Emily's sitting up.

She turned 5 months last week. Time goes by way too fast. These are pictures of Emily sitting up over the past 2 weeks. In this picture she was still having a hard time sitting up. She learned very quickly to use her little chubby hands as support.
This was her last Sunday. A friend gave her this barrett. She has so much hair it stayed all through church. It's different to see her wearing a barrett other than a headband. I think it makes her look older.
I took this picture last night. She doesn't need her hands to support her anymore. She does very well sitting on her own. It's great having Emily sit on her own. She can entertain herself longer with her toys than when she was just laying on her back or tummy.
It's fun to see her developing, to see her discovering new things. I'm saddened my baby is no longer in the newborn stage. That stage they cuddle and sleep on your chest. All they do is eat and sleep. To me it is so easy to care for them. That newborn smell. Oh well ! I also love the stage she is currently in. So easily entertained. She's always happy. She's very content to sit by herself and watch the commotion going on around her. How she's starting to giggle when we play pat- a- cake.

Valentines Day

Today the kids glued "Sweet Hearts" onto a heart shaped paper plate using frosting. This kept them busy for at least an hour. They had so much fun.








Everyone had their own box of chocolates including Emily. Who's going to eat hers? Thankfully there are only 4 pieces of candy in these boxes. It took Hunter and Maddie all of 30 sec. to inhale them.


Our decorated kitchen table. The kids love to help decorate for the holidays.
They love the streamers and of course the balloons. Lets not forget all the candy sprinkled across the table.



This is our Valentines dinner that we actually had last night. Tonight we had mutual at 6:30 and tommorrow Kory plays ball at 6:30 so we celebrated last night. This was the first time I made this special drink called "Lover's Potion". It consists of pink lemonade, raspberry sherbert and lemon/lime soda. It was pretty good.

What is this?

Hunter found this under the couch. He said "Look Dad it's a coin".
Daddy: Yes, thats a dime.
Hunter: No, it's a coin.
Daddy: It's also called a dime.
Hunter: No, it's a coin.
Maddie: Na uh, it's money
Daddy: It's a dime.
Hunter: NO! It's a COIN!
Mommy: laughing
Maddie: NOOOOO! It's money.
Daddy: It's a dime.
Mommy: laughing harder
Hunter: IT'S A COIN !!
Maddie: NO! IT'S MONEY!!
Daddy: It's a dime.
Mommy:still laughting
Daddy: Who's turn is it to say our family prayer? I think it's
mommy's turn.
Hunter: IT'S A COIN!!
Maddie: ITS MONEY!
Daddy: It's a dime.
Mommy: Laughing too hard. Must be sleep deprived as tears are rolling down her cheeks.
Hunter: IT'S A COIN!
Maddie: IT'S MONEY! Mommy are you sad?
Daddy: It's a dime. Just say the prayer mommy.
Mommy: No mommy's not sad. It is mommy's bedtime. Mommy can't stop laughing. Daddy you better say it tonight.
Hunter: IT'S A COIN!
Maddie: IT'S MONEY
Daddy: IT'S A DIME. BE QUIET I'M GOING TO SAY THE PRAYER.
Mommy: Still laughing un-controllably

King and Queen

While waiting for paint to dry Hunter and Madelyn played King of the hill. Maddie was Queen of the Hill. She was to scared to stand up.







Hunter was King of the mountain. This child of course had no fear to stand up. He was quite proud of himself for climbing all the way up.







Way to go Maddie! She may have been to scared to stand on the hill but the mountain didn't stop her and she did stand up on it. Maybe it was because brother was there to help her along the way.

Our 1st day of painting.

This is Maddie's bedroom before the fun of painting began. A friend gave us a few cans of paint. Maddie wanted her walls pink but with free yellow paint I talked her into it.





The kids had a blast heping with the painting. I think in the end they got more paint on the floor and themselves than the walls.

Madelyn loves her bedroom. Her room will be so cute with her bright pink bedspread against the bright yellow.
Hunter was quite dissapointed we ran out of time to paint his room but hopefully this week I will get his done.


This is Maddie's bedroom after most of the painting. We are going to paint the top of the wall a very light beige color that will match the rest of the house. There are several cracks near the ceiling that need to be fixed before we can paint that part. The cracks are suppose to be fixed throughout the house this week.

This is more of our free paint. There are definitely more important things that need to be done but because the house hasn't been set we decided to go ahead with painting the pop outs.





Around the front door and windows are completely done. We didn't have a tall enough ladder to get the rain gutters near the top of the house. We still have the window pop outs on the side of the house and the back of the house to do.


It's so much fun to know this is our house and we can do what we want with it. The kids had a blast helping out. Our first day of painting went very well. This week however I think I will try to get someone to watch my kids for a couple hours at least one day this week so I can get more done. I know we have several hours, several long evenings and several days worth of work to do being we still have so much to paint, a kitchen to remodel and flooring to lay but it will be worth it.

I don't have to cook.

Today was the second time a group of 6 of us all got together and swapped dinners. Each is to make a dinner that would fit in a 9x13 pan. Instead of making 1 for your own family you make 6. One for your self and 5 for others. We did this 2 weeks ago and we all really liked it so we've done it again.

Last time I made a soup. This time I
made Chicken Enchilada's. Since we were locked out of our house Saturday. Kory helped me make all 6 pans. It's definitely a lot of work but so worth it. I have 5 fresh dinners in my freezer plus 2 dinners from last time that we haven't had yet.

This has been just wonderful. I don't know why it took so long to do this. I would definitely recommend this to everyone.

Emily's new high chair.

One of the items being given away this past Thursday was a high chair. We did not have one and figured it was time that Emily could probably use it. She looks so tiny sitting in this big chair. It was so much easier to feed her this way. I am so thankful to have a high chair again.




At dinner time Emily is usually sitting in her swing in the family room. She's started to cry at dinner time for the rest of us. It's like she smells the food and wants some too . Now she sits in her high chair and watches us all eat. I feel guilty eating in front of her. Looking into her eyes you can see her wanting food too. I need to get her some crackers/cookies for her to nibble on while we all eat. Thanks to the high chair she's much happier at dinner time.


An accomplishment for Emily. She's learning to hold her own bottle of juice.

Locked Out!

Thursday I went to a sister in another wards house to pick up several baby items for different sisters in our ward. It was a very cold and windy day. I was a wimp and decided instead of delivering these items that I would do it first thing Friday morning. After delivering the baby items I wanted to drive by our house to see if it had been set so Kory could start building the wall Sarurday morning.

Friday morning Mandy P. called and asked if I could watch her kids at 3:30. I had a list of stuff that I wanted to get done before I had extra children so at 9:45 am I threw the kids in the car and drove to April's to drop off the baby gear. While unloading my van keys kept getting in the way so I threw them in the baby's car seat and continued to unload. Before completely unloading Emily became quite fussy. I knew that she was hungry so we all went inside so I could feed Emily. When Emily was full and happy again I went outside to load everyone up to discover the van was locked. I called Kory to come to my rescue but he was working out in Chino Valley and didn't have a car at the moment to come help. I borrowed a truck (that wasn't being used becuase it over heats when it is started) and drove to our duplex to find that every door and window was locked. There was no way to get inside. I drove back to April's and called the police dept. they no longer unlock locked vehicles due to liability issues. I called several locksmiths but the entire town must have locked themselves out of something because they were all going to be at least 4-5 hours which would be about 3:30 when I was suppose to be home to babysit. So I ended up hanging our between April's and Melissa's until a little after 3 when Mandy's husband came and picked us up to took us to his house. They left on their errand returning at 6. Kory was installing a job and things just weren't going smoothly so he didn't pick us up until 8:45pm. I have never been so glad to be home. Not that it was bad hanging out with friends all day. It's the little things we missed like diapers in Emily's size, Emily's bottle with her special juice, the comfort of being home.

Since I didn't get the chance to drive by our house Friday we packed the kids up and headed to the new house Saturday morning. Wouldn't ya know we got their to discover the house was locked up. For almost an entire year now we could get in through the back door but someone locked it up good. So now we get to wait until a key is mailed to us which will hopefully be this coming week. So all of you who are waiting to see pictures your going to have to wait another week ( I hope thats all it will be).

30 Day Notice????

Tommorrow is the 1st. Rent is due. This afternoon I should be getting a phone call to say whether or not to give our 30 day notice.

The septic tank will be installed and done this coming Monday. The house should be set and the inside put together this coming week.

I'm still being told we will be closing in 2 weeks.

We are going to bring in several loads of dirt to the front of the house. We'll probably have 1 maybe 2 stairs to the front door but that should be it.

There were too many cars behind me so I didn't take a picture of the back of the house but it will need a lot more dirt than the front. Kory would like to build a deck out the back door.

We walked through the house a few weeks ago and weren't terrible impressed. We've decided to do a little remodeling. We are going to add a wall that will seperate the kitchen, dining room and family room. The kitchen currently has the same amount of cabinets I currently have (3 lower cabinets, 3 uppper cabinets with 2 more uppers that are smaller above the stove and refrigerator.) Adding this wall will allow us to turn the kitchen into a U shape. It's giving us another wall to put cabinets against along with a pantry that we other wise wouldn't have.

This Saturday Kory hopes to start building the wall. March 8, 2006 was when we sent our 10% down. It's hard to believe how fast this year has gone by and how long this process has taken. We have been given so many different dates that we would be able to move that we've lost the excitement over the past several months. However I am starting to get that excitement again. We are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. So hopefully 4 weeks from this weekend we will be moving.

Emily 4 mo. check up.

She's 4 months old now. Emily had her check up yesterday and weighed in at 14 lbs 12 oz. She's definitely growing. She rarely lays still anymore but she does love to be held and coddled. She holds toys and puts them right in her mouth. She'll smile and talk to you when she's being talked to. She's eating baby food. When on her belly she can push herself up and lock her elbows. She's not my newborn baby anymore.

Silence !

Everyone loves a quiet house. Everyone loves quiet time (maybe not the kids but most moms do). However when it's 3:00 in the afternoon, and all you hear is silence you know it can't be good. You almost don't want to go find your kids because you know its not going to be good.

I started in the bathroom but no one was there. I looked in the kids bedroom but no one was there. I looked in the kids closet and found Hunter doing a puzzle but no Maddie.
I went on to my room and found her on top of my bathroom counter. Before I could say a thing she turned around and said, "look mom, I'm beautiful".

Christmas Dresses

These are the girls Christmas dresses. We were sick the Sunday before Christmas and didn't go to church. So they wore there matching dresses the following Sunday along with their matching bracelets (thankyou Aunt Camille). I got both of them ready for church without a problem. When we got home I helped Madelyn change. Her dress was a little tight and we struggled a little to get it off. Kory was changing Emily who cried the entire time. Kory said it was too tight, too small. It just didn't fit. Maddies dress is a 2T (she's 2 1/2) Emily's was a 3-6 mo. she had just turned 3 months.

So this past Sunday I put the dresses on again. They went on very easy but when it came time to change them we really struggled getting them off. It was such a hassle I'm glad the pictures were taken cause I don't think they will wear them again. It was too much of a headache.

We couldn't get a decent picture of the girls next to each other so Kory had Maddie lay down by Emily, giving us a funky picture of the two of them.



Emily was crying when she was sitting. She was crying when she was laying down. Standing up made her quit crying just for a minute. So this is the best picture we have of her in her 1st Christmas dress.

Happy Birthday to Me !!!!

Has it really been 27 years?
Looking through my baby pictures I see many features that I see in my children. This baby picture of me reminds me alot of Emily when we first brought her home.

Kory is currently working out of town so it's just the kids and I to celebrate my 27th birthday. This morning I talked to my mom and a couple of friends who called to wish me a "Happy Birthday".

My children were playing so nicely together I pulled out the sewing machine and finished a few projects.


This afternoon we went to a friends house where we ate ice cream and birthday cake that she had made and just hung out for a few hours.

On our way home we were talking about what to fix for dinner. Both Hunter and Madelyn wanted chicken. Why is it I'm more then willing to fix a nice good filling dinner when Kory's around but when he's gone I don't feel like cooking or fixing anything other than peanut butter sandwiches, quesedillas and mac and cheese? I don't paticularly like any of these but I manage until he gets home. Hunter overheard me saying I didn't want to cook so he suggested we go to Panda Bear (Panda Express) his favorite. I personally don't like the place so we settled on KFC and we all got a piece of chicken.


When we got home our annoying buzzing doorbell was still ringing letting me know someone had come by and rung the doorbell. Expecting a few packages for the buisness I was quite surprised to find this from another friend sitting on our doorstep. To the kids utter delight they had 2 birthday cakes today.



So despite the bummer of having my husband out of town what did I get for my birthday ? A day of fun with friends, 2 birthday cakes,


a son who built his mom a castle,






a happy, peacful baby,






and a loving daughter that made me cake and ice cream.


So what can I say. The day is ending with 3 beautiful happy loving children, and a "Happy Birthday" phone call from my husband. Thank you all who helped make this a special day.

Emily 1st baby food.

Emily is almost sleeping through the night. She generally goes to bed about 9 and doesn't wake up until about 4. I nurse her and then she sleeps until 8/9. She's been doing this for several weeks now.

Probably 1 1/2 weeks ago she started waking up twice during the night. I could still handle this. However, it seems during the past week she's been waking up more and more. She's not cold, no messy diaper it seems she just wants to nurse for 30 sec. (no lie) and falls back to sleep. 2 nights ago she was up every 2 hours. Last night she did the same thing. Every 2 hours almost on the dot. I'm hoping her problem is that she is waking up hungry. So we are now trying baby food. This afternoon she had pears and ate the entire little tub that I bought. I thought since she's not use to eating foods these little tubs would last for at least 2 feedings. I thought wrong she scarfed it down. Tonight I fed her baby cereal. This girl loves to eat. She opens her mouth for the spoon and she's not to bad at swallowing. She was quite unhappy when the cereal ran out. It was amazing to see how much she ate for her first day of baby food.


At her 2 month check up Emily weighed in at a little over 13 lbs. The doctor joked around saying as fast as this girl is growing she may weigh 20 lbs. at her 4 month check up. This coming tuesday is her apt. She's definitely getting big. If she's going to continue to eat like she has today theres a good chance she will be weighing in at 20 lbs. very soon. Hopefully her now full tummy will help her sleep very well tonight. Wish us luck.

For our Grandma's

Hunter and Madelyn made these at the library last week. Since then they have been put on our refrigerator. Every couple days Hunter asks if we can put his snow man picture on the computer for Grandma to see. His 2 grandma's.




So this blog is just for you, our 2 grandma's.

Love Hunter and Madelyn.

A good deal.

We have a toddler bed that Madelyn is suppose to be sleeping in. However at least once a night she crawls into our bed and then we have to haul her back to her own bed. We have had too many night to count that we have taken her back to her own bed 6 times. Recently she started sleeping in the spare full size bed in her room. For about the past 3 weeks she hasn't come to our bed. So this is her new bed.

The bedding I've had on it was a pair of very light blue, very faded, thread bare sheets. Same sheets I used when living at home. I had a twin size navy blue comforter on top. I've needed new bedding for while now and have just used that money on other things that were more important. I want her bedding to match her Strawberry Shortcake themed room that she currently has and will continue too in our new house.So I went to Linens-n-things and found this awsome deal.


This is a picture of what she had.


The comforter was originally $119.99 I paid $29.99. The matching sheets was originally $49.99 and I paid $11.99.

While there I also looked at their bath stuff and bought a Finding Nemo shower curtain, originally $29.99 for $4.99 with matching hooks that were originally $9.99 for $2.99. I thought I did pretty well. When I got home I added it all up and new I did more than very well. What should have cost $209.96 only cost me $49.96. Giving me a $160.00 savings. Yeah!!


Her now "old" Strawberry Shortcake bedding that I made for her will be used in Emily's crib as soon as we move and set that up.

Madelyn's favorite color is pink so she is quite excited about her new bed. She thinks she is such a big kid now. Last night was her 1st night using her new bedding. She slept all night. Another Yeah!!

A Trip To Phoenix.

On Saturday we made a trip to Phoenix. The house we are buying doesn't have any appliances or flooring. We went to the Sears outlet mall and found our dishwasher. It was origanally $899.00 marked down to $415.00. It was returned for cosmetic damage. 2 small scratches on the side that won't be seen when installed in the little cubby dishwashers go in.


We were alloted an incredibly small amout for our flooring. So that we don't have thread bare carpet in 6 months we decided to use everything on the carpet. We will pay for the flooring in the kitchen, bathrooms, laundry room and the dining room (they were going to put carpet in here, I think not. Who wants carpet under their kitchen table?). So we hit a few flooring stores and finally ended up at Flooring and Decor. This place is bigger then our Home Depot and it is full of Laminate flooring and Tile, etc.

So we ended up buying enough laminate for 700sq ft. and enough tile for about 200sq ft. Both was origanally $1.29-$1.89 a sq ft but both were marked down to $.99 sq ft. We hope we will like it when it's all installed next to each other and the carpet. I didn't think choosing our flooring would be as hard as it ended up being.

It's here !!!

Hip hip hooray. It's finally here. I can't even begin to tell of our excitement. It's been a long 9 months trying to get this house on this lot but it's finally here.

The kids our so excited especially Hunter. Everytime we get in the car he asks to go see our new house. I'm glad he's excited for the big move.

The house hasn't been put together yet so we still haven't seen it all. When we heard about this house we went to look at it but it had already been seperated and secured. We were able to get in the back door but was only able to see half of the kitchen and family room. I saw it about 5 pm so it was dark and hard to see. Kory saw it the same night only much later and by flash light. We are quite anxious to get in and see what we have taken on. We still don't have a closing date but hopefully it won't be too much longer.

I am excited to have a real kitchen with cabinets that will hold our dishes. Cabinets that my pots can be put away without having to turn them on their side. A kitchen with out dishes sitting on top of the cabinets because there is no room inside the cupboards for them all. I'm excited to be able to move Emily into a bedroom other then my own. She is sleeping through the night and is ready to be moved from the bassinet to a crib. She and Madelyn will be sharing a room. Hunter will have his own. Kory and I will have our own. Our business will also have it's own. I'm quite excited to move the computer, filing drawers, house plans and other stuff that belongs to the business out of my bedroom and family room. Somewhere that I don't have to see it everyday all day. I hope to post a picture real soon of moving boxes and a closing date.

Ho! Ho! Ho!

It's Santa Clause. This is what Emily wore on Christmas Day. When I first put Emily in the outfit, Hunter was the first to see her. He kept saying, "Emily is Santa Clause, I didn't know Emily was Santa." It didn't matter how many time we told him Emily wasn't Santa Clause that she just had an outfit like him (with a hat that didn't fit), he just didn't understand.

So this is our precious Santa of 2006. The kids saw a picture of another baby inside a gift box so they insisted on taking a picture of Emily in a box. She wasn't too thrilled.

Computer's

Our computer is up and running again. We bought our computer almost 4 years ago and it is now considered a dinosaur. It's constantly doing something... just doesn't always work. 2 weeks ago I tried getting on the internet and it told me of an error and the computer needed to be restarted. So the computer turned off but when it started again another technical error appeared stating the computer was stuck in some loop. Absolutely no programs were working, let alone the internet. I can't tell you how many times we've shut the computer off and restarted it again in the past 2 weeks. Wouldn't ya' know last night Kory shut it down again. Restarted it and everything is working today. We'll see how long it lasts this time. We've had people look at it and they all say the same thing. We need a new computer. The one we have is soooo old it's not worth fixing.

So because none of the programs were working I've been taking pictures with my film camera. I hope to develop them today so I can post some of our Christmas pictures.