4th of July

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

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"

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.