HEATHER

New Year, New Stuff!

2012-01-11T05:48:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I haven't blogged for awhile. . . but I am going to try to start up again. I am going to start by posting tons of photos from the last, ehh, year or so (or maybe more). Anyway, hopefully I will find the time keep up on my family and all the stuff that is going on here in our neck of the woods (currently Catawissa, PA). The first pictures are from last Christmas (as in 2010), then there are some pics from the summer and then this Christmas. It's not alot, but it's a start!

Emmy in the news!

2010-10-01T11:37:00.000-07:00

Emmy's gifted class got to participate in a "living history" day at the Bloomsburg Fair. Emmy got to pretend she was a child living in the Civil War time. They played era appropriate games, ate corn muffins for lunch and helped teach visitors about the children of the Civil War era. She had a great time and even got to learn to knit, that is what she is doing in the picture. Emmy is wearing the red and white dress with white bloomers.

Last night some friends of mine from school offered to watch the children while Jaron and I went out to celebrate his birthday a few days late. His birthday was on Monday, but I had a test on Tuesday which meant we didn't even see each other on Monday. The kids had a blast and got to make and decorate cupcakes, draw pictures and add tons of stickers, and played hide and seek. They had so much fun that they begged me to take them back to be babysat again! Thanks Kelsey and Derek for the evening out! We have still not heard anything about the scholarship, but I do know that they are at least 2 weeks behind in mailing out the notifications, so there is still hope!

Up Date. . .

2010-09-15T17:21:00.000-07:00

Sorry, no pictures to post, but I thought I would at least give an update as to what is happening out here in good old' Catawissa, PA!

Jaron is enjoying working at Panera and he finally got his CPAP (constant positive air pressure) machine for his sleep apnea last night, so we are really excited for him to start getting some better sleep. He has been learning to be more of a Mr. Mom during this last month since I have started school again. He is now in charge of checking the kids homework, signing all their papers and he even took Carter to the doctor for his asthma follow up all by himself! ;0)

Emmy is super excited to be in the gifted program this year. The school psychologist did about 5 different tests on her over the summer and concluded that she is definitely gifted. Her lowest score on all of the tests was a 90% in math, which she says she is really bad at, her highest score was a 99.9% on one of the tests for spelling and reading, the rest of her scores were between the 95th-and 98th percentile. It is always so fun to hear that your child is brilliant! I can't help but smile=0) The school makes 4th graders take choir and then band is optional and Emmy has chosen to learn to play the flute. One of the girls in my P.A. class is letting Emmy borrow her flute and Emmy has already had her first lesson and really enjoyed it.

Carter is loving his new teacher and class. He is still really into Pokemon and loves to draw new ones of everyone he knows (if you are reading this then I can assure you Carter has made a Pokemon version of you). For school he made a poster about himself and said that when he grows up he wants to be a stay at home dad. He is a kind and sensitive boy, he is always willing to help out when he is asked. He is getting excited to get baptized in December and start going to Scouts.

Ashton LOVES kindergarten. He is always singing me new songs that he learned about how to draw certain numbers and letters. He gets to play on the "orange" equipment at school, which from the way he talks is pretty cool, and he gets to ride the bus everyday! I'm glad he is enjoying it so much. The other day he told me was so happy because he had to do homework --- write his name 3 times. He is such a funny kid and he is always cracking us up.

Lillian is really enjoying her day-care and she is learning alot there too. She is happy to go there every morning and they tell me that she never cries and she is always really good. I think she just saves up the crying and fit throwing for when she gets home! She is extremely independent and is talking very well. She is a funny little girl and makes us all smile with her antics.

As for me, I am surviving school. It is an exrtremely intense program and I am finding it a challenge to balance family, school, and church, but I am managing and so far the only thing that really seems to suffer are the dishes. I love the program I am in and I have already learned so much! I have to give a shout out to my mom who is willing to help me study so much. My time is so limited and I hated to waste the hour commmute I have to and from school, so I am making my flashcards online and my mom reads the terms to me and I tell her everything I know about it, she has even been willing to wake up at 4:30 a.m her time to study with me! I am still waiting for word on the big scholarshp I am praying to get, hopefully that will be soon and hopefully it will be good news.

Overall we are doing really well and everyone is happy and flourishing! Heavenly Father has blessed our famly so much I can't even begin to express how grateful I am, so I will just say I am extremely grateful!

Mermaid Girl!

2010-07-07T14:22:00.000-07:00

We have had a kiddie pool in the trunk of our car for weeks now and the kids were thrilled to finally be able to use it. Emmy sewed herself a mermaid tale and has brought it to several of her friends pool parties. She wanted me to take some pictures so everyone else could see it as well.

House Tour Part 3

2010-07-06T20:38:00.000-07:00

House tour part 2

2010-07-06T18:44:00.000-07:00

Our New House in Catawissa

2010-07-06T15:23:00.000-07:00

Finally a new post! I made some videos of our new home now that it is just about finished being put together.

Ashton's 5th Birthday

2010-02-06T11:14:00.001-08:00

Ashton will be 5 on Monday, but since daddy had the day off yesterday we celebrated a little early. Ashton's dreams came true and he finally got a Nintendo DS! He has been asking for one for almost a year now. I was able to find a really nice used one for him and he was so excited when he opened it he was shaking =0). The only other thing he wanted for his birthday was french-fries, so we broke down and took him to Burger King. He didn't want anything else, not even a kids meal, just french fries! I got a few pictures of him blowing out his candles and then he made a short video for us. Enjoy!

Video

2010-01-23T11:19:00.000-08:00

Here is a video I took with my ipod of the kids playing with foam swords.

Lilly's Second Birthday and some snow!

2010-01-17T08:34:00.000-08:00

Since I haven't posted for awhile, I will start out with Thanksgiving. I didn't get any pictures, but we spent it with a family in our ward who is also thousands of miles from home. They have 2 kids that are the same age as Ashton and Lilly. We split the cooking and it was a really nice holiday.

The biggest thing to me was that I managed to pull out a 4.0 for the semester! I was so excited and so relieved! I worked very hard all semester and now I just have to get into the program!

I had taken a whole bunch of pictures at Christmas for my blog, and the pictures were lost. I was really upset, so I just didn't post anything about Christmas. Needless to say, the children were spoiled rotten for Christmas and they all said it was the best one ever! I was just really glad when school started again and we could all get out of each others hair a little =0). This was the only picture that survived. . .

I had a wonderful birthday! Jaron helped me and the kids do a massive cleaning/reorganization of the kids rooms. We moved Emmy to what used to be the playroom so that she could have her own room (even though the boys and Lilly have to go through her room to get into theirs). Then Jaron took me out to see Avatar (which we both loved). Then, thanks to Grandma Hamblin and Kristi I was able to buy a new pair of shoes for the first time in two years! THANKS!

New Years was completely uneventful for us. Jaron worked late and I went to bed early with the kids. . . exciting!

Lilly's birthday was next and I did get some pictures of that. She has been such a joy to have in our family. She is spoiled rotten by everyone, even our neighbor Judy and her daughter! Lilly loves to sing and she does it all the time. Every time we get in the car she sings while she takes off her shoes and socks, and pulls out her pigtails. She got a set of keys to play with from mom and dad, some money from Grandma and Grandpa Hamblin, and new clothes from Grandma and Grandpa Quinn as well as Grandma Kristi and a new doll from Gramma Kristi as well. She talks alot, but she doesn't really say anything. Her doctor wants her to take speech therapy since she was practically deaf for so many months when she would normally have been starting to repeat the sounds she was hearing.

Shortly after Lilly's birthday it snowed really heavily for the first time this winter, so of course the kids had to get all decked out in their snow clothes to play outside. I got pictures of everyone but Ashton who refused to have his picture taken since he was wearing hot pink snowpants (Emmy's left overs and the ones that happen to fit him this year). He didn't want anyone to see him in them.

And here is Lilly in her new dress from Gramma Kristi, but she wouldn't actually cooperate and smile!

In further news, Lilly is currently potty training and is doing an awesome job! She is nearly finished and when she is, it will the first time that Jaron and I have been diaper free in 9 years! Also Jaron was featured in an article in the local newspaper, so here is the clipping.

Carters B-day and some Random Pics

2009-11-28T18:05:00.000-08:00

Life has been crazy busy around the Simonson household, but I finally have a minute so I will try to catch up a little.

Jaron is working at Bennigan's Restaraunt in Bloomsburg now. He is enjoying it but I think he dreams of the day that I finish school and he can teach music. School for me is going really well. So far I have managed to keep straight A's, and I only have 2 weeks left of school, so barring anything crazy happening I think I will pull it off.

Carter turned 7 on the 23rd of November. Our house isn't really big enough to have a birthday party at and Jaron's work schedule made it impossible for us to even have a good family party, so we let Carter open his presents at 6:30 a.m. and then the kids and I had a cake without Jaron that night. Our neighbor Judy did come over to sing to him with us and watch as he blew out the candles.

I met with both Emmy and Carter's teachers this last week for conferences and both of their teachers couldn't say enough good things about them, especially Carter's teachers. We had some testing done on Carter to see if he was going to need some extra help due to his Tourette's syndrome, but it turns out the kid is in the superior intelligence category, only 3 points below the "gifted" bracket. Instead they are recommending that he start in the gifted program next year, and Emmy too (of course). I have to say. . . I am extremely proud of those two. They are both excelling in school and even though Emmy cries over her math homework sometimes, she has managed to get a 97% overall for the semester so far (and 100% in everything else).

Ashton LOVES his preschool and it looks like he will be following in his older siblings footsteps in the intelligence arena. What can I say? Jaron and I make smart little cookies! Lilly has been starting to talk a little more and once she is over the strep she has, she will be golden.

The pictures I am posting are of Carter's Birthday and the video is of Lilly dancing with Jack the Elf to some Christmas music we had playing. (I really need to get a camera that can record sound!)

UpDate Thing-a-ma-jig

2009-09-03T18:00:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I have been really bad about blogging. Now that that's over with, on with the update!

Jaron: Jaron is really enjoying his new job and his calling with the scouts. His employees really like him, which is no big surprise =0) He still sleeps alot, but don't tell him I said that. =0)

Heather: Ok, I am crazy busy with school, kids, church and trying to keep a house. School is awesome. I love Penn College and am actually really enjoying all of my classes. I am happy to report that so far I have gotten A's on everything. If that changes, I may not tell you, but I figure while I am only 3 weeks into school and doing well I should enjoy it! I was in charge of the quarterly primary activity and the primary president wanted to do something with stranger danger. I had already started school and had very little time to actually plan the activity since I have only been in my calling for about 4 weeks now, but I came up with the idea to have the kids make their own stranger danger movie and the LOVED it! We spent the first little bit going over all of the stranger danger rules and then each of the kids got to "act" in the movie. I just used my camcorder, so it was very amature, but it turned out well and the kids watched themselves in their movie over and over while they ate homemade pizza for lunch.

Emmy: Emmy is missing Utah and her old friends and school, but she still really likes her new school and she is making new friends very quickly. They have started some art classes at school and Emmy's first sketch was of a pencil. The rest of the drawings are of some monsters that she thought would be fun to draw for a game at school. She wanted me to include them because she is very proud of them. She is certainly a very creative little girl.

Carter: Carter, poor little buddy. He has been having a rough time these last few weeks. He has had severe bowel problems and is now on medication for that, and it seems to be helping. Meanwhile he started school and the first day that he came home from school he was wheezing really bad. It just went downhill from there. He narrowly missed being hospitalized again and we have him on 4 different medications just to get his breathing under control. Top that off with an official diagnosis of Tourette Syndrome and a new medication for that and the kid spends about 30 minutes a day taking or breathing in all of his medication. He was really upset because no one would play with him at recess because he couldn't play running games. He is having a hard time making friends and so school has not been very fun for him. His new medication for the T.S. seems to be working. He has only been on it for almost a week now, so we will have to give it more time to see how well it is going to work. The neurologist says that once we get the ticks under control he can stop the meds and coast for awhile until he has another flare up of ticks, so at least he doesn't have to be on it all the time. Anyway, please pray for the little guy, he really need some friends and some better health!

Ashton: Ashton is LOVING "junior preschool" as he calls it. He gets to make something every day and he feels really big being able to go there. The only thing that he doesn't like is that he says he isn't learning anything yet. When I asked him what he was hoping to learn he said, "How to count really high and how to read." I didn't want to tell him that he probably would have to wait until kindergarten to learn that stuff, he would get too mad.

Lilly: Lilly is finally starting to warm up to her daycare. It is a really nice day care and I plan on taking some pictures and posting them so everyone can see where the two youngest spend their days. Lilly started out with a teacher that she really seemed to like and then her actual teacher came back from vacation. Lilly did not like her at all. She spent about a week and a half screaming almost the entire time I was gone (8:30-4:00). I had made up my mind to talk to the director about switching classes for Lilly when I walked in and they had already done it. Lilly is now back with her original teacher and she is much happier. She is smiling and playing everyday when I pick her up and she gives me the biggest hugs and kisses! She is finally starting to talk a little bit more. She does especially well when she is at our neighbor Judy's house. She will talk up a storm with Judy, all about crackers and pretzels and "dwink" drink. . . I still haven't gotten her into speech therapy and I really don't think she will need it.

The rabbits are doing well, getting fat and pooping everywhere, in case anybody cares =0)

Miss Hemisphere Pageant

2009-08-08T15:25:00.000-07:00

When we were living in Utah Emmy and I saw a show that I believe is called "Toddlers and Tiaras". It shows all these pageant moms and their tortured little children being forced onto stage to parade around in the hopes of winning trophies, ribbons and most of all crowns! I was horrified by it, but Emmy was absolutely fascinated. Ever since then she has been begging me to be in a pageant.

We were at a local mall when Emmy saw a flyer for a pageant and was so excited that there was going to be one close by. Grandma Rae got wind of her plight (hmm. . . wonder how that happened) and agreed to pay her entry fee so that she could compete in the pageant. We spent the better part of this morning doing her hair and getting her pageant ready. She wore the pink dress that was made for her when she modeled in the fashion show in Pocatello, thank goodness she got her crazy teeth pulled two days ago, so instead of a pumpkin smile she had a beautiful 8-year old toothless grin!

When we arrived the people running the pageant had the girls and boys walk through the steps they were supposed to take on stage. Emmy did a great job smiling and posing. I took some video, but it didn't turn out too well. Anyway, there were different categories they could enter and Emmy was in the model search and cute pageant portions. After all the kids took their turn on stage and then went back on stage together to say their name and age, they took a short break while the judges chose the winners. Emmy won the model search for her age division and also "best outfit". She got to go on stage by herself to receive her two trophies. After everyone else received their trophies etc. they were all gathered on stage and we thought the pageant was over, then they announced that they were going to name the over all winner of the entire pageant and wouldn't you know it was our little Miss Emmaline! She got her crown and her sash and a pin to go on the sash. She also won a cruise to the Bahamas and $25 dollars plus her entry fee. Because she was the over all winner she received in invitation to compete in the national finals in Ocean City, NJ in November. We haven't decided if we are going to do that yet or not, but Emmy sure had a good time today and she is really enjoying feeling like a "supermodel" (I said Princess, but she read this and she said supermodel).

I have to admit I was hoping that we would do this and she would find out it wasn't all it was cracked up to be and then be ready to move onto the next thing, but it turns out it has only wet her appetite for more! Oh boy!

Thanks Gramma Kristi!

2009-08-08T15:22:00.000-07:00

Yesterday the kids came running to get me to tell me that a package had come in the mail and to hurry up so they can open it! It was a back-to-school package from Gramma Kristi. She sent each of the kids a new outfit and Ashton and Lilly got a coloring book and magnet letters, and a doll. There was some candy involved too, which Jaron and I quickly claimed. . . but yes, we did end up sharing with the kids (all but about 2 pieces of it in fact). We got on skype with Gramma so she could see the kids try on their new outfits. I will take pictures of them when school starts and they are allowed to wear them, then I will go back and add them to this post. Thanks again Gramma!

New Callings!

2009-07-31T14:54:00.000-07:00

Oh Yeah, I forgot to mention. . . Jaron and I have both received new callings in our ward. Jaron is now the scout master and he is really excited. He loves scouting and he has fond memories of time he spent doing scouts with his dad. He will only have 3-4 boys who are interested in the scouting program, but that will really let them focus on their needs, so it will be a good thing.

I just got called to be the second counselor in the Primary Presidency. The president wants me to be in charge of everything that is not Sunday related-- all the quarterly activities, activity days and cub scouts, and then sharing time once a month. I guess my 5 years in activity days will come in handy yet again!

FOG YOU!

2009-07-31T14:46:00.000-07:00

The other day the kids were playing "dance party" with the music we have on the computer. Carter found a song that he thought was really cool called "Shoes". It is one that Jaron's choir friends from Pocky downloaded years ago to make fun of him for his love of nice shoes. We never listened to the whole thing and so you can imagine my shock when in the middle of the song it suddenly started saying F**** you over and over. I quickly ran and turned it off and you can be sure that song is no longer on our computer, but I was a little too late because Ashton was running around saying "Fog you" to Carter. Luckily he didn't hear the word right and even Emmy wanted to know what was wrong with saying "fog" when I talked to Ashton about it. Close call on that one!

Thanks Uncle Casey and Aunt Sophia!

2009-07-31T08:45:00.000-07:00

We got a package from Casey and Sophia today that had (desperately needed) clothes for Lilly and a (not so needed- but certainly WANTED) Wii Game for the older kids. They have been having a blast playing it this morning, it is the cooking mama game. They also sent a couple bags of gummy bears. . . too bad I didn't open the package before the kids, or I would have had to make the gummy bears disappear! I put Lilly in all the outfits that they sent and took pictures, so she got to do her own little fashion show. It will be so nice to see her in a shirt that doesn't show her buddah belly =0)

My Veggies

2009-07-24T08:47:00.000-07:00

Earlier this summer I planted some veggies in those Topsy-Turvy things, and they have really grown really well. I wanted to throw some pictures of them up. When we first moved here there was a Borough Wide yard sale, so the kids and I walked through the town and Ashton brought his money with him. He ended up buying a sit-and-spin and Lilly has just recently discovered it. She loves to sit on it and squeals at anyone else who tries to get on. I got a video of her playing on it. Enjoy!

ScaRy!

2009-07-14T19:03:00.000-07:00

I have been running with the ambulance alot lately, and one of the accidents we got called out for on Sunday ended up in the newspaper. . . and I happened to be in one of the pictures. I had no idea anyone was taking pictures or I might have moved. It is really amazing anyone survived this wreck, but they only suffered minor injuries.

I have certainly gained a greater appreciation in the last several weeks for seat belts and helmets, you never know when you might need it!

2009-07-14T18:54:00.000-07:00

Not too much has been going on here lately. I just captured some cute pictures and thought I would post them for the grandmas. I helped the kids build a fort in the living room and then they climbed inside and watched movies on my laptop. Later on in the day I was looking for Lilly (it was too quiet) and found her in the fort with my laptop on her lap, just typing away. Luckily she didn't do any serious harm to my computer =0).

Yesterday while I was folding laundry, Ashton asked if he could watch t.v. while sitting in an empty bucket. It wasn't too long and he had fallen sound asleep!

Catch Up Time!

2009-07-07T16:06:00.000-07:00

So there has been alot happening, and again, I have been horrible at blogging about it.

A couple weeks ago Jaron and I took the kids to Ricketts Glenn to see some waterfalls and go on a hike and then to Lake Jean to swim. We had a great time and although it was a little cool, the kids had fun swimming in the lake.

I have been volunteering with the ambulance here in Catawissa. They are really short on people, and even though I don't have my EMT up to date anymore, I have taken the driving course and I am still CPR/First-Aid/AED certified, so I can drive the ambulance as well as do some patient care. I have been out on several calls already. Some have been pretty tame, and a couple have been bloody and challenging, like the motorcycle vs. truck accident that happened here on the 4th of July. I have never seen a bone sticking out of someones leg up close before. I love running with the ambulance and getting to be involved in the urgent care of these people. It makes me even more excited to get started with my schooling.

Jaron has quit working at Cracker Barrel and is now employed at Bennigan's. He is much happier at Bennigans and the hours are so much better for someone with a family. It turned out to actually be a really smart move for our family and the Lord has blessed us so much. It is so nice to have Jaron home for dinner, and for those of you who know how much he likes his naps, he has almost quit them completely!

The kids are loving tennis and we have spent plenty of time at the library and the park. Our next door neighbor Judy has become a close friend and the kids just love her. Ashton has especially taken to her and he makes sure to visit her at least once or twice a day. She assures me that she loves his company and that he is always welcome, although we both have to wonder if he's just using her because she keeps bread and butter pickles in the house just for him now.

Lilly has an appointment on the 20th of July to have her hearing and speech evaluated. She is starting to talk more, so she may just be a little on the slow side due to her hearing loss before she got her tubes in. Carter will also be going in soon to be evaluated for Tourettes syndrome.

More Stuff. . .

2009-06-12T11:19:00.001-07:00

This is a cute baby bird we found in our yard. You can see how small it is compared to my hand!

Emmy and "Valerie"

The kids in the van while driving to PA.

Carter and "Katie" (sorry Aunt Katie, I tried to talk him out of it!)

I keep thinking that I just need to get to the computer and blog. I do have a few pictures to post, all though not as many as I could (or should) have by this point. We have had a fun time the last few weeks. We got to visit with one of my best friends, Teresa, and her husband and kids. They came to celebrate Skylars 2nd birthday. We got pizza and went to an awesome nearby park where the kids had a blast and we all had a fun time.

Yesterday we were planning on going to a hike at a beautiful place near here called Ricket's Glen. It has a trail that is 4.2 miles long and has 7 waterfalls along the trail. The trail we were going to take was along a small river/creek with a waterfall. Good thing I checked the weather channel online first because there were flashflood warnings for all of the counties in the region. So instead of our hike, we went to Hershey's and went on the ride/tour at Chocolate World. The kids loved it, especially the chocolate bar you get at the end of the tour.

The kids are going to be busy this summer. The school does a program that runs four days a week for half a day and the kids get to go on field trips, make crafts, do science experiments and more. It is totally free and includes bus transportation. Emmy and Carter both really wanted to go, so they will start that the end of June. Bloomsburg also offers free tennis lessons to kids from ages 4 and up at the local tennis courts. Ashton, Emmy and Carter are all signed up to take the tennis lessons. Emmy has been wanting to take tennis lessons for the last couple of years so she is super happy about it.

The ambulance service in Catawissa is completely voluntary and they have been extremely short on people, so I am volunteering with them. It works really well for me since they give you a pager and a radio. If you are available and can make the call, then you let them know and go to the scene or to the garage to pick up the ambulance. If you can't go, you just turn off your pager and don't go. That way I can go on calls when Jaron is home with the kids.

We're Here!

2009-05-24T14:36:00.000-07:00

Wow, I finally have a chance to blog about the past couple of weeks. So much has happened that I hardly know where to start. . . so I will go with the whole chronological order and hope that I don't forget anything!

ThE MoVE
Packing was going really smoothly. A few sisters from R.S. had come over to help pack up the kitchen etc. and everything was going as I had planned. . . da da dum.... So of course Friday, the day we are supposed to load the truck we drive over to the Uhaul place and give them our reservation number for the truck and car trailer. The lady is acting all confused and says, "I show that you have a reservation for 2 dozen furniture pads, are you sure you are supposed to get a truck?" AHHHH!!!! The lady who did our reservation over the phone had only reserved furniture pads for us and we were on a tight schedule. After about an hour and a half of scrambling, Uhaul found us a truck in Tooele which is about 45 minutes from Fruit Heights. Jaron got a ride out to Tooele while I waited at home to tell all of the Elder's Quorum who were showing up to load boxes that we didn't have a truck to put them in. They also didn't have a single car trailer anywhere in the state for us. I told them we would be driving through Wyoming and to see if there were any trailers along our driving route that we could pick up. The closest one was in Cheyenne, WY. Thank goodness my brother Cody was coming to drive with us, or else we wouldn't have had enough drivers for the truck, van and car. Finally we got the truck and the Elders were awesome to stay late to help us get everything loaded. We all slept on the floor that night and the next morning we picked up Cody (who was dropping his truck off at the airport) and got on the road.

It rained the ENTIRE way to PA. Other than that, it really wasn't too bad. The 2,000 mile drive took us 4 days and we made it safe and sound to our new home in PA. I had to take Cody to an airport in Harrisburg, so we swung by the Hershey factory and toured that, it was really cool. Thanks Cody for all of your help!

ThE NeW HoME
Good thing we got rid of some stuff before we moved! This house is alright, but man it is small! We have 3 bedrooms, if you can call them that, and 1 bathroom, which is probably our biggest challenge (as anyone who has ever lived with Jaron would know). There is no storage here and barely any cupboard space in the kitchen. Jaron had a few days off before he started back to work and I have spent the last few weeks trying to get our house in order. The most challenging thing has just been finding places for all of our stuff.

Our new neighbor is a sweet heart. She is a widow who's daughter lives with her and she loves kids (thank goodness). Her name is Judy and already our kids sneak over to her house to "play" with her (it's actually all the toys she keeps around for her grandkids).

Catawissa is a beautiful little borough. It is old, but I am finding almost everything out here is old. It is very small, boasting about a thousand residents is all, and the average age of the resident here is 67. It is located right on the Susquehana river and surrounded by creeks (which are the size of our "rivers" out west). We live in the mountains here, and we had to laugh when we saw a sign boasting the highest elevation east of the Mississippi as 2,252 feet.

Our ward here is small, about 300 members and about half of them are active. Our ward boundaries take in an entire county and then some. We all live in different towns, although there is a widow that lives in Catawissa too.

PaLMyRa, NY
Before we moved out here, I had purchased some air conditioners off of craigslist, and the town I got them from ended up being farther away than I had thought it would be. Also, I had told the kids we would think about getting rabbits once we moved here, and I found some dwarf rabbits, but they were in Elmira, NY, which is only an hour away from Palmyra. Since I had to pick up the ac units and we wanted the rabbits, we decided to just go all the way and visit Grandma and Grandpa Hamblin. It was a beautiful drive and it might have been fun if Lilly hadn't been throwing up the entire way there, poor thing. Emmy was on bucket duty and everytime Lilly started crying, it was her job to try to catch the puke in the bucket. Lilly kept pushing it away at the last minute and by the time we got to Palmyra our car reeked of puke and Lilly was just absolutely miserable. Despite her crankiness and not sleeping so well, we had a fun visit where we got to see the sights and even got to visit with Linda and Gary. We didn't make it into the Sacred Grove because of a massive thunder storm that decided to hit right when we were on the tour of the Joseph Smith Frame House. It's alright though, we will go next time when Jaron can come with us and see it all too. Grandpa took us to a great little ice cream place that serves great big ice cream servings! The kids loved it. Emmy was so glad to get to see them. We will probably go back in June when her grandma and grandpa Simonson (Brent and Kristi) will be visiting.

For the last week we have all been battling the stomach flu and working on unpacking. Once I get the house done I will post some pictures.

Video of LIlly

2009-04-28T20:05:00.001-07:00

Emmy was giving Lilly some sour spray and she would cringe and then ask for more.

MOre FuN

2009-04-28T20:03:00.000-07:00

Ashton made a pirates hat at reading time at the library. He wore it all day and kept telling me he was going to pirate school.

Family Weekend

2009-04-28T19:09:00.000-07:00

I was on an awesome roll getting packed for our move, and then it was time to take a break and head to Pocatello to say our goodbyes to our family before we head 2,000 miles across the country. We are on the final countdown with only 4 days to go before we pull out.

We got to visit with family as well as some close friends and it made the weekend wonderful. We started off by leaving Friday after Jaron got off of work and pulling into Pocatello rather late. We stayed at Brent and Kristi's house that night. Saturday we went to visit with Angie and Truman Lackey. Our kids are super close and they loved the chance to visit. That evening Jaron went to the symphony while the kids and I went to my parents house to visit. Grandpa Eldon rented "Bed Time Stories" and the kids loved it. That night we spent the night at Kristi's again. At about 2 in the morning Carter woke up unable to breathe (he is allergic to my moms dog and it really aggrevates his asthma) so I had to take him to the E.R. where he received some breathing treatments and prescription for steroids. He is doing much better now.

Jaron's two sisters (one who lives in Florida and the other in Lewiston, Idaho) came to town with their kids, so all of the grandkids were together and they had a ball. If you ask all of the adults who were there it was a little noisy (ok, a lot noisy). We got some really cute pictures of the kids, so enjoy the show!

Easter

2009-04-22T08:38:00.000-07:00

Alrighty then. I know it's a little past Easter, but better late than never right? The Easter Bunny came on Saturday like he does for us every year. The kids had a great time finding their baskets and then some eggs. Grandma Kristi made some adorable dresses for the girls, so on Sunday they got to wear them. Daddy took a few pictures for us. My fun was trying out a new hairstyle on Emmy. There is a really cute website that Kristi pointed out to me that has step by step instructions on how to do some awesome hairstyles. http://hair4myprincess.blogspot.com/
Check it out, it's great! p.s. Gramma Kristi. . . the girls had tons of compliments on their dresses at church!

Old Friends!

2009-04-18T16:27:00.000-07:00

One of the best parts of my trip was that I got to hang out with Teresa for 3 days straight. Her kids were really good in the car and we had a fun time driving through the PA mountains!

House Search

2009-04-18T15:26:00.001-07:00

I have spent the last week in PA looking for a house for our family. WOW. First off, I need to thank my awesome friend Teresa and her husband Glen and their two adorable kids for picking me up at the airport in Philly and then letting me crash on their couch on Monday night. Tuesday morning, me, Teresa and her two kids took off in their car to the Bloomsburg area to find us a new home.

I went with a few places to check out that I had found on Craigslist. I had 2 1/2 days to find a place, so we started out by driving around to get familiar with the place and check out neighborhoods that looked appealing. There was NOTHING. Everything we saw was scary or stinky or too small or just plain disqusting. I pulled up to a house that had a for rent sign on it at the same time another girl did. She was meeting the landlord there in the next few minutes and said I could look with her. The place was nasty, but he told me he had a friend that had something I might be more interested in. I called his friend and he gave me the address for the house he had. We drove out to the place which was in the middle of nowhere and I loved it! I made an appointment with the guy to see it the next day and when I talked to him I told him I definitely wanted it. I filled out the application, took some pictures and then left. He sounded really positive and told me he would have an answer for me by that evening. We had already spent one night in a hotel and if he said yes, then we would drive back to Philly that night. If he said no, then we would stay because I would only have one more day to find something. He called that night and said he and his wife were still deciding. Great. So we went ahead and got another hotel room, just in case. The next morning we went through the motions of looking, again not seeing ANYTHING worth living in. We had stayed the night in Frackville, which is about 45 minutes from the Bloomsburg area. We decided that we would pick up a local paper that day since we hadn't checked the paper yet. There was n0thing in the Frackville area, which was ok since that would have meant a 2 hour commute for me both ways every day. We drove back to Bloomsburg and decided to get a local newpaper from there as well. I circled a few of the places and then saw one that said "New today". I circled that one and then called to see if I could come see the place. The landlord told me he could meet me there in about 20 minutes, so off we went. It was actually nice compared to everything else we saw, and while I was talking to him the other guy called. He was going to rent the home (an actual home, the only one we saw the entire time) to some tenants that he had rented to for the last two years. They had found out he was leasing this place out and called him to get it. I tried really hard not to cry because I had really had my heart set on this place. Meanwhile, I told the new landlord that I wanted a 6 month lease instead of 1 year and to go ahead and process my application. I had one more place to go look at and then he could let me know if it was a yes or no. If it was yes, then I would let him know based on this last place I had to look at. Teresa and I went to this last apartment which sounded really nice. 3 spacious bedrooms, new carpet, new paint, a nice back yard, a park down the street, washer/dryer hookups (I love my washer and dryer and the other place already has some installed that are stacked to fit in a small closet), and so on. When we got there it was horrible. Unfortunately new carpet can't cover up nasty smells and uneven floors. The house was bad anyway, but the absolute deal killer was when the lady told me the washer/dryer hookups were in the basement. The stairs going down were rotting and it was a dirt and cobblestone floor. I would never do my laundry again if I had to go down there to do it.

The other guy called me back and said they would love to rent to me, even with a 6 month lease. So we finally have a house, and even though it is small (3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom and a small kitchen, but it also has a basement(scary), an attic and a detached two car garage) it is clean and smells good with new paint, new carpet and even new construction in one room, and the landlord is someone I could totally see us becoming friends with. He is the same age as me and Jaron and has 2 kids, both boys ages 8 and 4, and his 4 year old is named Ashton! After we signed some papers and did the deposit I told him how glad I was I picked up a newspaper that day, since the ad was new and if I had gotten one earlier I wouldn't have gotten a new one. He told me he never remembers to place the ad in the paper, but 5 minutes to 5 (the deadline) the night before, something told him to place the ad, so he did it, and I am so grateful he did! Here are some pictures of our new place.

The bathroom is on the second floor and has a balcony right outside of it. This is looking out from that balcony to the garage.

Whirlwind Weather

2009-04-11T16:21:00.000-07:00

So I have noticed that I blog really well until something really blog worthy takes place, and then I hold off because I really want to do it justice by putting the proper time into. What really happens is that by the time I actually get around to blogging it, I forget details, condense it all down into short paragraphs and end up doing exactly what I was trying to avoid in the first place.

In light of that we have had a lot happen here in the last week or so. I needed to go to Pocatello to get a signature from someone who had supervised me while I was in Guard. I took the 4 kids with me and we had a fun little trip. We got to spend time with everyone we love there. On Friday night when we arrived, we visited my parents and then I went and hung out with a bunch of friends from high school which was an absolute riot (as always). After our marathon coversations (I think we lasted till about 1:30 or so) we finally made it to bed. Saturday Emmy and Carter played almost the entire day with Alyssa and Logan (whom they consider to be cousins, even though they are just really close friends of the family).

Now, about this signature I needed. I have been trying to track down the PA who had been supervising me when I was a medic and I had not been able to find him. I had finally got permission from the school to get ANYBODY's signature who had even kind-of supervised me when I was in. When I called the armory I had found out that everyone I knew had been tranferred to new places or had gotten out. There was ONE person left for me to get a signature from. On Saturday morning when I walked in the armory, low and behold, the very PA who had supervised me was standing right in the entry way. Come to find out he was in Pocatello for this one drill. Not only was he there, but I saw four other soldiers with whom I had been really close who were there for this weekend only. Lupi Lopez (she was present at Emmy's baby shower and fought fires with me when I was 5 months prego with Emmy. She put up with my constant trips to the latrine) , Weizhaar (the PA), Jason (Hodge) Hodgekins, and Jeremy Johnson. It was a joyous occassion! I loved seeing these people who I had known from the time I was seventeen. They were there through the last years of high school, basic training, my marriage and the births of two children! They were all surprised to meet numbers 3 and 4 (Ashton and Lilly) and then most of them proudly shared pictures of their new children. It was so nice seeing them all.

After that I met up with Angie and visited for a bit before heading to Buddy's (my all time favorite restaurant) and meeting up with Kristi, Brent, Clinton and Corgin there. That evening we spent the night in Inkom and on Sunday (it was conference weekend) We listened to the morning session and then headed to Grace to visit with Grandma and Grandpa Simonson and some of the Simonson clan.

All in all in was a really satisfying trip. It became even more meaningful when Jaron called me on Saturday night to tell me that he was getting transferred to the Frackville, Pennsyvania Crackerbarrel and that they wanted us there by May 1, but would let us take until the 10th to get there. No, this was not a shock or an unwanted surprise. . . in fact it was quite a welcome event.

I just realized that I haven't blogged about my schooling for awhile. So here goes. I found a P.A. school in PA that will allow me to finish sooner than I had imagined and it takes nearly all of the credits that I have previosly taken. Jaron and I prayed about it and decided that it was the right thing for us to go to PA for this school. We made the decision to go before we knew if he would have a job, with no way to pay to get there, and many more major issues that were completely up in the air. The Lord has blessed us so much in the past few months that I can't even begin to express how grateful I am. I immediately applied for admission into the school and Jaron inquired at work about a transfer. At the time there were no openings available in any of the 3 stores that were within 150 miles of the school I am going to. He put in applications to other restaurants just in case, but nothing came of those. Then came the news of the transfer. The Frackville Cracker Barrel isn't our first choice, but it will do just fine. Cracker Barrel will finance our move, my credits have transferred better than I could have hoped, I got the signatures we needed, the children and I got to see people that we probably won't see for the next 3 years and there have been so many small miracles in this whole process that I can't even begin to name them all. One example is with my paper route. I have to put in a 30 day notice or else I will be charged a $200 fine for breach of contract, unless I can find a replacement who takes over before the end of the 30 days. I have less than 3o days before I am living out of state, not very conducive to a paper route. There are several people who put in their 30 days before me (due to some issues between carriers and the paper corporation) and I was at the end of the list for a replacement carrier to train. The girl who folds her papers next to me at the depot is new (only there for a month) and I told her about what was going on. She talked to her friend and the next day she came in and requested my route. Tommorow is the last day I train her and then I will be done with my paper route.

Again, I am not going to list all the small miracles that have occured over the last few weeks, but EVERYTHING is falling into place so neatly and this is honestly the first time in years that Jaron and I have felt hope for a better life for us and our children. I am so grateful for the Lord's blessings.

On another note, the Easter Bunny came to our house last night. We always ask him to come on Saturday so that we can do our easter egg hunting and then have Sunday as a special reverent day. The kids were up bright and early. I was still sleeping when Carter came in my room to tell me that Emmy was kind of sad because both of the boys had gotten a new toy and lots of candy and she hadn't. All she had gotten was a shirt that was too small for her and 3 pieces of candy. I had to laugh. . . Emmy had "found" Lilly's basket -- which the Easter bunny had left on the table for Lilly to find. Emmy assumed because the basket was pink that it was for her. She didn't pay very close attention to the letter the easter bunny left saying which color each childs basket was. She was relieved to find another basket filled with candy and a toy for her. She got a "skip-it". The easter bunny thought he was pretty clever hiding the eggs. ;)

Emmy's Day at the Spa!

2009-04-01T19:10:00.000-07:00

Emmy had a great weekend last week. She got an invitation to go to one of her best friends birthday parties at a day spa. Also, Friday was "twin" day at school and her friend really wanted to be twins with Emmy, so her mom bought the girls new shirts, matching headbands and bracelets. They had a blast at the day spa where they had their hair and nails done and then went back to her friends house for a snack. Here are some pictures of Emmy with her fancy do, her new shirt and her nails all done up!

Lilly can finally hear again!

2009-03-25T21:11:00.000-07:00

I took Lilly to Primary Children's Medical Center yesterday to have tubes put in her ears. She did really well and I could already tell a big difference today in her hearing. She kept repeating new sounds that were probably too subtle for her to hear before, like "sss" and "thh" sounds. I was also talking to her and said something about her eye and she started repeating "eye". It took a few tries, but pretty soon she was saying it as clear as a bell.
I got a few pictures of her in pre-op in her little care-bear hospital gown. It was really cute in the pre-op waiting area, there were about 7 little toddlers her age all running around in their matching gowns with their diapers hanging out the back and playing with all the toys they had set up for them. She never cried when she woke up from the surgery and she slept most of the day yesterday. Today she has just been her crazy little self getting into things. One of her favorite activities is to grab a phone or a remote control and wait for someone to notice, then start running as fast she can to get away, laughing all the while. She is such a fun little gal!

The Joys of Grandma's House!

2009-03-20T18:19:00.000-07:00

My kids have always loved Grandma Hamblin's house. . . but usually it's because she is here to make it fun by feeding them all the squash pie they can eat or by the fact that they can usually find "potty treats" (m&m's) even after they are potty trained. There is one element of Grandma's house however, that has been fun for all of her grandkids and is actually part of the house. Lilly has finally discovered, to her absolute delight, the light switch on the stair case that is in reaching distance of small toddlers! All of my kids have loved discovering this light switch and I was wondering when Lilly would finally do the same. I have some really cute video of her playing with it. *** Grandma- I hope you enjoy this, since normally this is something you would definitely be around for =0)****

A few missed pics. . .

2009-03-20T17:21:00.000-07:00

These are just a few pictures from Emmy's birthday that I missed posting and wanted to get up. I just finished my blog book and will be getting it in the mail in about a week. I am really excited to see how it turns out!

FaMilY NiGHt

2009-03-20T17:05:00.000-07:00

The weather has so been so incredibly nice the last few days so we all have been wanting to spend as much time outside as possible. Yesterday we went out for family night to a park. We got to feed ducks, geese and some really annoying seagulls. Then the kids played on the toys while we watched. We all had a good time and then came home and crashed! Here are some pictures of us at the park.

Jean Quilt

2009-03-18T21:51:00.000-07:00

OK here goes another blog that is actually over a month old, but I am just now getting around to it. Ever since we got married Jaron has been saving jeans so we could make a jean quilt. I have gotten really sick of moving bag-fulls of jeans around with us whenever we have to move, so one night when we were bored I said to Jaron, "Let's go get started on that jean quilt you've been wanting to make". He agreed and off we went. He really wanted it to be a family project, but we didn't trust the kids to cut up the jeans, so Jaron and I did that, I cut the all the squares out, sewed the thing together AND tied it by myself since Jaron didn't want to tie it. So much for a "family" project =0) I still have to bind the edges, but it looks really nice and it will be awesome once it is finished. I plan on finishing it in the next week or so.

Lilly has had persisitent ear infections since she was about 8 months old. Her pediatrician recommened we see an ENT so we went in on Monday. Her ears are full of fluid and she did poorly on a hearing test they gave her. The ENT believes this may be why she isn't talking yet. According to her hearing test, she has a very hard time hearing normal talking voices, and what she does hear is probably extremely muffled due to all the fluid. Luckily this is all fixed very easily by tubes, so she is going to Primary Children's Hospital next week on Tuesday to get tubes in her ears and I am sure she will be feeling alot better. . . she is always fiddling with her ears so I am sure she can feel the pressure from all the fluid in there.

I have finally finished my blog book from last year, but while I was working on it today, I noticed Lilly was being unusually quiet. . . and this is how I found her . . .

OucH!

2009-03-14T20:20:00.000-07:00

This is another blog that happened about a week ago and is just now making on here. Ashton and Carter were running in the gym at church during an activity and ran into each other. Carter came out of it just fine, but Ashton ended up with a black eye.

Also, those of you who know how much Ashton LOVES to eat (ha ha) will love this. I was doing work on the computer and Ashton was watching Noggin, which was telling about making wishes. Then I hear Ashton say, "I wish my mom would never make dinner again!" He thinks dinnner is a naughty word, and he no longer believes me when I tell him I am making a snack at dinner time. . . especially when he sees veggies or meat involved in the process. Dang kid! =0)

A Day in the Life of Lilly

2009-03-13T19:43:00.000-07:00

Here are a few cute videos of a day in the life of Lilly. She loves to help me clean, and she always goes behind me making sure I didn't miss anything.

She got a little distracted when I pulled out the camera =0)

Here she is using a dirty sock to scrub the fridge.

She also loves to play with her pushy-toy!

Birthday's

2009-03-13T19:20:00.000-07:00

February holds 2 birthdays for our family. Ashton's is on the 8th and Emmy's is on the 17th. We didn't do a whole lot for Ashton's birthday this year. He turned four and if you ask him he is quite a big guy now.

Emmy's birthday was another matter. She turned 8 this year, so we had her birthday as well as her baptism. We went to the classic fun center to celebrate her birthday. We allowed her to take one friend and she chose to take Maggie Vowles with her. She loves roller skating and all of us had a fun time. She got some new clothes, some money, brand new scriptures from Gramma Kristi (thank you!) and a new scripture case from her mom and dad. Emmy also got to eat her birthday dinner at Tepankyaki, which she LOVED!

For her baptism she got a new white dress which we had picked out in December and a special bookmark from Grandma and Grandpa Hamblin that has a leaf from the Sacred Grove in it.

Her baptism was really special. Her Grandpa Eldon gave a talk on baptism and demonstrated how repentence works by pooring food coloring into water, then adding bleach until the water was clear again. The kids really enjoyed seeing that. Her Grandpa Brent and Grandpa Eldon were witnesses at her baptism and her daddy baptized her. Mom and dad sang a song with Gramma Kristi playing the piano. Afterwards we headed to the house for some bbq pork and chips, a really simple meal, but tasty none the less.

AHHHH!!!

2009-03-13T19:01:00.000-07:00

So I was going to try to post more, but then I thought I would change the template instead of just the background. Well, I didn't realize it would erase all of my widgets and everything, the thought of redoing the whole thing was simply overwhelming, so until now I just haven't done any blogging. . . but it is time for me to get back on the ball. I have taken lots of videos and pictures and so many things have happened that I can't put it off any longer. I am going to do my best to catch this blog up with all of the important events that have occured over the last month or so. Be patient with me because it will certainly take me a couple of days to get all the posts done, but here goes!

bLAH

2009-02-01T19:49:00.001-08:00

I have been terrible at blogging this whole month. I guess the paper route, the classes I am teaching and the kids have just really worn me out. . . to the point that I have hardly even gotten on the computer to check my email. Last night was especially long. Carter started in with his wheezing and couging about 2 days ago and then last night it got to the point where we could no longer control it with the medications we have at home. Luckily, our pediatric clinic is open 24/7 so I didn't have to make the dreaded trip to the E.R. with him. When we got there his O2 sats were at 88. After his first breathing treatment they flucuated between 89 and 91. Another treatment later and we finally got him up to 92-95. The steroids they give him always help immensely. Anyway, I was up with him most of the night, then had to do my paper route. I was exhausted all day and we stayed home from church since Carter had to have frequent breathing treatments all through the day. Hopefully it won't turn into pneumonia.

Lilly is developing a strong personality very quickly. She has learned that if she cries a little bit or "squeaks" at any of her siblings they give her whatever she wants. I am going to have to work really hard to nip that in the bud. Emmy and Carter are much worse than Ashton, they cannot stand to hear her cry or be sad about anything. I have had to start telling her "no" with some stuff and more often than not it will bring Emmy to tears that I have to be "mean" to Lilly.

February will be a busy month for us. Ashton will be turning 4 on the 8th and he is actually aware enough this year to want to have a b-day party (dang it!). Emmy will be 8 on the 17th and will be baptized on the 28th at 1:30 in the afternoon. She will also have her testing for the Spectrum program at school that morning at 11:00. I can't believe I actually have a kid old enough to be baptized. I told her that we were going to get her a set of scriptures for her birthday and she has already picked out the ones she wanted. I had no idea the things were so darned expensive! Oh well, I guess you only turn 8 once!

Well, I am exhausted, so off to bed with me and I will try to be a better blogger in Feb.

Emmy got her teeth pulled!

2009-01-23T17:51:00.000-08:00

Emmy is really mad at me for posting this picture because she doesn't think it looks cute. . . so I am excercising my right as a mean mom to post this picture anyway, because she has grandma's and aunts and uncles etc. who would like to see this milestone in her life. I think she looks pretty cute myself. . . but I AM her mother =0)

Blinking

2009-01-02T17:46:00.001-08:00

Those of you have spent any time around Carter lately know that he has been doing a weird blinking thing. Well, Lilly has been watching him and started to copy him at the counter while she was eating. I got a little video of her doing it.

Sour Puss

2009-01-01T19:39:00.000-08:00

Here is a cute video of Emmy giving Lilly some sour candy spray. She kept opening her mouth for more, it was pretty cute. She had probably had about 10 sprays by the time I got out the camera.

Happy Holidays!

2009-01-01T17:37:00.000-08:00

***Note*** All these pictures are out of order and unlabeled because it takes too freaking long and I'm too lazy to do it, so you'll just have to figure out which order they go in. Also, I am waiting on a few more pictures (I couldn't find my camera, so all of these ones are courtesy of Casey). When I get them I will add them on here.

We have had a really fun holiday season this year. We started out on the 23rd when my mom and dad arrived, followed shortly after by Casey and Sophia. We went to breakfast Christmas Eve at Cracker Barrel and then went home and everyone took a nap. After that we went and saw Bolt in 3D at the movie theatre and the kids (me too) loved it!

After that we took off to Temple Square to look at the lights. The kids have never been there at Christmas time before and we all loved it, it was so beautiful. When we got home, Jack the Elf came to visit and bring the kids their jammies. Ashton was so excited for Christmas that he put on his jammies and ran straight to bed so he could go to sleep. Cody arrived that night to spend Christmas day with us. Christmas morning Jaron and I got up at 3am to go fold papers, and all of the kids (except Lilly) were up and digging into their stockings. We had to make them go back to bed and told them we would wake them up when I finished the paper route. Carter ended up coming with me to help deliver the papers and he had a great time waking everyone up when we got home. Christmas morning was really fun and my children got spoiled rotten as usual. Especially Emmaline. . . her Grandma Rae went against direct orders and bought Emmy a giant animated pony that she named S'mores. Carter got a Nintendo DS from Santa and Emmy got an iPod shuffle. Ashton got a smart cycle (hopefully it will help him get rid of some energy). We had a fun day full of napping and playing with new toys. The day after Christmas mom and dad went home and Jaron had to go back to work. Casey and Sophia played with the kids and let me sleep in in the morning. In the afternoon, when Jaron got home, we got a babysitter and went to dinner at Tepanyaki. . . a Japanese steak house and sushi bar. The food was incredible and watching it be prepared was just as cool.

Casey and Sophia headed home the next morning, but Christmas was only half done for us! We still got to go to Brent and Kristi's house in Inkom to celebrate a late Christmas with them and Jaron's family. We went Sunday in the morning after my paper route and had a great time there. Kristi got me a karaoke machine and it has hardly been off for more than 20 minutes at a time since we got home. The kids got to go sledding and it was fun visiting with family since we only get to see most of them about once a year. While I was in Pocatello I also got to meet up with some of my best friends from high school whom I haven't seen forever. It was really neat to see alot of their children and to catch up with them.

We came home on Tuesday, which was also my birthday. I would like to thank those who actually remembered it. . . and to those who forgot (you know who you are) . . . well, you're forgiven since I forgot until about halfway into the day myself =0). Jaron remembered the next day and my mom apologized. . . this is only the second time she's ever forgotten after all =0). I really didn't mind though. I took myself to Cafe Rio and got some take-out and then got the kids McDonald's. It was actually a pretty nice day.

New Years eve was the next night and I celebrated by going to bed at 9:00 and Jaron worked until who knows when, I don't even remember him coming home. I am excited for the new year and to see what will happen in our lives. I know I am horrible about describing what we did, hopefully one day when I am not so tired all the time, I will be able to put a little more effort into our families journal!

Here We Come A Caroling!

2008-12-17T18:02:00.000-08:00

For family home evening on Monday night we got all bundled up in our winter clothes, put Emmy holding Lilly in a sled and walked through our neighborhood and sang Christmas Carols to some of our neighbors. Despite how cold it was, we all stayed pretty warm and afterwards we went to some friends' house to have hot cocoa. While we were there the kids got to act out the Nativity. Emmy played an angel and Carter was a wiseman/shepard. We all had a good time and then the rest of this week happened.

So far Ashton, Lilly, Jaron and Emmy have been sick with a variety of things from high fevers with headache (Emmy), to a sore throat (Jaron), to high fevers with vomiting (Lilly and Ashton). Carter and I are the only holdouts up till now, but that could easily change before tommorow. Anyway, we are all going to bed early tonight (at about 7). Hopefully we can all get healthy again before family arrives for Christmas.

One more video. . .

2008-12-14T20:04:00.000-08:00

Warning: This one really skips around!

2008-12-14T19:09:00.000-08:00

We've had a busy week and I have been taking lots of pictures and videos to document it, so here it goes.

Ashton and Carter had to go into the dentist to get some dental work done. Ashton, of course, was not planning on cooperating, so the dentist gave me a prescription that I would give to him at the dentist office just before his treatment that would put him into a light sleep and help him relax and not fight. In the morning I told him not to eat or drink anything and when he asked why Jaron explained him to that he had to go to the dentist and that they were going to put him to sleep so he wouldn't see anything, but that he couldn't eat before he went to sleep. Ashton quickly replied, "I don't want them to put me to sleep! I know how to go to sleep by myself! See!" and he proceeded to "sleep" while he stood there, complete with snoring. When we got to the dentist, I gave him his medicine and he spit it all out. Needless to say he ended up getting a shot instead, and he wished very much that he would have just swallowed the yucky medicine.

I babysat for my friend this week and our children made up a crazy little dance, so I put the video of it at the end of this blog. We also made some Christmas cookies tonight. I had to get the kids out of my hair, so I made a double batch of dough and gave each of them a small ball to roll out and cut. Then they decorated their own cookies. I still haven't made the rest of the dough, I will probably do that when I don't have quite so much "help".

We got a ton of snow today. It started at about 4 o'clock in the morning, just as I was beginning to deliver my paper route. It really dumped in a short amount of time and my route has a ton of hills in it, some of which took me several tries to make it up. I picked up Carter half-way through so he could help me get papers from the back of the car so I wouldn't waste so much time getting in and out. He was a great helper and he is always fun to have along. I didn't get done until 9 so I was late for church and I was supposed to give the opening prayer in sacrament. Luckily Jaron wasn't working this morning, so he took the other kids and said the prayer for me.

Lilly discovered how to go down the steps tonight, so I also put a video of that on. I would like to say more and take more time to elaborate on the hilarious things that Ashton did this week, but I always find that when I sit down to blog about it, I just want to get it done quickly so I can get on to other stuff I have to do.

Barbie Nativity. . . by Emmy

2008-12-07T19:43:00.000-08:00

Emmy wanted to decorate her room for Christmas and she chose to make a Barbie Nativity scene. It was pretty cute.

Piles of Leaves!

2008-12-06T15:03:00.001-08:00

So I finally got around to raking up all of the leaves in the backyard today. (I know, it's December and I am just raking the leaves. . .) When I was a kid and I was forced to do yard work, I remember fantasizing that the only reason my parents ever had children was so that they wouldn't have to do any work around the house, they pretty much just wanted free labor. I am finally realizing just how off the mark I really was with that idea. I made my kids come out and help me today, and by the look and sound of things out there you would think that I had specifically designed a torture session for them. I included all of the very worst things imaginable to my children like boredom, manual labor, crisp (not cold!) weather, (they would have complained if it was hot too, cleaning (putting all the backyard toys up for the winter), getting dirty. . . (heaven forbid you ever have to touch a wet, dirty leaf that has been on the ground! -- this would have been good if it had involved playing)and the worst of all is that I didn't let them take any breaks at all!!! (you actually have to start working in the first place so that you CAN take a break!)

At any rate, 4 hours, 3 tantrums, 2 garbage cans full and 1 grounding later. . . we are done with the backyard. I did have to ground Emmy from the computer to put a stop to her whining, but I also allowed the kids to jump in a pile of leaves for a little while and I got some fun pictures of them. ENJOY!

Update. . .

2008-12-06T09:07:00.000-08:00

My blog is in desperate need of an update, so here it is. . .
This is the only picture I have of Carter's Birthday, so here he is blowing out his candles when turning the big 6!

This is Ashton when we were packing for what was supposed to be a week long trip where I went to Boise to visit one of my friends who just had her first baby. I ended up having a horrible cold, then Lilly got an ear infection, Carter got pink-eye, then Ashton got an ear infection and Emmy got a sore throat. It was probably a really good decision NOT to go to Boise. We did go to Pocatello for a few days, so here are some pictures of that.

Lilly got really tired waiting for me to finish packing, and when Emmy sat down in the chair with her it didn't take long before she was sound asleep =0)

We had great time. Ashton spent the night at "Grandmas Raes" while Emmy, Lilly, Carter and I stayed at Angie's house. I didn't want to end up in the E.R. and all it takes is one night sleeping in the same house with a dog and Carter's asthma kicks into high gear. I got to visit with Wendi for about an hour Sunday morning before she had to leave to head back to Boise (she was in town for Thanksgiving). I was hoping I would be able to hook up with the other Poky gals, but ended up going home early because everyone was sick (sorry for sharing the joy Grandma Rae).

The kids had a great time playing with Logan and Alyssa, they haven't seen them for awhile and they feel like family to us, so it is always good to see them. Carter told me on the way to their house that "Friends live close and cousins live really far away!" I told him, in his case, that was true. He has one cousin living in Pocatello and the rest are in Northern Idaho and Florida! Emmy told me that lots of her friends at school live really close to their cousins and get to play with them all the time, and she wished we lived closer to Ally. All I could tell her is that you never know, we aren't through moving yet, and maybe we will end up closer to her cousins (probably not, but it never hurts to give them hope =0) She did get excited when I told her that we may try to stay close to Grandma and Grandpa Hamblin when they come home from their mission. She is already making plans to ride her bike to their house and help Grandma make squash pie. I think she thinks that all Grandma lives for is to make squash pies for her!

Anyway, on Monday night Carter finally got to spend some solo time with Gramma Kristi and Grandpa Brent. He had been looking forward to staying there by himself for a few days, but I was to the point where I just wanted to go home. He was really upset, but I bribed the kids to come home early by telling them we would decorate for Christmas if we went home that night. (They were going to go home regardless, but at least this way they did it willingly =0) Carter got to play the fishy game on gramma's computer, and he played a few games of pool with Grandpa Brent. He LOVES playing pool with grandpa. We also got to see Katie and Clinton and Corgin, and man is that kid a mover! He was walking all over the place and he is just adorable. Katie and Clinton's new house is beautiful and I have to admit that I am slightly jealous. I would love to settle down into a new home and know that I was going to live there for more than one year at a time.

On Monday while we were in Pocatello, I took Emmy to my old store, Angie and Marin are still running it, to buy a baptism dress. Angie and Alyssa came along and Emmy and Alyssa must have tried on every single dress in that store together. They had a blast and each of them finally picked out a baptism dress. I know it's a few months away, but our trips to Pocatello are so few and far between, I wanted to make sure that we could pick one up while we were there. The dress is beautiful, but it hangs clear down to the floor (which is why Emmy LOVES it!- - she likes her dresses to go clear to the floor for some reason)

We are gearing up for Christmas. We have our tree up and a few presents under it already that the kids are giving to each other. Surprisingly Lilly hasn't even come close to bothering the tree or the presents. I wonder how long that will last?

On a more somber note, while I was at my mom's house my Uncle Larry called and informed us that one of my cousin-in-laws committed suicide. He was one of the few cousins that I actually knew. He was an ob-gyn in Las Vegas and has a beautiful family. We got to spend some time with them this spring when Casey got married. He was such an incredible guy, so friendly and family oriented. This was a complete shock and for the last several nights I have been having some really strange dreams regarding suicide. I have never had anyone I knew commit suicide and it really makes you think. Why? I know that is the question everyone would like answered, but it seems to have so many facets to it. It makes me a little nervous with my husband. He is doing really well on his medication right now, but I have seen him hit some really low times, and the worry that his medication may quit working or something might go wrong just became a lot more real. I don't know what I would do without him.

Slacker Mom

2008-11-25T11:10:00.000-08:00

Sunday was Carter's 6th birthday! Happy Birthday Carter, even if I am a slacker mom and I didn't blog about it then. . . even worse I don't have any pictures to post from it. We took him and the other kids to Chuck E. Cheese's on Friday and his Grandma Kristi and Grandpa Brent came down to celebrate with us. Sunday we made him a cake and let him blow out the candles. He tells me he loves being 6.

Yesterday we had our Thanksgiving dinner. We had to have it early since Jaron works on Thursday. We had our friends Nicole and Kurt and their kids come over to share the dinner with us and then we played Settlers of Catan while the kids ran around the house. It was by far the most simple Thanksgiving dinner we have ever had, but it was fun and amazingly we didn't use every dish in our kitchen!

I saw the Twilight movie with Jaron and his mom last Friday and Jaron and I both liked it. I don't know if seeing the movie without reading the books first would have sold me on the Twilight series, but I did enjoy the movie after reading the books.

This is Funny!

2008-11-23T19:53:00.001-08:00

This is a funny spoof on the twin-tween-obsessions of Twilight and High School Musical.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nv4SCfEuYqg

Lilly trying to walk. . .

2008-11-22T10:55:00.000-08:00

I haven't blogged for awhile and I haven't posted on Lilly for even longer. Here are a few pictures of her. In the first ones she was so tried that she would crawl a few feet, then lay down, then crawl a little more etc. The video is her trying to walk, she has managed to take about 5 steps to make it to the couch. Emmy and Carter are so excited for her to really start walking.

Random thoughts about racoon survival

2008-11-13T15:50:00.001-08:00

It seems that modern day racoons are facing a conundrum when it comes to survival. These nocturnal bandits are known for eating our garbage and making lovely messes everywhere they go (they remind me of my kids). I am thinking that if our diets are causing coronary problems and heart disease in us, it must be affecting these creatures in the same way. Has anyone ever run blood tests and checked their blood pressure to see just how unhealthy they are because of their newly (as in the last hundred years or so) acquired diet?

It is not actually the diet that really concerns me, it is the obesity problem. I know, I know, racoons are SUPPOSED to get all fat and stuff to make it through the winter, but I have noticed on my paper route that the really fat ones waddle across the road at a much slower pace than their thinner counterparts. The ratio of fat dead racoons on the road vs. the skinny ones is skewed heavily toward the fat ones (and yes, I am taking into account bloating). It is ironic that the ones that manage to eat more garbage than the others would typically survive longer, but in our urbanized environment, they are dying earlier deaths and therefore maybe not passing on the superior genetic material that results in fat, happy racoons.

No, I don't have an answer to this problem for racoons, except to maybe use sidewalks and crosswalks vs. playing chicken with cars that are out at 3 in the morning delivering newspapers. Lucky for all the racoons that I have met, I have quick reflexes and manage to avoid sending them to an early grave. For all those to have been so unfortunate as to have lost the chicken war with the cars they were playing with, a moment of silence please.

Christmas Tag

2008-11-09T16:09:00.001-08:00

If I could have a wish for Christmas that was priceless, what would it be?

Our whole family would have all of our dental work done, and I would have a maid and someone to do the laundry! Oh, and to wake up and miraculously have lost 60 lbs. would be nice too =0)

What would I ask Santa for if money were no object?

A brand new, paid for house!

What are 5 things I would like for Christmas?

1. A karoke machine
2. shelfreliance canned goods storage found here http://www.shelfreliance.com/shop/listing/50
3. new jeans (I am down to one pair that is way too big)
4. a nice relaxing massage
5. new music for my computer or my ipod shuffle thingy

GrocerySmarts!!!

2008-11-09T15:10:00.000-08:00

I have made a new discovery that I am so excited about! With the economy going the way it is and having to tighten our belts a little I have become more aware of ways to save money that I would never have considered before. Coupon-ing is my new thing and I LOVE IT! I started out by trying to cut out coupons and use them the way I thought people did, but I quickly discovered that I was wasting my time trying to figure out which products I wanted, cutting the coupons, holding up the line at the store and then really not saving any money. In short I HATED it and decided it was not worth my time and effort just to save 30 cents on a product.

A few days after giving up the coupon thing I was at the newspaper depot folding my papers when the ladies were around me started talking about a website they used that helped them save a ton of money on groceries. I told them I hated coupons and they assured me that this was so easy that even I would like it. They gave me the website address and the passport code to get in. http://www.grocerysmarts.com/ passport# g84cht . My friend Sara also told me that they give free classes to learn how to do it. When she started telling me that she was saving about 80% on her grocery bill I got interested. I looked at the website and didn't really get what I was looking at so then asked Sara about the class and she told me she would have one at her house so I could come learn. THANK YOU SARA!!!

I was blown away by the class! I was taught the easiest way to use coupons in conjunction with the free website and I am so excited by the results that I just had to share. Unfortunately grocerysmarts is only in Utah and Las Vegas for the time being, but they are planning on expanding in the future. At any rate, this method allows me to not only buy name brand food at a fraction of the cost, but for the first time in my adult life I am building a food storage! This is absolutely thrilling to me! I have never managed to build a food storage because of the cost, sometimes we barely had enough money to eat as it was. The way this works, it will take me about 3 to 4 months to build a comprehensive base for my food storage that has everything we need in it, (this is because all the items in a grocery store go on sale in a 3 to 4 month cycle and you only buy things on sale and with a coupon) and then it will just grow from there. OK, so enough story, I want to share the results of my last shopping trip!

This is what is in the picture above:

29 Cans of Progresso Soup
12 boxes of Hamburger Helper
7 boxes of cereal (the good kind my kids love)
7 cans of Betty Crocker frosting
5 boxes of cake
4 boxes of brownies
4 large cans of Carnation evaporated milk
3 boxes of Progresso chicken broth
2 boxes of Culinary Circle entertainment crackers (vegetable)
2 bottles of All Small & Mighty detergent (32 loads per bottle)
2 Digiorno Stuffed crust pizzas

Grand Total before coupons: $276.40
What I actually PAID: $48.88
TOTAL SAVINGS: $227.52

AMAZING!! And this is all stuff I actually use! This was actually my third shopping trip using grocerysmarts so I had Emmy run downstairs to the pantry to count up some of the things we are starting to build in our storage. So far we have over 20 boxes of cereal, over 30 jars of baby food, 10 liters of pop, tomato sauce and stewed tomatoes galore, over 30 cans of vegetables, several bags of frozen vegetables and frozen skillet meals, a growing supply of flour and sugar, and all of this for less than $150.00 total. My food storage was completely non-existent just 2 weeks ago. Also, it takes all of 2 minutes to file my coupons and about 20 minutes to get ready for a shopping trip, including cutting the coupons.

WOOHOO!!!

Emmy's Sewing Skills . . .

2008-10-26T19:10:00.000-07:00

Emmy is really enjoying her sewing machine, she loves to make outfits for herself and her friends. Yesterday I was taking my Sunday nap and she came in to tell me that her bobbin was jammed and she needed help. I told her she had to wait for me to get up and low and behold I wake up and she had fixed the bobbin on her own and had finished sewing herself a nurses outfit to play in. Unfortunately she hasn't learned to sew sleeves or anything but a tube skirt yet, so her nurses costume is a little cliche, if you know what I mean =0)

Ashton just had to jump in the picture. . . he is being "Super Ashton".

Halloween Party 2008

2008-10-26T18:12:00.000-07:00

So this years Halloween Party was a little different. We couldn't have it at our house because the basement is a disaster due to a little flooding problem. Nicole and Kurt Williams, our awesome friends from the ward were kind enough to let us have the party at their house. I think everyone had a good time, and as with all big events that take planning and effort, it was fun, but I'm glad it's done! This blog is basically going to be tons of pictures from the party of all of our friends that came. We played lots of games and had pinatas for the kids. Kurt did an awesome magic show earning himself a place in all of our future Halloween parties ;0) Enjoy!
mummy wrap game

Cookie decorating

Eating!

Sarah Palin and John McCain (Nicole and Kurt)

The Williams Family (thanks for sharing your home!)

The Miller Family

The Simonson Family

The Rasmussen Family

The Johnson Family

The Colin Wright Family

The Vowels Family

The Mad Scientist

Randi Wright and Sarah Palin =0)

Susan Vowles as Cruella DeVille

Souper Supper

2008-10-21T20:45:00.000-07:00

Our ward had a "Souper Supper" tonight. It was really fun. I swear more women in the R.S. know Lilly than me! So many women came up and loved on her since they see her smiling at them every Sunday at church. The bishopric did a hilarious sketch that was a bishopric meeting set 20 years in the future. At one point they were going over the sacrament meeting agenda and said that for sacrament that day they were having the Hamblins talk before they left on their 14th mission to Baghdad, Iraq. It got very loud laughter and applause. I thought Grandma and Grandpa would like to hear that.

Stuff

2008-10-21T16:58:00.000-07:00

Jaron and I received new callings in the ward as the ward photographers. This will help us get to know the people in the ward better. Our first assignment is to update the "Bishop's Board"-where the bishop has a picture of each child and which class they are in. This Sunday I took 75 pictures of the primary kids and I still have 3 more classes to go. Next up we are going to make a picture directory.

Lilly and Daddy lounging around. . .

Lilly had her first "hair-do" today, she got her hair in a ponytail, so here it is.

And THIS is a zuchini for all those doubting grandmas out there =0)

Miscellaneous

2008-10-18T18:53:00.000-07:00

I wish I were better about blogging more often, but I have to admit the paper route wipes me out pretty good. I used to blog after I got the kids to bed, but now I go to bed as soon as they do. Anyway, the last couple of days were fun. Jaron met one of the co-owners of Cafe Rio at work and he gave Jaron two "Gold Cards". They entitiled us each to one free meal and drink, so we took the kids out, got them a burrito to share and some desserts and the whole family ate for $11! I love cheap stuff!

Then we took the kids to Lagoon to see Frightmares. There was a little Spook-a-Boo alley for the kids to go through and get candy. It was really mild, not scary at all and they loved it. Jaron and I got a babysitter and went back later on our own. We went through one of the haunted houses which ended up being really lame. The fun part was the hypnotist show. Jaron was one of the chosen volunteers and he was pretty funny, he was told he was Barney and he sang the "I Love You" song and went through the audience hugging people. CREEPY! LOL Anyway, I remembered more of the show than he did, so I probably had more fun than him.

Here is a picture of the kids at Lagoon and then one of Ashton with a giant cucumber.

sNoW DaYS!

2008-10-13T15:03:00.000-07:00

So we got some really heavy wet snow over the weekend and the kids made their first solo snowman ever! They were pretty darned excited about it! I also have a couple of videos of the kids playing around in the evening.

Barbie needed a haircut. . .

2008-10-09T19:19:00.000-07:00

Every time Emmy sits down to practice piano Carter is close by watching intently, and then asking her to teach him something, so this morning I decided to start him with some basic stuff using Emmy's old books. He took to it like a fish takes to water. He is amazing me with how quickly he can learn things, and he REMEMBERS EVERYTHING I teach him! He wanted to learn how to play guitar like Emmy is, but when Jaron tried to show him a chord, we saw that his hands were still too small to even get around the neck of the guitar. I guess he will just have to wait till he grows a little bit.

I spent a good part of the day while Carter was in school trying to figure out the best courses for me to take at the U and how I can finish up in the most timely manner. Blarghhh. Frustrating to say the least.

Tonight I trimmed Emmy's bangs up for her and when I finished she asked, "Mama, can I please cut a Barbie's hair? I promise I won't make a mess! (She always does anyway) And I will clean up everything! (She always doesn't)". My first instinct was to say "no", but then I remembered how badly I had always wanted to cut a Barbies hair, but never did. So I thought, what the heck, at least she asked permission! So I told her to find one of her yucky, old Barbies and then to make sure her brothers didn't see her doing it. You would think I had just handed her a million dollars! She was so excited and she actually DID clean up her mess. Anyway, here is a picture of the newly styled Barbie. Oh, and for those of you who know me and my hair-cutting skills, don't worry. . . Emmy's bangs turned out just fine (but I did wait until AFTER school pictures just in case I totally screwed them up =0)

Emmy decided this was definitely an improvement!

Garbage is so fun!

2008-10-08T12:26:00.000-07:00

Lilly is turning into quite the handful. We have a garbage can next to our computer desk in the living room and now everytime we put her down in there, she heads straight for it. I usually stop her before it gets too bad, but last night we were distracted by daddy and Emmy playing music together and Lilly got some good scrounging time in. I had to take her picture, and when she saw the camera she waved at it.

She also has developed a strange new ritual when eating. She twists her body in her seat so that she is almost sitting backward in her chair and then between bites she sucks on the back of her seat. She usually does it between every bite, but once I pulled the camera out she was a little distracted, but you can still get the general idea.

8 Things Tag. . .

2008-10-05T12:57:00.000-07:00

8 TV shows I love to watch. . . (in random order)
1. Grey's Anatomy
2. Desperate Housewives
3. America's Next Top Model
4. Survivor
5. House
6. Eureka
7. Star Gate Atlantis
8. Medical Mysteries

8 of my Favorite Restaurants
1. Buddies (in Pocatello)
2. Rodizio's (a newly acquired and EXPENSIVE favorite)
3. Carino's
4. Chapala's
5. Cracker Barrel =0) (It pays my husband, how could I NOT love it?)
6. Cheesecake Factory
7. Mandarin House
8. Fazoli's

8 things that happened yesterday. . .
1. I did my paper-route in the pouring rain (yuck)
2. Jaron and I ate lunch at Cafe Rio (yum)
3. Umm, it rained. . . all day!
4. I traded in a bunch of Lilly's old stuff (toys, clothes, etc) at Kid 2 Kid and got her a new car seat for $0.86, she is really out growing that infant carrier!
5. I started my Christmas shopping list so I can start to watch for bargains
6. I found out that it is a Slurpee not a slushy that Jaron likes to drink, I don't really even know what a slushy is
7. I worked out for 1 1/2 hours at the gym

8 things I'm looking forward to. . .
1. Our annual Halloween party
2. Christmas!
3. Lilly learning how to walk
4. registering for my spring classes at the U
5. my next pay check
6. my friend Anna having her baby
7. the next good book I am going to read
8. Carter turning 6

8 things on my wish list. . .
1. A cruise to the Caribbean and lots of Xilkan Mexican Vanilla
2. to get skinny again without dieting or exercising
3. to get into PA school
4. to have all my teeth fixed
5. to buy/build a house that is our own and not too big and not too small, with a nice kitchen and a big garden, oh, and a maid to clean it and do all the laundry for me!
6. to not be allergic to cats
7. that my children will grow to realize all of their amazing potential!
8. that the delicious roast I can smell cooking will hurry and get done so I can eat it!

I tag everyone who reads this!

2008-10-05T12:33:00.000-07:00

Ahh, it feels good to have a quiet moment to sit down and blog! Lilly is taking nap and Jaron and the kids are downstairs playing Wii between conference sessions. Jaron has had 3 days off in a row and it has been so fun having him around for a weekend for a change. We had some friends from our ward over on Friday night and we had an easy dinner and played games. Our kids ran around and had a great time. It is always such a wonderful blessing to find friends that you both (husband and wife) have a lot in common with, and an even bigger bonus when you have kids roughly the same age that get along well. I have loved this ward since we moved in, but I do miss having my closest friends nearby.

Friends have always been really important to me. I have a theory that this is because I don't have a sister and that every girl needs a really close girlfriend in whom they can confide, plot and plan, and share joys and dissapointments. I have been so lucky my whole life to have the best group of friends a girl could wish for, and I have been especially lucky to live next to at least one of them for the first 8 years of my marriage. This is the first time I haven't lived next to someone that I know I can call at ANY time of day and that they won't be bothered, and even if they are, they will forgive me for it. That being said, the sisters in my ward have been very warm and kind and even though I don't have a bosom buddy yet, I do feel comfortable and welcome here.

I really enjoyed President Monson's talk at the end of the Sunday morning session. I think we all need to remember to enjoy the moment and love the life we are living a little bit more. I know I certainly need to. A couple of years ago it was this same time of year when for a brief period of a few weeks, I honestly believed that I was dying from cancer, I didn't feel sick, but just knowing that my time was limited, and really BELIEVING that completely changed my perspective on life and what is important. Due to what I honestly believe was a miracle from God, I have my whole (hopefully long) life ahead of me and I think it would do me some good to remember those feelings that my time was short and how my priorities suddenly shifted.
Jaron and I both like to talk about what our hopes and dreams for the future are, knowing that most of them will never happen, but this was a good reminder to enjoy what we have now.

The Curse of Mutton Hollow. . . and a new car

2008-10-01T19:49:00.000-07:00

So I have decided that Mutton Hollow is cursed. When we first moved here I was almost to the house and I made it to Mutton Hollow and the transmission fell out in the van. Well, Mutton Hollow happens to be on my paper route and on Sunday morning as I was delivering papers on Mutton Hollow, the transmission went out in the car. Needless to say we bought the stupid thing for $900 almost 2 years ago, so we feel like we have gotten our money's worth out of it. We thought about just being a one car family, but it would be extremely difficult with Jaron's work schedule being so sporadic and with 4 kids who need transportation during the day, so we bought a new car. We got a 2006 Ford Taurus with 45,000 miles on it.

I was going to post some pictures of Jaron's birthday, but I forgot to take pictures and I haven't had much time to blog lately, I have been so busy! So this is just a quick update.

3 Bottles and a Baby

2008-09-25T19:17:00.001-07:00

So the last few days have been pretty exhausting. Two days ago Lilly started coming down with a fever, and then yesterday she just slept pretty much all day. I was trying to bottle all the pears from the fruit tree in the back and managed to get 3 bottles ready to be processed when Lilly woke up crying. When I went to check on her she was burning up, and when I took her temp. she was 102.3. I gave her some tylenol and an hour later she was up to 103.0. I called the pediatrician and they got her in right away. Poor thing has a double ear infection and even today after a few doses of antibiotics she is still burning up and just wants to be held and snuggled.

Emmy has another loose tooth, but she still hasn't lost the first one.

Jaron's birthday is coming up on Saturday so the kids and I are going to have a little party for him tommorow night and then on Saturday I am going to take him to a Brazillian Grill that he has been wanting to try. I will post some pictures of the old man's 30th b-day party once I take them.

Funny

2008-09-19T19:33:00.000-07:00

I just think this picture is hilarious.

A couple of firsts. . .

2008-09-19T19:07:00.000-07:00

Jaron and I were sitting on the couch playing with Lilly when Emmy walked in the room and waved at her, and then started jumping around excitedly, "She waved back!" Sure enough Lilly was doing not only the big arm wave, but attempting the more delicate wrist wave. She still couldn't pass for a pageant queen or anything, but she is doing really well. Even more exciting is that she is saying her first word!!! She continued to wave and when Emmy left she told her "bye-bye" and Lilly answered with her own wave and a "bye-bye". She continued to say it so we know it wasn't a fluke. Our whole house was excited about it. I wish I had sound on my camera's video recorder so you could hear her, but you can see her mouth moving in the video.

Also today, Emmy is having her first "Late Night" with a friend. This is a replacement for a sleep over since sleep overs are just way too scary these days. Emmy and her friend have given each other make-overs, painted each others nails, danced and watched movies. Right now they are watching the latest Barbie movie and eating popcorn. Carter has a friend over as well, but she won't be staying quite as late.

Ward Camp Out. . . and stuff

2008-09-17T19:57:00.000-07:00

Wow, I haven't blogged forever. So in the last little bit we had a ward camp out which we got several pictures from, so I will post them. It was a nice camp ground. We cooked steaks for dinner and the kids got to play on the toys that were available there. We didn't actually stay the night since Jaron had to be to work early and I had the paper route to do, but it was still fun.

Angie and Truman stopped by on their way through to Spanish Fork. The kids had a great time playing and Lilly, just like the rest of our kids, is for some reason scared of Truman! She kept hiding her head on Angie's chest and then when she couldn't see him anymore she would look up. I got some video of it, but it was when she actually started warming up to him a little. Still it was adorable!

We made a day trip to Pocatello and had lunch with Kristi and Clint at Buddy's (YUM!). We got to see Clinton's house which is coming along really nicely, I am so excited for them to be able to finish it and move in. Unfortunately we didn't get to see Katie and Corgin since they were making a trip to Salt Lake for the day (ironic huh?). Maybe next time. We also got to see my parents for a little while.

Ok, so here is my brag-fest about my kids. Carter is doing so well in gymnastics that they are ready to move him up to the next level, he is almost able to do a back handspring by himself. As soon as he masters it I will post a video of it. Emmy still hasn't lost her tooth, but it is getting looser (is that a word?). I had a conference with Emmy's teacher and she is in love with her, calling her a "living doll". She also told me that she would like to have her tested for the Spectrum program which is for advanced children. She is already reading at a 6th grade level and possibly beyond. The word on the reading test that stopped her up was "homogenized" . She told me that she does very well socially in the class as well and is not at all disruptive (by talking) because she has plenty of things for her to do to keep her busy enough that she won't get bored.

I am currently working on completing my enrollment at the University of Utah. I keep calling it Utah State University and if I am not careful I'm gonna get myself shot. Apparently they are rivals or something and every time I say the wrong name I insult people all around me =0) Jaron told me to be safe just call it The U. So that is what I will do. Well, I think that is pretty much it for now. Blog at ya later!

"A loose tooth and a new haircut!"

2008-09-10T11:53:00.000-07:00

Emmy is feeling like a brand new woman! Yesterday morning she came into my room and woke me up to ask what she could eat for breakfast that wouldn't hurt her tooth. She told me it had been hurting for 3 days now, and I thought, "Oh great, she's got a cavity". Anyway, I told her to go make herself some oatmeal and fell back asleep. About 45 minutes later I awoke to her and Carter squealing and running into my room, "I have a loose tooth!!!" And then, of course, I got the wiggly demonstration by Emmy several times. Sure enough, she has her first loose tooth and she is super excited. As soon as it actually falls out I will post a pic.

As for the new haircut, her friends at school have been telling her she looks like Hannah Montana, which to a 2nd grade girl is quite the compliment. She decided that she wanted to have bangs like Hannah and so yesterday I took her to the beauty parlor to get her some bangs. As we were driving there she said with a giant, satisfied grin, "A loose tooth and a new haircut!" She loves her new bangs!

This is a picture I snuck of Emmy and Ashton playing "school'. They were using one of Lilly's rattles for a bell and in this picture Ashton was drawing various squiggly objects and then asking Emmy what they were. She would come up with some random thing and he would say, "That's right!" in his best teacher voice. Pretty fun!

New Stats

2008-09-05T18:19:00.001-07:00

Today I brought Ashton and Lilly in to the WIC office and they were weighed and measured. Any guesses as to how much Lilly weighs now??? 17 lbs! LOL she is in the 87% for herself (in other words, short and fat), but only 37% for babies her age. Ashton on the other hand is at 50% proportioned to himself and only 2% height and weight compared to other children his age. The lady at WIC wants me to give him supplements to help him try and gain weight before his next appointment . . . she didn't believe me that my kids are just really small, probably because she was looking at Lilly while I explained this to her.

Emmy was really excited when she came home from school today. She shared a story that she had written for show-and-tell today and her teacher told her that it was the best s-and-t she has ever seen. To make things even better for Emmy, all her friends asked her to read the story to them again at recess. She was pretty pumped up about it. She has been writing stories since she was about 3, so I am just glad that I don't have to help her spell out each and every word anymore!

Birthday Party for Old People

2008-09-04T19:31:00.000-07:00

So yesterday was my little brother's birthday. He turned 26 and had no plans, so I invited him down for some home cooked food (he's a bachelor and so never gets any good home cooking). My parents decided to come for his "party" too, if you can call it that. . . We had lasagna for dinner at his request with a chocolate cake for dessert. I tried to get a picture of the stink, but he kept holding a paper in front of his face, so this blurry one was the best I could come up with. I did get a picture of Lilly after he tried holding her. She has only seen him maybe 3 times since she was born and her "stranger danger" alarm is kicking in. I wasn't in the room, so she let my mom console her. I have never seen her cling to someone so hard, it was pretty cute.

It was funny when Cody first got here, Emmy had a friend over whom I told to go home since we were having a birthday dinner with Emmy's uncle. Ashton heard this and said, "Aah man! I wish I had an uncle!" Also my mom was sitting next to him for lunch and as most of us know, her skin can get pretty red due to her lupus. So he was sitting next to her eating and out of the blue says, "You look like a tomato, a HUGE tomato!" That kid CRACKS me up!
Emmy and Carter are both supposed to read or be read to for about 20 minutes a day, so Emmy just reads to him and we kill 2 birds with one stone-- awesome! This is them tonight after Ashton and Lilly had gone to bed, getting their reading time in.

Palin for Pres... I mean Vice President!

2008-09-04T13:30:00.000-07:00

I am not into politics the way some people are, but I did watch Sarah Palin's speech, and I am SOLD! She is the first politician that I have ever been able to see myself in, and I love her down-home demeanor. I was losing hope for the GOP, but I think she was a really good choice for V.P. I guess it comes down to this, if she can inspire a person who is otherwise oblivious to the political scene, me, for example, to be more involved in politics and more interested in what is going on, then I am sure she can do it with many more Americans that are just like me (and I am guessing there are millions). The fact that she has five children, is a "hockey mom" who just signed up for the PTA and has an "imperfect" family makes me feel that I will truely have a voice in the White House that understands me as an individual among millions. For the first time the Oval Office doesn't feel like a place for stuffy old men to sit around and decide things that will affect a lifestyle (mine) that they can't even begin to comprehend. So, for the first time in my life, I am truly interested in an election and I am 100% behind the McCain/Palin ticket!

Lilly the PILL-y

2008-09-02T20:04:00.000-07:00

So you would think by the fourth little stink pot I would be used to all the nuisances of a crawling baby. . . but no, I am still blown away by Lilly's constant antics. My sweet little girl is still sweet, just fast and into everything she can get her little paws on. One of the worst things is when she manages to crawl under the end table we have in the corner between two couches. Trying to get her out reminds me of trying to coax a scared cat or something out from under a deck, not that she is scared, she is just having too much fun trying to knock the lamp over. Anyway, I had to grab a few pictures of her in her little cave before attempting to drag her out. I also took some video of her in the bathtub. She won't sit still in it for anything, she likes to crawl back and forth

over and over.

Lilly Standing Up

2008-08-31T14:56:00.000-07:00

Alrighty then- Here is a picture of our little Lilly standing up. She was awake at 6:30 this morning standing in her crib and jabbering at the top of her lungs. . . she is quite proud of her new skill. Notice the pillow behind her, this was put there by Carter, "in case she falls over again, so she won't cry".

K- So I am a lazy mom. . .

2008-08-30T20:25:00.000-07:00

I forgot to get pictures of my kids on their first day of school, so I had to take one of Emmy in one of her favorite new outfits, and I will get one of Carter on Monday, since that is really his first day of actual school.

Emmy has had a great first week of school. She has already made lots of new friends, according to her, everyone in her class knows her and likes her except for one boy, and he just never talks, so she doesn't know if he is her friend yet or not. She has been walking to school with several neighborhood kids and is feeling pretty mature being able to do that. Her teacher sent home a list of "hard" words kids to practice reading and Emmy blew right threw it. It will probably be another very easy year academically for her.

She started her piano lessons this week and so now she is in one gymnastics class and piano. She is such a sweet girl and I am so privileged to be her mother. On another note, she went to Wal-Mart with me tonight and we stopped and looked at the fashion cubic zirconium rings they have on display. She fell in love with a little pink heart diamond ring and asked if I would buy it for her. I told her no, it was 8 bucks and if she wanted it she could earn more money and buy it herself, to which she replied, "No Way! I'm not going to spend MY money on that!" LOL Then she told me laughingly, "Mom, it's not that much for you, just 800 pennies!" . . . she just wanted to show off her math skills =0)

Carter is my little OCD kid, we got him a pencil box and a few supplies (crayons, scissors, glue etc.) and he organized and then reorganized his pencil box. He then carried it into bed and asked me to turn the light on, because while he was walking the stuff in the box moved and he needed to put it back the right way. ***sigh*** He has been anal about picking up his room every night and heaven forbid if Ashton moves a single thing out of place!

Ashton was a bit jealous that he didn't get anything new for school, so I gave him a mechanical pencil from the junk drawer and you would think it was solid gold! He is sleeping with it as I type.

I put Lilly down for a nap today and after about 10 minutes I heard her squealing, so I ran to her room to see what was wrong and she was standing up in her crib with a giant smile on her face -- this is the first time she has stood on her own. Needless to say, she was so busy practicing she wouldn't take her nap. When daddy got home you could tell she was exhausted, but too hyped up, so he burrito wrapped her and she couldn't even wiggle, and 5 seconds later she was out.

Jaron started at the Layton Cracker Barrel today! We are so relieved that he is finally there. Not only will it save us a ton on gas, but the environment is much better in this store.

As for me, I am just plugging along, doing my paper route and battling some really intense allergies right now.

Random Pics

2008-08-24T20:12:00.000-07:00

Yes, Lilly is in a doll stroller.

Here are some random pictures that I have taken over the last week or so and just haven't posted. Enjoy!

Special Family Home Evening

2008-08-24T19:29:00.000-07:00

School starts tommorow and the kids are super excited. With that in mind we held a special family home evening. We have been itching to go camping or at least hiking, but with gas prices the way they are it hasn't really been an option, but my lovely husband was able to find a trail head that is maybe a mile away from our home. So we took off for our hike and the kids loved it. The trail was on the steep side and we had been going maybe 3 minutes and the kids were already going on about how tired they were and how hard of work this was (they weren't complaining, just trying to make themselves feel tough). Anyway, we made it to a gorgeous spot with a creek running through. We let the kids play awhile, then went to a quieter area where we discussed priesthood blessings and Jaron gave each of the children a father's blessing for the coming school year. Here are a few pics of our adventure.

Lil' Flippers Olympics

2008-08-22T11:07:00.000-07:00

So I haven't blogged forever. I am having a really hard time not going to bed later than 8, and that is when I usually blog, once my kids are in bed. Anyway, the kids had an "Olympic Show" at gymnastics. I tried to get some video, and some of them are sideways because I didn't think about the fact that you can't rotate videos. Lilly is crawling, I still need to get some vid of her doing it. My meds finally showed up 2 days ago. . . thank goodness!

Blechhh, I forgot how long it takes to post videos. These will have to do for now.

Attack of the Giant Moth!

2008-08-13T16:59:00.001-07:00

K, so Jaron goes to open the garage door today and this giant moth comes flying at him. At first he thought it was a bat, but it landed on the curtain and we realized it was a moth. The kids got a real kick out of it. I happened to be talking to my neighbor who has taken up a collection of giant moths, so she came over and put it in a giant jar and took it home. Also here is a vid clip of Lilly still attempting to crawl. She is getting a little better as far as she is actually picking her arms up now. Good thing her daddy is such a softy or she'd be grounded by now!

I NEED MY MEDS!

2008-08-13T12:22:00.001-07:00

Ok, so as most of you know I have major depression, which is usually controlled very well by my medication. However, I ran out over a week ago and had to order refills via mail order prescription. At any rate, I haven' t gotten my meds in the mail yet and I am all dizzy and have a headache. Also I am feeling incredibly irritable. Thank goodness Jaron has had the last few days off to help out with the kids. Hopefully they will come soon, I really hate this out of control feeling. The depression hasn't really set in yet, that usually takes a couple of weeks to start back in, but I really don't want to get to that point. Anyway, Jaron is probably getting sick of me, but the way I see it, he owes me for putting up with him during his medication adjustments after Lilly was born (he is manic-depressive -- I know our poor kids don't stand a chance of being mentally stable!).

CReAtiVe KiDS!

2008-08-11T19:02:00.000-07:00

Whew! Made it through another Monday. . . barely! Emmy and Carter had gymnastics at different times today so we spent awhile at the gym. They are both doing so well! We spent a good part of the day cleaning and doing chores and of course playing. Anyway, Emmy has been on this make-anything-you-can-think-of-out-of-paper kick for the last week or so. Here are a few of the things she has made.

This is a paper cat that even eats and poops little wads of paper. The other kids liked it so much that she ended up making a bird for Carter, an Elephant for Ashton and a mouse and another bird for the neighbor kids-- and yes, all of them had digestive capabilities!

Then today, she asked me if I cared if she used some of her headbands for something. I gave her the go-ahead and this is what she made. . .

Emmy and Carter are cat-kids complete with tails, and Ashton is a puppy-boy.

Ashton is so. . . well. . . ummm. . . weird?

2008-08-08T19:27:00.000-07:00

LOL so Ashton comes running up to me this morning and tells me that he is gonna get the bad guys and that this is how he wears his sword.

(running cannot be very comfortable with his sword right there!)

News Update!

2008-08-07T17:38:00.000-07:00

Jaron- He was told (fingers crossed) that he will be transferring to the Layton store at the end of the month, so hopefully starting in September we will be able to save a little on gas!

Heather- I took on an additional paper route, so I am getting even less sleep than ever, but on the positive side, the children are really enjoying their lessons, which wouldn't be possible without the blasted route, so I guess I will continue to get no sleep for the time being.

Emmy- She will be starting school on August 25th and she is really excited to be in the 2nd grade this year.

Carter- Will be starting school on the 25th as well and is doing so well in gymnastics that they have moved him up 2 levels to an advanced class!

Ashton- Hmm. . . not much to say here, he is still being the same little Ashton that we all know and love!

Lilly- Still working on crawling, her dad, being somewhat competitive, told her she has one week to be crawling like her cousin Corgin (to allow for the 1 week age difference) or he was going to have to ground her. We'll see how well that goes!

Long time, no Blog!

2008-08-07T17:26:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's been awhile since I have been able to blog! And that, of course, means that I have been busy and have tons to blog about! Last week we had a steady stream of visitors for the entire week and there were 3 nights in a row where I didn't get more than 2 hours of sleep a night thanks to the paper route and the new Twilight book (which I loved).
So anyway, some of our visitors were Angie and Truman Lackey, and when they got here we discovered that Alyssa didn't have any p.j.'s to sleep in, so Emmy got right on top of that with her ninja sewing skills. Alyssa liked the "dress" that Emmy made her to sleep in so much that she told her mom, "I could wear this to church!" Angie carefully steered her away from that idea, but Emmy did do a pretty darn good job. They ended up sewing a dress (p.j.'s that looked like a dress), underwear, slippers and a mermaid tail when all was said and done.

Grrr. . . I had some more pictures that I took on Jarons camera (mine was out of batteries) documenting various things from this past week, but apparently I didn't save any of them.

Lilly Burrito!

2008-07-29T20:40:00.000-07:00

Lilly was playing on her blanket and grabbed one corner and then kept rolling over until she was completely wrapped up, eventually she managed to wriggle her little head out and was smiling the whole time!

Some fun pictures. . .

2008-07-29T20:20:00.000-07:00

So I haven't blogged for a couple of days, I have been crazy busy and crazy exhausted from the paper route. Anyway, I have been taking some pictures for my blog, luckily for me, all of my kids are total hams, so it is never hard to get them to pose.

Emmy wanted to have her chance to feed Lilly, so I let her and she lasted about 5 minutes before she started complaining about how messy Lilly is!

Ashton has been wearing Emmy's purple hat around the house, and every time he puts it on he strikes a pose and says, "Lookin' Good!".

I don't know who taught him that, but I have one guess. . .

Daddy and his girls wearin' SHADES!

Caught Red Handed!

2008-07-29T20:16:00.000-07:00

So Ashton knows that he is not supposed to get into Lilly's toy or her swing, and yet I keep walking into the living room when he thinks no one is looking to find him in one of said toys. Here are a couple of pictures I caught of him when he thought he was alone.

This second one shows him pouting when he realized that he got caught.

Demo Movies

2008-07-25T17:11:00.001-07:00

Alright, so the kids were wanting me to take a video of them and their new moves they are learning from gymnastics. So here are some vids of the kids.

In this video you get to see Ashton do a "twisty-twist" and a somersault (and another unmentionable thing if you are observant enough). He is saying hi to the camera before he starts (read his lips) and then after he says, "I'm OK!".

In this video Emmy is performing for your pleasure: A bridge and her attempt at a front walk-over.

This video is a display of Carter's handstand and kartwheel. He is capable of doing much better handstands, but I suppose we will have to catch one of those on another day =0)

All the kids wanted to say hi to the camera, so here it is. . .

LoveBirds Tag

2008-07-25T09:53:00.001-07:00

Kristine tagged me- so I tag Kristi, Trisha, Katie, Grandma Hamblin and Nicole Oh! And Tessy too! I didn't know you started a blog!

1. When did you and your husband first meet?
In a play in high school. He was in the play and I was a "techie" =0) He didn't go on stage until the last 20 minutes of the play, so we had plenty of time to hang out backstage together. He couldn't resist my incredible charms. . . and he was pretty charming to me too. Anyway, I was only 15 and he was 18, so he had to wait for a few months to take me out on our first date, which he did and then promptly dumped me afterwards. Let's just say we didn't get along so well at our job (we both worked at Arctic Circle at this point) or any where else where we ran into each other. I have to give kudos to Teresa here for putting up with me during my teenage heartbreak. She listened to me cry and took me out for my first Italian Soda ever, I just wish she would have told me that you were supposed to blow into it to mix the syrup with the soda water and cream (it sure makes it taste better ;) )

2. What is the first thing you said to each other?
I can't remember what exactly the first things that we said to each other, but I do remember him trying to teach me how to dance out in the hallway, and he said I was pretty good, so either he was lying, or he has just changed his mind since we've been married. I think I am a pretty good dancer, but he says I have no rhythm which isn't entirely true, it just comes a little slower for me than for some people =0)

3. When was your first date?
December 31st, 1996. I had just turned 16 the day before. He called me at the last minute and took me to his friends house where we watched some stupid movies and then went icing on the golf course (there wasn't too much snow) and then threw snowballs with the little snow there was. He was pretty much a brat to me the whole time.
Since that wasn't the most positive experience I will tell you about our second
"first" date. This one was a few years later, after he had been on a mission and I had gotten back from basic training and AIT in the Army National Gaurd. We saw each other again at Clinton's (his younger brother) Christmas choir concert. I told him we should get together sometime, just to be nice, I didn't really mean it, but he called me a few days later and he took me out to lunch at Perkins (I believe).

4. First Kiss?
That would have been about our 4th date (four days after our second "first" date)For the record, this was Jaron's first kiss ever and he was shaking he was so scared!

5. When were the first "I love you's" said?
Honestly, I can't remember. Probably about 3 weeks in, about the same time we got engaged =0) I think we both knew, but it was weird saying it outloud.

6. Long or short engagement?
5 months, from the first part of January to May 13th.

7. Where did you get engaged?
Cherry Springs, in hip deep snow. He blindfolded me and drove me out there, by the time I got there I was sick and completely disoriented. However, it was really beautiful and peaceful out there. There was a full moon and the snow was gorgeous.

8. Where were you married?
The Idaho Falls Temple, May 13th, 2000.

9. Where did you go on your honeymoon?
We went to a hotel in Idaho Falls then on to Island Park right after we got married. We waited about a month and a half to go on our offical honeymoon to Lagoon. It was great, aside from the fact that I was already unknowingly pregnant and for some weird reason all the rrides were making me sick!

10. Where was your first home?
Our first home was a basement apartment by ISU in Pocatello. Our upstairs neighbors smoked and had snakes and lizards loose in the house, and they fed them by just putting crickets loose in the house. Our cat, "Kiki" had a great time hunting the crickets. I was adamant that I get out of that place before I had the baby, so as soon as our six month contract was up we bought our first house at 743 Washington in Pocatello.

NINJA Folding Skills!!!

2008-07-24T19:39:00.000-07:00

So apparently, I have some pretty valuable skills, one of which is my speedy Ninja newspaper folding skill. The district manager at the newspaper I am delivering for called me to see if I could help fold some extra papers since I am so incredibly speedy. Of course I had to think about whether it was right to use my ninja folding skills to make a profit, but then I realized, "Hey, I already am. . . " so I agreed and now I am getting up at 2 in the morning and getting home around 6am. I folded over 600 papers this morning and I am still debating whether the extra money they offer me is worth it. . . Just because I have the skills doesn't mean I like to use them!

On the home front, Lilly is growing up so fast, I snapped a picture of her sitting up today (one of her newly acquired ninja skills- I can see she will take after her mother). The kids spent the entire day (after their chores were finished) playing in the swimming pool that Grandma Hamblin left for their enjoyment, and are they ever enjoying it! I swear they have turned into little fish!

Lilly is trying to crawl!

2008-07-22T20:45:00.000-07:00

I always dread this day with my babies. . . when they first start trying to crawl. It's like I can feel my care-free days slipping away to the days of constant vigilance! It is so nice when all they do is lay there and smile and kick. Lilly began her first earnest attempts at getting somewhere on her knees today and I just managed to catch some on video for those anxious grandmas. *Sigh* Child safety measures. . . here we come!

Also, Casey e-mailed me some pics that he took while he and Sophia were here, so I am going to go ahead and post those.

Hillarious SNL Digital Short

2008-07-21T20:47:00.000-07:00

Teresa, I posted this mostly for your sake! Oh no! Here it comes!

Family Bike Ride

2008-07-21T19:47:00.000-07:00

So today was kind of a crazy day. Jaron and I have really been wanting to see the new Batman movie, so we got a babysitter so that we could go during the matinee today. We decided to take Lilly since she would need to eat and she really won't take a bottle, so the baby sitter can't feed her. Anyway, we get to the movie and get about 30 seconds into it and Lilly is terrified. All the loud loises, gun fire and buses crashing through walls etc. was freaking her out. Duh! What were we thinking taking our baby to that movie, she would have been scarred for life! Needless to say, we quickly left, got our refund and then headed home. The kids weren't too happy with us for cutting their precious babysitter time short.

We were going to work on putting our basement together and then go to Lagoon, but neither Jaron nor I were up to it, again disappointing the kids, so to make up for it, we promised them that for an hour of hard work in the basement we would go on a family bike ride to the church parking lot. This was an acceptable deal to them, so we wrote up the contract and got to work on the basement! We got alot done and at exactly one hour, Emmy was reminding us that it was time to go.

The church is not too far away from our house, but there is a pretty nice hill going down to the church that the kids were nervous to ride down. We, being the loving and caring parents that we are, who only want the best for our children, told them that if they didn't ride down then hill then they had to go home and go to bed. This provided sufficient motivation for them to suck it up and ride down the hill. I wasn't worried about Emmy, but Carter is still on training wheels, so I told him to use his brakes and when he got to the bottom of the hill where we were supposed to turn, to NOT turn, stop first, or he would tip with those blasted training wheels on.

Now those of you who know Carter know that telling him something can be about as effective as telling a brick wall to move out of your way. So off he goes down the hill, pedaling forward instead of using his brakes, and then at the bottom of the hill, as I repeatedly yell at him to "GO STRAIGHT, DON'T TURN!", he begins his turn of death, which logically is followed by a spectacular crash involving 3 "360 degree" flips by Carter (his bike only flipped once. . . nothing to brag about really). This is the first time that instead of cursing those annoying bike helmets that I never needed to wear as a child, I was kind of glad my kid had one on.

Amazingly, Carter came out with only a few scratched elbows which we immediately started praising and telling him how cool he was and how he could show off those scratches (this tends to stave off the annoying crying and whining that could last for days until the scabs disappear). He stood looking at us with a dazed and confused face for a few moments and then decided that he was pretty cool and tough, so he got back on his bike and started riding the rest of the way to the church. Of course, we couldn't let him go without chewing him out for not listening to us in the first place. I told him, "Carter, you HAVE to use your brakes coming down that hill! Just pedal backwards and you won't go so fast!", and then the real issue is revealed when Carter replies to me, "but Mom! My bike doesn't pedal backwards!" Yeah. So anyway, we spent the next few minutes practicing braking techniques (which was a review, I swear I taught him how to use the brakes the first day he got his bike!) Anyway, we all survived the bike ride and I took a few pictures of us out on the road.

Jaron is home to stay!

2008-07-19T20:46:00.000-07:00

Yay!!! Jaron has finally arrived. He got in early this morning and we were all excited, but Ashton was especially happy to see his daddy. He could hardly sit still and his grin stretched from ear to ear. Jaron and I celebrated our reunion by going to lunch at the Cheesecake factory (thanks to Kristi for the gift card) and then to the GEEX convention which was extremely disappointing. We had gotten free tickets to it and we were expecting a gamers paradise and some really cool new technology displays. What we got was closer to the Spring Fair in Pocatello, only about 1/8th the size and none of the cool stuff. Let's just say we were glad it was free. Afterwards we came home and crashed for awhile. Lilly got to try some whippped cream at the Cheese Cake Factory courtesy of her daddy, she was making some great faces at first, but then she started to beg for it. This is the first time I have seen her actually chase a spoon with her mouth.

After a little down time in the afternoon I got looking at my boys and their shaggy little heads. I swear I just cut it and I turn around and they need another hair cut- grrr! I have been cutting their hair myself, but I really didn't feel like doing it, so I called around and everybody is charging $12 to cut little boys hair! I wasn't about to waste $24 on something I could do for free, but I didn't feel like putting the usual amount of time into it that I do (I am really slow), so I whipped out the clippers and buzzed the boys heads. They have never had buzzes before and Carter cried for about the first 20 minutes after I did it about how he didn't want to be bald. Ashton was excited about having it done. Emmy couldn't be left out of our little hair parade so she got pillow curlers in for church tomorrow.

YuMMy PiGGies!

2008-07-18T20:25:00.000-07:00

Lilly has discovered her toes and that delicious toe jam flavor as well as her thumb. Now, none of my kids have ever been thumb suckers, and she isn't really addicted. . . yet. I do have one nail biter on my hands (Emmy) so I wouldn't be surprised if she did become attached to her thumb, but here are a couple of cute shots of her eating her toes. Ahhh. . . it's so cute when they are little, but for some reason, the image of an adult, like Jaron sucking his toes just isn't as appealing! (Love ya Honey!)

Picture Worthy

2008-07-18T17:30:00.000-07:00

So today we cleaned the house and just tried to get ready to welcome Jaron (Daddy) home. I also finally got around to making the raspberry jam I have been meaning to make for the last week or more, of course I have to post a picture of my first batch of jam ever! The other pictures are just cute so they are being posted as well.