Beckstead Family

2 Year Old!

2012-01-14T18:49:00.000-07:00

Eddie's birthday was a while ago, but I am just having time to post about it. I can't believe that he's already 2. He still feels like my baby, even though I know he's not.

He got to celebrate his birthday twice, which he was definitely not opposed to. We were in Henderson visiting Jacob's family on his actual birthday. We went out to Applebee's (waited a ridiculously long time to get food) and he ordered his favorite chicken. He loves chicken strips. They also sang happy birthday to him and the look an his face was adorable. He was so excited about it. I wish I had remembered to take my camera.

After dinner, we went to Jacob's sister Amelia's house, which she had decked out in Thomas the train supplies from party city. He was again in heaven. He is just a little obsessed with trains. Grandma even gave him some more of the Sodor trains, including the Edward and Emily trains. Just in case you were wondering, he can name all the trains from Thomas (All the main ones). He also got a remote control Geotrax train from Amelia, Darren and Tyler and has been loving that. He especially loves standing over the track and having the train go between his legs.

(Sorry about the lighting, there was a window right behind him)

When we got home, we had another birthday party for him at my parent's house. I decided to be crafty and to attempt making a train cake. For someone who is completely uncrafty, I don't think it turned out too bad. I will be eternally grateful to my friend Elizabeth for letting me use her mold, or it would certainly have ended in complete disaster.

We also used the party as an excuse for my dad to try out the new smoker he got for Christmas. Smoked turkey was a huge success, I don't know why we've been eating it any other way.

He again got another exciting round of birthday presents and discovered that a ball will not bounce while still in it's packaging. Grandma and Grandpa got him a new ball (which he has been playing with any time he isn't playing with trains) and Jacob and I got him a pick-up truck. It's pretty awesome.

I still can't believe my boy is so grown up. He went to the doctor for his two year check up this last week and the doctor told us what we already knew, he is so smart and he's quite the little tank. He is the exact opposite build from his sister. His weight is at the 40th percentile (about where her height always is) and his height is at the 5th (her weight). So, she's tall and skinny and he's short and round. It's ok, he's pretty darn cute that way! The doctor said that he should know 250 words by his 3rd birthday, but I'm fairly certain that if he doesn't know 250 words right now, he will within the next month. That boy is talking our ears off. Most of it is one word at a time, but he can say pretty much any word he wants to.

Happy Birthday Sweet Edward!

Merry Christmas

2011-12-26T16:44:00.000-07:00

As always, it has been a crazy, but wonderful, holiday season. I have to say that with me working until last Wednesday, it does not feel like Christmas should be over already. I was just starting to actually get into the holiday spirit! Since my last post, I am feeling much better. I was on the Zofran pump for about a month before I got to pack it in a box, send it away, and throw all the leftover needles in the garbage (my favorite part). I have had occasional moments of nausea since, but nothing terrible. Last Friday we had an ultrasound and found out that we are getting another boy! Another very wiggly boy. He was moving around tons during the ultrasound! We are very excited and are almost positive on his name, but are still thinking it over.

We spent Christmas Eve with my family, eating all our traditional foods, plus a few very tasty additions. For the first time eve, I totally failed at boiling eggs, so my deviled eggs got trashed and replaced with a quickly made batch of spinach and artichoke dip. Not a bad replacement at all.

On Christmas morning, Eddie coughed himself awake at 5 am. He was not very happy that he had to wait for his sister to go open presents. He sort of watched a couple of Christmas shows in our room, while he waited very impatiently for her to wake up. Finally, at 6, we let him go wake her up. She woke up coughing and sniffling as well.

After a little exploring, they got to open presents. They both loved their 'snuggle pets' that Emily has been asking for for about 2 months now and their art sets.

They also each got one big present, that took up Dad's whole day, trying to put them together.

Today has been a fun day of playing with everything Santa brought. We have played Memory, painted, stamped, played
lots of trains and eaten lots of plastic meals.

Eddie has been cracking me up all day with his trains. Up until yesterday, he had 3 trains: Thomas, Percy and the caboose (which he calls a boose). Thomas is a little chunkier than the other trains and doesn't fit through the mountain tunnel on his new set. We tried convincing him to just play with his new trains on the table and not Thomas. That was apparently a bad plan. He has hooked all the trains together and just takes the mountain off when he gets to it so that Thomas can get through.

Emily got a cupcake cookbook from Santa and has been using that to help in her plastic meal making. She is also trying very hard to decide which one she wants to make first, for real. Mom did not consider checking the recipes and making sure that we had all the ingredients to make at least one thing. I don't even have a cake mix. But she is happily planning for our next grocery shopping trip.

Jacob and I both had a wonderful Christmas as well. I got some very fun new shoes, lots of books and movies and a piano lamp (yay! I can see to play the piano!). Jacob got some fun games and movies and new clothes. Mostly, we just enjoyed the time together as a family, which does not happen often enough these days!

What Is Up With Me

2011-11-11T11:02:00.001-07:00

It seems to be the common question that everyone wants to know the answer to. So, now that I can sit up long enough to blog, I thought I would explain exactly what is up with me.

First you should know that pregnancy and my body are not friends. They do not get along well and do not like each other. This time started out with the normal morning sickness routine. Lots of nausea, very little eating, lots and lots of dizziness (more than normal). After a few trips to the emergency room for re-hydration, my doctor decided the enough was enough. She ordered something called a zofran pump and set up an appointment for the home hospice company to deliver it and show me how to use it.

This is my lovely pump. (Please excuse the quality of the pictures, I think our camera is getting worse)

The syringe on the top is filled with zofran (a nausea medication) and is slowly injected throughout the day, through a site in my stomach. The pump is my constant friend. I carry it in a bag that hangs over my shoulder. I even have a water-proof bag so it can come in the shower with me. I still occasionally go to set it down and then remember I can't do that.

Yes, I do have to poke myself with a needle every other day to change the site. I thought that I was going to be making Jacob do this and would never be able to poke myself. Much to my surprise, I can actually do it by myself. Jacob put the first one in, but when it started hurting and needed to be moved for the first time, he was at work. So I figured I would try and I did it! Still not my favorite thing, but oh well. The hard part now is finding a spot on my stomach that isn't sore. Turns out, this medication is pretty hard on the tissues.

I also now have a bio hazard container sitting by my bed. Ok, so it's a Gatorade bottle with a bio hazard sticker on it.

I also have boxes of hospital supplies by the front door, but that picture is loading sideways for some reason, so we will just skip that.

For the first little while, it felt like my life had been taken over completely. Every morning, I have to weigh myself and pee on a stick to check for keytones (I know you wanted to know that), which tell whether I'm dehydrated. I then have to call the home hospice nurse and report in for the day. She asks for my weight and my keytones along with a million other questions like how much I've had to eat and drink, how much I've thrown up, etc. They monitor all this to make sure I'm not losing too much weight or getting too sick.

I also have to be careful to watch how much medication is in the pump and be ready to change it when it runs low. At school, that means I frequently have to have an aide come up to my room while I go get the medication out of the fridge and change it. My class thinks it's pretty funny when the pump starts beeping and me.

When the home hospice nurse came, I found out that along with the pump I also got an IV pole and bags of fluid. Which of course, meant she had to put the IV in my arm. I tried to still function normally by unhooking myself to go to church and to school and then hooking it back in when I got home. Unfortunately, my body didn't think that was such a good plan. Monday night, I kind of crashed. Here is me on Halloween, hooked up to all my machines, while my kids were getting ready to leave for trick-or-treating.

I ended up at home, in bed, for the rest of the week. It was kind of miserable. During that time I started testing positive for keytones, so the nurse came back and moved the IV into a bigger vein, which happened to be in the back of my hand. Not very comfy. She then had to come back a few days later when that vein blew. Also, not comfy. My wrist looked broken, but it was just full of IV fluid. The good news is, the nurses started looking into what was triggering the morning sickness and one of them discovered that motion is one of my main triggers. I hadn't noticed because even the slightest motion sets it off. This is why I was so much dizzier than normal. They got me put on an over the counter motion sickness medication called bonine. It tastes terrible, but works miracles.

I am finally back to being a functioning human being. I made it through work every day last week and have actually accomplished some things around the house this morning! I have even gone through all of Eddie's clothes and packed away all the summer things. It only took me two hours, one box and two garbage bags. Hopefully Emily's will be a little faster!

Pregnancy Counter

2011-10-25T08:13:00.000-06:00

Take a look at my lovely pregnancy counter. I think I hate it. Looking at it just makes me depressed. 'Only 209 days left', really? I have to do this for that many more days! I was in the ER yesterday, for the second time this pregnancy because I couldn't keep anything down and got dehydrated. So far, today is on the same path. Nothing staying in the stomach. Blech.

Hello Again

2011-10-13T17:15:00.004-06:00

I hate it when I go for so long without blogging. I come back with no idea what to write because there are so very many things that I have skipped over!The past few months have been absolutely insane. School is taking nearly all my time and energy, leaving very little energy for things like cleaning my house. So of course, blogging has been pushed even further back than the back burner. I suppose I will go through a brief overview of the most important things I have skipped over.

The Pregnant: Yes, for anyone that hasn't heard, we are now expecting #3. I don't remember why our friends started calling pregnancy "the pregnant", it makes it sounds like a disease. But for me, it feels like a disease, so it works. Actually, I have only been in the hospital once so far and the past few days have been really good. Here's praying that it will stay this way and this pregnancy will be easier than the last two. I had my first ultrasound on Tuesday and everything looks good. As the doctor commented, there is only one baby in there and he or she is measuring exactly right for what I estimated my due date to be, May 21st. The good news is, I should only have to take a week or two of maternity leave at the very end of school.

My Birthday: I am now 1/4 of a century old. It was a good day. We watched conference with Dave and Amy, while eating the lovely homemade cinnamon rolls they brought and then had a party with my family. I was even able to eat my birthday dinner without throwing up!

Scott & Kayleen's Wedding: My little brother got married last week! Hooray! Kayleen has been an unofficial part of the family for about 5 years, so it's nice to have it official! It was a really good day. I need to go to more weddings, they are fantastic.

Today: Right now is fall break, so today my mom and I took the kids to Superstition Farms. They were having a free day, so we went to see the animals and went on a hay ride around the dairy. We also got to briefly see a newborn calf. The mother cow was not thrilled by our presence though, so we didn't stay long. Edward is now sleeping away the entire afternoon, I am trying to find the will to do some cleaning and Emily is taking care of her wala (koala) baby. It's nice to have some time at home! Jacob is gone on our stake's youth trek, which is not helping my laziness. I have a feeling I'll be doing all my cleaning for the week on Saturday morning, right before he gets home.

Life Truck

2011-08-11T18:00:00.002-06:00

The last 2 days, Eddie has had meltdown when I picked the kids up from the babysitter. Today he didn't even want to come home with me. He calmed down on the drive home, but when we pulled into the driveway he started screaming again. As I was getting him out I said, "What's your big problem buddy?"

Emily's reply, "His life is gone. His life truck needs to come back." (Very serious face)

I have no idea where that came from, but it gave me a good laugh!

Other than the meltdowns, the first two days of school have gone really well! I'm enjoying my class so far and am feeling very organized, which is monumental for me.

Now, if we can get all 4 tests done that we're supposed to do tomorrow and get them graded....yeah, right.

Crazy Kids

2011-07-30T18:05:00.004-06:00

My kids are nuts. There's no good way to explain it, so I thought I would just post a couple of videos to show you.

This is what they decided to do today while we were cleaning Eddie's room. Eddie is snoring as well, you just can't hear him over Emily.

Yes, those noises you hear are coming from Eddie

Here are some other crazy things that I've been meaning to record:

Emily:

Favorite songs:
Peanut Butter and Jelly (by InsideOut)
Jesus Wants me for a Sunbeam
Jesus Wants to Row a Boat
Jesus Wants me to be a Scary Rawr
(She's working on rewriting the Primary Songbook)

Things she can't go through the day without:
Juicy & Snacks in abundance
Star & Nina (The Goodnight Show on Sprout) - I don't know how she got so attached and we're working on weaning her of this attachment.
Books
Doing her chores - I've created a monster, she can't stand leaving her bed unmade.

Eddie:

Words He Can Say:
Mamma
Daddy
Grandpa (Umpa)
Stuck
Duck
Dropped It
Back
No
Nose
He can mimic almost any simple word, but those are the ones he says on his own.

Games He plays:
Find everyone's nose - literally, everyone he can reach
Scary monster
Showing everyone all his owies
Sword Fighting
Destroying anything organized...especially if someone else was playing with it
And in the calm moments...cars, trucks and trains

Games they play together:
Hide and Seek
The Princess and the Frog (both in frog form)
Prince and Princess
Ring Around the Rosies

And for one more story. This morning we made brownies for the ward Relief Society to take to the men's shelter. After smelling them all morning, we decided to make some for us as well. Apparently the bag was a little stuck to the bottom of the box...taking it out didn't end well for Emily.

Mr. Independent

2011-07-18T09:49:00.006-06:00

He can do it himself. It doesn't matter if the task is physically impossible for a person his size, he does not need your help. Especially if your name happens to be Mom. If your name is Dad, your help might be grudgingly accepted, but Mom? Forget about it.

Sometimes this comes in handy, like his ability to do his breathing treatment on his own, even when he's asleep. Most of the time, it is just a pain. So far this morning, we've had one temper tantrum because he couldn't get the empty cereal box in the garbage can, one because he couldn't unload the dishwasher on his own, a couple because he couldn't get undressed himself and get himself up into the bathtub, one because I helped him get washed, one big one because I put his diaper on and that pretty much sums up everything we've done this morning. He still doesn't have clothes on because he doesn't want my help. It's fun.

Fortunately, Dad was home long enough this morning to get him breakfast, so he did get food. He likely wouldn't have eaten it if I'd gotten it for him.

He spent most of yesterday in temper tantrum mode, due to being dressed for church, having to share crayons and coloring books with his sister during church, needing his own hymn book, etc. Of course, his nursery leaders said he was a perfect angel during class....and then yelled and screamed because he couldn't get in the truck by himself.

The poor kid knows what he wants, he just needs to be about two feet taller and a lot more coordinated.

Mad Face

2011-07-12T09:33:00.002-06:00

A few minutes ago, the kids were playing outside while I was cleaning the kitchen. The cleaning is going very well, I might add. All I have left in the kitchen is cleaning out the fridge and possibly mopping and it's only 8:30! I had to take a snack break though and decided to blog while eating my pretzels. Anyways, Emily asked me to come outside and take her picture. When I told her to smile, she said no, she wanted to do a mad face. So, here is Emily's mad face.

Note that next to her left elbow is a picture of a bikini. As she was getting dressed this morning, she pointed to it and told me that she can't wear that swimming suit because her tummy would be embarrassed. Woohoo! Modesty learned with no effort on my part. She also informed me that Candace has a swimming suit like that, so her tummy was probably embarrassed. She has developed a little bit of an obsession with Candace from the show Phineas and Ferb. I still haven't figured out why she likes that show so much, it has to go way over her head half the time. Yesterday she told me that she's going to bust her brother, just like Candace.

Here are a couple cute pictures from the last few weeks!

Emily's 4th of July dress

And since we were taking her picture, we had to take his too

And Eddie's new favorite thing, finger painting with his yogurt. Even with all this, I think he still manages to eat more of it than Emily does.

4th of July

2011-07-05T14:18:00.002-06:00

We had a fantastic 4th of July this year, celebrating with my family and enjoying the fact that fireworks are now legal in Arizona. Not sure that will last, but we had lots of fun with it!

I spent most of the morning trying to make beautiful cupcakes...it was definitely an epic fail. I made marshmallow fondant that I was going to use to cut out cute shapes to decorate said cupcakes. I don't know if I made the fondant wrong, or if it just wasn't meant to be used that way, but it didn't work. After much effort, I found that it wouldn't hold the shapes and ended up just looking blobby. So, I made red, white and blue frosting and pulled out the sprinkles. Of course, as soon as I turned my back, Eddie climbed up on the table and stuck his finger in about 7 of the cupcakes. Oh well, they tasted good! I also attempted home made ice cream for the first time and that was much more successful.

After much swimming and some amazing dutch oven ribs, the kids put on a parade. Emily made it easy for me, she just wanted to be a princess. So I tied Eddie's blanket around his neck and called him her prince.

We also enjoyed some carnival games. Emily loved the ducky races and continued them in her bath this morning. She assured me that I could borrow her pirate ducky and her squirt gun if I want to have a ducky race during my bath.

As it was starting to get dark, the kids played with glow sticks until it was time for the fireworks to begin!

Amazingly, both kids stayed outside through all the fireworks. Eddie needed his blankie and Grandpa to protect him and Emily covered her ears through the loud ones, but they both watched them all!

It was a great time, but I must admit that one of my favorite parts was the fact that it made the kids so tired that they slept until almost 7 this morning. I think that was a record.

Kids Say the Darnedest Things

2011-07-05T13:47:00.000-06:00

Emily: Mom, there's dirts in my bathtub! (two black dots)

Me: It's ok

Emily: They won't hurt me? They love me so they won't hurt me?
.......................

I was bringing the vacuum into the living room and pushed aside a white blanket that was in my path...

Emily: Mom! Don't ruin my pond! That's not very nice! Please don't ruin my pond anymore!
.......................

I walked into the toy room to see Eddie picking up the crayons and putting them away (without being asked)

Me: Eddie! Are you cleaning up?

Emily: Mom, he's a smart kid. (In that tone of voice that says, geez you're so dumb)
......................

During chore time:
Me: Emily, get your toys picked up please.

Emily: But mom, I'm a princess.

Me: Well, princesses still have to do their chores

Emily: But I'm a dead princess.

(How do you argue with that?)
......................

Emily comes out of her room while she's supposed to be napping: "Mom, can you come help me close my eyes and mouth? It's too hard and crazy."
.......................

This morning, about 8: "You need to go have a shower and get dressed Mom. We're not having a jammy party today. Maybe you can have a jammy party another day."

It's a good thing I have Emily around to keep me on track!

Summer, So Far

2011-06-20T15:58:00.002-06:00

So far, we've just been enjoying being home and trying to find our house under all the clutter that piled up during the school year. Alright, so that second part isn't so enjoyable, but we're doing it anyway. Hopefully by the end of summer, everything will be clean, all the pictures will be hung and our house will look a little more put together.

Between the cleaning, here's some other things we've been doing!

Apparently, silence doesn't always mean trouble. I realized one day that I hadn't heard anything from the kids in a little while and started to worry about what they were getting into and this is what I found.

We've been playing lots of dress up and pretend. It's Emily's favorite. Just in case you can't see her, Emily's best friend Lizzie is standing next to her, also dressed up. Lizzie is a silent presence in our life quite often these days. We also frequently turn into things without realizing it. I've been a frog, a princess and even a whale, just in the last few days.

The kids have been bonding watching tv. They've had fun discovering some new shows, because I couldn't handle watching the same ones all summer. Fraggle Rock was not such a hit, but they seem to like Care Bears!

We had fun one day taking silly pictures.

And of course, I'm teaching them to do chores so I don't have to do all the cleaning myself.

Little Miss Imagination

2011-06-06T14:27:00.003-06:00

Emily's imagination just blows me away. I frequently don't even realize that she's imagining something because she incorporates it into everything she does! For example, she told me earlier today that I needed to go get my princess costume on. I told her, several times, that I don't have a princess costume and asked her what she wanted me to wear instead. It took me a while to realize that my princess costume was imaginary and sitting right next to me, apparently.

Today during lunch though, was one of the longest and funniest imaginings to date. Here's how it went:

Emily: Mom, I really want to go play outside, but I can't because it's raining.

Me: It's not raining sweetheart. It's really sunny and hot outside today. Look!

Emily: No Mom, it's raining really hard.

Me: Why don't you turn around and look out the back door?

Emily: (Looks) Yep, it's raining. It's going to ruin my chalk and if I go out there the wind will blow me away.

Me: (finally catching on) Oh really? I guess you'll have to think of something to do inside then.

Emily: No, I need an umbrella, Tootles will bring me one! Tootles! Tootles! (calling for him).
He's not coming because he's sad and his mom needs to come and talk to him (Emily's translation of time-out)

Me: Oh, I guess you'll have to wait a few minutes then.

Emily: (waits about 30 seconds) Tootles! Oh Tootles! I need a great big umbrella to keep me warm, Tootles! Mom, Tootles is still sad. I will go talk to him!

Emily: (After walking in the living room and talking to the stool for a few minutes) I got an umbrella Mom! Tootles is happy now so I got my umbrella and I can go outside in the rain and save my chalk!

And the final example, just so I can throw a picture in here: Emily and her egg shoes.

She is so adorable and is definitely making life fun and interesting!

Memorial Day Weekend

2011-06-06T14:03:00.006-06:00

Every year, my family has a huge reunion over Memorial Day weekend. See below to understand just what I mean by huge. If you can see it....the picture is really too big for this blog and somehow ended up really tiny. And yes, I am related to all those people. And yes, I am in the picture, I dare you to find me!

So, Thursday night, we got our camping gear loaded into my parents trailer and all our suitcases and such loaded into our car. At 4 am Friday morning, Jacob got up to go put gas in the car and finish up some last minute things. A few minutes later, we got a text from my dad saying that they were feeling questionable and were going to delay departure a few hours. About 45 minutes after that, we got another text saying that 4 of them were sick and they were definitely not going.

We laid there and pondered our options and came up with these:

1. Go get our stuff, try to stuff it in the car and eventually end up taking the truck and going to Utah on our own (because there's no way everything would fit in the car). Rather pricey option. The truck uses lots more gas than the car.

2. Stay home

3. Use the fact that we're already packed and have gas money set aside to go somewhere else.

We picked option 3, repacked our bags with some shorts instead of coats and headed to Henderson to see Jacob's family.

Of course, they were very excited by the surprise and we had a fun weekend! We got there just in time to celebrate Jacob's Dad's birthday and to see Grandma Beckstead and two of his aunts who were there from Utah. We did some shopping, saw a movie, and the kids got ridiculously spoiled by their grandma and Aunt Amelia. They even had their first experience at Build-A-Bear.

Tuesday morning, Jacob and I were told that the kids were going on an adventure and then they left! Grandma and Amelia took them to Build-a-Bear and got them some stuffed animals that are pretty amazing representations of their personalities. Emily's is a bunny named Tink (go figure, right?) She has a Tinker Bell dress and sparkly shoes that Emily tries to steal from her. She also plays a fun song about magic that both the kids love dancing to.

Edward's is a bear, wearing a polo and slacks (My personal favorite outfit for Edward, he just looks so cute in polos!), and the best part, he makes the funniest laughing noise, which Edward likes to mimic. When asked what he wanted to name the bear, Edward just laughed, so the bear's name is Ha ha ha. Which is appropriate since that's what both the bear and Edward do constantly when they're together.

The kids are pretty attached to their new friends! It was fun to see family and get away for a few days, even if we did have to miss the campout. And, upon finding out that it snowed Monday morning in Utah, I was a little less sad about missing it.

That Guy's Naked!

2011-05-19T13:59:00.002-06:00

Today, we took Eddie to see the doctor. He might be in the early stages of pneumonia, by the way. A few minutes after we pulled out of the parking lot, Emily shouts, "Mom, that guy's naked!"

Unsure that I'd heard right, I said, "What?"

"That guy's naked and he's embarrassing me!"

Sure enough, the guy in the truck next to us did not have a shirt on. The entire way home, she told me all about the naked guy, here are a few snippets of what she said:

"I'm going to call his mom and she's going to yell at him and tell him to go home and put his clothes on!"

"His mom told him not to go outside naked, but he forgot."

"Mom, I need to tell him, hey! You need to go home, you forgot your clothes!"

So, do not forget to put a shirt on before you leave the house or my daughter will be embarrassed and your mom will yell at you!

Viral Meningitis

2011-05-10T18:37:00.003-06:00

So, after spending last weekend here...

We spent this weekend here...

Jacob was feeling sick all week, but we figured it was just a stomach bug. On Saturday, he developed a fever and the back of his head and neck started hurting. He decided to post his symptoms of Facebook to see if anyone recognized them. A girl he works with, who is currently in nursing school, pointed out that they sounded like meningitis symptoms. When he woke up feeling worse on Sunday, we decided to head for the ER.

Once we got there and he explained his symptoms, the doctor basically said, "Yeah, sounds like meningitis." They had to do a spinal tap to test his spinal fluid and find out for sure. Not the funnest experience for him.

After running a few tests, they found that he had 5 white blood cells in each sample(spinal fluid shouldn't have any), twice the amount of protein that should have been there, and other markers that indicate a virus.

He was admitted to the hospital at about 1:00 pm and they ordered tons of tests, just to make sure that it really was meningitis and not anything else.

Fortunately, if you're going to have meningitis, viral is the one to have. Bacterial will kill you, viral usually doesn't. Unfortunately, they can only treat the symptoms of a virus. So they put him on morphine and zofran and stuck him in isolation. No one cared about me, since I'd already been exposed and wasn't showing symptoms, but everyone else who came in the room had to wear a gown, gloves and a mask.

On Monday, he started feeling better around noon. We had already seen one doctor and were waiting for the Infectious Diseases Specialist to come in before they could decide whether to release him. Around 5, the nurses started calling the doctor for us to find out when he was coming. When the day nurses left at 7, they still hadn't reached him, but told us that he's notorious for coming in at 8 or 9 pm, so they were sure he would be there.

We didn't see even the night nurse until 11:30. At which point, we were really tired and a little annoyed. She took 10 minutes, reached the doctor on the first try and he said Jacob could go! So at 11:59 pm (hooray for not paying for another day), he was discharged and we got to come home!

We're feeling a little sleep deprived at the moment and are still waiting to find out the results of all the tests. Jacob still has a headache, but other than that, he's feeling much better!

Weekend Away

2011-05-10T18:15:00.004-06:00

Last week was our 5 year anniversary. It's kind of crazy that we've been married that long, but on the other hand, I can hardly remember what single life was like. We didn't do anything on the actual day of our anniversary, because I was attending the 5th grade musical at school. (They did fantastic, by the way.)Jacob told me that we would do something over the weekend to make up for missing it.

I really should know my husband well enough by now to know that when he says something like 'over the weekend', he means the whole weekend.

We went out to the Radisson at Fort McDowell, to spend a wonderful weekend relaxing. It was so nice to not be on a schedule and to just relax! Jacob was thoughtful enough to schedule a pedicure for me, so I guess we did have one thing on the schedule! We spent the weekend swimming, reading our books and even went to a movie. It was fantastic to get away from reality for a few days! The hotel was really nice and I would definitely recommend it.

Our one funny story for the weekend was dinner on Saturday. We decided to go to the hotel's very nice restaurant. The room came with $75 of resort credit, so why not? We were looking forward to a really nice, peaceful dinner. The restaurant was definitely everything we expected; very nice atmosphere, amazing food (seriously, one of the best meals I've ever eaten).

About half way through our meal, a group of guys came in, looked like they were right off the golf course, and told the waitress that they needed a table for 11, preferably in a corner because they were going to be very loud and obnoxious. Since the restaurant wasn't very big, there really was no such thing as a secluded corner. You could see the instant panic attacks of the faces of the waitresses. They got them seated as far away from everyone else as they could, when the next group walked in. About 20 guys, fresh of the golf course and drunk out of their minds. Turns out, they had a reservation and were supposed to be seated outside, but it was windy so they asked to be seated inside....in a corner, since they were going to be loud and obnoxious. I felt so bad for the staff! Fortunately, we were almost done, so we got a mostly peaceful dinner! It was really rather amusing.

My husband is so good to me. I definitely needed a break from life! I'm so blessed to be married to him and am looking forward to the years to come!

Emily's Birthday

2011-04-23T17:35:00.002-06:00

In my lack of time to blog lately, we missed writing about Emily's 3rd birthday! We had so much fun celebrating and are still a little amazed that she's 3 years old.

We let her choose between a few different cake options and these are the ones she picked. I was happy with how they turned out!

Between her two Grandma's, she got a birthday girl shirt and a crown. She felt pretty special.

Emily is really into Liv dolls and got a new one, named Daniela, for her birthday.

She had a lot of fun and has been loving all her new toys. She is especially loving her Tinker Bell dresses.

She is growing up in a hurry and becoming such a sweet little girl. She is loves playing with her brother and sharing with him. She just doesn't like it when he calls her Mom. Even when he's not talking to her, she reminds him that she's Sister, not Mom.

She loves all things Tinker Bell and Princesses. Tangled was a huge hit at our house. We are in the process of moving her into her own room and into a bigger bed. She has let us know, several times, that she wants a Tink room.

Happy Birthday Emily!

Not So Hot

2011-03-24T17:00:00.004-06:00

So, we didn't do such a good job updating this past month. Although you didn't know it, a lot happened this past month (well, it feels like a lot). I turned 26 on the 8th of March. Clarissa made delicious burritos and her family came and had dinner with us. I got a set of Legos (the package says 7-12, but who's counting?), a dinner out with Clarissa to Outback, Meet The Robinson's, money from Clarissa's parents to buy Tron: Legacy (comes out on April 5th), and money from my parents and Grandma Davis towards our new grill. We've never had a backyard until we moved to Arizona (such is life living in apartments). So, now that we have a patio and backyard, we decided to get a grill.

The Saturday after my birthday, Clarissa and the kids went to Utah for a week with her parents to see Grandma Davis. It was Spring Break, so she nor her siblings missed any school. While they were gone, I attended a 3 day medical seminar for work. Biomat rented me a car, so I didn't have to put miles on my own vehicle. Also while Clarissa was in Utah, Dave and Laura stopped in Mesa on their way back to Texas. They stayed here with me, instead of having to get a hotel. Dave helped me put together the aforementioned grill.

Work has pretty much consumed most of our time. When we're not at work, we're just enjoying being together as a family. Hope all is well in the world.

Vacation Anyone?

2011-02-24T17:50:00.002-07:00

Does anybody read these? Just curious. Had anyone ever had the overwhelming desire to just go somewhere? Work has been stressful for both of us recently, especially Clarissa, and I have this huge desire to just get away for a couple of days. Am I the only one who experiences this? Any suggestions for the blogging world?

Eddie's First Ambulance Ride

2011-02-11T08:18:00.004-07:00

Yes, that's right, we got to ride in an ambulance last night. Not something I ever wanted to do! Edward actually slept through that part of the night.

After school yesterday, I went to talk to a few people and got back to my classroom to find my school phone ringing, three missed calls, two voicemails and a text message on my cell phone. Both Jacob and the kids' babysitter were calling to let me know that Edward was having trouble breathing and we needed to hurry home. I called his doctor's office on my way and after asking me a million questions about his condition, they informed me that they couldn't see him and recommended that I take him to the Phoenix Children's Urgent Care. Seriously?! I spent all that time on the phone so you could tell me you're too busy to see him!

When we got to Urgent Care they got him all hooked up to the machines and for a second thought that the machine was broken. No, there was nothing wrong with their equipment. His heartbeat really was at 220 bpm and his temperature really was over 105 (not sure exactly how high, it was off their chart). They told us they would do a few breathing treatments and if they didn't work he would have to be transferred to Phoenix Children's Hospital.

The first treatment did nothing, so they decided to give him epinephrine. That worked really well (even though he threw up all over the mask, and me, in the middle of the treatment). They told us that we would have to hang out for 2 hours so they could observe him and make sure he wasn't going to rebound. At this point it was 7 pm, so Jacob left to go get us some dinner and I watched Edward while he inhaled a package of Goldfish that the nurse brought him. By the time Jacob got back, he was struggling to breath again. So they called the ambulance to send us off to the hospital.

It took quite a while to get out of the Urgent Care, we waited 20 minutes for the first ambulance and when they got there, their gurney was too wide to strap a carseat to. So we waited another 20 minutes for a different ambulance with a smaller gurney in it.

When we got to Phoenix Children's, it was absolute madness. There were literally gurney's with patients in them lining the halls. Because Edward is so little and was having breathing problems, they had a room waiting for us. Of course, the ambulance ride cured him and he was pretty much fine. He had several doctors come check him and they decided to release us after only a few hours.

The final verdict is that he has croup and possibly bronchiolitis and asthmatic tendencies that made it worse. Emily got bronchiolitis at about the same age, hers wasn't nearly as bad, but they told us about the same thing. The can't know for sure at this age if the kids are asthmatic, but there is so much family history of it that they definitely have tendencies toward it and respiratory illness will bring those tendencies out. Hooray for us.

Edward is still feeling sick, but doing much better. He has a nasty sounding cough and his breathing is really loud and raspy.

We did end up at the ER again tonight because he was starting to have a really hard time breathing again. Of course, he started breathing fine as soon as we were checked in. Murphy's Law. He has also managed to lose his pacifier, so tonight could be interesting! One of the doctors we talked to yesterday said that he would wake up about every 4 hours because he was struggling to breathe and that if we walked around with him and got him calmed down he would go back to sleep. So far he's been like clockwork about that. Very dependable child.

And here is his sister with her cute new haircut. Yes, she is morally opposed to looking at the camera. I have tried multiple times to get a picture of her haircut and it just isn't happening.

Spots of Sunshine

2011-01-23T10:58:00.004-07:00

I know I haven't written anything on here in forever, but I haven't known what to write, nor have I had the time to do it. Since I last wrote, I have started my first year of teaching. I have heard that the only way to get through the first year of teaching is by drinking...some days I wish that were an option. It is definitely an overwhelming experience. Most days I feel woefully inadequate for the large task that has been placed before me.

I was thinking back to college the other day and remembered one time when a girl in my class said that she thought teaching elementary would be like teaching primary; someone would hand you a manual and you would just teach the information in it. Oh, how I wish.

What I really wanted to write about though, are the spots of sunshine in my life. I think I need to take the time to write down the things that make me smile!

1. Those moments at school when something clicks and a student says, "I get it now!"

2. Cookies, ice cream, cheese cake and all the other junk food I've been eating lately. (It's my replacement for drinking.)

3. My amazing husband who is so supportive of me and has really stepped up to help me around the house. I'm sure it's been an adjustment for him since I used to do almost all the housework, leaving the laundry and the occasional load of dishes for him. Now he does just as much, and often more, housework than I do. I had someone ask me the other day if my husband is supportive of me working and helpful around the house and with the kids. They said that was great because a lot of husband's expect their wives to do everything. I'm glad mine doesn't!

4. My kids!

Edward is getting so much personality lately. He walks around the house laughing at nothing. Today he kept hugging Emily and letting out random shrieks of joy. Hard on the ear drums, but really cute. He seriously loves to laugh, especially when someone laughs back. I tried to get a video and him and Jacob laughing at each other, but of course Edward got distracted by the camera and stopped.

Emily has acquired some new habits that are incredibly amusing. The first being, she seems to think she needs Disney characters to come help her. A few days ago I asked her to clean up her toys. She immediately said, "Can Oso come help me?" (from Special Agent Oso on Disney Channel). It was hard to explain that he's not real and she still doesn't get it. Then today, I asked her to put her blanket away and she told me that she needed Toodles to come help her (from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse). Again, I tried, but she doesn't understand.

Her other funny habit is asking us about her sister (no this is not an announcement or prediction of any kind). A little while ago, I was sorting through her clothes and boxing up everything that's too small. She kept asking me if she could wear the clothes and what I was doing with the clothes and if she could wear them again later, etc. So I told her that we were saving the clothes, so if she ever had a little sister then she could wear them. Yeah...Emily is all ready to share her clothes with her sister. Jacob was getting her in her pajama's tonight and mentioned that her pajamas were getting to small, so this would probably be her last time wearing them. She let him know that her sister would like those jammies. She also told me that her sister will like her bed after she gets a big girl bed. Thank you Emily. I may be in trouble if we have another boy next!

Sorry, no pictures for this post. I have failed at picture taking lately!

Happy Birthday Edward!

2011-01-02T21:15:00.004-07:00

In some ways, the past year has flown by and I can't believe that Edward is a year old. On the other hand, I can't picture our family without him. He is such a happy boy and I love the spirit he brings to our home. He and Emily are such good friends and we all feel so blessed to have him in our family!

Happy Birthday Cute Boy!

Ho, Ho, It's Christmas Day!

2010-12-28T12:59:00.005-07:00

I don't know where she got this from, but she's been saying it a lot for about the past week. It makes me laugh every time. She's got quite the imagination, but I will have to write about that in another post.

We had a fantastic Christmas at our house. Santa definitely spoiled our kids and they loved it. Emily is having a great time trying to learn how to ride her new bike. She's still not really getting it, but she has fun trying and I'm sure she'll catch on soon. Edward got a starter kit for a Thomas train set that he's still trying to figure out and some Toy Story toys that he loves.

We went to look at Christmas lights and found a house where the owners had set up a walk through the Savior's life in their backyard. It was pretty neat.

New House!

2010-12-28T12:40:00.004-07:00

Our big Christmas present this year was our new house that we just signed a lease on! We are so excited to be out on our own, in a house, with plenty of space and no more stairs. Don't get me wrong, I loved our apartment in Orem, but it was getting a bit snug and I was so done with climbing 3 flights of stairs. We ended up staying in my parents' stake, about 5 minutes away from them. Here are some pictures!

The kids' room isn't done yet, but Edward is already having fun making messes anyway.

Alright, so this isn't technically part of the house, but she asked me to take her picture and she's just so cute, I couldn't resist.

Big News

2010-12-05T19:41:00.002-07:00

Both Edward and I have very big news to share! Edward's news is that he can walk! He took his first, tentative steps about two weeks ago and has taken off from there. Today he's been trying really hard to run, it's not going well for him. I love his wobbly walking, it's adorable.

Sorry about the grainy quality. Apparently my camera and the lighting didn't agree.

Now for my big news, I have a full time job! Starting on Wednesday, I'm going to be a 6th grade teacher at Noah Webster. For the next week and a half I will work with the teacher I'm going to be taking over for, so the kids can get used to me and I can get used to them and the school. Then in January I will be taking over. The teacher I'm replacing is actually the wife of my former seminary teacher. They just adopted a baby and she's decided she wants to stay home. She was nice enough to take my resume in to the school personally.

I'm really excited and really nervous all at the same time. The more I think about it though, I'm glad I'm taking over mid-year. Though I'm sure there will be some adjustment time, I don't have to start from scratch. I can spend the rest of this year adjusting to being a teacher and then next year I can set up my own classroom exactly as I want it.

The other nervous excitement that I'm feeling is just from the prospect of working full time. I'm excited because it's going to help us so much financially and will allow Jacob to hopefully start school again in the fall. Plus, this is what I spent 4 years of college working for! Still, part of me is sad to be leaving behind the title of stay-at-home mom. I've been lucky to stay home with our kids as much as I have and I will miss that time with them. However, I know this is what's best for our family right now. I also think it will force me to make the time I will have with the kids more valuable, which will be good for all of us. I must admit that I have a tendency to let them play with each other or their aunts and uncles for most of the day. It will be good for me to find ways to make our time together more worth while.

Yay for a new chapter in all our lives!

I Love You

2010-11-30T21:36:00.003-07:00

After much prodding, Emily finally started saying "I love you". Now we can't get her to stop, not that we're really trying! For the longest time, she just wouldn't say it. Then, she would repeat it back if we said it first. Now she tell us she loves us all the time and has started telling us about all the other things she loves. Here are some of my favorite instances:

- Christmas List: I asked Emily what Edward wanted for Christmas, after thinking for a minute she said, "Eddie likes Buzz...Mom, I love Buzz." (By which she means Buzz Lightyear, in case you were wondering.)

- Black Friday: Jacob was at Target and called to tell me how crazy the line was. Emily kept trying to grab the phone, so I finally gave it to her. Here's the conversation:

Emily: Daddy, scary rawrs are going to get me.
Jacob: There aren't any scary rawrs sweetheart, you're fine. Mom can even check under the bed for you.
Emily: Scary rawrs are going to get me.
Jacob: Don't worry, Mom will protect you until I get home and then I'll help you scare them all away. (Side note: It has helped with her scary rawr obsession to tell her that the scary rawrs stay away because they're scared of Daddy. She doesn't even act like she's scared, she just tells us all the time that scary rawrs are going to get her.)
Emily: Ok, I love you Daddy.

- Tangled: We went to see Tangled with Jacob's family during Thanksgiving break. As soon as the movie ended she said, "I loved that movie!" Then as soon as we got back to Grandma and Grandpa's house, "Mom, can we go get that movie?" Then I had to figure out how to explain that we can't buy that movie yet. I don't know how she even knew to say that since we don't buy that many movies.

- Today: Emily randomly walked up and said, "Mom, I love my Pink shoes, I love Tink shows, "...and then she walked away. Thank you for the information Emily.

I have to say, I love this new habit of hers!

Tired

2010-11-21T19:42:00.004-07:00

Yes, the title for this post is my excuse for lack of blogging. This subbing business is really keeping me busy and when I do find a rare moment of free time, I find myself too tired to have any creative writing ability left. I've sat down to try to blog several times, but nothing comes to mind.

Subbing has been a very interesting experience so far. I've actually discovered that it's a great way to learn who the good teachers are and what they are doing. I've found that you can tell within a few minutes of being in a class whether the teacher is good at managing their room or not. Some teacher's have everything clearly organized, so I can figure out my day within minutes and usually these are the classes where the students are well-behaved, participate in class and are generally fun to teach. Other teachers, I have to decipher and search and make some things up as I go. These classes are the ones that I have to struggle with all day, just to get some semblance of quiet.

I've discovered that students who know that there are consequences to go with every action are much better behaved. If they can count on a reward for good behavior, every time, it works wonders.

I've also learned some little things that I like and dislike. For example, I really, really hate individual pencil sharpeners. When I have my own classroom, my students will not be allowed to have pencil sharpeners in their desks. I'm actually considering not allowing them to sharpen their own pencils at all.

Anyways, on to some pictures of the kids!

Yes, Aunt Becca left a box of tissues on the floor. Silly her. Edward was pretty happy about it though!

As of yesterday, Edward has officially started walking. He'll only do about 4 or 5 steps at a time, but it doesn't have to be between to people. He'll take off from his high chair or the couch or wall or whatever. He's pretty proud of his new skill!

Our excitement for today is that Jacob and I spoke in sacrament meeting about gratitude. It was actually a really good experience. We both managed to get through out talks without passing out, we filled the proper amount of time and they were pretty good talks if I do say so myself. Though I believe I did ramble for a bit. Our stake conference last week was broadcast from Salt Lake and Bishop Burton gave a talk about gratitude, so that made writing our talks a lot easier. In his talk, he said that gratitude in more than a social courtesy, it's a binding commandment. That really stuck with me and is what I based my talk on. We truly have been commanded to show gratitude to the Lord for all things. It was nice to spend some time pondering upon gratitude before the hustle and bustle of the holiday season really set in.

This week, the holiday's officially start as we get ready to head to Henderson for Thanksgiving! I get to work tomorrow (in one of those not so organized rooms) and then we are off on Tuesday!

Picture Post!

2010-11-01T17:51:00.005-06:00

First off, some videos of Emily.

Here she is rocking out and drumming. She got this set up all by herself, she even went and got Brandon's drum sticks.

And now, torturing the frog that we caught at the park...

And now, some pictures of Halloween in reverse order (because that's how they uploaded and I don't feel like trying to fix it).

I know it's kind of hard to see, but she has TinkerBell on her pumpkin, she loved it.

Emily and Dad carving pumpkins. Or Emily watching Dad, this was way too gross for her.

Halloween jammies! Edward's glow in the dark, they're awesome.

And our little cowgirl and sheriff.

He got a sucker at the trunk-or-treat and thought it was the coolest thing ever.

The mini petting zoo at the trunk-or-treat. Emily had fun looking at all the animals!

Emily and Aunt Sara match!

All the kids, ready for trunk-or-treating!

I didn't get pictures of Jacob and I in our costumes. I threw on a Dorothy costume that my mom made for me years ago at the last minute and Jacob dressed up as comfortable, in his words. He wore board shorts and a t-shirt.

Overall, it was a very fun Halloween. We spent Saturday night at the ward trunk-or-treat, eating good food, playing fun games and of course, getting tons of candy. We never did get Emily to say trick-or-treat, but she did tell me that she got candy after every car. It took a long time for her to realize that everyone was going to give her candy.

On Halloween we gathered with some of the other neighbors around a fire in one neighbor's drive-way and passed out candy to the trick-or-treaters.

Oh So Tired, But In A Good Way

2010-10-27T19:39:00.003-06:00

This week marked my first week as a substitute teacher and oh what a week it has been! Signing up to be a sub took forever! I finally got signed up a few weeks ago, right in time for fall break. When I actually went to fill out paperwork, the lady at the district office felt the need to warn me that I wouldn't be getting very much work because there are a lot of subs.(This, after she tried to warn me off from even signing up several times.)

No work, ha! That's funny.

At this time last week, I had one half day of work scheduled for Tuesday of this week. Here's how things actually went...

To start my week, I subbed Monday afternoon for one of the reading specialists. It was an interesting first day! She didn't leave me anything but her keys. Fortunately, I was able to figure out that I was supposed to go help out in two different classrooms and which ones they were. I am really not sure why I got paid for wandering around and helping kids during their reading class, but it was fun!

I then subbed Tuesday morning for one of the resource teachers. That right there is the way to go. My largest group was 5 students and I worked with 3 different groups for an hour each. It was a lot of fun!

While I was there, the teacher next door asked if I would be available to sub for her the next day. She wasn't even sure if she needed me or not, but said she would call me later to let me know for sure. So, I found out at 10 pm that I was, for sure, subbing in the 4th grade on Wednesday! For future reference, the week before a major holiday is probably not the best time to start subbing. It wasn't that bad, they were just really chatty and hyper! I should also note, that I had to turn done a job from the sub hotline, that called me at 5 am to see if I wanted to sub for another teacher that day and then the sub hotline called me again while I was at school, so I'm assuming that I missed a job for Thursday.

On Friday, I woke up at 5 am again, but this time it was to the sound of my phone just finishing ringing and going to voicemail. It was the sub hotline, again. I was a little sad that I had missed a chance to work just because I didn't wake up on time, but clearly it was meant to be. I then got another call from the sub hotline (this is 4 in one week, in case you weren't counting) at 8! All it said was that the job was for a high school English teacher, nothing more. So, I called Desert Ridge since they are the only high school I signed up to sub with. They had requested an English sub and since school had already started they had another teacher in there and wanted me there as soon as possible. So I jumped in the shower and ran on over!

It actually turned out to be a pretty good day. The class that I was in has had an endless stream of subs this year and are now convinced that the class is a complete joke (which it kind of was), but all except for 7th hour were well behaved and it was kind of fun to be a teacher at my old high school! My sophomore English teacher even tried hard to hire me to replace the teacher I was subbing for.

Lack of work does not seem to be my issues. I even have 3 1/2 days already scheduled for November and the high school has decided that they're going to start calling me first when this particular teacher doesn't show so that the kids at least have a consistent sub. The Lord is definitely looking out for me!

After all this though, I am so tired! I really don't know how I lived through student teaching while pregnant. I guess I'm just not used to being on my feet all day anymore.

Adding to the exhaustion, we rounded out the week by going to the high school football game to support my brother in the marching band. It was a really fun night! The marching band did great and my kids loved them! Emily cheered loudly for Chris every time they played and Edward waved his arms very enthusiastically. I think he was training to be either a percussionist or a drum major. And of course, the football team did well, beating Westwood 44-0.

Today: Cleaning, finishing at least one craft project (probably the file folder games), more blogging (hopefully), finishing my current assignment for my other job, carving pumpkins and trunk-or-treating (and maybe figuring out a costume for said event, if I get around to it)!

Emily Speaks

2010-10-13T15:12:00.002-06:00

Emily is finally really talking. She's still hard to understand sometimes, but at least she's talking! She's finally gotten to the point that she can say pretty much anything. So, we made a video last night of some of her favorite words. These are mostly just things that she says a lot because she thinks they're funny. I should explain that she came up with "cuppie" and "scary rawr" all on her own. Many things are labeled as scary rawrs these days. Everything from monsters to loud trucks.

Also, if you look closely you can see the little red spot on the end of her nose where she got stung by a bee on Monday. In her words, "the bee's a meanie".

Dead Meat

2010-10-05T17:56:00.007-06:00

My husband is dead meat. Actually, the fact that he's still alive just proves what a sucker I am for him.

Last Saturday was my birthday. He had asked me several times what I wanted for my birthday and I kept telling him that I didn't need anything or that he should just give me the swimming suit that I had recently purchased for my birthday. Finally, he just asked if I would be mad if he did buy me something. I told him that I would not be mad if he got me something, but I would also not be disappointed if I didn't get anything.

So, here's what I got...

And...

Now you see why he should be dead meat? Here's why he's still living. One, this was a combined present from parents, my grandma, and Jacob. Also, it was half off. And the main reason is that I have always wanted this painting. I was counting on getting it for my 30 or 40th birthday, but I'm certainly not going to make him return it! I absolutely love it, even though it's hiding under our bed at the moment. Just knowing it's there makes me happy. (We don't exactly have a place to hang a picture of that size at the moment.)

Overall, it was a wonderful birthday! We went out to lunch at On The Border with the kids, my parents and Jacob fixed me a wonderful dinner of Zuppa Toscana and bread sticks, (all on Friday) and then on Saturday (my actual birthday)I got to watch conference and have a girls night out while the guys were at the Priesthood session. We went to the San Tan Mall and discovered an awesome accessory store called Charming Charlie. It was incredible. I will definitely have to go in there with a set budget because I want one of everything.

Now for a quick update on the kids:

Emily: Drama central. Holy cow. Every little thing is a huge deal for her! Yesterday we had a pretty hilarious incident. We were cleaning up our room and found a very small Barbie ice cream cone in the closet. I gave it to Emily and asked her to go put it away. A few minutes later we heard hysterical screaming coming from the toy room. I rushed in and picked her up. It took me a few minutes, but I finally distinguished the words "ice cream gone" and "get it out mommy", as she's lifting up her shirt and pointing to her stomach. Yes, she had swallowed the toy. She finally calmed down enough to tell me she wanted to go to the bathroom. I put her up on the toilet and she watched expectantly for the toy to come out. I had to explain that it wasn't going to work. We did everything we could to distract her, but every few minutes she would burst into tears again. It may not sound funny, but it really was.

Edward: I swear the boy is going to be walking within the month. He can climb the bottom step of the stairs and pulls himself up on anything and everything.

Warning: Brain Dump

2010-09-19T21:23:00.003-06:00

I need to blog, but I don't really have anything to say. So, I'm going to take a page from my friend Rebecca's book. I will just start writing and hope that something of value comes out of my brain.

Good news for this week, I finally got my fingerprint clearance card! I have now mailed my application to the state for a substitute certificate (along with another large check for who knows what reason. Why do they charge so much to print me out a piece of paper?) and when that comes I can finally apply to be a substitute teacher and hopefully start working soon. I keep hearing of all these teachers who will be taking maternity leave, so I'd like to start working soon enough to get one of those jobs! What a huge, long process just to get a job. You know, you graduate with a degree and a teaching certificate and think you're good to go...ha ha ha.

Also this week, I got to play the piano with our ward choir. They sang The Spirit of God and I absolutely loved the arrangement! Which is actually saying a lot, there are a lot of choir arrangements of the hymns that I don't love. The piano piece was written for 4 hands (though only 3 were necessary, still required a second person) and the person who was supposed to be playing the higher part was put on bed rest. So I got the music two weeks ago and was able to fill in for her. It's been a long time since I last played with a choir and I had forgotten how much I enjoyed doing it. I also found the piano duet to be a lot fun! I should do things like this more often.

On that line, here's a question I've always wondered about. I do enjoy performing on both the flute and the piano, but I never volunteer to do so because I feel like I'm trying to show off. Which is silly because I'm not actually that good. So, what constitutes sharing and enjoying your talent and what constitutes showing off?

(I should add that the other reason I don't often volunteer to play is that I enjoy accompanying others or playing in a group much more than playing a solo. I enjoy the feeling of being part of a whole.)

The other thing I have done this week is reading an appalling number of books. I have lost count of how many books I have read this month. There was one weekend that I finished 4 books in the same weekend. (Finished, not started). It's a little sad, but I don't really have a lot of things to do at the moment so I figure I should take advantage of the time while I've got it.

NREMT

2010-09-09T10:13:00.004-06:00

Well, he is done! Jacob is now an EMT in the state of Arizona, as well as a Nationally Registered EMT. This means that he gets a promotion (back to the position he was in before we moved) and a raise! He is now a Medical Supervisor, meaning that he does physicals and screens potential donors to determine whether they are eligible and healthy enough to donate plasma.

For those who don't know, here's what this certification has entailed. Jacob was already an EMT in the state of Utah, however that does not transfer. When we got here he enrolled in a refresher course that was all day, Saturday and Sunday for two weekends. He then had to pass a practical test and a written test. That completed his state certification, but Arizona requires their EMT's to be nationally certified as well. So, he had to pass a national test. Once that was done we sent his paperwork to state and miraculously, we got his certification card the next day! I'm so proud of him for passing all his tests and becoming certified!

And this was all done just in the nick of time, we've needed an EMT around the house this week! (I'm sort of kidding, he could have handled our injuries anyway.)

The first injury was Saturday night. Jacob was trying to slice apples and sliced his finger instead. It bled for an hour and a half and we ended up going to the emergency room. The doctor said he could do stitches or he could probably get away with taping it back together. Jacob chose the tape.

Emily and I injured ourselves making a very cute headband, which Emily snapped in half a few hours after it was done. It was cute while it lasted.

Emily definitely got the worst of the injuries, brushing her hand across the hot glue gun. This is what it looks like two days later. (I know this is a terrible picture, she doesn't like not having a bandaid on it, so she wouldn't hold still for long.)

Mine was a small blister and it's already gone.

Edward's news is that he has a yeast infection. Not exactly an injury, but he's in pain none the less. We went to the doctor today and got him some ointment to take care of it. The doctor also said that he needs to spend lots of time with his diaper off. I've never seen a baby so unhappy about being naked. Apparently that makes it worse.

And the latest, Emily just banged her head on the corner of the post at the bottom of the staircase. I have never seen that much blood from one tiny cut. I knew head injuries bled a lot, but holy cow. Fortunately, Jacob took good care of her, got the bleeding stopped and she is all bandaged and in bed. She has a good sized dent in her head, which I'm sure will be a good sized bump in the morning.

Here's hoping that we've had our share of injuries and illnesses for the week.

In The Middle Of The Night

2010-09-01T07:42:00.003-06:00

Though sharing a room with my children is not my favorite arrangement in the world. It has been interesting in some ways. I have learned some things about Emily that I might not have known otherwise.

1. She talks in her sleep. She even counts in her sleep sometimes (2, 9, 2, 9...)

2. She occasionally falls out of bed and just sleeps on the floor (I don't think she even wakes up). In the morning she just gets back in bed and lays there until she's ready to get up!

3. She's kinda crazy when she's not completely awake.

Here is the conversation we had last night around 2:30 am.

Emily: Mom, juice...juice....mom, juice
Me: It's right by your bed Emily.
Emily: Mom, juice....Mom, juice.
(repeat above about 5 times before I get up and hand her the juice.)
Emily: Mom, shirt
Me: No, you don't need a new shirt
Emily: Uh-huh
Me: Nope, the one you have on is fine
Emily: Mommy shirt?
Me: No, I don't need a new shirt either.
Emily: Daddy shirt?
Me; No, Daddy's good too.
Emily: Mom, potty

While in the bathroom
Emily: Mom, eyes hurt.
Me: I'm sorry, hurry and finish and you can go back to bed
Emily: Eyes hurt
(repeat several more times)
Emily: Mom, pants?
Me: You don't need new pants
Emily: Mommy pants?
Me: Nope, I don't need new pants and neither does daddy.
Emily: Oh, I want down (after doing nothing but sit there for 5 minutes)

Back in bed:
Emily: Mom, juice?
(I just handed it to her that time and went back to bed)
Emily: Mom, juice all gone.
Me: Oh good, go to sleep.

Videos Galore

2010-08-14T20:48:00.003-06:00

I've been making lots of little videos of my kids and just found time to edit them, so here's a whole bunch at once! And apparently blogger is having issues with putting more than one video per post (I've been working on this all day). So there will be three different posts of videos, plus the post I wrote this morning, so make sure you keep scrolling down!

First, I thought I'd show you some of Eddie's new skills. He really wants to be able to crawl and swim and just play with all the other kids. He's getting close with the crawling...the swimming just makes it really hard to hold onto him.

Sing It

2010-08-14T20:23:00.004-06:00

My sister Becca has the game Disney Sing It and Emily loves to play. So here she is, singing along with Hannah Montana.

I did it!

2010-08-14T14:52:00.007-06:00

The final video was this morning. Emily was playing with Grandpa's measuring tape for probably a good half hour. She thought that was the best toy ever. In case you can't hear or understand her, she's saying, "I did it!"

Skills

2010-08-14T09:22:00.005-06:00

Alright, so these are not all new skills for me, but I'm feeling accomplished right now, so I wanted to brag for a minute.

This is Edward's second hair cut. No, I didn't cut into a mohawk, that just makes it easier to cut. This time was easier in some ways because I had help, but I also cut a lot more hair than last time. Last time a cut a little on the top, but mostly trimmed his bangs and around his ears. This time I trimmed everything! It turned out a little uneven, but not too bad.

I got these pants at a back to school exchange that our stake did. They are really cute and fit really well, but were missing a button. So, my mom suggested that I get them anyway and just add a button myself.

I think they turned out rather well!

And last, the skill that I am most excited about. I made this swimming suit cover out of a towel! I must give credit to my friend Madelyn for sharing the idea with me. If you want to see instructions on how to do it check out her blog. It was really simple and really cheap and I love it! It is cute, doubles as a towel and doesn't restrict your movement when you have to jump in the pool after a child who decided to walk right in without her floaties.

Dreams

2010-08-09T11:27:00.003-06:00

You thought this was going to be about my hopes and dreams for life, didn't you? Nope, it's stranger than that.

I have the weirdest dreams. For as long as I can remember, this has been happening. They make so little sense that they are difficult to explain in the light of day. There are always things that I just know in my dreams. I rarely see anything scary or emotionally scarring, but I know that bad things are happening. There are frequently people that I've never seen, but I know who they are. Sometimes they are even close friends and family members who have apparently decided to reside in a different body for that particular dream. Almost always, my dreams mix different aspects of my life into one confusing jumble.

This is a nightly occurrence, usually I have several strange dreams in one night. Generally Jacob is the one who gets to hear about them in the morning and it's a wonder that he hasn't had me committed yet.

If I believed in dream analysis, someone would have a field day trying to interpret my dreams. None of the usual themes that you hear about occur in my dreams. No flying, no running from an unseen threat, no public nudity, no falling, etc. And very rarely can I find any connection between my dreams and what's happening in my life.

Here are a few examples of some more mild ones that I've had the past few nights:

I had two dreams the other night in which I was with two friends of mine, both named Becky (who have not met each other in real life and would have no reason to be in the same place at the same time). In the first we were just sitting around talking, nothing too odd. In the second, I had been in class at BYU and was walking out to the car with one of the Becky's when we ran into the other Becky, who had just been beat up by some random guy. The guy was there, but for some reason we were completely unconcerned with him and he just walked off. We continued on to the car, pulled out the first aid kit and were trying to decide whether to force her to go to the hospital or not. When I woke up from this dream I felt extremely worried and nervous....it was hard to go back to sleep.

Last night I had a dream where different parts of my life got themselves all jumbled together. I was at church, in Syracuse, Utah. The members of the ward were an odd conglomeration of people from my current ward in Arizona and my previous ward in Orem. A member of the ward had died (he died minutes before the dream started, one of those things I just know), so instead of doing the normal meetings we were planning the funeral. It was someone that everyone in the ward loved, but it seemed like everyone was too busy planning the funeral to think about the fact that he was dead. I was in charge of everything for some reason, so I was running around, trying to figure out what everyone was working on. There was one group of people that had decided to put together a slide show of pictures of the person. I said that was a good idea and told them to start gathering pictures and started spreading the word myself that people should get pictures to them. Suddenly, no one told me, but I knew that one of my friends from Orem was very worried about this plan. She knew that someone in the ward had a picture of her that she was embarrassed about and was terrified that they were going to slip it into the slide show. I became unreasonably panicked and was alternating between trying to comfort her and running around the church trying to find the picture.

These were pretty mild dreams. Compared to some others, these are not weird at all. I seriously wonder sometimes if my subconscious is crazy. I pretty sure that my conscious mind isn't completely nuts, but I have to wonder some days.

I really hope that a dream in not a wish your heart makes.

Provo-ized

2010-07-30T08:49:00.002-06:00

We all know that Provo is a bubble. It is not the real world (sorry to anyone who thought otherwise). I was fully aware that there were things I was going to have to re-adjust to when we moved. Things such as swearing, immodesty, the smell of smoke and not being able to assume that almost anyone you meet is LDS.

I just wanted to share one example of Provo's bubble-ness. Music is not the same here. Did you know that Utah has it's own versions of songs? If you've ever heard, "Toes" by The Zac Brown Band, it doesn't have any swear words in Utah. It definitely does here. And it's not the only one we've discovered.

Also, did you know that the F-word works for a noun, verb, adjective and an adverb? And can be used as each in a single sentence?

My Computer Is Working!

2010-07-21T11:30:00.004-06:00

We finally got our internet working! It's still a little spotty, but working most of the time.

We have definitely been having fun here in Arizona and I have lots of pictures and videos to post.

Emily went swimming with the Achievement Days girls yesterday and thought that was great fun. Of course, she was the center of attention most of the time.

Both of the kids have been having a great time exploring all the new toys at Grandma and Grandpa's house and are loving having aunts and uncles to shower them with attention.

We've all been passing a cold around for the last week, so we haven't done much beyond what you see here. We've been pretty lazy. We have gone exploring a few times and have definitely decided that we will be spending lots of time exploring San Tan Village once the weather cools off a little. It's an outdoor mall that puts Gateway to shame. I may have to leave the debit card at home when we go though, just to be safe.

The heat hasn't been bad, but like I said, we've mostly been inside or in the pool!

Here are a few videos of Emily and Sara playing. I can't figure out how to format them and put them where I want in the post, so here they are at the end! (They're not playing for me at the moment, but hopefully they will play for you!)

Conversations with Emily

2010-07-17T08:37:00.002-06:00

Well, we are now settled at my parents house in Mesa! We will be living here for a few months and then finding our own place. Sorry, no pictures right now. We're still working on getting the internet set up on our computer. In the meantime, I'm using my parents computer.

The past week has mostly been spent getting settled and resting from the crazy week we had trying to get here. We've all been a little sick, too. I did go to a Relief Society activity with my mom on Thursday and we learned how to poke an attacker's eyes out. So watch out all you potential attackers. I can pretty much poke your eyes out no matter how you grab me! Seriously though, it was a pretty fun activity and it was nice to meet some of the new people in the ward! Technically I'm the new one, but since I used to be in this ward, I think they're the new ones.

On a different topic, Emily is in a very talkative mood this morning. She doesn't usually talk much, and what she does say is generally very hard to understand. This morning she's been pretty understandable and has really been speaking her mind! It's been hilarious. Here are some examples:

Emily: What's this?
Me: It's a quarter.
(Emily puts the quarter in the palm of her hand and then puts her hand on my cheek.)
Emily: Where's the quarter?
Me: I don't know, where is it?
(Emily slides her hand up on my head.)
Emily: It's in your hair!

A few minutes later she walks toward our door and starts to open it. Before she gets it open she turns around with a very sad look on her face and says, "I don't have shoes".

In Transit

2010-07-09T10:02:00.002-06:00

Our move and our lives are currently in transit. Our stuff is successfully placed in a storage unit and in my parents house in Arizona. It is not any where near organized, but it is there. The kids and I are hanging out in Henderson today and Jacob and his brother Jarrod are taking the trailer and some random guy's stuff back to Utah. I think that if Jacob lives through the next two days he will not want to see a car for a long time. Here is what our schedule for this week has looked like:

Monday: Hang out with siblings, clean and pack

Tuesday: Pick up Dad and Chris from the airport, run last minute errands, finish packing, load up the truck (with the help of lots of friends, thank you!), and stay up until all hours cleaning (again, thank you!!!! especially to Amy who spent her entire day making my bathrooms shine)

Wednesday: Hurry and finish cleaning, with the help of Courtney (thank you Courtney!), check out (45 minutes late but at least we passed) and then drive to Henderson.

Thursday: Leave the children in Henderson, pick up Jarrod and drive to Mesa. Unload the trailer with tons of help, again (I owe a lot of people). Shovel down some lunch, go pick up random guy's stuff in Phoenix and drive back to Henderson.

Friday: Jacob and Jarrod and driving the trailer and random stuff back to Utah and will be returning to Henderson tonight. Hopefully they will arrive alive, sane and before midnight.

Saturday: We will relax for a bit and then drive to Mesa! We will then be officially moved. Next will start the unpacking, getting settled and starting of the new job on Monday!

How quickly things change

2010-06-24T12:31:00.004-06:00

Only on Monday my life was normal. My house was organized, or at least as organized as it ever gets, and I was trying to think of something exciting to do this week...

This is what my house looks like now.

I know it looks terrible, but I am actually really impressed with how much we have packed! I have definitely not been bored this week.

Here is what I've been thinking about while packing:

Things I will miss about Utah:

- Our family members that live here
- Our friends and ward, they are all pretty amazing
- The mountains and trees
- The small town feel of Orem, even though it's not that small (I think Orem is pretty much the perfect size)

Things I'm excited for in Arizona:

- Living by my family!
- The smell. I know that's weird, but I love the smell of Arizona
- The places I know. I don't really know how to explain this. It's not that I don't know of any fun things to do in Utah, I guess I've just missed the fun things in Arizona like the Science Center and the lake and certain restaurants.

There are more things that should be on these lists, so I may be adding to this post over the next few days.

I also wanted to add that I am very impressed with my husband. He installed a trailer hitch on the truck today, all on his own. He has not done a lot, if any, work on cars in the past. However, when we researched hitches and compared the price of parts against the prices that were being charged for parts and installation, we were a little shocked. So he learned how and put it on by himself. It looks great and I am very impressed!

Ahhhhhh!

2010-06-23T09:33:00.002-06:00

The title of this post reflects what has been going through my mind for the last 24 hours.

I don't have time right now for a long post, but I just wanted to say that WE ARE MOVING!

In two weeks we are heading out for Mesa, Arizona!

Excuses, Excuses

2010-06-21T13:58:00.002-06:00

I am becoming something of an expert in the area of making excuses. I've been avoiding writing an update on our exercising, but here goes nothing.

Neither of us has succeed in exercising regularly yet. Our original plan was to exercise together every night after Emily went to bed. After a few days we decided that wasn't going to work. Other things just came up far too often.

Plan B was for Jacob to exercise before work, at 4:30 am and for me to exercise in the mornings after I got the kids fed and dressed.

We've each succeeded a few times, but just can't make it a habit.

I have found every excuse under the sun to avoid it. I don't feel well, I'm too tired, I have too many other things to do today, and the lamest one, I've done good this week, I deserve a break. I don't think Jacob consciously makes excuses, I think he just rolls over and hits the snooze button.

What it really comes down to is that neither of us enjoys exercising. At all. Even as it starts to get easier, so I don't feel like I'm going to die, I still don't like doing it!

We have both always been active people and have thus not 'needed' to exercise before. We are also both asthmatic and I know I've used that as an excuse to avoid strenuous exercise for most of my life. My asthma is exercise induced, so I've always just told myself that it's better for me to not aggravate it.

So, to those of you out there who manage to exercise, what's your secret? How do you make yourself do it every day?

As I side note, I'm starting to think I should see a doctor. The I don't feel well excuse for not exercising is a valid one, because I don't. Again, I've always had an excuse for why I'm not feeling well, but I'm starting to run out of them. I feel like I have mono and no matter how much sleep I do or don't get, it just isn't going away. It's not mono, I've already had that, but that's what it feels like. And before anyone else asks, no I am not pregnant.

Playing Together

2010-06-16T10:25:00.002-06:00

Emily is a very nice sister and tries hard to play with her brother, even though he can't do much yet.

Make Believe

2010-06-15T11:44:00.003-06:00

I think Emily has reached the age of make believe. Pretending seems to be her new favorite game.

One morning last week she pretended to be a cow for most of the morning. The only word I could get out of her was 'moo'. She doesn't generally talk much (at least not in words I can understand), but she will usually answer necessary questions like 'what do you want to eat?' or 'do you need to go potty?'. Not that morning, 'moo' was the answer for everything.

She also likes to pretend she's asleep. I can't really spell the noise she makes, but she imitates deep breathing noises/snores. She sometimes does this while looking straight at you, like she did last night when I was singing to her before bed, and sometimes she lays down, closes her eyes and truly pretends to be asleep. It's amazing.

The last one I can't quite explain and I don't know exactly what is going through her mine. She's taken to tiptoeing around and she just acts different from her normal self when she's doing it. I can't quite put my finger on what she's doing though! She almost acts more prissy. It seems like she's pretending to be a ballerina, but I don't know where she's ever even seen a ballerina!

First Haircut and Mischief

2010-06-10T07:12:00.004-06:00

Edward had his first haircut this week! It was looking really shaggy and hanging in his eyes. He beat his sister on this one. I've trimmed her bangs, but she's never had a real haircut. I forgot to take a before picture, but here's a picture from not too long ago, so you can get an idea of how long it was.

And here is his hair now! (He wanted to eat, not get his picture taken.) It turned out pretty well, but I will definitely be having Jacob help me next time. Turns out, this is a two person job. One person to cut and one person to hold his head still.

As usual, Emily's recent accomplishments all involve a lot of mischief.

Edward is still trying to get rid of a cough from being sick a few weeks ago, so we decided to set up the humidifier the other night. It was not working, but fortunately we have two, so we just set up the other one and Jacob decided to try and fix that one the next day. So, the next night he took it apart and found this...

No wonder it wasn't working. I don't know how she managed it, but somehow Emily shoved a bunch of Q-tips right into the motor. She's incredible. I always think I've finally put everything that she can destroy out of reach and then she finds something else.

The Davis Family

2010-06-07T21:15:00.004-06:00

Sorry, but I'm going to need to brag about my family for a minute, because they are amazing.

Every year since 1964 (I think), the descendants of Mary Verna and John Leonard Davis (my great-grandparents) have held a campout over Memorial Day Weekend. This year we had record attendance, 550 people out of a possible 749. It is truly incredible to go camping with that many people and know that you are all family! Have you ever shared an inside joke with 749 other people? We have a lot of them. Here are some pictures to help you get an idea of just how many people we're talking about here.

This is the second generation of the family. These are all of my grandpa's living siblings and their spouses. My wonderful grandma is the one front and center.

This is the third generation, my mom and all her cousins. No spouses here, there are 76 of them without the spouses.

And here is the fourth generation, me and my cousins and second cousins. Again, no spouses, there are a lot of us without them. We didn't do a picture of the 5th generation, but I think there are around 150 of them.

We also did a group picture, but I don't have a copy of that one. Since we were all in it, there was no one to snap the picture for me.

Honestly, Memorial Day is one of my favorite holidays because I get to spend it with so much of my family. We spend the weekend doing some things with our "immediate" families, like eating wonderful dutch oven food and sitting around the campfire, and some things with the whole family. Every Saturday we have a carnival for the kids, generally we go swimming (this year we took pictures instead) and then Saturday night we have a dance. On Sunday we all have church together, the little kids practice a play (directed by all the missionaries who've returned during the past year) and in the evening we all get together to watch the play, sing songs and play family feud (during which Mark Garfield cheats and the guys win....every year).

This year, my brother Matt was one of the play directors. Their play was called Davitar and was a great spin-off on Avitar in which the Vellingas (the descendants of my Grandpa's sister Arlene) tried to kill us off because the campground was getting too crowded. Don't worry, we won. And the war diminished our numbers so we don't have to worry about space issues anymore. It was very funny. We all have a lot of fun teasing each other.

There's so much more I could say, but this post is long enough. The point is that I have the most incredible family. I am so grateful to my grandparents and my great-grandparents for raising such amazing people and for keeping us all together!

Learning

2010-05-26T08:11:00.003-06:00

One thing I can say for my kids, they definitely keep me on my toes! They are both learning so many new things, I have a hard time keeping up!

Emily's latest accomplishment is learning to climb into the crib. She pushes her toy piano over to it, uses that as a step and then climbs up the bars. Last night I went in to check on her after she had gone to sleep (I knew it would happen sometime)and found an empty bed. She was asleep in the crib. Of course, the contents of the crib were all over the floor, along with a humidifier that had been on top of a cabinet next to the crib.

She would start this right as I'm working on transitioning Edward from our room to the crib. I don't know how I'm going to keep her out of there.

Edward is also learning tons!

Last week he learned to roll from his back to his stomach, he's been able to roll from his stomach to his back from a while. He's pretty mobile for a 4 month old! He doesn't go anywhere fast, but he definitely doesn't stay where I put him.

He has also learned to spit and blow bubbles. Both he and his sister find it vastly amusing. My kids tend to be rather spit covered these days.

REALLY????

2010-05-24T09:31:00.001-06:00

It is May right? I didn't sleep through the summer and fall? While that sounds appealing, it would be a problem. I was definitely under the impression that it was spring.

Wow

2010-05-19T21:15:00.003-06:00

If you have not read my blog already today, scroll down for the first part of this story.

Holy cow, I feel like I'm dying. I never expected this whole 30 Day Shred thing to be easy. Just the name sounds hard and though I've never seen The Biggest Loser, I have heard the rumors about Jillian Michaels.

Alright, I will reveal my weak state....I made it through the warm-up and circuit 1. Circuit 1 consists of 3 minutes of strength, 2 minutes of cardio and 1 minute of abs. That's it. We had 2 more circuits and the cool down to go and could barely stand. I can still barely stand and it's been close to an hour.

I knew I was out of shape, but I didn't know it was that bad!

Tomorrow's Goal: Make it from the beginning to the end of stage 2.

It Starts Today

2010-05-19T12:33:00.003-06:00

I've been working out for a while, trying to lose some baby weight. It's not going so well. I've actually gained a little. Apparently yoga and jogging aren't going to cut it. I've heard lots of good things about the dvd "Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred". Then, I found out that it's only $9 at Walmart.

Starting today, both Jacob and I are going to workout with the dvd and we will be losing some weight!

Why am I blogging about this? Because it makes us accountable. I have now told all of you that we're going to do it and I expect you to hold us to our word. Now, if I keep putting it off, all of you will know what a lazy bum I am.

Hopefully I will be blogging about some weight loss soon!

PS - Edward is doing much better! His fever finally went away and he has stopped throwing up. His throat is still on the mend, but at least he's eating and sleeping a little bit.

Spite

2010-05-16T23:35:00.003-06:00

Just because I wrote about what a good baby Edward is, he is trying to spite me. He has been awful ever since I wrote that post! To cut him some slack, he is really sick.

Somehow, my children manage to contract all of these terrible, but unidentifiable illnesses. The poor kid had every test under the sun done today. Everything from a strep test to blood cultures to a chest x-ray (saddest thing I've ever seen, they basically stretched him out and trapped him in a plastic tube). And the conclusion is....(drum roll)....he has a random, unidentifiable virus. Do you know how many times I have heard those words? This is at least the third for just Edward.

Jacob's out driving him around right now to try to get him to calm down. We do know for sure that his throat and stomach hurt and he can't really keep much down, so the poor kid is pretty miserable.

So, we are supposed to watch him for now and if he's still feverish tomorrow it's back to the doctor's office. Yay...

On the bright side, Emily's fever went away in a day and she is feeling quite a bit better! Not that I want her to still be sick, but a little less energetic would be nice. She's taken to yelling at Edward when he won't stop crying and is running in circles around me. Under normal circumstances we would be outside a lot, letting her run off this energy, but I'm not taking Edward outside so her energy is expended making messes.

Digital Scrapbooking

2010-05-15T15:16:00.002-06:00

Above you see my first attempt at digital scrapbooking! At the moment it's quite difficult and far more time consuming than regular scrapbooking, but I think it will pay off in the end. I am not a naturally creative person (despite Jacob's protests otherwise). This way, when I finish a page a realize that it looks ridiculous I can just throw it out without ruining pictures or wasting supplies.

This is definitely going to require a lot of time for me to get good at it. As you can see, I succeeded in creating something, but it's not fabulous and I know there's so much more that can be done with it!

If any of you do digital scrapbooking, please feel free to tell me your tips and tricks!

All About Edward

2010-05-14T13:30:00.003-06:00

It has come to my attention that I haven't blogged very much about Edward, so I wanted to record some things about him!

His 4 month check-up was this last week. He weighs 14 lbs 5 ounces and is 24 in tall. This puts him in the 30th percentile for weight and the 12th for height. I have to say that I was surprised about his weight percentile, he seems like such a chunk to me! But, I guess if you look at weight compared to height, he is a chunk. The doctor said that he looks healthy and well! He has super dry skin, but that's not a huge concern.

Some other things about him:

He is a very happy baby. He loves to smile and giggle and coo. The past few days he has started laughing hysterically at me while I'm getting him in his pajamas. I don't know what he's finding funny, but it's pretty awesome.

Edward loves toys. Emily didn't have much interest in toys until she was much older, but Edward will play with anything he can get a grip on! Which isn't much since his hands are still small. He enjoys playing with Emily's Tigger & Pooh figurines. They are the perfect size for his hands and she's pretty good about sharing them!

He refuses to nurse. It's something I have very mixed feelings about, but am liking it less and less. I really think that nursing is so healthy for both Mom and baby....oh well. He would nurse at night for a while, but now he just refuses. It could be because he is very serious about his food. He wants to eat as much as possible, as quickly as possible.

He is mostly over wanting to be held all the time. Like I said earlier, he's just a really happy baby. He enjoys sitting in his bouncer and watching me work or watching his sister play. He just needs to know that someone is paying attention to him!

He is such a good baby and he makes all our days brighter!

Crazy Night

2010-05-13T07:57:00.002-06:00

Sorry, I have lots of other things I should be blogging about, but this is what's on my mind at the moment.

Last night was ridiculous! I felt like I had twin newborns! Edward got some shots yesterday, so I know what's going on with him, but I wish I knew what was up with Emily! Here's how my night went last night:

6:30 - Both kids are asleep (what?)

7:30 - Edward wakes up feeling feverish, won't eat, but takes some tylenol and goes back to sleep

8:30 - Emily wakes up feeling feverish, temp of 103, takes some medicine, watches one show and goes back to sleep

10:00 - I go to bed

10:30 - Edward starts whining

11:00 - I finally give up on trying to get Edward back to sleep and get up. The fever is back and he's hungry.

12:00 - Edward and I go back to sleep

2:30 - Emily wakes up, burning up again, more medicine, a drink and back to bed. As we're heading to her room I ask if she needs to go potty....no.

3:00 - Emily pees the bed. We change her sheets and put her back to bed

3:30 - Emily is up again for an unknown reason.

6:00 - Emily climbs into bed next to me and jabbers the whole time Jacob's getting ready for work

6:30 - Emily and I go back to sleep

7:00 - Edward starts crying and wakes both Emily and I up

8:00 (now) - Both kids still have temperatures of 103, Edward is asleep on my bed, Emily is laying on the floor watching Handy Manny with a washcloth on her head and keeping up the constant whine that has been going since 7.

I see a fun day in the works.

4 Years Together

2010-05-05T16:25:00.005-06:00

Alright, so our 4th anniversary was a week ago....it's been a busy week!

It has been an amazing four years. I still don't know how I got such an amazing husband. He is always so helpful and so thoughtful, putting the kids and me ahead of himself.

For our anniversary this year, I asked for a day away from the kids. So Jacob got a babysitter and we headed up to Park City. Unfortunately, it was snowing, but it was lots of fun anyway. It was relaxing to not have to chase children around! We went to the Olympic Village and walked around the Ski Museum, which was surprisingly interesting. We didn't get to do a tour of the rest of the village due to the blizzard and ice, but we will have to go back and do that another time. Then we went to the outlets and did a little bit of shopping! It was fabulous!

This is a skiing game at the museum. All the best scores belong to Jacob and the line indicating no score belongs to me. I couldn't even keep the ball on the track.

New Potty Training Technique: Day 1

2010-04-21T19:27:00.002-06:00

Emily has been interested in potty training for a long time. However, when the interest first appeared, I was in school and very pregnant. So, a little while after Edward was born, we started potty training. I decided to take a rather laid back approach to the whole thing and it worked for a while. After about a week though, she wasn't quite so into it. I think she would just get playing and forget about the whole thing.

So, I decided to try a new approach, counting on her girly-ness to help me. I just put her in underwear and let her have a few accidents. It worked out pretty much like I thought it would. She was completely grossed out by her first accident. During the first day, we had 3 accidents, but hey, it could have been worse.

At 7:30 that night, I changed Emily into a diaper, put her to bed and Jacob and I turned a movie on. An hour and a half later I hear her crying in her room. When I go back to see what the problem is, she has taken her shorts off and is pointing at her diaper. She is freaking out because she went to the bathroom...in her diaper.

I take her diaper off and let her sit on the toilet, thinking this will be enough to solve the problem. No, she needs her legs wiped off, needs new shorts (those ones are dirty now, duh Mom!) and she needs to clean the floor where she thinks she peed on the carpet.

Maybe it worked a little to well...

Bad Parents?

2010-04-19T20:52:00.003-06:00

Does it make us bad parents if we think this is hilarious?

They must really wear her out in Nursery because this happens almost every Sunday.

PS - does anyone know how to center text in blogger? I used to have a button for it at the top, but now it's gone. This keeps happening to me.

Outing To The Zoo

2010-04-19T16:42:00.005-06:00

On Saturday, the kids and I went to the zoo with our friend Amy while Jacob was working. We had such a fun time! It was perfect weather for the zoo and it wasn't crowded at all. The animals were all out and Emily really enjoyed looking at them. She especially love the tigers and the baby elephant, which I must admit was adorable.

Edward slept almost the entire time, but that was perfect too!

Below is a video of a particularly amusing monkey. I'm not sure if he didn't want his cage cleaned or if it was just a fun game!

Ticklish

2010-04-14T13:30:00.002-06:00

Edward is incredibly ticklish and has the cutest little laugh! It is so much fun. Sorry about the weird angle, I know it's hard to see his face. If he can see the camera he won't laugh and if Emily can see the camera she won't leave it alone. I've been trying to get a video of this for a while and had to be very sneaky about it.

Kay

2010-04-08T10:54:00.003-06:00

I am having very mixed feelings about Emily's expanding vocabulary. It's nice that she's able to tell me what she wants, but sometimes, being able to talk does not help her cause.

Her new favorite thing to say is 'kay'. The problem is, she's not saying because she means it, she's saying it because she knows that's what I want to hear. She's way too smart for her own good.

Here are some examples of recent conversations: "Emily, stop pulling the movies out!" "Kay" (A minute later she's doing it again.) Later that day: "Emily, can you go find your blanket please? It's nap time." "Kay". (Wanders off and comes back a few minutes later without her blanket and then screams when I try to put her in bed.) After nap time, "Emily, no more candy." "Kay....Mom, candy?" "I just told you, no more." "Kay....Mom, candy?"

It was really cute, the first few times, now...it's not so adorable anymore.

General Conference

2010-04-05T10:16:00.006-06:00

On Saturday, Jacob and I got to attend the morning session of General Conference. Apparently we know people. Our good friends, the Fishers, had some extra tickets and invited us to come with them. If you look closely at this blurry picture, you will find camera poles right up at the front....we were literally right behind the one on the right hand side of this picture. The only people in front of us where the families of the General Authorities.

It was an amazing experience. The spirit was definitely stronger, but I must admit that my favorite part was just watching everything that was going on! When we got there, Elder Oaks was walking around in front of us, talking to people. He didn't come talk to us, but it was fun to see him anyway. We also saw members of the Primary and Young Women's presidencies helping their families get settled. Also, I think President Eyring may have an identical twin.

It was really fun to be able to see people other than just the speaker throughout the meeting. To see all the inner workings, like the guy moving Elder Packer's chair back and forth. It was fun to see Elder Holland struggling to stay awake and President Monson singing with gusto. One of my favorite moments was at the end of the meeting. The First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve meet up with their wives and then walk out. President Monson walked over to his wife, where nice men in suits were helping her into a wheel chair. When they were done, one of them took the papers he was holding and President Monson pushed his wife's wheelchair out of the room. I don't know why I thought that was so neat, I just did. I guess it's the realization that he doesn't have to do that, but wants to help her. While this was happening, Elder Scott, whose wife has passed away, pushed his way to the top and wandered around talking the members of the Seventy and the choir.

It was an amazing conference all around. It's always incredible to listen to the Lord's Prophets and Apostles. They always manage to say exactly what I need to hear, like their talks were written for me. I particularly enjoyed Elder Ballard's talk about mothers and daughters. These men truly do speak with and for God and I know that the words they speak are truth. Conference is a great experience because we are reminded of the things we are slacking on, while being uplifted with messages of hope!

Happy Birthday Emily!

2010-03-31T21:14:00.002-06:00

Oh my goodness, my daughter is two! Today is Emily's birthday and I cannot believe that it's been two years since she was born. Today was a good day for reminiscing since it snowed like crazy the day she was born and it snowed like crazy today!

Emily woke up this morning to discover balloons all over the living room. It's amazing how a package of balloons that cost $1.25 can provide entertainment for hours. We tripled the amount of balloons after this picture was taken. It's pretty awesome. We waited to blow the rest up until she was awake, so she could enjoy that part too. Good thing we did, she thought it was pretty hilarious.

Probably her favorite present, The Heffalump Movie. She was ready to watch it immediately.

Yay for cake! Actually, brownies. She's eats brownies better than cake, so that's what I made. She didn't eat much anyway because she got ice cream on her shirt and was very distraught. She is so girly.

We had a fun day playing with balloons, reading stories, playing with Tinker Bell stickers and watching Beauty and the Beast. It was surprisingly relaxing to just do what she wanted to all day.

We're so blessed to have Emily in our family. She can definitely be a pill some days, but she's so cute and such a good big sister. She made sure Edward was included in all our playing today...he got lots of balloons rubbed on his head. She's such a good helper, picking up her messes and bringing me things I need. She's very friendly and loving and expresses her love often. It's an amazing trait and makes everyone love her right back.

Here are some of Emily's favorite things:

Movies - The Heffalump Movie, Tinker Bell, The Aristocats

TV shows - My Friends Tigger & Pooh, Mickey Mouse Club House, Phineas and Ferb (I don't know why she likes that one so much, but she gets really excited every time she hears the theme song.)

Books - Look and Find Books, ...everything, I haven't found a book yet that she doesn't love.

Toys - Her Tinker Bell doll, her baby (and all it's accessories), her Little People Princess Castle

Activities - Coloring and going to the park

Foods - hot dogs, strawberries, chicken nuggets, apples, fruit snacks

Edward's Blessing

2010-03-17T19:50:00.002-06:00

Well, most of the craziness for the month has come to an end. This past Sunday Edward was blessed. Blessing a child, or at least listening to them being blessed, is always such a neat experience. Afterward, we had lunch with a few family and friends and had a small birthday party for Emily. It was really fun and much less stress than I had anticipated. It was nice to have the Becksteads in town for the blessing and to spend some time with them. We definitely missed the Hadley family, but we did see them last week and enjoyed spending time with them then!

March Madness

2010-03-11T06:41:00.004-07:00

I did so good at blogging in February and have really fallen behind in March. This month has been pretty crazy so far and it's not going to slow down for at least a few more days! It's funny, I feel like I do nothing for weeks and then run around like a mad woman for the next few weeks. So, here's what you've missed so far in the month of March:

March 4th: We had the funeral of my Great-Grandma Hadley, who passed away February 26th. She was 92 years old. It was sad to see her go, but not unexpected. It was a time of very mixed emotions. I will definitely miss her, but I'm so happy for her that she gets to be healthy again. She was always very spunky and very busy, so it's been hard to see her the past few years, she was just not herself.

March 6th: My family was here for the funeral, so we spent Saturday with them. We started out at Great-Grandma Hadley's helping to clean her house. After a few hours, some of us went back to Grandma Davis' house while my Dad, Jacob and the older boys stayed to continue cleaning. We just hung out and enjoyed ourselves and had a mini birthday party for my Grandma in the evening.

March 8th: Happy Birthday Jacob! Jacob is officially a quarter of a century old. My morning was crazy, but it all worked! Due to the funeral, I was completely unprepared for his birthday when it got here. But, I think it all turned out well! I managed to get him a few presents, fix a nice dinner and rent a movie. (I rented X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which I hadn't seen before and we just finished watching it last night. I can't stay awake past 10 anymore.)

His favorite present is his new iPod Touch that he's been having fun playing with. I was very proud of myself for finding a nice one on KSL and arranging to purchase it from the seller. I made Jacob come with me to buy it, which turned out to be a good thing. The seller turned out to be at 15 year old, whose parents didn't know he had listed his iPod. They were fine with it as he was apparently selling everything he owned to buy a BMX bike. I'm sure they weren't happy when they found out how cheap he's sold it for though. When I agreed to the very low price, I assumed I was talking to an adult who knew what they were doing. I felt kind of bad taking it, but if I hadn't I'm sure he would have just sold it to someone else!

March 9th: Another busy day, but with less exciting things such as going to the library (and forgetting my card), enrichment...sorry, Relief Society (every time I get used to calling it one thing, they change it on me!) and moving ATV's for a friend.

March 10th: Family pictures! (Coming soon to facebook.) Of course, when you schedule picture day, the toddle inevitably does not have a nap and is very grouchy. (Though why she also has to cover her room in poo while she's not having a nap, I don't understand. If anyone knows why she's doing this repeatedly, please let me know.) It was stressful, but we got some good pictures and it's over.

March 11th: Today is Edward's two-month check-up with the doctor. Hopefully all will go well!

Future Madness: We're blessing Edward on Sunday and I'm not ready at all! We're also having a celebration of his blessing and Emily and Jacob's birthdays, which I have yet to think about! This is going to be fun...

The Heffalump Movie

2010-03-01T10:14:00.004-07:00

I borrowed the Heffalump movie from the Provo library a few weeks ago. I'm still undecided as to whether this was a good idea or not. We'll see what happens when I try to return it. Emily thinks it's the best movie ever. I love watching her watch it. She gets very emotionally invested. (Sorry about the shaky camera toward the end. I was holding Edward and he started to get very wiggly.)

Haircut

2010-02-28T21:59:00.002-07:00

Just wanted to share a picture of my new haircut. I got it cut about a week ago and am loving it so far! It feels so much lighter, stays out of my face and takes much less time to blow-dry.

In other news, I really wish I was asleep right now. It took Emily an hour and a half to go to sleep tonight and now Edward apparently thinks it's his turn. My life is feeling rather repetitive at the moment. Put Edward's pacifier in his mouth, he falls asleep, pacifier falls out, he wakes up and screams, put the pacifier back in a quickly as possible for fear that his screams will wake up his sister and I'll have to deal with her again...repeat...and repeat...and repeat. It's been fun!

Arizona Or BUST!!

2010-02-24T17:53:00.004-07:00

So, for those of you who don't know, and to make it official, we are moving to Arizona. We were hoping to move in the next month or two, but we're not sure. The plan was to transfer my (Jacob) job down to one of the donor centers in the area. My FM (facility manager) talked to the GM (general manager) of the Southwest Division on Tuesday and was told that they actually don't have any open positions that I could move to. That means that we are basically on the job hunt...again. I really wish I could stay with the same company for more than a year, but oh well. Clarissa has a lot better chance of getting a decent position down in AZ vs. UT. So, if any of you who are already in Arizona know of any open jobs, let us know.

Menu Planning

2010-02-22T13:10:00.003-07:00

One of my goals, since finishing school, has been to start making weekly menus. (School made life too unpredictable and my menus never worked. It was hard to know in advance what days I would have time to cook.) I am finding this to be much harder than it should be. Generally, I sit there, staring at my piece of paper, getting distracted by everything possible and end up writing down the same things every week.

A little while ago, I was watching Food Network and got some inspiration. (For how much I watch this channel, I should have more ideas on what to cook.)I decided I was going to make a schedule. For example:

Monday: Mexican

Tuesday: Italian

Wednesday: Oriental

Thursday: ???

Friday: Sandwiches

Or something similar.

The problem I am now running into is that I still don't have tons of good ideas. We love Mexican, but I only ever make tacos and enchiladas. Having a sandwich night every week sounded fun, in theory, but I haven't come up with very many exciting sandwiches.

So, here's the part where I would like some input from all of you. First, has anyone tried this or something similar and what was your schedule? Second, does anyone have any great recipes they would like to share?

Too Smart

2010-02-18T12:53:00.004-07:00

Emily just never ceases to amaze me. She is so smart. Every time I think I have a good grasp on how much she knows, she surprises me with something else.

For instance, she likes to pretend she can't talk. She will not talk unless she sees a need to, if she can get her point across another way, she will. She doesn't parrot things back either. Why should she say 'dog' when I can clearly say it myself? Every once in a while though, she says things that stun me. She wanted to watch Mickey Mouse Club House the other day (and yes, she conveyed this point without using any words). I turned on Disney Channel and we were in luck, there was 1 minute left of the previous show and then Mickey Mouse would be on. So, I left it on and went back to what I was doing. She came and pulled me back to the TV. So I explained that Mickey Mouse would be on in 1 minute. She looked at me and said, "But I just want to watch it now Mom!"

Really?! You want me to believe you can't talk!

Example two is her new favorite book, I Spy. I got it from the library thinking that there was no way she would be able to do it, but that the pictures would be fun to look at. I decided to try it with her one day and it turns out that not only can she do it, she's really good at finding everything! She pretty much has it memorized now, but wants to find everything over and over again anyway.

Edward has discovered a new favorite position, at least for today. He doesn't like being set down...ever. But today he hung out by himself, on his tummy, for almost half an hour! I think we're going to be having tummy time more often!

The Small Things

2010-02-11T14:08:00.006-07:00

(Obligatory pictures of my cute kids)

I've been thinking a lot lately about redefining what it means to be productive. My friend Kami posted about this very thing on her blog today and it made me feel good that I'm not the only one.

You really do have to take a new look at what it means to be productive every once and a while. As she pointed out, being productive used to mean cleaning the whole kitchen, doing all the laundry and doing several assignments for work. Now, it's a good day when I get all the dishes done.

I am seriously considering adding things such as coloring with Emily and holding Edward to my to-do list. That way I can cross more things off. For some reason, it's just satisfying to cross things off my list.

As part of this redefining, I've also been trying to enjoy the little things. So, I wanted to share with you some of the things that have made me happy this week.

Monday (I think): Edward only got up once during the night! He is getting much better at sleeping. We've still had some rough nights, but he's at least sleeping in the swing most of the time. Our next step is to try to get him to sleep in the cradle so that he can eventually move into his room. Emily slept in the swing, in her room, for a long time. But since he is sharing a room with her, the swing won't work as it places him within her reach.

Tuesday: Jacob and I went shopping without Emily (thank-you Gaskins!). After we came home, we sat on the living room floor and ate dinner while watching "Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium". Emily thought that eating on the floor was very fun. She was also quite fascinated with the concept of popcorn chicken. It was so much fun.

Wednesday: Emily had 2 baths (which is its own, very gross, story) and she only cried during 1 of them! It took coaxing to get her in both times, but during the second bath she started playing and wasn't eager to get out! She didn't fight me on getting out like she used to, but she would have played in there longer if I had let her. I think she was scared of getting water in her eyes and I don't think the bath-phobia is totally over, but it's a step in the right direction.

Thursday: Emily is taking a nap and I didn't have to go put her back in bed at all!

Friday: Jacob has the day off work! I'm sure there will be plenty of other happy things about Friday when it gets here.

Dancing

2010-02-08T09:26:00.003-07:00

Emily's new favorite activity is dancing. I'm getting pretty good exercise with her constantly insisting I dance with her. At this moment, I was feeding Edward, so she decided to dance with Tinker Bell instead. This video is only the end of her dance, she really did this during the entire song.

And yes, those are 12 month old pants that are slowly falling off. She is so dang skinny, pants just do not fit her.

Life With A Two Year Old

2010-02-01T09:30:00.001-07:00

No, Emily isn't quite 2 yet, but she's getting in some good practice. I cannot say that I was unfamiliar with the concept of the terrible twos. I had even experienced it, to some extent, with my younger siblings. It is still strange to have a two-year old of my very own. So many new skills I have to learn! The most important skill seems to be sneakiness. Let me share a few examples with you.

Treats: If I'm eating any kind of treat...or rearranging cupboards where treats are kept or opening the fridge for any reason....I have to be very sneaky about it so Emily doesn't insist of having a treat.

Books: The Orem Library has a book called "Buzz, Buzz Busy Bees". It is not particularly interesting, but Emily is attached. We renewed it as many times as we could because she would throw a fit every time we tried to return it. Finally, we had to sneak it into the diaper bag. When we got to the library, I started talking to her while Jacob quickly threw it in the drop box. I don't think she's noticed yet that it's missing. We'll see what happens when she does.

Baths: Emily is suddenly, unexplainedly terrified of having a bath. I've tried all kinds of sneakiness here and nothing has actually worked yet. Jacob got her undressed in the living room while she was watching a show and then carried her to the already filled bathtub. At least she got a bath, she wasn't happy about it though. For the next bath, I set her on the bathroom counter and started by wiping her hands and face and slowly moved to the rest of her. Again, at least she got cleaned, but much screaming was involved. I'll let you know when one of my plans works.

Wii Fit: I play Wii Fit a lot, so of course Emily wants to play too. For a little while she was fine with holding the remote and watching her Mii turn into a snowball. (This is what happens on the ski jump game if you don't jump.) This is no longer satisfying, she wants her Mii to move like Mom's does, but she is very opposed to having any help. So, I sit behind her and push on the balance board while she's not looking. It's kind of hard to play Wii Fit with your hands and keep it a secret.

Of course, we're also starting to experience the temper tantrums of a two year old. One is being thrown at this very moment because I won't let her sit on the computer desk and play with everything up here. She's sure cute, but I never imagined it would be so hard to keep her happy. Don't get me wrong, sometimes things can't be any other way and she just gets to scream. However, to avoid constant screaming and keep Mom sane, extraordinary measures must be taken.

Side Note: Edward is doing well and getting bigger everyday! The sleeping is still a work in progress, but last night was wonderful. I think we're going to start giving him some formula before bed to see if that will help. I'm not sure he's getting full enough at the end of the day.

Living by the Spirit...how do you do this?

2010-01-24T12:38:00.000-07:00

So, we just got home from church (early because I have a monster for a daughter who needs a nap) and it was a really good sacrament meeting. The talks were on priorities and making sure our priorities are the best ones for us. The reason for my title being, through the entire meeting, I kept getting this feeling that we need to move. Where? I have no idea. Why? Again, no idea. When? Sooner rather than later. We have no real reason to move. We like our apartment, I really like my job, Clarissa and I have a lot of new friends here, so why the sudden feeling that we need to start thinking about another location? We have talked about Clarissa applying for jobs so that I can go back to school, but thats not for another 6 months or more. And that included the possibility of staying here. The feelings I'm getting are that we need to be somewhere else in the next 3 or 4 months. If anyone has any thoughts or feelings, please share, because I am at a complete loss for what to do.

Sleeping

2010-01-21T12:09:00.000-07:00

I don't get it. At night, Edward can't sleep unless I am touching him. Thus, he ends up sleeping in our bed, which I really don't like. I have tried everything to get him to sleep and he just won't do it. So, I end up letting him sleep in our bed so that I can get some sleep. Then, during the day, this is what happens:

This is what he looks like right now, he's been in this position for over 2 hours. Why can't he do this at night? I was thinking that if we could break the cycle, he would sleep at night. Maybe he just still had day and night mixed up. Nope, no matter how much he sleeps at night and how much he is awake during the day, he still won't sleep by himself at night and will sleep anywhere during the day. What the heck?

As a side note, Emily is very good at sharing. She frequently brings Edward her blanket and baby when he starts crying. She is a very nice big sister.

Adjusting

2010-01-13T11:59:00.001-07:00

We're adjusting pretty well to being a family of four.

My recovery has gone better than ever expected. I think this is my blessing for making it through that pregnancy, easy recovery. I've actually been feeling really well and am starting to get out into the world again. It's a delicate balance, Edward probably shouldn't be around too many people for a while, but I am getting bored with just sitting around the house.

Emily is still working on adjusting to being a big sister, but she's doing pretty good. Really, her only major problem is loving him too much. She wants to take care of him, pick him up when he cries, and feeding him with her doll food. It's adorable, but we're still working on learning to be gentle...and not picking him up. She's also struggling a little bit with the fact that there are so many new rules. There are so many things she can't play with (his pacifier, his swing, etc). She seems to have decided that since she can't remember all of them, she just won't follow any of them, including the rules I know she knows, like not pulling all the DVDs out. It's a tough concept that there are things in the house that don't belong to her.

Edward is adjusting very well to being alive. He sleeps pretty well and doesn't cry much at all, even when his sister is picking on him. He does seem to love the pacifier, which is a new thing for me, but he's getting better at keeping it in his mouth and that is all I ask at this point. He's growing so much and getting cuter every day.

I don't know if there's any adjustment for Jacob. He loves having two kids and helps me out a lot with both of them. I'm sure he'll let me know if he's had to make any adjustments after he reads this.

Edward's Story

2010-01-04T19:58:00.003-07:00

As you have probably guessed from previous posts, Edward was a little too comfortable where he was, so I was induced Saturday morning. I went into the hospital at 7, was all hooked up to the IV's at 8 and started real labor around 9. There are definitely pros and cons to being induced, but it was time. It was only 3 hours later that Edward was born.

My plan was to go natural again, like I did with Emily. It worked for about the first half of my labor. I was already so tired and sore this time that I just didn't have the stamina to fight off the pain. So I got an epidural to help me through the last half. I will definitely try to go natural again next time, but the epidural definitely wasn't a bad thing. I disliked losing control of my body and the feeling of the medication in general, but it helped me live through it.

We have really been enjoying having Edward here with us! He is a pretty good baby, despite the fact that he still has his days and nights mixed up. We are hoping to remedy that soon, but in the meantime I will continue to survive on naps. His big sister's only problem seems to be loving him too much. We have to remind her frequently not to squish him or pull his fingers off.

Edward Jacob Beckstead

2010-01-02T21:21:00.000-07:00

Edward Jacob Beckstead

Born: January 2, 2010 at 12:14 pm

Weight: 7 lb 8 oz

Length: 19 in

The hospital's internet connection, this computer or both are apparently very slow, so I will post pictures when we get home. (Hopefully we will be home tomorrow, but it is up to the pediatrician because he has Group B Strep.) There are pictures on Facebook though, so check those out!

Impending Birth

2009-12-29T20:33:00.000-07:00

It is finally here! No, not labor....not yet, but the end is finally in sight!

I love going to see the doctor and being told by his assistant that she honestly didn't expect to see me this week and then having him walk in and ask me why I'm still pregnant. Boy, do I wish I knew the answer to that question! But, the very good news is that if the baby does not come this week, I am being induced on Saturday!

It was somewhat unexpected. He had told me that the hospital wouldn't let him induce me until 39 weeks, but I didn't dare hope that I would get an appointment for the exact day I make it to 39 weeks. No complaints here though! I am definitely still hoping that the baby will come on his own before then, but it is so nice to have an end in sight. Though it doesn't immediately solve my physical issues, it definitely helps with the mental exhaustion.

Christmas Day

2009-12-28T07:40:00.002-07:00

I must admit, the way things were going I definitely expected to be spending Christmas Day in the hospital. However, I was blessed to spend the day at home with my family and our little boy got lucky and avoided having a Christmas birthday. Now I'm just hoping for a December birthday. We'll see, everyone keeps telling me that they don't think I'll make it much longer, but I never imagined that I would have made it this long. We will definitely let you all know when he decides to make his appearance!

Christmas day, Jacob and I were awake at 4, with the help of my lovely contractions, and had to sit around waiting for Emily to wake up. A little opposite from the traditional situation. She got up around 6:30 and we started opening presents. She was a little confused at first. Santa Claus left some Tinker Bell figurines just sitting on the couch and she almost seemed to wonder whose toys were at her house. Once she discovered the wrapped gifts, she got right into it. We found though that she is a little OCD. Every single piece of wrapping paper, no matter how small, had to be in the garbage before she would pull off another one. Funny for a few minutes, but very time consuming after a little while.

She got completely spoiled, but loved (and is still loving) every minute of it. She had so many new toys that she didn't know what to do with herself for a little while. She figured it all out pretty quick though. Surprisingly, she has spent time playing with every single one of her presents, including all the books. We're glad that nothing is going unappreciated. It is funny though, that the cheapest toys usually seem to be the most fun. We got her a bag full of random stuff to take care of her doll (bottles, baby food, diaper wipes, combs, all pretend of course) and she thinks they are the best things ever. Really, they're cheap plastic bottles and she spends hours and hours caring for her baby with them.

Jacob and I also had a wonderful Christmas. One of the highlights for me (other than spending time with my family) was the beautiful Nativity Jacob got for me. I collect Nativities, but I have way too many little ones. So, I told Jacob that from now on I either wanted to start collecting pieces to a big one or collecting Nativities from other countries. He chose the get me the center of the Willow Tree Nativity and we will keep collecting every Christmas until I get the whole thing. It is beautiful and I am very excited about it.

It was a wonderful Christmas for us and I hope that all of you enjoyed yours as well! Merry Christmas!

Pictures of December

2009-12-16T09:18:00.001-07:00

I haven't put any pictures on the blog in a long time, so I found a few to give you an update on what's going on, other than stuff with the baby. Enjoy!

The only pregnant picture of me you're going to get. Actually, it's the only picture that I have of me this pregnancy.

Emily is trying to feed her cookie to her doll. A few minutes after this was taken she got in trouble for crumbling the cookie on the floor. She turned right around and got mad at her doll for doing it. Clearly it was the doll's fault since she didn't eat it when she was supposed to.

At temple square with Nicole and Heath after the Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert. It was an amazing concert. Natalie Cole was there and she always sings beautifully. David McCullough told stories about "Oh Little Town of Bethlehem" and "I'll Be Home For Christmas" that were very cool. However, the best part of the evening was Richard Elliot's organ solo. That seems strange since he's not any kind of special guest, but his arrangement was genius. He played "Good Kind Wenceslas", but most of the time it sounded more like the Nutcracker Suite. Apparently you had to be very familiar with "Good Kind Wenceslas" to even pick it out. It was absolutely amazing.

It was also lots of fun to meet Nicole and Heath! Nicole works with Jacob and it's always nice to meet the people that I hear so much about.

And just in case you ever wonder if your children are watching you, yes she is holding a pair of tweezers. Don't worry, I took them away before she could poke her eye out, but I couldn't resist a picture first.

I Hate My LIfe

2009-12-14T02:34:00.001-07:00

When I started this blog, one of my goals was to keep it as upbeat as possible, while still having it reflect my life. Well, sometimes life is just not upbeat and this is just going to have to be one of those posts.

Saturday night I had contractions all night long that were not quite labor, but broke through my Ambien and kept me awake all night. Then, all day Sunday I had contractions that just couldn't seem to decide what they were doing. They were either regular, or painful, but not both. Around 6:30 they suddenly became very regular and very painful. I really didn't want to go into the hospital for false labor, so I decided to wait it out a little. I took some Tylenol, tried walking around, tried laying down. Nothing worked, they were getting more frequent and intense. When they were coming every two minutes and hurt like nothing but labor can, I decided it was time to go to the hospital. By the time we got everything packed up and all of Emily's stuff to the babysitter, they had been coming painfully, every 2 minutes for 2 hours.

But, Murphy's Law struck again, the minute I got to the hospital the pain decreased dramatically. Turns out, all these contractions had done nothing and continued to do nothing (even though they were there) the entire time I was at the hospital. So, they gave me two Percocet and sent me home.

You would think that with two Percocet and Ambien in my system, I would be asleep right now. Nope, yet again, the contractions are painful enough to break through all the medication and keep me awake. Not regular enough to count as labor though. GGGGGGGGGGGGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! (yes, that is how I feel about it)

The nurse at the hospital said the same thing my doctor told me last week. I'm far enough along that they won't stop me if I go into labor naturally, but they're not going to do anything to help it along.

I'm going to feel so sick in the morning....................Bleck.

The Miracle of Sleep

2009-12-09T08:13:00.002-07:00

Yesterday was yet another visit to the doctor. I do that a lot these days. He still says that the baby could come tomorrow...or a month from now.Yay. However, because the contractions have been getting even worse, he prescribed a sleep-aid for me. Those of you who have been pregnant before....remember how a few times before the baby comes, you start getting really painful, regular contractions that lead you to think, "This is it!"? And then after about 30 min to an hour they stop and you start waiting for it to happen again.This is exactly what is happening to me...3-4 times every day and almost all night long. And I'm not due for a month.

It is mentally wearing because I never know if I'm actually going into labor, but it is also very physically wearing. They make me constantly exhausted and extremely sore. The night ones are the worst though. I've been getting no sleep at all.

So, yesterday the doctor gave me a prescription for Ambien. I've only taken it for one night, but so far I love it. I have to say, that the directions for use really mean what they say! You're supposed to take it half an hour before you go to bed and make sure you have at least 7 hours to sleep. I took one last night at 8:30, was out by 9, and then at 4 (exactly 7 hours later) I woke up and resumed my normal sleep pattern of waking up every 15 minutes. The doctor said that if I actually go into labor, the medication won't be strong enough to let me sleep through it for long, but it should allow me to sleep through the shorter bursts of contractions. Hooray!

I feel so much better today! I'm still tired, but it feels a little closer to normal pregnant tired and I'm hoping that more nights of good sleep will continue to help. Of course, this won't make the contractions during the day any better, but I think I'll be able to handle them better (physically and mentally) now that I'm getting some sleep.

Little Miss Chatterbox

2009-12-07T08:41:00.000-07:00

As we suspected, it appears that Emily was waiting to start talking until she knew she could do it. Just this past week she has started using sentences and surprises us with at least 3 new ones every day. I didn't even know she could say half of these words, let alone use them in sentences. Here are just a few examples:

I want fishes.
More please
No it's not!
Yes please (So, cute! I gave her the pop-tarts she was asking for, even though I wasn't going to.)
I'm so thirsty
That's so precious

There are more, but those are the ones that are coming to mind at the moment. It's been so fun to listen to her! She's also started singing the ABC's, which completely baffles me. I may be slacking in my motherly duties, but I don't think I've ever sung the ABC's to her and if I have it hasn't been recently. I'm assuming they sing it in nursery or maybe she picked it up from a babysitter. She only makes it to D, but it's still very cute. She is still not a performer and only talks when she feels a need to do so. This makes it a little hard to catch a video of her talking, but I will continue to try.

College Graduate

2009-12-04T18:10:00.001-07:00

Well, I didn't blog quite as frequently as planned during blogging month, but I did make a definite improvement over previous months! Really, considering how busy I've been and how terrible I've felt over the past month, I think it was an amazing accomplishment.

The current exciting news, is that as of today I am a college graduate! No diploma or teaching certificate yet, but today was my last day of school. I was supposed to have another week left, but BYU was nice and took pity on me. The past week has been really difficult because my contractions have been getting so much worse. (Really, I don't know how a person can have this many contractions and not be in labor.) It was getting very hard on me and on my mentor teacher. It's very hard to plan when I never knew what I was going to be able to do or when I was going to be able to be there. So, I spoke with my professor yesterday and she said to go ahead and have today be my last day. She said that BYU would be willing to forgive one week. So, somewhat unexpectedly, I'm done!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't think it has quite sunk in yet that I am completely done with school.

A Week At A Time

2009-11-19T20:01:00.000-07:00

So, here is my promised update on the baby. Unfortunately, I don't have much to tell you. The doctor says that he thinks I still have a few weeks, but that could change at any time. For the time being, I am allowed to go about life as normal (except no traveling very far and no lifting anything really heavy). I will continue going to school and doing all that. However, all this can still change at pretty much any moment. I am living my life on a week to week basis. It's kind of like being a week away from my due date...except that week is going to last two months. We'll see how this goes. I might be crazy by the time the baby gets here.

My Favorite Things

2009-11-18T20:25:00.000-07:00

Emily has turned into quite the opinionated young lady lately, so I thought I would record some of her favorite things.

1. Not wearing pants

2. Wearing Mom's shoes (especially wedges and slippers)

3. Her Halloween bucket

4. Bubbles (I have a cute video of this that will be posted later if I can get blogspot to work.)

5. Reading books, any book will do. She does have her favorites, but even Mom and Dad's books that don't have pictures work for her.

6. Tinker Bell (It's more of an obsession, really)

7. My Friend's Tigger & Pooh (There are not nearly enough episodes On Demand, I've seen them all too many times.)

8. Her baby

9. Blankie

10. The Christmas tree (She's slowing learning to leave it alone.)

11. Fruit snacks (especially the Tinker Bell ones)

12. Princesses

13. Yogurt

Baby Update

2009-11-14T11:49:00.001-07:00

This week has been an interesting one, a little bit ridiculous actually. I did not feel well on Tuesday and then on Wednesday started having contractions that seem to be brought on by physical activity (by which I mean, walking around school or the library). It left me very tired and what I felt to be abnormally sore. So, I paid a visit to the doctor on Thursday. I do have a bit of an infection that explains some of the exhaustion and soreness, it does not explain the contractions though. They did do a test which indicates that chances are very high that the baby won't come in the next 2 weeks. They can't really predict any further than that. The good news is that the baby's heartbeat and all that is fine and as long as I make it at least 2 more weeks there won't be a lot of cause for concern.

Really what I'm saying is, we know nothing. I'll go back to the doctor in a week and we'll probably be able to tell a little more by then. I could be having this baby a little earlier than planned or I could still go full term. The other part of the good news is, it seems like BYU is going to be really cooperative. My professor said that as long as I can make it through Thanksgiving, they should just let me graduate. We're going to do my exit interview and final evaluation next Friday, just in case. So, all things considered, this could be much worse! I will let you know when I know more.

Blogging Month

2009-11-08T06:45:00.002-07:00

I just learned from a friends' blog that November is blogging month. She has set the amazing goal of blogging daily, I think I will just go for twice a week. However, if I even met my goal of weekly that would be an improvement.

Today my post will be about the fact that I am awake. I have been awake since 4. Yesterday I woke up at 6. What's the point of the weekend anyway? Yesterday was my fault, today is completely Emily's. We attempted the toddler bed again last night and so she wandered into our room at 4 and wouldn't go back to sleep. Going to sleep in the toddler bed didn't work so well last night, so it had no chance this morning. Really, I don't understand her. When I put her in the toddler bed she screams like she's dying. She then gets up and walks to the end of the hall. She calmly stands there until I come and then walks back to her bed, perfectly willingly. I put her back in bed, walk out and we start the cycle again. After doing this about 15 times last night, I sat in her rocking chair until she went to sleep since she was almost there anyway. I seriously do not understand.

Redoing

2009-11-06T20:58:00.002-07:00

In lieu of planning my lessons this week, we've been having fun redecorating the house. Jacob read an article that said that every home should have a picture of the Savior and a picture of the temple. We've had the first one covered since we got married, but we've kind of been counting our wedding picture as a picture of the temple. As you can see below, you can't even tell it's the temple. So, we moved all our family pictures to accommodate for a lovely picture of the temple and one of the First Presidency. I really love how it turned out.

Yes one of the frames is empty, it will be the new baby when he gets here!

This picture, which didn't turn out well in the photograph, we just got today and will be hung in the nursery. We went to Costco for chicken and Greg Olsen was there! The picture was only $20 and someone at Costco got smart and put picture frames on sale. So, we got it signed and are very excited to hang it in the nursery tomorrow.

I also did some redoing on my look this week. Alright, not much of a change, but I did get new glasses! Surprisingly, after having not seen an eye doctor in 5 years, my prescription was only worse by .25 in each eye (Jacob will tell me how to say that correctly later.) It's nice to have glasses that I can see out of and that stay on my face!

On a random side note (I know, I need to learn to stick to one topic per post) Emily is turning into such a big girl. Tonight she didn't want to sit on my lap as we read stories and sang songs, she had to sit next me. It didn't work well in the rocking chair and felt very strange to be singing primary songs without a little girl on my lap.

Halloween Fun

2009-11-01T19:44:00.003-07:00

Halloween was a fun time this year, especially since Emily was old enough to be excited about the candy!

Our beautiful pumpkins that Jacob carved. I cleaned them out. I also made some tombstones that fell over and broke at the slightest breeze....that was kind of lame.

Emily dressed as Abby Cadabby. She loved her costume and even left her pigtails in all night! I tried again for church today and it lasted the normal 2 minutes. I guess Halloween is magic.

Emily and Jacob at the ward trunk-or-treat. Emily actually has an ear infection right now, so we just did this instead of normal trick-or-treating, she gets pretty crabby in the evenings. She got more candy than any 18 month old needs anyway.

Jacob and I just wore scrubs for our costumes. He was supposed to have his stethoscope, making him a doctor and I was supposed to have a witches hat, making me a witch doctor, but we forgot our accessories. Two of our friends were also wearing scrubs, so we just decided that we had dressed up as Reed and Jyll for Halloween. They were a paradox or "pair-of-docs".

She dug right into her stash the minute we got home. Normally her shoes have to come off first thing, but she was so excited about the candy that we were able to get a few more pictures of her in her costume.

Starting Again

2009-10-25T17:13:00.003-06:00

It has been a crazy weekend, but a lot of craziness in my life has come to an end. All semester I've been working away at my teacher work sample. For those who haven't already heard me complain about it, it's basically my senior project. It really wasn't as bad as I expected, just extremely time consuming. Many other things have fallen by the wayside in the past few weeks as I've tried to get it done. However, it is now complete and will be turned in on Monday!

Along with turning that monster in, I will also be starting at a new school on Monday. BYU has us teach at two different schools during our student teaching, once in a lower grade and once in an upper grade. I have to say that while I'm sad to leave the school I was at, I'm so glad to be going to an older grade. I'm still not positive, but I'm starting to think that I'm not cut out to teach the younger grades. I just can't handle how sensitive they are! I also feel like half of what I say goes right over their heads some days. So, I'll be trying my hand at 5th grade again. We shall see how it goes. Right now, I'm mostly just excited that I get to spend the next little while observing, which will mean that after school will be my time and I'll be able to catch up on some things....hopefully. Being pregnant is dang exhausting, so right now I'm tempted to just catch up on my sleep. Unfortunately, work and house cleaning are calling my name.

PS - Does anyone have any good costume suggestions? I really did not want to dress up for Halloween as I don't have money to spend on a costume or time to make one, however I will probably have to wear something to school on Friday. Being pregnant also makes this more difficult. So, I am open to any and all suggestions! Emily is going to be Abby Cadabby (a fairy in training from Sesame Street), but I can't think of a Sesame Street character I can be, so I can't really go for the family theme.

100 days/Emily/Birthday

2009-10-10T08:19:00.007-06:00

I've been meaning to blog forever, so this is going to be another one of those random, long posts. I have about 4 different posts written in my head, I just haven't had the time to put any of them on here! First, I would just like to draw your attention to the pregnancy tracker on your right. I have less than 100 days left!!!!! I know, that's still a lot of days, but the end is getting closer. The only unfortunate part of that is that the baby is still completely breach. He has not moved one inch the entire pregnancy. Hopefully he'll decide to move himself soon because my bladder cannot take much more of this.

The next blog post that's floating around in my head is about how my baby has suddenly been replaced by a toddler. When did that happen!? She is getting so big and learning so many new things. This morning I grabbed the tray off her high chair to go put some breakfast on it and rather than following me around, like normal, Emily went over and climbed right up into her high chair. She's so tiny, but it apparently is not going to stop her from getting where she wants to be.

We went to her 18 month check-up last week and the doctor said that everything is looking good. She's still ridiculously small (25% for height and .5% for weight) but she is clearly not malnourished, so oh well. Her doctor also decided to tell me that I should start potty training her. He noticed how conscious she is of her diaper and the fact that it needs to be changed and said that even though she's really young, we could probably succeed in potty training. This morning I got her up and she pointed right to her clean diapers and said, "This!". I grabbed her a diaper and set her down. She laid right down, ready to be changed. She was only wet, but apparently it needed to be changed now. I tend to think her doctor might be right, but I just can't do it right now. She's with babysitters all day, so I would basically be forcing them to potty train her for me and clean up all the messes that go with it. We also still have to transition to the toddler bed. (I was starting to get sick from lack of sleep, so we went back to the crib and decided to try again later.) Maybe we can potty train after the baby gets here.

The final post that's all written in my head is about my birthday. It was so much fun. I have an amazing husband. He kept everything a secret from me, until the night before when he told me that I was going to get a pedicure after I got home from school. That was awesome. Pedicures are one of those things that I love, but never do for myself. My friend Amy met me there part way through and it was fun to just sit and talk. When we were done, her husband Dave came to pick us up and take us back to our house, where Jacob had made a delicious dinner of spaghetti and garlic bread. Dave and Amy stayed to celebrate with us, which was really fun and Emily had been sent to play with some other friends, so it was a nice, quiet evening. We ate spaghetti, watched Bride Wars, ate cake (that Jacob made) and ice cream and relaxed. On top of all that, Jacob also got me a beautiful new maternity dress and an absolutely gorgeous coat. It was a great day.

My fancy new dress

I have the white one! It's actually pretty awesome, it's not maternity and doesn't look big, but will probably button over my belly for most of the pregnancy.

Fish And Hair

2009-09-17T20:51:00.002-06:00

We have given up goldfish. Tigger died the day I wrote that last post. Also, all the little goldfish I bought for class are now dead. That's 6 dead fish that I've had to deal with since Saturday, it's gross. So, we have gone back to the beta fish. We've had one before and he lived a decent amount of time, hopefully this one will follow suit. He does not have a name yet, so suggestions are appreciated.

Also, I decided to die my hair today. Literally, I decided right before it happened. I really love the color though! You can't see it in this picture, other than that it's dark, but it does also have some red in it. I'm really tired, so ignore the look on my face please. Maybe sometime soon Emily will sleep through the night again and then I won't be so tired!

Cheese!

2009-09-13T12:58:00.002-06:00

Emily has started saying "cheese!" and smiling every time she hears the camera turn on, which just makes us want to take even more pictures of her! So, here are the results of her new habit.

I was trying to take a picture of the fish, but she thought she needed her picture taken first. But, you can see her new hair cut! I don't totally love it, but since she won't let me do anything with it, it was the only way to keep her hair out of her eyes.

Emily's new fish, Tigger. (This angle makes him look bigger than he is, though he is a big fish.) We also had Pooh, a white Koi (named for Tigger & Pooh, Emily's favorite), but he died within a few hours of being purchased. Apparently if you don't hold them over the security sensors on your way out of the store it scrambles their brains. Tigger seems to have lived through the trama so far. We also got her new tennis shoes with Winnie-the-Pooh on them. She insisted on wearing them all night and tried to wear them to church. She really likes Pooh Bear.

Oh Canada!

2009-09-08T16:53:00.002-06:00

Hello blogging world! I am back! Life has been crazy lately to say the least, but we'll get to all that later. We first have to go back to our trip to Canada. My old roommate Tashina was getting married and since her older brother lives in Provo, we were lucky enough to be able to hitch a ride up to the wedding. She got married in the Cardston temple on August 25th. That is an absolutely gorgeous temple if you've never been there. The front entrance is absolutely breath-taking. It was a really nice wedding and we were excited to be able to meet her new husband!

After the wedding we got to hang out with Tashina's family for the rest of the week. We went shopping at West Edmonton Mall, went to a dinner theater and spent several days chilling at the lake.

Emily really enjoyed being at the lake, except for the life-jacket, she wasn't a fan of that. Jacob spent a little time wakeboarding and I spent a lot of time riding in the boat and observing. I'm not so sure that pregnancy and water sports are a good combo. It was very relaxing and lots of fun!

Going on a carriage ride at the wedding

Emily chilling in the boat

Taking a break from boating for Emily's other favorite activity - swinging

Unfortunately, life has not been so calm and relaxing since we got home. The day after we got back, I started my student teaching. I am currently in the 3rd grade at Amelia Earhart Elementary in Provo. My class seems to be really good and it's been a pretty good experience so far. The only downside is that the school and the district are both implementing so many new programs that the teachers are really stressed out, which makes things a little confusing for me. To make it more stressful, Emily got really sick Wednesday night. Her temperature got up to 104 and the doctor couldn't find anything wrong with her. We went to the hospital and got bloodwork done. We ended up going back to the doctor at 11 pm to get an antibiotic shot in the hope that it would help. It seems to have helped and she's doing much better. We saw her normal doctor the next day and he said that it was probably just one of those bugs that we'll never be able to identify. She has a lovely heat rash now and is way tired, but other than that we are doing better!