Baker Family Blog

A few updates.

2012-01-25T06:04:00.001-08:00

Eli writes all day long most days. His list of words keeps growing. It currently includes all our names (and has for about a year) but has expanded to include things like dog, cat, I love you, to, and from. He's sure a cutie.

We are redoing our guest bath. They are making good progress but you wouldn't know to look at it. Haha. New shower entirely, new floors, etc. hooray!

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Sisters

2012-01-22T19:22:00.000-08:00

Can you tell these two are sisters?

I need to dress Emmy up in one of Dora's outfits and try and get a similarly situated shot. They really look a lot alike to me!!

Emmy baby

2012-01-22T07:00:00.001-08:00

Emmy is growing so so fast!! She sits up now and she says mama! It's so stinkin' cute!!!

We love this sweet baby girl! My first baby to learn mama as her first word.

She is also eating great now. Baby food and some big girl food too.

Incidentally, this is Eli at the same age. They look pretty similar, eh?

-Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

2012-01-13T06:40:00.000-08:00

Poor Poor Emmy. She got pink eye. Then during that ordeal a fleck of something got stuck in her eye (we never figured out what) and it stayed in for a few days. Finally we took her to an ophthalmologist who was able to numb her eye, have me hold her down and put this thing in to hold her eye open. Then he took this little poker and pulled the thing out. WHEW! Now we are on our last day of antibiotic drops and finally this mess will be over! We love you Emmy. So sorry your eye was in such bad shape.

This photo was after the pink eye was gone but you can see the fleck on the left eye (right side of this photo) and it's just to the left of the pupil on the cornea. It's rectangular. Poor little girl! We were so glad to get you fixed up and back to normal.

Christmas!!

2012-01-13T06:36:00.000-08:00

We had a very Merry Christmas Eve. The kids were old enough that we did a nativity program. Daddy read the story and Eli and Dora placed the people and animals in the creche.

As you can see, we were very reverent at all times.

We had our immediate family, Emma, my parents, the Morganeggs, and Clinsey and Co.

Hey, I'm in one!

I love how the kids paid rapt attention for the first five minutes. Then the lost a bit of steam but overall they did great!

There was lots of love for the grandparents...

Emmy was there too...

Sis Morganegg took a few shots of all of us.

We opened a few presents. Hooray, tiny animals!

Eli opened his "big" present from me and Whit. It is a tiny animal camper so he can play with Dora. That was a BIG hit.

The kids swarmed Papa to help him open his. Isn't it funny how as you get older, it gets harder to do anything by yourself?

Here's Christmas morning. (The night before)

Poor Whit worked all night. His boss even came in late--so he basically worked all night (after working two nights before it) and then came home and we started Christmas morning. He almost missed seeing Eli come down. He came in seconds before Eli came down the stairs. So if he looks a bit tired, he is. Cut him some slack. He was a really good sport about it-especially since he had to go back into work that night. Poor Whit!!!

Eli was giddy about his four wheeler. Sadly it was both a Sunday and raining outside. SO he had to wait a bit to use it.

Whit got an electric train from my parents. He and the kids have had a fun time with that.

I surprised Whit and got him the Remington 1911 he wanted. It was an ordeal-three kids two days before Christmas at Academy. I'm not sure how long it usually takes to get a gun, being a gun virgin myself (this was my first) but it took FOREVER. We got there at 11 and didn't leave until after 2 pm. Try keeping three cranky, tired, hungry kids happy in a store shopping cart that long. It was NOT fun. But Dad was happy so it was worth it.

So is this a TEXAS Christmas or what?

Dora got lots of tiny animals. And lots more. And more after that. That kid is spoiled.

Eli got a few too. (Two families.)

Lest you think we completely ignored her, Emmy got some stuff too. She had no idea how to open it or what it was, but she got stuff.

Eli also got some superhero shows. Holy moly, so fun.

Oh and the kids loved their ladybugs from grandma Lila and Papa Hugh!

Merry Christmas!!

Goodbye Grandma Charlene

2011-12-31T10:58:00.000-08:00

Whitney recently lost his wonderful Grandma Charlene. He had to work this whole weekend (week, really) and so he couldn't make it to the funeral, but we sure do love and miss her.

She came to our wedding and to many family gatherings. We also went to visit her in Utah and again in Oregon. But, of course, it never feels like enough once they are gone.

Misc iPhone photos

2011-12-31T07:17:00.001-08:00

Wow we had a great Christmas. The kids are finally getting big enough (Eli anyway) to understand the nativity story.

We also got lots of fun stuff. I have lots of photos I need to upload from my good camera. I had a few on here too though.

Two days before Christmas we painted sugar cookies I made at my mom's house (because mine was being cleaned, yay!).

Here are a few photos.

Santa was very good to all of us this year. Dora got the tiny animals she wanted. (if you have girls, look them up. Calico critters are about the cutesy thing ever.) the kids love them and we retired the train stuff to give them a table for them.

Eli got a 4 wheeler.

YouTube Video

Whit got the .45 he wanted. A Remington, which I surprised him with.

And I got these... I think I got the best of all!!

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Pre Christmas Celebration

2011-12-27T08:41:00.001-08:00

Before Christmas (the 19th or so) the twins and Aunt Angela came down for a few days. We had a great time with them. The kids had a faux Christmas eve and opened their matching pajamas...

Even Emmy got in on the action. It's almost like Dad knew what was in the box. She was all primed for her new clothes.

The kids loved playing with Nana.

I love their new pajamas! So cute.

Here are a few shots with all the grandkids and Papa and Lerdleluh.

Then they opened presents from each other.

Eli and Jesse were big friends. They both love Batman.

Lerdleluh with the babies. Emmy is sure big compared to tiny Sydney.

Dora and Jocelyn got along wonderfully.

Of all the girl shots I only look okay in one--the one where Whit turned the camera sideways to make fun of "artsy shots". Oh well!

Dora absolutely loved her Dora legos from Hayley.

Last day in Orlando and BUBBLES!

2011-12-27T08:24:00.000-08:00

Our last day in Orlando, my mom lost her ticket. She really wanted to go and do some shopping so I offered to stay and watch Emmy and let her take my ticket. Emmy had a fun day not being cooped up in a stroller the whole time.

I should have sent them with the camera but I forgot. So, this is all you get for the last day!!

Love this little girl's big blue eyes!!

On the way home, my dad got naked in the airport. Appalling, I know. ;)

After we got back daddy had to work a lot. Mom did the baths (dad does them most of the time when he's home.) Mom let things get a little out of hand.. Here's the proof.

The kids love bathing in mom's tub!! Wonder why!

Universal Day Two; Trip Day 4

2011-12-24T13:05:00.000-08:00

On our fourth day in Orlando we went back to Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure. Then that afternoon we went to the Universal Studios theme park next door, too.

We really loved the Harry Potter park--it was so cool! And they had butter beer (which was SO GOOD!!) SO GOOD, like You Should Go Get Some Right Now--It Was So Good!!

Here's a shot of my mom at the Hogsmead Store. Even the store was really cool!

Here's Ollivander's wand shop. Eli and Dora really liked their little presentation.

So of course we got them wands. Eli picked Dumbledore's (the Elder Wand) and Dora was adamant she had to have Harry Potter's wand. Funny kids.

Love this shot!!

The shop displays were so cool. They had that screaming plant (which you can't see from the glare) but it was really cute.

Can you tell Eli was excited?

We went back to Seussland and got some shots with some characters. Dora was more interested than Eli. (They both had signature books to get the characters to sign).

Here's a shot of my dad so you can see some of the decorations. Also there aren't any in this photo but there are Whos all over the place just walking around and posing. It was really cute.

While the kids went on rides with Dad and Papa, my mom and I fed our cookies to these really friendly birds. They would eat out of your hand almost--look at this one!

We snagged a Who couple and made them pose.

There's also a cool playground. They didn't have age limits so dad played too...

Wheeee!

I am so lucky. He's so hot. :-)

Dora the sneetch!

Not a flattering pose for me, but the kids were happy to sit on Horton's egg for a bit. haha.

The kids sure love baby Emmy!

Then we went over and did a shrek show and saw some characters at the other Universal Park.

here's Curious George who Dora was sure was Boots. Haha!

Poor Dora the Explorer and Diego. My kids kept going back over and over. Dora was on Cloud Nine!

Proof I was there...

WHAT A GOOD DAD! I have a photo of Whit doing this with Dora at the same age in Palmyra New York.

Universal Day One; Trip Day Three

2011-12-24T12:25:00.000-08:00

On our third day in Orlando, we went to Universal Studio's Islands of Adventure. It was really fun!! We started out in Seussland, which was SO cute and decorated even nicer than Disneyworld for Christmas.

Plus my kids love the Dr. Seuss books so it was a big hit.

See look how cute it was!

There was a carousel.

An air train, which the kids loved...

What a good dad. There was a lot of this. (Stroller pushing and hand holding at the same time.)

And of course, with dad, there's always a lot of swinging around.

Dora's favorite part of the whole day was the squirrel. She fed and fed and fed it.

Emmy was a little whiner that day but we still love her...

Eli's favorite was definitely Super Hero land.

Both kids were really excited about Spider Man. And Spider Man was really nice to the kids, took a real interest and talked to them for like 5 minutes.

Dora was so excited to see Captain America (Eli obviously was, too.)

Wolverine was pretty cool too. Check out Eli's "Super Hero Face".

The kids still had energy when we left, but look at dad and Lerdle-luh go!!

One happy kid...

Love that daddy

2011-12-20T12:43:00.001-08:00

These girls sure love their dad!

Emmy gives kisses now!

Dora loves him too. Watching rudolf the red nosed reindeer!

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Dad works a lot!

2011-12-18T10:41:00.001-08:00

Dad's been working nights a lot. We miss him. When we got home from church (shortly thereafter anyway) he woke up.

We love you daddy! Now go back to sleep so you can work again tonight.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Magic Kingdom

2011-12-17T21:09:00.000-08:00

Our second day in Florida we went to the Magic Kingdom. Everyone had a great time.

Emmy was a champ again.

The Christmas decorations were beautiful...

We got a signature book and Dora got to see some princesses, etc.

She saw Sleeping Beauty too, but didn't know who she was. She really wanted to see Ariel and Rapunzel but we didn't manage to find them.

The kids really liked "It's a small world after all."

We had fun on the carousel...

And Eli and Dora lucked out--Whit and my dad took them on the Dumbo ride.

The kids loved the race cars, and went twice.

We hoofed it over to Tomorrowland so Eli could do Space Mountain. It was a bit much for him. He liked it but at one point we turned around when lights were flashing and he looked terrified and sick at the same time! Haha. Poor kid.

Here they are with Stitch.

The kids were excited to see Chip and Dale but they were wearing weird clothes because they were in Tomorrowland. (Or Futureland, whatever it's called.)

We got Dora and Eli baby kangaroos. They were so excited about them and Dora took it everywhere with her after that.

Our first ride of the day was the water (log ride--Brer Rabbit I think). Anyway, I got soaked and so my hair looked like crap all day. Oh well!

After a long day at the park Dad was working overtime to keep the tired kids happy.

Luckily I had the camera when Eli decided to pick a flower. I should have stopped him I guess but it was so funny!

Hollywood Studios

2011-12-17T19:58:00.000-08:00

We recently went to Florida for a week. We go every year but we hadn't been since last May.

Eli is obsessed with super heroes and with star wars right now so he really wanted to go to Hollywood Studios. We went on the first day. There isn't as much stuff for little kids there, but for Eli, star wars was enough!

WOW Eli loved Star Tours. I did it like three times. I know Eli went through with Dad and my parents without me at least once...

The glasses are fun. Haha.

Dora liked Star Tours, too.

Emmy was really good the first two days. She just hung out and slept in the stroller.

The kids really liked the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground.

This wasn't on purpose but it was really funny I got a photo of my mom breaking the rules. Haha.

My dad and Emmy really bonded this trip. He let her do whatever she wanted, including drool all over his glasses. Haha.

One big puppy paw...

We went on a video tour with my dad (Whit stayed with the baby) and my dad had a great time... he was selected to be part of the movie they made.

They put them in suits.

And they had my dad answer the phone. That triggered the water release...

And he got drenched! The kids were so excited.

What a good sport.

Later on the behind the scenes tour we saw the big prop graveyard and we saw lots of things like Herbie, etc. But the coolest thing (to me) by far was the Flight of the Navigator Ship.

They had lots of props, and costumes, like Darth Vader...

And Darth Mal...

Dora got to see the Monsters, Inc...

My dad hijacked the camera for a bit and took some bad photos of me. Like this one--check out the tongue. Sheesh.

The highlight of the day was when Eli did the Paduwan training... He was so excited!!

He thought it was cool.. but it really got great when Darth vader arrived! Eli was so scared at first (see his face?)

And then so angry! He was really swinging at him!

His faces crack me up!

SO MUCH FUN!

Family Photos

2011-12-03T09:20:00.001-08:00

We recently had some family photos taken. It's been a long time... I guess I need to change our header photo now. Let me know which one you like so I can pick one for the top of the blog!

I am thinking either the one above, or the one below.

Classic...

Those kids are stinkers.

Love that baby!

Unwrapping Santa's presents

2011-11-28T10:35:00.001-08:00

I took a few (non-professional) shots with my camera before Santa showed up and a few of the present opening. I thought I'd toss those in too.

Also just a note on the "Baker Blue Eyes." Both Cassidy and my mom (my only two faithful readers! haha) commented when I said Emmy has the "Baker blue eyes" on Emmy's five month photos that they didn't come from the Bakers--only Papa Hugh has blue eyes. I didn't mean from the BAKER ANCESTORS. I just meant that our kids, the BAKER KIDS, all have bright blue eyes, thus the BAKER eyes. It's a new thing. For the record, they likely came from Papa Baker's blue allele mixed with the Stuckey blue eyes but they are the BAKER eyes for our family. :-)

Here are my big kids snuggling with Papa Don.

Eli loves to hold Baby Emmy. And look at those Baby Baker Blues. haha.

The kids were pretty excited to get a present before Christmas. They've been staring at the ones under the tree with longing.

We can't wait til Christmas (even though Daddy has to work every night that week... Doh!

Santa Came to Town

2011-11-28T09:15:00.001-08:00

Eli and Dora were so excited to have Santa and Mrs. Claus come to visit. My parents showed up first to be there when the honored guests arrived.

This was Dora's face when Santa arrived...

Emmy wasn't as excited...

The kids are so excited...

Emmy got a bit scared...

Whit was working so he wasn't here for the mania. I look like a 10 foot woman...

Clinsey and fam showed up a bit later...

And Santa gave the kids some presents...

They were pretty excited...

Thanksgiving

2011-11-28T09:06:00.000-08:00

We had grandma, Uncle Dan, Aunt Anne, Danny and Dawn, my mom and dad, Jackie, Lincoln and their kids over for Thanksgiving. It was fun! I was too busy watching the baby to take any photos but Whit snapped a few.

Love that baby girl!

We had fun driving cars around the yard. Yay for Texas being like 70 degrees at Thanksgiving. Haha.

Dolphin Swim

2011-11-28T08:50:00.000-08:00

Wow, the Dolphin swim in Cozumel was by far the coolest part of the girls' cruise. We got to play with dolphins, touch one, kiss one, hug one, ride one!!

SO COOL!

She went so fast during the belly ride, it was like being on a jet ski that put me an inch over the ground. Wow!!

Here was Alisha--she got drenched.

We miss you Marina!

Girls Cruise

2011-11-28T08:23:00.000-08:00

I recently had a chance to go on a girl's cruise with my friend Alisha Oldroyd. We had a great time! We did pick up a stalker who ended up being at our table the first night. We asked the maitre'd to change our seating assignment because we were married and wanted to just have a fun girls cruise. The next night (formal night) we were seated at this table. (The one below.) They put us with six single Air Force guys! Sheesh! We got a good laugh but actually we had a fun time. They guys were really nice, and even went with us to some stuff, like Karaoke.

Here we were on the formal night.

My cousin Garrett just happened to be on the cruise! So neat, right?

We went to Chichen Itza when we ported in Progresso, Mexico. It was closed to walk throughs because they were cleaning up graffiti. That left me feeling kinda cheated...

It had some neat acoustics, though. While standing at the top you could talk and the whole arena could hear you. Weird...whatever could THAT have been used for? :-)

Garrett happened to be on the Chichen Itza tour, too. Cool!

Garrett leaves on his mission in like a week. He's such a great guy. I am so proud of him.

OK, so Chichen Itza is where the winners of the ball game got sacrificed. (Gotta lose to win...haha) and they mounted the heads of their enemies on this weird temple thing. Here's the explanation of that.

Here I am in front of the head mounting dais. Skulls everywhere. Ick!

See the skulls?
This was the platform where the royalty watched the "to the death" ball game.

They were refinishing that too, so it was blocked off too, but here's the field entrance... Lame!

Here we are doing a bit of shopping after out dolphin encounter... (photos of that separately)

And this is for Megan--ORANGE punch buggie. There were like a million punch bugs in Mexico. Seriously like every 8th car.

There's our boat in the background. We almost got on the cruise out of Galveston. Since we booked our cruise like a week out, it had just filled up so we had to travel to New Orleans. If we'd left from Galveston, we would have been delayed by two days. The Galveston boat got stuck in Progresso and then Cozumel because it had engine issues. YIKES! :-)

Here are two of the guys--the one on the right reminded me in both appearance and his mannerisms of Jesse. Awwww!

Here were our kids when we got back. Eli and Dora really wanted a photo of them with the "tiny camera".

These loaded out of order for some reason. Me and Garrett on the first day at sea...

And me and Alisha in front of the boat after Chichen Itza.

YAY for a girls cruise!! I need to plan the other one already. Anyone want to come?

Around the House

2011-11-26T17:25:00.000-08:00

Here are a few shots from around the house that happened to get uploaded with the other blogs I just posted. Dora and Eli eating breakfast...

They love these "pancakes and sausage on a stick" from Jimmy dean. It's called a "Corndog with syrup" at our house. Haha.

These are a few shots from after church. I wanted the two girls but Eli didn't want to be left out. With as cute as he is, I was glad he hopped in.

They sure do love each other. I'm really blessed that they get along so well the majority of the time. What a lucky mom to have such little angels.

Love that baby's chubby cheeks. She's sure growing up fast.

Halloween

2011-11-26T16:48:00.001-08:00

Whitney had to work on Halloween... So my mom came over to help. My kids had a fun time. I think my mom did too. :-)

Cutie pants Emmy.

All the kiddos.

I dressed up as a peacock. Dora did too--we had matching hair bows. Love Eli's face here.

He was blowing spit bubbles. Classy.

Here is everyone coming out of Clint's house. My mom was a Tiger. (LSU fan) Hayley and Eli were both batman/batgirl. Dora was going to be batgirl too until the last minute when she changed her mind because she wanted to be "pretty".

Colin only wanted to be "Colin". He kept saying, "Me be Colin". It was pretty cute.

One shot of the "approach" before it was too dark to get anything. The kids were sure excited.

Many Faces of Dora

2011-11-26T16:41:00.000-08:00

I love that Dorby Girl. She's so cute. Here are all her weird faces she made while we waited for it to be time to go to Clinsey's house for Halloween trick or treating.

This is my favorite. Her growling face.

This one's pretty cute too...

Emmy is Five Months (a month late...)

2011-11-26T16:36:00.000-08:00

Emmy, my darling little angel, is five months old! (In these photos...) She is such a little sweetie. Just after turning 5 months old she starting rolling from tummy to back and back to tummy. She's a cute little rolly polly. She has the BIG BLUE Baker eyes. :-)

Love that little smile.

She also loves her toys, including the ladybug and bird Dora loved and her new bee.

Love those baby eyes.

Trunk or Treat

2011-11-26T16:19:00.000-08:00

We had a ward Halloween party (trunk or treat) and the kids had a great time, but it got really cold for like the 4 hours of the party. Of course. So Dora wore my "renaissance cape" without which my outfit was completely lame so I took it off. Here's Eli as batman. He was quick to tell you he was the "Black Batman" as opposed to the not so cool "Blue Batman".

Here was our "very scary" trunk. Eli and Dora picked out those icky skulls.

Spooky! The ghost and pumpkins and RIP tombstone lit up.

Later the next day Emmy fell asleep on Dad's lap and I had to get some shots because she looked so cute! Then Dora got jealous and hopped up there too. Dad was in heaven.

Painting Pumpkins

2011-11-22T14:05:00.000-08:00

The kids had a great time painting pumpkins... We had decorated those little ones but a dog (or something??) carried Eli's off so we went to get some more and thought we'd paint them this time. I am going to wait a year or two before we carve. I have visions of lost fingers and toes. Paranoid much?

Notice Dora has another DIFFERENT bandaid on her face. *sigh*

Dora went for the impressionist look and Eli is more traditional (ghosts, cats, skeletons, etc.)

Hope you had a Happy Halloween!

Rice Cereal for Emmy (and Eli is Strange)

2011-11-22T12:49:00.000-08:00

Emmy ate her first rice cereal and she ATE LIKE A CHAMP! I have never had a kid take to eating food so easily or so well. She gobbles it down. Just slurps it right up from the very first bite.

I thought this face was hilarious. She made it about 10 times. I think she was saying, "Why'd it take you so long to give me some real food, mom?"

When I took a break (three times) to mix more (sure each time that she wouldn't eat any more) she would gnaw on her bib. Dora was there to cheer little sister on.

Oh and Dora doesn't really have a hurt on her head, but we use band-aids like decorative stickers at our house folks and I haven't been willing to fight the good fight to stop it yet. We're not very green. Oh well!

I was going downstairs the next morning when I saw Eli through the cracks in the stairs. He was awake, wearing his hat and pajamas and his new flip flops, playing in the water in the bathroom with a cup and syringe. THAT KID!! What did I do? Snapped a photo, what else?

Dewberry Farms

2011-11-22T12:41:00.000-08:00

Wow I am way behind. I am about to put up like 10 blogs though and I'll be almost caught up. Ha! We went to Dewberry farms with some of our friends from church a week or so before Halloween. We had a great time without all the crowds!

The kids loved the little chicks and other animals.

It was hot but that didn't stop Eli from both wearing his long sleeved Halloween shirt (won't make that mistake again!) and from playing hard.

Oh and Emmy loves these onesies with skirts. It's an outfit and a toy!

Thanks mom for watching her while we went to play!

Cruise Little Camera

2011-11-22T10:13:00.000-08:00

This is my cousin Garrett who lives in New Orleans area and just happened to be on the same cruise as me!! How crazy was that?? We got to see him pretty often on the cruise. He also came to Chichen Itza when we docked at Progresso, so that was fun. More photos of him later.

A shot of me and Alisha in front of our boat, the Elation. And we were Elated. Aptly named.

Here's Dora with her big blue eyes... and Eli and her friend Alexa (Alisha's daughter). The kids forced me to take this photo when I went yesterday to pick them up from Alisha's.

Here's a little video in which I look exceedingly lame BUT you can KIND of hear something that was awesome. They built the main building in chichen Itza so that the sound carries really far. In that way, someone could stand on the top steps and be heard from a really long way away. Gosh, what in the world could they have used that for? Can anyone say King Benjamin? Or some other "King"? *cough*

Wow this is late

2011-11-22T09:58:00.000-08:00

I am occasionally (like now) behind on blogging and I post things weeks later than they actually took place. I was just thinking that I need to order my blog book for this year, so I need to get all my recent photos up so I have everything documented. In uploading photos from my small camera that I don't use as often, I found these from just before last Christmas!! Yikes.

We are liking Texas but the videos with the snow and turkeys (which were always in our backyard) make me miss Oregon, especially this time of year.

I miss our house. It had a great view as you could see in the other video above, but I liked that house too. Also, I can't believe how much Dora has grown in ONE year. Eli is about the same. Haha.

Girls Cruise

2011-11-13T18:12:00.000-08:00

I am very very far behind on my blog. For that I apologize to my six readers. Ha.

I have about 300 photos I've uploaded and just haven't done a blog with yet. I picked up a new client and that has set me back a bit, and also things are just busier with three kids!

I would get them up this week, but ALAS (YEAH RIGHT) I am going on a cruise. Me and my friend Alisha leave tomorrow morning for New Orleans and then MEXICO. No kids, no hubbies (Sad!) and total relaxation. I am SO excited...

SO, it will probably be a little while before you get more updates from me. If you're impatient, just envision a relaxing beach or a wonderful meal... that's what I'm doing, so suck it. Haha! :-)

-Bridget

PS- My husband rocks...

House shots

2011-10-31T13:02:00.001-07:00

These photos are just for a few family members who have been asking for some updated photos of the house. :-)

Here's the breakfast room... We decided instead of recovering the chairs that were left in the house we'd buy new ones. I'm glad we did. I like the new leather barstools better.

Our family room with the new pictures up and our new furniture... Also I'm not sure if I put the photos with the rug up.

I really wanted two sofas that looked essentially the same but one that reclined (straight back from the TV) and one that didn't so it was comfy to lie down on... I found them! Hooray!

Obviously we need a new dining set, but until we pay off Whit's loans, we are going to keep on keeping on with this one. :-) And with our $80 Wal Mart rug, too. Haha.

Entry way...

Kids game room--my mom did the curtains, the window seat cushions and all the pillows. Go mom!! Obviously we still have building a new "Built in" inset in the media center on our list. The people who lived here before had an enormous big screen tv in there that they left but it was old so we gave it away. Now we need a new built in with spaces for DVDs, etc.

Here's Eli's room. He wanted batman for the theme and I said no over and over until I saw the Pottery Barn batman stuff. It's not so bad, so he got it.

His dad did the wall art, but Grandma Carla (lerdleluh) gave him the batman light, etc.)

I think I already put up photos of the bathroom, but then I got the wall quilt from Eli's nursery up in there too. I like it with the monkey theme the kids picked out.

This is the hallway between the kids room (from the game room). I love that there's an extra door to close off that hallway from the rest of the house so there's another noise barrier for when they are sleeping. You can see Dora's letters outside her room.

Here's Dora's room. We're still planning to paint a tree on the "ceiling" that slopes down and put 3D flowers on it. (Another rip off from pottery barn!) Haha. I have no decorating style. We did replace her fan with one with flowers, hearts and butterflies. Oh and my mom made the curtains. Go mom, again!

This is the kids' reading room (across from the game room).

I finally got my hobby room put together. Now I just need a tiny TV to watch on when I am scrapbooking in there.

Here's Emmy's room. YES, it is our second closet. We didn't really need that much closet space and we wanted her close to our bedroom. Haha!

And, yes, we just reused Dora's old nursery stuff. I just can't bring myself to care so much about a room I only mean for her to spend a few more months in...

This is the little sitting room outside her room. It connects our covered back porch and the master bath.
I also redid the redo of the master bath cabinets (because I messed them up the first time.) They are SO MUCH BETTER now!! Thank heavens...

Also you can see there was a TV in that big tall cabinet and the MASTER BATH was wired (with speakers still there) for surround sound. SO WEIRD. The people who had the house before us had 8 rooms wired for surround. They left all that stuff plus they left two big TVs... Weird. Anyway, what in the world can I do with that cabinet? I have no interest in having a TV there.

Blogging from church.

2011-10-30T08:17:00.001-07:00

We had a fun time painting pumpkins a few days ago. More photos soon.

I'm sitting with Dora in nursery and she won't let me leave. Here's a photo of the little cutey.

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Location:S Mason Rd,Richmond,United States

Eating problem

2011-10-27T12:44:00.000-07:00

Not sure why Dora's photo is so small... But my family has been eating too many donuts, I think.

Fun in the pool

2011-10-25T14:44:00.001-07:00

Today the kids went swimming while I was home alone with all three for the first time. Me and Emmy stayed mostly on the sidelines. It was really cold water.

This was Eli. No matter how cold the water he jumped in over and over. What a nut!!

He climbs out all by himself now. What a pro!

An ant bit Eli but I'd say he got the last laugh.

Emmy got bitten by a few mosquitos. Poor thing.

Other than having me put her in the water once, this was as far in as Dora really got.

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ZOO!

2011-10-24T17:11:00.001-07:00

I AM SO FAR BEHIND! Oh well. Here's some photos from our trip to the zoo like 2 weeks ago.

I fiddled with the editing on these too. Haha. I think I'm getting a little better.

The kids had fun watching the elephant get a bath.

Here's cutie Max.

Haha. Action shot of Dora.

Love that kid! Someone recently asked me where they get their blue eyes. When I just looked at them, they clarified, "Does their dad have blue eyes?" NO! Their dad has green eyes. *I* have blue eyes.. SHEESH!

Here was the whole group (or dang close to it.)

Dora was loving this Ape... I think he liked her too.

The kids did not seem all that impressed with the "dragon." So it's not as showy as Toothless, but it could eat them just the same. Haha.

Thanks for taking us Nathan and Alexa. See you again soon!

Playing and Pumpkins

2011-10-19T11:39:00.000-07:00

My kids were really sad to see Aunt Cassidy and crew leave. They rallied tolerably when I broke out some "new" toys. These were my old Strawberry Shortcake toys from when I was a little kid. Dora is wearing a fairy outfit my grandmother made for my mom (when my mom was in the first grade.) Can you tell Dora's tall?

Later that day we decorated pumpkins. The kids were SO excited. Dora's in pajamas because my mom took her costume away to sew the sequins on better and gave her some pajamas she had at her house to wear instead. Dora wouldn't take her new giraffe pajamas off.

Build a Bear

2011-10-19T11:14:00.001-07:00

When Cassidy came we went to Build a Bear. It was fun! The kids all had a great time I think.

Here's Dora filling the bear with stuffing. The two big girls didn't really want the stuffed animals that weren't stuffed yet. They were pretty upset to have those until they saw the stuffing being put inside! They wanted to just get the sample animals.

My dad met me and Cassidy up there. We had a great time seeing him. He kept his snoopy mask on the whole time. Impressive.

Eli and Carter picked matching dogs.

The photos were all pretty yellow so I liked the sepia shots and black and white... That made me start tinkering around with my editing options and I'll admit I went a bit overboard. Most of my attempts were pretty bad. But I had fun with them!

Dora named her bear Sprinkles for its multicolored spots.

Haha--this edit was weird. Not a frequent option, I think. It basically makes everything but one spot blurry.

I loved (and totally misused and overused) the black and white with one color area option. This one looks terrible. Haha.

Again, I did a terrible job. Oh well! It was kinda fun.

I thought this one came out pretty good. Made Carter in the foreground the focal point.

Dora loves her Papa.

This could be an ad for that ladybug. Haha.

Emmy got a tiny Halloween bear. That's Megan in the background.

Cassidy's Visit

2011-10-14T20:10:00.000-07:00

While my sister Cassidy was here visiting, the kids, and us by extension, spent a lot of time in the bouncy house and out in the pool. Since it was hot, we set the bouncy house up in the Entertainment room (the room between the main house and Whit's man cave that has the mini-kitchen.) The kids had a great time. Once I actually remembered to take a few photos.

We were really lucky. Our kids played SO well together, even from the very beginning that Cassidy and I just sat back and did nothing all week. (So maybe it wasn't that easy...kids do tend to encourage each other to make messes of course.)

We had a great time in the pool too. It's pretty easy to see who's most willing to pose for my photos but I think I got a cute one of everyone but me in here somewhere. I swear I was there the whole time--just no one ever gets me in the photos! HA!

Thankfully the orca, when we finally blew it up, worked much better than the dolphin.

Best buddies!

Okay now this next shot is of Dora, NOT EMMY, on her 4 month birthday. Yes, that's right. This is DORA.

Now here's Emmy. Best as I can tell this shot was taken around Emmy's 4 month birthday (give or take a few days.) Now, tell me they don't look the same. So it's not really my fault I call Emmy Dora and Dora Emmy on occasion.

Here's Dad playing with the kids in the pool too...

Adorable little Megan wanted to stay and live with us but her mom dragged her back. (Or something like that.)

My little bee!!
Carter is getting so big! Eli misses him so much.

Cassidy and Derrick were there too!

Oooh, I'm a hipster. See my hipster artsy photo?

Little Megan again...

Love love love that Dora Baby.

SO I'm not very original. Ah, well.

One more of Emmy so she doesn't feel left out...

Oh and Derrick really wanted Emmy's bottle. Sorry buddy, your mom doesn't pump. You have to juice your own. :-)

We miss you guys!! :-) Come back again soon.

Chuck e cheese

2011-10-11T09:15:00.001-07:00

We love chuck e cheese.

The kids had a great time and Emmy did pretty well too. She sucked on my thumb for like 10 minutes.

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Catch up

2011-10-09T11:31:00.001-07:00

I have some photos to upload on my nice camera but had some to upload from my phone too.

We did a girls night (without Emmy. Sorry Emmy.) while Cassidy was here. We had dinner at panera and went shopping. Here are the girls-they were really excited.

Also Emmy and Derrick played well.

We went to target and to meet Jackie at chick fil a all together in one car. And to the park and build a bear. No photos on my phone but one of the car. That's one full tahoe.

The kids are loving the rain. I told them no playing in it in their church clothes and went to put the baby down. Came back to find this.

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Dora's first pedicure

2011-10-01T14:11:00.001-07:00

Me and Dora went to get pedicures today as a special treat since Dora stopped biting her nails.

They had special chairs with butterfly wings.

Eli sat on my lap part of the time.

Dora was so excited!!

Eli played on the iPod like a champ.

So cute!!

Dora got her nails done too.

Here's the finished product.

Dora was also pretty excited that I have sparkly flowers on my toes.

They were so good we got frozen yogurt afterwards.

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Lerdleluh's Birthday!

2011-09-27T19:31:00.001-07:00

My mom turned SIXTY! Haha, not really. Eli just thought she was. Actually she was born in 1953. Oh well. It all seems the same when you're four. Too many sets of tens. To celebrate, she came with me to sacrament meeting to help me watch my kiddos. (Whit was on nights.)

After church we had dinner together, opened some gifts and had some cake. (Which I made. Don't look too closely. We had some frosting issues...)

The hot guy in blue was Whit getting ready to head into work. Poor guy!

Lerdleluh shared her flowers around and also let everyone help her blow out the candles.

Oh and a bonus shot of Dad. Now when you hold the baby, Dora sometimes comes around and asks to get up on your lap too.

Misc Kiddies

2011-09-27T19:16:00.000-07:00

I snapped some shots of the kids the other day. Their hair isn't done, and you can really tell with Eli when you see his big rooster tail--in the front. Oh well. He just jumped in to be part of the action. I have been horrible about photos lately. Boo for me. I noticed the girls were both in strawberry outfits and thought I'd snap a few shots.

Emmy looks scared!

But she's happy here...

All three are happy!

Eli's a good person to lean on when you need it. Haha.

He loves to hold his big fat sister!

Birthday Party

2011-09-27T19:13:00.000-07:00

I made it to a birthday party for a girl in Eli's preschool class--the kids had a great time, and I discovered one of the moms went to high school with me. Small world!

Hummingbirds

2011-09-27T19:05:00.001-07:00

I am no photographer. BUT we have hummingbirds outside our breakfast room window all day every day, so I thought I'd document it. They are really cute.

(Even when they are mating! "Mommy, why do the hummingbirds keep falling down?")

First Time Eating Out

2011-09-27T18:55:00.000-07:00

A week or two ago we went out to dinner as a family. It's the first time we've been to a "sit down" (non fast food while travelling) restaurant since the baby was born.

It looked like a nice place online. Not so much in person, but it was pricey! HA!

The kids were rambunctious and it was... interesting. We haven't been out since. Might have been a bit premature.

Look! I was there, too! I took a turn at entertaining baby Emmy.

Children's Museum

2011-09-27T18:52:00.001-07:00

We went to the Children's museum with Jackie and her kids... and we had such a good time I didn't get any photos really. Here are like three I took in the first 2 minutes. It's hard to go with three kids, even when you have grandma there to help. (Thanks mom!)

We are sure glad to have grandma and Jackie and her crew close... Come back to Texas, Jackie. Phooey on Utah! :P

Emmy

2011-09-27T17:14:00.001-07:00

Emmy is ALMOST 4 months old. I am so happy and also so sad! I am not sure if Natalie will recall this but I said I wanted Emmy to be pink and fat like Greta. She's definitely pink and fat. Much fatter than Greta ever was! Check out this kid....

Love those blue eyes. Almost as much as I love when they're closed.

Huh?? Are you serious mom?

Oh and props to me. For anyone who's still reading down here at the bottom I will say--Emmy is almost 4 months and I AM STILL PUMPING. I must love her after all.

Dora is a busy little bugger

2011-09-22T19:32:00.001-07:00

Today we played with stamps and scissors, glue sticks and paper. We do that a lot lately.

Dora did this.

Then I saw her.

She had tried to clean it up.

That darn kid!!

I wasn't even going to take photos but whit helped me with some perspective.

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I get a bad rap

2011-09-20T15:30:00.001-07:00

Because I'm not sleeping great. But I'm pretty cute sometimes.

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I have a new blog

2011-09-20T14:36:00.001-07:00

http://onefrazzledmomofthree.blogspot.com/

Emmy cries a lot

2011-09-19T15:34:00.001-07:00

Today she wouldn't stop crying. I decided to go make dinner. I came back to find this.

Guess she wore herself out.

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Five years. Holy moly!!

2011-09-16T15:33:00.001-07:00

I'll write more later. Headed out on a date now. But five years was celebrated with jewelry, a shotgun and some home decor. You can guess who got what. One hint... The home decor wasn't for Whit. Hooray!!

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You ever what me do

2011-09-14T17:18:00.001-07:00

In an emphatic voice, "You ever what me do!" Dora says that a lot. It means, "Don't imitate me." Or, in a commanding voice, "You never do what I do."

It cracks me up! There are a few other funny things she says but I have trouble remembering them until I hear them.

She just said another one. "What's that noise numey num?" That means, "What's that noise?" Or, "What's that noise coming from?" She was going potty in the toilet at the restaurant last night and heard a lady peeing next to us. (One stall over.) She said that, in her tiny voice, and the lady next to us starting dying laughing. Her tiny little voice is so cute. Of course, then I had to say, "That's a lady peeing next to us." Haha. What a funny little girl.

Also if you ever tell Dora it's time to do something, like go home, she will inevitably reply, "Couple days."

Okay Dora, couple days.

My kids on a Sunday afternoon

2011-09-05T06:41:00.001-07:00

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New furniture

2011-09-03T16:39:00.001-07:00

Our new family room furniture came in. Now we just need the new rug. Fancy pics once the rug is in.

The sofa has recliners on both sides. Neat!

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First day of school

2011-08-30T13:43:00.001-07:00

So excited they wouldn't hold still. Both kids were (according to their teachers) the best kids in class. Eli couldn't have been more excited and Dora was pretty pumped too...

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Whit's Vacation

2011-08-30T05:19:00.000-07:00

Whit just left yesterday for a week of CME to prepare him for this test he has to take. He's going to be in class 40 hours in 3.5 days... Eli calls it his vacation. Haha!

Daddy, we will miss you so much! Here's MT. Whitney right before he left.

Whit just left

Yet another epiphany...

2011-08-26T18:14:00.000-07:00

So tonight I had another epiphany. I'm sure you guys are getting tired of my boring insights that are related to toddlers. Yet, here I am, recording it anyway...

I got online and ordered the kids some ride on water toys--a turtle, a dolphin and an orca. I thought when I bought three--one for each of my kids big enough to swim and an extra for guests. I knew when they showed up each of my kids would claim one for their own...

They got here today and sure enough, Dora immediately claimed the dolphin and Eli the turtle. Then they began negotiating. Emerald, Eli said, could have the orca when she was older. We could save it for her until then.

That made me think--there is no way that by the time Emerald is two (two summers from now) and old enough to ride on the orca, that it won't be torn up and replaced. After all, these cost less than $20. I know they will never last. To the kids though, how such things will be divided up and who they will belong to seems of the utmost importance. They are very concerned about what will happen tomorrow and next week and next month and next year. They want me to make a ruling on that now. They want their future and that of their posterity secured.

In a world that changes as much and as quickly as this one, how lucky we are to have a Heavenly Father who can see the big picture. We are busy squabbling and stressing over things that DO NOT MATTER. I have been thinking a lot lately--nay, stressing a lot lately--over things that I am sure will NOT MATTER. In a year or two, or ten at the most, they will be rendered totally useless, and yet here I sit, fretting and stressing and generally pestering the crap out of my Heavenly Father with my little worries and complaints. I wish I had some perspective--His perspective. I suppose that's what reading our scriptures and listening to the Spirit are for...

I suppose for now I will have to settle for trusting in a Heavenly Father who DOES have an eternal perspective to forgive me for my very short-sighted view, just as I think fondly of my poor kids, worrying over something that will never even become an issue.

Alice in wonderland

2011-08-26T17:51:00.001-07:00

We Bought new sofas today. We get them in a week.

We picked these out. (me and Eli)

Then the furniture guy offered Eli a tiny little cup of juice. He drank it and look what happened...

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Remodel: Kitchen

2011-08-25T14:26:00.000-07:00

Okay so before we did anything to it, this kitchen was terrible. Really bad. They left the chairs to the built in table, which I like, but badly need to be recovered. I was going to wait to put up photos until I had recovered them and put up curtains, but I decided to go ahead and put some up now. We've made a lot of progress. I think this is tied for most improved room (with the kids' bath). What do you think?

Here it was before...

Dark paint, heinous wallpaper and acid wash cabinets... Ick.

BUSY BUSY

Here it is now--new cabinets and hardware, tile backsplash and all new appliances.

Man that's a lot of cabinets!!

Remodel: Pool Bath/Utility Room

2011-08-25T14:17:00.000-07:00

Off the kitchen (and pool area) there's a laundry room and a full bath. They had cool red paint (not!) and swirly wall paper. That got repainted... and we redid the cabinets... and counters and hardware...

Here it was when we looked at it first...

Pretty cool acid wash cabinets, eh?

What a sad looking sink!!

Here it is with new paint, lights, counters, and cabinets. I love the square sink. You can see our water softener control panel too. SUCH hard water before we got that...

Game Room

2011-08-25T14:12:00.000-07:00

So we don't have furniture (other than a table and chairs) in the entertainment room yet... but the kids like riding the train out there. Haha. And playing on the bouncy house.

Here's Whit's man cave. No pool table yet, but his loft is a "dark room" and he has a new sectional sofa for his huge TV that's on the wall. Haha.

Family Room

2011-08-25T14:09:00.001-07:00

Here was the family room before... All it got was new paint...

New! And we are getting a rug (eventually) and maybe new sofas. We may move these out to the entertaining room...

Pool Fence

2011-08-25T14:07:00.001-07:00

We got our pool fence up...

Kids Game Room

2011-08-25T14:01:00.000-07:00

This room still needs to be painted. BUT here it was before...

And we got rid of the big grainy TV-and need to build a new shelving unit in the built in for the kids' TV... but my mom's recovered one of the seat cushions. She's also done some pillows.. more to come. And curtains. I love my mom.

Guest bedroom!

2011-08-25T13:58:00.000-07:00

Here's the guest bath before we got here. (ICK!)

I didn't do anything to the guest bedroom, but we got a new QUEEN bed! Oooh, Ahhh.

Come visit!

Here's the guest bath now... Come visit and get your own bed and bathroom!

Reading Room

2011-08-25T13:52:00.000-07:00

Again, we didn't remodel this room--just took down the awful curtains!

It's the kids' reading room... it has two big chairs and a bookcase or two with books and puzzles.

Here are Eli and Hayley playing in it when we looked at the house at first...

I think I need to take a better photo!!

I took this one to show we put up doors. This room is between the master and the office and it just had an open doorway! We put up these doors so we could have a master that wasn't open to the house!

Remodel: Master Bath

2011-08-25T13:45:00.001-07:00

Okay so the master bath was already pretty nice. It's also my cautionary tale. I redid the cabinets in the kitchen under the direction of a family friend, Bishop Bassett. I decided to do my master bath cabinets myself (in one day.) Whoops. I messed up the glaze because I did it at like 7:30 without good light with the bottom of the glaze can. Now I have to repaint the cabinet fronts and reglaze and seal them. DOH! Anyhow, here's the before.

Whit hated the wallpaper--this first shot is from our room looking into the bathroom...

We still need to redo the shower and tub...

This is where Emmy's room is (our second closet was ENORMOUS, and had a window so we made it her room.) Incidentally, we watched harry potter the other day with Eli. He saw Harry had a room that was a closet under the stairs and he said, "He lives in a closet... like Emmy." HA!

Anyhow here it is now--new cabinets (sort of) and new paint.

Master Room

2011-08-25T13:40:00.001-07:00

There are two shots we took when we looked at the house...

(Colin's head!) This one below is the sitting area off the master.

Here's the master with our bed in it...

And I made the sitting room my hobby area--I'm still getting stuff unpacked.

Remodel: Kids' Bath

2011-08-25T13:33:00.000-07:00

Okay we did a little more on the kids bath... It started out like this. Notice the nasty old hardware, the super cool pink (peeling!) wallpaper with a floral border. It needed some work.

It still needs new carpet. One thing at a time.

The kids bath has two rooms. The one you saw up there above, and this one with the toilet and bathtub. Same old wallpaper, nice new tile (already there) and icky yellowed molded plastic surround.

Here's the new bathroom. We got new mirrors and hardware, new granite counters, new texturing and paint and new sinks. When we went to Target, the kids picked monkeys as their decorating theme. Pardon my crummy photo skills.

In the other room we got new paint, and hardware and new tile around the tub.

Oh and new faucets, etc.
This is tied for the most improved room, in my book.

House Remodel: Office

2011-08-25T13:28:00.000-07:00

I am finally going to put up some photos showing the remodeling efforts. We are still in progress... I have not done curtains in ANY of the rooms yet... I have some light fixtures still to replace (like the one in this room). BUT we have done a lot, and I figured some people might like to see our progress.

Here was the office before I got my hands on it. Icky golf border.

And now? One paint job and new desk later... (still light to be replaced and new curtains and new carpet, etc.

Three Kids in Orange... one a little dirty

2011-08-25T13:25:00.001-07:00

Here are my kiddos in orange. Eli had a really chocolatey mouth that I didn't notice before I sat them still. Getting three photos of kids on Sunday is hard!!

Dora was so cute in that little orange dress!

You can tell Eli and Dora are good friends...

Emerald's Blessing

2011-08-25T13:15:00.000-07:00

Here's the immediate family who made it. Thanks to Luke for taking the photos...

You can see how very burned poor Whit's nose was! Ouch.

Whitney gave her a beautiful blessing, among other things, blessing her with a love of the New Testament and Book of Mormon.

The little lady herself...

Mom was there too!

Eli still had a wheelchair even though he had just gotten his cast off... but he was there, loving on baby Emmy!
I love that Dora's about to poke Grandpa Hugh.

Dora's happy to hold the baby (for about 2 seconds.)

This is her "all done" face.

Mommy Please Carry Me

2011-08-13T06:37:00.000-07:00

Eli broke his leg. I think most anyone who knows me also knows that by now. The orthopedic surgeon reassured me (with some annoyance at my persistent questions) that it is perfectly healed now. He took the cast off on Wednesday. He said Eli's leg would be both stiff and sore from disuse over a period of a month.

Eli can't walk. In part, he's scared, but in part it really hurts when he tries to flatten out his ankle. When he puts pressure on it, he screams and screams, which leads to his ongoing fear of trying. He has a wheelchair he got really proficient with when his cast was on, and now he doesn't want to use anything else. He is comfortable with it, he knows how to use it and he doesn't really want to walk anymore.

I have been forcing him twice a day (as much as I feel like I really can) to walk around the room, holding my hands in his, but putting a minimal amount of weight on his foot. I then sit with him and press on his foot to stretch the tendon for five or ten minutes. This entire process involves a lot of screaming, and a lot of crying. Tears flow on both sides. I can't stand to see my baby hurting. I also get a little mad that he won't even try.

Today, after going around the room twice, we had just 10 steps to go. He tearfully begged me, "Mommy, Please carry me to the sofa." I just started sobbing. I wanted so badly to carry him. I don't want him to feel any of this pain. I want my baby boy to be happy. But I also know he needs to walk. I told him I would gladly carry him everywhere, but if I did, he would never be able to walk on his own.

In that moment, it became crystal clear to me, in my imperfect human way, how our Heavenly Father feels. He sees the bigger picture in our lives. He gives us wheelchairs to help us through injury, or rough patches, but then he knows we need to walk. To play and run and work we have to learn to walk. He knows it will hurt, and it will be hard for us. He knows we won't want to do it. He pushes on our foot to stretch our tendon and He makes us walk around the room twice. In the end, when we only have 10 steps to go, He urges us to walk just a little more. And when we tearfully beg him to carry us, and He doesn't, it isn't because he doesn't love us. It isn't because he doesn't desperately want to carry his children. He would carry us everywhere, but then we would never learn to walk. We would never be able to grow. Growing hurts. Sometimes it downright stinks.

I know in my life I have been crying a lot lately. I have been crying when things go wrong on my house. I've been crying when things are hard with my babies. I have been begging Heavenly Father to carry me a lot. I know it hurts him to say no, but because I have faith in Him, I know that He will carry me when I need it and encourage me to walk the last ten steps alone when doing so will help me grow. I pray I will have the faith in Him to know the difference.

Eli's cast offs

2011-08-12T06:48:00.001-07:00

We have finally cast off... The post cast recovery has been really slow. I took this photo 30 seconds before they cut his cast off on Wednesday and on Friday he still isn't walking. Stiff joints and tendons and tired muscles are proving to be a difficult opponent.

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All happy here

2011-08-09T15:21:00.001-07:00

Holy cow I have THREE kids!!

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We're still alive

2011-08-07T07:23:00.001-07:00

Things have been busy lately. A few minor changes at the new house sort of evolved into a rather expensive remodel. It still needs new carpet, trim work, some new paint, and some shower remodeling but we are getting there.

In the midst of all this I've been remiss in taking photos of the kids. Here are a few. Baby Emmy turned 2 months, and Eli is getting around GREAT with his wheelchair and broken leg.

Here is Dora riding a plastic "mommy" horse.

Oh and lerdleluh cut Eli's hair. Better photo of that later.

Photos of the before and after from the remodel and new house soon.

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Bad babysitter

2011-08-07T07:06:00.001-07:00

So I have had several babysitters in the past week so I could meet workers over at the house. Here is one of them feeding the baby.

She seems a little distracted to me. What do you think? Should I dock her pay?

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Papa and his little Gem

2011-07-30T08:16:00.001-07:00

My parents have been great!

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Making progress

2011-07-28T10:42:00.001-07:00

We haven't moved in yet but we've had 4 rooms and a hallway painted and we're making progress on the kitchen cabinets... Maybe next week we can move in!

Dora loves her new room and new bed. She lives the colors and keeps telling me "pink and green mommy".

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Finally a House

2011-07-21T12:44:00.001-07:00

Next stop? A home. We are living with my parents while we get the cabinets redone and some rooms painted. But we have appliances in now and we're making some progress unpacking.

Here's a photo of the "red house" as the kids call it.

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Emmy is happy to be in Texas

2011-07-17T12:57:00.001-07:00

We made it! We close on the house at 11 am tomorrow. Other than Eli's broken leg, all is well.

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Name them one by one...

2011-07-12T20:49:00.000-07:00

I have been feeling sorry for myself and frustrated a lot. A few people who aren't afraid of me (turns out I can be scary!? What??) Anyhow, they have cautiously pointed out that I have a lot to be thankful for. It made me realize what a whiner I've been. I wanted to take a second on this, the eve of our truck loading (while I am letting Emmy cry for a minute--she cries whether I hold her or rock her or walk with her, or spin her like Emma did, or anything else, so I am taking a quick break!) to count some of my MANY MANY blessings.

1. Whitney

2. Whitney

3. Whitney. Is that enough? Probably not, but other people may not appreciate hearing how blessed I am to have him in my life.

4. My Heavenly Father and my knowledge of him and his son Jesus Christ. Yes, I know this should have come first, but right now I feel like Whit's doing a lot of the heavy lifting. Is that sacrilegious?

5. Eli. He is SO cute and sweet. He is such a helper too!

6. Dora. What a little doll. I love that kid. She helps more every day--even tries to change her own diaper. Especially when she's poopy. Can we say, "READY to potty train!?"

7. Emerald. I really really do love her. I just get frustrated when she screams a lot! But she smiles a lot too and she's sleeping better slowly but surely. And she is really really snuggly.

8. My husband has TWO jobs. At a time when some people are having trouble finding employment, it has been so easy for him. See #1, 2 and 3. We are all so grateful for your hard work for the family, Whitney!

9. I have work too-and it's been a blessing to work at home at my own pace.

10. We sold our house here--in a difficult market and time.

11. I have amazing parents. This probably should have been up much higher. How many parents that you know will literally drop everything to do anything you need--and ACTUALLY do it regularly to bail you out? Mine both will and do and then they do it again and never complain. Recently I was whining about Eli always needing me to do everything for him. "It never ends," I lamented to my mom. Then I asked, "When will he stop asking me for stuff?" My poor mom just laughed and I thought of all the stuff I am always asking for. NEVER, if you're a good parent. I certainly have a good model.

12. We found a great house out in Texas and it seems like we will actually be able to buy it after all!

13. We get to move right next to family.

14. My hubby is a doc, which is super helpful to have around.

15. My friends out here are awesome at pitching in, most notably Carey Miller and Lindsey Soren--thanks!

16. The weather is going to be great for our loading day!

17. My sister is coming to help with my move--again! She helped when we moved out to PA too.

18. My kids are all healthy.

19. I am healthy!

20. Our cars both work and... so do their air conditioners!!

21. My husband gets up at night to help with the baby. He also does laundry. And packs. And loads. And watches the kids. And cooks. Oh, did I already mention I'm grateful for him? I guess I forgot.

22. My dad and husband drive the big trucks. So I don't have to.

I should probably keep going but I had to pick up little Emmy long ago and it's much harder to type while holding her so this has gotten painstakingly slow!

I AM SO BLESSED! And I do know that, even when things don't work out like I had planned.

HAPPY MOVING DAY!