Chilly Sunday November 9, 2008

We had a great Sunday, but it was really cold. Even though, Emma still chose to wear a dress and sandals on our walk/bike ride this evening. She was SO cold when we got home, I put her on the heater vent wrapped up in a blanket to warm her up. This was one of my favorite things to do when I was little.

Well most people thought we were crazy to get two puppies two weeks apart, but we are really glad we did it. The potty training is challenging and I am glad we are only going to go through it one time. Otto has been having accidents in his kennel, even though the space is just big enough to fit him. So, we figure we have to keep letting him out often and also just wait until he gets bigger and his bladder matures. Fritz is doing great on not going potty in his kennel, and has only had 2 accidents in the last couple of weeks in the house and hasn't had an accident in his kennel in a month or more. We really try to give them very little opportunity to have accidents in the house, as if they are inside, and not in their kennels, they are on their beds while we are in the same room. We take them out often and walk them at least once every day, but usually twice. Otto is catching up to Fritz on size and we figure he will pass him up in a month or so. We really enjoy having both of them, and like the balance of their personalities. Fritz is much more energetic and Otto is more of a loafer. Fritz did start to fetch a week ago, so that is exciting. He seems to enjoy it and I think with a little more work he will be really good at it. Otto just trys to wrestle with him so he can't play with us. This is the same thing our Rottweiler used to do with our Labrador.

November 5, 2008 – Emma’s Birthday

Well, yesterday was Emma's birthday and it was a great day. I made 3 cakes, wrapped a bunch of presents, took cupcakes to class and got Emma all dolled up for school. She looked beautiful. I got her a birthday dress and fixed her hair up nice for school. Last year I, with a lot of help from my friend Marie, make a 2 tier cake with fondant frosting. Emma really liked the fondant and so wanted another fondant cake. I was a little worried about the outcome since now I am in Kentucky and Marie is in North Carolina. But, with some phone calls, it all turned out good. Emma wanted roses on her cake, she ment frosting roses, but then when I went to get balloons, I saw real roses. So, her cake was beautiful and turned out "over the top" for sure. Emma has been wanting the American Girl "girl of the year" doll they put out every year. So, when Carl was in Chicago a couple months ago, he got to go to the store and shop for his little girl.

Playing in the leaves

Okay, so now check these pictures out! Amazing huh! We have had a good week this week. Jesse came up to visit on his way home to Denver from NC. He is done with his apprencticeship program there, and did amazingly well.

Since Jesse was here, on Monday we celebrated Anna's 2nd birthday (her birthday was the 22nd). Carl & I were talking about how amazed we were that it had been 2 years, but it really feels like 6 months. She is such a joy in our lives, I marvel that we have been blessed with such a wonderful spirit with us. Jesse helped make and decide on a pumpkin cake for Anna. She quite liked it, well the frosting at least. I baked a small individual pumpkin for her and a large one for the family. Emma got to help embelish the pumpkin. Anna's favorite gift was a birthday barbie, she was so excited to open the box and then had to dance with her. She also really enjoyed her birthday dress and felt like a princess, a concept that she is quickly embracing. Anna even knew to blow out her candles after we sung to her.

June 2007

In June of 07, our friends the Sorensens came out to visit and we spent several days at the beach. The kids favorite activity was going fishing off of the pier. It was made even better since they all got to catch at least one fish.

We also went deep sea fishing, and had great success there. That was an experience definitly worth doing again!

November 14, 2007

Well, you know if you do something long enough, like 52 weeks in a row, it kinda becomes a habit. Well, I can't bring myself to not take Anna's picture every Sunday, so there you have it. I would rather take the picture than miss the opportunity that can never be made up. I have continued the last few weeks, and expect to keep going. Anyway, the kids are all doing great. We had a great day today, but you'll have to read the Nov email to hear about that. The end of October was incredibly busy. Our whole family drove up to Pittsburg from October 12th through the 14th, then I flew out to California, with Anna, to see my sister Julie from the 26th through the 30th, and came back in time for Halloween. October was a very busy work month, as personal extensions were due and so were payroll tax quarterlies. So, I feel like I should still be in September, but clearly am not. Anna did really well on the airplane, she didn't cry really at all. She just rode on my lap, and really liked that. She got nothing but Mommy for 5 days straight, she even got to sleep with me at night. So, she really soaked it up. On our flight back, we had lunch in LAX, and there is a DARLING picture of her sitting on the other side of the table. She felt, and looked, so grown up. It was really a special time to have that one-on-one with her. Halloween, was fun as usual. Anna was a kitty, Emma a princess (big surprise), and James was a member of the Fett family. Carl took a turn taking the kids around to trick-or-treat. They of course got a ton a candy, and as tradition goes, dumped each bag out on a cookie sheet and watched a movie, The Mummy. So, they had a great time.

September 2, 2007

Furious sewing has ENDED!! Yipee! Well, I have gotten Anna's dress done to the point of needing the zipper set, and the hem done! It is beautiful! Anna's was easier as I had already done Emma's. The sleeves, were very small, but not nearly as mystifying. They have a sleeve stay in them, for those of you that sew, and that is bizarre for me. The ending results are wonderful. Emma's dress is almost finalized by my friend Marie. She said it took an entire day just to set the hem. The satin is bridal satin, very heavy, and she said it is difficult to hand sew. Now, I really only have a few more preparations left for the big day this coming Saturday. I am having a friend make Anna's hair bows out of white satin. I will do her hair like these pictures, here, but with the white bows. I figure when those are in, it will look like she has a headband in. The necklace Anna has on here is one from when I was a little girl. My Uncle Mike sent it to me as a gift. So, it is very special and sentimental, as I remember wearing it. I bought some white lace while in Paris last year, and we are adorning the dresses at the top of the skirt with that. It is a very simple elegant piece of lace, and completely makes the dress. I have hired a professional photographer, I even found an LDS one locally, to take a family picture in front of the temple. In my old ward in Utah, our bishop adopted two boys from Kazakstan. They have a family picture, where everyone is dressed in white standing in front of the Ogden temple, after they were sealed. The picture is HUGE and amazing. So, that is really what I want. I would love to be in front of the Ogden temple, but if were didn't live here we wouldn't have gotten Anna...It will make it special to got to the temple in the future and know that is where our littlest one was sealed. James and Emma are going to be able to attend the sealing ceremony as well. James had to get a limited use temple recommend since he is over eight and has been baptized. A very special experience for everyone! Love to all!

September 14, 2007

I made a new strawberry shortcake dress for Emma and had her wear it to school yesterday. She kept saying, "I can't believe it only took you two days!" well after her temple dress took a month, I can see her surprise. Anna, well she just go too tired!

October 22, 2007

Well the 52 weeks are over. I will now finish my small scrapbook of her 1st year, that has one week on each page. If you ever visit, you are welcomed to see it. It is quite fun to look at. I say the 52 weeks are over with joy and sadness. Joy that Anna is such a delightful person and a joy in our family. She even voluntarily folded her arms during family prayer tonight. I say it is sadness, becasue she really isnt' a baby any longer. It is terrible how time goes by so fast. She is a toddler, so now we are entering the next new, very fun, phase of her childhood. The whole family adores her and she really is James' personal toy. They have such a bond. Tonight we had Anna's birthday party. We smoked a turkey breast for her, her favorite, and made a cake. After lighting the candle, she seemed to be afraid of the cake. So, after that it really wasn't much to see like James and Emma doing swan dives into their first cake. Carl finally started to feed her ice cream, and that went over much better. You can see in one of the first pictures, she is getting her first molar. She isn't smiling a whole lot lately. You can see how it looks really painful. She did have a good birthday, and really enjoyed the musical drum set we got her, then her second favorite was a ride on pooh toy, and she also got the smallest "anywhere chair" from pottery barn. She thinks she is all grown up when she sits in it. You can see that Emma was all "gussey'd up" today. She had school pictures, so we did foam rollers last night. We have found our new favorite store for clothes for her. It is called Justice For Girls. SOOOO cute! I realize that I can no longer go clothes shopping for her, without her as she is so particular. Scary huh? She isn't even 5 yet! Ahhhh, someone save me! We told her to take off her nice red & black outfit so she wouldn't get cake and ice cream all over it. So, she goes up and puts on a really nice pink embroidered shirt, levi skirt with pink trim (from aunt Julie), frilly socks, and her pink cowboy boots! That was dressing down according to her, I guess. Carl got a new Ipod Nano, and so he gave James his old Ipod. He sure feels grown up. He loves it. I haven't seen him smile that much about anything, other than his baby sister! Well I will continue to send out email updates on our family, but I doubt as regularly since the goal was to show you all her first year, week by week.

November 14, 2007

Well, November has been, and will continue to be, jammed packed. Jesse, Carl's youngest brother, came to Charlotte for training for a week and so stayed with us. Which was great! The kids were so excited to see him, and he really seemed to love to see the kids. He went to the Renaissance festival with us, it was our third year in a row to go, and as always it was great fun! We all got to ride on a camel, James got new arrows and a new sword, Emma got an elaborate Tiara and met the pink pirate lady that taught her the pink battle cry, "Fear the Pink". Now, any of you pink fans, you need to jut your fist up in the air and yell it as loud as you can, if you would like to join us in our pink revelry...Unfortunately, we didn't get a picture of the Pink Pirate, sigh... Anna felt very special to try on Emma's fairy wings, and also really enjoyed the butterfly ride, Emma's favorite ride. We got to see the belly dancers perform. a celtic harpist, and a jousting match. Emma had her 5th birthday on the 5th. I took cupcakes, a pinata, and balloons to school. That afternoon we picked up her best friend, Kennedy, and went to Monkey Joes. It is a kids gym with all of the inflatable slides and obsticale courses inside. They had a great time. I learned to do fondant, and made a great cake for her. You can see the pictures of Emma and Kennedy, leaning up to each other. Carl and I were admiring the pictures and I said, you know, imagine them in 10 years together. I can see them as inseparable. Carl said, "they'll be chasing boys" and I said, "and the boys will be chasing them". Carl just turned a kinda sick color... We didn't do a big party for Emma, as we are leaving in 2 days to go to NYC for Thanksgiving for 8 nights. There is the American Girl doll store there. It is on the corner of 5th avenue, in manhattan, 4 stories high. I might be more excited about it than Emma. We are going to let Emma get a doll and the whole works there. I am sure you will see those pictures. Carl travels so much that he has built up a ton of points on his hotel membership. So, we are going to see the Macy's day parade, and our hotel is on the parade route and it isn't going to cost us anything! Today, was a fabulous day! (it was also in the high 70s) I convinced/coereced Emma into letting me take her training wheels off. She did it! I got really tired after running for an hour or more, and so we will have to work some more on it tomorrow. Emma rode practically the length of the driveway with my hands out on either side of her. I think one more day of practice and she will have it all the way. Her biggest stumbling block is that she is afraid of falling and getting hurt, but once she realized I wasn't letting her crash, she did it!
James is doing great, as always, he is James. He got his spelling test and math test back from last week and got 100% on spelling and 90% on math. So, I am really proud of him. He was a great help today in playing with Anna and giving Emma courage while riding her bike.

July 29th, 2007

In July we went on a 2 week vacation! That was a first for us, and we had an amazing time. Carl had to travel to Pennsylvania for work one week and then to Virginia beach the following week, so the family joined him. We got to visit my good friend Elnora that lives in Rochester, NY and we got to go to the cumorah pagent and all the church history sites up there.

Yes, my kids both LOVE raw green peppers. I bought a couple cheap, and decided to let them have them for a treat all to theirselves.

We started our Blog!

What is a Blog anyway, you know if you had asked George Washington or even Teddy Rosevelt what a blog was, what do you think they would tell you? I think it is a strange word, but a great way to keep people informed. I like to send out my update emails to all our family and friends, then someone suggested we should start a blog. Now, for those that don't always think to check someone's blog, I will still send out our update emails, but I will post those emails and photos on the blog.