Roll Your Hands

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

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

Hello to our Daddy.

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

We LOVE You Daddy!!!

Weekend with friends.

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

Kisses Anyone

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

Let's go fly a kite.

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

Easter 2009

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

We colored Easter eggs with the cousins on Saturday night.

Emmabelle thought is was pretty neat.

Easter morning. The Easter Bunny Goodies.

The Easter Dress.

So cute in her dress.

Finding the nests of chocolate eggs in the house.

The outside hunt.

With a little help Emmabelle even found one.

Avery's find.

She looked so cute carrying her basket.

Emmabelle's find.

Checking out the goods.

Our Family

The Great Grandkid Families

The Great Grandkids

Avery with Grandpa Great

Emmabelle with Grandpa Great

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

A Much Needed Update

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

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

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

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

A cute story about Avery:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Garden

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Busy Life = Quick Post

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

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.