Happy Mother's Day to our Grandma's!!!

We hope you have a wonderful Mother's Day. We wish we could be there with you!!!! Lots of love!!! Eden, Jack, Emry, and Willa

Swimming in a sea of PINK!!!!

Wow....it's a girl!!! I honestly didn't have a feeling either way of what this baby was, but I must admit, I am really surprised that it's a girl! Maybe I would have been just as surprised if I was told it was a boy. I think that the reality of this baby coming so soon into our world is what surprises me the most! We are SO excited for her to come. I am just so SHOCKED by how fast this has gone by! I can honestly say, I have NEVER felt that any pregnancy went by fast.

We told the kids that we were celebrating something really special with pink ice cream. After a ton of guesses - none that even remotely came close. We annoucned that the pink ice cream was for their baby sister. We got nothing....no reaction for about 30 seconds and then Eden's eyes grew big and shouted "You mean we are having new baby sister?!" Jack then responded, "Oh, I thought that baby in your tummy was going to be a boy. I guess you will now have two baby girls and then another one and another one and another one and then a boy." (UHHHH...NO!) Emry, after hearing Jack's comments exclaimed, "Mom, no eat baby in your tummy, don't eat babies, babies not for eating!" Willa - happily slept through all of this. Her world as she knows it will end soon enough!

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.