Andersen Account

Vacation fun and back to life

2012-01-21T12:29:00.001-08:00

So, we left the Friday before Christmas to go to Gilbert and stayed till Jan. 9th! We stayed so long because Chad's brother James got married on the 7th. Christmas Eve we got together with the Kays. Everyone was there, except Kara and Chavis :( They were very much missed! We had a nice dinner and went to the firestations and caroled with our chimes. The kids got to get in the trucks and got coloring books and hats. I thought it was way cute, they had a pink hat for Emrie. She was scared of the trucks but it was still fun.

The boys sitting in the truck. Rhett, Graham and Elijah.

Christmas morning Oma and Opa came over before the kids got up and we did gifts.

Emrie had to get in her Christmas dress my mom made her as soon as she saw it in the morning. Molly is still a little loopy :D

I need to get a good pic of the girls together in their dresses, but I thought this picture turned out nice of Daddy with Molly Dolly.

We went to Grandma and Grandpa Andersen's after church and did Christmas with them. It was a lot of fun. Here's Emrie in one of her dress-ups. She is constantly in dresses, either church ones or fun ones, whatever she can get....either that or she's in her panties only.

Chad and I actually got to get out without the kids. We went with Chad's brother Dallen and wife Sarah to San Tan Flats. It was really fun. We had dinner, roasted smores and danced.

We got the campfire marshmellows! They are HUGE!

And of course I forgot my camera on the wedding day :( James and Jessica looked great! And the girls had little outfits and they looked so cute.

So back at home and normal life. Chad started school this week! Last semester of classes, then fall semester is hospital rotations!! Can't believe how fast it's gone.

We made this little "alligator" Emrie calls it yesterday and the girls love it. I had some socks I never wear, so I decided to make something out of them. I thought it turned out really cute! And it was free!!! :D

Molly now army crawls. She sits up and can push herself from laying down to sitting up position! Can't believe how big my girls are getting! And they both have HAIR now!!! :D

I know you want to kiss and nibble on these fabulous cheeks!! I do all the time :D She always flattens her lips and makes noises while her cheeks fluff out. I LOVE it!!!

Our Season thus far

2011-12-18T13:49:00.000-08:00

Ward Christmas Party was a lot of fun...Emrie did sit on Santa's lap...she was so scared of Santa a month ago when we tried to get her to see him...then at the mall one day Santa was right by the playground and he came over and talked to the few kids who were there (Emrie included) and said something to her and gave her a kiss on the forehead..she was SO excited...and since then she loves santa...so sweet, that one Santa made all the difference.

My two girls...aren't they adorable in their Christmas clothes! Molly loves the tree...she rolls herself over under it no matter where you start her in the room and will lay under there just touching the bottom branches forever.

Last Saturday they had a free Christmas thing for kids with cookies and they made ornaments and listened to a story from Mrs. Claus and saw Santa...it was really neat. After they saw santa they got to pick out of a box a toy...Emrie picked a stuffed dinosaur and we got molly a stuffed Critter with dangly legs...she likes it a lot.

Then there was the lights parade...it was really neat. Emrie really liked it. Tons of floats decorated in lights. The people walking in the parade were handing out candy and little kids had stockings and santa hats for their candy bags.

Tale As Old As Time

2011-11-30T09:06:00.000-08:00

One of Emrie's very favorite movies is Beauty and the Beast and she has got the song down...we usually have to sing it or one of her other favorites before bed. She's also very fond of Tarzan and Tangled and has those songs down too. I finally got her singing the whole song on tape. I love how she says "unexpectedly". Cracks me up!
She also recently learned how to get 2 fingers up for her age and tells everyone she sees that she is 2.

HALLOWEEN

2011-11-03T14:24:00.000-07:00

It was a fun Halloween this year. Emrie understood it more and that made it fun. She was so excited to carve the pumpkin, after watching daddy she got in there and helped him a bit...and we're going through a pretty faze where she has to be in a dress while at home, so she helped in her tutu dress.

I thought it was funny, she'd hold her tongue out while she pulled out the chunks that were cut.

Molly was a black cat this year. She was so cuddly in her outfit. Little sad it was so cold she had to be wrapped in a big blanket and couldn't really be out in it. And little side note: this is the first time I've really done a pattern on my own, besides simple little shorts and I was pretty proud of myself.

Emrie cheesin' it...she was a little witch, so cute :D

Can't believe how old she's getting. She got to where when the door opened she would say..."Get a treat" instead of trick or treat and open her bag.And...this isn't Halloweeny but Emrie loves to dance with this puppet from a library book box we have checked out which also came with a Wiggles DVD and so now she's on a Wiggles fix...oh dear, Chad and I sing those songs in our sleep...they drive you crazy

And...it's a miracle! I can now fix Emrie's hair a little, I can do a little french braid on the top, or the other day I got 3 cornrows on her...SOOOOO Excited!

Fall..Festival

2011-10-26T15:11:00.000-07:00

This last weekend we went to a community Fall Festival. There was a little hay maze, petting zoo and crafts.

I had gotten a couple costumes for Emrie last year after Halloween, so we decided to use the Alice in Wonderland for this event so she wouldn't get the other one for Halloween dirty. We improvised and threw together a white rabbit for Molly.Here are the 2 girls together. You can definitely tell they are sisters. Emrie is constantly bringing me the camera saying: I wanna smile

Oh! And Emrie is now POTTY TRAINED! Though I wouldn't know from her peeing in her high chair last night and all over the floor. Potty training sure is stressful. It took going nude and house-arrest for a couple days, then a couple weeks constantly on top of her, but she does pretty good now. Still in a diaper at night though.

And the little bug...she is now a rolling machine. To belly then back over and over. She is also trying hard to sit up on her own...Daddy isn't helping her slow down either. He does his sitting up excercises with her everyday.

Vacation and Re-purposing

2011-09-29T12:31:00.001-07:00

Emrie, Molly and I went to Gilbert for a whole week just last week to see my sister Rochelle who was visiting also. Chad sadly couldn't come since he was so busy with school and work but we still had some fun. I got to stay with my in-laws for a couple days and Rochelle at my Grandma's house for some of the week which was really nice. Here's the kids. Emrie, Molly, Lincoln (rochelle's newest- he's a month younger than molly), and Elijah.
She is getting so big....so talkative. She also worked very hard the day before yesterday trying to roll over. She was so so persistant and would not lay still, just grunting trying to get over, and that night she finally did it, all on her own! She's also started trying to sit up wherever you put her, even in her little bathtub. She just wants to grow up fast I guess.

Superstition Mall does a Kids Club every Thursday at 10 for free with music and the kids get a free Merry-Go-Round ride. Here's Emrie with her clown nose on...she loved that thing.

Lots of swimming in Grandma's backyard. Kids eating their popsicles, Emrie kinda looks like one of the boys with her shirt off....So sad, that poor hair :D

The day I left we went to Chandler Aquatic Center and played. It was perfect temperature all around. So Fun!

Soooo....remember when I made some leggings for Emrie out of a long sleeve shirt a bought at old navy for $0.50? Well I just used the arms, so I had the whole body of the shirt to do something with. Well I found this post www.makeit-loveit/2010/05/re-purposing-shirts-to-skirt-with-tie.html and decided to go for it. It only took a couple hours :D

I also got out my little curling iron and curled Emries hair :D ha ha...Makes her look more like a girl for sure, what do you think?? Of course it's back straight by lunch no matter what product I put in it.

I'm itching to decide what else to make...since I still have 12 more shirts all different colors and stripes. If you have any suggestions let me know!

Festivals and Fairs

2011-09-07T14:18:00.001-07:00

So we've been able to do a couple fun things these last few weeks. There was an annual kids music and arts festival in the park for free here which Emrie loved! You could pay $3 for a wristband for them to have unlimited train rides and bounce house time, which we did. Here's daddy and Emrie on the train.
Molly was such a good sport for us. We were there for like 3 or so hours and she was happy the whole time...of course it helps that it was a nice day with a cool breeze and Lots of shade.

Emrie loved the bounce houses. What kid doesn't.

They had face painting, streamers and hoola hoops, toy instruments they could play, puppet making, painting, and balloon animals. Emrie had so much fun.

We also celebrated Chad's 27th birthday! He's getting up there :D He'd requested Chocolate Molten Cake (like at chilis) so I made little individual ones and they turned out very yummy!

And I forgot to post, but we also celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary! Can't believe we've been married for 5 years!

Labor day weekend we had the county fair, and I have to say county fairs are way better than state fairs. We saw all the animals:

Molly playing with her feet (she's been trying so hard to roll over the past couple days).

Bounce house slide. Man, emrie would come zooming down this thing. The second time she came down she goes "Wow!! That's FUN!" ha ha

And the carnival. We decided to go on a ride each, so we took turns watching the kids and went on the ship ride and then took Emrie on a ride.

It was a lot of fun. They had the Kent Family Circus that performed in the middle of the fair grounds and a variety show later that night that performed. Can't wait for next year.

Trip to the Valley

2011-08-23T08:18:00.000-07:00

Kara came into town and haven't seen her in almost a year so we had to go down while she was there. I am really bad with remembering to take pictures so we didn't get any together :( But here are a couple we got of the kids:

Yes, her cheeks now sag and they look hilarious I think...there's a little more to kiss on now :D

We took Emrie to Tempe splash pad and she loved it. It's free and really neat actually

Thought this was pretty funny, the kids in fire hats playing with the car. You can tell it's hot outside they all have sweaty heads

And at the mall play area. They all got in this tube and sat there together, first time they saw each other. They were pretty excited to be together.

It's so fun to go visit family. Can't wait to go again and it was really nice to see and spend time with Kara. Can't wait till we're all together for Christmas!

Baby, July 4th and Blessing

2011-07-08T16:12:00.000-07:00

We went to Gilbert for the past week and it was a lot of fun. Makenna helped me get some pictures of Molly finally since i keep forgetting and these are my favorites.

We went to Kyle and Sherry's for 4th of July and had a fabulous dinner topped with homemade icecream. YUMMY. I really want an icecream maker.

We also did Molly's baby blessing while we were there. We had it at the Andersen's with all the family and it was really really nice. I decided a couple months before I had her that I wanted to crochet her dress, but wanted it pretty. Sometimes crocheted clothes can look kinda funny. But I was really really happy with how it turned out.

I decided I wanted the ribbon in it to be a color instead of plain white, so I did some lavender ribbon to highlight it.

I need to get some better pictures of her in it before she gets too big. It was overall a really nice get away, and really nice to spend time with family.

Terrible Twos??

2011-06-22T07:27:00.000-07:00

We've been leading up to this day for the past several weeks it seems. All the sudden destruction and tears and timeouts become extremly frequent throughout the day. Well, it all began on Saturday. Grandma and Grandpa Andersen came up on Friday night to pick up Chad's brother Ben from EFY and Saturday they came over bearing gifts for Emrie's birthday. She officially turned 2 on Monday, so we did most of the celebrating then. We decided to make her cake Elmo this year, which was fun since she actually kind of understood what was going on. Here's her cake:

Monday morning she woke up to find this trike (thank you Amber and Nathan!) She loves it and rides her "truck" everyday now.

Oma and Opa Kay sent her some Melissa and Doug puzzles which she set off to working on as soon as they were opened.

Saturday with the Andersen's. She has to hold one of these pillow pets everytime we go to the store, so she was pretty happy to have one of her own. She also got Tangled...which she is pretty obsessed with now.

Overall it was a really good day.

Emrie loves to cuddle with Molly and give her hugs. When she gets hurt it's Molly she wants a hug from. Here's some pictures I thought were cute.

Molly Nicole Andersen

2011-06-06T19:37:00.001-07:00

SHE'S HERE!! Born at 5:23 am Saturday June 4th. Molly Nicole Andersen. She weighed 6 lbs 11 oz and 19 1/2 inches long. She is so tiny!
Well, as you know I had my membranes stripped Thursday morning, but I was sure nothing was happening. I had no consistant contractions Thursday or Friday all day. Just contractions here and there like I'd been having all week anyways. We went to a ward BBQ Friday night and left there at 7 to come home and I told my mom not to expect anything. Well we sat down to watch Dan in Real Life about 8:30 and I start having contractions every 5-7 minutes out of nowhere. They started getting pretty uncomfortable so I decided to ditch the movie at 9:30 and go to bed. Well, they intensified quick and we decided we'd see how long through the night I could make it because of Emrie sleeping. Chad got a little sleep during the ones I could get through alone and then about 12:30 he started helping me and 1:30 I called my visiting teaching companion to come over. They were 3 minutes apart and lasting more than a minute and painful!

We got to the hospital at 2 am and I was dilated to a 6. I got the epidural at 3:30 (which was a very long hour and a half :D) and was checked again and was an 8. At a 9 they called the doctor and he got there about 5, broke my water and said lets get ready to push! So, we started pushing at 5:15 and 2 contractions later she was born at 5:23! Super quick!

I don't know how different they are. Molly does have darker hair (it's a light brown) well what she has anyways. This is Molly below:
This is Emrie as a baby:

The Andersens and my mom came that morning to visit and my mom stayed through the weekend till later this afternoon which was great! Emrie is adjusting. She loves to be close and touch and kiss kiss kiss the baby, but she's also acting up a little bit and pretty emotional.

My visiting teaching companion came to visit and she picked the baby up and Emrie said "No!" "Blanket" wanting her to put Molly back down. Then kept saying "My baby! No. My baby!" So I guess she's a little territorial already. We'll see how these next weeks go!

Week 39 Update

2011-06-02T11:41:00.001-07:00

Well, I am 4 days from my due date today. The end of this pregnancy has been different from my last one. With Emrie I didn't dialate till due date at 3/4 cm or have any contractions till I actually went into labor. But last Thursday I had contractions all afternoon and evening and was sure it was it, but much to my disappointment and a little bit of relief they never intensified and ended up stopping, so I am still pregnant. I was so ready to have this baby until I actually started with contractions then I was very nervous and decided I didn't want to go into labor, then when it all stopped I was disappointed that I had gone through that much nerves and uncomfort for nothing and would have to do it all over again :D. Such a mixture of emotions.

I had an appointment this morning and I am 3 cm dilated and still 50% efaced. The doctor did strip my membranes as much as possible and with Emrie I had my membranes stripped on a Thursday afternoon and had her Saturday afternoon. So, we'll see if that works again this time around...if so I could have her this weekend! But won't get my hopes up. If not I have an induction scheduled for next Thursday at 7:30.

I know I look beautiful :D ha ha All my shirts are too short to cover my tummy.

By the way, we got out the pack n play, swing, carseat and stuff and Emrie has decided they are her new toys. I have to kick her out of the swing constantly. But she loves swinging her babies. Hopefully she's more used to them once the baby's actually in them and doesn't mess with it as much.

2011-05-23T16:10:00.001-07:00

We made a trip to Gilbert almost 2 weeks ago now for Chad's brother Dallen's wedding. We ended up staying for a whole week which was really really nice. Emrie loved being around family as did we :D The only downer was the day of the wedding we spent in between lucheon and reception at the hospital for a very painful earache Emrie developed. But by reception time she was up and running off energy that came from who knows where.

The happy couple! They looked so good and she looked gorgeous! Emrie sat with them as much as possible.

We also went to the zoo with Makenna, Jason, Rhett and Graham one morning and it was a lot of fun. I didn't take enough pictures though. Thanks Mak and Jason for taking us!

It was just really nice to get away and visit family. I love having people around even if your just relaxing.

And an update I guess...I am now 38 weeks along, Hopefully no more than 2 weeks to go :D I did get checked at 36 weeks and I was 1 cm dilated and 50% efaced so that's better than it was with Emrie which is exciting. I don't know how much progress I've made in the 2 weeks since then but maybe I'll get checked at my next appointment. Keep your fingers crossed...I am really ready to be done. Don't know how much longer I can stand the tight clothes and heartburn among other things :D Well I'll keep you updated. We are still really lost on names for this little girl but hopefully we get it figured out without too much stress before we leave the hospital cause I'm pretty sure that's how long it will take us to decide. We are up for any suggestions :D

Starting on Etsy

2011-05-02T14:37:00.000-07:00

Soooo, I've been thinking about doing an Etsy account for a while and after much prodding from my mama and lovely aunts I started one. I only have 2 items on it so far, which are these hooter hider nursing covers but it's a start. I'm trying to decide what else exactly I'm going to be doing on there, but for now I'm doing these covers. I've looked around and found that the only nursing covers you can find are just one plain piece of fabric, so I decided to embellish mine some and do some bordering and flower appliques and such. Anyway, we'll see what happens. My store is Alligator Toes, so if you know anyone who wants a nursing cover spread the word :D (I also line all of them to make sure they're not see through and they are wider than others to ensure full side coverage :D I know from experience those babies like to move around under there, the more fabric the better I say :D )

Sorry, this picture keeps flipping on me for some reason

I'll have to get some more stuff up, but till then :D

Easter Weekend

2011-04-27T08:02:00.000-07:00

We had a really good Easter weekend. We went to a public easter egg hunt on Saturday morning and let Emrie find some eggs...she realized there was candy inside and got one open and shoved all the jelly beans in her mouth at the same time.

They had a little petting zoo area there and she got to pet a cute little bunny that she didn't want to leave.

And of course Sunday morning we helped her find the basket we kinda hid for her. She was so excited about the stuffed hippo and books that she didn't really even pay attention to the easter eggs in there for a while.

Loving her new hippo.

We had a great weekend. Chad's family came up Saturday afternoon and stayed till late Sunday night and spent Easter with us. Emrie loved having company! It helped get them up here to have had our Stake Conference this last weekend and have Elder Cook from the 70 and Elder Russell M. Nelson from the 12!!! come and speak to us. It was so so good. Man is Elder Nelson one smart guy. So overall it was a really good weekend. Can't wait to leave in 2 weeks for Gilbert! I always get so lonely when company leaves.

Cute and Yummy Crafts

2011-04-17T10:27:00.000-07:00

Happy (early) Easter! I saw these easter basket cupcakes last year and decided I wanted to make them, so Emrie and I made them for visiting teaching families. Well, she helped me mix the batter and then tried to steal jelly beans and sour straws from off the table and cupcakes. I think she's reached her sugar limit for the day. I went to Old Navy last week and found long sleeve womens T-shirts for....Ready?...$0.48 each!! They had all these different colors of stripes and patterns so I bought 13 of them! Yeah, they don't fit me now, I bought a variety of sizes and figured if some fit me after the baby is born great, if not I have a lot of cheap material :D I experimented and made Emrie these capris using only the sleeves so I have a ton of material left for maybe a skirt?? just from one shirt :D I thought they turned out so cute! You can't tell really in the picture but I did a little sinch on the bottoms of the legs.

And Chad spoiled me yesterday. He made me a fabulous french toast, hashbrown, eggs, sausage breakfast to start the day and ended it with this delicious cake. Chocolate with Reeses cups baked inside. There is still about 7/8's left :D Emrie kept singing "Happy...You!" It was pretty cute.

Conference, Belly and Crafts

2011-04-06T17:35:00.000-07:00

Conference was really good. It was different not being around family for any of the sessions, but nice and relaxing. Emrie actually did really well. She played out by us and read books and after we'd been watching the first session for about 30 minutes she went and got a blanket from her room, climbed on the couch and layed down on Chad's lap and relaxed while her played with her hair. It was so cute I had to get a picture. By request, Lana, my belly...Almost down to 8 weeks left!!! Wooowhooo!!!

So, Rochelle had some leftover fabric, the flower stuff, and gave me some to make a 2nd hooter hider with...there wasn't quite enough so I got some pink with white poka-dot fabric and did a border and I'm really pleased with it! It looks a lot cuter in person :D

A close up...I did a rosette where the neck attaches. It looks so cute on!

And, I realized when I bought Emrie's clothes for this summer last year, I only got her 5 pairs of shorts, so I pulled out my old clothes box that I now use for material and made her some knit shorts out of one of my old T-shirts. They look pretty good on for not having a pattern and eyeballing it :D

Animals and such

2011-04-03T19:05:00.000-07:00

Over spring break we took a day and went to the Out of Africa Wildlife Park. It was actually pretty neat. They take you on a safari tour at the beginning with the tamer animals :D Zebras, Giraffs, Osterich, etc would come right up to the bus. They also gave you carrots to feed the giraffs with and we didn't get a picture, just a really good video. It was really neat, the giraff came right up and stuck it's head in the bus right next to you. Emrie was a little speechless, but she now has a new favorite animal, the giraff and camel is next in line. She asks to see them everyday.

I thought this was pretty funny. This bear ran over and sat down at the picnic table to eat a watermelon rine. Just looked really funny.

They also did some shows throughout the day. This was Tigersplash. They don't train any of the animals, just bring out things they like and try to stay out of the way :D Emrie loved it. She squealed and clapped quite enthusiastically.

And the day ended with a much much tired little girl since we were almost 4 hours past nap time.

We went to Gilbert last weekend for my mom's big 50 birthday. We did a suprise party and my Aunt Cindy and Leah and Grandma came and suprised her. She was pretty happy.

While we were down they had a little festival at the Reparian Presearve and they had a lot of animals. Emrie pet this lizard thing (not sure what it was) for a long time.

And she loved this Rabbit. It was only 1/2 grown. Crazy! I didn't know they get that big.

It really was a fun couple of outings. Can't wait to take another little vacation :D

Visitors!

2011-03-10T06:57:00.000-08:00

We got a little clip to stay in Emrie's hair this past week and I thought it looked cute. Makes her look like a little girl now. You'll have to ignore the eye. She had a swollen eye for 2 weeks that accompanied her being very sick, it was a huge frustrating ordeal, but it's not swollen anymore, even though we only had a couple days on non-sickness...seems like she's starting up again with another bug :( I hate having sick kids :(
Rochelle and Elijah came to visit Saturday-Tuesday. My parents were here for Saturday also. It was really a lot of fun to have company. Elijah and Emrie for the most part ran around the house squeeling and laughing. They had a lot of fun.
Here they are in thier Sunday best:

Relaxing while watching a movie.

Playing at the park.

Every morning they were here and Emrie would wake up the first thing she would say is "Where's Jijah?" Over and over till we let her out to see him. And even though they left yesterday morning she asked me several times throughout the day yesterday and she asked me again this morning. It's going to be fun for her to have a sibling to play with all the time :D

Let it Snow

2011-02-21T10:13:00.000-08:00

This winter it hasn't snowed very much here and the times it has snowed we've usually been out of town, so this weekend we had a huge blizzard and we had to go play when it first started. Emrie just looked up and laughed and would say "snow!" It was cute.

Daddy and Emrie made a snowman and Emrie wouldn't stop kissing it. She loved the snowman.

Chad's first time shoveling snow in his life. He stayed out there for over an hour and then went out again later. He went a little crazy perfectionist ;D But the snow was really pretty deep and it just kept coming. He had to shovel our car out cause it was buried. I forget how it was to have snow like that.

Emrie out in the deep snow where I didn't want to go without boots. She had the time of her life. And I had to get a picture of the trees. I think it's so beautiful when all the trees are caked in white like that. It's like a little winter wonderland. We are going to try and go sledding before it melts. Emrie started with a little cold where her eye swelled up on Saturday and she's pretty miserable today so hopefully she gets better so and we can go.

Happy Valentines!

2011-02-14T18:35:00.001-08:00

Happy Valentines Day!! Of course I had to dress Emrie in all pink and it was such a nice day I was able to do leggings and a skirt (though you can't really see it in the picture). Today was fabulous! Don't you think spring weather just makes you instantly happy? I walked outside this morning and the sun was shinning with that warm but a little cool spring weather! It was so nice Emrie and I went to the park and had a picnic.
Then I had to make a yummy dessert for my hubby. I attempted white chocolate raspberry cheesecake. It actually turned out good, even though the top is super dark :D Looks like we're gonna have leftovers in the freezer for a couple weeks! Just what I need to add on the pounds! :D

So, I got this Huge Teddy Bear in Highschool and the last couple weeks Emrie has been all over it. It goes all over the house with her and she lays on it, puts it on top of her, jumps on it, everything. They other night I tried to get a picture cause she was watching a movie reclined back on it, which looked adorable. But today I looked over and she had decided to eat her apple on it. I'm glad I hung onto it cause she loves it.

And we did give her another shave. Yes her hair had stopped growing on top again and was very thick and getting pretty long in back, so we evened it out. At least we didn't have to go too short. Hopefully it grows really nice this time!

Outnumbered Three - to - One

2011-01-18T18:41:00.000-08:00

So, we found out today what we are having! I was convinced with the help of a lady who never guesses wrong by looking at your previous baby's head that we were going to have a little boy, so when the ultra sound tech went...."You can see it clear as day....It's a GIRL" I was shocked. That's right...we will have another one of these sweet little faces around June 6th! We are SOOOO excited! I think they will be such good buddies...AND I can't wait to start on bedding and everything for a room of girls!
I'm convinced Emrie is going to be super sweet with the baby. She had to eat breakfast with her baby the other morning...and she is a BIG Time Kisser! She kisses all the babies in books she sees already.

Sorry, the pictures are kinda blurry. The ultra sound tech said everything looks fabulous! She got a great shot of her hand. I thought it was cute.

And of course the profile shot. My camera kinda gave her a pig nose, but the actual ultrasound doesn't look like that :D

And I've already popped more than I had with Emrie. Kinda sad how that happens with the second one, but that's okay :D

Our Christmas Break

2011-01-11T17:32:00.000-08:00

Well, we had a nice LONG break for Christmas. We left to go to Gilbert on December 16th and came home January 3rd. So we got to veg for 2 1/2 weeks. It was fabulous to be with our families for such a long time. Here are just a few pictures. We made Ginger bread Houses...my dad was pretty intense as he built a castle...I don't even know if he ended up finishing it was Huge :D

I will admit, Chad did most of the work on ours. He wanted it to be themed tiki huts.

Makenna and Jasons turned out really neat...you'll just have to imagine I guess. But we had a really fun time.

Emrie LOVED opening presents this year. She was very animated. Especially when she opened an Elmo that daddy got her. She ripped the paper off the face and her arms went out, mouth wide open and started shaking, no sound...until a squeal of delight, followed by 2 more screams. It was HILARIOUS. We did catch it on video thank goodness, but I'm not sure how to upload it on here from our camcorder.

She loved her Uncle Karson's new shoes and had to put them on.

And this is her adorable christmas dress Grandma Kay made. It had the maroon and black tool that comes out the bottom, but I couldn't get her to pose or hold still for me.

Overall it was so much fun. We were a little sad to leave and come back to Flagstaff alone, but at least we live close.

Christmas music and Gift exchange

2010-12-08T13:26:00.001-08:00

Emrie is very much into trying to dress herself now. She will be consumed for like 15 minutes trying to put on her own socks. It's kinda funny. Well, this morning as I was sitting on the couch reading I hear Emrie shuffling over to the living room and when she gets there this is what she found. Walking around in my shoes with dad's hat on carrying that yellow basket, so I had to get a picture.

This week we had a Service Gift Exchange for a Relief Society activity so I made a set of hand warmers and one of those thick headbands (excuse my picture, i don't look very good in it :D). I was actually REALLY nervous that no one would want them but i think they liked them. Now I've just got to make myself something.

And one of my favorite parts of Christmas is the music! LOVE the music. And I think Emrie probably loves it just as much as I do, everytime it comes on she starts dancing and twirling. Sorry the video is kinda dark.

Winter Wonderland and Summer Suprises

2010-12-01T16:31:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving was great. We got to go to Gilbert, me for 1 1/2 weeks, and spend time with family! It was really a lot of fun. So, we drove home to snow and decided we'd better set up the tree....here's what a tree looks like with a 1 1/2 year old. Ornaments on the top half and bare on the bottom half :D Kinda dorky, but at least the ornaments aren't breaking :D Emrie has also decided she likes to Smell the tree (even though it's fake). She smells it and the needles tickle her nose and she runs away laughing, then does it again. It's pretty cute actually.

So today was beautiful, so we decided to put Emrie in her little snow suit and head out to the playground and play. She really liked the snow, just walked around and crawled in it a lot. Can't wait to do a little sledding :D
And last but not least....we will soon have another one of these cute faces around our house. Yep, we're expected #2 the first week of June! So I am 13 weeks along and we're pretty excited. It's a bit different with your second for sure. But can't wait to find out what we're having...hoping a girl since they'll be 2 years apart almost exactly and I have all the right sized clothes :D Silly reason huh? But we'll be happy with whatever. :D

Sedona, Family and Knitting

2010-11-16T13:47:00.000-08:00

Yes, it's been a very long time... but here are a few things we've been up to. October we experienced a fall changing colors for the first time for me in 7 years!!! I know I can't believe I've been in Arizona for that long. But the colors were beautiful! We took a little drive to Sedona and it was gorgeous. A canopy of green trees the entire way. Below is Chad and Emrie at Sedona. It really was pretty. It was a little rainy, but it created a mist in the mountains that was pretty.

We also went down to Gilbert for Halloween but of course we didn't take any pictures...I know awful huh. Didn't even get one of Emrie in her costume :(

This last weekend Makenna, Jason and their two boys came to visit and stay with us. It was so much fun and Emrie LOVED having the boys (especially Graham) there. We'll say that Movie time for her is already Kissing and cuddling time! She wouldn't leave graham alone. It was pretty cute and Makenna got alot of really good pictures, again we were slackers with the camera.

It has turned cold here, and the other night to get out of the house we went on a walk and had to all bundle up. Here's Emrie in her winter getup. She's makes a pretty cute marshmellow!

Now, I have been trying to keep busy and it's come down to knitting knitting knitting. I decided to teach myself and picked it up. Might as well make some winter gear to save money if I'm just at home right? So here's a couple things I've made so far.

My hands aren't the most flattering thing, but oh well. I need to add buttons to the hand warmers or something and I really want to learn how to do those head wraps/bands for your ears that are cute and a rufflie scarf, but I'm having trouble finding a scarf pattern I like. If anyone knows of one let me know!

The Book Thief and Pigtails

2010-09-18T10:00:00.000-07:00

So in an attempt to get more involved and meet more people here in Flagstaff I decided to read the book for the ward book club this month which was: The Book Thief.

I actually have never read for personal enjoyment a book like this. I had no idea what it was about before I started it, I thought it would be a small book (which it's not... 560 pages) and the authors style of writing is WAY different than anything I've read, but I actually really really liked it. There's not a whole lot of suspense in it I guess cause the narrorator pretty much up front introduces a character than says "too bad he doesn't make it in the end" or something to that effect, which I thought was funny, but it ended up having a different effect as you were reading cause the whole time you're thinking...hmmm when are they going to die, how sad. It's set in Nazi Germany. Anyways I really enjoyed it and am kind of interested to see what another one of his books are like. If anyone has read any of his (Markus Zusak) other books let me know :D

So yesterday when I finished it I decided to make Weinerschnitzel for dinner and German potatoe salad :D I know I'm a dork...but it was delicious!! I had my own little book club celebration :D

And in other news we gave side pigtails for the first time this last week. Pretty funny and cute :D

If anyone has any other book suggestions I'm up for it!!!

DOC??

2010-09-11T15:45:00.000-07:00

So, we've always had a little joke that Emrie's hair reminds us of Docs from Back to the Future...But this night while eating dinner she really ruffled her hair making what little fuzz she has on top stick down and the long fine blond blond hair on bottom stick out and this is how it turned out:
DOC:

AND the Imitation:
She looks a little scary in the above so I had to throw a cute faced one in there :D

I've really been trying to make sure I'm brushing the top to stimulate some growth, but not much change yet, guess that's what happens with a very fair daddy and a mommy who didn't help out either :D Hopefully it comes soon, until then, she is very cute version of Doc I think.

Little more than cousins???

2010-08-29T16:35:00.000-07:00

Ha ha, just kidding. Emrie LOVES to give out hugs and kisses to every little kid that she walks by, but I do think that she has a special infatuation with Graham :D She used to all but maul him when we'd first walk in. They are so cute together (don't get me wrong they still stole each others toys and such) but we had such a fun summer doing things together with the kids. We are really going to miss getting together at least once a week. Here's a little playback.

Can't wait until we go visit!

Happy Birthday Chad!

2010-08-28T07:55:00.001-07:00

I'm a slacker wife and didn't post a happy birthday yesterday for Chad, but that's okay cause now I have pictures :D So, HAPPY 26th BIRTHDAY CHAD!! At Chad's request I made this delicious cake, which we now have the whole thing (minus 2 pieces) in our fridge :D Guess it's going in the freezer for little chocolate fixes!

We have learned how to use our timer! YEAH :D

Oh, can't forget the brownie chunk ice cream, that's his favorite!

AND, on a side note, these are just a few pictures from the other morning at a park. Emrie LOVED this dinosaur thing. She was kicking her legs and gritting her teeth, going crazy on it. It was pretty cute and we got a couple funny pictures of her....She's kinda giving her version of the dinosaur face I guess :D

Flagstaff, here we come!

2010-08-25T07:09:00.001-07:00

We are officially moved as of this last Friday, thanks to both our families and all their help with packing, loading and watching Emrie during the chaos. Goodbye #2102, we will miss you! Already miss El Dorado Ward. We were really spoiled living here.

Oh, and thank you Emrie for helping me with the last minute clean-up. I can tell she's going to be a good cleaner :)

We are now at NAU in Flagstaff, AZ for Chad to attend their nursing program where he will get his Bachelors in Nursing. So, we will be here for at least 2 1/2 years.

Emrie already loves having her own room. She sleeps way better....all the way through the night from 8:30-6-ish. And a couple times has actually come up to me and said "Ni Ni" for bedtime. The other day after nap when she woke up she didn't want out, just pointed to "Elbo" on the floor, which I gave her and she happily sat down with her dolly and read in bed. Her personality is really starting to come out, she's so sweet.

We went exploring and on a walk yesterday morning. I will say the temperature is AMAZING! Thinking we would find a park with grass and a playground, this park far exceeded our expectations:

With mountains, pines and fields of wild flowers. It was beautiful.

Oh, and you can't forget Rocks! That was one of Emrie's favorite parts.

Miss the family, but excited for our new adventure!

Thank you Thank you

2010-08-16T08:44:00.000-07:00

Thanks Kenna and Jason for helping me save my blog :D It looks much much better! Pictures to come soon :D

Four Years Ago....

2010-08-11T20:51:00.000-07:00

On a SWELTERING Arizona August morning I married this Handsome Stud!!! I can't believe it has really been FOUR years! But at the same time it feels like we've never been apart. Funny how that is. Grateful for my sweet family, and can't wait for everything else life will bring us. Love you Honey!!!

Not working

2010-07-15T18:56:00.000-07:00

Soooo, I'm trying to fix and update my blog but it's not cooperating. I can't get the layout right or the picture to center. So, I'm taking a break :D Sorry, it looks kinda funny. Maybe I'll fix it tomorrow. I've decided I am not "blog literate" :D

A Pumpkin Juice Party

2010-06-27T14:55:00.001-07:00

So, Chad calls Emrie his little Pumpkin Juice...I know, a little wierd sounding, but it fits her now. So, for her party he wanted there to be pumpkins. I had a hard time trying to put pumpkins into a summer birthday, but it worked out just fine.

Invitations:

Cake:

Chad told me how he wanted the cake to look....so that's what we did. Had to get some pumpkins in there.

We LOVE Books!

Can't wait to do pictures in this adorable Tutu!

Balloons always make the party funner!

She didn't eat very much cake or get very dirty. After a few bites she was done, but she loved some ice cream.

It was a fun day. She did get spoiled by Grandparents, aunts and uncles. I can't believe she's one....I have a feeling it's just going to get funner.

Happy Birthday Emrie Jane!!

2010-06-20T15:36:00.001-07:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMRIE JANE AND FATHER'S DAY HONEY!

Our sweet little girl is ONE today! It's gone so fast! She is such a joy to us. And Happy Father's Day to my honey! He is an amazing husband and father! I am very very blessed! (She looks like her daddy :D )

(Birthday party pictures soon to come)

Old clothes to good use

2010-05-28T19:07:00.000-07:00

So...for my birthday my amazing husband with the help of my mom and in-laws got me a sewing machine! I am so excited! I have been asking for one for a long time and I was extremly suprised. So, a while ago I went through and was going to throw out a bunch of clothes, then I thought "why don't I try and make clothes for Emrie out of my old clothes?" That would give me FREE clothes for her! Being a poor college family. With the help of my mom and Makenna and we made a really cute outfit out of a pair of old pajama pants a while ago, but I decided to try something with my new sewing machine today. So....

Here's the bag of clothes that will hopefully be transformed:

And out of a stretchy black shirt today I made Emrie these little pants that turned out way cuter than I thought they would...they look and feel like little goucho pants.

And they fit her perfectly! I am so excited! It took me quite a bit of seem ripping with all my mistakes but I now have a new pair of pants for Emrie. Can't wait to get on to the next project.

Swimming and Sippy Cup Fun

2010-05-05T15:38:00.000-07:00

So, for my birthday we went swimming with Emrie for the first time. Chad'll have to post a video, she loves the water.

Then we had to go dip again this last weekend, just to get out of the house...can you tell she's excited? She is standing up on her own now and takes like 4 steps by herself at a time before she falls...so she's getting pretty good.

The water at our complex isn't heated, so it was kinda cold. We stood her on the first step and she held onto the rail and squatted down so she could play and splash. It was pretty cute. She stayed squatted forever she squealing and splashing her hand in the water.

And...we've introduced the sippy cup...she likes it a lot....though she's still not used to how fast the water comes out. She gulps and then pulls it away and goes....uhhhhh... and trys to catch her breath. She is starting to look like a pretty little girl. Can't believe how fast it goes.

Lake Havasu

2010-05-04T18:42:00.000-07:00

So, the girls in the family....minus Kara :( took a child-less short vacation to Lake Havasu overnight...Makenna, Rochelle, Mareike, Lauren and me...the second weekend in April. It was really fun and I think we should do it each year, with Kara next time hopefully.

This is a shot of the London Bridge....I never knew that this is the original London Bridge and the one in London is a replica....The original was bought for 2.5 million and took 3 years and another 4.5 million to transport and rebilled the bridge in Lake Havasu....quite interesting.

Here's Makenna, me, Mareike, and Lauren on the London Bridge one night.

Rochelle and me.....which her hair cut is adorable...and it's making me contemplate a chop...

We rented a khayak the afternoon we got there and took turns on it...it was a lot of fun...and Makenna and I successfully stood and rowed (which I didn't get a picture of sadly :D).

Snap Shots

2010-03-20T10:42:00.000-07:00

We went on a walk this morning while daddy was out with the boys shooting at some targets and had to try out the swing. She kept letting out little giggles :D

Emrie and Graham playing...they follow each other all over Grandma's house now and yesterday they were in the other room like this and next time we looked at them they were like this:

Emrie just situated herself right in his lap. It is so funny to watch them.

Just a quick snap before church. Being a mom is so much fun, she's so sweet!

Polynesian Festival

2010-03-14T14:20:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning Makenna called us and said there was a Polynesian Festival going on at Tempe Town Lakes, so we met up with her and Jason and thier boys and mom and dad, who had Elijah and hung out. Here's some of the afternoon: Walking to the Festival. Some of the boats in the Lake.

This was one of the clothing booths signs. It is AWESOME!!! See how the "future neck roller" size has a little dipple in the neck. Funny! At the bottom is says "How do you roll?" ha ha...

They did some hula dancing. They had some older groups and then some little kids come on. This was the last of the performances of the day. We didn't make it for the earlier performances.

Our little sweetheart. You can tell her eyes are a little poofy...She missed her afternoon nap, so needless to say it was a very tiring afternoon for her. But, she was a champ while we were there.

My dad and Chad are getting interested in Ukulele's. They both want one, so they were checking out the selection there, and coveting :D My dad's friend Ed came and visited and played for us and it was actually really cool. He played that "over the rainbow" song that's played with a Ukulele from 50 First Dates, love that song!

And this is how the afternoon ended. They look so sweet and peaceful when they sleep. Love her :D They also had a bunch of food there and some MASSIVE snow cones. I wish I had gotten a picture of inside the snow cone tent...It was a sitting line up of ice shaving machines and people sitting behind them constantly shaving snow cones....brought back memories of summers at the Rupert Fair, although this looked like a snow cone sweat house.

Hats, Fountains, and Fun

2010-02-27T07:21:00.000-08:00

Remember those hats.....well here's my first attempt at one...I didn't have all the colors that I wanted to use, so I kinda just used what I had, but I think it turned out really cute! And now I'm excited to begin making more.

We also took a little day trip to Fountain Springs. There is a huge fountain in the middle of this lake at the park that shoots up 562 ft into the air. It's pretty powerful. We took a little picnic and just enjoyed outside. There was a frisbee golf tournament going on while we were there and I couldn't believe the dedication....It was all out. People had thier special carriers with all their different frisbees lined up and their little chairs they carry. They had special stances and it was all technical. I never knew people really competed hard core in frisbee golf.

Graham and Emrie playing together. They usually steal toys back and forth....He sucks on it, she takes it and sucks on it and it goes back and forth. Well, usually she ends up just attacking Graham and mauling him...sucks on his face, grabs on his cloths, his hair, anything. She laughs and he gets a look of desperation (HELP!) on his face....I think he's been traumatized by her. The other day when my mom watched her for me she said Graham would start screaming anytime she came close to him.....Sad, huh? She thinks it's all fun and games... poor Graham.

Emrie is now oblivious to all her toys when we're home. She want the good stuff....The magazines, blinds, paper,...everything I don't want her to have. So we moved all our books, except the two you see and she pulled our album out of the way and got up in there determined to get to the paper under the books.

Well, I've started a new project with Makenna and my mom, but I've got to get off the computer so Chad can do some homework....so I'll have to post about it later!

Ribbon Flowers

2010-02-06T09:44:00.000-08:00

Ribbon Bows:

We looked at this site to see how to do it: http://makeitdo.wordpress.com/2009/06/03/peony-clips/

Her flowers are tight and look pretty fancy....mine I wrapped looser and they look more casual, which I like. I also only used 1 yard of wire ribbon, she says to use 2-4 yards, which if you're doing it loose would make your flower pretty big.

And we also found that when you sinch the ribbon/pull the wire...you have to start pulling out wire from both ends of the ribbon, otherwise you'll lose your wire inside your ribbon as you pull.

Enjoy! They look cute even in my hair.

Relief

2010-02-02T11:21:00.000-08:00

I have had the worst sinus everything for the past week. It started with an innocent cough the week before then moved into sinuses. I have never had it to where my teeth actually ache before. So, my eyes, cheek bones, bridge of nose, temples, teeth, and jaw ached...and then I had an awful headache to top it off. And when you are woken up 3-4 times during the night and working all day it doesn't get any better. So last night I finally pumped a bottle and went to bed early while Chad did the night routine, which allowed me 5 hours in a row of sleep before the first wake-up call! It was Fabulous!!!! And I finally have relief. I feel so much better! Which is a great blessing, because I was about to break.
So now I can enjoy the Bachelor tonight and get a "how to" on those flowers for Aunt Cindy posted! Yeah!!!

Adorable!

2010-01-26T17:21:00.001-08:00

So, I was looking for a pattern for crocheting of something new I could make as a fun relaxing project, and I came across this site: http://www.luv2crochet.com/freepatterns.html. Okay...these are adorable! I'm so excited to try and make some for Emrie! She has some patterns she's made for hats and ponchos and I love them! Here's a little preview:

Aren't they cute! I think I may have to go pick out some yarn this weekend! I'll let you know how it goes!

2010-01-25T19:36:00.000-08:00

So, Makenna found these neat bows/flowers to make with wire ribbon. We went to the ribbon store one morning and got some different colors and experimented and I think they turned out really really cute!

With me at work just playing until Grandma comes to pick her up for the day.

In her Christmas Dress. Oma bought it for her...isn't it adorable!

Anyways....today she officially crawled. She went from sitting to hands and knees, which she's been doing but then she usually rocks and falls flat, but she actually lifted hands then knees and moved forward quite a bit. We got a video, so we'll have to put it on this week...but I've got to get to bed while she sleeps :D Time is precious :D

And 2 months later :D

2010-01-04T11:55:00.000-08:00

Oops! I know I'm terrible at posting! Well....I guess for an update, we had a great Thanksgiving with the Andersen's and a very fun Christmas with the Kays :D Everyone was here and it was a blast to hang out all together again. We did have our cookie day...

I also made a ham bone soup for the very first time and it was DELICIOUS!!!! YUMMY!

Here's all the grandkids in thier Christmas PJ's Christmas morning. It's so fun to have them all so close in age. They are very cute together!

We also started Emrie on baby food recently. We started with Rice Cereal but she doesn't do well on that....everytime she eats it she goes into a 2 hour vommiting spree, which landed us in the ER one afternoon...needless to say, we have given up on the rice cereal and moved straight to veggies, which she does beautifully with. This is the first time we gave her veggies (Butternut squash) and she pulled some pretty funny faces along with several shivers.

And here's a picture of her today. She actually has quite a bit of hair. It's really long on the sides and thick with thick fuzz on top, you just can't see it cause it's white :D She can now sit up on her own. It's great. She's much more content now when she plays by herself.

Well...sorry I've been bad about pictures. I'll have Chad do a video when he gets home, cause I'm not sure how to do that. And I'll put on a picture of her christmas dress! But I've got to go pre-occupy her right now. Till then :D

The Three Little Pigs

2009-11-04T17:04:00.000-08:00

So, Halloween was fun. We started out by going to the pumpkin patch Friday night and took some pictures of our little "pumpkin juice" as daddy has nicknamed her.

We picked a little pumpkin, that was really quite cute. Very happy with our choice and next year Emrie can actually help us choose a pumpkin. We didn't actually get a chance to carve our pumpkin until Saturday afternoon. But it turned out very cute and simple. Sorry the picture is kind of blurred.

Here's a better picture of what the pumpkin looked like on our candy table:D A lot of people said it looked like a plastic pumpkin that plugged in thanks to our expertise :D ha ha jk

And of course we had to dress up. Though we didn't end up getting totally dressed in all the gear I had for us. We were supposed to be the 3 little pigs, but night got too busy and Chad and I didn't dress into our pink outfits...I had even raided some straw from the pumpkin patch to attach to my outfit :D But here's a snap of part of our costumes.

It turned out to be a great night, especially with the Huffs production of Lola and the Coco Cabana. We also made sure we got to see our favorite Halloween film Hocus Pocus which topped off the night perfectly. Can't wait until next year!

Red Robin...ROLLOVER!

2009-10-18T07:40:00.000-07:00

We had a fun night last night. It was our second time going out to a sit down restaurant with our addition. She only lasted in the car seat for the first 10 minutes, but she did really well still. Dinner was delicious! We then walked along the outdoor San Tan Mall and browsed. We did get her Halloween Costume :D Well...What we are going to make into her costume:D She is growing up so much, always suprising us with something new and gets cuter everyday....but we are a little biased. -Jaylynn

This morning after we all got up at 6:30am and after Emrie felt that she was well fed she decided to conquer a milestone in her development. Believe it or not she decided that rolling over was the next best thing to help mom and dad understand that she is capable of preforming much more complicated tasks than that of crying, pooping, eating, sleeping, cooing, and laughing. We applauded her accomplishment and hope that her next great milestone is to learn how to sit on the toilet and go to bathroom all by herself...well maybe that's just wishful thinking:) Here is a little snapshot of her great accomplishment. -Chad

Randomness

2009-09-20T14:47:00.000-07:00

Well, the weather here in Arizona is AMAZING----in the morning :D It is just perfect...so for the first time we actually got out the stroller and the three of us went on a morning walk yesterday. The stroller seat is a little big (as you can see by the straps) but she isn't too fond of the carseat so we stuck her in the front part and she loved it. She jabbered the whole way and just looked up at the trees and sucked on her blanket. But another point of this picture is to show off her tongue. Emrie LOVES her tongue....it is one of her recent favorite discoveries. The first day she figured it out she just stuck it out all the way and left it for a while, which she constently repeated all day long, over and over.

This is a dress from Grandma Kay. So pretty in pink. Her legs are starting to get some chub :D

And this cute outfit is from Great Grandma Mortensen! Isn't it cute! Some other updates....she now laughs out loud and it's adorable, it doesn't come too frequent yet though..maybe once a day. Other than that everything is still about the same here. Chad finds out next month if he got into ASU nursing program. And we are really hoping he did. Work is very slow. It's a good thing I can only do part time because I don't have enough work to keep me busy full time anymore...patient load has gone down a lot. But, I'm hoping to start looking for a different job here pretty soon...I'll tell you why in a week or two, if it's good news :D

So, we went to a wedding reception last night and they had these cookies and they were so good! Of course i love peanut butter cookies, so to add reeses cups to them made them even better! Good thing I didn't make them or I'd sit and eat a bunch with a big glass of milk, and I can't afford that much fat intake :D

Blessing Day

2009-08-18T20:12:00.000-07:00

Emrie's Blessing was actually on August 2nd, but I keep forgetting to put up pictures. Grandma Kay made her gorgeous dress! She looked so sweet and she was so good. It was the first Sunday I didn't have to take her out during Sacrament Meeting. The blessing Chad gave was beautiful! It was a very moving and spiritual experience to have your own daughter blessed and listen to special blessings that are in store for her. We were very lucky and one of the ladies in our ward wrote down the blessing for us, so we could have a copy of what was said. Here are some pictures of the day:

The top had ribbon criss crossed and flowers at the crossing points. I did make her bow...looks kinda big in the picture but it looked cute :D

This is a full shot, the dress was really long and the bottom was pleated in vertical sections then below that horizontally. It really looked beautitul!

The family there that attended. Mine and Chad's family. We missed Makenna, Jason, Rochelle and Whitney!

Here are all the men! What a good looking bunch, Don't you agree? :D

Sleep = Happy and Wedding Dress-up

2009-08-03T20:01:00.000-07:00

I have found since becoming a mommy that sleep is a very special and precious thing! My little bundle doesn't like to take naps very often during the day. She's very stubborn and will do a half sleep where some part of one or both eyes are always peeking a little to silently warn you that if you put her down she will wake up with in 10 minutes. We've gotten it down to where she will usually take one good 1-2 hour nap once during the day. But, I can't complain because she does decent at night. Her latest schedule seems to be down around 9pm- about 1am then from 2:30-4. once 4am hits though she won't sleep in her bed anymore and the only way to get her to sleep longer is to put her next to you. So I hate to admit it but I have caved into the tiredness of allowing her to sleep by me...and nursing laying down has become one of my best friends :D But I have found that when she gets in a nice nap in the morning she will give me some nice smiles...so here are a few I was able to capture.

Mom and I were able to go watch Kara try on some wedding dresses to decide what she liked on Saturday. We missed Lauren, Rochelle and Makenna...so I thought I'd give you the preview. If you click on the picture it will enlarge so you can see the detail better.

Kara liked the way this one switched between beading and scruntch on top.

She liked the diagonal skirt change on this one.

We thought the top was cool on this one, but decided it extends too far down and after a hem with flat shoes the skirt would be too short

Very pretty lace on this one...especially the bottom I thought.

This was our favorite neck line on her...looks very nice.

Also like the lace on this one...they have such cool bottoms to the dress.

We thought the bottom of this dress was awsome. It was pleated...I've never seen it before. Anyways, there's a little preview, you'll have to give some opinions. She really looked good in everything she tried it seemed. Can't believe the last one of us is getting married! How exciting, congrats Kara and Chavis!

More pictures!

2009-07-05T14:08:00.000-07:00

Happy late 4th of July! We got our first family picture together, which actually ended up being more challenging than we thought...Emrie wasn't the happiest camper at the time. But, she did pretty well this last week with the camera. We tried to do our own "professional" looking photos of her nudy :D Some turned out quite cute and some really need cropping, but here's a little preview.

Emrie Jane Andersen

2009-06-23T17:38:00.000-07:00

Well here she is, the newest light weight contender, ready to battle it out for head of the Andersen household. Weighing in at 7lbs 14 oz with 21 inches of cold hard punch, there is no question if she can win this fight. It will take a miracle for mommy to retain the title now. She is tough, fit, and is at the top of her game. Also don't be fooled by the nice princess look! She has already used it to win Grandma Kay's and Andersen's top grandchild in June match. So beware Rhett, Graham, and future Reynold's contender! With the title match of Grandma Kay's best grandchild of the year on the line, things are bound to get a little ugly...

Well it's true, Emrie sure has come into this world with a lot going for her and her mommy and daddy sure love her. Emrie was born on Saturday, June 20th and 3:04pm. With only having to push for 30 minutes things moved along faster then we expected. She is cute, cuddly, and is the best thing that has ever happened to us. She is definitely a blessing to have around and has sure flipped our world in the right direction. So as we have enjoyed her, we hope that you all will too!

Jury Duty

2009-05-29T12:04:00.000-07:00

So, I had the "opportunity" I guess to attend Jury Duty, and it was actually kind of an interesting process...I don't know if anyone else has ever actually been called to show up, but I got lucky and got to go right here in Gilbert instead of traveling to Phoenix. We went in as a group and had to sit on the benches in front of the prosecution and defense and get asked questions by the judge ( which they actually refer to you as, in my case, "Juror #5" ha ha)...then they actually called a few of us in to ask one on one questions and I was one they had come in. I was actually all nervous even though i wasn't on trial or anything. But they had you sit in the chair up by the judge with the microphone and the prosecution and defense took turns asking you questions they wanted clarification on...anyways it was a DUI case and in the end I didn't get picked to stay, which was fine with me. But after going it would've been kind of interesting to get picked and go through the whole process. I felt like I was on that show Run Away Jury...I know silly. :D Out of the blue post, but that's been my interesting experience lately.

Belly Shot

2009-05-06T06:24:00.000-07:00

I keep meaning to put up a picture, but once I take one I don't get around to posting it until it's old, so I wait to take a new one and the cycle starts over. So i figured even though this picture is 4 weeks old it's better than nothing :D This is at 30 weeks the day of my baby shower..

It's wierd to think that I'm only 6 weeks away now. I had my Dr. appointment yesterday and he said she's turned head down now, which made me pretty happy...don't know why but I kept worrying she wasn't going to turn on her own. Everything is going good and I'm so excited (and nervous) :D I'll try and get an updated picture up as the day gets closer.

Daisies for the baby!

2009-04-07T17:37:00.000-07:00

Finally done!! I finished a very time consuming project. I started working on this blanket last summer for a family reunion auction and didn't finish it in time, so I put it aside. Well, once I found out I was having a sweet little baby girl I pulled it back out and started working on it again. Needless to say, I was a little happy I didn't finish it in time to give away, which sounds a little selfish I guess, but oh well :D This is the first blanket I've done that I've actually kept, so I guess it's okay to be selfish. They are a bunch of squares of daisies. I'm hoping to decorate the nursery in black and white checkers with bees maybe and have red and white and yellow gerber daisies. I'm still trying to talk Chad into the idea though, so we'll see what happens. But whether or not it matches her room I can't wait to take her picture on it with a little daisy headband on her! I'm very excited and am now trying to find other fun projects to occupy my little time after work.

High Flyin'

2009-03-26T07:45:00.000-07:00

Well this last weekend my aunt and her family came down to visit from Utah. So to entertain them, we went to an air show out by Williams Air Force Base and got to see the Army F-16's in action. It was AMAZING! I personally have never been to an air show before and this was really fun. The cousins loved it and we all had a great time watching the action. So to help you all understand the feeling that I had, I provided a little taste of the show. I apologize about the wobbly camera motion, I still am in training but overall you get the idea.

Puzzle Trouble

2009-03-08T15:45:00.000-07:00

Yeah, we have accomplished a time consuming project! We started on this puzzle a long time ago and put it away because it was so tedious. Then a few weeks ago we decided to pull it out again for a date night and have had it out since, slowly working on it a little at a time. We finally finished it Thursday night and it was SOOO exciting! It looks pretty cool too. It's one of those photomosiac puzzles where it's tons of little pictures that make up the big picture. So here's a view of the finished product along with close ups so you can see all the little pictures inside. We wanted to get a bunch of these disney ones to hang up in a playroom someday, but after the time it took to do this one, I don't know, it could be a long project :D But I must say the success feels sweet :D

Ribbon Store Here I Come!!

2009-02-03T06:20:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been a week since we found out the big news. Sorry I've been bad about getting to post anything. Chad and I had a bet going on what we were having, and I won! :D We are indeed having a little baby GIRL! And, we're pretty excited, well, I think Chad's getting a little nervous about my ribbon store talk. I can't wait to go make some nice purchases to make some cute headbands and bows, he's gonna have to give me a budget :D Doctor said she looks very healthy, and what was interesting about the ultrasound was he looked at her stomach and you could actually see the amniotic fluid that she had swallowed in her stomach. It was kinda interesting. She seems to be pretty strong though, she's kicking and moving quite often and chad started being able to feel her moving about a week and a half ago now. It's been a fun experience so far.

Very Exciting!

2008-12-28T11:15:00.000-08:00

Well this year we had a very fun Christmas! We had a lot of fun with my family and enjoyed the spirit of the holiday. In my family I have many brothers and a sister and we have a tradition of taking turns opening one present at a time. As we do so, many of us get a little excited about opening our gifts and we don't take time to recognize the hard work it took to wrap them. As you can see I think my family has rubbed off on Jaylynn as she was able to open her gifts. I hope everyone else had a good Christmas and enjoyed this wonderful year. We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Another Andersen on the Way

2008-12-25T13:58:00.000-08:00

Well, for those of you who don't know, we are expecting a new addition to our little family. We are very excited and decided this was the push we needed to set up a blog finally. I am now 15 weeks along and will find out in January what we are having! Can't wait! Here's the little one at 13 weeks...we'll keep you updated!