Family

2010-09-01T16:01:00.000-07:00

For the forth of July this year the girls and I went with my family to the Cabin. Dave had to work so he wasn't able to come with us. It was a lot of fun and here are some of the things we did. We went to the parade on Saturday morning. It was a really good parade. At times it was a little too loud and the girls didn't like it, but all in all they had a really good time. Emmabelle spent most of it in hiding. She hid behind the stroller and watched it from there. Avery liked the floats that handed out candy, but got upset because she wasn't fast enough to get it. The weather was great. I was so glad we weren't in Safford where it was high ninetys to low hundreds.

Waiting for the parade to arrive.

The anticipation is too much.

Avery with Grandma Mortensen

Nicole, Clint, and Marshall

Steve Owens, Lori, and Emmabelle in hiding

Waiting for the candy.

Grandma coaxed her out.

The coolest float ever. Wait for it...

Stand Up for the Constitution.

On Monday the fifth we went to Reservation Lake. It was lots of fun except we all forgot sunscreen and got a little toasted.

She loved the water, but wasn't so fond of the wind.

I was really proud of Avery on Sunday she set a really good example for all of us. She really wanted to go to primary so my Mom and I stayed so that she could go to primary. I just couldn't justify telling her she couldn't go that is where she should be and she did great. She went all by herself and stayed the whole time. I guess I am doing something right, or maybe I should give the credit to primary.

Potty trained kid

2010-09-01T15:20:00.000-07:00

We are now officially a diaper free home. Emmabelle took the leap out of diapers. For the longest time I wasn't sure it was going to be very easy to potty train her. She didn't want to sit on the potty seat. So we bought a small pool for the kids and told Emmabelle that she couldn't pee in the pool. Of course she did a couple of times, but then she caught on and started to tell us that she needed to go to the bathroom. I would get her out and say lets go sit on the potty. She didn't want to so being outside and in a swim suit I just told her to pee on the ground. After a couple times of being successful by getting out of the pool and peeing on the ground I said that is it if you can do this you can pee in the potty. I gave away most of the diapers and put her in big girl panties. Gummy bears where her treat and that was all it took. She has only had a couple of accidents. It was a little more difficult to get her to poop on the potty, but after bribing her with makeup like Avery's which was really just lip gloss, she was successful. It ended up being a lot easier than I thought and I am so glad to get rid of that expense.

The Park

2010-09-01T15:14:00.000-07:00

So I love living in Arizona. It's home, but the summers are a killer. Everyday is the same conversation. Mom can you take us to the park. No, it is too hot I don't want to go to the park. Lame Mom I know, but I hate being out in the heat and sweating. Besides they are out there two minutes and are hot and need a drink and want to go in so why go to all the trouble in the first place. The weather is finally starting to change now and we have ventured to the park more frequently which makes the kids happy. Only problem is even though it isn't as hot outside amd you can stand to be out there the sun still makes it next to impossible to play on any of the slides. These park planners weren't very good at planning. The shade is very limited and all the toys and swings are in the sun. I can't wait for the autumn days to get here.

The Kid Likes Church

2010-03-19T11:20:00.001-07:00

January 27,2010

Yesterday when we were getting ready for the morning Emmabelle picked out a skirt outfit to wear. This isn't unusual she likes to wear dresses and skirts. The only thing that was different yesterday was as we were putting it on she kept repeating a word. It took me a while to figure it out, she was trying to tell me she wanted to go to church. I explained that it wasn't Sunday and that we weren't going to church today. She was so sad. She started whining and gave me an almost real, fake cry. She is getting pretty good at the fake crying, but yesterday it was on the verge of a real cry.

What I want to be when I grow up.

2010-03-19T11:19:00.000-07:00

January 27, 2010

When having conversations with Avery about what she wants to be when she grows up she usually says she wants to be a mommy. Last night on the way home from a birthday party we were talking about it again. Deven the little boy I watch was saying that he wants to be a paleontologist when he grows up. Avery at first gave her normal answer by saying she wanted to be a mom when she grows up, but soon after she said: “When I grow up I want to be allergic.” She said it like it was something so awesome. As I was laughing I asked her what she wanted to be allergic to and she replied without missing a beat “College” By then I was laughing so hard. I didn't realize that was a hereditary trait and man is she in trouble because she gets it from both sides.

Who's baby are you?

2010-03-19T11:17:00.001-07:00

January 27, 2010

Lately we have been asking Emmabelle the question: “Who's baby are you, mommy's or daddy's?” Her response without fail has been: “Avery's baby.” I guess if someone tries really hard to be your mommy all day long it eventually rubs off. Avery mothers Emmabelle so much it honestly drives me crazy. I constantly have to remind her that she is her sister and a kid not the mommy.

Loir Boots

2010-03-19T11:16:00.000-07:00

January 2010

Emmabelle has become quite attached to a pair of pink boots that we had handed down to us. She always wants to wear them when we go anywhere. She has a very special name for them also. She doesn't just ask to wear her boots she asks to wear her Lodi (Lori) boots. She knows that they are boots just like her Aunt Lori wears. She loves her boots and she loves her Aunt Lori.

Park Progress

2010-03-19T11:15:00.000-07:00

January 2010

Avery is a very cautious girl. She doesn't like to try new things and isn't easily persuaded to do so. The last few times we went to the park she has gotten an adventurous bone in her that I have no idea where it came from. She started with climbing one of the rock walls that puts you up to a slide platform. She didn't take the stairs very uncharacteristic of her. Then she decided to go down one of the bigger slides. She is very comfortable with the little slide, but you couldn't even get her to slide down a big slide while holding her hand. All she wanted was you to catch her at the bottom. This might not sound like anything big, but it was huge for us. We have also been trying to get her to go down the cork screw slide but she would have nothing of it. Today after she saw Emmabelle go down by herself she wanted to give it a try. She even climbed the ladder to the slide which isn't a standard ladder, it curves up to the platform so you have to climb the curve. I was a little nervous about this one, but she didn't even hesitate. Very proud moment for me.

Christmas 2009

2009-12-27T15:39:00.010-07:00

As always this Christmas turned out to be great. We spent Christmas with Dave's family this year in Mesa. But I guess we should start at the beginning.

We were able to decorate our tree a couple of weeks before Christmas. The girls had a lot of fun putting their ornaments on the tree. It turned out pretty dang cute if you ask me.

On Christmas Eve we started our celebrations with Clint and Nicole's family to celebrate Merry's birthday. Avery and Emmabelle had a good time at the party. Once Dave got off work we headed to Mesa. That evening we went to John's house for a Christmas Eve dinner/program. Tom and Sarah did a couple of musical numbers that were just beautiful. With Tom on the piano and Sarah playing the violin. They both did an awesome job.

As Grandpa Hartman read out of Luke 2 the kids acted out the nativity. Avery was so excited to be Mary. I think it was mostly due to getting to hold the baby. McKay being the only boy played Joseph. Annie and Sadie were shepherds, and Emmabelle was the cutest little angel (I am biased though).

After the nativity the kids sang two songs. Christmas Bells are Ringing, and The Shepherds Carol. They did a pretty good job.

Grandpa Great Hartman and Uncle Kern also made it to the festivities. So of course we had to get pictures of them with him. Before we went to bed the girls sprinkled Magic Reindeer food out so that Santa would be able to find us at Uncle John's house. Christmas morning the girls were so excited to see what was in their stockings. Avery took each piece of candy out one by one. It was super cute. Emmabelle went straight for the chocolate.

Christmas present opening ceremonies took place at James and Sylvia's house. All the kids were so excited and there were a ton of presents.

Emmabelle did a good job opening her presents for the first five or so and then she just wanted to play. She didn't open anymore I ended up finishing for her. Avery on the other hand was super excited about opening the presents and didn't want to stop. She just opened one right after the other. She was very excited about the trike she got from Santa and the tea set she asked for. Emmabelle got a radio flyer scooter from Santa. I think her favorite present was the ball that Grandma Hartman got her. She does like her scooter now that she knows what it is.

Later that day we went over to Dan and Sarah's for Christmas lunch. We first went to the park to take a family picture since everyone was there. That was an experience in itself. Some of the adults were just as bad as the kids. It took patience and quite a few shots, but hopefully we got a good one out of it. The food was good as always. There was one tragedy and that was when Emmabelle fell and hit her mouth on the corner of the kids table. Blood everywhere and the poor thing ended up with a fat lip. She has recovered nicely. We got back to Safford around 9:30 that night. It was a great Christmas.

Today being the last Sunday of the year Avery graduated from nursery. She attended closing excercises as a Sunbeam and was so excited to be there. We are having her first primary activity on Saturday, a get to know your teacher breakfast. It should be lots of fun. The Bishopric is cooking for us.

Weekend in Flagstaff

2009-12-10T07:55:00.002-07:00

This last weekend the 3-6 we were able to take a trip to Flagstaff to visit Dave's parents. We left Thursday evening after Dave got off work. Friday we were able to do a little shopping. The girls played at the Mall, Avery sat on Santa's lap, and we were able to have a nice dinner at Olive Garden with Dave's parents and sister. Saturday we lounged around most of the morning. We went and took a family picture which was quite a project. We ended up using the timer on my camera and setting it up on the tripod. Not to mention it was freezing cold and so we had to bribe the kids to take a really fast picture. The got a kick out of me running to get in the picture so we actually had one turn out pretty decent. That was my only goal. I didn't care if I had a lot to choose from I just wanted one good picture. Mission accomplished. We went back to Grandma's and Grandpa's and had hot chocolate which is now Avery's favoite. That night we went to Clay and Mary's ward party. The girls got to see Santa again (aka. Papa dressed in a Santa suit). Neither one of them had a clue that it was him. Emmabelle didn't like Santa. I ended up having to hold her next to him and take a picture with them. Later we went back and got a family picture with him. I will post those pictures once I get them. Sunday morning we just spent time with Dave's family before they went to church and then we packed up and headed out just in the nick of time. Within the next couple of days they got about 20-24 in. of snow. It was a nice relaxing weekend and we had so much fun.

Thanksgiving 2009

2009-11-30T10:57:00.006-07:00

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year. As always there was way to much food, and it was all very delicious. We went to Animas for the occasion. We left Wednesday evening after Dave got off work. We spent Thursday morning getting everything ready for the big feast, and watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. We had a big group this year so we decided to have the dinner at the church. Those in attendance were my parents, my sister Lori, Clint Nicole and their kids, Uncle David and Aunt Rosanne, my cousin David, Trina Guy and their kids, Uncle Tom and Aunt Paula, and Dave and I with our kids, about 25 in all. Dad tried and experimental Turkey recipe which turn out pretty good. The kids all had fun playing with cousin Davey jumping off the stage. The boys were able to do some dog hunting in the morning and evening. I am not sure they ever got one which is hard to believe when they are literally out the back door every night, but they always have fun anyway. Dave had to come home Thanksgiving evening due to work, but the girls and I stayed another day. We had fun playing with Grandpa and Grandma and cousins. They flew kites. Marcy and Emmabelle were able to ride a mule. The kids had a great time helping Grandma decorate for Christmas. They really enjoyed decorating the tree. We really had an enjoyable time with our family.

Early morning food preparations. The kids just have to help.

Trying to fly kites. It was a little too windy for the tiny kites.

Roof retrieval.

Merry flying her kite.

Avery and Cousin David

Jumping off the stage.

Avery got pretty brave and would jump pretty far for a little girl.

Emmabelle and Grandma Mortensen

Too cute not to post.

Trying to shoot hoops. She would pick up the ball and back up to Aunt Lori and say Up High so Lori would pick her up.

What a face. Levi Kellogg

Decorating Grandma's Tree

The finished product.

Picture update.

2009-11-02T13:08:00.007-07:00

I haven't posted in a while so I thought I would just post some recent pictures of the girls.

This is Avery the morning of her birthday. She was so excited with what the birthday fairy brought her.

Clint and his kids came over that evening and we had cupcakes and ice cream.

Emmabelle thought this was the easy way to eat the cupcakes.

This is a couple weeks old, but the girls just love to go and see the temple.

Trips to the duck ponds are always fun.

I don't know why we buy them toys.

Emmabelle + heath bars= huge mess. She just licked all the chocolate off.

Cutest little pirate I've ever seen.

Little Lady Bug.

Avery and Emmabelle liked the plastic decorated pumpkins better than the carved ones. Although Emmabelle really liked the candle.

We had a good halloween and are starting to look forward to the rest of the holiday seasons. It is my favorite time of year.

Weekend in Paradise

2009-09-21T20:27:00.011-07:00

This last weekend we were able to go to Alpine to the Mortensen Family cabin and spend a nice relaxing weekend. We left early afternoon on Thursday and got there early evening. We spent Thursday night getting the cabin warmed up, yes it was cool enough to run the heater. Dave and his Dad went out and did a little fishing before it got too dark and Mary, the girls, and I stayed at the cabin and got dinner ready. Thursday night my Dad also arrived. Friday morning the boys got up early and went fishing at Nelson Resevoir. Around 7:00 my Dad and Dave drove into Springerville and picked up Dave's brothers John and Tom at the airport. John is a pilot so they decided to fly instead of drive. That was the day that Clay caught the big one, a 20in. rainbow trout. While the boys were out fishing we (the girls) enjoyed playing at the cabin. We went for a nice walk around the loop which is about a mile. The girls really enjoyed it. I made the mistake of not taking the stroller and so I carried Emmabelle most of the time, but burned that many more calories, yeah for me.

It has been a long time tradition at the cabin to feed the squirrels. Grandma always had unsalted raw peanuts just for the occasion. We had so much fun with them. This is the friendliest little squirrel you will ever meet. He gets up on the picnic table that is by the windows to the cabin and will just peak in and beg for you to come out and feed him. He just waits by the door and almost comes in.

You are seeing this right. He actually will climb up your legs and take peanuts from you and I just got it in my head to try and feed him from my mouth. It was so neat. Dave gave it a try too.

This is a miracle in itself. For those of you that know Avery you know she isn't much for the animals. She had no problems with the squirrel. She had such a fun time feeding him.

Emmabelle just couldn't wait for the squirrel to come back after he had taken a peanut. She would just repeat back, back. She is not one known for patience.Of course Emmabelle just loved the swing. Even though she couldn't ride it by herself she still had a blast swinging in my arms.
Dave, Grandpa Hartman, John, Tom, the girls and I all went down to the river to go fishing. Emmabelle had so much fun throwing rocks into the river. I don't know how much that helped the actual fishermen, but she just loved it. I am so surprised she didn't fall in. She would bend over, but wouldn't bend her knees for some reason and end up on her head. I had to catch her a couple of times.

This is Avery's first time fishing. She wanted so bad to just catch a fish. She didnt' catch a fish, but she managed to snag a crawdad. She thought it was so neat and everytime her line hit the water she said, "I caught a fish" and would automatically start reeling it in. I don't blame her thought I am not patient enough to fish myself. I like to just cast and reel.

Dave just put a bobber on the end of Emmabelle's line and she had so much fun just playing with the ball. My mom arrived on Friday night and since we had all the Grandparents together we decided to celebrate Avery's third birthday. She has been so excited for her birthday for months.

Grandpa Hartman's birthday was also this month so we decided to celebrate for him also. Avery was so cute about her cake she insisted on it being chocolate and there was no persuading her otherwise.

We bought some party blowers for her and it was so fun to watch her try to work them. It took her awhile to learn to blow on them. If you look really hard in the picture you can see her sucking in. It was hilarious we kept telling her to blow and she would just suck harder. She eventually figured it out.

She got so many great presents. Her absolute favorite was the mailbox though. She has been begging for months for a mailbox. Grandma and Grandpa Mortensen were kind enough to get it for her. I would have had they not, because that was the only thing she would tell you when you asked her what she wanted for her birthday. She also got some books, a movie, clothes, a game, and a little princess keyboard. She was very pleased with her loot.

Jared Thompkinson and his Dad Greg also joined us this night. They were also up in Alpine on a hunting trip. Jared is an old friend from EAC when I went there, but he is also a good friend of Tom's and that is why they came. It was really good to see him again. It has been about four years or so since I have seen him. It was fun to catch up.

Saturday was much of the same activites. Clay and Mary had to go home early so Clay could speak in Stake Conference. The remaining boys went fishing on Crescent Lake that morning with the intention of taking John and Tom to the airport around noon. Lucky for them it was too stormy to fly out so they got to stay the remainder of the day. They came back around lunch took naps and went back out to the Black River that evening. Uncle Jim and Aunt Marie stopped by and visited for a little bit and then when they went home Dad, Mom and Avery followed them so Dad could drop off some tin. That left Emmabelle and I alone at the cabin for a few hours. It was fun to get some one on one time with her. We took a walk, and then just played in the house.

Sunday morning John and Tom left early to fly out. The rest of us got up and got ready for church. We usually go to Luna for church, but decided to go visit Uncle Wil and his family in Eager. After church we came back to the cabin, had lunch, cleaned up and headed home. It was such a great and relaxing weekend.

It is tradition to take pictures on Sunday morning before going to church. We have just always done it. So here are the pictures we took.

Smore's and Lightning

2009-09-21T20:14:00.002-07:00

A couple weeks ago we were able to go out South of town and build a fire and roast marshmallows and make smore's. We got together with Clint's family, and Andy and Annalee with their son Trey. It was lots of fun. We didn't get to stay out there long due to a little rain, and a lot of lightning. It was just nice to get out though.

A Brief Overview

2009-09-21T19:42:00.006-07:00

Here is a little overview of what you have missed while I have failed to post about my wonderful and adorable family.

Avery and Emmabelle just love to play outside together. They both don't like wearing shoes and so Avery always says before she goes out, "Mom I want to burn my feet", meaning I don't want to put my shoes on before I go outside.The girls helped Dad clean the car.

Then they played in the rain.

And the mud.

We keep track of the progress of the Temple although we haven't been there in a couple of weeks I am sure it has changed a lot. I know that they have put some glass in.

We have played with our friends. (Corrin Mortensen)

Visited Grandpa and Grandma Mortensen in Animas.

Emmabelle road a Hee Haw as she calls them.

Taught Emmabelle how to paint.

Wrestled with our Daddy.

Went for a hike at Discovery Park. It was very pretty down there.

Had a picnic at the river with my brother's family, Lori and her friend, and my parents.

July Overview

2009-08-03T09:41:00.006-07:00

The last month was very nice. We were able to spend a lot of time with family. The weekend of the 18th we went to Animas to spend some time with my sister Lynna and her family, minus Clint. Joyce and Danny Bott were also staying with my parents so it was a house full. We ended up spending Saturday in the mountains with the Botts, she is part of the Richins family and it was their Roost weekend (that's what they call their family reunion). It was very hot and kids came home filthy and exhausted. They had a blast playing and that is really all that matters. We ended up coming home late on Sunday night. We just had to stay for popcorn and ice cream, and old family tradition.

On the Tuesday after Lynna came over and did a pampered chef show at my home. It was lots of fun and we actually had a good turn out. She stayed the night and it was fun to be able to spend that extra time with her and her kids.

Thursday was the beginning of our long weekend and man were we looking forward to it. We left around three o'clock for the white mountains. The kids didn't sleep near long enough on the ride up, but once we got there everything was fine. Dave's parents also decided to go up there for the weekend so we stopped to say hi to them at Luna Lake where they were staying. We went to the cabin and unloaded a few things then went back to the lake to have dinner with Clay and Mary. When we got back to the cabin we were able to set everything up and finally get to bed later than planned.Friday we just enjoyed hanging around the cabin. We all went up there for the Arvin and Emma Mortensen family reunion to be held on Saturday. It was nice to get to see a lot of our family. Dave actually did the meat for the reunion so after a morning of fishing and playing at the lake he got busy smoking the meat. I did decide while we were at the lake that I will never buy anything but and LG phone. We were down by the lake while the kids were catching craw dads and I had pulled my phone out of my pocket to check the time and when I went back to put it in my pocket it slipped and yep you guessed it right into the lake. I just sat there stunned. It was in there a good minute or two while Dave was waiting for the net to fish it out. Once he did I dried it off and it never even turned off. It is still working to this day. I was sure I was going to have to buy a new phone. Anyways, Dave stayed up all night cooking the meat. The girls and I got to move into a bedroom in the house which was so much better than freezing in the tent. The reunion started at 12:00, since Rosanne had been put in charge we went and helped set up around 10:00 or so. The food was great and it was good to get see extended family members. We had a small talent show and I ended up signing "When He Comes Again" while my niece Joslynn sang. We spent the rest of the afternoon at the cabin enjoying the good weather. We got a couple of good rain storms. The kids enjoyed riding mules and on the pony cart and we all enjoyed a good trip to the Lollipop shop.

Sunday we were able to go through some of the stuff that belonged to my grandparents and the kids got to pick out the things that they liked. I was able to get some more things from my Great Grandma, Emmabelle's namesake so she will have things from her and then we also got some nice things from my grandma. We got home Sunday evening and realized that we just really didn't want to be home. It was a really good weekend though and I cherish all the time I get to spend with my family.

I must admit I haven't been very good at taking pictures lately, but I hope you enjoy the ones I got at the cabin.

The meat. Dave did Brisquet and Pork.

Cutting and pulling the meat.

Kids playing on the piano waiting patiently for lunch.

Emmabelle must have been really tired she rarely just passes out like this.

Marley Binnie and Avery

Joslynn, Merry, Nicole, Marshall, and Marcy

Lynna, Riley, Johnny, and Trina

Avery and Emmabelle

Such a cute girl.

Her Cheese Face. She is really good at saying Cheese.

Guy and Trina's pony Sonny. Emmabelle really enjoyed it.

Avery would only go with Grandma. She did have a smile on her face on the return trip I just didn't get it captured.

Emmabelle eating her Lollipop Shop buy.

She just loves her daddy.(don't tell, but she loves me more, I'm just behind the camera)

4th of July

2009-07-09T13:45:00.005-07:00

We ended up going to Flagstaff this 4th to spend some time with Dave's family and enjoy some cooler weather. We left on Friday morning and stayed through Sunday mid morning. We had a really good visit with his family. Avery and Emmabelle got to play with their cousins which they just love. We went to the park on Saturday morning and then Saturday evening we went out to the amphitheater and listened to the Flagstaff Symphony Orchestra. It was raining that afternoon and so we weren't sure if we were going to be able to make it, but there was a short break in the storm so we gave it a try. Just as we got there another storm rolled in and we got a little wet. It died down enought for us to sit on the grass and enjoy the music. We were a little disappointed that they didn't play more patriotic songs, but they did a good job anyways. The kids had a blast running around and dancing to the music. We decided it would be to difficult to go and watch fireworks, so we just watched the programs on TV that had fireworks. It was a good weekend with lots of family to celebrate with and lots of good food to eat. What more could you ask for.

Lightning Strike

2009-07-09T13:38:00.002-07:00

Last night there was a pretty good thunder storm that rolled through town. We decided to go and sit on the front porch and watch. Emmabelle had gone to bed so it was just Dave, Avery and I. We were out there for about 30 seconds thinking that it was probably dying down and we missed most of it when all of the sudden, BAM. There was this big flash of lightning right across the street from our house. I swear I heard to boom before I saw the lightning. That is how close it was. One of the trees at the church ball fields got struck. It was a big pine tree and you could see a piece of it on the ground burning. Dave decided to go check it out and make sure it wasn't burning to bad. He ended up calling 911 because the tree was in fact on fire. He said that it split the tree in half. Avery was scared out of her mind, and wouldn't go back outside or hardly even look out the window. I think she will forever have a fear of lightning now. About 15-20 mins later two fire engines and three or four cops showed up. They got the fire out and ended up cutting the tree down. It was quite an eventful evening.

"I Still Love You"

2009-07-09T13:32:00.003-07:00

Avery is very much a Daddy's girl. It has always been the routine that Dave puts her to bed. Just recently we decided to start taking turns taking her to bed. So every night that it isn't Dave's turn it becomes a huge fight to get her to let me take her. There are tears and yelling along with I want Daddy to take me. We proceed to remind her that we are taking turns now and it is mommy's turn to take her and eventually she gives in. The other night we were discussing whose turn it was to take her and if you ask her of course it is always Daddy's turn. I put on my pouty face and told her that I wanted to take her. She told me that it was Dad's turn. Then she just looked at me and said in a matter of fact tone, "but I still love you mom." As much as it makes me sad sometimes to always be shunned by her this just made me feel so good. Dave and I just laughed.

Happy Father's Day!

2009-06-21T14:31:00.007-07:00

I just wanted to say Happy Fathers Day to all the wonderful fathers in my life. I have truly been blessed in the category of Fathers.

I have the most amazing Dad who has always stood behind me and has seen me through the thick and thin of my life. He is also an awesome grandpa and we love him very much.

I have an awesome husband who is such a great father to my children I don't know what we would do without our daddy.

My father in law is so wonderful. He is always so excited to see and talk with his grandchildren. I have greatly appreciated his love and support to our family.

I am grateful to my grandpa who is no longer with us but who's memory will always be treasured. He was an amazing man and I always felt his love.

Dave's grandpa is so special to me. He is so full of life. He is always quick to bring a smile to your face.

To all the other dad's out there thanks for being you and all that you do.

Picture Post

2009-06-14T19:46:00.003-07:00

We were out watering the garden the other day and somehow while I wasn't watching the girls got into the mud. Head to toe they were covered. This was the solution to the problem. They had a blast. Emmabelle learned you can drink out of a hose and just about drowned herself. She refused to take the hose out of her mouth.

I spoke of the bird we rescued the other day in our garden. This is the mommy bird watching and worrying about her baby.
Here is the baby bird that couldn't figure out how to fly.

The next pictures are from Avery's College for Kids class. She had a blast.

Playing the Kazoo

Banging on a drum.

Emmabelle saying "Cheese" and man is it cheesy.

Shaking with the maracas

Emmabelle with the hula hoop.

Avery and the clam shells.

Avery's teacher Camille Smith

Week in Review

2009-06-11T20:39:00.004-07:00

Last weekend Dave's parents came for a visit. It was so good to see them. They came down for a baptism of a girl they know in Flagstaff who grew up down here. Clay was asked to confirm her. They made it on Friday night and we went out to Mexican food with them. It was really good. We just love it when they come because we go out to Mexican at least twice. Once for the rellenos and once for the tamales. They don't have good Mexican food in Flagstaff.

Saturday I took Avery to a birthday party for some new boys in our ward. Liam and Aram just turned two. They are a fairly new family in our ward and since we have been gone so much lately Avery hadn't even met them yet. She had lots of fun getting to know them though. They are such cute little boys.

This week has been a crazy one. I feel so behind and I don't know if I will ever catch up. The biggest thing that has kept us busy this week is Avery attended the College for Kids at EAC. I signed her up for a class called Zoo Train. They have spent the week talking about zoo animals and learning with music. She has really enjoyed it and so have I. It has been a nice mommy daughter activity. Everyday on the way home she has told me "Mom thanks for dropping me off" which in Avery speech it means thanks for taking me. I know she will be sad when she realizes that it is all over.

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday I got a babysitter for Emmabelle. Poor thing hasn't quite gotten use to babysitters so each time I came home to a baby who had cried herself to sleep. I know it was good for her, but it makes me feel so bad not only for her but the sitter. My sitter went out of town so I just took her with me today and she loved it. I knew she would, she just loves music and being with other kids.

I am also currently taking a swim aerobics class and it is every night at 5:00 so I am juggling to get dinner on so it is ready when I get home. I am so grateful to a wonderful husband who takes off work a little early to watch the kids and then helps get dinner on the table so I can get a little bit of exercise in my day.

We have also been spending time in our garden and have been reaping the benefit this past week. We had to harvest all of our onions due to a pesky gopher. We ended up with about 70 or so. Needless to say we have onions coming out our ears. Our squash and zucchini plants have started producing, and I am loving that. We have had a couple bell peppers and some chili and our tomato plants are bogged down with green tomatoes we are just waiting for them to get bigger and turn red. I am sad to say that the gopher got to one of our okra plants but luckily we have four left. Hopefully Dave has gotten rid of the nasty little thing. The corn gets bigger every day. I can't believe how fast it grows if all goes as planned it should come off right around the fourth of July.

We also saved a baby bird this week. We have a nest in our pecan tree and we had seen the mama bird sitting on it and then noticed the baby birds had hatched. A couple nights ago Dave was getting ready to water and he noticed on of the baby birds in the garden hanging out on one of the tomato wires. It was so cute, but the poor thing couldn't fly. After about an hour we decided that it wasn't going to and so Dave caught it and put it back on the branch and it made its way back into the nest. Every now and then I can see it poke it's head out, still hasn't flown the nest.

We are getting ready for the softball season. Dave and I have decided to play church softball. I mean it's right out our front door there really isn't a good excuse not to. We went and bought gloves and balls and were even able to play catch tonight. I am not any good so hopefully I don't make myself look to bad. I definately understand what they mean when they say you throw like a girl. That is me to a tee. I couldn't believe how bad I am at throwing a ball. I could catch though and we shall see about hitting, I haven't tried yet.

I don't have time tonight but I will post some pictures later.

Kids Update

2009-05-31T20:45:00.002-07:00

I just wanted to do a little update on some of the things the kids have been doing or have said. I think it is nice to have those things recorded somewhere and what better place than here.

Avery always says the cutest things and most the time I forget them before I get them written down, but luckily she does it enough that I have some record of the things she says. She was playing with her dad the other evening and he was taking her nose away and she was getting all in a huff telling him to give it back because she needed it. He asked her why she needed it and she proceeded to list the things that she smells with it. Dave's favorite was snunks (skunks). Today in the car she got a worried tone to her voice as she said mom there is a bosquito on your seat. I will sadly confess I have a TV aholic in my daughter and as we were driving home today she asked me if she could watch a show when we got home at this point we were probably at Apache Jct. I told her we would discuss it when we got home. Then she said Mom if you say no then you say no ok. She has this weird way of putting things. Another example is: Mom when I need you I need you ok. It has taken me a while to put together where she gets this from but I have finally decided that she is trying to mimic when I say: When I say no I mean no, or Avery I will call you when I need you. That is the closest I can guess to where she is going with that kind of talk. She is learning new things every day and is such a big helper. I love watching her grow and learn. This last week we signed her up for the College for kids at EAC. I am excited to take her to that the second week of June.

Emmabelle is such a little sponge. She will try any word you throw at her. Some new words to her vocabulary are ball, grandma, papa, and thank you. She has also gotten better at signing thank you. She will also sign baby. We were at the wedding reception and she found a baby and I told her it was a baby and she rocked her arms back and forth. It was so cute and unexpected. We had taught her the sign before, but it isn't something we sign a lot. She has been sick all this last week and we are getting pretty tired of it. She ran a fever for about 4 days the fever is gone, but she still coughs alot and has a nasty runny nose. I hate sick kids.

Dan & Sarah's Wedding Reception

2009-05-31T19:28:00.003-07:00

Dave's brother Dan got married on the 15th of May. He and his wife Sarah were married in Florida on the beach, and then left from there on their honeymoon which was a cruise. This weekend we went to Phoenix to celebrate. They had a luau themed reception. It was really nice. It was outside the center pieces were large glass vases that they filled the bottom with colored sand and then put pictures from the wedding in them. They had some really good teriyaki chicken and beef with rice and lots of fruit. For dessert they had snow cones. They did such a good job. It was lots of fun.

My Birthday

2009-05-31T19:18:00.003-07:00

The 27th was my birthday. Dave ended up being sick the day before so he decided that we would celebrate on Thursday so he could get his plans together. So we didn't do anything to exciting on the day of my birthday. I did make roast and potatoes for my birthday dinner though. Thursday morning I woke up to my door being decorated. It was so sweet of Dave. He also planned to take me to dinner, but we were unable to find a sitter for Thursday night. So my birthday got to be celebrated on Friday also. Dave took me out to dinner. We tried to go to the new steakhouse in Safford, but it was an hour wait so we decided we would try again another night. We went to the Manor House insead to see if it was any better than the last time we had dinner there. It was ok. Clint and Nicole watched the kids and we were able to enjoy a nice evening together. All in all I had a good birthday. I got money from my mom and my in-laws, and the money that Dave would have spent on me is going towards the camera I want to buy so I am excited about that.

Dave was so good and made me a strawberry cake with rainbow chip icing.

It was so yummy.

Weekend at Grandma and Grandpa Mortensen's

2009-05-31T17:41:00.004-07:00

So once again I am playing catch up. I guess you should just continue to expect that from me until I can get my computer fixed.

Memorial Day weekend we were able to go to my parents house in Animas. Saturday was my Aunt Nonie and Uncle Clarence's 50th wedding anniversary. They had a nice luncheon to celebrate. It was nice to see some the of the cousins that I don't get to see that often. The rest of the day was spent just lounging around the house. On Sunday we went to church of course and then once again just enjoyed each others company. Mom made a cake for my birthday, and for Clint and Nicole's anniversary. Of course they had to cover it with candle's for my birthday which has gotten to be an obscene amount of candles on one cake, but it was fun. Monday we were able to work around the house and get some projects underway for mom and dad. It was a very enjoyable weekend. The girls always love spending time with their grandparents. Avery especially likes it when she gets to stay with her grandma all by herself. She just loves it when we go on a date and Grandma comes to watch her.

Emmabelle's first time on a big kid swing. She did pretty well. Avery playing outside with her cousins Marcy and Merry.
If you look real hard you can see Emmabelle's first pony.

Trip to the Cabin

2009-05-20T19:02:00.005-07:00

This last weekend our family was able to take a trip to the cabin in Alpine. It was such a nice weekend and we had so much fun. Those that were there with us were my parents, Uncle Jim and Aunt Marie, and Russ and Keri Payne and their family. They have three kids, Bekah (4 1/2), Jacob (3), and Beau (10 months). We arrived on Friday afternoon spent the day just hanging out, and then on Saturday the boys went fishing. They managed to catch about 30 fish between the two of them. They had lots of fun. Around lunch time the kids and the female adults took the men lunch. By the time we got there a storm was starting to roll in so they took the kids on a short boat ride and we ended up taking lunch back to the cabin. We went to church in Luna on Sunday and since we can never remember what time it starts we showed up an hour early. We thought 10:00 NM time, but of course the bishop is from AZ so it is 10:00 AZ time. We just played around outside with the kids until meetings started. Dave and Russ's Uncle John and Aunt Nyla live in Reserve, NM, so they were able to see him at church also. It was such a nice and relaxing weekend and the weather couldn't have been better. Here are some pictures to enjoy.

Emmabelle's Horse

2009-05-13T16:04:00.004-07:00

Emmabelle really loves this little rocking horse. She is so funny about it though. If you will watch in the video she doesn't start rocking until the music starts. Even the first little part where the horse is talking she waits until it starts singing. It is so cute to watch. We can't get her to just rock on it though.

Emmabelle's First Birthday

2009-05-13T15:42:00.008-07:00

Emmabelle had her first birthday on Monday. I can hardly believe it has been a year already. It has gone by so fast. The first birthday is always bittersweet in my opinion. You are so excited for them to turn a year old, but you also quickly realize that they are no longer babies either.

Emmabelle has changed so much in just the last little while. She had her one year check up yesterday and weighed in at 20 lbs and is 27 1/2 in tall. Her personality has made itself known very rapidly. She is very opinionated and will let you know if she wants something. She has even started telling Avery how she feels about things. She is doing very well at communicating. She can sign: eat, drink, more, baby, please, and sometimes thank you. She says: mama, dada, more, dog, up, and a whole lot more words I just don't quite understand but she sure seems to.

She loves to play with the big kids and follows Avery around trying to do everything she does. She continues to love the outdoors and always wants to swing or slide and she will do it for hours if you will let her. She has also enjoyed playing in the little pool and I am sure she will just love the bigger pool when we start going.

She is always on the move. She plays all day long and doesn't seem to have much interest in the TV like her big sister. I hope I can keep it that way. She has started playing with dolls. She gives them big loves and kisses.

She has brought so much joy into our family. She has a very easy going sweet spirit and we love her very much.

We had her birthday party on Saturday so that family members could attend. It was a nice party and she had a good time.

Home Sweet Home

2009-05-07T15:49:00.012-07:00

Well we finally made it home around 9:30 Tuesday night (the 5th). It was a very long day of driving, 13 hours to be exact including stopping time. The girls and I are so glad to be home. Even though we had a great time with cousins and grandparents home is always good. Here are a few pictures from our trip. We stopped at the Hoover Dam on our way up to Oregon. It was a neat site to behold. I have never been to that part of the country. The girls just loved looking at all the water Avery's cousin Riley is in a preschool that a comes to his house once a week and so Avery was able to participate in that. She had a lot of fun. The teacher was so good and had so many neat things for them to do. I even got some good ideas of projects to do.The main reason we went to Oregon was for my niece Joslynn's birthday and baptism. This is the pinata that she saved until Avery could be there to do it with them. That was very sweet. Thanks Joslynn, Avery really had a good time.Emmabelle wasn't very interested in the whole pinata bit, what she wanted most was the dogs. It was that way the whole time. She would stand at the windows just looking for the dogs. They have a sliding door that goes out the back and she would sit and play with the dogs through the window. She just loved them. Quite the opposite of Avery who would scream and run every time the door opened. Due to poor weather we weren't able to go outside and play very much. It snowed while we were there and rained most the time. We did get to enjoy a little patch of sun shine though and Emmabelle just loved being outside. After a lot of tears and a whole lot of coaxing Avery finally came outside. I told her that she could just sit on the bouncy horse and I would keep the dogs away from her. Once she got out there as long as the dogs were 10ft away she had lots of fun.This is just a picture out the back of their house. They really have a pretty view.The kids before Joslynn's baptism. Riley doesn't do pictures well so he isn't in the shot.
By the end of the stay at Clint and Lynna's Avery started to warm up to the dogs, but only if there was a screen door in between them. She would get so tickled when the dogs would lick her behind the screen. She is a goofy girl.

Our return trip was by way of Salt Lake City. My dad had a friend there that he hadn't seen in about 12 yrs or so. It was really good to see how much fun they were able to have together catching up. We also were able to go to temple square and visit the conference center. It was the first time I had seen the center and it was absolutely amazing.

This is a fountain on top of the conference center. Avery and Emmabelle just loved all the waterfalls. I think that was their favorite part of the whole day. A shot of the temple from on top of the conference center. It was such a beautiful view and the weather was so nice. We went over to temple square and the girls just loved the flowers they had planted. They were so vibrant. They really enjoyed smelling them.

This was taken inside the Church History Museum. They are the bunk beds that they have replicating what it was like to travel on one of the ships to come to America.
And of course one of my most favorite parts of the visitors center, the Christus, I just love where they have it located and the scenery around it. Avery and Emmabelle were really amazed as well.

Sorry this post is so late, I started it the day after we got home and then just got busy.

Roll Your Hands

2009-04-30T12:26:00.003-07:00

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.

2009-04-29T17:10:00.003-07:00

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.

2009-04-20T20:11:00.002-07:00

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

2009-04-20T20:04:00.003-07:00

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.

2009-04-17T20:45:00.002-07:00

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

2009-04-17T20:12:00.007-07:00

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

2009-04-17T19:05:00.003-07:00

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.

The Garden

2009-03-09T21:43:00.003-07:00

Dave has officially begun work on the garden. The last few nights he has been out there getting he rows together so that he can plant this week. He is so excited. Here are a few pictures of Dave and the girls working in the garden.

This shows the size of the garden.

The fence and the rail road ties are the boundaries.

The row start about two feet in on every side to give walking room.

Dave working on the rows.Avery in the background digging her own rows.The girls having fun in the dirt. Also Avery being cheesy.Dave showing me where everything is going to go.Cute little Emmabelle crawling in the dirt. She just loves it. Don't you just love her little round face.

My Grandpa and Grandma Mortensen

2009-03-09T19:54:00.005-07:00

Married Dec. 9 1943

The last couple of weeks have been pretty crazy for my family. My Grandma Mortensen had been sick and in the hospital for a few weeks, probably most of February, and we weren't really sure if she was going to make it. She had quite a few procedures done to help make her better. We were so happy when she was finally able to come home. Well during all that process my Grandpa's health started to take a turn for the worse and so they scheduled him a doctor's appointment. We all figured it would be pretty routine and that they would give him some medicine to fix the problem and everything would go back to normal. Well that didn't happen instead they gave him 2 days to 6 weeks to live. It was a hard blow to us all. On Thursday February 26 my brother and I left to go to Animas so that we could tell Grandpa that we loved him and pretty much say our goodbyes. Friday was the last day he got out of bed and Sunday evening he passed away.

Dave, Emmabelle, Grandpa, Avery and Clinton.

This picture was taken Friday Feb. 27 2009.

My Dad and his brothers and sisters had been keeping a close eye on my Grandma this whole time. They made sure she knew what was happening and we all thought she was taking it ok. On Monday night she had been resting on the couch and they got her up to eat and from the time she walked from the couch to the table it just somehow hit her all at once. They ended up taking her to the emergency room and were told that nothing physically was wrong with her and that she was just stressed and depressed. They drove her home and put her in bed and she never got out again nor did she open her eyes again. She was so heartbroken and just didn't know how to live without Grandpa. She finally passed away Sunday morning. Almost exactly a week from Grandpa. I think Grandpa was making sure everything was perfect for Grandma. He wouldn't have it any other way he would want everything to be just right when she joined him again. I can picture them dancing in the clouds together. We will have a graveside service for her tomorrow.

We held Grandpa's funeral services on Thursday the 5th and they decided to go ahead and have a memorial for Grandma at the same time. It would be too hard to get everyone back to do a funeral for her also. The whole service was so nice. I really loved Grandpa's casket. It fit him perfectly. Uncle Jim and Uncle Jeff gave the life stories. Courtlyn and Callie Mortensen sang a special number, and then all the grandkids attmepted to sing "Families are Forever." Thank goodness for younger grandkids. Archie Payne gave a nice little talk and shared some good memories about Grandpa. The ward had a nice luncheon for everyone, and then we drove to Virden for the graveside services.

Grandpa and Grandma are being buried next to his parents, and so we were able to get a picture with Emmabelle next to the headstone of her namesake Emma Belle Mortensen. It was neat.

My grandpa was such an amazing man. He was so strong and loved by so many. Counting him and my Grandma there are 85 in the family. I loved being around him. I can remember being at his house when he came home from work and giving him a hard time about smelling bad. He worked at a hog farm so he really did smell bad when he came home. He was so good at taking care of you when you were sick. Except for when he wanted you to drink the nasty black tea to help settle your stomach. He was always teasing you, but that was how you knew he loved you so much. Everytime I drive at night I can still hear him say "I'm going to kick out your headlights." He hated us driving in the dark. You could never walk by his chair without him grabing you by the hand or the arm just to give you a squeeze. I will always remember the way he loved my Grandma. They were such an amazing couple, they were married 65 years this last December. He will always be an example to me.

This hangs in my grandmother's house.

It is all the members of our family.

I will always remember my Grandma's cinnamon rolls, her wonderful attitude towards life and how much she cared about each one of her family members. I also have very high respect for my Grandma. She was always worrying and making sure we were all in line. When we would get together on Sunday nights at their house she would always make sure to get in some kind of gospel principle. She was such a righteous woman. She is the best journal keeper I have ever know and I look forward to being able to read her thoughts and words. She never thought of herself. She loved my Grandpa with all her heart, he was her reason for living. She was a faithful and loving woman to the end and I will always look to her example in my life. I just hope someday I can live up to the standard she kept.

On the day of the funeral all of my grandparent's family were there, except for one of Troy's kids who was getting over being really sick. That put the total of just immediate family to 81. Even with our yearly reunions we haven't been able to pull that number in quite a few years. My mom was really excited because all of her kids and grandkids were able to make it.

The Girls

2009-03-09T19:27:00.003-07:00

There are a few things that I have wanted to post about the girls the last few weeks.

Avery has hit a stage that I am not sure I like and I am not sure exactly how to handle. She is getting extremely good at throwing tantrums, and being defiant. She has become very good at ignoring us altogether. I thought she was hard headed before, it has gotten worse. She is almost always at the extremes. She is either being really good, or really bad. We haven't found a middle ground lately. I guess it is all part of growing up, and I am sure it is the Lord's way of teaching me patience. I wish I was better at it though.

She has so many cute moments. I wish I could have a tape recorder or video recorder on constantly to catch all her cute and quirky moments. She has become quite the tattle tail. The ironic part is she tattles on herself. The other morning I was in the kitchen making breakfast and she comes down the hall from my bedroom and says, "Mom I'm in trouble." I asked her why she was in trouble and she said, "I broke daddy's stuff." In my mind I am laughing but while I talk to her I am trying so hard to be serious. I asked her what she broke as I headed down the hall to see what the damage was. We get into the room and luckily she had just undone the screw on a vice that Dave has to site in a gun. She really hadn't broken anything. She also is becoming very bossy. I like to call her bossy cow. She doesn't like that too much. She always tells me I'm not a bossy cow I'm Avery. She is a very good helper. She likes to help me with the laundry, she is great a sorting the clothes, and she loves to help with the dishes.

We finally got Emmabelle in for a check up with the doctor. She weighs in at 19 lbs, and is 27 1/2 in long. She is in the 40th percentile. She is also trying to be a good helper. She likes to hand me one article of clothing at a time out of the basket when we are sorting clothes. It is so cute. She picks up one thing hands it to me and then contiues until the basket is empty. She has learned how to hold a phone up to her ear. The other morning I caught her doing it and she just looked so adorable trying to get the phone to her ear. It is amazing how they catch on to certain things. She tried eating her cereal off the floor like a dog. She would just stick her tongue out and touch it to the cereal on the floor. I am sure she picked that one up from her sister. She also really enjoys taking puzzles apart. While we were at Grandma Mortensen's house that was one of her favorite things to do.

Catching up

2009-03-09T19:25:00.002-07:00

Tonight I am going to catch up on all the blogging I have missed in the past couple of weeks. At the moment my computer is not working so I have to use Dave's and then I only have certain times I can be on it so I have not been able to keep up. I am going to break up the blogs so it isn't so overwhelming.

Avery is such a big girl!

2009-02-25T08:11:00.003-07:00

I just wanted to say how proud of Avery I am. The last couple of days she has had the signs of a cold coming on. She had a fever and runny nose, and then a yesterday she started showing the signs of pink eye. So we decided to take her to the doctor to get it treated. Those of you that really know Avery she is somewhat on the sensitive side and kind of a chicken. She has never really liked the doctors office. I can't really blame her though for the first handful of doctors visits they go to it has nothing to do with being sick and everything to do with shots. Anyways, she did such a great job yesterday at the doctors office. She hardly even whined. Most the time she is in tears while we are waiting in the exam room for the doctor to show up, and it just escalates from there. Even when I have just taken her with me to one of Emmabelle's appointments she crys. The doctor doesn't even touch her there. She weighed in at a whopping 22.5 lbs. We did get a prescription for the eye, but when I went to drop it off and they told me that I would have to fork out $80, twice as much as the visit to the doctor itself, we decided to just let it run its course. One of the perks of owning your own business, no insurance. Anyway, I just thought it was such a milestone for her anyway. As a mother you take all the progress you can get. I love her to death and I wouldn't change a thing about her, but all the crying and whining sure can take it's toll on you.

PS. Emmabelle has learned to clap. She has finally mastered it. I have been waiting and waiting for it. I think it is one of the cutest things when a baby gets so excited and starts to clap. She thinks she is just the greatest too. So far with my two girls I have decided that this age is my favorite. They learn so much and change so much it really feels very rewarding as a mom.

Weekend Events

2009-02-23T20:39:00.002-07:00

This was the first weekend in quite a while where we were just able to stay home and be together as a family. It was really nice. Dave wasn't working or off scouting, and the girls and I had nothing pressing to do.

Saturday Dave spent most of the day getting the garden started. He was finally able to till it after having my parents tiller for months now. Sorry about that. He also got the manuer spread and tilled also. The only drawback from this was that both my husband and my darling two year old smelled like stinky cow. It was so disgusting. I just hate that smell. Avery had a blast though. Dave was also very excited . He has been dying to have the time to work in the garden. Our biggest goal is to become a little more self sufficient. I am really excited to be able to learn how to can. We have decided to have a massive garden with everything imaginable in it.

I was able to attend our Stake Women's Conference on Saturday. I really enjoyed it. The theme was centered on a quote by President Kimball, "If we follow in the Savior's footsteps, we can live by faith rather than fear. If we can share his perspective about people, we can love them, serve them, and reach ou to them." The first presentation was given by a woman who recently went on a tour of Egypt and Isreal. She was able to visit Bethlehem, Jerusalem, and all those neat places where Christ spent his life on this earth. Some of the things that she told us made me very grateful to live in the US. She said that they pay 8 dollars a gallon for gas, and the taxes for vehicles were at 100% so a $20,000.00 car actually came out to $40,000.00. I know we are in a hard spot right now but thank goodness it isn't that bad. I am not sure of the lady's name who gave one of the talks, but I really enjoyed it. She spoke on how we can adopt Christ's example into our lives. I really wish I was better at remember quotes and things like that because she really had a lot of good points that she brought across. She really stress the importance of not judging other. You never know what someone's situation might be. You don't know what circumstances occured to put them in the position they are in so you have no basis to really judge anyone. This really hit home to me. I know that a lot of times I am guilty of split second judgement and I think now I will try to think twice. Another speaker I really enjoyed was our Stake President. President Harrington is such an amazing man. I always enjoy listening to his words of wisdom. He centered his thoughts on living by faith rather than fear. The point he made that hit home for me was when he started talking about the little things. He basically said that how can we expect the Lord to ask amazing things of us if we can't even accomplish the little things he asks of us. It all starts with daily prayer, scripture study, church attendance, and all those things that are suppose to be second nature to us. It was a very good day.

Sunday we were able to feed the missionaries. It almost ended up being a disaster. The roast was to big and didn't cook fast enough, so last minute we had to change what we were having and ended up serving them hamburgers. Avery was so excited when I told her the missionaries were coming. She came running down the hall telling me that the "airymissions" are coming to my house. It was the cutest. Then when they got here she pretended to be all shy and wouldn't even talk to them.

Emmabelle is getting very good at walking. She walks more than she crawls anymore. It amazes me how fast she is picking it up. She will find somewhere she can stand up, walk as far as she can and then crawls back to stand up and starts all over. She is even walking around outside. It won't be long before she is a pro.

All in all the weekend was very enjoyable. Hope yours was a great one to.

Temple Ground Breaking

2009-02-19T20:14:00.002-07:00

The ground breaking for the Gila Valley Temple was on Saturday Feb. 14. I didn't end up going, but I heard that it was a really good experiance and that the speakers did a really good job. I am planning on going to the site soon to take pictures so that I can keep up on the progress and I will post them as soon as I do. It is going to be so neat to see a temple being built, and it will be even more exciting when it is done and we get to actually start doing work there. I am very excited to have a temple so close. We don't go near as often as we should and I hope that this will help us to start doing the temple work that we should be doing.

President's Day Weekend

2009-02-19T20:04:00.004-07:00

This last weekend the girls and I were able to go and visit Papa and Grandma Mortensen. Dave was super busy and needed to focus extra hard on his work so he kicked us out of the house and what better place to go than the grandparents house. Avery loves going to visit her grandparents. I always take my camera, but then fail to take pictures so once again there is nothing to show for the weekend. We didn't do much just visit and play.

We were able to go see Trina and her family. They have been working hard to get settled into their house. It was really good to see them again though. Avery was terrified of Levi. He kept trying to give her hugs and play with her, but she just didn't like the idea of that. She would come running and crying to myself or grandma to save her. Beau was the cutest about it. He acted as her protector. He would stand right by her and any time Levi came after her he would stand between them and keep Levi away from her. He even started putting his arm around her. I thought it was adorable.

We stayed through Monday afternoon. Other than the sleepless nights, and thanks to my mom I got more sleep than I should have, it was a very good weekend. I always enjoy going over there and not having to worry about anything.

9 Months and First Steps

2009-02-19T19:31:00.003-07:00

Our little Emmabelle has turned 9 months. It is amazing how time flies. She is such a big girl now. On our scale at home she weighs in at 18.5 lbs. I am making a doctors appointment for next week so we shall see how accurate that is.

She loves to jabber and make noise. Her favorite noises are sticking her tongue in and out and blowing zerberts on the furniture. Along with dada and mama her new favorite word is uh oh. She says it anytime she drops something. She still hasn't started using mama and dada to call us, but she has the sounds down.

Her biggest accomplishment in the last month is starting to walk, and she loves it. She started taking her first steps around the 9 month mark and is getting it down really fast. This last week she has started to get brave and ventures away from the furniture. I have no doubt that by 10 months she will be a pro and chasing her sister around the house. I hope you enjoy watching the video of her.

Her current teeth count is 8. Four on top and four on bottom. They are very sharp and she knows how to use them. Everytime I go to get something out of her mouth that she found on the floor I have to pry her mouth open so she will let go of my finger. I am very surprised she hasn't drawn blood. We even bought her first tooth brush the other day. She enjoys chewing on it.

Emmabelle Crawling

2009-02-02T18:07:00.003-07:00

Here is a video of Emmabelle crawling. She is so good at it now and very proud of herself.

Busy Life = Quick Post

2009-02-01T21:25:00.008-07:00

I am sad to say that I have not had time to blog. The only good thing about it is that I have kept myself busy with other things. I will try not to bore you as I catch up on all the exciting events in our lives this past month.

A few weeks ago we were able to get together with a few friends and have a bbq at Thatcher park. It was a lot of fun. We grilled hamburgers and the kids had a good time playing on the slides and swings. Those in attendance were: my brother Clint and his family, Jason and Shannon Green, Jarom and Nicole Lunt with their kids, and then Dave, the girls and I. It was nice to be able to just get out and enjoy the company of such good people. We really like spending time with the friends that we have.

Emmabelle really loves to swing.

We also tried out the slide. She wasn't sure about that.

Avery with her friend Brooke Lunt.

Could you feed us already.

Just being goofy. They are so cute though. They go to nursery together.

The biggest news of this month that I am so excited to share is the small vacation that Dave and I were able to take together. Yes, I mean just the two of us. I would first like to thank all those that helped in making the weekend possible. My parents were more than willing to come and watch the girls for us, they had so much fun with Grandpa and Grandma I don't think they even really missed us. They did so well for it being the first time we have actually left them overnight. Even more incintive to do it more often. Another big helper in the weekend for us was Dave's brother Dan. He was so generous and had some extra points on his credit card that he got us a free hotel stay. Not only was it a free hotel stay for two nights, but he put us up in the Hilton in Mesa. We stayed on the eighth floor. That is the nicest hotel I have ever stayed in. Then on top of that he was able to get us tickets to The Lion King which was sold out. Thank you so much for helping to make our weekend so special.

Dave and I left on Friday afternoon. When we got to Phoenix we went and ate at Olive Garden. My choice of dining for the weekend. We went and said hello to James and Silvia and visited with them for a little while. I decided that I wanted some ice cream and so about an hour later we finally found a DQ. We know our way around Phoenix pretty good, but it always seems that when we want to find something we can never find it. Saturday we had some errands to run. I had to pick up some stuff for my mom, and I also had some shopping to do for my sister-in-law's baby shower. We went and saw The Lion King at ASU Gammage Auditorium. It was such an awesome show. It pretty much follows the story line, but the best part is the costumes, and the music. I would recommend it to anyone. We ate at Pete's Fish and Chips, Dave's choice of dining, and then we went and played a round of put put golf at Golfland. We also had fun afterwards playing video games and such. Sunday we leisurely got up and then headed home. When we got home I was so excited to see my girls. It was such a good and needed weekend. We really enjoyed being able to be together and just worry about us. I think I have convinced my husband to make it more of a tradition. I would really like to start doing it about twice a year. Once around our anniversary, and then again around the 6 month mark. The only bad thing about the whole weekend was that I had a major tooth ache the whole weekend. I pretty much stayed drugged up and I had a real hard time eating.

When we were gone on our trip Grandpa decided to take it upon himself and build the girls swingset. Avery was so excited to see her swing finally hanging and capable of being swung on. She had been begging us since Christmas to swing on her swing, but with time constraints Dave just hadn't gotten it done. Thanks Grandpa the girls just love it.

This Saturday we had Nicole's baby shower. I got together with her mom and sisters, and my mom and planned the party. It was John Deere themed, since that is what the baby's room will be decorated in. I had a lot of fun planning it and I think that Nicole enjoyed the finished product. I made my first ever diaper cake. It really isn't all that hard, but I was very proud of my finished product. I will have to get a picture from my mom and post it later. I made a recieving blanket, and a quilt, and used them to decorate the second and third tiers with. We played a couple of games and just enjoyed visiting with friends and family. I will have to post pictures later.

Avery and Emmabelle are doing well. Emmabelle is moving more and more every day. She crawls all over the house, and she walks along anything she can hold on to. She is also starting to get brave and lets go and stands all by herself. She does pretty good. She will be walking before we know it. She definately has a temper on her and gets very frusterated when she can't get to where she wants to go. She is following in her sister's footsteps and is head over heals in love with her Daddy. All he has to do is walk in the room and she is at his feet begging to be picked up and crys when he puts her down. Somedays it is hard for me, and I don't feel very loved by my children. I don't know if other moms feel the same way, but I try to remember that they are with me all day long and Daddy is just a change of scenery. Also Daddies don't have to discipline all day long and say no all the time. Oh, big news. Emmabelle said one of her first words with real meaning behind it today. She has been saying dada and mama but not for their true meaning, but today she dropped her bottle while she was eating and said uh oh. It is so cute. We can get her to mimic us also and Dave just loves to play the uh oh game with her.

The other evening after we had given the girls their bath I was sitting on the couch watching TV and Emmabelle comes walking over and this is what I saw.

At first I couldn't figure it out so I went and look where she was playing and I found a pretty blue crayon. Everything goes in the mouth.

Avery looks forward to the days that she gets to play with her friends and she loves to go outside and swing on her swing. She does really good at swinging on her tummy when I have had enough of pushing her, and she is doing pretty good at sharing when her cousin Merry comes over to play. She really loves to go high. I am working on her whining and crying the best I can. If anyone has any suggestions on that one please let me know. I have a hard time keeping my cool when she is crying all the time, but I have learned that I do have the self control to not yell so much and am very proud of my progress the last couple of days. She is becoming more aware of Heavenly Father and Jesus. In the past she has asked questions about the moon and wondered why it wakes up at night and my response to questions like that is usually "because that's the way Heavenly Father made it" Well the other day we were in the car and I had just rolled my window down to talk to Dave and as we were pulling out of the drive way she asked me if I would roll her window down. I proceeded to tell her that her window didn't roll down and this was here reply:

"Mom I just want Heavenly Father to make my window roll down."

"Well Avery Heavenly Father can't make your window roll down. The car just isn't made that way."

"But I just want Heavenly Father to roll down my window."

"Heavenly Father didn't make the car honey, people made the car and it just won't roll down I am sorry."

Seriously how do you explain something like that to a two year old. It was so cute though, and it always makes me feel good to hear her talk about the gospel. I really feel like she is learning and that somehow I am helping to build her testimony and planting that seed.

The other night Dave made the girls a fort. They just loved it so much. Avery wanted to sleep in it. Dave made her a little bed and gave her a flash light to play with. Emmabelle just wanted to tear it down. It was really cute to watch them.We have been very excited about the business that we have been getting lately. January was a busy month for Dave and he has even been booked out about a week so, that is good. His usual goal for the month is 9 appraisals and in January he got 11 or 12. This is such a comfort to us since the economy has been declining, but with the decrease in interest rates that has really helped the business keep going.

I will continue to try and post more often so that I don't have to do so much catch up when I finally do post. That should help to keep it interesting.

Emmabelle is 8 Months

2009-01-17T10:07:00.007-07:00

Emmabelle has reached the 8 month mark. Time is flying so fast. I feel like I don't even have time to enjoy all she is accomplishing and learning. My baby just isn't a baby anymore. She has very quickly reach pre-toddlerhood. I guess that is what you would call it. She is now around 17lbs or so. We have only weighed her on our scale at home. I have been a slacker at taking her to the doctor. All I know is that she is quickly catching up to her sister who is around the 20lb mark.

She loves pulling up on the laundry basket. This is what she first started to pull up on. When it isn't full enough to pull up on I just let her play in it and she loves it just as much.

She has accomplished quite a bit. She now has 7 teeth, four on top and three on bottom. She is a full on crawler and she pulls up on anything that she can and is also walking along furniture. She is even starting to attempt to let go. She thinks she is so big. I know that she really just wants to chase after her big sister.

She is also good at pulling up on the recliner. Her favorite thing to do here is to blow on the leather and make funny noises. She will also do this on your arm if she gets the chance, you just can't mind a little drool.

She loves being outside. I usually keep her in one of her bouncers, but she also loves to play in the dirt, and loves to eat it. She really likes going for rides in the wagon. She would spend all day outside if she could.

She love's anything that has to do with Avery. Avery can make Emmabelle laugh at the drop of a hat. Sometimes Avery just has to look at Emmabelle and she will just start busting up laughing. Avery is really good about it all until Emmabelle pulls her hair, or tackles her attempting to pull herself up on her. Avery isn't quite strong enough to hold Emmabelle's weight.

If Emmabelle is doing it, Avery is doing it. Avery loves her sister so much and just wants to be with her all the time. I think it is so sweet. Sometimes I think it is mostly because she wants the attention, but either way she loves playing with Emmabelle and helping take care of her. She is a great big sister.

She gets so excited when it is bath time. She likes to splash and blow bubbles in the water. We have cups in there for them to play with and she fills it with water and blows bubbles in the cup. It is really cute.

We are starting to learn about her temper. She is developing that really well also. She will get so mad, she either lays on her back and screams and throws her legs around, or she will lay on her tummy put her face in her hands whine and kick her feet. I have to admit I think it is so cute. We will see how long that lasts though.

She has such a sweet spirit. She can always melt my heart. She has this cheesy little grin that I adore. She is so full of life and I can't imagine our home with out her. I have been very blessed with two wonderful children. Although my patience is tried I feel so blessed for what I have.

I did a little photo shoot with the girls and realized I never posted the pictures. It was really fun to do, I just wish I was better at it. I would really like to get a better camera and learn photography. Maybe someday. Here are a couple picture of Avery. These are her two year pictures.

The best Husband in the World.

2009-01-17T09:54:00.002-07:00

Dave has been such a good husband and father lately I just wanted to let him know how much I love and appreciate all that he does for us, not that he isn't always good, but he has had to pick up quite a bit of slack lately. Tuesday night I wasn't feeling the greatest and I thought it was just due to the chili rellenos that we had for dinner. Unfortunately I woke up Wednesday morning with the flu. My stomach was cramping and I was spending a lot of time in the bathroom. Needless to say I was in no condition to take care of two children. (I really think mom's shouldn't be capable of getting sick.) So the wonderful husband that he is took over. He did all of his work, plus take care of the kids all day. He got them breakfast, dressed them, and tended to them for the day. Avery got to watch a lot of TV which she just loved. I hate to admit that we watch way to much TV, but we are slowly working on it. He took them to run his errands, and since it was Wednesday night he even took them to scouts, and from what I hear it wasn't the best night at scouts. One of the best things about it is that he did it all without complaining once. He was so wonderful about it all.

Avery's new do.

2009-01-17T09:52:00.002-07:00

I posted about Avery's new haircut earlier, but I just wanted to post a cuter picture of it all done up. We just think she is so cute with her new hair and she really likes it to. She even lets me curl it on Sunday's.

Night time madness.

2009-01-08T10:09:00.003-07:00

So I really meant to get on the computer yesterday and be all excited about the nights sleep that we had. For some reason this house isn't seeing many good nights of sleep. Emmabelle still wakes up around 4 or so for a bottle on most nights, and Avery's sleeping habit has just gotten worse. She was such a good sleeper from about 8:30 to between 6:00 and 7:00. Now for some reason she tends to wake up and come into our room, sometimes mulitple times a night. But the night before last it was a miracle. Avery was in bed by 8:45 and Emmabelle around 9:15, she had a late nap and what do you know they both slept all night. Emmabelle woke up around 7:15 and Avery slept clear til 8:00. Dave and I were exstatic. On nights like these I try to remember exactly what I did before bed so I can do it again hopeing for the same result.

Unfortunately last night was a disaster. Dave had a really busy day and we didn't get to see him at all really, just in passing. He started school and is taking a day class and a night class that happen to be on the same day. Then he also has mutual on Wednesday nights and so I usually let Avery stay up until he gets home which is usually not later than 9:00. She just hates the days that she doesn't get to play with her Dad. Not last night he was a little later and by the time he got home Avery was way beyond tired and that makes for a bad night. I didn't want to put her to bed though because she would have thrown a huge fit and woken up Emmabelle. I know who is the parent right. So needless to say neither of our children slept last night and I ended up on the couch. It was a very short lived celebration, but I am happy for the little blessing of sleep the night before. I have been trying really hard lately to see the positive. I tend to dwell on the negative and I am a little tired of that. It is hard to do, but I am going to prevail. Anyways there is my little spill on sleep habits in the Hartman household.

Ringing in the New Year

2009-01-05T12:59:00.004-07:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a good New Year's. I don't know why people need a new year to start changing things in their lives, but for some reason we are creatures of habit and that is how it goes. So once again as the new year has approached I have tried really hard to look at my life and make goals that I can hopefully live up to. I tend to bite off to much at once, but this year I am hopeing to focus on a little at a time and break it up by month. I will focus on one or two things each month and hopefully by months end I will have made progress. One of my goals is to do better at journal keeping. I have made good progress with my blog, (for some reason it is easier on to do on the computer) but sometimes I don't feel I give enough detail. So for those of you that read my blog please bare with me. The reason I want more detail is because I will eventually compile the blog into a book. I already put last years into a book and it will make such a wonderful keepsake. I will try not to bore you though.

Now to recap the past week. New Year's Eve was a pretty eventful day for us. I ended up getting Avery's hair cut. This time I really cut it though, I didn't just trim it. It took Dave a while to warm up to it though, but I just love it. She looks so cute. Dave says she looks older. We have gotten quite a few comments from people saying how cute she looks. I haven't gotten a good picture yet, but you can hopefully see it from these pictures. I will try to take a better picture soon.

Here is a good back view.

Also we spent the day getting ready for Dave's parents to arrive. This meant cleaning house and going grocery shopping. Dave's parents were suppose to arrive early evening, but unfortunately they had some delays due to snow and didn't get here until around 8:00. Avery was so excited for them to come. We were suppose to go to dinner with them, but since they weren't going to be here until late Dave and I jumped on the opportunity and went out on a date. My Mom and Dad were passing through town on their way back home from the valley to spend New Year's with us so they were going to watch the kids. Unfortunately my Grandpa called saying my Grandma wasn't doing so well so Mom and Dad went home to help with her. My brother Clint was nice enough to watch Avery, so Dave, Emmabelle, and I could go to dinner. I had planned on staying up to ring in the new year, but I guess I am getting old. 10:00 hit and I was done for. Dave and his mom ended up staying up talking, but I just couldn't make it.

New Year's day was spent just enjoying the company of Clay and Mary. We had a leisure morning. We were able to open presents from Clay and Mary.

Emmabelle working on her present.

Avery showing off her new purse and dolly.

This is probably the best front view of Avery's hair.

Emmabelle looking at her new book and clothes.

We also went and drove around town looking at land. Jan. 1 is also Mary's birthday so we decided that we would go to Chalos for lunch, unfortunately they are closed on New Year's. That evening the boys went shooting and the girls just hung out. When Dave and Clay got home we had a nice steak dinner for Mary's birthday with some good cake and ice cream to go with it. Clay and Mary had to continue on their way on Friday, but we really enjoyed getting to spend time with them. Avery just loves her grandparents to death and can't wait until she gets to see them again. She loves talking to them on the phone, and without fail asks them to come to her house. Emmabelle even did surprisingly well and let both Clay and Mary hold her without too much fuss.

Emmabelle cuddling with her Papa Clay. I thought it was so cute.

Saturday Dave was able to spend a good deal of time working on his garden. He is so excited to be able to grow a garden. He got all of his rail road ties in place and it looks really good. We are going to have a huge garden. We are planning on eating what we can and then canning the rest to help with our year supply. I was able to start working on my sister-in-laws baby shower that I am throwing for her, and I also worked on the house a little.

Sunday started bright and early. We have now moved to the 9:00 time slot so we no longer get to sleep in. We were on time though which was an accomplishment. This year I am going to try to start singing in the choir. We will have to see. They practice right after church, but Dave has meetings, and it is right in the middle of lunchtime and naps. We'll see how it goes.

Christmas 2008

2008-12-29T06:58:00.008-07:00

Christmas time has come and gone once again. We had such a good Christmas this year. It was definately challenging financial wise, as I am sure a lot of you can relate, but in the end it was very nice.

We spent the holiday with my parents this year. We went over on Christmas Eve. My family has a tradition that on Christmas Eve night we go over to Grandpa and Grandma Mortensen's house, have dinner, and then have a program. We have taken the program out of the Home Evening manual through the church and added a few extra touches to it. I have always loved being envolved in this. This just helps to bring Christ into the picture more. I love listening to my family sing the Christmas songs and since there isn't a piano or a piano player it is all a capella. The spirit is always so strong there and it has always been one of my favorite parts of Christmas.

Christmas morning the first call for presents came at around 3:45 or so. Avery woke up and told Dave that she wanted to open her presenents (sounds like presidents) as she calls them. Dave quickly told her no and so we went back to sleep. Then around 6:00 Emmabelle woke up so I took her in the living room and waited for Avery to wake up on her own. We had a late night, and she hadn't slept very well through the night. She got up around 6:30 and then the fun began. Avery and Emmabelle were the only grandkids there so they were the center of attention. My sister Lori was also there with us. When Avery first got in there she wasn't quite awake and so she wasn't too excited. After I showed her her stocking and the fun things in it she was ready for the rest. Santa brought the girls new swings. Dave is going to build them a swing set in the back yard. Avery will be so excited once it is finally up. For Christmas this year Dave and I decided that we were going to give ourselves a weekend get away. So sometime in January my mom will come over and watch the girls so we can have a much needed weekend to ourselves. I am very excited about this. We weren't suppose to get each other any presents, but being the most amazing husband in the world he didn't stick to the rules. He spoils me too much. He also got me a small nativity. It just has Mary Joseph and baby Jesus and it lights up with a tea light. It is so pretty though, when I saw it in the church book store I fell in love with it, and he also got me the Alpha and Omega picture of Christ for my home. The other big gift that we got that Dave and I are excited for is the Food Saver that we got from my parents, and they also helped us can some beef, chicken, butter, and pancake mix to help us with our year supply.

Emmabelle playing with the gifts from Santa.

The first face I got from Avery. She wasn't quite ready for all the happenings.

Avery looking at her gifts from Santa.

Emmabelle opening her first Christmas gift.

Avery finally warming up to the whole experience.

Grandma bought gingerbreadmen for the kids to decorate.

We had Christmas dinner at my grandparents house. Those in attendence were Grandpa and Grandma Mortensen, my Uncle Jim and Aunt Marie, my parents, Lori , Clint, Nicole and their kids, and then Dave, the kids and I. My Aunt Rosanne and Uncle David were suppose to come, but they ended up coming down with something. So Christmas morning my mom and I spent the morning cooking our little hearts out to get Christmas dinner ready. We cooked both a ham and a turkey, mashed potatos, sweet potatos, stuffing, and rolls. It was a very busy morning, but dinner turned out delicious. We spent the day enjoying each other's company.

Avery rocking with the reindeer.

Emmabelle actually let Papa Great hold her. It was a miracle.

Emmabelle playing with Aunt Lori.

Emmabelle showing off her attempts at crawling.

The day after Christmas we spent canning food with Mom and Dad. They bought a whole bunch of beef, chicken, butter, and pancake mix. We used the pressure cooker for the meat, and then the Food Saver for the pancake mix. The butter is done by melting it in a pot and then putting it in the jars putting lids on and then shaking it about every five minutes or so until it cools and then putting it in the fridge and contiue shaking it until it solidifies again. It was a fun day and it has gotten me a little more excited about food storage. That evening my Uncle Wil and Aunt Robyn and their family came to visit, so we went back over to Grandpa and Grandma Mortensen's to visit. We also had a snow strom blow in and it ended up covering the ground.

Marcy, Merry, Avery, and Grandma Mortensen working on building a snowman.

It ended up being a snowbaby.

Here's a close up, isn't it cute.

On Saturday the boys were finally able to go coyote hunting. Before today it had been to windy to go. Dave was very excited. The girls just ended up hanging around the house. The kids did finally talk Grandma into taking them outside to play. I went out to take pictures. I hate the snow and so I didn't want to stay out there to long. They ended up making a snowbaby. I don't think we can actually call it a snowman. It was pretty small, but with a five year old and two, two year olds helping Grandma I think it turned out pretty cute. The kids had fun and once they got to cold came back inside and enjoyed playing games. The hunting party was partly successful. They were able to call in a dog and Dave even hit it, but they weren't able to find it. Clint and Nicole's family had to go home so she could work. Dave and Dad ended up going back out that evening and Mom was a champ and took care of the girls because I ended up getting a migraine. It was a fun day though.

Sunday we just went to church and then over to Grandpa and Grandma Mortensen's for Sunday dinner, so we could visit with Wil's family some more before they had to go. Dave and I were also going home so it was nice to be able to see everyone before that.

Emmabelle in her Christmas dress.

Avery's Christmas dress.

Two cute girls.

And a dang good looking family.

It was such a good weekend and very relaxing. Dave and I always enjoy getting out of town, spending time with family, and enjoying some much needed relaxation. Thanks to all the family who made our Christmas special.

Fall Leaves

2008-12-23T21:41:00.003-07:00

Well the time finally came again to rake the leaves in our front yard. Our tree has a habit of dropping all of it's leaves on the same day. It just decides it is done with the leaf thing and poof they just drop like flies. The girls really had fun playing in them. Avery was a little upset, I had tried to take her picture in the tree and she ended up hitting her head on one of the branches and that was it. But she ended up having a good time after a little coaxing from me. We had a nice little leaf war and Avery just thought that was so fun.

This is Avery before she decided to have fun. Pretty pitiful huh.

Now we are liking it a little more.

Emmabelle helping to cheer her sister up.

Avery buried in the leaves.

Emmabelle really had a great time playing in the leaves. She was a little leary at first but really enjoyed it after a few minutes. She especially liked it when we threw the leaves in the air. She even did really good not to eat any, which has been a challenge in times past.

Christmas Stockings

2008-12-23T21:37:00.003-07:00

Here is a picture of our stockings. I have always loved my stocking. It is just another thing that ties us all together as a family. I really love the closeness that we all share. Dave, the kids and I were driving around looking at Christmas lights on Sunday night and we drove by a house and in the front yard were about a dozen kids just playing and laughing and having fun. It made me remember when we were little and all got together at Grandpa and Grandma's house. It is so wonderful to have so much family and to be able to share such a close bond. I hope that it continues through the years.

Emmabelle hits some milestones.

2008-12-21T19:21:00.003-07:00

I am so excited to announce that today my baby said mama. Yep that is right after babbling dada for a few weeks now she finally uttered the word mama. Although it wasn't intentional or meant she was talking about me it does not matter. Those two beautiful syllables came out of her little mouth. She was hungry and ready for her bottle this morning and as I took her to feed her she cried mama. It made me so happy.

She also surprised me with another accomplishment. She sat up from a laying position. We were in the mothers lounge at church and she was playing on the floor and all the sudden she just sat right up. She has yet to do it again, but she is changing so much. Pretty soon she will be running through the house with her sister.

Random Thoughts.

2008-12-17T21:45:00.005-07:00

Just wanted to let ya know that we are still alive. I haven't had much to post about lately, you would think with the season I would have so much to say, but in all honesty much hasn't been happening. We had our ward Christmas party last Saturday. It was ok. I have decided that I must have just been overly spoiled growing up in Animas, because I have never had any holiday or activity compare to those we had in Animas growing up. They didn't even have a Santa for the kids. We did graduate from mexican food though, don't get me wrong I love the stuff, but how many different variations of enchilada's can you have. This year we had ham and turkey. The members of the ward brought all the sides and desserts. We enjoyed a nice meal, and then they showed the video "Joy to the World". The company was good and the food was great, but I guess I just need to stop comparing everything to Animas, we are just in a class of our own. The only problem with that is I want my children to enjoy the same experiences I had. Tree festivals, Christmas programs, and just plain community unity. The members here are nice enough, but it just isn't the same. My biggest fear is the only way to fix it is get more envoloved and I just don't know how I really feel about that. I apologize for my ranting, sometimes it just has to be done.

We are all doing well. We just got over some colds, the girls still have coughs. Avery keeps trying to convince me that she needs medicine. It is a lose lose situation if you ask me, they make it taste good so they will take it, but then they don't understand when you tell them they can't have the good tasting medicine. I just tell her that the bottle said I couldn't give her anymore. That seems to work until the next time she has a coughing fit and then we repeat the scenario. She is getting very excited for Christmas. I am trying to work the Savior in their more. She got upset though when I told her that we were celebrating Jesus' birthday and not hers. She wanted it to be her party and not Jesus'. Another fun thing is randomly throughout the day she will just pipe up and say "It's almost Christmas time." with the biggest smile on her face.

Emmabelle is getting so big. I can hardly believe it. She is starting to scoot around the floor more. Still not crawling fully. She just can't quite figure it out. I am still not sure how much she weighs, but I am sure it is not far from her sister. She is quite solid. She is such a good baby and I feel greatly blessed for that.

Dave is also doing well. The business is still plugging along. He has been surprisingly busy for December. We hope and pray that it continues. He is still enjoying the scouting program. Most of his older boys just moved up a class so he has a pretty young group and is having to start over on getting them to rank. He is busy trying to plan the big campouts for the summer. They were suppose to go to Geronimo, but decided that he could do all the same stuff at much less of a cost so now he has to get all that planned so he can include it in the budget for next year.

There isn't much to say about me. I have enjoyed decorating my house for the Christmas season and enjoy spending my time with the kids. I am sad that my scrapbooking class has ended. I was very productive this semester and ended up finishing Avery's first year. I will have to take some pictures of my favorite pages and post them. I had so much fun. The college has a great class and I had access to a lot of materials that I wouldn't normally have. I hope to be able to take it again next semester. We shall see.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year. I don't know if I will post again before then so God Bless and enjoy.

Safford Light Festival

2008-12-08T16:59:00.005-07:00

On Saturday night we were able to get together with some family and friends and go to the Safford Light Festival. Those in attendance were my family, Clint, Nicole, Marcy, Merry, Kevin, Brianne, and Chancey. My parents actually surprised us and showed up at the festival and Justin, Cassie, Kabri, and Paxton Echols joined us for the light parade. The festivies started at 5:00. We took the kids to see Santa on Main Street. They had a small little house for him, it was really cute.

Chancey Mortensen with Santa.

After we saw Santa we just walked down Main Street. There were some vendors, and they also had a stage set up where they were doing some performances and some other entertainment. We didn't watch to much of that. After we saw all there was to see we found the place that we wanted to sit and watch the parade and sat there for about an hour and a half. The light parade didn't actually start until 7:00 and then we were about at the half way mark. We were pretty disappointed with the parade. It was very drawn out. The floats were about a block apart. It took them forever to get to us and once they did they drove so fast by us we didn't really get to enjoy them. We did find out that towards the beginning of the parade they were doing some commentating and so that is what was holding up the show, but it was pretty bad. We ended up leaving early due to cranky kids and just sheer frustration. The floats we did see were really nice. My favorite one was being pulled by a hummer and they had turned the hummer into Santa Clause. It had a beard, eyebrows that moved, and a big Santa hat, I tried to get a picture of it, but it drove by to fast. We did have an enjoyable time being with friends and family and Avery loved what we did see of the parade.

Waiting for the parade to come our way.

On Sunday night we were able to go out and look at houses that have been decorated for Christmas. It was such a nice family outing, Avery really enjoyed all the pretty lights and Emmabelle just loved being out of the house.

One more little tidbit. On Sunday afternoon we were sitting around and Dave and I had been talking about his parents and all the sudden Avery said, "Heavenly Father is sad." I asked her why Heavenly Father is sad and her relpy was, "Because Papa and Grandma won't come see me." I thought that it was the cutest thing I have ever heard. She really gets sad when she talks to them on the phone and they can't come and see her at that exact moment. Apparently she has also picked up on my trying to teach her about doing things that will make Heavenly Father and Jesus happy. Most the time it is when we are talking about going to church and she doesn't want to go. I tell her that if we don't go it will make them sad. It just goes to show how her little mind works and that she knows how to apply things in her little mind.

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

2008-12-08T16:31:00.008-07:00

On Friday night we were able to begin the Christmas season. We went to Home Depot and bought the cutest little live tree we could find then went home and proceeded to decorate it. I am very adamant about having live trees. Avery was very much in the middle of the whole process. She loved being able to put the ornaments on and was very excited about the lights.

Avery before the tree was decorated.

Emmabelle had such a good time just watching all the commotion.

The girls getting ready for the fun to begin.Avery learning how to put ornaments on the tree.

It didn't take her long to become a pro.

This is what Emmabelle found to do while we were busy decorating the tree. It is hard to tell, but it is wrapped around her from head to toe. At one point it was around her little neck. She had a blast.

My husband is so nice and has let it become my tradition to top the tree. It was his idea to use a Santa hat though. This is the second year we have used it and we really like it.

The girls and I with the finished product.

The Hartman family with our cute little tree.

Ambrosia's Birthday Party

2008-11-30T19:57:00.004-07:00

On Saturday Avery attended her friend Ambrosia's birthday party. It was quite the party. The theme was Sleeping Beauty. Each girl got a Sleeping Beauty dress, and the two boys that came got armor so they could be knights. There was a jumping castle, a blow up dragon for the knights to slay, and a pinata. They also had in their back yard a swing set, and a little playhouse. There was definately plenty for the children to do. After we ate lunch and broke the pinata we had cake and ice cream. Actually Rose's dad had to break the pinata. After the kids had their fill of swinging at it he busted it open. It was really cute to watch them attempt to break it, keep in mind these are two and three year olds. The one boy that gave it a try actually put a hole in it, most of the girls barely even tapped it. I am proud to say that Avery actually got in a couple of good swings for being so small. She thought it was pretty fun. When it was time to come home Avery got her own gift bag with a ton of goodies in it, and her own little personal Sleeping Beauty cake to go with it.

Avery in the jumping castle. It took her few minutes to warm up but she really enjoyed it once she finally got in it.This is just a picture of the whole castle. It was really cute. That is Avery that you can see in the picture.

Avery swinging at the pinata.

Keanan, Emma, Camilla, Rose (in the back), Lydia, Avery, and Beau

Emma is the only on that isn't in Avery's nursery class.

A Day at the Zoo

2008-11-30T19:21:00.007-07:00

On Friday we were able to take the girls to the zoo. We debated on going to zoo lights, but decided that just going to see the animals was probably enough. We went with James' family and Dan and Sarah also joined us. The weather was perfect. We were worried about rain, but all we had was nice cloud cover to keep it nice and cool. We couldn't have asked for a better day. This was Avery's first time to the zoo, and she just loved it. She got so excited about all the animals and loved running around with her cousins. Emmabelle did really well just riding in the stroller and taking in all the scenery. She isn't quite old enough to get overly excited about the animals yet, but she just enjoys being outside.

This is the girls waiting in line to get tickets to the zoo.

Really we only had to pay for Dave and I.

Dave and Avery watching the elephant eat.

It is really amazing to watch them use their trunks.Annie and Avery at the elephants.

The Orangutans. I guess it is pretty rare for all four of them to be out at one time. They have a daddy, mommy, baby, and a grandma. They were very active while we were there. The baby was all over the place climbing and doing summersaults. It was really fun to watch. This is in the monkey village. You actually go into the place were they keep these little monkeys and watch them run and jump through the trees chasing each other. It is neat to get to see them so close up. This is a little play area that they have near the petting zoo. They call it Harmony Farms. It is all Fisher Price Little People stuff. It was really cute. Emmabelle enjoyed playing in the dry dirt in the barn.

Here is another picture of Emmabelle through a side window of the barn.

They also had a slide that was just perfect for Avery she could do it all by herself.
This is at the petting zoo. They have this large area where they let all the goats out and you can go in and brush them. They are so tame. Most of them hardly even move. They just lay around and let the kids climb all over them. Avery did surprisingly well. She really liked the goats. They also have some sheep, and a miniture ox, it was very tame also.
Emmabelle also enjoyed exploring the goats.
She liked to pet them and feel their ruff hair.
Avery and Uncle Dan at the Giraffes.

We were able to have a picnic lunch at the zoo and then after that we went back to James and Sylvia's house and played some more with the cousins. All in all we had a really nice trip to the valley.

Thanksgiving 2008

2008-11-30T17:53:00.005-07:00

We spent this Thanksgiving with Dave's family. We left Safford Thursday morning and had our Thanksgiving late lunch at James and Silvia's house. All in attendance were: Clay, Mary, John, James, Silvia, Tom, Billy Tom's friend, Dave and I, Dan, Sarah, John Boxberger from Flagstaff, and the kids, Annie, McKay, Avery, Sadie, and Emmabelle. It was a very nice and relaxing day. We had lots of good turkey and a very delicious honey baked ham. We spent the evening just visiting and enjoying each others company.

Annie, McKay and Avery enjoying their Thanksgiving dinner.Dave, Mary and Clay

Avery with her Grandpa Hartman.

Mary and Annie playing, Avery playing with her Uncle Dan and Sarah.

Annie and McKay really enjoy riding their bikes, luckily they also had this tricycle so Avery was able to join in on the fun. Unfortunately her legs were to short so I got the pleasure of pushing her around. She really loved it though. It would be a great Christmas present if she could do it all by herself. We will just have to wait another year or so, until she grows a couple more inches.

8 Thing Tag

2008-11-20T21:15:00.004-07:00

So I have finally been tagged. I really thought I was going to get away with not having to do something like this, but here it goes.

8 TV shows I watch
1. NCIS
2. Army Wives
3. The Starter Wife
4. America's Next Top Model
5. Days of our Lives
6. Handy Manny
7. Mickey Mouse Club House
8. Law & Order SVU
Six and seven are compliments of my two year old.

8 Things I remember about yesterday.
Don't know if I can remember 8 things, but I will try.
1. It was Wednesday. I don't always know what day of the week it is.
2. I had Tangy OJ Chicken for Dinner.
3. Avery had a 100% dry day.
4. I did 5 loads of laundry.
5. The girls actually slept in until 6:30.
6. I got the dishes done, you couldn't tell today.
7. The weather was really nice. We really enjoyed playing outside in the afternoon.
8. I read Avery and Emmabelle the library books that we got on Tuesday.

8 Places I like to eat.
1. Hunan in Flagstaff
2. Subway
3. Chalos
4. Arby's
5. Golden Coral
6. Olive Garden
7. Chili's
8. Applebee's

8 things I look forward to.
1. Thursday nights, I get to go scrapbooking for 3 hours.
2. The weekends, Dave actually gets to spend quality time with us.
3. Christmas. It is my favorite time of year.
4. My Birthday. I have always loved my birthday.
5. My children's firsts. I love watching them discover new things.
6. Visiting family. I love going places and especially getting to visit with my family.
7. Fall. I love to see the colors change and I love the crisp air after such a hot summer.
8. Taking the girls to the zoo this Thanksgiving weekend.

8 things on my wish list.
1. Happy, healthy kids.
2. I could look like I did in highschool.
3. The world wasn't such a scary place.
4. The word whine didn't exist. I have a very whiny two year old I am getting pretty tired of.
5. Financial Security
6. A new and improved wardrobe. I would really like to go on the show What not to Wear.
7. My dream house.
8. Retirement.

Tag it's your turn.

1. Cassie
2. Joni
3. Keri
4. Shannon
5. Danae
6. Trachel
7. Becca
8. Lynna

Potty Training Update

2008-11-18T16:55:00.002-07:00

I am pleased to announce that we are a one diaper baby house. Avery is successfully potty trained. She is doing so well, she rarely has an accident, and when she does have an accident she is good to stop it and finish going on the potty. That means most the time I just have to change the underware and the pants stay dry. She has very good bladder control. She stays dry all night and through her naps, and she also stays dry all through church. We have graduated from her little potty to the big potty, (it only took the incentive of M&M's). We were rewarding her for going on her little potty with M&M's, but I couldn't get her to go on the big potty so we changed the incentive. In order to get M&M's she has to go on the big potty and by golly it worked. Our last step is to get her to poop in the potty. She tells me when she has to go, but we are still putting a diaper on her to go. She just throws a huge fit. Soon she will run out of diapers and she will have no choice. It will happen eventually. It will be so nice to only have to buy diapers for one kid now. Oh just a side note, if Avery were still wearing diapers, her and Emmabelle would be in the same size. We just moved Emmabelle up to a three.

We will miss you Aunt Lori!!

2008-11-18T16:50:00.002-07:00

Well the day has finally come where we no longer have an Aunt Lody (as Avery says it). We really enjoyed having her live here and it was so nice to have a live in babysitter. She was always such a big help with the kids, and was always quick to jump in when I was getting at the end of my rope. I also loved coming home from a weekend getaway to a much needed clean living room. She was really good at cleaning it while we were away, since I have a bad habit of leaving it a mess. We wish her the best of luck in Tucson and want her to know that we love her very much.

Date Night

2008-11-18T16:45:00.002-07:00

Last night Dave and I were able to go on a much needed date. We called up our friends Jason and Shannon Green and went bowling. We had dinner at the bowling alley, and then were able to bowl two games. It was so much fun. Dave and I had an off night on the bowling end, but we still managed to come out smiling. I don't know what was wrong, but I didn't even break 100, which I normaly do. Usually not much over 100, but I at least break it. I only got 1 spare and 1 strike out of the two games, and for some reason I am the worlds best split bowler. I bowl a split almost everytime, but I have yet to learn how to pick it up. Dave was able to break 100 both games, but his scores weren't near where they usually are. We had so much fun with Jason and Shannon and being out togther.

Bath Time Fun!!

2008-11-17T21:49:00.004-07:00

Avery has always enjoyed taking baths with Emmabelle. This is the first bath that they have taken together since Emmabelle started sitting up by herself. They had such a good time together. This was on Sunday morning before church. They made such a mess splashing water all over. They both love the bath so much. When Emmabelle is laying down in the bath she kicks her legs so much and just loves to splash. Now she just does it with her arms. It was so cute to watch them together.

I took this video of them. It is just with my camera, so it is kind of hard to hear.

Here is just a picture of the cute pair. You can see the water all over the bathtub and them.

Ward Party

2008-11-15T20:03:00.002-07:00

Tonight we went to our ward pie and ice cream social. It was pretty fun. Avery had a blast running around with her friends (that includes anyone that will play with her). There were a lot of good pies and some good homemade ice cream. Dave really enjoyed talking to his buddies about hunting and fishing. He really enjoys the men in our ward. There are a lot of them that hunt and fish, so he always has someone to talk to, plus he is just very social. I enjoyed myself and got to visit with a few of the ladies in the ward. All in all it was a pretty good success. Oh as for Emmabelle she just enjoyed taking in all of the scenery and commotion of it all.

Smores and Friends

2008-11-15T19:51:00.003-07:00

Last night we had a few friends over to have some smores and marshmallows. We have a clearing in our backyard, so we built a fire and had a great time. The night was so beautiful, we couldn't have asked for better. Justin, Cassie, and Kabri Echols, Jason and Shannon Green, and Jarom, Nicole, and Brooke Lunt were those that came. Avery devoured the marshmallows as quick as she could get her hands on them, and Emmabelle enjoyed some yummy graham crackers. We really enjoyed being able to visit with friends and enjoyed the beautiful Arizona night.

The girls and I before the party started.Avery learning how to roast marshmallows.The Echols: Kabri, Cassie, and JustinAvery with Jason and Shannon Green. Avery just loves Shannon.One more picutre of Avery roasting by herself.

Family Outing

2008-11-11T21:57:00.003-07:00

Tonight we were able to go to the duck ponds. Avery really enjoys feeding the ducks and as soon as I have saved enough bread we take an evening and go feed the ducks. Today was more out of necessity than anything though. You see I forgot today was a holiday and so I planned on taking Avery to the library. Well when we got there it was closed and let me tell you I had one unhappy girl. So I promised her after her nap we could go feed the ducks. I am glad I did though. It turned out to be a nice family outing.The ducks got crazy close this time. There were even a couple times that one walked right up to Avery and tried taking the bread right from her hand. They barely missed her fingers a couple times. She didn't get overly scared though, I was surprised.

Avery loves to go high now. And she does so good on the big swings. She is such a big girl.

Miss Emmabelle is Six Months Old.

2008-11-11T21:20:00.007-07:00

Well Emmabelle is now six months old. The time has flown. I can hardly believe it. She is getting so big so fast. I haven't made a doctor's appointment yet so I don't know her measurements, but here are some fun little facts about our baby girl. (This is mostly for journaling so don't feel obligated to read my never ending tidbits.)

She loves to roll all around the floor. She is no longer a stationary baby. She is all over the place. She is starting to pull herself up on her hands and knees so it shouldn't be long before she is crawling.This girl loves food. She has never turned her nose up to anything I have given her. She is starting to choose solid food over her bottle, that is how much she likes it. She is getting better at self feeding. She practices with cereal and the little puffs that are a whole lot like cereal they just dissolve faster. She is really starting to enjoy feeding herself. Her only quirk with feeding is that if the food isn't the right temperature she gags on it. This is true for her bottle also. Everything has to be warm. Another funny thing she has started doing when she drinks a bottle is cover her eyes. It is the cutest.She is doing great a sitting on her own. She still falls occasionally, but she can sit for quite a while and play with toys in front of her. When she does fall it is the end of the world. She is quite the little dramatic. She milks it for all it is worth. Even when you know it didn't really hurt that bad.She has two teeth on the bottom and one cutting through the top even as we speak. She isn't the greatest teether, but it hasn't been the worst experience either. She just gets really grouchy. (I was just use to Avery who was one that teething didn't phase.) She is so cute though when her little pearly whites show.

She also loves to jabber. She is especially good at it first thing in the morning. If you ever want to hear some good baby talk be at my house between 5:30am and 7:00am. She will talk your ear off and not quitely either.

She loves to be outside. She can be extremely grouchy and all we have to do is stick her outside in her bouncer and she just cheers right up again. Tonight we were actually able to go to the duck ponds and she just loved it even with the chilly weather. She got to swing and even went down the slide with assistance. She had a blast.

One of her most favorite people is her big sister. She just loves to watch Avery and is so good at putting up with Avery crawling all over her and poking her face all the time. Avery is the best at getting her to laugh. Most the time all Avery has to do is look at Emmabelle and she goes into a laughing fit. I hope they continue to be good friends.

She gives the best hugs. She does this especially when she is tired. She will just snuggle her little face into my neck and she actually squeezes with her arms. I just love it. She has been an amazing addition to our family. Her sweet spirit has blessed our home greatly.

Is that Barack Obama?

2008-11-11T21:12:00.002-07:00

So we were standing in the line at Wal-Mart today and Avery was standing in the basket looking at the magazines on the rack. I was getting ready to load my items onto the belt when she asked me a question. I wasn't sure that I heard her correctly so I had her tell me again. She looked at one of the magazines and very matter of factly said, "That's Barack Obama." I looked and sure enough on the cover of one of the magazines was a picture of Barack Obama. I had to ask her one more time just to make sure I was hearing her correctly, but she knew who he was. I even brought her home and pulled up a picture of him on the computer so that Dave could witness the discovery. I have never really been a political person, but I married into a family that is up on politics and has many political opinions or at least my husband does. Since the elections started Dave has watched many hours of Fox News and so I guess that is where Avery picked it up. I did try to explain that Barack Obama was going to be the next president of the United States, but that concept was a little to much. I just had to laugh.

The infamous potty training.

2008-11-10T20:28:00.003-07:00

So we have officially begun the task of potty training Avery and I am pleased to say that it isn't as painful of a task as I thought it was going to be. She is actually doing quite well. We were even able to find some big girl panties that actually fit. I had my doubts.

It has been a week now and I am proud to say that accidents are becoming more and more scarce. We only have about one a day which is pretty good. She did really well over the weekend staying dry on both the drive there and the drive home, and she stayed dry through all of church. She refuses to go on the big potty, so she just held it through church I guess, or I am not giving her enough fluids, either way I was proud of her. She hasn't started to tell me when she needs to go, but hopefully she will start getting better at that, until then we will continue the every twenty to thirty minute routine. I hope Emmabelle is as easy as Avery has been.

Weekend Fun

2008-11-10T20:18:00.002-07:00

This last weekend the girls and I were able to go to Animas and visit my mom. Dave had a scout camporee at Gillespie Wash which is south of Safford so Avery, Emmabelle and I decided to go and visit Grandma. I say only Grandma because Grandpa was off hunting with Clifford, Brigham, and Brinnick Payne.

We left Friday evening and stayed through to Sunday evening. We didn't do anything to exciting, but it was just nice to get out of town and visit with Grandma. We were able to go into Lordsburg and have lunch on Saturday afternoon. Other than that we just enjoyed eachother's company at the house. We stopped in and saw Grandpa and Grandma Great on our way into town on Friday. They are doing well and are enjoying being home from the high country. We went to church with Grandma on Sunday. I am pleased to say that Avery went to nursery all by her self, with no problems. She asked if I would go with her, I told her that I was going to go to my class and she just walked right in and didn't even look back.

Dave had a good campout with the boys. He said it got pretty cold that night, but all in all it was a fun trip and the boys liked it.

Sorry I don't have any pictures. I always take my camera, but never seem to get it out. It's a shame I know.

Hallwoeen 2008

2008-11-01T16:50:00.005-07:00

Well halloween has come and gone and I have to say we had a fun night. Avery enjoyed trick or treating very much. She didn't get the concept at first. The first couple houses she tried to give them the candy that she had in her bag of candy. It was kinda cute. Once she got the idea she was ready to go. She didn't want to get back in the car, and she didn't want to go home. She only got scared of the costumes other people were wearing a couple of times. Emmabelle seemed to enjoy the night air. She loves to be outside. She was the cutest little cat I've ever seen, but maybe I am a little biased. We enjoyed spending the holiday with Grandpa & Grandma Mortensen. It is always so much fun when they come to visit and it is definately nice that they live so close by. I hope someday we will be able to live close to both sets of grandparents.

This isn't a halloween picture but instead of doing a whole new post I thought I would include this picture of Emmabelle. Today Dave was outside working on our back yard all day and I took Emmabelle out there and for the first time let her play in the dirt. She absolutely loved it. She just dug in and got nice and dirty.

Pumpkin Carving

2008-10-30T21:16:00.006-07:00

Tonight we were able to carve pumpkins as a family. Avery really got into it this year so that made it fun.

Here are the girls before we started carving.

Emmabelle enjoying the happenings.Avery digging in.Playing in the seeds. I always have to bake the seeds.Emmabelle joining in on the fun.She decides to give it a taste.Avery doing her part in the carving process. She colored all over the pumpkin.The family with the finished products. Dave's is on the left and mine on the right.

Emmabelle's Favorite Face

2008-10-30T10:10:00.004-07:00

So I don't really know what to say about this one. I think I will just let the pictures speak for themselves.
Emmabelle likes to make this face alot, especially after she talks. She just sucks in that bottom lip, and her top lip sticks out like a little bird beak. It is so cute.

Kids pick up on the craziest things.

2008-10-30T09:52:00.002-07:00

It has once again been affirmed that Avery is a little sponge. I really hate telemarketers and so I am a very big caller ID fan, and yes I screen my calls. Anyways the other afternoon the phone rang and I knew it was a telemarketer so I just hung up on them. I went back to talk to Dave in his office and as I headed back there I heard Avery's voice coming from her room where she was just waking up from her nap. I walk in and the first thing she says to me is "Mom that a telemarketer?" I had to think about what she was saying for a minute and then it clicked and I just started cracking up. No hey mom or how are you mom, just a is that a telemarketer on the phone mom. It was really cute though. After I told her yes it was a telemarketer she then said, "Mommy you don't like telemarketers?" So I took the opportunity to explain that I like the people, I just don't like what they do. You have to find every way possible to teach your children right? So you can see, Avery picks up on everything.

Emmabelle Gets Her Ears Pierced

2008-10-30T09:40:00.004-07:00

I apologize now for all the posts. I am a little bit behind in the journaling area so just humor me. I have been meaning to get Emmabelle's ears pierced for quite some time now, but I just couldn't talk myself into taking her to Wal-Mart to get it done, so I just kept putting it off. Well I finally found a salon here in town that pierces ears. It went pretty well. She was pretty leary of the place when we got there. A lot of new people and the smell was probably unnerving, she seemed a little nervous. She was very curious when the lady went to mark her ears. It took a few minutes to get that done. Then came the gun. It was probably one of the saddest cries I have ever heard from her. It didn't last two long though just a few minutes and now she is a happy baby again. Until I have to clean and turn the earings. But that will be over in a few days and she just looks so cute.
It is hard to get a head on shot and get the earings also, but she really does look super cute with her earings. They are just a pair of silver studs.

First Fight with Cactus

2008-10-29T21:56:00.003-07:00

So on Tuesday mornings I take the girls to the library for story time. It is just something that we do to get out of the house, and Avery really enjoys playing with the other kids. So a couple Tuesday's ago we had to share the car with Dave, we only have one car at the moment so sometimes we have to get creative. I decided that just in case he wasn't done looking at the house before we were done with story time that I would take the stroller and we would just walk home. So we were about a block away from the house and there is a house on the corner that has cactus. I new what the likely-hood of Avery getting into it would be so I made her walk on the other side of me so she wouldn't be tempted to touch it. We started turning the corner and I headed to cross the street and she was a little bit behind me and I wasn't paying attention very well because she went up and brushed her hand on one of the cactuses. I am not sure the type of cactus it was, but it almost lookes like a prickly pear cactus, but it has little fuzzy needles instead of the big long ones so of course she has all of these tiny little needles in her hand. She doesn't even realize what happend, I don't think it really hurt her, but by the time I had made a big deal of it she was in tears and whining. Luckily Dave pulled up right after it happened so he drove her home while I finished walking with Emmabelle in the stroller. This is how I found them when I got home.
The picture doesn't show it, but Avery is standing on the table. She was a good sport about it all and luckily it really didn't hurt her.

Friend Vs. Parent

2008-10-18T16:33:00.002-07:00

So the age old question was brought up in my house today, can you be both parent and friend. If you ask Avery you can't. Avery is constantly talking about her friends. Which in her case any child that she sees is her friend. When we see them in the store or randomly on the street she says look there's my friend. Anyways, this morning at breakfast she was once again talking about her friends and asked me "Mommy are you my friend?" Of course I answered "Yes, Avery I am your friend." She quickly came back, "No you not friend you Mommy." So there you have it. You can't be both friend and Mommy. It kind of made me a little sad, but then again I guess they need to know that there is a difference to some point. Hopefully when she is a little older we will be able to revisit the issue.

Onions are the New Apple, for Avery Anyway.

2008-10-12T19:39:00.003-07:00

Confused, well I thought I would share one of my daughters food quirks. Avery has always been pretty fond of veggies, she will eat pretty much any veggie. Tonight she reiterated her love of onions. We know that she likes onions, that is nothing new but tonight she didn't want to eat her dinner. We were having onion soup chicken, and she just refused to eat any of it. So I finally resorted to telling her "Avery there are onions on the chicken." She got so excited and said, "Where?" So we proceeded to show her the onions and we were able to get her to eat her dinner, all because it had onions. She will eat them anyway they are prepared. When we go to Burger King for dinner I will remove the onions from my burger and put them on the tray, they usually put to much and they are to strong for me. Avery will then pick them up and eat them. She chooses the onions over the fries and the chicken she already has in front of her. If Dave sautes onions he has to prepare extra just so Avery can have some. What can I say I have a strange daughter.

My Little Finger Sucker!!

2008-10-07T21:38:00.002-07:00

Ever since Avery was born she has sucked her fingers, who knows she probably sucked them in the womb. Not only does she suck them to sleep, but she likes to suck them when she is eating, especially candy. Her newest trick is to suck them while she is sucking a sucker. I don't really understand the concept, but here is the proof.You can see the sucker stick out the side of her mouth and the shinny spots on her hands, yep that is her drool. It drives me absolutely mad. I get after her about it constantly, but that just makes her cry so what can you do?

I also wanted to post a couple more pictures that I just took a day or so ago of Avery and Emmabelle. I had just gotten finished feeding Emmabelle some rice, and I was cleaning up and when I turned around there was Avery in the chair taking her turn at feeding Emmabelle.I am not sure if the picture is big enough for you to tell, but if you can see Emmabelle's mouth it is opened about as big as it can go. Let me tell you this girl loves food. She gets so excited when I put her in the high chair, and when I move the spoon towards her mouth it just opens so big it is the cutest thing I have ever seen. Here is one more picture of the event.As you can see Avery has her own spoon and bowl, she was so proud of herself.

Avery's Blessing

2008-10-07T21:22:00.002-07:00

The other day we asked Avery if she wanted to say the blessing on the food, something we have been working on with her. Of course she said yes and this is how it proceeded.

Dave: "Avery would you like to say the blessing?"
Avery: "Yeah sure, sure." One of her favorite responses.
Avery: In a barely audible whisper (the only time she ever whispers I might add) "Thank you for the food."
Stacie: "You need to say it loud so we can all hear"
Avery: Once again in a whisper. "Thank you..."
Dave: "Wait you need to say it louder so we can hear you."
Avery: Finally loud enough we can hear, "Thank you for the food, please bless it, Amen."
Stacie: "That was good Avery, but you forgot the most important parts. Let's try again. Can you say Heavenly Father?"
Avery: "Thank you for the food,"
Dave: "Wait, can you say Heavenly Father?"
Avery: "Heavenly Father, Thank you for the food, please bless it, Amen."
Stacie: "Say Jesus Christ."
Avery: "Amen"
Dave: "Say Jesus Christ"
Avery: "Jesus Christ, Amen"

It was so cute. It took us so long to get her to repeat Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, I think it took us a couple minutes at least. She finally did though and we are still working on it. We still have to remind her to talk where we can hear her and not forget the most important parts, but it is such a rewarding feeling to hear your child pray. We are very proud of her.

Emmabelle's Teeth

2008-10-07T21:14:00.003-07:00

Well once again I have an early teether, and since it is hard to get a picture of them this post is not as prompt as it should have been. Emmabelle cut her first tooth at 4 months and she now has her second one at 4 1/2 months. At least this time I have a bottle baby and I don't have to worry about being a human teething ring. You kind of have to look closely, but I promise they are there.
She is not quite as fast as her sister, who started at 3 1/2 months, but it is still pretty early. She was a rather grouchy teether, mostly just the day before the tooth actually broke through.

Avery turns Two!!!

2008-09-28T20:12:00.006-07:00

This Saturday was Avery's second birthday. I can hardly believe how fast time flies. This year I decided to start a new birthday tradition, door decorating. So Friday night after Avery fell asleep I decorated her door. It looked so cute.
So in the morning when Avery woke up we weren't sure what her reaction was going to be. I had gotten in the shower and just before I got out she woke up. She opened her door and this is how it went. "What happened to my door? What did you do to my door? What happened to my door, Mom?" Dave got out of bed and when he went to get her she was headed down the hall looking for me in the other room. So at first she was quite concerned. Then when I got out in the hall she seemed to be warming up to it. I explained to her that it was special for her happy birthday. After the explanation and once she realized that it was for her she was more than ok with it. She didn't stop talking about her "happy birthday". She was so excited about the candy and the balloons. The rest of the morning she wanted us to hang out there by her "happy birthday".

We had her party in the afternoon so that all those who were traveling could make it. We live next to the Safford Stake center so we like to utilize their facilities. They have lots of picnic tables and grass for the kids to play in. It was rather windy, but all in all it turned out pretty good. Avery wasn't very fond of the singing she ended up crying for some reason when we sang happy birthday to her, silly girl. But she enjoyed her cake, and really enjoyed her presents. It was a long day, but a lot of fun. Thanks to everyone who helped make her day special.

Two Peas in a Pod

2008-09-28T19:56:00.003-07:00

Avery & Emmabelle have become quite the pair. Avery just loves her little sister and always wants to be with her. When I have to get things done in the kitchen I put Emmabelle in one of her bouncers, and Avery always insists on sitting by her, and when I say by her I mean as close as she can get without being on top of Emmabelle. If you try to scoot her over even the slightest bit you get an earful. It is actually pretty cute. Here are some pictures of the girls.

2008-09-18T15:22:00.009-07:00

Emmabelle is a pretty stingy laugher, but when she decides to laugh she does such a good job of it. Avery is really good at getting her to laugh. She just has to talk to her or sometimes even look at her. The other evening Avery was playing with a ball and Emmabelle just thought it was the greatest thing. She just laughed and laughed at it. So we got a good video of it. Hope you enjoy it.

Random Updates

2008-09-18T15:22:00.005-07:00

I just thought since it has been a while since I last posted that I would try to take some time and update everyone on our family.

Dave's business is still trucking along. I do believe that at times he is very overwhelmed and streched to thin with work, school, scouts, and his demanding wife and children. Poor guy doesn't stand a chance, but he is hanging in there. He continues to get a steady flow of orders, if only we could get people to pay up. That is our only hang up. In reality they can wait until the property closes before they send Dave his money, so that keeps us waiting quite a bit. It will just take some getting use to. All in all he is becoming a very successful business man.

If it is possible Avery gets more spunky and smart every day. She is always catching us off guard with her quick whit and her shinning personality. Last night she was able to go with Dave to scouts. This is one of her favorite things to do when Dad can actually take her. She loves to go and see the boys. Dave was incharge of the combined activity and he made a miniture golf course in the church house. One of the holes was in the nursery and when they got there Avery got so excited and said "This my room" Dave actually had a hard time getting her to leave. She is becoming a very good helper. One of her favorite things to do is to help me with the laundry. She gets her own basket and enjoys sorting her and Emmabelle's clothes into the correct piles. She is actually pretty good at it. A few days ago we had a pretty good storm roll through the valley and afterwards Avery and I went outside and played in the puddles. It took a little coaxing but once she got in she loved it and was covered from head to toe in mud.
Grandma Mortensen came to visit us last weekend and Avery had been doing so good on the potty that she decided to buy her some Big Girl Panties. I will point out that HAD is the operative word here. I think I have missed my window, because now I can't even get her to sit on the potty. I didn't want to push it and I really think I should have. That dang hind sight. So what do children that don't intend to wear panties do?That's right they become head ornaments. Needless to say the panties have been put away and we are full fledged diaper girl again. What a bummer.

As for our little Miss Emmabelle, she is just growing like a weed. She had her four month check-up this week, and she weighs in at 13lbs 7oz, and is 24 1/4 in long. She is holding steady in the 50th percentile. Her doctor even called her an over achiever since she hasn't even faltered on the growth curve. She also cut her first tooth a couple days ago. Thank heavens. She was getting pretty cranky. And eventhough I am "not suppose" to start her on solids for two more months we decided to just not hear that part. I do have to say it was getting pretty ridiculous. She was waking up every two to three hours wanting to eat. Now I am glad to say that with a rice bottle before bed she is waking up only once. I even tried spoon feeding her the other day and she did a pretty good job. Dave was sad to see her in her high chair eating from a spoon, but I thought she looked pretty cute. She has also found her feet, so she has reached a few of her milestones this past month. Our baby is growing so fast.

Don't let the face fool you. She really did enjoy it.

Her feet have become one of her favorite toys. The only problem is she gets upset when she can't get them to her mouth.

As for me I continue to try and focus on the many blessings in my life. I find that if I look at all the wonderful things in my life the bad things don't seem so bad. Faith is becoming a bigger part of my life and I am grateful for the trials that test my faith daily. I love being able to stay home and raise my children and I hope that I can do the job that my Heavenly Father would like me to do. Somedays it seems impossible, but then there are days that Avery does something little that lets me know that she is learning and I am getting through to her.

Emmabelle Talking

2008-09-02T22:06:00.003-07:00

Here is a video of Emmabelle talking. She loves to talk and is so cute when she does.

Labor Day Weekend!!

2008-09-02T21:13:00.005-07:00

Well Labor Day weekend was quite and eventful one for us. My parents, brother & his family, and Dave, the kids and I all decided to taked a needed trip to the wonderful cabin in Alpine, AZ. We all arrived at different times on Friday. From Safford it is about a three hour trip so if you leave at the right time the girls will sleep most of the way which makes it nice. We really didn't have much of an agenda other than Dave was going fishing on Saturday morning. We just enjoyed each others company and the nice weather of the mountains. Here are some pictures.

My cousin Trachel and her family were also there so we enjoyed spending time with them. She has four girls. Paige who is nine, Marley who will be six, Ali who will be four, and Preesley who is 6 weeks old. Marley and Ali just love Avery to death, and so they entertained her the whole weekend. It was so nice to have a little break. Ali also loved Emmabelle.

(Trachel, Ali, & Emmabelle)

It is a tradition to take a bath in the sink at the cabin. I have a picture in the sink, Avery has a picture in the sink, and now Emmabelle has a picture. For reasons unknown to me she didn't like this bath. She usually loves to take a bath, but the sink just wasn't her cup of tea I guess, but I just love her face.This is the girls and I before we left for church. That is also a tradition that we have for some reason. We always have to take pictures before we leave for church. Dave ended up not going with us to church. He stayed home to get some much needed sleep since we had some rough nights and also to make lunch. We had to leave to come back to Safford as early as we could after church and lunch so he wanted to have lunch ready when we got home from church.Grandma Mortensen is so good at keeping the humming birds happy at the cabin. It is so much fun to sit out on the back porch and watch them feed. There are always so many of them. I don't know if the pictures do it justice, but there are usually somewhere around 15 or more birds just going crazy around the feeders. They have no problem with people being out there and watching either.

Upstairs is a favorite place for the kids to play and this is one of the reasons why. The just love looking down at the living room from the loft and scaring their parents to death. We had to make sure Avery knew not to stick through the rails. I am very sure she could have slipped right through.

Avery was also able to take her first four wheeler ride. She called it a motorcycle though and in the beginning was afraid it was going to get her, but what isn't she afraid of. She warmed up to it though and really enjoyed taking rides with her daddy.The reason we had to come home on Sunday was that Dave's family was coming to Safford for a visit also. For those of you who aren't hunting buffs, Sept. 1 is the beginning of dove season and a big day in the Hartman household. Dave looks forward to this day all year. It is probably more important to him, no I take that back it is a bigger holiday than Christmas to him. So he got up at about 4 or so in the morning, that is if he really ever did go to sleep, on Monday morning and went out with his Dad, Grandpa, Uncle and two brothers. He was able to shoot his limit for the day, which is 10 birds if you didn't know, unfortunately the rest of the shooters weren't able to do as well. I think only a couple more birds came home. After they are done shooting it is tradition to go to breakfast so they invited the women to join them. Of course there isn't much selection for breakfast in the town of Safford so we went to The Manor House. I will have to say that I much prefered their breakfast over their dinner.

(Tom, John, Grandpa Hartman, Grandma Hartman, Avery, Great Grandpa Hartman, Dave, Me and Emmabelle)

We were also able to get a four generation pictures with the girls. This is the girls, Dave, his dad Clay, and his grandpa Clay.

This is Emmabelle's Great Uncle Kern. He was also there he was just the one behind the cameras, but we wanted to get a picture of him and Emmabelle. This is Grandpa Hartmans brother.

All in all we had a great weekend together with family. It is not every weekend that you get to see both sets of Grandparents and Great grandparents. It was a lot of fun. Avery just gets so excited when she gets to see her Grandma's and Grandpa's. She always says two grandma's mom or two grandpa's mom. It is just so amazing to her that there are two of someone so wonderful.

Thanks to everyone who made the weekend so special and wonderful.

A Great Accomplishment!!

2008-08-24T18:57:00.008-07:00

Hooray for Avery. Today was the second week that Avery didn't have a melt down when going to nursery. What a great accomplishment for her. Last week she kind of whined a little bit, but this week she was actually excited about it. She pointed her teachers out in church, when she sees a kid that goes to nursery with her she says that's my friend, when the intermediate song started she asked if it was time to go to nursery and then finally when it was time she was so excited to go and play with her friends. I am so proud of her. We knew the day would come, but I thought is was farther away than that. She still makes sure that I am going to come and get her later, but she is now a happy nursery goer.

On another note I am glad to say that Dave's and my mini seperation is going well. I say that because with our new schedules this fall we don't get to see much of each other. Due to some changes in regulations Dave is now a part time student at EAC. He is taking two night classes which have him gone Mon-Wed. night. Monday he gets home at a decent hour, but Tuesday and Wednesday he doesn't get home until 9:00 or so. Then on Thursday I have my night out which is a scrapbooking class through the college and I am gone until 9:30. I also am taking wellness so I get up around 5:30 to go work out. I guess we are really lucky that Dave works from home and we can see him periodically throughout the day. Otherwise I would pretty much be a single parent. Something I am not too keen at trying. But this week went pretty smoothly, the kids actually seemed to be on their best behavior.

It does help to have Lori around though. I don't know if I have ever mentioned that she is living with us. She is working at Pollock's Western Wear at the moment, but she just had a interview to be a receptionist at a Veterinary Clinic here in town. She hopes to hear more about that on Monday. It will be a nice pay raise, and the hours will be Mon-Fri 8-5, you can't beat that.

Emmabelle is doing well. She is getting stronger by the day and is holding herself up really well. Today I was taking pictures of her and I sat her up on the bed with a pillow behind her and she actually stayed sitting for a fair amount of time. I don't think it will be much longer and she will be sitting on her own. It is her favorite position after all. We did have to take her to the doctor this past week. She was having some digestive problems. She is doing somewhat better, but we are still waiting for her to regulate more. She did weigh in at a nice 12 lbs. 7 oz.

Well I guess I have droned on for long enough. Here are a few more cute pictures of the girls. I just love to take pictures of them and I am determined that Emmabelle have plenty of pictures being the second child and all.

Emmabelle just chillin on the floor.

Avery has to get in on the action too.

Avery likes to wear all my church shoes, I finally got a picture.

Emmabelle 3 1/2 months.

Avery at 3 1/2 months

Avery 6 months.

I just thought you might enjoy seeing the similarities and differences of the girls.

Randomness

2008-08-20T15:54:00.001-07:00

A Night at the Rodeo.

2008-08-20T15:07:00.006-07:00

Saturday night was quite a night. We all got decked out in our cowboy/girl get up and at about 6:00 headed to the Safford Rodeo. Little did we know we would have to sit there for about an hour and a half before the rodeo itself got started. We were aware that it was also a benefit for the soldiers, but we didn't know that they were going to have this big program before the rodeo started. So needless to say the kids were pretty restless before the events even started. Avery being the little priss she is didn't like the noise. They had a band playing and it was to loud for her. We were able to make it maybe half way through the rodeo though. At about 9:00 we decided to give up. Avery by that time was overly tired and laying in Emmabelle's car seat. And even though Emmabelle was doing pretty good it wasn't going to last much longer.We did enjoy the night out as a family though, and if I do say so myself we all looked pretty dang cute too.

Three Months & a Hair Cut

2008-08-15T10:47:00.004-07:00

Well the time has flown and my little baby is three months old. I can hardly believe it. She is getting so big. For some reason it doesn't seem like she was a newborn as long as Avery was. She is just growing like a weed which is something that Avery just never did. She stayed small for such a long time, and lets be honest she is still small.

Emmabelle is doing very well. She is such a strong little thing. She loves to be sitting strait up so she can see everything. She has not yet mastered sitting by herself, but if she is sitting on your lap you better have her up where she can see it all. I finally resorted to getting out the jumper to see if she could sit in it. She does pretty good. She really likes it to. This morning while she was in it she was smiling and even giggling a little bit. She has started to laugh more. She is so ticklish, if you can believe it she is ticklish in the palm of her hand. It is the cutest thing. Here are a few pictures of our cute little Emmabelle.

As for our other precious daughter she is also doing very well. For the past week or so she has been telling me that she wanted to get a hair cut. Her exact words were, "Mom my hair's crazy, I need a hair cut." After her relentlessness I finally gave in and called Joni Ellis to see if she could cut Avery's hair. So Avery has had her first hair cut. She did such an awesome job. I was worried that she would be scared and not want to do it, but she sat so still and it was a success.

Here is the before picture.Getting her hair wet to cut.Cutting her some bangs so her hair stays out of her eyes.The finished product.

It is hard to tell, but some hair did come off. It was mostly just a trim. But she was so proud of it. Oh we also have a new member to our family. Avery has permanently adopted a doll that she does everything with. It is so cute to watch her. The baby goes everywhere Avery goes. We even have to put a chair at the table for baby so that she can eat with us. She goes shopping with us and sleeps with Avery. She does such a good job of taking care of her baby. When she puts her to sleep in the baby's bed she comes to me and tells me to be quite so I don't wake up her baby. She is quite the little mom.

The Latest with Emmabelle

2008-07-24T12:28:00.003-07:00

So I really don't know what to say about Emmabelle's newest trick. She really isn't quite old enough for this one, but some how she figured it out and it is now her favorite thing to do when she is laying on the floor, or even the couch which we now are very careful about. At 2 1/2 months she has figured out how to roll over from her back to her front. It is actually really cute. She only rolls one way. She starts on her back and rolls herself from left to right. She still has some troubles getting her arm out from under her, but she gets over enough that she can't get back on her back so we have to help her with her arm. She really loves it though. As soon as you lay her on the floor she starts to ball up and roll. Here are some pictures of the event.

From the Back

To the Side

To the Tummy

Avery's New Bathtub

2008-07-20T16:01:00.005-07:00

When Grandpa and Grandma Hartman were down here last time they were nice enough to bring Avery a baby pool. Unfortunatly Avery wanted nothing to do with it. You see I decided that it would be fun for Avery and I to take a Parent/Tot class together at the public pool this year. Initially thinking that it would be some good quality time for us to spend together I was all excited about it. To my dismay it didn't turn out that way at all. Avery hated it completely and it left her pretty tramatized. It was a little more agressive than I expected. We only went for one of the two weeks. We would say the word swimming and Avery would have a complete meltdown (much like the one she throws every Sunday when the closing song begins, I will explain later). Avery hasn't gotten back into a big pool ever since, but I am glad to say that she will get in and has a great time in her bathtub as she calls it. I filled it up for Marcy's birthday party and since Avery wouldn't get her swim suit on she eventually made her way in fully clothed and now I even have her back in a swim suit and sitting in the water.

I often wonder how smart I really was as a child. Avery just amazes me at how smart she really is. Avery has been in nursery now for four months and she knows when it is coming. We literally have to remove her from the chapel before the closing song is over because she knows what is next and has a complete meltdown and that involves screaming at the top of her lungs. The whole congregation is staring in our direction. It has even gotten so bad that last week we had to sit in the foyer because she started screaming as we were walking in. Dave gave her a good talking to this week so she did a little better. We were able to sit in the chapel, but we have to be careful where we sit because if we sit near her nursery leaders she gets very anxious and looks at them saying "no take you" which means don't take me. The crazy thing is once she gets there after a few minutes of crying she is perfectly fine. She loves it and has so much fun playing, and when I get to the door she says "mommy come back". That is also a phrase she says throughout the week when the subject of nursery comes up or playing comes up she gets a smile on her face and says "mommy come back", I reply by saying "yes Avery I did come back I will always come back for you".

Here are a few more pictures of the girls from the past week or so that I thought were cute. Hope you enjoy them as well.

Avery loves to hold her little sister.

She also likes to have Emmabelle sit by her.

Avery found a bandana so Dave put it on her. Poor thing it made her ears stick out even more. But she sure is cute.

Just some good smiles from Emmabelle. She is getting really good at it.

Emmabelle with her favorite rattle. And a halo compliments of her big sister. She is quite the little angel though.

Over the Weekend

2008-07-20T15:47:00.003-07:00

Well this last weekend was a fun one for our family. I decided that it was time that I had some new clothing so we went to the valley for a big shopping trip. We left on Friday afternoon. We were able to have dinner with our good friends Scott and Stephanie Jones. They have a little boy that is a few months older than Avery. His name is Orren, but Avery calls him Orange it is rather cute. They are also expecting a new addition to their family any day. We went to the famous Joe's BBQ. It was so good to see and visit with them.

As usual we were able to stay with Dave's brother James and his family. It is so nice to be able to spend time with them. We love that Avery gets to play with her cousins. I am sure that they will grow up to be good friends. Here is a picture of all the Hartman grandkids.

So Dave and I decided or learned the hard way I should say that we will never go extensive clothes shopping as a family again. It was definately a long and challenging day. I am very surprised to say that Emmabelle was the good one. Avery was so grouchy and tired that it made things pretty difficult. All she wanted to do was go home and be in her bed. She kept telling us it was time to go home. After a full day of shopping I am sad to say that I only purchased two articles of clothing for myself. I was successful in getting Avery's shopping done, but I was pretty disapointed that I didn't achieve my full goal. Now I am bound for Tucson this next weekend to finish what I started, and Dave is staying home with the kids. But it was still nice to be able to spent some quality time with my family that I love so dearly.

A little insight to Avery.

2008-07-12T20:28:00.004-07:00

I have decided to once again try to cut some TV time out of my life. That is one of my biggest weaknesses. I really enjoy the background noise, but I end up sitting on the couch and watching the TV instead of just listening. Anyways I needed something to fill my time so I decided to do some updating on the blog. I thought I would focus on some of the amusing things that happen that you just can't capture on film. So it will mostly consist of the quirky little things that Avery does.

I honestly don't know what we did without Avery in our lives. She is quite the little entertainer. She has more personality and spunk than she knows what to do with really. Our biggest challenge at the moment is watching what we say. It really is amazing to hear her talk. It doesn't matter what we say or how complex it is Avery will mimic it everytime, and then repeats it multiple times for emphasis. Just yesterday she had snuck into her daddy's office to see him and when I realized she was back there I went to get her and as I walked in Dave told me that she was ok. Not a second later Avery piped in I ok, I ok, I ok. She didn't want me to take her away from her dad. Now everytime I find her in there on her daddy's lap she starts saying I ok. One upside to her being a mimic is she is starting to say the blessing on the food. We are still working on it, but there is just something about your child saying the blessing for the first time that just makes you feel good.

Another thing that Avery just loves is singing. She is constantly asking us to "Sing songs me". "Daddy" (I'm so glad when Daddy comes home), "Papa" we just substitute Papa for Daddy in the song, Wheels on The Bus, Popcorn, and The Itsy Bitsy Spider, are just a few of her favorites, but I think we sing at least a dozen or so before she is satisfied. We recently bought a small stereo and put it in her room and she loves to go in there and listen to her songs, while she is jumping on her new big girl bed. That has been another big milestone for her recently. We were able to purchase a daybed and it came with a trundle so we put that in Avery's room. She loves her new bed and does such a good job at sleeping in it. We have yet to move Emmabelle in the room with her, but the crib is unoccupied so the transition should be a little easier when the time comes.

She is also quite the little priss. There isn't a day that goes by that she doesn't come to me and say "Mommy I brokea my nail." So I have to get out the clippers and fix her broken nail. She is also in a nail polish kick. She loves to have her toes painted and just recently added her fingernails to the equation. Most of the time she also has to take a purse with her when we go out to the store or something. It usually just makes it to the car, but she won't leave the house without one.

This evening she did something out of the blue that just cracked me up. We were sitting on the couch and all the sudden she asked "Mommy go store me" I told her that we didn't really need to go to the store and then asked her why she wanted to go to the store? She replied "buy apple juice" The crazy thing is we really were out of apple juice. So we packed up and went to the store to get some apple juice.

Another thing that we have been attempting lately is some mild potty training. I am by no means in full potty training mode, but she is always telling me that she is either poopy or poopy which also mean wet. She hasn't quite got them distinguished in her head, but she does tell me when she is both wet and stinky. We bought a little potty for her and I guess you could say we have some good days, and then just days. I can't call them bad days, because I am not pushing the issue. When she wants to sit on the potty she tells me. Alot of times it is right after she has just gone in her diaper, but we go and sit on the potty and when she is done she gets rewarded accordingly. She is picking up on it though tonight in fact she told Dave she wanted to go to the potty and actually went in the potty. So hopefully in the near future we can be consistant and then I won't have to spend so much money on diapers. Diapers for two kids is out of control.

Well I am sure there are a lot of other quirky little things that I am leaving out, but it is getting rather late and my mind isn't functioning properly, not that it ever functions at 100%. I just hope you got a kick out of the little stories that really make my days brighter. I love Avery so much and am so grateful for her presence in my life. She really makes our home a happier and brighter place.