Potty Time?

Last week my dryer broke. It broke on the worst of all possible days, although any day would be bad. It broke on the day that Emree decided to smear poop on the wall, the sheets, the blanket, the pillow, and everything she was wearing. She decided that this would be a great activity to repeat the following day. However, this has not occurred since! Yeah, yeah, yeah. I can promise you that I could not have handled any poop smearing in my life this week.

Artwork...

Monterey

Did I mention my cousin Liberty lives close to me. Okay, I know I keep talking about it, but I am pretty excited. This weekend we loaded up the car and headed about 3 and a half hours away to Monterey, Ca. But first we picked up the Woodlands in Concord. It was seriously so fun.

Our first stop was the bath tub, I mean the hot tub. It was only about 90 degrees, which was perfect and meant we could all get it. Even the little kids and the pregnant lady.



We spent the night playing Monopoly Deal and Labyrinth while the kids slept. However, Tyler had to take Jesse in the car and drive around at about 4 in the morning.

He still wouldn't fall asleep so Tyler went to Wal-Mart and bought us a few things (It was almost like we had Brian on the trip, minus the Orange Juice.Ty's family will know what I mean).

The next day we went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

It was seriously a must see, especially with a two year old who knows "Finding Nemo" better then her ABCs. She found...
Nemo & Dori,


Turtles,

Sharks (Can you find it),

Jelly Fish,

and so much more.

She was as excited as she could be and loved every minute.



We took the 17 mile drive along the bay and saw many "preferred" views and stopped at the beach.


We finished the night by eating out at a really yummy restaurant via restaurants.com (if you haven't discovered what that is, you need to). With great conversation on the drive home the trip was a success. I don't think our kids even scared off Liberty and David. Or at least that's what they said. YEAH!

I love to See The Temple!

Emree asked us on Saturday night if we could go to the temple. We have been teaching her a lot about the temple since Quinn got married in December and Kenzie will be getting married in August. My first reaction when she asked was to say no, but Ty was quicker then I and said "Sure, Why not!" So, we packed a lunch and went up to the temple on Sunday after church. We are so fortunate to have a temple 15 minutes from our house. We ate lunch and then walked around the grounds and showed Emree how beautiful the temple was and how beautiful the flowers surrounding it were. She told me she was going to get married in the temple just like Mom and Just like Kenzie. She also told me she was going to dress like a beautiful princess.

This the Sacramento Temple.

When we got home we decided it would be fun to put a picture of the temple up in her room. She was so excited! I am so glad my parents were sealed in the temple and set the wonderful example for me. I am also grateful for my own sealing in the temple and that I can live with my family for eternity.

This is the picture we put up in Emree's room. It is painted by our friend Bobby Johnson's Mom. She is amazing!

I love to see the temple.
I’m going there someday
To feel the Holy Spirit,
To listen and to pray.
For the temple is a house of God,
A place of love and beauty.
I’ll prepare myself while I am young;
This is my sacred duty.

I love to see the temple.
I’ll go inside someday.
I’ll cov’nant with my Father;
I’ll promise to obey.
For the temple is a holy place
Where we are sealed together.
As a child of God, I’ve learned this truth:
A fam’ly is forever.

I can not believe that Jesse is already 6 months old. Craziness. He has grown up so much in just the last few weeks. It is fun to see his little personality come out and to see how him and Emree interact. I went back to Emree's 6 month post and realized they are just about the same developmentally. So, here are Jesse's 6 tricks for 6 months.

1. Rolling Over... He has been able to do this for a long time, but hardly ever does because he hates being on the ground. He can only roll from back to tummy though.

2. Smiling at Everyone...He has been doing this for a long time too. With Emree I thought it was amazing that she was smiling at me, but Jesse almost came out smiling. The best part is that he hardly ever smiles with out sticking his little tongue out. It is pretty adorable. His laugh melts my heart, but the best part is that him and Emree have the same giggle. So cute!

3. Sitting Up... He is loving this trick and loves reaching for things. Oh the dreaded baby grab. I always underestimate his reach and something gets in his hands that shouldn't. The fish bowl, the fork, food, glasses of water, Emree's hair...got to love it.

4. Pacifier Inserting... He doesn't take a pacifier, but Emree does. She sleeps with two. Every morning when Jesse and I go in to get Emree out of bed she gives Jesse one of her binkies. They both just lay on the bed with binkies in their mouths and giggle. That is the only time Jesse will touch one.

5. Yelling... Jesse loves to talk as loud as he can. All the time. This trick is not so cute and makes sitting through church basically impossible, but it is pretty funny.

6. Eating... Jesse just started eating baby food and loves it. Now, if I could only get him to love a bottle... You'll never hear me stop complaining about that until he does.

Jesse has definitely been a much harder baby then Emree and I have said that about ten million times, but we love him so much. His personality is hilarious as he giggles and smiles, and teases us. He is so much fun and I can not wait to watch him grow up! I think he is going to be super social and outgoing. He is so fun and has such a tender heart. He will laugh at everything Emree does and will give up any toy for her. Their little bond is priceless.

The Day We Get Ready For Sunday...

As a member of the LDS church or as a "Mormon", we believe that the sabbath is a day of rest. A day to take a break from the normal hustle bustle of life and try to focus on our Savior. We try to refrain from playing sports, going swimming, spending money, and working, the best we can and spend our day doing church and family activities. That means that Saturday can be busy! We often clean our house to make sure we can have a restful Sunday. Go to the store to make sure we have everything we need for Sunday dinner. Tyler usually has to do extra studying so that he can have Sunday with us. And I try to get the kids bathed and stuff on Saturday night.

Spending Sundays together has blessed my little family. Sunday is the day we look forward to as we get to focus on what is important. It is our day to reevaluate as parents and to remember that the most important thing we can do is teach our children about Jesus Christ.

Here is one of my favorite mormon messages... Emree made us watch it about 500 times!

Liberty!

Liberty came! My cousin Liberty and I grew up a mile apart from each other (or less) and spent so much time together growing up. Having her close was like having another sister. We loved to eat popsicles, play barbies (even when we were too old to play barbies), sing songs, watch old movies, and sneak treats. She just moved to San Jose and is going to be about an hour and 20 minutes away. I have never been so excited. She might even come stay at our house in a couple weeks while her cute husband is out of town. Does life get any better then that!




One of my favorite things about Liberty is her willingness to serve. She even came over and helped me paint my apartment when I was 8 months pregnant and taking on a crazy project. She came with a smile on her face and paintbrush in her hand. She also brought a friend to help get the job done. So, if she has any crazy projects in the next couple weeks (seeing as she is going to have a baby soon) I am totally down with helping! I love you girly :)

Here's to dreaming!

My dreams of an Olympic Gold Medalist in the 100 Breast stroke have been completely crushed, but isn't she adorable? She cried about 15 minutes of the half hour today, but hey she still got her participation certificate! Here is to the generation where everyone is a winner!


My dreams of one day being able to leave Jesse with a babysitter are slowly being realized. He loves carrots! YEAH!! I am basking in the small accomplishments today.




My dream of having family close is coming true tomorrow! I am getting a visit from Liberty! One of my all time favorite cousin :). She just moved a little over an hour away. We are pretending it is 5 minutes.

And lastly, here are two pictures of one of my cute friends and her little boy Brenden who did swim lessons with us. We love them! We couldn't have dreamed up better friends :).

I would have blogged last night, but I was busy voting for Caitlynn. She was absolutely stunning in her contemporary piece by Mandy Moore. We watched it four times and I am pretty sure I had tears every time. Choreography can be a dancers life line on the show or the kiss of death if it is a terrible piece. I truly believe that after last night, Caitlynn will be there one more week! Tyler and I just really want her to make it to the top ten so we can go watch her on tour, selfish I know!

Yesterday, I felt a little bit like someone was dunking me under the water a few times and I was constantly having to come up for a big breathe. I guess I shouldn't say it was too bad, but I did have the worst grocery store trip ever. We had swim lessons in the morning and then I took the kids to Savannah's house to go swimming in her pool. Let's just say, when we left around three my children were exhausted. Jesse was screaming and Emree fell asleep, but I needed to get gas and go to the store. At the gas station I couldn't get my credit card to work and had this huge fear that I was going to have to wake Emree and drag the two kids into the store with me so I could pay at the cashier. I don't know if you have ever had to do that, but it is the worst. Luckily I did have my debit card and off we went. Disaster averted. However, not so much at the grocery store. I forgot my list, Jesse was screaming, Emree was crying and I tried to go in, but had to turn right around and go out and feed the little guy. Second try 15 minutes later, things were definitely looking up, but I didn't want to push my luck so I tried to hurry. Why do I ever try to hurry. When I got home I noticed that I had grabbed the wrong milk, forgot about a dozen things, and gabbed the wrong drink for Emree. How annoying.

Emree: had a good time at swim lessons. She blew bubbles in the water, tried swimming on her tummy, and made tiger fingers and swam them through the water. It was pretty cute. Anytime the swim instructors asked her to do anything she yelled, "No Way!" Yes, I have one of THOSE children. It is slightly ridiculous. We went in the deep end and dunked the kids again. She did a tiny bit better this time. Bragged just as much to dad though. It was pretty funny.

Emree has been obsessed with making everything in to her little baby and putting it to bed. She puts her bath toys to bed and her food from her kitchen. She finds everything a blanket and a pillow and rocks it and SH-SH-SH s it until it falls asleep and then she lays them all over the house. If only Jesse slept as much as her toys do. :)

Jesse: Did so good yesterday. Dad stayed with him during swim lessons and he slept the whole time. Yeah. He loves, loves the water. When we go swimming he giggles and splashed the whole time until he falls asleep. It is really cute how much he loves the water and how much he loves splashing Emree. He splashed water at her and laughs and she cries because he got water in her eyes.

Tyler: was awesome at watching Jesse for me and then he watched the kids while I went to a Zumba class (which was awesome). He had a homework assignment and a quiz due, but still managed to clean up dinner help me clean up so we could watch sytycd in a clean house. I love that he watches the show with me, votes with me, and cares almost as much as I do. It is so fun to sit down together and rewind, laugh, eat popsicles and just enjoy each others company. He has even been reading the forums with me and posting for his friend on facebook to vote. Best husband ever! Seriously.

Me: I felt really busy yesterday, but it was all good things. I loved swimming with Emree, swimming with both my kids, zumba and then watching my favorite show with Tyler. We have been reading scriptures with Emree. We just read one verse a night and we have Emree say some of it. It is mostly for us to start the habit, but I really enjoy it. I always need to get better at my personal scriptures study lol I could probably get that done too if I only read one verse... just kidding.

I have been a little home sick lately, but I just wish my family was like 2 hours away instead of 14. I wish I could go do choreography with my sister. Help my mom plan the wedding, Let Jordan, Tyler, Quinn, Dad, and Easton go golfing and be excited to BBQ with everyone when they got home. I miss that about being in Moses Lake, but it is nice to have our own space in Sacramento and not be in anyone else's space. Family is the most important thing to Tyler and I. We love our families so much and feel so blessed to have so many amazing people in our lives.

I am grateful for a supportive husband, healthy kids, and for everyone who voted for Caitlynn!

Here's to keeping a journal...

I use to be amazing at keeping a journal. I don't mean to toot my own horn, but in this case it is true. I wrote in my journal every day and loved to write about, not only what I had done, but my thoughts and feelings about the things going on in my life. When Tyler and I got engaged I was in this journalrific stage. I have so many awesome journal entries about all of our dates and just the feelings I had as we fell in love. I am so grateful for these memories.

Now, I am terrible. I just let that skill slip away into the deep dark world of sleep deprivation and everything else that comes from a child like Jesse. If I am going to continue blogging and going to start journaling, I am going to have to do them together. I am just a little too tired to do both. So, here is to my journal blog. It may bore everyone else to pieces, but me!

June 5th,

Todays was Emree's first swim lesson or first lesson of any sort. I decided to sign her up for a mommy and me swim class (politically incorrect I know). Our friend Savannah and her little boy, Brenden, are doing it with us. Ty teased me a little because he thought I could just teach Emree myself, but I thought it would be nice to just experience it with her instead of telling her what to do.

Emree is very very cautious of everything. She is not the first to try anything, or as Ty pointed out today, she is not the second either because she refuses to succumb to peer pressure. We hope this is a trait she will keep for a very long time. She is very cautious around water, mostly because she doesn't like to get her eyes wet. She told me today, "Mommy! I can't get my eyes wet because I can't see in the water." At least she is logical. She did blow bubbles in the water with her mouth and I did dunk her under as she cried. Let' s just say, I hope tomorrow goes a little smoother. Tyler and I were hoping we were breeding an Olympic Swim Team. I guess not. (Side note: she may have not been the best swimmer, but she was the cutest!)




Jesse is starting to eat baby food. For how much he loves to eat we are off to a very slow start. He doesn't seem to love anything yet, but we did start with squash and sweet potatoes. I don't like those either. He loves to stick his tongue out constantly and this makes it almost impossible to swallow. I am seriously curious to see how long it will take him to master this eating business. I tried a bottle today too. I wouldn't say it was a failure, but it was far from a success... tomorrow is another day.



Jesse has been such a hard baby. I love him and his giggles and personality bring such a light into our home. He truly lights up a room and can get a smile out of us, but when he is sad... he is hard. A big part of it is that he is so heavy and hard to hold all day, but also, he can only be soothed by mom. I am just barely feeling like I can handle my life again, but he definitely keeps me busy.



Tyler is smack in the middle of learning all about the brain. Piece of cake! Just kidding. I love seeing how excited he is about each new thing he learns and how everything fascinates him. I wish I was more like that. We didn't see Ty much today because he goes to mutual and basketball on Tuesday nights, but the time that he was home he was amazingly helpful. I am not looking forward to the craziness that third year and residency bring.


Me- I am good. More than good. I am super happy where I am. All I need is a little more sleep and I am good to go. Tonight I got on the floor with my 6 month old and 2 and half year old and played with blocks. Jesse was laughing as he put blocks in his mouth and watched Emree. Emree was laughing as she threw the blocks all over the place and I couldn't help, but smile. Then my heart melted as Emree sang, "I am a Child of God" to Jesse. The love between them is one of the most precious things I have ever experienced.

I am so grateful for the gospel, I am so grateful for prayer, family, and friends. I am even grateful for journaling.