Hmmm.

I can't seem to figure out how it is possible that Eden - turning eight has never had a cavity. Nate who went 16 - yes it really does say 16 - years between cleanings and never had one cavity or anything to even clean for that matter - but I take my SWEET little Emry who is two into the dentist today and she has TWO cavities, needs FOUR root canals, and FOUR crowns!!! She's TWO!!! And nope, she does not drink from a bottle...never has...does not go to sleep with juice....this mean mom rarely gives out juice...and nope, she doesn't suck on lemons or limes (shocker)...but somehow her poor little teeth are completely disintegrating! I felt SO sick when I was told what needs to be done, but what was worse was picturing Emry with her four front teeth all SILVER!

Attempts

Just a quick attempt to update this thing - I should now be good until after the new year.



Eden lost another tooth this past week. She was so thrilled, now she can have "Bunny Teeth!" She makes the cutest little bunny. Jack is now constantly asking when his teeth will come out. Eden is now on a count down to her 8th birthday. Just 19 more days!!! I have cried at every baptism that I've attended this year. How has 8 years gone so quickly? Just a few days ago, Nate found me sitting in the closet crying while I was on the phone. My friend was giving me some great ideas on how to make Eden's baptism day memorial...and of course, that set me OFF! I am going to be good for nothing that day! How I love that sweet Eden!!!








Nate's big day is coming up in just two short weeks!!! I couldn't be prouder of him...and perhaps a tad bit concerned. He's traded in his love of biking for running. Not just any ol' running...we're talking extreme-crazy-kick -butt running. Nate and his good friends are diligent at finding extreme trail runs, bare foot running (I don't see the logic or the fun - then again, this is why I am amazed at him!) He and his friends signed up to run a 20 miler extreme (more like insane) race in Moab in Feb. Seriously, this race makes a regular ol' marathon look like a leisure jog in the park. All I can say, is go get-em!(and please come back alive!) I wasn't ever all too concerned until I heard them talking about mountain lions and falling off cliffs! I'm failing miserably at the attempt to get him to commit running in a marathon with me...he thinks the courses look "too dull!" I wish I could just get a snippet of his enthusiasm!

I had other pictures that were up here...but somehow I have managed to delete them...so I am calling it a night and perhaps one day I'll venture to attempt putting them back up here.

TWO MONTHS ALREADY?

I just love Willa's birth announcement! My friend came over when Willa was one week old and took some super cute pictures. Of course, I have yet to get them on here - My ultra talented cousin, Maurita, made the announcement. I am so lucky to have talented people in my life!

It's hard to believe Willa is two months old tomorrow ! I was so lucky to have my mom come down for a month! There is a whole lot that has happened in the past few months - but the best moments were when we had family come visit! We were so happy to have Ana, Scott, and Alison come...pictures may someday be posted. My sister Jodi and Lance came and also my brother Jon from Missouri just showed up the night before Willa's blessing. It was such a fun surprise to see him and I couldn't believe everyone kept it from me! Willa is just growing too fast!!!!! She has the most adorable smile and she melts our hearts with every coo she gives us. Jack and Emry imitate every sweet sound she makes and I love hearing their interpretation of what they mean. Jack is sure every sound means, "Ah, I love you Jack!" and I am sure she is saying that too. I don't know if there could ever be a sweeter big brother than Jack!

Presenting Willa Harper Jacob.....

We are all just so excited that our sweet Willa is here at last!
From 6:34 pm - when we called our good friends to watch our kids, driving to their home and dropping them off, to speeding down the slow streets of Montrose, making our way to the emergency entrance -only for no one respond -to Nate finding his own wheel chair, sprinting me to the maternity ward and Willa being born at 6:53pm - the shirt says it all!






As quickly as she came - it was even quicker for us to fall madly in love with this sweet 8 lb 20 inch Blondie!

Everyone was just in awe of her - we had such a difficult time naming her. One look at her and we knew she was not an Ava - which you would have thought that Finley would have definitely been her name.


I tried for the night calling her Finley and all the next day. We were both ready to leave the hospital at 2 pm - all that needed to be done was fill in the birth certificate. After playing around with different spellings of Finley - I just wrote Willa Harper down (one of Nate's original names, that had long been left undiscussed) This is what occurred for the next three and a half hours. Kids going crazy - playing in the closet trying to amuse themselves while I struggled on a name. Willa just seems a perfect fit for her. I got my wish that she was born on my grandpa's birthday and his name is Willam - it just was perfect!














Willa is so blessed to have such a wonderful sister. Eden just adores her and is the greatest help!















Jack is so sweet with her - he will walk in the room and say, "Guess what, I wanna hold baby Cinderella!"

We are overwhelmingly surprised at how Emry is with Willa. She just LOVES her. She constantly wants to wrap her up in her diaper changing pad and that is the only challenge we are facing with her.

We love this sweet baby and are so thrilled that she has finally come!

I can drive 55

I know pretty pathetic title....but HOLY SCHMOLLIES....55 pounds deserves some sort of theme! I was completely spoiled by having Emry so early, that being pregnant for the whole 9 months is really for the birds! Just one day until the big due date and I am SO hopeful that I won't go over. Today would be a wonderful day to have her. She would share the same birthday as my grandpa and it is also my grandpa's and grandma's anniversary...sounds like a plan to me! Now if she will just cooperate! Since the beginning of June I have been hopeful that she would come any day, but here we are the end of June and still no baby....but also still no name. We are hoping that once we see her one of the names we like will really just fit her!

I love whenever Emry hears the word baby, if we are reading it in a story or she hears someone says it, she runs up and points to my belly! Emry suddenly seems so big to me. It is going to be a BIG change in our home with her being a big sister!
I was SO sure that I would have this baby in the middle of June that I signed my kids up for swimming the first session and wouldn't even consider going for the next session.

Now I really wish I would have. Jack and Eden loved every moment....okay, that's a lie. It took Jack some getting used to, but once he was willing to get off the steps - he LOVED it. Poor Emry cried every morning for the two weeks when Jack and Eden got to put on their swimming suits.

EMRY TURNS TWO!!!!

Our sweet Emry is TWO today! We simply just adore her...she has SO much personality! She shows us daily just how much personality she has, ranging from down right melt your heart sweetness to pull-your hair out orneriness!

We just love that she now gives smooches...when we asked before she would simply screech "NUH-UH!"

The "NUH-UH" that she would respond to everything with, has now been replaced with an emphatic "NO!" I thought it was simply adorable to hear her sweet voice, that I would ask her silly questions just to hear her say "NO." I am now ready for her to move on to new words. She has completely mastered the word, "Mine"....she sounds just like the seagulls from Finding Nemo...she won't stop saying it until someone finally acknowledges that, yes indeed, whatever she is talking about is hers.















What better way than to start your birthday than with a plate full of "Bawoon, bawoon, bawoon....mine....mine...mine!"













It was hard to convince her that she needed to eat real food for breakfast.















The birthday girl got to choose what she wanted for breakfast. She thoroughly enjoyed the power that was given to her. After five minutes of telling me "that one...no, that one...yes, that one....no, that one" (you get the idea) She finally made a decision.















"Wow, mine" is all Emry could say when she opened her presents.















Emry blowing out her candles















Two of my favorite things about Emry -

Our bedtime ritual....she has to have her two babies tucked into bed with her and besides her regular bedding, she has to have two of Jack's old blankets, Eden's old blanket and one of her blankets wrapped snug around herself and her babies. She then tells me to kiss her and her babies and points out the door for me to leave.

Our morning ritual - Emry brings in her two babies and four blankets and enthusiastically exclaims, "MINE," and then demands that we snuggle!

Emry was so THRILLED to get her own watering can for her birthday. Whenever we pull into the garage Emry shrieks, "Mom's, Mom's, MOM's" and will only stop once someone says, "Yes, that is mom's watering can."

So what did the birthday girl really really really want to do to celebrate her birthday? She wanted to get in the big tub with the big kids and try out a sweet pair of goggles.

Since it was her birthday....why not? She didn't enjoy the tub at all....but LOVED LOVED LOVED the goggles! And who wouldn't looking that stylin' in them?

We are so happy that we have our Emry. She brings alot of excitement into our house. (Eden would rather me say alot of crying into our house, which is true...but I believe that crying is definitely a form of excitement.) We LOVE LOVE LOVE Emry!

Are you smarter than a fifth grader?

Am I smarter than a fifth grader...the answer is quite simple...no, I am not. I won't even pretend that I am. There was a time in my life where I could say with confidence that yes I would be at least that smart. I really am baffled that I have a Bachelor's of Science degree and really I had a high GPA - something seriously has happened to me over the last 9 years. I no longer have any retention of knowledge, I have a superb vocabulary of made up words, and my most frequent response to questions asked to me by my seven year old daughter is, "That is an amazing question, I don't know the answer!"

I'll tell you what I think has happened, with each pregnancy each baby has taken a portion of me. Eden, I firmly believe took all my smarts! Jack, all my strength. Emry, my charm as well as my orneriness (okay, she didn't take all of the orneriness...there was just too much of it in me for her to take it all!) This baby....hum, well there is not much left to take, but yep, I'm pretty sure she has zapped all my grace and will be blessed to be slender when she is older. So, what will be left of me? It will be pretty interesting to find out!
But, now for the real reason, I delve into this whole wondering what has happened to me being smart....I am just simply amazed at Eden! She's in first grade and has repeatedly tested at a third grade level and in some areas fourth or fifth grade. Today, her teacher stopped me to tell me that Eden just took another MAPS test. This set was done on the computer and everyone had 30 minutes to complete it....she did hers in 12 minutes and tested at an eighth grade level! Yes, you read right...an eighth grade level! WOW! I was blown away!
We have really struggled since she entered kindergarten in the public school system. They just do not have programs for kids that are above their own level here in Montrose. I don't believe that letting her skip a grade is the answer either. In third grade they have an advance class, but it only meets once a week. We really want her to be challenged and to be learning everyday. I wish we knew what to do. Nate really would like me to home school her....if I thought for a moment I could be effective and still deal with my other kids, I would already be doing it. We are so proud of her....not because she's so smart...but like we tell her, what makes us proud of her is that she always tries to do her BEST.
I'll be honest, I am afraid she is too hard on herself, she is a perfectionist and gets down on herself when she makes a mistake. I don't want her to think she has to be perfect in all things... Funny thing is that her penmanship is just satisfactory....her teacher told me that I should work on her with that. I actually told her, that I was glad that she had something in her life that she wasn't concerned about being perfect. I encourage Eden to be neater when she writes, but I hate to add one more weight for her to worry about. I sure do love that girl. She amazes me everyday. She has been saying for a few months now that she wants to be a Scientist when she grows up. Then she continues to maul over what type of Scientist she would like to be. Wow, when I was her age the most ambitious thing I wanted to do was be a hairdresser!

Sweet Moments

It doesn't get any better than happy loving kids!!! Emry loves to follow Jack around and is so happy when Jack is willing to play with her. Thay can be the best of friends (on some days!)

3 months and 2 days...

Considering Christmas was just three months ago...and it still feels like it was yesterday (especially with these freezing temperatures and snow!)...I am a tad bit nervous! Three months is all we have until this new sweet baby girl comes to our home! I don't remember ever feeling so nervous before! Everyone assures me that four is so EASY!!! I wish I believed that - or could get a guarantee on that would even be better! All three kids have been sick on and off for the last two weeks and I don't know how I could be spread any thinner! (That's a pretty ironic description of how I feel, since I have NEVER been so huge in all my life - I am really scared physically of what I will look like in three months!)
I don't think I have ever quite experienced the "clumsiness" that pregnancy induces. Let me just share with you my past two days! It began by me painting our dining room...still not sure how I managed...but I fell holding my tray of paint (this is a pretty close match to the color we chose) and ended up wedged between two chairs and had to call for help. I literally was stuck and couldn't move - I think Nate really did have a hard time holding back his laughter to ask if I was alright. This morning, I decided Nate ought to be the one to finish the trim - safer for the whole family - so I was moving our pictures and wouldn't you know it my hand went right through the glass sending fragments of glass everywhere! Yep, Nate was a bit surprised when he walked into the room and saw me trying to tweeze tiny shards of glass out of my hand. Honestly, I feel like I am a hazard - trying to make dinner tonight, I ended up missing the bowl that I was suppose to be putting the oil into - not sure how that is even possible - but the oil ended up on the counter top and Emry very upset with me. I spilt a full box of baking soda - even though those boxes look small....believe me - that is one big mess to clean up! The best thing about being clumsy while being pregnant is that I forget half of the clumsy things I do. I know there was quite the extensive list of clumsy acts I did - but hey, I'm pregnant and I simply can't remember anything any more. If I am to learn anything from this...it's not to get so mad at my kids when they have accidents....meaning Emry who naturally spills anytime she is sitting at the table or anywhere else for that matter! Well, I am not sure how I even got on this tangent...this certainly wasn't what I was going to write about...but, again being pregnant, I really can't seem to stay focused for too long. I really hope that I stay this way forever!

It's been awhile...

I am finally going to update this thing. I really should put pictures on and catch up from the last five months...but, since I have about three minutes to write...I'll just jump to the present! We went in for our ultrasound today. As we dropped Eden off at school, she told me..."Mom, make sure you do everything you can to have this be a boy!" She so desperately wants it to be even in our house...and she's not so sure about having another girl, now that she can see Emry in her full glory at age 2!! After 40 minutes of serious prodding and poking...and having the tech leave twice to graph her results....our baby finally gave up a tiny peak....I'm not sure how to tell Eden that she is having another sister! I really was shocked. I thought we were having boy! Now, I have no excuse for my excessive aggression. We are pretty excited...we have pretty stinkin' cute girls I must say! Now we just have to come up with a name...which I think is about as difficult as delievery itself! We've got nothing right now. Our boy list was quite nice...but girls.....notta, zip, zilch...it's a good thing we found out so we have a good 18 weeks to figure out something!