THANK YOU AUNT KRIS AND UNCLE MIKE

My Aunt and Uncle gave Grady this outfit. We love it. It looks so cute on him. My Aunt was worried whether or not she got the right sizes, and it looks like twelve months was the perfect fit for my almost 4 month old. Thanks so much for the outfits. We really do love them, they're perfect!!!

ONE REASON FOR SNOW

The snow made the kids really happy so I guess it's worth it. I don't think I ready just yet for this, but I guess I better get use to it for the next, what, 6 months. I can't believe how much it snowed today. It does always amaze me at how beautiful it is.

TRUE COUCH POTATO

Grady is taking lessons from Dad on how to relax. I love his belly, guess he needs new PJ's.

for those of you wondering, yes his shirt says, Babes want me. Quite fitting I think!




Now falling asleep watching T.V.

Halloween

So Emma was suppose to be a queen, and was for the other parties we went to, but as you can see I put curlers in her hair and she looked so much like "Annie", that after I quit laughing at her and making her cry, I convinced her to be "Annie". I know, real good parenting, laughing at your child, but I just couldn't help it. Hopefully that will become a suppressed memory that she can bring up with her therapist latter. Ethan was Yoda, and was very cute, no drama with him.

p.s. my Dad took pictures of Grady, so when we get those from him I'll post them.

LEAVE ME ALONE!!!!!!!!!!

Poor Emma and Ethan. They love to hold Grady, but he hates it. I can't say I blame the kid! When they're not kissing his skin off they're talking "screaming" in his face to get his attention. Needless to say Grady can sleep through just about anything.

BABYSITTER

So what makes your baby sit by themselves for at least thirty minutes?






That's right, the Baby Einstein Babysitter. Got to love it!!!

8 Things Tag

I've been tagged, and since I've never done one of these when I've been tagged I guess I should start.

8 things I am passionate about...

1. gospel
2. family
3. reading
4. friends, even though I'm the worst Friend you could ever have
5. sleeping
6. scrapbooking
7. getting out of debt
8. date nights, would someone please babysit, for free?

8 words or phrases I use often

1. I love you
2. Hey handsome
3. Hey pretty girl
4. Stop wining!
5. Stay where I can see you
6. Stop peeing your pants when you're in the bathroom!!!!!
7. Stop peeing your pants
8. could you not do that

8 things I have learned from my past...

1. Heavenly Father does answer prayers
2. Don't lie to your parents, somehow they always find out!
3. I'm stronger than I thought, and Pain only lasts for a little while (physical that is)
4. It's easier to be good
5. reading is relaxing
6. Laughing can cure anything
7. Your family will always be there for you.
8. your parents know you better than you know yourself

8 places I would love to go see or visit...

1. Alaska
2. New York
3. Florida, back to our mission
4. Washington D.C.
5. Redwoods
6. California, to see family, hi Amanda
7. I'd like to go on the tour of the Mormon Trail
8. Europe

8 things I currently need or want...
1. MONEY
2. MONEY
3. MONEY
4. a nap
5. Ethan to stop peeing in his pants, he's four! Any suggestions?
6. Jessica to move back
7. Amanda to move back
8. Anna to move away, ha Just kidding, she wants to go to Saint George

8 people I tag...
1. Natalie
2. Michelle (FTM)
3. Jessica and Benny
4. Stacy
5. Angie
6. Brian
7. Kelly
8. Paige

THESE ARE FOR JESSICA

Here you go Jessica, these are for you. They really show off how big Grady's gotten. He's such a chunk. As you can see he likes his bath a little more these days. He had his two month appointment yesterday and he's 14lbs 11oz. I'm thinking he'll make the 20lbs requirement for turning the car seat around when he's a year old. What do you think?

BLESSING

Grady's blessing day was wonderful. We had a really great day. We only had one minor problem. Grady didn't fit in his blessing outfit. Oops!! We couldn't button the top button or the jacket. Oh well he looked cute anyway. Jared did a great job and it seems Grady is going to be a great missionary during his life. That's alright with me!!! Thank you to everyone who came and supported us. It was wonderful to have you all there.

FIRST GRADE

Emma's first day of First grade. I can't believe she's in school all day now. It's wonderful. She loves it. She loves that she gets to eat lunch at school. That's pretty exciting I guess. Ethan misses her tons. It's really sad. He doesn't know what to do with himself. Hope they always love each other this much.

NAP

I love these pictures. Doesn't Grady look so content. I wish I slept that peacefully. He's so cute.

FIRST BATH AT HOME

Here is Grady taking his first bath at home. Looks relaxing doesn't it.

BIKE LESSONS (or not)

Emma taught herself how to ride a two wheeler bike. I watched from the living room as she tried to ride a boy in our neighborhood's bike. She tried and tried and after about an hour she had it down. I was in awe!!! I think it took me longer than one day to learn and she taught herself in an hour. AMAZING! That's totally her personality though. Once she puts her mind to something she does it till she has it down perfectly. It's a wonderful quality. I did feel bad that Jared didn't get to do the Daddy bike riding lesson thing, but I told him it'll take Ethan weeks to learn so that will make up for it. HA!
PS: She did it all in a dress too. That's my Emma.

THEY'RE SO CUTE!!!!

Thanks Brian for taking these for us!!!

HE'S HERE; and I'm finaly writing about it!

On July 24th we welcomed Grady Phillip into our family. He was 8lbs 12oz and 20.5 inches long. It was a really terrible delivery and that's why it's taken me a while to write about it. Things were really rough there for a minute, but everything turned out to be okay. Nothing happened with Grady, he was perfect. So I'm very grateful for that. Jared just almost became a single parent, and that wouldn't have been good, cause he doesn't know how to clean the fish tank with out getting fish water everywhere. SICK!!!! I made my sister Anna promise me she would either clean it for him, or make him get rid of the fish. I'm sure that they would be flushed because she has a phobia of fish. Well good thing I'm okay, cause it saved the lives of those fish. I wonder if they appreciate it? Anyway, he's beautiful, and we're so happy to have him in our family. He's a great baby. Other than his hour of grumpy time that all infants have, he's very happy. I have to thank my Mom and Dad for being in the delivery room, and helping to keep me calm even though they were scared to death of things not turning out the way they did. You're always saving me!!!! Thanks to my man for staying calm and cool as well! He never panics. He's just always reassuring. It's just what I always need. Love you all!!!!

You Are Pocahantas!

Free-spirited and wise. You have a strong passionate spirit that touches and changes all who know you. The wisdom and common sense that you have is really what guides you through life. Even so, you also have a very playful side that loves adventure and excitement.

Which Disney Princess Are You?
That was fun. I guess it fits.

BUTTERFLY

We went to my work party and they had a clown there doing face paintings. Emma was the only brave one out of our group to go up to the clown. I guess I've past my fear of clowns onto Ethan and my niece Chloe. Whoops. Oh well I hate when people are dressed up as anything, but especially clowns, they're just creepy. Anyway, she actually did an amazing job on Emma's face as you can see from the pictures. Emma was upset when we had to wash the makeup off. But really how long can you walk around with a butterfly drawn on your face?

JOB

So last week ended up being a really good week. On Friday Jared got an offer from England Logistics, and he will start on July 29th. This trial could not have turned out better. He wanted this job really bad. It was his first choice. England Logistics is a sister company of CR England, a trucking company. Jared will be negotiating with truckers on the amount of money they want to move a load. He will be making about the same as he was and then he will get commission on top of that. After the first year he could be making double what he was with his salary and commission. He applied with CR England about a year ago and didn't get the job. Ever since then the disappointment of not getting that job hasn't left his mind. He really wanted to work for them for several reasons, but most of all their cooperate offices are here in Salt Lake. So that makes the potential of long term employment greater. I'm so proud of him. He did everything he was counseled to do. We see all the many blessings that came from this terrifying experience now and understand why things worked out the way they did. If he hadn't gotten laid off he wouldn't have gone to the church's networking group. If he hadn't gone to the networking group he would have never heard of this job because they didn't post it. They send a recruiter to these meetings to find potential employees. So all is well, and we're better off than we ever could have hoped for. Thank you to everyone who cried, prayed, fasted, and begged with us. We can never express how thankful we are for all that support.

Ethans Heart

We went to the cardiologist for Ethan last Tuesday. She listened and said she thought she heard two murmurs as well. So she had him get an ultrasound. He was so brave and sat still for over 4o minutes. After the ultrasound results came back she came in a told us that everything was okay. He has a murmur but it's an innocent one, which means they don't do anything for it. He could even grow out of it. YEAH!!!! We were so relieved he's totally fine and we have nothing to worry about. She told us that sometimes in little kids they can hear things better than in adults. So his body just transmits sound really well. I love primary children's hospital. They were so good to him. He got a sucker, chips, and tokens to buy some little toys. He had fun, which seems strange for being at a hospital. Thank you for all your prayers, and for the priesthood blessing he was given. I believe that's what made him whole and okay. Also a big thanks to my Mom for coming with us. I wasn't sure I'd be any good at making decisions if it came to that, so she came with us so Jared would have someone who wasn't sobbing to help him. Thanks Mom!!!

TEETH

Emma lost her first tooth. We were late to church trying to get the thing out. We finally gave up and then during sacrament Jared got it out. Just the thing the people behind us wanted to see, a bloody mouth. She was really excited and the tooth fairy came. She gave her $2, and left a note letting Emma know that she got so much money because it was her first tooth. Other teeth would not be worth as much. She looks really cute, and now has a slight lisp. She has 5 other loose teeth, so soon she wont be able to eat anything.

OUT OF A JOB

Yesterday Jared and I made one of the biggest faith based decisions I've ever had to make in my entire life. Things have been going down hill at his job, to make a long story short. Yesterday he was laid off. He took a severance package that will last us a little while, but with a baby on the way and Ethan having heart issues, you can imagine the stress we're under as we have now lost our insurance. We amazingly feel at peace with our decision, but we are scared out of our minds. If that makes any sense. Anyway, we could really use all the prayers we can get right now. Thank you to my parents for talking us through this logically, and for my Dad giving us the strength to make this choice. Thank you to everyone else as well for your love and support.

Ethans Doctor Visit

We took Ethan in for his yearly check up on Friday. I thought it would be just a normal exam, in and out. He seems like a typical healthy little boy to me. As his doctor, Dr. Katie, was listening to his heart she started to get a really funny look on her face. This is sometimes normal for her, if you know our doctor. But this time she continued and then the looks got more serious. She started having Ethan lay down and sit up, and lay down, and sit up, all the while listening to his chest. She was going up into his neck to hear the heart beat and that started to make me well, panic!!! We all now what a calm person I am, even when I'm not pregnant. Anyway she thought years ago that he might have a heart murmur, but that it wasn't a big deal. But this time it sounded a lot different than a murmur. She had another doctor come in and he did the same exam, poor Ethan got his ab workout for the day. He told her he'd have a cardiologist check him out as well. Her concern is that there's something wrong with a valve that's coming from his heart. That's my interpretation. So we got an appointment with the cardiologist at Primary Children's Hospital on July 6th. They will do an echo.(sp), to see what's wrong. Worse case he will need surgery to replace the valve. Hopefully everything will be fine, and this is just another attempt to see if I can keep from going into early labor. Dr. Katie could see my panic, and said, calm down, don't go into labor. There are a lot of good signs that he's fine. His blood pressure is perfect, as well as his coloring. And he doesn't get tired easily. That helped a lot. I am very grateful that my stabilizer, Jared, was with me. He usually doesn't come to these kinds of appointments, but I'm so glad he was with me. He can always calm me down and help me see the reality of the situation. (Love you honey!). I did loose it in the car when I called my Mom, but I got the immediate feeling that, we have the priesthood in our home, so why was I worrying so much. We got to go to the temple that night, for my youngest sister Amanda's first time. That was very special. I'm glad I went, because the entire time I was sitting there all I could hear is, I've given you everything you have, now do you have the faith that I can take care of it. DO YOU HAVE THE FAITH. That seems to be the theme of my life lately. I guess I better just hand it over, and use all the faith I can muster (get it?). Anyway, we could use all the prayers we can get. Thank you for all your love and support.

ETHANS 4th BIRTHDAY

I can't believe he's 4!!! If you can't tell from the pictures we had a pirate party. It was a ton of fun. I was surprised at how quiet our house was even with 11 4 and 5 year old's, (some younger than that). If I have any advice to anyone else crazy enough to invite that many kids under 5 to a party, do it at 10am. That seemed to be the trick. Ethan had a lot of fun, and we're grateful to all those who came to celebrate with him. Emma was upset because she was up all night the night before throwing up, so she missed out on the party, but made sure that everyone knew she was still around and just in the other room. Thanks to those of you who showed pity on her and risked sickness to appease to her need to be in the spot light.
(Oh and I made the cake. I know, if you'd like me to make your next event special with such a spectacular creation I'll be waiting by my phone. Ha! It's not ringing!) (it's a treasure chest if you can't tell)

The Jungle Book

Emma's kindergarten class did "The Jungle Book" as an operetta. Emma was a narrator. She did a really good job. It was really cute. They practiced for months and it was worth it. I was impressed with all of the student's. Some kids had solo singing parts and no one chickened out. It was a lot of fun. Emma was excited to have her Grandma Loulie and Grandpa there. She was excited to see her Aunt Anna come with her cousin Chloe as well. Thanks to your support, it means a lot. (Thanks again Anna for the flowers and candy!!! Love, Emma)

HAIRCUT

I went to get my hair cut and Emma wanted to get hers done as well. I'm glad she wanted to, I'm sick of the crying and screaming as I brush her hair. She got about 6inches cut off. WOW. She looks really cute. I love it.