Roll Your Hands

Emmabelle has been changing so much and so fast. She just keeps learning new things everyday. She says a few words like mama, dada, hi, dog, and uh oh. She is starting to sign she will on occasion sign all done, and today she even signed please.

This morning we were singing songs with Grandma Mortensen and one of Avery's favorites is Roll Your Hands. As they were singing and doing the motions Emmabelle all the sudden joined in. It was so cute I had to get it on video. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Hello to our Daddy.

We are currently visiting my sister and her family in Oregon and so the girls and I just wanted to say hi to our daddy. We miss him so much and can't wait to get home to him again. We left early on Saturday and drove all day Saturday and all day Sunday to get to my sisters. The girls did really good traveling, but it was a very long drive. We are having lots of fun playing with our cousins. We came for my nieces baptism this Saturday and will start our journey home Sunday or Monday.

We LOVE You Daddy!!!

Weekend with friends.

This weekend was Tori Barentine's wedding. It was a really nice wedding. It was also a good excuse for best friends to get together. Becca Anderson, Brianne Mortensen, Cassie Echols and I were all able to spend some time together. It doesn't happen very often that all of us are together so we really enjoy the rare occasions. I will have to post a picture later. I was looking at the one I have and it just didn't turn out very well.

Kisses Anyone

Emmabelle has just recently started being generous with her kisses. It use to be so hard to get her to give you kisses now she walks around making kissing noises and searching for a kiss. The other morning it was so cute watching the girls give each other kisses. They were being so sweet to eachother.
We did discover one minor problem in the whole situation. Emmabelle still gives open mouth kisses and today Avery was trying to get Emmabelle to lick her tongue. Sounds gross I know, but she's two. We explained to her that we need to keep our tongues to ourselves and that Emmabelle doesn't know better to close her mouth while she kisses. Avery hasn't quite grasped the concept that just because Emmabelle does it, doesn't mean that she can do it too.

Let's go fly a kite.

Today Emmabelle and I went across the street to the baseball fields and flew a kite. It was so much fun. Avery started with us, but was so grouchy she decided to go home. But Emmabelle and I had a really good time. She liked playing in the tail of the kite and got tangled in the string a couple of times but she really enjoyed it. She loves to be outside and once a door is open she is out it before you even realize it. I need to be better at taking pictures. I have slacked in that department lately.

Easter 2009

This year we spent Easter with Dave's family at Grandpa Great Hartman's and Uncle Kern's house. We had a very nice Easter dinner made by Uncle Kern and they also spoiled the kids rotten with candy. They buy the plastic easter eggs and hide them for them. They also bought them chocolate bunnies and a package of peeps. Grandpa Great was so excited to have all of us there. The girls had lots of fun with their cousins and their Uncles.

We colored Easter eggs with the cousins on Saturday night.

Emmabelle thought is was pretty neat.

Easter morning. The Easter Bunny Goodies.

The Easter Dress.

So cute in her dress.

Finding the nests of chocolate eggs in the house.

The outside hunt.

With a little help Emmabelle even found one.

Avery's find.

She looked so cute carrying her basket.

Emmabelle's find.

Checking out the goods.

Our Family

The Great Grandkid Families

The Great Grandkids

Avery with Grandpa Great

Emmabelle with Grandpa Great

PS. If you didn't notice the goose egg on Emmabelle's head just ignore this, but if you happened to catch it in some of the pictures here is the explanation. I just don't pay attention very well when I am opening doors. She likes to lean on them and when I go to open them she falls and hits her head on the door frame. She's only done it twice and it happened to be in the same spot, and I just happened to be the one opening the door. I felt absolutely horrible.

A Much Needed Update

It has been too long since I posted last and I am sorry for that. It seems like we have been going non-stop, and I have found that not having a computer of my own makes it a little harder to keep up. I just want to breeze through the last few weeks since we have been so busy and a lot has been going on.

My Grandma's burial was very nice. She was buried on her birthday March 10, so we did sing happy birthday to her. Her children sang I am a Child of God, and Aunt Shauna sang a solo that was really nice. We were able to have a really nice luncheon afterward at the Old Virden Church.The weekend of the 21st we went to Phoenix for two reason's. Dave took his scouts and Avery to the Air Show at Luke Air Force Base. Emmabelle and I went to a my friends wedding. I took the girls over early on Friday so they would travel better. They were able to play with their cousins and they just loved that. Saturday brought the main events. Dave said that Avery really had a good time at the air show. We bought her some ear muffs incase the noise was to much. She really liked them. She only thought it was too loud a couple of times. Dave said it was fun except for the two hours they had to wait in line to get into the place.

Emmabelle and I just played around until it was time for the wedding. It was my friend Christina Eddy getting married. It was a really nice ceremony and the reception was very nice. It was held in a hotel and they served a very nice dinner and everything. She was very beautiful and did a wonderful job planning her wedding. It was late when all that got over so Emmabelle and I stayed the night at James and Silvia's and went home on Sunday. We all had a pretty good weekend.

The weekend of April 4 we went to my parents house to help out around the house. Clint's family also went down that weekend. We helped get the basement ready for shelves to be put in, Dad, Clint and Dave wired some electricity at Grandpa and Grandma's house so a new oven could be put in. Guy and Trina Kellogg's family are now living there, but I am sure it will always be refered to Grandpa and Grandma's house. Lori's boyfriend and his family visited on Saturday because their horse had a colt. It was also General Conference that weekend so we enjoyed listening the the Prophet and Apostles. I don't know that I got to much out of it, there were five small children, and I just have a hard time paying attention, so I am looking forward to getting the Ensign. We also had a really good batch of carmel rolls on Sunday morning. It is tradition in our family to have carmel rolls on conference morning. We got the tradition from Dave's family. They were some of the best ones we have had in a long time.

A cute story about Avery:

We were driving home from my parents house and she was counting her Grandma's.

She said "Mom I have three Grandma's. Grandpa Hartman, Grandma Mortensen, and Grandma Great."

I then reminded her that she only had two Grandma's now because Grandma Great went to live with Heavenly Father. She easily accepted that, because we had discussed it before and then matter of factly said, "Mom when Grandma Great is done with Heavenly Father she can come back and see us."

It was such a sweet moment. I reassured her that yes someday we would get to see Grandma Great again. Then after a few minutes she said, "Mom and when Heavenly Father is done with Grandpa Great he can come back too."

I just love the innocence of a child. I sure do hope that I can live worthily enough to be able to be with my Grandparents again.

We did have a really nice warm spell awhile back and I let the kids play in their pool. I only put in a couple inches of water. They really enjoyed it.

We have been battling sickness in our home the past week and let me tell you I am so done. Kids and the flu just don't mix. I absolutely hate sick kids. I thought colds were bad. Give me a cold anyday. Avery started throwing up on Monday afternoon. Monday night was just horrible, I think I got a total of maybe 4 hours of sleep. By the time I would settle down enough to go to sleep Avery would be ready to go again. She started to do better in the afternoon on Tuesday and we were feeling pretty lucky that it was a 24 hour bug, but then Wednesday morning she started again. I think I have washed every inch of floor in the house, both couches, a car seat, a bathroom, and all the blankets. She was so upset because she kept having accidents in her pants which was so sad, because she couldn't help it and I kept trying to explain that. She just kept apologizing. She has also decided that every cough is going to lead to her "spitting up" as she calls it, never mind that she has stopped throwing up. So now every time she coughs she crys and says she needs a bowl to spit up in and continues to sit there until she can produce some sort of spit up. I am afraid some how we have turned her into a bulimic or a hypocondriac. She just has it in her mind that she has to spit up. I am at my whits end. Hopefully it will go away in a couple of days.

On top of all this, Emmabelle has explosive diarrea. She no longer wears pants due to the fact that I can't keep them clean. I was in Wal-Mart yesterday and was in line checking out. I had let Emmabelle out of the basket to run around with her sister at the register and I put her back into the basket so I could load it up and all the sudden I see it creeping up her back. So as I was trying to pay for the groceries, and load my basket, I couldn't stop now, I was also trying to keep the poop from getting everywhere. It was a disaster, and a huge mess.

Sorry this post is so long. I have been such a slacker. I will try to do better so you don't get overloaded again.