Emma's 6th birthday

 Emma turned 6 on April 8th. Her birthday fell on Easter this year which was fun and kinda funny because she was due on Easter. Her and I debated for a while on what to do for her birthday. She wanted to have a fairy party, but she has quite a few boy friends and I didnt know how to make the party work for them. Well we settled on an Easter theme since her birthday was on Easter. I made some really cute bunny finger puppets and candy carrotts. We had her party at a local ice cream party and made easter baskets, candy braclets and had an easter egg hunt. We finshed with egg salad sandwhiches and carrots with cake and ice cream! It was sure fun and I have had several requests for pics so I thought I would post them!

Hattie Lee

Until I get all of Hattie's pictures from when she was born finshed, I thought I would post her birth announcement I just finshed! I hope you enjoy...

Photo Card

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Long Overdue

How fast time flies by when you have a million things going on! I had not realized how long it has been since we have updated our blog. YIKES.... but we have had many requests for pictures and updates that I thought I would slay the dragon and get it updated!



The biggest change for us is that we added another girl to our family a month ago (more on that later)! Last summer we had decided that our two little girls were going to make up our family and that we were not going to do anymore treatments to get another child. Well last conference weekend I started feeling TERRIBLE! I knew it couldn't be a pregnancy so I dismissed it. Well after going on a vacation for a week to Mt Rushmore and getting worse and worse, we bough a pregnancy test and it was positive. We did not believe it so we took 3 more to make sure. We were in such shock that it took me two more weeks to call the Dr. And the we didn't tell anyone till I could either see/hear the baby. I still did not believe that it coudld be happening. Well it did! In January we found out we were getting another girl! This pregnancy has been much harder than the other two. I have been really sick/tired until the end. I spent most of the pregnancy at home, so needless to say I am behind on a million things. But it was so worth it. We decided on the name Hattie Lee for her. The name has been a struggle. We changed our minds after thinking she was going to be an Anna. Not everyone has agreed with the change so that has been fun!

Another big change came in August when Emma started school. She got into the charter school that is just  block away. We have loved the school and Emma is just learning by leaps and bounds. We found out in September that she qualified to stay all day monday-thursday. At first it was a big shock to us, but now we are grateful that she gets extra time and attention. It was a weird adjustment at first having just me and Stella home during the day. But a blessing for me when Stella would go down for a nap I would to. On June 8th she graduated from kindergarten and it now officially a first grader!  

She also changed up her activities this year. This fall she tried soccer for the first time, She really struggled at first because she didn't want to be mean and take the ball from others. It was good for her to learn to be more attentive and not so spacey. We also thought we would try something different than dance. She has been taking ballet and tap but the past year she spent more time staring at the mirror at herself than dancing. So I signed her up for a tumble/cheer class. She had two of her good friends in there so I knew she would have fun. One of the first classes she did she came home saying " I don't like that class." I asked her why and she said "because it makes me all sweaty!" Emma has also been just soaking up the gospel these days. I love the insightful questions that she asked because I know she is listening and trying the gospel for herself. There is nothing better than watching your child fall in love with the gospel that you yourself love so much.

Stella turned 2 in November. And until a month ago she was my sweet little girl who obeyed everything you said and loved to cuddle... Now she is testing all of us. Some days I cant keep up with her. Her vocabulary has increased so much and she is talking in full sentences and still has her cute manners which makes it hard to be mad at her. In January she decided that she was ready to be potty trained. We had bought a little potty and had put it in the bathroom for the day when I would tackle that with her. Well the day after we got it she went in and used it by herself. After buying her the coveted Hello Kitty she basically potty trained. I was so amazed and grateful that she took upon herself to do it, because I knew it would be awhile before I could help her. Stella loves to spend the day following me around asking me what Im doing. She loves music and to dance around to it, just like her big sister. But her favorite thing is getting into Emma's room and playing in her chap sticks and special dolls she hides in there. Many a day she comes home from school and I'm getting scolded for letting her in there. I guess even moms cant get it right all the time!

We have gone on a couple of fun trips. In October during Emma's fall break we went to mt. Rushmore. It was so fun and there are so many things to do in that area. We barely did our list, most of  it my fault. We went to see Mt. Rushmore and the camera battery dies. So we had to go back to get pictures. And then a couple of afternoons I was to sick to go anywhere so we spent alot of time in our room. We had to cut the trip short because Aaron's Grandpa Wiscombe passed away. We attended the funeral which was so beautiful and it was great to see Aaron's  family again. Grandpa Wiscombe was such a wonderful part of the family and he will surely be missed but remembered. And then just last week we went to Fort Collins to visit Aaron's parents. They just moved there from Montana and we had not been before. It is so beautiful there and we saw so many beautiful places and enjoyed two warm days with them.

Right before Thanksgiving we had a minor accident. Poor Aaron was going to the grocery store to get me my lucky charms when a lady ran a red light. Aaron couldn't stop in time and hit her, our poor car was a gonner. It was so sad because we LOVED that car and were not ready to have to get a new one. Aaron had minor back injures that last about 6 weeks. But it made thanksgiving fun trying to secure a rental car so we could go to Utah to spend thanksgiving with the wiscombes. But in December we finally found a new car. We got a Chrysler Pacific. We have been really happy with it and loves that it seats 6 people, it will give us more room for our new little one.

This spring I was able to do two of my favorite things. I was able to attend time out for women again. This year we went to IF and made a weekend of it with some of my favorite people. It was wonderful to be surrounded with the spirit and take a little break from life. The end of April I was able to go away to Lava for our scrapbook weekend. Even though I had started to swell what an amazing weekend with friends. I was even treated to a baby shower while I was there. I seriously have some of the best friends around. They sure spoiled my little girl! (will post pics when I get them! )

Well hopefully that get us all caught up. If I remember things I will just back post them! I will do better about updated this for our family and friends since so many of them live far away now. Cant wait to get all caught up with you and get back into normal life!

Coming home and valentines day

Coming Home... what a day that was. When we booked our flights I had found such a killer deal I didn't even look to see when the flight home was. Well It left at 8:00 in the morning. So the shuttle came to get us 3 hours early. So just after 4:00 in the morning we got up. I had gotten the girls ready the night before so we could just grab them and go. The clothes and everything they needed were packed away. Well as soon as we got them up they were wide awake. So its was 5 in the morning and they are talking and playing, it was the strangest thing! We get to the airport and the lines to check in where huge. Who would have thought that early in the morning there would be so many people there. We somehow managed to entertain the kids till the flight, and yet they were still awake! They took a quick cat nap on the flight to Colorado. And then were awake the rest of the day... a flight home and the 2 hour car ride. When we got home the were so tired and so they went to bed early and slept hard.

It was so strange coming home... one because it was cold and we were use to the Florida sunshine and two because my sister had moved out while we were gone. It was so strange having the house empty. She moved in with us in July and her and her little one have been here since. We were so used to the noise that the quiet was so hard to get used to. We left the unpacking and everything to do for the next day and Aaron and I crashed hard not looking forward to real life the next day.

Funny the next day was valentines day. We woke up and did pink heart pancakes, which were a huge hit with the girls. Then we gave them their gifts. Later that night we got a heart shaped pizza, one of our favorites! It was a nice relaxing night which we needed from adjusting back to normal life.

Day Seven visiting hotels and saying goodbye

On our last day in Disney we wanted to see the rest of the park. Disney has some of the most amazing hotels and we wanted to see them all and take Aaron to eat at the ESPN club one of his favorite places. We started the day by FINALLY finding the playground at our hotel. It was so big that it took us 7 days to find it tucked away in the corner.

Then my grandfather picked us up and gave us a tour of the hotels. They are all over the top and so grand. We wished we would have stayed in some of them and then looked up the prices and decided our room was just great! Then we had a late lunch at the ESPN club, Emma loved that there were TVs everywhere even in the bathrooms! The we took the ferry over to the yacht and beach club and played in the man made beach. It was so beautiful and sunny that we just sat there forever soaking it all up knowing that we would have to go home tomorrow.

Then my grandpa dropped us off and we went swimming and relaxed while we waited for my aunt and her new boyfriend to meet us. We had dinner and visited for a while. It was nice to spend time with them, but we had to go to bed early know that an early day was coming for us tomorrow!

Day Six Becoming a Princess and visiting a animal resuce center

We had a nice relaxing morning today. We went back to downtown Disney to go to the team mickey store to find Aaron a great baseball Disney gift. The store was all decked out and it was so fun to look around. We then went to the rain forest cafe for lunch. We thought the girls would love the animals and thunderstorm, but they were scared of it. After eating we took the bus back to the hotel where my grandmother meet us.
My grandmother is a fairy godmother in Cinderella's castle and we waned her to do her up as a princess. She could not get us a discount on it and felt bad having us pay so much. So she came to our hotel and did it. Emma loved every minute of it and looked so magically when she was finished.
After she was all done up, we went home with my grandparents were we met my aunt. She is only 9 months older than me but she is still my aunt. She works at a animal rescue center and wanted to give us a tour. Emma loved to see all the animals and looked out of placed all done up like a princess. Stella was even able to feed a bear which she didn't know what to think about. It was so fun to spend time with them and get to see where they live since they have moved since the last time we stayed with them.

Day Five Epcot

Epcot has always been our favorite park and we could not wait to take the kids. The day did not turn out to be as beautiful as yesterday but we knew we would have a fun day. We started with the iconic ball and did the ride within it. Then went to character signing to see Micky, Minnie, goofy, Pluto, chip and dale. It was nice to see them all in once place. Then my grandpa had to leave to get my grandma so we were left alone the rest of the day. Which meant less pictures and no tour guide, but we managed. While we went to the different countries we stopped and saw some of our most favorite characters.
We got to ride some of our favorite rides: test track and sorin. We also saw the funniest show that was done with Crush. And yummy lunch in Mexico! We had a wonderful time together and even got to see the firework show. we picked a place right behind the pole so the view was unobstructed. We could still see it and it was beautiful.

This picture is strange, but it shows Emma's favorite part of Disney! Her light up spinning Minnie. We told her that she could pick one thing she really wanted as a souvenir. After looking for three days she picked the thing she wanted the first night. This Minnie mouse. Which was nice because it was reasonable without our grandparents discount.

Day Four Space Center

Day four we decided to take my grandpa up on his offer to drive us to Cape Canaveral to see the space center. Today was the most beautiful day of the trip and we loved all the sunshine we got! After the hour long drive we arrived at a beautiful place. It is amazing that the space center is surround by such beauty.

We spent most of the morning and afternoon there touring all the complex. It is huge and we learned so much about the space program and even got to see the discovery out on the pad. The last shuttle to go out. It was so great to get to see it out there. We had such a fun time and we were glad that we got to get out there and see it.
After the ride home, we decided to take a break and enjoy things around the hotel. The hotel had huge statues all over the hotel from each decade. The girls loved walking around and seeing them, but the best part was seeing Emma's face when she finally got to go swimming. Who would have thought that in February we would be swimming outside. After pizza and nice warm baths we were all ready for bed so we could be ready for tomorrow.