The Hemming Family

2010-10-30T00:00:00.001-07:00

And then there is Stellar, I can't leave him out. He is my boyfriend. I know that sounds weird, but seriously I love this kid. I want to kiss him all day.I want sink my lips in his soft baby squishy skin. Everytime I tell him he is cute he corrects me, "No, I a big boy!" I Love it! I love it when he runs around with his arms in front of him, pretending to fly like Buzz lightyear or Astro boy or SuperWhy, or who ever he is for the day. I love it when he kisses me. I love it when he picks out his own clothes.I love it when we get to spend the mornings together when Rainy is at school. I love the way he talks, I love the way he walks, and smiles and frowns. He is Fantastic.

Oh and did I mention he is potty trained now? Yeah, he is

amazing!

2010-10-29T23:37:00.000-07:00

2nd- We blessed Serene on October 1oth.

We blessed Serene in Josh's Parents ward here in Washington.My parents and sister came up.Josh's two brothers, brother in law(well almost;) ), Dad and My Dad stood in the circle.Josh gave her a beautiful blessing.Things that stood out to me were that she would be able to serve a full time mission if she so desired and to listen to her mother, because I would always have her best interest at heart. She looked fabulous! Karen(my mother in law) bought Serene a beautiful blessing dress, it was VERY long, very simple, elegant and had a bonnet with it, it was perfect. My mom bought her a locket, we all have a locket, all the girls in the family. My grandma sent her a bracelet and some cute little satin shoes that we jazzed up with some flowers we made. She looked great , we had great food and it was all around a great day. I missed having my Brother there though, I will admit that. I am so glad he will get to meet this sweet little girl in a few months.She is such a blessing to us. I feel like she has been with us forever.She is so lovely, her smile is amazing, she puts up with a lot from her older siblings(they love on her a bit too hard sometimes and Rainy wants to play with her like a baby doll.) I am so grateful that my Heavenly Father entusted me with this little sweet Spirit.

Catch up! Or is it Catsup, I prefer Ketchup...

2010-10-29T22:54:00.000-07:00

A lot has happened in our little world since Miss Serene has entered into our lives, and therefore I am here at the computer tonight getting you all caught up.

1st, Rainy started preschool.Now this is not just any preschool, Rainy rides the bus to and from. Yeah, I did okay on the first day sending her, but when she got off the school bus, on her own and had made it safely home to me. I got a little choked up and realized- she can do it without me. She doesn't need me for everything anymore. I wanted to ball my big eyes out. Rainy goes Mon-Thursday to the Elementary School here, it is basically like a half day Kindergarten. This school district does all day Kindergarten.She eats breakfast and lunch at school. She has PE and music and they do centers. She has little girlfriends that she sits with and giggles with. She loves it.I am so glad she goes.I am glad she is becoming more and more independent. But wow has time flown. Here are a few pictures of her very first day, when the whole family got to go and spend the day.

Headed to school! Woo HOO!

Some of the kids from her class. Having breakfast. Stellar having breakfast too. Being a good big sis...

And then this is the second day of school, the first day to ride the bus-

Waiting in the car for the bus- totally excited!
Waiting outside for the bus.
Now crink your head to the side, cuz I dont want to flip the pic-
There she goes, with help with some of the other kids at the bus stop,

looking at this pic now, makes me get a bit teary.

and now this is what really got me on that day, besides Stellar peeing his pants and undressing himself on the side of the highway, at the bus stop - Keep crinking your neck to the side.

She made it home.

Yep, I got a lump in my throat.

Serene Birth Story part 4- the grand Finale!

2010-09-17T10:28:00.000-07:00

I bet you thought this day would never come, well it has, the stars have aligned and here I am this evening bringing you the 4th and final installment of... Serene's birth story- the GRAND finale! So where did we leave off ?... aah yes me, peeing in front of the elevators.

So the Elevator FINALLY comes, Josh pushes me in, then we go down one floor to Labor and delivery, I am still screaming. He pushes me to their(L&B) door, just as the door is closing behind someone, I yell "LET ME IN!" I am a dork, I know. Then I use my hulk muscles again and pry the door open before it closes completely. All the nurses at the nurses station are now completely aware at this point that I am there, I have made quite the entrance. One says who are you- I tell them my name and Josh tells them we have called ahead, they acknowledge they know who I am and then I am surrounded by nurses.One tells me to sit down so she can push me to the room.Bless her sweet sweet heart, I yell at her too and tell her I can't.(She ended up being one of my favorite nurses throughout my visit there.) So I am in the room, they tell me to get on the bed, I climb up and as I do that they(being the nurses) remove the lower half of my clothes. WARNING: THINGS MIGHT GET GRAPHIC AGAIN- READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.I stay on my hands and knees and am moaning and groaning and screaming.There is a nurse there telling me to breath- I yell at her too and tell her I can't. Screaming works just fine for me thank you.She checks me. She tells me she is going to check me to see how far I am dilated- this is the moment of truth. This is the moment where I find out if I am a big baby or if I have reason to feel like wonder woman. She declares I am a nine! YES a 9! Freaking Amazing! All I think is get this baby out of me and NO FREAKING WONDER THIS HURTS SO FREAKING BAD! Sorry about all the freaking out. So then she tells me that in a matter of minutes my water is going to break and not to push yet and that I am too far along to have an epidural.Which I have never NOT had. A little scary.Okay A LOT SCARY!I can hear Josh in the background talking about how we tried to have the baby before now, no one would induce me, we have big babies, I have torn severely with our other babies.I know he was just worried, but I finally said something to the effect of " It doesn't matter anymore, we are here and we are just going to have to do it." My mother in law agreed.And Josh said "Okay."( Okay like whatever you say, you have to push this baby out, not me.)I was surprised I was able to say something that made sense, because up until now, I was acting like a crazy woman.A new doctor comes in and when I say new, I mean this little lady has only HELPED deliver a few babies. She is young and nervous. The more experienced doctor, the one from my doctors office that is on call that night is sitting, literally sitting back in a chair, in the back of the room observing. I am still on my hands and knees on the bed. Josh is holding my hands, my mother in law is rubbing my back, it was so comforting.Josh told me he had to let go for a second, I knew what that meant, he needed to take of his sweatshirt, which meant he was getting hot, which meant he felt like he was going to pass out. He always feels like that when I am having a baby, right before his adrenaline kicks in. I am only getting glimpses of what is happening behind me between contractions and screaming into my pillow. I then disregard what the nurse told me and push with all my might, because it was the only thing that relieved the pressure, but she was right, my water did break. And Josh informed me later that when it did it, literally went ALL over that poor little Doctor lady and up and over her head. Josh said the look on her face was priceless. So then, I am assuming that as the new Dr. is getting somewhat cleaned up, the old experienced Doctor comes and checks me, I am a ten, I can push.The nurses help roll me over to get in a better position. I push maybe 10 times and then I heard something that always melts my heart, and that is this little chuckle/laugh from Josh. I only hear it when he is completely excited or proud.I have heard it every time I have pushed one of our babies far enough he can see their dark hair, or when our kids accomplish a milestone such as smiling for the first time, crawling, walking, talking, or writing their name.I love this sound and after about 10 pushes I heard it and I knew he was proud of me, I knew he could see our baby. He gives this great smile along with the chuckle and that was smeared all over his face.My mother in laws eyes lit up, I was almost done.I pushed a couple more times and then it was over. I had this beautiful baby on my chest.Serene was born at 4 o' clock A.M., She was 7 lbs11 oz. and 19 inches long.Perfect. I kept saying to Josh and my MIL "I did it, I did it!" And they agreed "You did do it." I called my mom and dad.I told them all about her.I told them that she had my ears, and that she has TONS of hair.The next few minutes was kind of a blur. I just know how proud I felt, how that getting this sweet little baby after all that work was the greatest gift. I remember one of the nurses saying "Now that is how you have a baby!" I think that was after we had determined I was only in labor for about 2 hours!Yes, all of this happened in two hours!And yet in took me over a month to write about it- sorry. Before they wheeled me to my room they got me checked in. Weird. They kept saying how silly it felt to be getting me checked in after the baby was born.It was a great moment when they wheeled me to the room I would be staying in, baby in my arms and then they played "twinkle twinkle little star." They play that every time a baby in born through out the hospital.So cool.

So here is the little beauty herself, born on a very Serene morning in August:

Miss Serene Hemming - 1 month

Happy Happy Momma

Very TIRED Daddy

Very Happy Bro&Sis

Happy Happy Family

Serene's birth story part 3

2010-08-20T20:08:00.000-07:00

Sorry it's taken me so long to write this and sorry to leave some of you hanging, its been a busy week or so.
So we live on a Peninsula, the Key Peninsula to be exact, and we have to drive up this Peninsula, over a bridge drive through Gig Harbor over the Narrows Bridge and then we are in Tacoma and the hospital. So we are in the car and we are heading down the highway. Josh puts on his caution lights, as if to excuse himself from the speed limit. At first I say oh you don't need to do that. Yeah, so i quickly changed my mind. The contractions are now getting so I can't just breathe through them. Josh tried to help me breathe through them for as long as he could, then I started getting testy and told him he was breathing too fast. I started moaning through them and clinching my teeth a bit. The kids are now bright eyed in the back seat, probably thinking they were in the middle of a very bad dream, ripped out of their beds and in the car going VERY fast through a dark tunnel of trees with their mom moaning.I think that sounds pretty freaky to me. So once we get to Gig Harbor I am feeling like I can't sit down on my bottom.I am pretty sure that is not a good sign. Oh and at some point on this journey we have called my brother and sister in law, who were supposed to take the kids, but there kids are sick- so they can't. Dang it!Then we call my mother in law she says to bring the kids to her house.Bless her heart but Josh quickly informed her that wasn't going to work, like really wasn't going to work. So she said she'd meet us at the hospital.Thank goodness.So we are now going through Gig Harbor reaching the Narrows Bridge and about at that point I am screaming.It actually helped.I felt silly, It was Loud, it freaked out the kids even more(bad dream getting worse), but it actually felt better to scream through the contraction.I started apologizing to the kids.Josh told me they were fine and to worry about myself.Rainy has now covered her head with her blanket-duck and cover!We reach Tacoma, By now I am pounding on the arm rest, holding myself up, cause it hurts to sit down, contractions are back to back and I am pounding on the arm rest(not sure why.) I argue with Josh for short second about which exit to take to the hospital as if he hadn't lived there for 20 years of his life.I am now officially turning into raging lunatic. We reach the hospital. Josh starts ringing the doorbell to let us in.The lady at the front desk just sits there, with her back to us, mind you I am still screaming and now I am pounding on the windows of the hospital too.Still she sits there. Two of my sister in laws pull up right behind us, with my mother in law. They got the kids, the little lady at the desk finally opens up the door, she says as if its any consolation- "I kept pressing the button to let you in." Well obviously it wasn't working because, I still wasn't inside yet! As the automatic doors slowly opened I helped pull them apart,I felt like the Hulk. Josh pushes me in the wheel chair( he is mumbling all kinds of things about how frustrated he is with lady upfront and the hospital), I am standing in the wheelchair, still can't sit down.We get to the elevator, I tell Josh or maybe yell , "have to pee!" He says something to effect of do what you gotta do. I pee right on the floor of Tacoma General Hospital, right in front of the elevators. Weird moment for me, not my finest. Oh well, do what ya gotta do.

Serene's birth story part 2

2010-08-18T20:03:00.000-07:00

I laid in bed having some contractions,they were pretty mild. I figured I'd fall asleep, they would go away,just like they always seem to, maybe this night I'd have some wicked diarrhea or puking to liven up my nightly bathroom ritual, but that's about it.I drifted in and out of sleep as I listened to Josh's Rocky movie in the other room, I think he was confident in his idea of Castor oil and felt like there was no reason to go to bed. Then I felt it, this pang of pain. ouch. Definitely felt like a real contraction.But who was I kidding, nothing was going to happen tonight.About ten minutes later, it happened again. I called Josh in. He told me to start timing.I tried to time, ten minutes seemed so long. There definitely couldn't be something going on with contractions this far apart. I gave up at about seven minutes timing. Labor and delivery would definitely send me home if I came in right now. Pang.Another contraction.I called Josh in again. He laid in bed with me, for the next two contractions, which were now seven minutes apart and about a minute and a half long. Seven minutes apart was what we had decided was the point we would call Labor and Delivery to tell them we were coming in.Which we were instructed to do being as we live so far away, so they would be ready when we got there. Josh called, they said come in. And then I got up.Josh grabbed the kids, put them in the car. We grabbed last minute items we needed. All the while my pain is increasing with every contraction which are happening closer together.
From this point on the story might get somewhat graphic and some might get grossed out by my details, just sayin' you might not be able to look at me the same way after reading this.
Then came the smell. I farted and even though Josh and I were in a dark room together we both felt as if we could see a fog coming from me.I couldn't hold it in. Josh compared the smell to the dark sand underneath the top sand at the beach, the layer where all the decomposing sea life was.I guess I have never dug that deep at the beach to be familiar with that smell, but whatever. We both starting laughing, a defense mechanism against gagging or dry heaving. Thank you Castor oil.Then I rushed to the bathroom. Pretty sure I don't need to go into any explanation of what happened in there.Contractions are worsening. Pain increasing.I then head to the car.
We started our long journey to the hospital. And when I say long journey I mean our 45 min car ride to the hospital, which felt like an eternity.

Serene birth story part 1

2010-08-17T19:33:00.000-07:00

Well, I am done complaining, my sweet sweet baby is here, and perfect and wonderful, and I couldn't be more happy. We named her Serene, I know, it wasn't even an option on our poll.It was something we came up with after we set that up, and we thought it was so good, we'd keep it a surprise. So I think I should tell the story of her birth, to me it is quite remarkable, definitely almost could have been a scene from a movie and it was completely unexpected, fascinating and has a very happy ending. So, here goes...

I had my membranes stripped on Thursday the 5th of Aug. I had my parents come up that day, because the last time I had my membranes stripped I went into labor within hours. This time NOTHING happened. I lost my mucus plug on Friday so I thought maybe there would be some progress, then nothing happened.I even went to labor and delivery thinking that with the plug gone and mild contractions maybe something might happen, nope. This went on until Tuesday, when my Dad had to leave town for work, I was so upset he had to go, and I hadn't had the baby. I went to a Dr. appt, begged them to induce me. Nothing. Went back to an appt. on Thursday, begged them again, nothing. So then my mom and I came to the conclusion, nothing was happening, and no one was gonna make anything happen and walking wasn't helping and my little contractions didn't mean anything and I was probably going to stay dilated to a 4 and 25% effaced until it was time to deliver and lastly my mom would probably miss the birth of this baby.My mom went home Friday. Sad. Friday night and Sat were mellow. We hung out. I was very emotional. I told Josh on Saturday morning I felt worse than normal.He said to keep him posted,then he headed off to work.That night Josh and I took the kids to the park, it was perfect. Then Josh took me and the kids to dinner. It was really yummy. They ate all their food, which is amazing and then we walked to Walgreen's. We bought some evening primrose oil which is supposed to soften the cervix and help prevent ripping, I was skeptical but feeling desperate to have the baby, so I was ready to try anything. Then we went to Albertson's and bought some Castor oil, yep, I was desperate. We came home after that.The sky was filled with stars, Josh even saw a shooting star.This was one of the nights of the meteor showers.We Bathed the kids, they laughed while in the tub, deep belly laughs, it made Josh and I laugh, its one of our favorite things is to hear them laugh together. We said prayers with the kids.I said if this was the last day of me being pregnant I would be very happy. Then we left the kids.
Josh made me a Castor oil cocktail(he had been wanting me to try this for weeks and I wouldn't, he asked a bunch of women at work and they all swore by it.My mom and mother in law told me not to, they thought it would just be gross for one and two it would just make me sick,)the Castor oil tasted like I was drinking melted chapstick mixed with orange soda. I then used the evening primrose oil. I took a shower, because in case I did go into labor I wanted to be clean(is that a weird thought?)Josh told me he thought I was closer to having a baby because I was very emotional and was acting like I did before I had our other two. I was excited when he said that.Then I went to bed, it was about midnight...

2010-08-09T12:03:00.000-07:00

Dear Baby,

I will read this letter to you someday.

This week I really wanted you to be born.I planned on it, hoped on it, counted on it.Grandma and Grandpa came for it. You didn't come. Grandma and Grandpa went home. You still didn't come. It has been a long week- very emotional, we all want to meet you so badly. I can't wait to hold you- on the outside. I have to admit I do have some selfish reasons for wanting you out of me. I kinda(okay really really) miss holding your brother and sister. I miss having room on my lap for them and feeling them flat against the front of me. I miss carrying them.I also miss being able to walk(normally). I waddle now, and it is most painful to do even that. I also miss sleeping on my tummy.
I want your brother and sister to be able to hold you and love you and help me take care of you, they have been patiently waiting for your arrival. Your daddy, he is pretty anxious to meet you as well, also to have mommy back to normal again.I am a tad bit emotional and hard to deal with when I am pregnant. I can't wait to take you with us on all our regular day time adventures, Story time at the library, the grocery store, Target, and to play at the park. It will be fun to go to church with you and build a fire in the back yard with you, take you to Sunday dinner at Grandma Karen's house, where all of your aunts are going to eat you up! And then it will be especially fun to take you to see my family in Idaho, a whole slew of people who will love you SOOO much! A grandma and grandpa who will spoil you rotten and a little auntie too. Oh and then you have an uncle, his name is Loren, he lives in Texas, he is waiting for some pictures of you.We will have many photo shoots of you.Because I am pretty sure you will be absolutely adorable.
So, will you come out soon please? I am pretty sure we could show you a good time out here on the outside.Can I say OUT anymore times to convince you to come OUT?It will be an adventure! A good one.I promise.I love you already. See you soon, love your very uncomfortable, anxious, and tired mommy.

2010-07-28T09:38:00.000-07:00

My mom made this for me on one of her visits here. She definitely spruced up my VERY boring bassinet! The orange and brown match my room decor and I just love it.I am so excited to put one of these in it-

But as the months have turned into weeks and the weeks have turned to days until this new little one will possibly arrive.I am scared. I am scared the same way I was scared when I had the first and the second. Will I be a good mom, will I do everything"right?" Will I have enough love for this baby?Will I be a good mommy to my other babies, will I be able to give them enough love and attention. Will everything "work out?" But I guess now is when I just need to calm down, let things go and say "Come what may, and love it." I know it will be hard to adjust to three, but I know if I look upward for help, I should be just fine. Another quote from Elder Wirthlin - “The simple secret is this: put your trust in the Lord, do your best, then leave the rest to Him.”

I will do my best, and I am excited for this new baby I GET to have.I am grateful for this spirit Heavenly Father has entrusted me with. So here we go!

Really?! why me?

2010-07-16T09:37:00.000-07:00

So the Monday after the Fourth of July Josh had the day off work so we took the kids up to Seattle for the day.We met Josh's brother and his wife and kids there. We were headed to the Seattle center-the area underneath the Space Needle.There is a really neat HUGE fountain there, one bigger than I have ever seen in my life, they also have a place called the Fun FOrest, which has mini amusement rides. Anyways so we get up to Seattle, park the car, and start walking to the fountain where we were meeting Mike and Sonia. As we are walking we start to pass through this area, that has quite a bit of trees and some lamp posts. Josh is walking ahead of me with the Stroller, and I am hobbling behind. The next thing I know a big crow swoops down from a lamp post and attacks my head and then flies off. I start SCreaming, do you blame me?! Holy cow!or Holy Crow! I ran as fast as my awkward pregnant body would let me to Josh,I bury my head in his chest. I tell him what happened and he laughs- hard- really hard! I was mad, but I looking back, I would have laughed too.So as I am standing there my face in his chest, still squealing, the crow comes back down from a nearby tree and gets my head again. Josh is really laughing now, and so are a bunch of other people walking by. grr. Josh says "we should see if it gets anybody else walking by." So I turn around and watch the dumb bird, perched up high on a lamp post and nothing.People walked by and it just sat there. So at this point I decided it was best for me to leave the area.Obviously it had a personal problem with me. The rest of the day was fun and crow free.

grateful

2010-07-16T09:25:00.000-07:00

I am grateful for my husband, who cares for me with such love, who is so patient with me and my pregnancy moods. I hurt very badly the other night, and he helped me with such loving and careful touch, then put me to bed and gave me my tylenol pm(the only way I can sleep these days,)then kissed me goodnight- I love him. I don't know that he will ever read this, but Josh my love, I love you.Thank you. And Rainy thank you for your prayer that night, that I would feel better the next day, It worked.

Today in Sacrament meeting- in the Hemming's Pew

2010-07-11T22:46:00.000-07:00

So, we are in Sacrament meeting and Stellar is jumping on my lap while they are passing the sacrament and is saying "oo- oo- aa- aa" -like a monkey. Everyone starts giggling, including Josh and I. Then he gets off my lap and runs down the pew to the light switch, and tries to turn off the lights in the chapel.Josh runs down to grab him and holds him. While he is holding him Stellar Pulls back is arm and goes in to punch Josh square in the face. Then he starts trying to make out with Josh. Then finally the sacrament is over and Josh gets up to go to the bathroom and Stellar tells me something like he is going with Daddy, before I could catch him he runs to the chapel door slams his hands on it and screams"Daddy!" Everyone giggles again.I promptly pick him up and carry him out, Rainy follows, Therefore we have cleared our pew.Again.This seems to be a weekly occurence due to our two year old. Our treats, toys and everything else is still there.Embarrassing.Then Josh sees us in the hall he chats with Stellar. We go back in, all of us. Shortly after returning to our seats Stellar starts growling and trying to bite my face like a "monster"- more specifically Sulley from Monsters Inc. again this is followed by giggles.Luckily by this time, its almost time for sacrament meeting to be over and at this time Stellar was escorted quickly to Nursery to by his Father. "Class" is where he wanted to be anyways. He loves Nursery, and Simon- his best bud.

Baby # 3' s Name

2010-07-04T00:07:00.000-07:00

Josh and I want to extend the invitation to help us name our baby.We thought it would be fun to get our friends and families opinion on the names we are rolling around. We want to know what you think! We want the name to be different, unique and we want the name to fit well with the other two kids- Rainy and Stellar.Which we think are pretty different and unique. This baby's middle name will be Shaw, after Josh's Grandma who we adore(who's maiden name is Shaw).So keep that in mind when you are choosing. So head on over to the poll! Have fun, and thanks!
-Josh and Emily

Just because

2010-06-10T14:28:00.001-07:00

Just because they are so darn cute!

Silly Boy

2010-06-10T13:57:00.001-07:00

A couple days ago the kids and I had to go to an appt. in the morning, we woke up late, therefore we ran out of time to bathe them. So after our morning things to do we came home and I gave the kids a bathe. After baths lately Stellar and Rainy both ask me to hold them like a baby in their towel, I am not sure how this started but I am getting to point now where I can't hold either one of them very easily. When I got Stellar out of the tub, he said "Hold Baby" and I told him to wait for a minute while I threw a load of Laundry in the washer(which is in th bathroom.)He threw a little bit of a fit and got into this position below on the rug on the bathroom floor. Which isnt too weird because he has gotten into this position(see below) before after a bath even when not throwing a fit.I am guessing becuase it is a nice and warm.

So after I loaded the washer I told him to come to the living room where I would hold him like a baby on the couch. He stayed like this, so then I went back in the bathroom, and he would stick his head out of the towel and say"boo!" and grab my feet.It was so cute!

So I left him in the bathroom again, he seemed pretty content there and I went back out to the living room to hold Rainy like a baby in her towel on the couch. I held Rainy for a good long while.Then I called to Stellar, no answer. We both called him, no answer. So we went in to check on him, assuming he was into something in the bathroom he shouldnt be.And this is what we found... He was still laying there.

I looked a little closer...

Sound asleep. And this is where he stayed for over an hour until I had to wake him up, cause we were leaving to go somewhere.He was not happy when I woke him up.I wonder how long he would have stayed and slept if I let him. Silly boy! Cute Boy!

Saturday Birthday events

2010-06-06T23:20:00.000-07:00

In Gig Harbor, which is a few minutes away from us they have the Maritime Festival every June. So our little family went on Saturday to this, as a part of Stellar's Birthday festivities. We had lots of fun. Their were LOTS of free kids booths there, with lots of fun stuff to do. The kids colored and got balloons, watched a very funny puppet show, jumped in a bounce house and got to fish for trout-Which was probably the most fun. There was a company there that had set up this BIG metal tub full of trout. Then kids would line up and wait to fish, when it was their turn one of the volunteers at the booth would help the kids put bait on the line, hold the rod and catch the fish. Both of our kids did it and it was so fun to see the joy in their face as they caught the fish.

In this last picture Josh told Stellar to kiss the fish, I don' think he ever made contact, but he did pucker up. Soo cute!

After the festival we went and got some lunch and found a nice little area with a fountain and shade.It was very relaxing.The kids loved dipping their toes in the water. The weather was AMAZING! Josh and I got sunburns, in Washington, can you believe it?!

It was a great day. The weather was perfect, the day was perfect, and I am glad we celebrated on Friday and Saturday, because today, Stellar'sreal birthday, it rained.

Stellar is such a blessing in my life, and in my families life. He brings joy beyond measure to me personally and I know to others. I love him and feel such a mother-son bond with him. He has such a easy going way about him. I love that he tries to be a little comedian. He is so special to me. I am so glad he is Mine. Happy Birthday my sweet sweet boy!

Stellar's "kachow" Cars Happy to you!(in other words his Cars birthday party)

2010-06-06T22:39:00.000-07:00

My Parents came into town this week, we had a great time, despite Stellar having a HORRIBLE stomach flu and it seemed every time we thought he was going to be okay and we ventured out of the house, he puked. And then when he was finally feeling better and we were headed out the door to go to the zoo, Rainy had a fever. Luckily Rainy didn't get anything but a fever. Finally on Friday everyone was doing okay, which was great because that was the night we decided to celebrate Stellar's birthday. On Thursday night I made a "kachow" or Lightening McQueen/Cars cake.I thought it turned out pretty well. The green things in the back are cactus, in case you couldn't tell. The cars are in Radiator Springs, which is a desert.

So on Friday My Mom, Dad, Lex, and Rainy helped me get the house all cleaned up and decorated and got the food ready for the party. Then we waited for Josh to get home and Josh's family to arrive. After everyone arrived we ate my Dad's VERY yummy hamburgers and steak and all the regular bbq sides, fresh fruit, POTATO SALAD(my personal fav) and corn the cob. It was soo yummy. The weather was beautiful so all the kids played outside and had a great time. Then we had Stellar open his gifts. He got lots of fun stuff that he has thoroughly enjoyed playing with. One thing he got was a little tikes basketball hoop, he loves the one at church so we bought him one.HE LOVES IT!

After gifts, we sung to Stellar and he blew out his candles.It was so fun, at first he sang with us, but then when he realized we were all singing to him, he got all shy and put his head down. He blew his candles so cute and then everyone clapped and I thought this next pic was absolutely adorable...

I love this picture. This sums Stellar's second birthday party.

Miss Rainy's Fancy Nancy Princess Tea Party Birthday

2010-05-23T21:29:00.001-07:00

Rainy's Party was great, she had everyone come she invited, they were all excited to come, she got great gifts, the party was fun, everything looked great(I thought) but it was a lot of work! I was so tired after it was over yesterday.I was definitely happy about my day of rest today. But here are the details of the day.

-We all got up super late-nice!

-The boys went and got some Balloons

-Rainy and I got her all dolled up for the occasion- Undid her sponge curlers, painted fingernails, makeup, etc.-We finished all the last minute prep for the party

- We waited

-Daddy went and got dressed up in his "butler" suit and got into Character-Hilarious!

- We waited more

- The guests arrived

- The "princesses" made their crowns.(I bought foam crowns that were covered in glitter and some fun stickers and rhinestones to stick on them) They all turned out SOOO cute!

- We played musical chairs, until everyone decided it wasn't that fun of a game and so I just handed out the prizes to everyone anyways- Tinkerbell stamp rings!Rainy had some mascara running after this game. But it was her party, she could cry if she wanted to.:)

- Then it was time for the Tea Party, "The butler" and I served the girls their treats with their pink lemonade. They all chose which tea cup they wanted(all from the Goodwill, including Rainy's Fancy Happy Birthday one- love that place!)

- The girls all giggled at Josh who was SUCH a character!

- Then we opened presents, Rainy got some cool stuff, she loved it all!

- Then we had the cake! We sang to Rainy, she blew out the candles.

- Then we gave everyone a teacup full of treats and sent them on their merry way.

It was so wonderful to have some new friends to get to know better and that were happy to come and celebrate with us, along with Rainy's grandma(Karen) and her two girl cousins, Lana and Susana.I had so much fun planning everything with Rainy and I loved that Josh got into it too.He stayed up late making the cake, being my second opinion on Rainy's Lelli kelly shoes and was great being Rainy's butler for her party. It was a great week of Birthday for Rainy, and me too I guess. I love being her Mommy!

Goodbye to the Binky...

2010-05-23T20:57:00.000-07:00

With the binky...

and without, isnt he adorable!?

So before I tell you about Rainy's Fabulous party I wanted to tell you a little about Stellar's accomplishment in the last week and a half or so. If any of you know Stellar, you know how attached he has been to the "Bintey" or binky or pacifier or whatever you call it. You can see the evidence in his little smile, his front teeth have pushed up from those things. Anyways, I finally got fed up with always trying to find one for him, he liked to throw them wherever even though he loves them desperately. And we figured it was just time to get rid of them. So one evening we sat him down and talked to him, we dont know how well he understood what we said but he is smarter than you think. We told him we were going to put the binkies in a box and save them to give to our new baby. I think we had gathered up 10 we had found around the house. he put a few in his mouth and then finally put them in the box. He cried. I wanted to cry. Then we decided we would give him the treasure Rainy and I had found at the Goodwill a couple nights before, it was a Lightening McQueen Boom box. I got it for 3.99! It was in great condition! So he gave away his binky and we gave him the boombox. He loved it, but was still upset about the binky. So we put some Pixar movie Music on and he sat in my lap and rocked out a little bit. And then I started bawling. I realized Stellars babyhood is leaving, he is getting so big, so smart and talking so much more(especially because we got rid of the binky.)I have such a tender spot for him, I definitely love my boy differently, not more, but differently than my girl. Then it was bedtime, the true test.Weput him in his room, with the boombox playing soft piano music. He was upset, but not bad. He has been upset a few nights after that, and has had a few more melt downs than normal. But all in all he has done GREAT! And I am so proud of him! Yay for Stellar the big boy and No more binkies!

Happy Birthday to Rainy(her real birthday)

2010-05-22T22:50:00.002-07:00

Thursday was Rainy's "real" Birthday as she calls it. It was a pretty low key day, we started off the day by having pancakes, bacon and strawberries- her favorites. Then we all got dressed, Rainy got dressed in her Lelli Kelly knock offs that I made for her and a shirt I had decorated for her as well. After a little while we met up with Grandma(Karen), cousin Brigham, Aunt Caila, and Cousin Lana for some ice cream and to play at McDonalds. The kids had a great time, and Daddy even made a surprise visit on his lunch break from work. Then after McDonalds we headed home again. I made Rainy's favorite Lunch items- Ramen noodles and a tuna sandwich.Sounds appetizing huh? We put Stellar down for a nap and then Mommy needed a rest too. Rainy laid down with me and it was so nice to have some quiet time just with her to just snuggle and talk. After resting we got ready for Daddy to come home, which meant Rainy got to open presents. So as soon as Daddy walked in thats what we did. Rainy is so funny with every gift she posed for the camera. She was super excited about getting her First Cabbage Patch doll, her sleeping beauty polly pocket and Candy Land game. I fixed dinner next, getting ready for this- Macaroni and Sausage links, again her choice. And no that is not something I normally pair together. Our Home teachers came over and visited us.They brought us some chocolate chip cookies and when they left we played Candy land and ate the cookies. Rainy whooped our butts!I read the Book "Birthday Presents" to Rainy and cried and then we put the birthday girl to bed. It was a good day!

More to come later on the Fancy Nancy Princess Tea Party Birthday Party Extravaganza... as for now, this Momma is Exhausted! (because the Extravaganza happened today and it was a PARTY!)

Our trip to Idaho in camera phone pictures... more to come later

2010-04-22T13:03:00.000-07:00

First Grandpa came to get us after he got done working for the week in town, then we drove to Idaho on the way we saw this really cool dinosaur at a Gas Station, we had to stop and get pictures by it, after one of our many potty/diaper breaks.

The kids spent some much needed time with aunt Lexie.Here Stellar is sleeping with Lexie, they fell asleep like this waiting for Grandpa to get home for their "Slumber Party".

We had crazy adventures with the animals in the house. Here My mom is wearing Jasmine, this was Jasmines idea, not Mom's.

We went shopping of course, here is Rainy doing a little runway modeling.

Then we flew home on an airplane, Stellars first airplane ride.While we waited for our plane, My kids chatted with a stranger, a stranger who I am convinced was an angel, she saved the day, (Stellar was starting to get really fussy) and kept my kids completely occupied by just chatting with them while we waited for a plane that was an hour late. Thank you Stranger Lady/Angel! My kids did wonderfully on the flight, no complaints, I was so worried.We even got compliments from other passengers on their good behavior, I was a very proud momma!

Thanks mom and dad and Lex for the fun visit!

I love this picture...

2010-04-06T20:17:00.000-07:00

This is what I got when I wanted to take a cute picture of him with his hat G.G. made for him. This is such a Josh face, srunched nose and all. I LOVE this picture!

Wowee

2010-04-06T20:14:00.000-07:00

This is what happens

when Mommy goes to work and Rainy gets to dress herself. And yes Daddy let her go out in public like this. Oh my!

In case you ever wondered...

2010-04-01T18:53:00.000-07:00

In case you ever wondered what I look like when I sleep... cuz I know you do :) ...

Lets just say Rainy and I are not sleeping beauties.

And in case you ever wondered what Josh looked like...

Just as peaceful as this, not as cute, but just as peacful.

Apparently they had had a good hard day of playing.Just How it should be. Dang they are cute!

2010-03-25T16:50:00.000-07:00

We are pleasantly surprised by our news of the day...
We are having another girl!Josh and I were sure it was a boy. We even thought we saw boy parts at our 12 week ultrasound, we were wrong. Josh spotted the little girl parts immediately during the beginning of the ultrasound. I needed more proof, i couldnt believe it. Josh and I are both excited to welcome another sweet girl into our family and Rainy can't stop smiling! She is beaming, it is so cute! Now I just got to figure out a way to explain to her we wont be naming the baby the name she has picked out- Sissy Mint Lavendar Kelly. And then there is Stellar completely oblivious to everything and happy.

2010-03-23T21:11:00.000-07:00

I love moments like this.

random

2010-03-20T22:32:00.000-07:00

Random events and happenings of the day:
I got lost today, a few times actually, I felt scared. I took a wrong road and ended up in the middle of a different county, in the middle of the woods.Therefore our evening outing to McDonalds and to the Fabric Store took and hour and not a half hour to arrive at our first destination.I was so glad my children were patient with me and Rainy's little voice was so comforting as I figured out where I was going.I love her.
Today I took Rainy with me to work, I was a little worried about it, but MB(the woman I take care of) LOVED Rainy and told me so many times through out the morning/afternoon while we were there. We all went to Denny's for breakfast and MB would talk about how cute Rainy was, how smart she was, and then she would talk baby talk to Rainy.Rainy would just smile.She was perfect. I asked her afterwards what she thought of MB, and how she doesnt make sense when she talks and if she was nervous around her.She acted as if I was weird in asking her this.She acted as if being around MB, someone with Akzheimers was normal. I felt proud of my accepting and loving daughter.

Stellar is a doll, I love him, I can't get enough of his soft chubby cheeks, his last bit of lingering baby smell, his sloppy intense romantical kisses, he is just wonderful.Dont get me wrong though, he is naughty.Josh discovered blue pen all over his leather office chair today.It had to have happened on my watch, or when I was not watching, he is a sneaky little guy. Tonight when we were approaching McDonalds, Stellar pointed and said "ee-I ee- I -O" I had to think about what he was saying at first but then I figured it out as he pointed to every McDonalds emblem and said the same thing. If you dont understand think of the song "old Mcdonald had a farm." Pretty funny, I thought. He also started saying "No way" tonight too, like when we tried to leave the restaurant-"No Way!" he yelled

just a little randomness from our day today

Pictures to brighten anyones day...

2010-03-10T22:33:00.000-08:00

So this morning Stellar came out of his room wearing this- then he decided to push his grocery cart wearing this, then we went out for the day and when he came home he put this back on and got on Rainy's bike and watched tv while wearing it. No Rainy did not help him with his accesories, it was all him. She was as surprised as I was when he showed us what he had on. To clarify what he is wearing, He has on Rainy's Easter hat from last year and a pair of her glamourous glasses from Logan(and yes they are on upside down.)

And then a few weeks ago Rainy came out to show me her " night clothes" which included a huge headband, that she wore in her hair like she was a flapper girl from the twenties and her night gown and a pair of slippers from G.G.- she said she was going to wear them to bed. I definitely thought that through the night she would have taken something off, but no when she woke up, she went to the bathroom to look in the mirror and fix her headband and then came to breakfast wearing her night clothes. She looked so cute I had to snap a few pics of her.

Our trip to the park...

2010-03-06T16:05:00.000-08:00

Today it has been sixty degrees outside- yipee! So we grabbed some lunchables and headed to the park.My favorite parts were watching Rainy playing with some other kids, she has not had a lot of interaction with new friends lately. I love to hear her little conversations with other kids, always so funny! And I also loved hearing Stellar say "whee" everytime he went back and forth on the swing, it was so cute! He also went down the slide all by himself and with no one to catch him at the bottom, incidently he landed on his bum. But when I said "Yay!" there were no tears and he got right back up again and went on exploring

My mom...

2010-03-02T09:48:00.000-08:00

I wanted to post about my mom today, 1 because it's her birthday, 2 because I love her and miss her like crazy!

My mom is 45 today,

So I am going to give you 45 reasons why I love her:

1. She is my mom

2. She is cute

3. She has freckles

4. She always smells good, when I was little, I used to love to smell my mom, come to find out, she never wears perfume, its always just been her, and a little deoderant.

5. She is always wanting to try new things to make, or do or whatever.

6. She is usually really good at making the new things, or is good at doing the new thing.

7. She is good at cleaning, I loved it when my mom would clean my room for me when I was little, and I loved coming home to a clean house, it was always so comforting to me.

8. She loves to shop

9. She is giving

10. She is thoughtful

11. She is funny, she doesnt try to be funny, but she is.

12. She loves my kids... lots!

13. She loves Josh

14. She loves to serve, I have been amazed by her willingness to serve in and out of her church callings

15. She is festive, she always decorates for every holiday and tried to do something fun on each one with us kids. Even as teenagers we could count on a little something special from mom on each holiday.

16. She loves animals, she might not admit her love for any of them, except for the late Nina baby(our female chihuahua) but she does love them, and because of her, and my dad, I have a love for animals too.

17. She loves flowers and all things beautiful

18. She loves the gospel

19. She loves to laugh, and I love to hear her laugh.

20. She always writes to my brother, faithfully every monday and sends him packages all the time. Even Loren got something special for Valentines day. Good ol' mom.

21. She is organized and you can always count on her for anything, this means more to me than she will ever know. Especially since I feel like I have lost my mind since having kids.

22. She loves my dad, I love to hear and see her laugh at his silly things he does

23. She wants to please everyone

24. She loves her family

25. She loves coke

26. She loves chocolate

27. She loves couponing, I wish I could be near her so she could continue to get me to love it too.

28. She loves me, and shows me this and tells me this on a daily basis.

29. She loves my brother, and shows and tells him this too.She was always the one who could love Loren like no one else could.

30. She loves Lexie, she wanted her and prayed about her and now loves and cherishes her.

31. She loves ticket to ride, a boardgame that is long and to me fun on occasion, but i love that she loves it and can spend time with my dad and family and friends and play it and enjoy herself.

32. I love that she makes lists

33. I love that she can arrange flowers and has shared this talent many times

34. I love that she can make jewelry, I enjoy this talent, especially when I put in a pair of earrings my mom has made or fixed for me.

35. She is a great cook! I constantly crave my moms food, I miss it, it is always the best!

36. Rainy says she wishes she could live with her.

37. She gives great hugs.

38. She is always grateful for what she has, Loren and I always thought it was weird and funny when she would randomly say things like "I am so grateful for my cloth napkins" or something like that. But now I am grateful, for her example on being grateful.

39. I love that she loves to spend time with me.

40.I love that she is my friend, not just my mom.

41. I am grateful she would do anything for me.

42. She is always a phone call away

43. She will travel any distance to be with me, whether it be from utah or to Washington, even if I lived in China, I know if I needed her or wanted her she would be there.

44. Rainy wishes that she would stay here with us in Washington.

45. Rainy loves it when Grandma tells her to go play with Lexie, cause Rainy loves to play with Lexie:)

Whats on my mind...

2010-02-18T21:58:00.000-08:00

So today I felt fatigued I guess. Maybe irritated. On a personal level, I felt as if my happy pill was not working as it should. Rainy was driving me nuts! She was crying about everything. Really everything. Stellar pulled out the DVD's and movies what seemed like a million times and I was just cranky. Things have been rough for our little family the last little while and I was thinking about lots of the things that were going sour for us. Then I found a blog. A blog that changed my attitude around tonight. Here it is: http://nieniedialogues.blogspot.com/, it is about a lds mommy/wife who was in a terrible almost fatal plane crash who now has burns covering most of her body. Everyday she goes through so much pain and struggles. She cant pick up her babies, she cant jump or run or play. Her blog is filled with everyday stuff, but in her everyday stuff, is inspiration. She is so beautiful. Anyways, After reading this I thought about all I can do, all I have and all the good I have in my life. And now I am going to make a happy list of things I love. Which I saw another blog that I love,

My Happy list

1. Chocolate chip cookies I made these tonight with the kids.

2. Spring time

Their are daffodils blooming, this makes me so happy!

3. My daughter

Even though she drove me nuts today, I love her. She is always doing things to make me happy, always trying to be pleasing, and helpful. Here she is vaccuuming. What a sweetheart.

4. My Son

Stellar lights up my life. He has this great ability to put a smile on your face even when he is spitting at you with a grumpy face. He wants those around him to be happy and loves to make people laugh. By the way, here he is with a chocolate chip cookie face.

5. My Husband

I never give Josh enough credit, and shame on me for that.He always wants to give me the best of things.He thinks I am cute, even when I know I look horrible.He would do anything for me, really. He is a good daddy and is a good man.And he is so cute, I mean look at this picture, can you say hot dad or what?

4. Chubby fingers

5. 53 degree weather in February

6. The church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

7. I have a baby growing inside me

8. I have a Spectacular view from my back porch.

9. I have a job interview tomorrow.

10. I have a great big family who loves me.

and thats just to name a few things that make me happy and that I am blessed with.

. e

A new baby

2010-02-07T11:53:00.001-08:00

Josh and I are expecting a new baby August 22. One benefit to moving here to Washington, is it probably wont be as hot through summer, which I had worried about when I found out I was due in August.We will be finding out the gender March 25. We are all very excited and look forward to see how this new little person will fit into our family. I cant wait to start feeling this baby move. I could tell a lot by the way each of my babies have moved. Rainy was constantly moving. I was convinced her fingers were always in Jazz hand position, because every movement was sharp. My belly was always contorting into crazy shapes. She still is always moving. Rarely takes a break. Always Dancing, singing and exploring. Then there was Stellar. He moved on a schedule. He moved for only a short time when he did. His motions were softer, slower, less painful. And now Stellar is an easy going guy. Still likes a schedule. Easy to please, softer, slower and happy being in one place for more than a few minutes. I am 12 weeks today. In the next few weeks I should start feeling the baby move. And I will start looking pregnant. I am also hoping that I will feel more energy and less sick. We will keep you updated on this pregnancy through the blog and facebook.

Our outing to Seattle

2010-02-02T18:31:00.000-08:00

Last week we took the kids to Seattle. Josh had an appointment there so we thought we'd make a day of it. We had all been had home for several days in a row and needed to get out. Stellar has been on an elmo kick the last few weeks and I think the rest of us are getting pretty tired of the red furry little monster. But Stellar Loves him! SO we watch Elmo movies several times a day.

Anyways so last week we packed a lunch and drove to Port Orchard to catch the ferry. This was our kids' first time on the Ferry. They loved it! We ate lunch on the Ferry and he!aded on our way to Seattle. It was great!

When we arrived in Seattle Josh headed off to his appt. and the kids and I went to the Children's Museum. I bet you cant guess what exhibit we spent the most time at.

The museum has an exhibit exploring our bodies with the Sesame st. Characters. The kids spent most of the time there. It was fun and of course Stellar took advantage of the comfy seat to watch Elmo. I guess he couldnt miss it for one day. The kids made crafts, played in a water table/waterfall, drove a firetruck and lots more. I couldnt get more pics because it was hard enough to keep track of the both of them in a very fun and exciting place, with no stroller(still in Idaho) and by myself. After the museum and Josh's appt. We headed home. Everyone slept on the Ferry on the way home. It was a good day.

Stellar and Rainy on Sesame St.

The Big Move and a few other things

2010-01-27T20:16:00.000-08:00

So we have moved to Lakebay, Washington, a little town outside of Gig Harbor. We decided to move here in hopes that Josh would have better success in his career and therefore we would have more success financially. A friend of Josh's from high school is letting us rent an apartment from him that is in the basement of his families beach house. Even from the basement we have a spectacular view of the water and of Mount Rainier. The weather for the last ten days or so since we have been here has been very nice considering we are still in January. The apartment seems more roomy and practical than our house in Caldwell and we have a backyard now! Woo hoo! The kids and I have been to story time a couple times here and have found a couple fun places to go in Gig Harbor. I am trying to adjust, its been kinda rough being away from EVERYTHING I am used to. I have never been away from home in Idaho. The kids have loved being close to their cousins! Rainy never wants to leave Grandmas house! I will be posting some pictures soon, now that I have the internet and all the connections I need to post pictures now.

Something funny and frustrating Rainy did the other night.
So I am in the middle of sleeping when I feel someone in my face.
Rainy-"Mommy, Mommy!"
Me-"What!?" completely groggy
Rainy-"I am not tired anymore"
Me- "Well you need to go back to your room and try to sleep."
Rainy-" I am going to read Stellar some books."
Me- "you need to try to sleep, its the middle of the night!"
and then she headed on her merry not tired way
So I lean over to Josh and say-"did you hear that?"
he says yes and so gets up to go see if stellar was awake, and he was. Josh brought Stellar to bed with us and who know what Rainy decided to do-Read books, sleep, I dont know. I asked Josh what time it was and he told me it was 4! What a crazy kid! 4 o' clock in the morning! I couldnt believe it. As much as this was frustrating it was cute too.

Another cute Rainy thing: So Rainy's Aunt Sonia is from Venezuela. Her uncle Michael served a spanish speaking mission. Therefore in Michael and Sonia's home they speak spanish. Since we have moved here Rainy has tried to pick up some of this language. Whenever Rainy comes home from Playing with her cousins Susana and Lana she tries to speak spanish too. None of the words are really spanish words and none of what she says makes any sense, but she does try really hard. The other night Rainy was playing SORRY with Susana and Rainy was trying to speak spanish to Susana- (who is 5,) just looked at her like she was crazy and said"you arent saying that right." I cracked up. My kids are so white.Uncle Michael said that wasnt very nice to say to Rainy and he told her to teach Rainy some Spanish words. So Susana did. Very Sweet.

Stellar has started saying No, not just a no but a NOOOooo00OO! "Do you want to go bye-bye?" NOOOooo000OO! "Are you all done eating ?" NOOOOoooo000OOO "Do you have to go potty?" NOOOoooo000OO! He does this with his big bushy eyebrow furrowed and his faced scrunched! It is so cute! But oh so frustrating! Today while I was trying to check some things out from the Library, Stellar decided that he was ready to leave. So he did. Our new Library has automatic opening doors. I hate it! So he just walked right out to the parking lot. Now its not that I wasnt paying attention, its just the library is so small it takes about no time to get from anywhere to anywhere. And the childrens section is right next to the doors!So of course when I said"Stellar James you get back in here, right now!" He said "NOOOO0000oooOOO!" I wanted to spank his little bottom, but instead I just said he was naughty, laughed and gave him a big squeeze!

Stellar exploring on our little trip over to the state park that is a few minutes away from our house.

The only picture I got of the kids holding still at a indoor play gym/ Coffee bar we found in Gig Harbor. They had a blast!

Stellar eating yogurt.... or bathing himself in it? I can't tell.

This is our backyard, the water, and you can barely see mount rainier. And yes our car is in the backyard.

Rainy's Rain boots.Grandma Karen bought for her when we got here. I can hardly ever get a picture of her lately. She is always too busy. So this is a pic or two I got of her in the car. Where she has to hold still.

oh well

2009-10-28T15:34:00.000-07:00

Well I am going to have to just start from now and go on. Maybe someday I can go back to the last few months including Stellars Birthday, and all the other many activities we have done.Perhaps on a day when I feel really productive. But for now- I am just going to share what has happened in the last few days.

First of all Rainy had a Barbie testimony meeting- everyone sat in line and everyone took turns bearing their testimony. There was plenty of emotion and it made me chuckle! Ken was first, then Barbie, and a few others. Funny!

Stellar got his hair cut at the barber shop down the street. Before Josh or I would cut it, but it was not worth the fight. I would straddle him, Josh would go at him with the clippers. Not fun! So I splurged and spent five bucks on a hair cut. The lady that cut his hair gave him a dum dum sucker and he was PERFECT! He held completely still in the chair. It was AMAZING! SO worth five bucks.

I am growing my hair out- it is starting to drive me CRAZY! Oh well, I made a goal for myself and I am trying my darndest to achieve it. I decided I wouldn't cut it until Loren got home from his mission. So yes it will be two years of no cutting for me! It has nothing to do with Loren, but I could keep track of how long it has been better if I base it around the time he left and when he gets back.It has never happened before, but I really would like to try long long hair. I have made it about 6 months so far. Now let me clarify cutting, this means I can trim and shape my hair as it grows- but no drastic cutting and no new styles.

Also I have a job! I started at working at one of the Movie theatres in Nampa. It has been pretty fun, and I have enjoyed it so far. I work a couple nights a week, after Josh gets home from work. I think it will work out perfect for our family schedule. I feel very blessed to have found and got the job at this time. There are so many people looking for jobs right now.

Josh is working like crazy to achieve a very critical goal at work before the end of the year. Prayers are definitely needed at this time for him. I am so proud of his determination to acheive his goal.

Rainy's Birthday

2009-07-24T14:04:00.000-07:00

On May 20th Rainy's Birthday we had a pretty mellow day.I had her open up a present- which was two outfits to choose from to wear that day. Rainy went to Preschool and took some treats. We took "Gabona" bars(granola) and strawberry milk(a Rainy favorite just like Daddy). While she was Preschool I put together a little table and stool that Josh and I had got at IKEA a few weeks earlier. We also got her a thing that holds a big Roll of paper that can sit on her new table for her to draw on in her room. So Basically she has a little work desk.Rainy came back from preschool to the desk and was very excited. She had also had a birthday crown from Preschool with a BiG 3 on it. It was darling!Later that night we had Grandma and Lexie come over for dinner. We had homemade pizza(another favorite of hers) and pudding with whip cream for dessert. While Grandma and Lexie were there Rainy opened up her presents from Grandma and Grandpa and Me and Josh. She got a Littlest Pet Shop house, Tinkerbell shoes, and lots of other fun stuff and this is before she even has had her party. She had a great day! She fell asleep with her Tinkerbell costume on, in her car seat with the tinkerbell slippers on too! Way cute!It was a very nice mellow day. I will add more pictures from this day when I can get my camera to work with the computer.

I wanted to add a list of 3 reasons why I love Rainy(even though I could go on for days, but she is only3):

1. She is smart, incredibly, amazingly smart. She never ceases to amaze me or herself for that reason. She said the other day"Mom, isnt it amazing that I can turn on the light in my room all by myself?" Of course I said that is was. I was just amazed that she said the word "AMAZING."

2. She is beautiful, incredibly, amazingly beautiful! Josh and I have been stopped almost every time we have gone out in public for over 3 years and told how cute Rainy is. And I am not even trying to brag- I am just telling the truth. Josh and I still comment on how surprised we are that we have such a beautiful daughter from two average people.

3.She is funny! I can't even name all the funny things she says on a daily basis. But I will share some- lately she has come up with some great songs. She puts on her sun glasses, shakes hers hips and plays her pink electric guitar, but the best part about that is the words and names of her songs. Here are some examples of these songs "If you don't have a house then you live outside," " If you have water, you can swim,"" If you get in trouble, then you don't get a treat."Aren't those the greatest names ever!?

I am so sorry

2009-05-15T13:32:00.001-07:00

So I am so very sorry for not blogging. I have so much to blog about and coming up in the next two weeks I have both my kids birthdays, so stay tuned, it is all coming.However I have blogged about Loren leaving which happened on Wednesday. So for all the details on that, go to his blog elderlorenmiller.blogspot.com.

Oh by the way,

2009-04-05T12:49:00.000-07:00

I have started a new blog to document my brothers journey on his mission. I have started by posting about when he opened his call. Let me know what you think, I also want to know if anyone knows of a site with free backgrounds that are masculine. The address is elderlorenmiller.blospot.com

Family pics by Betsy

2009-04-05T12:16:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago my friend Betsy took some family pictures for us. She always does such a good job, here is just a sampling of the pictures we got.

Happy Birthday Dad!

2009-03-25T10:21:00.000-07:00

So today is my Dad's birthday and since I did this for my Mom, I felt it appropriate to do it for him too. I am going to list 25 reasons why I love my Dad.This is not hard for me to do, for I love him very much, hence the reason why I named my son after him. He is one of my heroes.Here you go Dad ,I Love you!

He is Honest.
He is a hard worker
He is a totally devoted father
He is a totally devoted husband
He is one of my best friends
He loves me through and through
He is always giving
He is thoughtful
He does whatever he can to help us be successful
He can always make me laugh
He is creative
He is one of the funniest people I have ever met
He is a terrific grandpa(Stellar's most favorite person in the world!)
He is a great cook
He has been a terrific example to me of forgiveness
He has been a terrific example to me of lots of things in my life
He is happy
He is helpful
He and I have similiar music taste
He loves Josh
He has his priorities in life straight
He is a good man
He is my Dad
He is a good friend
He is the best!

I have Pictures.... Finally!

2009-03-04T09:48:00.000-08:00

So after a long time without pictures I am now able to put some up again. Yay for me! The last time I posted pictures was Jan. 9th and so much has happened in the little worlds of my children. I haven't wanted to share any of it because I didn't have pictures to go with it. SO now here we go...

-Since I last posted Stellar has gotten teeth, two on the bottom and is working on the top ones now, they should be in this week.

-He has learned to crawl, it went from a very slow tiring army crawl, where he would drag his legs behind himself to a full on speedy all four on the floor crawl. It is VERY cute!Sometimes it is frustrating though because he gets into everything!

-He pulls himself up on just about anything, which is really funny to see because as my Mom would say he is about"knee high to a grasshopper." He is very short. He has some stubby little legs.But my children don't have any hope to be tall anyways.

-Also I have finally for sure decided who this little boy looks like. There is no denying it now. Recently he has begun to do this funny scrunchy nose face(I haven't been able to get a picture of it yet) and from the first time he did it I knew for sure I had a mini Josh on my hands. The last few weeks even when he is not doing that silly face,(that by the way makes me laugh out loud EVERY time) he looks like Josh. It has been kind of funny, EVERYBODY has had an opinion about who he looks like people would say anything from my brother, to my mom, to great uncles and second cousins. But no more, he is just all Josh.

I have also added some other cute pictures I have taken of the boy lately. The last picture melts my heart every time I see it.He has a great smile.

-ALSO, I believe he has started saying some words such as "Hi" and "Dadda" which he likes to use together a lot, accompanied by a new little wave he can now do.Lucky Josh!Does this make me a bit jealous you ask.....yes!

Now on to Miss Rainy the Great!

Rainy is SUCH a drama queen, she can go from this...

to this...

in about two seconds flat.
She loves to dress up!Even when on the potty she needs to wear her heels!:)She loves to love on her brother!(Although it looks and feels like torture for him)

She loves to play at Grandma and Grandpa's house with Lexie- Which really wears her out! This was after a five minute car ride home from their house:)!

She loves Preschool and her friends there and is learning new things all the time

And one of the coolest things to happen lately is Rainy can now spell her name. Yes at two and a half, she is Amazingly smart. Her letters are a little hard to read, but they are there! A few weeks ago we were playing are usual game of "Mommy what do you want me to draw for you" and I just out of the blue said"Write your name for me," I expected a response like"No I can't!" But after a few minutes this is what she showed me. I was ecstatic!

I will posting more things later but for now here is a good catch up!

Happy Birthday Mom

2009-03-02T22:53:00.000-08:00

So Today was my Mom's birthday and I am finally getting around to writing a bit about her. It has been a busy day! SO I am going to give 44 reasons why I love her .... because she turned 44.
1. She is an awesome Grandma!
2. A great Mom!
3. A great hostess
4. Wonderful cook
5. Always is thinking of others
6. Great shopping companion
7. She is my best girlfriend
8. She knows what things I enjoy
9. She likes to surprise me with things I enjoy
10. She gets my love language
11. She gets me
12. She loves Josh
13. She would do anything for me
14. She is a great homemaker
15. She is crafty
16. She is cute
17. She always has the best intentions
18. She is not perfect
19. She is funny
20. She is fiesty
21. She likes to watch my kids
22. She has a strong testimony
23. She is always sharing
24. She is a great teacher to me
25.She is my Mom
Okay so that was only 25 but it is now midnight and Stellar will be up any minute and I haven't gone to bed yet and now the beginning of this post is incorrect My Mom's birthday was yesterday the 2nd of March.I love you Mom! I hope you had a Great Birthday, I will fill you in on the rest of the reasons I love you if you'd like later.:)

My first trip to a Bar

2009-02-16T09:50:00.000-08:00

Yep you read right, I went to a bar for the first time on Saturday night. Let me tell you it was quite the experience! So let me explain... Josh has been playing drums in a band on the weekends, it has helped make a little extra money for us, but also has been fun for him to be playing in a band again. So on Saturday night he played at the Rodeway Inn. So for all of you who are familiar with the Rodeway Inn probably can imagine what the bar inside looks like..It was this little room that time forgot, totally retro. And packed with a bunch of lets say characters. My mom and I decided to go over and listen to Josh play and enjoy a little people watching-our favorite sport, after we put the kids to bed. Grandpa got to stay home with them. So my first experience at a bar was with my Mom, pretty cool huh. Her and I laughed about that! We were feeling kinda weird showing our ID's together and then felt really weird when a Guy there told me that until Josh introduced me as his wife he had thought my mom and I were "Partners!" AAAh! My mom and I never thought that would ever happen, it was so awkward. We actually had a lot of fun together watching the people there and of course listening to Josh play. He did awesome and his band did great too!In all five years of being together I have never heard him play the drums or in a band at all. So it was a treat. I sure love him! And he is so darn cute playing his drums! :) He is so talented and I am so glad because of him our kids will have the chance to be musical. It was a great night! The only downside was coming home smelling like I had rolled in an ash tray! By the way, Thanks Mom for going with me!I am glad I got to experience that with you!

He's going to .....

2009-02-07T20:09:00.000-08:00

Houston, Texas. So I was way off, I guess my sisterly intuition doesn't work as well as my motherly intuition. Loren opened his papers late Thursday night. And he had a big reveal party on friday night with a lot of our extended family. Thursday night was very special and the spirit was very strong in my parents living room as Loren bore his testimony before reading his call and then as he read the papers. We are all so proud of him, he is a good man and he will be an awesome missionary. Congrats Loren I love you!

Friday funny!

2009-02-06T09:10:00.001-08:00

So I can't post where Loren is going yet, I will after we do a big reveal to our extended family tonight. I would be giving it away being as most of them can get to my blog. But I will say it was a very special night and I am so proud of Loren.
But, I will post something funny Rainy said this morning. Maybe this should be something I do every friday, A Friday Funny. I definitely could come up with one every Friday, she is such a funny girl. So she asked me where we were going today and I said we were going shopping with Grandma Heidi as soon as she got her hair done and then Rainy says"Yeah, she has to get her back shaved." Hilarious! I called my mom and told her and she wanted Rainy to be sure to know ahe doesn't need her back shaved! Anyways there ya go and I will be in touch tonight to let ya know where Loren is going.

It's here

2009-02-05T15:44:00.000-08:00

SO my brother's mission call arrived today. I think I will burst with excitement! I will post tomorrow and let you know where he is going. If this is any clue the postage was a dollar, which usually means foreign because of the extra things in the envelope. We will see!

Random thoughts of Emily....

2009-01-29T14:16:00.000-08:00

So my camera is not hooking up to my computer correctly lately so I have lots of cute pictures of the kids and no way right now to put them on here. Frustrating, they have done the funniest things lately and I want to share but can't so I am trying to be patient until Josh has some time to help me get what I need to fix it.

I also wanted to comment on the beautiful weather we have had the last two days, yes it is still chilly but the sun is out and I can go with out fifteen layers of clothes for me and my kids. I have the windows open and the breeze is blowing in, it is so nice!I LOVE IT! It gives me hope that there will be Spring soon. I love spring! I have watched my Mom's Paper White flower bulbs grow and bloom in the last few weeks and it has just brightened my days to see them. I love Spring flowers too!So maybe this is what they call Spring Fever! I am just so excited for it. I hate the doom and gloom of winter. And winter doesn't do anything for Caldwell. It just makes it look dirty, gross and disgusting.

So my last random thoughts are that my brother should be getting his mission call next week. I am so incredibly proud of him and his choice to serve a mission. He has prepared himself and his just completely gung-ho(sp?). Everytime I think about it I get a lump in my throat and goosebumps. Aaah! I am just so proud and SOOO excited for him. He will do great! He took Chinese in High School and did quite well in it. So my guess of where he is going is somewhere with a warm climate with asian people. I think I will put up a little survey to see where everybody else thinks he will go. Anybody who wants to can guess. Even if you don't know him.
And then if you do add to the survey tell me why you chose what you did.This will be fun.

Costochondritis

2009-01-28T09:59:00.001-08:00

So yesterday I went to the emergency room. Now don't freak out anybody. I am fine. Since I was a young teenager 12 or 13 probably I have had occasional chest pain. The pain would be sharp and would come in bursts. And within a few minutes it was gone so I did what I could do to get through the excruciating pain and then I just kind of poo-pooed it off. Silly me I know. After years of this happening every few months I began to wonder"Am I having mini heart attacks?" But still I did nothing. Then when I got married and it would happen Josh would tell me,"You really need to get that checked out." I never listened. Anyways, yesterday I was just hanging out at home and all the sudden I had the pains again. They were very strong and didn't really go away like normal. So I called my Dad and he took me to the emergency room. I figured I should get there while the pain was still happening, so that way maybe it would be easier to figure out what was going on. It was amazing how quickly I was taken care of at St. Lukes. I love that place! They kept telling me when they hear that someone has chest pain they take it very seriously and they move very quickly. So I had a bunch of tests very quickly including a Cat Scan. I had a bunch of different monitors on that were hooked to different sticker like things all over my body. It was all very interesting and I was glad to find out everything checked out fine. The doctor did say however that I have Costochondritis. And I have ghad this several different times in my life. I put a link to Web MD's definition of this condition for anyone who is interested. There is really no treatment for this condition except for pain meds and Ibuprofen. Which is nice to know that I can take from here on out. So I am glad I found out what was going on but I wish I didn't have to pay the ER expense to find out. Oh well, better safe than sorry.

http://www.webmd.com/pain-management/costochondritis

The Inauguration

2009-01-20T13:58:00.001-08:00

I wanted to share my feelings about the Inauguration today. I want to be able to look back and remember what I felt on this day in history.I watched the Inauguration today with my children playing around me thinking"What is going to happen?"This is definitely a time of uncertainty and honestly it kind of worries me. I think it is great that the Country can be united in excitement. I think it is really neat that our country was able to vote for a black president. That they were able to see past the color of his skin and see President Obama's character and his desire for change. It is amazing that the things that Dr. Martin Luther King wanted for his children as well as for his race, he got. I am proud of our country for that. I really think Obama is a great guy, but I do not like Joe Biden. I think he appears very fake and it makes me nervous that there is a great chance of something happening to this President because of the fact that he is a black president and I wouldn't want Joe Biden to be the next president. I hope that with all this hype and excitement that there are results. I hope President Obama can Change things, I hope he can find a way to get us out of this economic slump. But, I like President Bush, I think he is a good and honorable man.I think it is sad that the title of President hasn't meant much to people the last few years. President Bush was dealt a rough hand. I think he was blamed for a lot of things that weren't directly caused by or in result of his choices.He had to deal with things most Presidents never did. I will agree some things he did were not the best choice, but I can't say I would have have made the "right" choices under the pressure he was. I feel bad that he left the way he did, without the honor and respect of most. I am glad he was the president, I honor and respect him and I think it will be interesting to see how things go these next few years... here we go.....

Literally speaking

2009-01-15T12:16:00.000-08:00

So I have realized how literal two and a half year olds think and understand as of recently.It all started about a month and a half ago when Rainy asked my uncle why his dog was laying down in the back of his car. He said he had"worked her tail off" while they were out hunting that morning and that she was tired. When Rainy heard this she instantly got a look on face of complete horror. She replied" You cut her tail off?!"She was completely confused. It took awhile for Grandma and I to explain to her what he meant and that Uncle Randy was not the type to hurt his dog.
Then the other night my Dad was laying on the couch and I got up to get him a drink and something else that he asked for. My mom saw me doing this and asked him"Who cut your legs off?" Rainy heard this and got that same look of horror on her face. She had to make sure Grandpa's legs were still attached and we had to explain again what Grandma really meant.

And then this afternoon while Rainy and I were playing I told her I had a Abby Cadabby song stuck in my head and she looked at my head and said"It's stuck?" and again I had to explain what I meant. SO now I think I am going to think about who I am talking to and what I say before I say it so I don't mortify Rainy.I just thought this was really funny and had to share.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

2009-01-09T21:34:00.000-08:00

On Christmas Eve we went to my parents house to celebrate with my Dad's family. We had our traditional mexican dinner and then we played a fun hot potato gift game. It was a lot of fun! That night we Stayed with my parents. We thought it would be fun for Rainy to have Lexie to open presents with. They spent the night together in the same bed and Lexie woke Rainy up at 4. Rainy was a little reluctant to get up that early so they stayed in her room until 6. Which was a little better for all of us considering we hadn't gone to bed until 2 and 3. So we all got up about 6 and opened our presents. It was so peaceful, yet exciting. Everyone got some really nice presents. Rainy loved helping us open and our gifts and would get ecstatic for everyones gifts even if she didn't know what it was. Josh got his fishing pole, I got my Bowdabra and the kids got lots of Little People. THanks to my parents for all the neat things we got! We appreciate it more than you know. After we all opened gifts we headed upstairs for a nap and to watch Wall-E. Loren got the Movie for Rainy and I think we have watched it almost everyday since. We all LOVE it!So while the adults all slept and lil' Stellar. The girls played and played and played.And then when we all got up. They finally crashed. It was a great day. It was so wonderfully perfect not to have anything to do. We ate, then rested then ate and relaxed all day. It was great! Christmas night my Grandma and my Aunt and Uncle came over for a Prime Rib dinner that was very yummy and provided by my Dad's work!We are so glad they shared with us. My Grandma gave us some really neat gifts. A Handmade hat for Josh, matching slippers for Rainy and I and special silver spoon with Stellar's name engraved on it. And that's just naming a few things. Thanks Grandma, we loved it all.

We had a great Christmas and Holiday break, we thoroughly enjoyed having time to just be together with nothing going on. I wanted to also add a thanks to our family and friends for all the gifts, love, and support you are always giving to us.

It's about time

2009-01-09T21:10:00.000-08:00

Tonight Josh is out playing with his Band and I was dreading doing our bedtime routine without him.I put Stellar in his crib for the first time (yes we did just move him out of a bassinet even thought he is 20 pounds)at like 8:30, which is rare for him to go to bed this early. And he went right in there and has stayed in there. Amazing!And then soon after Rainy said"I wanna go to bed, I am a little tired." I was like Yay! So now with this beautiful, peaceful silence I think I will finally post about Christmas.

The Sunday before Christmas the kids wore their special Christmas church outfits. My mother in law bought Rainy's for her and gave it to her on Thanksgiving. We appreciate it soo much. It is beautiful and looked great on Rainy.So thank you Karen! I bought Stellar's at Burlington and it was a bit snug, but darling. They looked great if I do say so myself. I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to get some really good pictures of them before we headed off to church. Last year the only pictures I really got of Rainy in her Christmas dress were of her throwing a fit, so I was happy they both cooperated.

Also the night before this Rainy let me put curlers in her hair, it turned out pretty cute and brought back a lot of memories of me having a sore neck after I had worn sponge curlers all night.Pain is beauty right?:)

"Bama"

2009-01-02T21:16:00.000-08:00

I know I need to post about Christmas, but frankly I don't really want to take the time right now. But I do want to share a funny thing Rainy said a couple of weeks ago that I never posted. So Rainy was sitting on the floor playing with her Barbies and after a little while she picked up her African American Ken doll and said "Mommy he looks like 'Bama'." I sat for a split second to kind of digest what she had just said and then I bursted out laughing.I agreed with her, that indeed he did look like "Bama." So in case you haven't figured out what she meant. She meant that her Ken doll looked like Barack Obama. So I guess this proves to me again that she is listening and watching everything. Dang is she is smart!

Going back a little....

2008-12-18T10:14:00.000-08:00

Stellar can sit up!

So as of November 16th Stellar can sit up! It is amazing how much of a difference this makes in his little world. He is just that more independent. I love watching him grow and change he is getting sooo big! As of the last week or so he is now scooting backwards and can go completely in a circle. Just in the last few days he has got up on his hands and knees. So we have very little time before he is really on the move. We are in for some fun!

Disney on Ice

The beginning of November I took Lexie and Rainy to Disney on Ice. It was a fun girl's night out for Lexie and I's Birthday. The girls had a great time and sat mesmerized for most of the show. I was pleasantly surprised myself at how much I enjoyed it as well. I felt like a little kid again.The show was very entertaining and fun!Most of the pictures didn't turn out well, which is disappointing, but I guess it will just have to be something we remember.

Mr. Birdie

2008-12-18T09:38:00.000-08:00

I want you to meet the other member in our family, his name is Mr. Birdie. He lives in a little spot in the overhang over our front door. This is the second winter he has come to live with us. He returns almost every night. Every night we check to see if he has safely returned home, when he doesn't Josh and I say "he must be out partying." Rainy is convinced he is at a birthday party eating birthday cake. It has been really fun to have him at our home. Who needs a pet! The only downside is the little poop pellets on our front steps!

Tagged!

2008-12-05T21:03:00.000-08:00

So I assuming Rachel meant me on her blog when she said I tag Emily.
I hope you didn't mean another Emily you know, otherwise I will feel silly. But here I go anyways...

SCATTERGORIES...it's harder than it looks! Use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the following. They have to be real places, names, things. Nothing made up! You CAN'T use your name for the boy/girl name question.

WHAT IS YOUR NAME: Emily, Love, Mommy, or Aaah da da da, but we will go with Emily.
BOY NAME : Eric
GIRL NAME: Erin
OCCUPATION: EMT
COLOR: Emerald Green, not "Mint green"
SOMETHING YOU WEAR: Earrings
BEVERAGE: Egg Nog
FOOD: Eggplant
SOMETHING FOUND IN A BATHROOM: Empty toilet paper roll(always happens to me!)
A PLACE: Europe
REASON FOR BEING LATE: Emergency
SOMETHING YOU SHOUT: EEEK!
I tag Katee, Betsy, Logan and Aleen

Thanksgiving with the Hemmings

2008-11-30T16:11:00.000-08:00

This year was our year to spend Thanksgiving with Josh's family and this year we tried something new.Instead of us driving eight hours to Tacoma Josh's whole family met us halfway between here and there. Which in case you are wondering is about Pendleton Oregon. Now you wouldn't think that a small town like Pendleton had much to offer, but surprisingly we had a GREAT time! We left on Thanksgiving morning and drove to Pendleton. We all met at the hotel and Josh and I arrived before everyone else so we set our room up to make a nice little eating area. When everyone arrived we dished up our thanksgiving dinner that Josh' mom had made before hand and put it in the microwave and it was good! It was fun to sit and visit together even if we were in close proximity. The next morning we took the kids to have breakfast with Santa which was put on by Parks and Rec.. For 3.50 you got to make a craft, get your face painted, get a professional picture with Santa,which is sent to your home when developed, and get a pancake breakfast. It was a great deal and a lot of fun!After breakfast we took the kids swimming at the towns athletic club for free, it was complimentary from the hotel we were staying. We all went back to the hotel for lunch and a nap after this. Later that evening we went bowling. It was really fun! Everybody did really well!Well almost everybody, I won't mention any names. :) After this we all went to dinner at a really good pizza place called Abbies, the pizza was SOO Yummy!

Then it was back to the hotel for a little more R&R together. The next morning we had pancake breakfast in our room and then went to the Children's Museum of Eastern Oregon. It was in a old shop in downtown Pendleton. It was so cool! They had a room made into a little Chinese restaurant equipped with real tables, menus, kitchen and decorations. We all had fun playing restaurant and the kids had fun doing the jobs.They also had a construction room, a little grocery store, firehouse, old west, one with real small animals, and one made just for babies which was great for Stellar! It was a great place with a great price, only two dollars a person!

We had a great weekend, it was a lot of fun and we are so grateful for Josh's parents for making it possible for us to go. We love all of the family and can't wait to see them soon.

2008-11-23T23:41:00.001-08:00

With Thanksgiving coming I wanted to make a list of things I am grateful for, so before my week gets away from me I am going to do it. I was searching on Google tonight and came across a woman who had a list of things she was grateful for permanently on her blog.It made me think a little bit. I should probably let everyone know how grateful I am for them more often and I know I need to be thanking my Heavenly Father more often for the tremendous amount of blessings he gives to me each moment of my day. So here is my list:( the items are in no particular order)

1. I am grateful for my friends. I would not be "good" without you. I am so grateful for girls nights, being invited to little get-togethers, chatting and anytime anyone calls or texts to check on me. I have been so blessed to make so many friends in my ward and my husband and I both owe them a huge thank you. You have saved my sanity.
2. I am grateful to my parents for first of all giving me life, but instilling in me great qualities that have helped me to be what I consider to be a good person. I love them both so much. They are some of my greatest friends. They love me no matter what and do whatever they can to help me no matter what. They are the best grandparents as well. They have showed sides of themselves to my children that I had never seen before, it has been neat to see.
3. I am grateful for Rainy. She brightens my days and my moments of frustration.Although a lot of the time she has caused this frustration, being two and all. She is one of greatest loves of my life. I can't believe I was chosen to have such a sweet special spirit in my home. She is so smart, Josh and I are completely amazed by her intelligence everyday as well as anyone who comes in contact with her. She is completely wonderful!She is my little girlfriend.
4. Stellar is the sweetest little baby, so happy to be on this earth. He makes me happy just looking at him. I am grateful for his joyful disposition, and I know it will play a great part in our family, being as the rest of us aren't as naturally happy as him, especially in the morning. He wakes up happy and cooing. I am so grateful to be his mommy and I already feel such a sweet special mother-son bond with him.
5. I am grateful for my Husband. Josh and I have such an interesting relationship.It is nowhere near perfect and we are bickering at each other most of the time. We have gone through very rough patches in our married life. But we always seem to come out alright and I know that we do because we have a deep love each other. We want to succeed together. We want to be together. I am grateful to be his partner. I am grateful for the wonderful daddy he is. I am grateful for how hard he works. He has taught me so much in the last four years. Although we miscommunicate a lot of the time I am grateful for someone who "gets" me. If that makes any sense at all.
6. I am grateful to be a Member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I could go on for days with reasons why being a member has blessed my life. But probably one of the number one reasons is for the knowledge it has given me that I have a Heavenly Father that knows me individually and loves me unconditionally.
7. I am grateful for my Heavenly Father. See above and See Below- He has given me everything.
8.I am grateful for Jesus Christ. He is my older brother, He loves me and gave his life for me. Enough said.
9. I am grateful for my siblings. They are the greatest Aunt and Uncle anybody could ask for. I love them both. I am grateful to share the same genes with them, it makes me feel good knowing I am not the only one who has some of the traits, habits and such that I do.
10. I am grateful for family, I am sorry to lump all of you together but this is beginning to be a long post. A lot of you are my closest friends. I am grateful that I feel like could turn to anyone of you for help. That is a lot of support. And I felt that, especially when my parents were in Utah, I am grateful for all the extra love during that time.
11. I am grateful for my in-laws, without you I wouldn't have my husband. I am grateful for your love and support in all we do.
12. I am grateful for my health.
13. I am grateful for this blog that has helped me share this list with you.
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Happy Birthday to me!

2008-11-12T19:33:00.000-08:00

So I am finally getting around to posting about my birthday even though it has been awhile ago, November 5th to be exact. I left my camera at my parents house for a couple days and honestly I don't really have much to post about so I kinda just put it off. But I will tell you about the days events anyway. To start it was the first birthday in my entire life when I didn't wake up with happy butterflies in my tummy.I guess that is just a sign of the times, I am getting old. Maybe 23 is the official age of becoming an adult and I just felt it, I don't know. Then I took Rainy to preschool, I came home and got a few "Happy Birthday!" calls and then picked Rainy back up and went to lunch at Mongolian BBQ- one of my favorite foods.My Grandma paid for it, which was very sweet of her. We then went to go shopping with my Bestest friend Katee and her two girls and boy, I have to say it was quite entertaining although I know Katee was going crazy, lets just say Kylee was not having the best day.; ) After shopping Katee took us to ice cream and we had a good time. Our kids are quite entertaining to watch when they are together. After ice cream we headed home and we had a few hours before Josh came home. After Josh came home we dropped the kids off and him and I went to dinner at our favorite place-P.F. Changs- if any of you haven't been, I highly recommend it. It was really nice and we had a great time together! After dinner we tried to go to my favorite store of all time Anthropologie, but it was closed. This is where Josh was going to buy my present, so then we tried two other stores downtown and they were closed as well. It was only like 8:30!So, no present. We enjoyed walking around together holding hands and laughing together. Sounds cheesy, but oh well. We headed home to my parents house after this and my mom had made a pumpkin ice cream pie. It was very yummy and then everyone who was awake sang Happy Birthday. I also was able to go shopping for some new clothes a couple days later with some money my Parents had given me. Thanks Mom and Dad! And Thanks to Josh for a great dinner and for letting me get my hair done a few weeks ago. Love you all!

The BEST grocery shopping trip ever!

2008-11-10T12:44:00.000-08:00

So I have to write this down before this feeling of bliss leaves me.Since I plan on making a book out of my blog someday, I have decided I need to write down more regular day things, that way I can use the book I make as my personal history.So on to my great shopping experience. I went to pick up Rainy at preschool at 11:30 and then we headed to Walmart for groceries.I never have good experiences at Walmart, but sometimes I would rather go there because it beats driving to Nampa to Winco, which is where I prefer to shop. Anyways so as we get into Walmart Stellar starts fussing, so I am thinking "Oh great!" I just knew he was going to ball the entire time. But I was wrong. I gave him his binky and he slept the entire time. Rainy I cruised through the store pleasantly chatting, going down my grocery list(that I actually remembered.)She didn't attempt to get out of the cart once and even offered to sit in the back of the cart (which is where I like her to sit)at the very beginning. While we going around one of the aisles I saw a man that looked so much like my Great Grandpa that my eyes welled up with tears instantly and when I smiled at him and he smiled back, he even smiled the same way my Grandpa did. It was so neat I had to call my mom and tell her. (My grandpa died about seven years ago.)Rainy actually told me she had to go to the bathroom with enough time to get her there and someone helped me get my groceries into my cart at the cash register. And when all my things had been rung up, I hadn't spent too much money. It was awesome. When we got out to the car it was nice enough weather I didn't have to rush to get the stuff in the trunk(I hate that.) As Rainy was helping me get the stuff out of the cart she accidently dropped one of her chicken nuggets on the ground that we had got from the deli. We had about 10-15of the local Walmart Parking Lot Seagulls instantly surround us. Rainy was a little nervous at first but she was fine after I threw the chicken nugget at them and they all attacked it. It was pretty funny! We continued to feed them our chicken nuggets until I thought"I wonder if feeding seagulls chicken is cannibalism?"So then I got out some bread from our loaf we had just bought and we fed them that instead. Rainy and I had the greatest time! Stellar was woken up finally by the sound of screaming birds, which was fine, because we were all done. Everything turned out perfectly!

Halloween

2008-11-04T17:44:00.000-08:00

I apologize for the tardiness of these pictures. Honestly I just didn't want to have to pick the ones I wanted to post. I got so many great pictures, and it was a BUSY day!But,I here they are and this is what we did:

First I got the kids ready for Rainy's Preschool Party, and Stellar screamed most of the time I was getting them ready, hence the reason for the binky.It was a very trying morning, all before 10 am.

Then we headed to the preschool party where Rainy and the rest of the kids got to paint pumpkins, then they played a game like a cake walk except for with pumpkins,then we did a little trunk- or - treat to all the parents cars. I think Rainy had a fun time. She was a little confused though about the pumpkin walk. It was the beginning of a very confusing day for her.

Later in the day went to downtown Nampa and went trick or treating with Josh to a few businesses there, after that we drove to Meridian to visit my Grandparents. On the way both of the kids had a "cat nap" :)

We then went to our ward's trunk or treat which was really fun. Rainy was completely confused at this point, when we had explained trick or treating, I think we left our the part of the night where we would be going car to car and not house to house. She did not know what was going on.

After the trunk or treat we went to my parents neighborhood to go real trick or treating.And after a few houses she had it down.She was saying "cook or treat" "please" and "thank you." It was adorable!I think her favorite part of the whole day though was getting the door at my Parent's house when the trick or treaters would come. Every time someone would ring the doorbell or knock her mouth would drop open, her eyes would get huge and then she would start squealing with delight as she ran to the door,and this would happen EVERY time.It was so funny!While at my Parent's house we played TICKET TO RIDE with the Missionaries from my parent's ward, my grandma came over and we all ate together.Overall it was a great day, very busy, very long,very tiring, but fun!

Funny girl...

2008-11-03T08:11:00.000-08:00

I thought I'd share something funny Rainy did this morning while eating breakfast- She was eating her cereal and I was still getting mine, when I heard the theme song for one of her favorite shows on tv in the other room. I started dancing around the kitchen to the song and thought she would think it was pretty funny.Well she pointed at me and said "No!"I said "Don't you think Mommy is funny?" She then replied in a disgusted tone "I am eating." It was as if I was just disgusting her to watch me dance around while she was enjoying her cereal. Yeah so if I ever felt self conscious dancing before, it has increased now. She is two, and if she thinks I am bad dancer, it must be true.

Shout out!

2008-10-28T15:58:00.000-07:00

Hey I just wanted to give a shout out to my fabulous husband and parents. I was able to go get my hair highlighted and cut, my eyebrows shaped and my mustache(yes I have one) waxed. I felt great! I am so grateful for a husband who pampers me and parents who are willing to watch my kids while I do so. Happy early Birhday to me. Today was great!Love you guys!

Tag I am it again...

2008-10-28T15:53:00.000-07:00

I got tagged again and this time I was supposed to put up the third picture in my third picture file. So this is it. Not the best, it is of Rainy sleeping when we all had the stomach flu last month. It was horrible. I guess it just makes me grateful for my health right now.

Circus Night!

2008-10-28T15:48:00.000-07:00

So our ward had a really fun circus night this last Friday,there were games and prizes and lots of yummy food as well as a show with some fun skits and magic.The sad thing is we didn't get very many pictures of the kids, well actually we only got this one. But for only have one of the night, it is pretty good.I think it is one of my favorite pictures of Stellar, I think he is soooo cute! He is such a little trooper. We sure love him!

Pumpkin Patch

2008-10-28T15:40:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we went to the Pumpkin patch in Marsing called Watson's Sunnyslope Farm. It is really fun and has it's own twists to the typical pumpkin farm. It has three corn mazes for families to do. They all have a scavenger hunt inside them, so it makes them a little bit more fun for everybody.They also have a petting zoo, helicopter rides, a haybale maze for little ones and in the pumkin patch they have some very different types of pumpkins. We got white, green and orange ones this year with all sorts of different shapes. We went with my family while Loren was home from school. We had a lot of fun!

Stellar gets a Bumbo! Or maybe Grandpa.........

2008-10-28T15:33:00.000-07:00

As some of you know my Dad is a character. He is always using something as something else.Or doing some kind of impersonation or acting out some character he has made up.It is always entertaining and he always knows how to make me laugh.Anyways when I brought over Stellar's new Bumbo the other day this is what happened. I know my mom and him are going to die if they sees this picture on here, but I thought it was really funny and had to share.I love you Dad- You are the Best!

5o's dance

2008-10-25T20:22:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we went to an adult stake dance.There were young single adults and married folks, young and old.We had fun watching the older couples dance.It was cool to see how they danced "back in the day." They were all so good! It was a 50's theme and they had a contest for the best dressed. So Josh and I dressed up.Josh looked great!And I am not bragging or anything but my husband looked so cute some of the young single girls were flirting with him while I was standing there. Yeah, I can't say I was too happy about it at the time. But later on I figured I should just be flattered that I have such a cute husband. I know that I have told probably everyone about this but I am very excited. WE WON the best dressed contest! I never win anything. We got two movie tickets. It was sooooo exciting and so cool that on a free date we got tckets for another free date. I love dating my husband and getting time with him.SO that was our dance experience.

Playing together....

2008-10-21T14:59:00.000-07:00

I found Rainy sharing one of her favorite toys with Stellar and showing him how to play with it.I thought it was sweet and had to share.

Making a name for Himself

2008-10-07T14:59:00.000-07:00

Josh was asked by the local paper, The Idaho Press Tribune, to make a comment on the recent bailout. It was really exciting to see his name in the paper with Northwestern Mutual Financial Network representative behind it. I just thought I would write what he said in the article.
The Headline said "Local advisers react to bailout." He said "Short term it's going to be a good boost to the economy as far as bringing back some confidence," Northwestern Mutual Financial Network Representative Joshua Hemming said. "Whether it will provide more liquidity in the market when it gets down to credit responsible individuals on Main Street it yet to be seen."
Who would have thought someone would have wanted to hear Josh's opinion on something! Just Kidding! :) I am so proud of him!He is doing what he wants to be doing, and he works so hard doing it. He works hard to provide for us and to keep me at home. I love him and I am so lucky to be his wife! Yay for you Josh! I Love you!

Food!!!

2008-10-07T14:53:00.000-07:00

Stellar tried food for the first time- applesauce to be more specific. Lets just say it wasn't his favorite. It will be fun to try new things with him and see if his reaction to them are as funny as it was this time.
Before

After

Another trip to Washington

2008-10-07T14:34:00.000-07:00

We made another trip to Washington at the end of September.We went up for one of Josh's friends wedding. The wedding was in a Rose Garden, the weather was perfect, it was really pretty.We also went to visit grandma and the cousins too, of course.Rainy is at an age now that she can play well with them and loves spending time with them. She had a great time!We tried to get a picture of all of them - it didn't turn out well as you can see.:} Stellar enjoyed Grandma's Johnny Jump-up. He didn't jump in it but he sure enjoy watching what was going on around him. Thanks Hemming's for a great visit.

Our Accompishments!

2008-10-07T14:28:00.000-07:00

The other day before we left to go to Washington Rainy and Stellar made big accomplishments. Stellar rolled over for the first time and Rainy buttoned her sweater all by herself! Yay for us, they are both getting so big!

Tag I am finally it!

2008-09-30T09:08:00.000-07:00

I never get tagged, but now I have been, so here I go
1o years ago I...
1- I was 12 and 3/4
2- I went to Lake Hazel Middle School
3- I played softball
4- I tried to play basketball
5- obviously didn't have much going on, cuz this is hard!
5 things on my "to do" list today (or tomorrow...)
1- clean out car from our trip
2- do some laundry
3- bathe my kids
4- buy some birthday presents
5- get dressed
5 Snacks that I enjoy...
1- crackers
2- chocolate
3-croutons
4-granola bars
5- fresh fruit
5 things I would do if I were a millionaire...
1- pay off all of my debt
2- buy a Big house
3- help our parents out
4- go on some really fun trips
5- go on a few shopping sprees
5 places I have lived...
1- Boise, Id
2- Caldwell, Id
3- Nampa, ID
4-Pendleton, OR
5-Kuna, ID
5 jobs I have had...
1- King's
2- Community Partnerships
3- Meridian School District
4- Mommy!!!
5- Babysitter

I tag...
Logan
Ashlee
Jessica
Tiffany
Laura

The Stomach Flu, The Storm and Baldy Bob

2008-09-25T21:11:00.000-07:00

So I know this is a horrible picture of Rainy but this kind of sums up this last weekend. We were supposed to go up to a Cabin in the McCall/Donnelly area for my Grandma's Birthday. We were going to have a girls weekend(and small children). A weekend full of crafts, swimming in the hotsprings, food, girl talk, more food and fun! But on Thursday, the night before we were supposed to leave, Rainy puked and then she did it again and it just continued through the night. It was the stomach flu.I got it the next day and so did Stellar. So most of our weekend was spent in the bathroom. Josh did an awesome job taking care of me and the kids. He was so patient, and waited on us all. Rainy did feel better on Saturday evening so Josh took the time to explain how thunder and lightning works to her as they watched the big storm we had. It was pretty cute. She didn't stay outside long.She liked watching it from inside the house as you can see.We were all pretty bummed about not getting to go to the cabin, but my family did make some cute pajama pants for the kids(I will post pics later). And everybody ended up getting the stomach flu at the cabin. So everybody was pretty miserable.
I thought I would also add this cute picture of Stellar after he felt all better. He is such a cute little guy, always so happy. As you can see he is losing all of his hair and going blonde, just like Rainy did. Who would have ever thought I would have blonde children.

For Uncle Loren.....

2008-09-04T22:14:00.000-07:00

I am posting these pictures for my Brother who is away at college in Utah. He misses my children and wanted to see some pictures of them-especially Stellar. So here you are Loren. We love you and miss you!We look forward to seeing you next month.

Pickin' Potatos

2008-09-03T12:12:00.000-07:00

SO I have to admit that in all my 22 years of living in Idaho I honestly have never been in or even seen a potato field. But, a few weeks ago that changed. We got to go glean a potato field.For those of you who don't know what gleaning is(I didn't before this year)it is basically picking the fruit up after the desirable fruit has been taken.The machines had already gone through and got all the potatoes that were the right size.Then we went through and got the leftovers.It turned out to be a lot of fun and a great family night.Everybody could help.I got some cute pictures too!

Washington

2008-09-03T11:52:00.001-07:00

My mother in law is going to kill me for this picture, but I thought it was so cute!

Over the weekend we went to visit Josh's family in Washington, we had a lot of fun. Rainy got to play with her cousins, we went to a really cool zoo, we went to the beach and Josh got to go fishing with his Dad. Also the last day we went to a place called Odyssey 1, it is has a huge jungle gym and it is indoors. It also has arcade games and laser tag, but we stayed in the gym area. It was huge and the kids(and the grown-ups)had a great time! Thanks to the Hemmings for a great weekend!

Catching up.....

2008-08-20T08:40:00.000-07:00

We took Stellar swimming for the first time to the YMCA, he took a few dips in the water, and then fell asleep.So I don't think swimming excites him much. But he sure looked darling in his little itty bitty swim trunks.

Like most of our friends, we went to the Twin Falls Temple Open house.It was really neat, not what I expected, but neat.I shared this with a lot of people already, but I think it is really cool- Before we got to the temple we told Rainy that we needed to be reverent in the temple and whisper if she needed to talk to us. Well, she didn't whisper, which is fine, because she is two.Then when we were headed into the Celestial room we told Rainy the next room was really special.So as we walked in she instantly folded her arms, her eyes got really big and she was completely silent. It was really a special moment to see her feel the spirit.
Afterwards we went to visit our friends the Nielsens.They moved to Twin Falls earlier this summer.Rainy and their daughter Addison have been friends since they were little babies.We met them when our girls were only weeks old and they are only 2 weeks apart in age.I thought this picture of them was absolutely darling.

Last week we took the kids to "Fun Night"-which is a free night in Nampa where they have concerts,bouncy blow-up houses and things,rock climbing and puppet shows.Rainy made a cute little magnet and had a lot of fun. They also had lots of different kinds of dancers there too.Our friend Kristi was there hula dancing.It was fun to watch. I definitely want to go back next year, cuz you can't beat free entertainment!

My Brother is finally at college, after a really long boring summer for him here in Idaho. We hope he is enjoying himself now, and that he has a great year at school.We love him and will miss him. My kids and I really enjoyed having him close. It was fun to get unexpected visits from uncle Loren, who is a big softy for my babies.

The other day we were playing at our friends house and Rainy got dressed up in Britnee's Elmo costume and started playing this keyboard, it was so cute! I thought the pictures turned out great!

It has been so fun to have Stellar smiling and responding to us.It's so cute to see him smile at Rainy, and it makes her so happy.It gives me hope that they will be buddies.

I took Rainy and Stellar on there first bike ride together in the bike trailer and they both loved it.Rainy has waited all summer to be able to go.Stellar enyoyed it so much he fell asleep. When I woke him up he was drooling. I guess it was pretty relaxing for him.I thought this picture was so cute!

Josh turns 30!

2008-08-13T09:57:00.001-07:00

Josh's Birthday was on the 7th, and I have to say I feel like it did not turn out well. Everything seemed to go wrong, but this is what we did.

First I made him an appointment to get a massage and an old fasahioned shave(the kind with the straight edge.) It was at a place called Napoleon's, it is kind of a Man Spa. They do haircuts, shaves, massages, shoe shines and they have a pool table and things there. It was pretty cool. And actually reasonably priced.This was on Wednesday that we did this.

Then on Josh's Birthday I made some cupcakes and the kids and I went over to his office with some balloons and delivered them. Rainy was really excited!

And then for his birthday dinner my mom taught me how to make her yummy enchiladas. Josh wanted them to be like our favorite mexican restaurant here in caldwell so we served them with rice and beans.It was soooo good!

In case Josh actually reads this: I want you to know how much I love you, and you mean the world to me. I love that you get up every morning and go to work for us, I love that you try so hard to make life comfortable for me and our babies. You have blessed my life in so many ways.You are a great daddy, a wonderful husband and a good man! You are also my best friend.Happy birthday, and remember I still love you even though you are a old man now">

After his shave At the office

"Mint Green"

2008-08-07T14:51:00.000-07:00

So if this doesn't show you how quirky and smart Rainy is , I don't know what will. She has decided what her favorite color is-"Mint green."Anytime she sees anything green she points out to me that it is "mint green." I think it is hilarious! I don't know any two year old that is so specific. And i don't know when she even learned the words "mint green." My grandmother, who Rainy ADORES is very descriptive when she talks so perhaps thats where she got it from.Any of my cousins who read this will know exactly what I am talking about.
So that's the newest funny from Rainy.

Stellar is not a blob anymore!

2008-08-05T09:03:00.000-07:00

So the last week or two we have really enjoyed watching Stellar come out of his blob stage.He has been smiling at us like crazy and cooing too. It is so cute! It is fun to see that there is a little personality inside him. So here are the pictures to prove it.

Our trip to the Drive-In......

We went to the Drive in on Friday night and it was pretty fun! We saw Kung Fu Panda and Indiana Jones(well I didn't see this one because I fell asleep.) We went with my family and Lexie brought some of her neighborhood girl friends with her. It was pretty entertaining to see her get ready with them. They crimped their hair, wore matching outifits and brought their purses. It made me realize how old she is getting. The next thing you know she will be a teenager.AAh scary! Back to the drive-in, my mom made yummy carmel corn and we ate lots of other junk while we there. It was great! It is a great family night, Rainy could wiggle around as much as she wanted without disturbing anyone, and then when she fell asleep, it was like Josh and I were on our own date.

Rainy and Grandpa

Stellar enjoying the movie

The girls

Does anyone know how to flip pics on here?

Loren eating a pickle or two

The Piggy Bank, and our weekend adventures

2008-07-28T15:02:00.000-07:00

The Piggy Bank

I thought I would share some pictures of Rainy's pig she made on our Mommy-daughter date. It turned out cute, despite the completely black side.

The Ward Camp-Out

We went to our ward camp-out this weekend and let me tell you trying to get out of town was difficult, it seemed like everything was going wrong. You'll have to ask me for details, because it is just too long of a story, even for a blog. By the time we got up there, dinner was over and we only had a little while it seemed before bed. So the next day on the way home we were glad to find some of our friends had stopped to fish, it was fun for me to have people to visit with, Rainy to play with, and for Josh to fish with. Josh finally caught some fish, although he had to throw them back. He has been trying to catch something all summer. So our trip ended up being pretty fun and worth all the effort. Although a trip away never seems long enough.

Canyon County Fair

After we got home from camping and had a shower and a nap we headed to the fair.Rainy enjoyed just looking at the rides but we did coax her into the Fun House and on the Carousel. We got some cotton candy and of course enjoyed some good 'ol people watching. It was a good weekend.

Let's catch up a bit!

2008-07-24T12:18:00.000-07:00

The Lavendar Festival

As some of you know, I LOVE Lavendar!So two weeks ago we (My mom, my sister, Rainy, Stellar and I) went to the Lakeside Lavendar festival in Nampa. We got to sample Lavendar Lemonade and Lavendar cookies. We got to cut our own bunches of Lavendar and we even tried Lavendar flavored snowcones! They were wonderful! I have been to lavendar festivals before, but this was my first experience trying a Lavendar flavored snowcone. Anyone who hasn't been to the festival should go, it is a lot of fun! They have them all over. I went to one last year in Mona Utah. That one was a lot bigger and even had a Lavendar fairy. But if you are going to go, make sure you like lavendar, otherwise it's a waste of time.:)
Mommy-Daughter Date

I was feeling a lot a frustration with Little Miss Rainy, I was thinking she needed to have some Mommy time, so my mom suggested I take Rainy on a Mommy-daughter date. So grandma got to watch Stellar and Rainy and I went out( Daddy went to a Movie with "the guys.") So Rainy and I went to Fire and Ice ceramic studio to paint. It was a lot of fun! We picked out a cute little piggy bank. It started out as a nice mixture of pastel colors, and then she got a hold of the black and so half of it is black. Not how I would have painted it, but I just kept in mind that it was her creation and she's two, what should I expect. Afterwards we went and met up with grandma and Stellar at Applebees to have dinner. Matt and Logan, Mccoy and Madden met us there too. And since Mccoy is Rainy's "favorite boy" she had a great time!They wrestled in the booth most of the time, it was pretty entertaining!It was a really fun night! I think we will do Mommy- daughter dates more often. We will have pictures of the pig soon. It is still being finished.

Random Pics

I love to take pictures of my kids sleeping, they are just so peaceful and cute! So here is a picture of Rainy sleeping in a odd position on our new chair. And I thought I'd add a picture of Stellar so everyone can see how he is growing.

Josh goes to Milwaukee and Chicago!

Josh went to his annual meeting for Northwestern Mutual at their headquarters in Milwaukee. He flew into Chicago on Sunday and then took a train to Milwaukee. He spent a few days in Milwaukee going to meetings and learning how to do better at his job. I think he had fun, but we sure missed him! Rainy was thrilled to see him too!She wrapped her arms around him as tight as she could at the airport. It was cute!On his way home, he got to take a quick tour of Chicago with my cousin Jessica. Hopefully we can get a longer tour as a family some time. We would like to go as a family next year for vacation.But Thanks Jess for taking Josh around!Josh came home to the whole house being rearranged, it was good surprise. It was something he had wanted to get done for a long time.It has been fun to have things changed up a bit. Thanks to my family and Brandon Bake for helping me accompish our goal.

And some more pics of Rainy....

Stellar's Blessing Day

2008-07-07T11:45:00.001-07:00

Hi!

Trying to get Rainy to sit still is almost impossible, so this is the best family pic we got.
I really need to figure out how to flip my pictures around.

Yesterday we blessed Stellar. It was a really wonderful day, we had lots of family and friends there to see him blessed by Josh and then come to my parents house afterwards for lunch. We did however miss having the Hemming's here. But we are truly so grateful for all of our friends and family who were able to make it. It means the world to us to have so much love and support.Karen, Josh's Mom sent us Stellar's blessing suit, it was absolutely perfect and looked adorable on him. I thought it was going to drown him, but if we had waited any longer to bless him, it would have been too small. He is a bit of a chunk.

I am so grateful to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I so grateful for a Husband who is able to bless my children and who honors his priesthood. I have a testimony of the truthfulness of Church and that families can be together forever, and that we have a loving Heavenly Father who wants us to be happy.

Our Fourth of July

2008-07-07T11:10:00.000-07:00

We had a fun time on the Fourth of July, we started out by going to our ward breakfast, My parents and my cousin Matt and his wife Logan and their kids joined us there. We listened to the ward choir and had yummy french toast.Then we went to my parents house where we hung out and the kids swam and we painted our toenails festively. We had lunch and then it was naptime for everybody. After naps we headed home. Then our little family went to downtown Caldwell to listen to some live music and had some REALLy good pulled pork sandwiches from a restaurant called Taste of Memphis. They even gave us some free red velvet cake- it was lovely. After dinner we attempted to watch the fireworks display from the Stadium in Caldwell, we had a great seats on the college lawn. But Rainy was not excited about the very loud boom that accompanied each firework, so we watched them from the car. Oh well, afterwards we watched a fun movie together- The Spiderwick Chronicles. Overall it was a very good day!

For my Mother in law

2008-07-03T10:12:00.000-07:00

So a couple of weeks ago I got some pictures done of the kids and I have told my mother in law a few different times that I would post them, and I haven't. So I am doing a few today. My trusted photographer Betsy did them for me and I think every single one is absolutely adorable and frame-able.

Four years together!

2008-06-26T10:22:00.000-07:00

Last night we celebrated our anniversary, four years together- it is very hard to believe it has been that long, but then again four years is nothing in the big scheme of things. Anyways, It has been an eventful four years, but I feel blessed to have shared them with Josh, I am so very grateful I get to spend the rest of eternity with him as well. Sure, things are hard sometimes, but together with the Lord's help, we can make it through, and I am so grateful to have a husband that believes that too. I Love You Josh!
So for those of you who are wondering what we did here ya go-
First we went to Ahi Sushi Bar in Eagle- I had never really tried sushi -so we tried it and well it is not my favorite, but it was definitely fun, it wasn't really busy so we sat up to the bar and the sushi chef was right there and basically on command made what we wanted to try. He also knew all the history of sushi and told us all about the different kinds of fish.Definitely worth a try just for the experience.
Second we went to Coldstone Ice Cream and had Sweet Cream, Watermelon Sorbet and graham Cracker crust mixed together, different but surprisingly good. Josh and I exchanged gifts there. I got him a tackle box, with a gift card to buy some things to go in it, and some Jelly bellys. The gift card had flowers on it and the Jelly Bellys were fruit flavored. Lame I know. He got me a willow tree figurine, it has a mom and dad and new baby- very sweet!
Third we went home where Josh had had my Mom set up a little fondue pot,some fruit and this beautiful bouquet from my Grandma's garden. He definitely did better this anniversary than me.

Last we picked up our babies, who were being take care of by my family, so thank you to them. And thanks for the little set up at our house!We really enjoyed ourselves!
Here are some silly pictures of us- it is one of the few times there has ever been pictures of Josh and I on our own blog!

Say What?!

2008-06-24T16:09:00.000-07:00

So I have to admit and I am sure you will all agree Miss Rainy is one smart cookie. She talks very well for her age and I was thinking today maybe a little too well.
So I am in Walmart trying on some clothes(never a good idea two weeks after having a baby)because I wanted something new to where for our anniversary dinner. As I am trying on a dress Rainy cocks her head to one side and says"Mommy you look kinda fat." What?! I have no idea where she learned that but it sure got me out of that dressing room fast and has kept me chuckling all day.

Anniversary

2008-06-19T17:14:00.000-07:00

Soo I am surprised I was able to sneak away and post anything, being a mom of two is busy to say the least. Those of you who have more than that- um wow is all I can say. Anyways, The reason why I am posting today is because Josh and I's fourth anniversary is coming up next week (the 25th)and I am having a heck of a time coming up with anything to get for him. Every year we buy something or make something that goes along with the traditional gifts for each anniversary. For example Paper for year 1, cotton for year 2, leather for year 3 and so on. So this year is fruit and flowers! Boring! Josh bought me flowers for mothers day that I planted in my pots outside, so that is not an option and like a guy wants flowers anyway. And then what else am I supposed to do, buy him a little bunch of bananas and say" Here ya go buddy, LOVe ya!" So I am wondering if any of you have any great Ideas for me so I can keep up with the traditon. PLEASE HELP ME! it would be greatly appreciated.

-Oh and I just thought I would share this sweet picture of my babies, this is how I got away to post something today.

Stellar

2008-06-10T11:31:00.000-07:00

Stellar was born on Friday June 6th at 1:07 pm. He weighed a whopping 8llbs 4oz. and was 21 inches long. No wonder I was so miserable! I still had three weeks until my due date. He has lots of dark brown hair and looks like a mixture of my mom and Josh, weird I know. He is absolutely adorable and is a GREAT baby. He doesn't even flinch when his sister is running around screaming and yelling. He sleeps in good chunks of time, which has been nice. We are very much in love with our little guy! Thanks to all of you for your visits, gifts, love and prayers for us.

Loren

2008-05-28T08:35:00.000-07:00

So I wanted to write a a little something about my brother. He is graduating from Highschool next week and I thought I might not be able to get something written because this weekend is going to be hectic and then I am having a baby.But I wanted to do something for him, especially since I wont be able to be at his graduation due to my condition.

So I am going to name 10 reasons why I love Loren:

He is the smartest kid I know, seriously I think he could be tested for like genius levels of intelligence. He is a sports whiz, he can tell you about anything or anyone in any sport, especially basketball and football.I definitely have always felt like I got the short end of the stick when it comes to getting the smarts in our family.He also has been on the Honor Roll all four years of High School, that is impressive to me.

He is a good kid, he never ceases to amaze me, just when you think he is up to no good. He reveals the reason why he did something and it always turns out he was doing what he should have been doing in the first place, and he was helping his friends make good choices too.

Loren is a big softy, and this shows more and more ever since Rainy came along. He loves his little Rain Drop and she loves her Untle Lowen.

He has a testimony.I doubted this for a long time. But now that he has served on seminary council, was asked to be an usher at General Conference and was ordained an Elder less than two months after his 18th birthday, I know you can't do those things without one.

He is a good friend, I know this because he wouldn't have so many if he wasn't. It also amazes me that when he moved to Utah two years ago, he didn't know a soul and now he has more friends than I ever did, and I have been in the same place my whole life.

He is a good brother, although we really never got along as much as I would have liked growing up, I know he loves me. And if you can love me despite all the horrible sisterly things I did, that makes you a good brother.

He has a great sense of humor, I think this probably because it is a lot like mine and I love to laugh with Loren, especially about things like my Dad.:)

He is cute, He is like a big cute teddy bear and I think he gets cuter and cuter as he gets older. I have posted some senior pictures for any of you who read this and know some cute, NICE girls, he is single. Did I say cute enough?

He has such great potential, with his smarts, good looks, and all the rest of his talents and capabilities I think he has the potential to be a very successful man!

He is my little brother, and no matter what happens, he always will be, and therefore I just love him.

Congratulations Loren on your graduation! I love you and I am SOO proud of you.I am sorry I can't be there for your graduation, just know I will be thinking of you. You did Great! I am so looking forward to watching what else you can accomplish in your life.Love, Your Big Sis

Relief!

2008-05-22T18:25:00.000-07:00

So today was my Dr. Appointment, and I literally could have kissed her. I have thought for a long time that I was extremely big, too big.That maybe I was off on my due date or something. I have felt miserable for awhile now because of my size and I have measured big almost everytime I have gone for my appointments. So today after a few months of not seeing my own Dr., but her Nurse practitioner, I finally have some validation to all the feelings I have been having.So she came into the room and said how are you and I said"Miserable." She then measured my tummy and then chuckled. She said I measured at about 38 weeks, mind you I am 35 weeks. So basically I am huge! Anyways I get to go in next week for an ultrasound to find out just how big this baby really is or find out if I am retaining water.And if the baby is the cause of my hugeness I get to schedule when I will be induced. WOO HOO! When I go in to be induced I have to have a amniocentisis(not sure if that is spelled correctly) to make sure his lungs are developed. So another reason for this induction is because Rainy was almost 8 pounds 2 weeks early and I had a very hard time delivering her. So maybe if he is born earlier it will help. My Doctor was worried if we induced too early my body wouldn't be ready forcing me to have a c-section, which freaks me out. But then she checked me and I am already dialated to a 3! so no worries there.WOO HOO! So this post might be a little too much info for some but I am freaking excited! So everybody expect Mr. Stellar to be born the first week in June NOT the end! YAY for me!

Rainy's Birthday

2008-05-21T10:51:00.000-07:00

So, I can't believe Rainy is now two. The time has flown by, but yet I feel like I have been her mommy forever.I don't know what Josh and I ever did without her. Yesterday was her Birthday so course there was overcast all day, even though for the past week it has been Sunny and hot. But, when it came time for her party it rained like crazy! I don't know what kind of weather we expected when we named our daughter Rainy, it has rained every year on her birthday for the last three years.We had planned to do it at the park in Caldwell but resorted to doing it at the Church, our house is just too little. Anyways, I thought it turned out pretty well conisidering the circumstances. Her cake was just what I had envisioned, so I am grateful Logan(my cousin's wife) was willing to help me with that, she did an awesome job, especially since neither of us had ever worked with fondant before. I hope everybody that came had fun. We are so grateful for all our sweet friends, always there for us, and our family too.Rainy got loaded with GREAT gifts. She has had a hard time choosing what to play with today. So thanks to everybody! So here are some pictures for those who didn't get to come.

Rainy's new pool

2008-05-17T21:36:00.000-07:00

So today was HOT! So after a long day of driving around in the hot car looking for a new car, I thought I should go buy Rainy a pool, she deserved it. To my surprise, she actually LOVED it!Our Neighbor brought her baby over to play too. They both enjoyed it! It was very refreshing! And definitely worth the five bucks I spent on it.

The day Rainy got her earrings or Day of torture?

2008-05-17T21:10:00.000-07:00

Rainy has been asking to get some earrings for months and months. We told her if she could stop taking a bottle by the time she turned two we would get her earrings. So on Thursday my parents were in town and we decided since her birthday was less than a week away we would go get them done.If only she knew what getting earrings meant. As you can see by the pictures it was quite surprising! But now a couple of days later I think she is pleased with the results.

A new blog look!

2008-05-14T15:56:00.000-07:00

So I finally figured out how to change the background of my blog and I found a really cute website to do it too. Everybody probably knows about it or something like it but I thought I would share anyways.It is called....
Anyways check it out.

Got a new haircut!

2008-05-13T20:30:00.000-07:00

Rainy hair was lookin' a bit scraggly for my taste so I decided it was time for a cut.I called around and found out it was like over 10 bucks for a childrens haircut. So I decided first of all I am probably too frugal for my own good and also I was going to cut her hair myself. I have cut her bangs before and they turned out okay, but her whole head seemed a little daunting. But I just took a deep breath and did it. And Ta Da! I thought it turned out pretty good.

She was feeling pretty stylin' afterwards!

We got a napper!

2008-05-01T12:10:00.000-07:00

So Rainy has always been notorious for NOT being a good sleeper. It has been a rarity for her to sleep completely through the night without a bottle refill and it would sometimes take a miracle to get her to fall asleep with us, when we desperately needed a nap. So this last week she has been fighting some kind of sickness where she has had a fever and runny nose.And I think it just wiped her out. ANYways a few different times in the last week or so she has voluntarily without any warning just crawled onto the couch and fallen asleep. AND then slept for hours. Then she would get up on her own a few hours later and THEN fall back asleep at regular bed time. I really didn't quite know what to do with myself with all this time on my hands, it was really weird. But, I guess I surprised Rainy one afternoon with the amount of work I did. When she woke up she walked into the kitchen and said "You sweeped already Mom?!" she must have been impressed with how clean the kitchen was. I know this is probably a weird post but I at least thought I would share the sweet pictures I got of her sleeping. I love to watch her sleep, it almost brings me to tears to think my baby is going to be 2 in a few weeks. Time flies when you are having fun and it has been so fun to be her Mom and watch her grow!

This is why toddlers don't use face products

2008-04-23T16:42:00.000-07:00

I was busy putting my make-up on and doing my hair one morning and didn't think a sample package of face lotion could do much damage, and might actually keep Rainy occupied for a few minutes. So I gave it to her. I thought she'd use it on her arms and legs or something, but she knew what to do with it and this is what I found when we were both done "doing our face."

Cute huh?!