eat your camera. The sunblock bottle (the new spray ones) blew up inside the diaper bag. It literally ate away at our camera. Jason was a sweetheart and bought be a new, better camera the next day. Thankfully the SD card survived.

Here are some pictures from our trip to Myrtle Beach. I will post pictures from the girls recital and end the year programs when I get them off our old computer (Jason also bought us a new computer, an imac).

Kids playing race car in our tub.

Faith loved playing in the ocean.

Daddy and his girls.

All my beach bums.

One of Mommy's favorite stores.

Give us the candy and no one will get hurt.

Can you tell he's been working out?

Hyrum was completely happy to just play in the sand.

Daddy and his little clone. I love those guys.

Hyrum just splashed Jason in the face and thought it was hilarious. So did I.

Just trying to gross ya'll out. Can you guess what is in his mouth. Answer is at the end of this post.

Getting some love while waiting to eat.

I just love this picture.

Answer: Hyrum has a piece of ham mashed with a blue peanut m&m in his mouth. Needless to say we had to fish all that out of his mouth. By we I mean Jason, that is totally a blue chore.

Cars, Poetry and The Potty

One might ask themselves how these three are related. Well, there not, duh!! We have been as busy as ever (like we ever have a day where were not). As most of you know Jason is leaving for Iraq soon, so we have been in full project mode. We finally got the boys room decorated and painted (I just have to finish their blankets). Their theme is....(can you guess?) Disney's CARS!!! We painted it red and brown and added a cars wallpaper boarder and decals. Charlie loves it, Hyrum mostly just likes to point at the stickers on the wall. I'm glad we got it done and that it turned out well. Next is the kitchen (painting it the same red color).

Last week in Faith's class they had kids sign up to do a poetry reading. Faith got to pick out her own poem and recite it to the class. She memorized the whole thing (Ok it was like four lines, but still I'm proud). Jason got to go watch her (I had to stay home with the boys as they both had pink eye). He had a great time and Faith had an even better time because she got to show off her Daddy to the whole class. They took some video of it and I'm including that on here. You'll need to turn up your sound pretty much all the way. The quality of the video isn't very good sorry.

The poem goes:
Humpty Dumpty laid by the pool

Humpty Dumpty thought he was cool

He wouldn't wear sunscreen

He thought it was dumb

Now he's served at McDonald's with ham on a bun.

It cracks me up everytime. I guess it doesn't take much.

Charlie has started potty training this past week. So far it has gone pretty well. There are a lot more things to think about with a boy than a girl. I was used to the girls being able to get themselves on the potty and do their business. With Charlie though, I have to make sure that he doesn't get "it" everywhere. We had one incident where I wasn't paying very close attention and he went mostly under the rim of his clip on seat. That was fun to clean up. Live and learn I guess. I'll be glad when he is completely potty trained. I have also learned that Charlie is skinner than most kids his age. We bought him 2T/3T underwear (have to remember not to call it panties) and it looks like he is carrying a load in the back because they are so loose. I guess he didn't get his Daddy's booty.

Winter Wonderland

Last Friday it snowed here. And I'm not talking about a light dusting that melts in five minutes. We got about eight inches of the white stuff. It was so beautiful. We all had a great time playing in it. The snow was a little dry for snowman building (not to mention we're a little out of practice), so we had a snow ball fight instead. There was so much snow on the trees that most of the small trees in our back and side yards were bent over to the ground. Here are some pictures from our snow day.

Jason shaking snow off of the tree onto the girls. They loved it.

Jason diving into the snow.

What it looked like on our street Saturday morning.

Our wintry home.

This is how heavy the snow was falling all night.

A Riddle, New Me & Other Updates

What takes four grown men, three drill heads, two picks and one hammer to open? Anyone, Anyone? Our door. A couple of Sundays ago we were going over to our friends house for dinner (Thanks Lindquists). Jason was getting all the kids into the van and had it all fired up and warm inside (it has been really cold here), he was being totally awesome. As I was coming out of the house Jason asked me to grab his house key to lock up. Well, me in all my "I have a better idea" attitude, was like, "I'll just lock the bottom and we can go". So I lock the bottom and close the door behind me. Of course it's after this that he tells me the keys he has in the car don't have a house key on them. Now we are locked out. Yeah!!! We decide to go to dinner (not like we were going to be getting into the house anytime soon) and try not to be mad at each other (that didn't work out so well). While at dinner we learn that there is a wonderful man in our ward who just happens to know how to pick a lock (don't ask). We call him up and he comes right over to help (thanks!!!). What was supposed to take five minutes and two guys (Jason held the flashlight) actually took, two hours four men, two lock picks, three drill heads and a hammer. Let me just say that our house is not easy to break into, unless you actually break something. So he tried to pick the lock first. The lock just laughed in our faces. After almost two hours of that we didn't care how we got in. Then we decided to drill out the lock (at this point there are now four men trying to figure out how to best get into our house). The lock ate through the first drill head like it was a starving person at an all you can eat buffet. It ate the second drill head just to spite us. Finally the third one did the trick...or so we thought. It would not give up. Finally they got a hammer and just beat the door knob off the door. Despite all that it was still cheaper to replace the door knob than to call a lock smith. Plus it makes for great story. Thank you everyone who helped us out that night. This is what the knob looked like when we were done with it.

So as most of you know, I have been trying to lose weight for the last year. I have managed to lose 50 lbs. It has been both exciting and hard. I have learned to cut back on the sweets and eat more veggies (it a miracle!!). I have gone from a size 18/20 to a 12/10. I want to take a moment here and thank my wonderful husband for all of his support and for pushing me at the gym when I needed it. You are my biggest fan and I am so proud to be your wife. So, I have 20 lbs to go to my goal. But those last 20 lbs will have to wait, because we are going to have another baby. That's right, we're pregnant. To answer your questions, Yes we are crazy (you'd have to be to have that many children and survive), yes we know what we are doing, yes we can afford it and yes we know what causes this. We are very excited to be adding to our family.

Before at my brother-in-laws rehearsal dinner

Me 50 lbs lighter.

I found this wonderful blog about girls hair. I have been trying some of them out on the girls, but I think I love it more than they do. Here are some of the pictures of their hair. They are so beautiful.







I gotta get some pictures of the boys on here as well, so here they are. They are doing great. Charlie is such a cute kid when he's not being a brat. Hyrum is my little sweetheart. He is my little shadow. I love them so much.