Hello!

I have started to have the urge again to update and thought that I should go ahead and do it. I know it has been like a year since our last post, so you should know a lot has happened over here. We are expecting our 4th baby and I am being induced, like every other time, because I never do into labor if we wait it out, on Tuesday the 22nd! I am so excited to be able to see the end of the tunnel and be able to hold him in my arms in just a couple of days. Oh and just in case you are wondering...we might not see him until the 23rd, just how it goes sometimes. I feel relaxed about it though. Mom is coming in on Sunday and staying with the kids, so what is there to worry about? I have the best babysitter ever coming to watch my kids. Life is good! Well, we will have short updates for now. Till next time....hopefully sooner than later....

Olympic Dreams

What could be better? It has been fun to see the snow and then have such nice weather here. I miss the snow quite a bit, but I also love and enjoy the nice weather here before the blazing heat that I know will come too soon. We have recorded all the winter olympics that we can and I am SO behind on it all, but love watching when we can. We were telling Emiley about the olympics the other day and she said "ooo, they better watch out I am pretty good at sledding!"

The other night I pulled her out of bed because 1. Joe had night flights and I don't like being alone that much sometimes and 2. She was singing and talking loudly in her bed so I didn't want other kids waking up too and 3. Mommy and Emi time is just priceless! So we watched the pairs skating. Love it! As we were sitting there with her eyes glued to the T.V. in awe she proclaimed "Daddy and I could go to the Olympics and do the Fancy Dance!"

Me: "oh yeah? That would be lots of fun."

Emi:" Daddy and I would have to take Fancy Dance classes and practice, but He would do a good job at throwing me!"

Daddy has his work cut out for him! A few nights later Joe was doing Yoga, with his usual audience watching him, and Emi turns to me and says "Daddy needs to exercise so he can get really good at carrying me for the Fancy Dance."

I love my little big girlie! No, I have no idea where she got the title "Fancy Dance" for couples skating, but I do think they would make a cute pair on the ice. I don't think I have ever heard of a father daughter duo. Don't you think that would be fun to see? We sure have some Olympic Dreams!!

Given up on me yet?

For those of you who haven't given up on me, here is a new one just for you.

Emiley happenings:

We measured her the other day because nothing seemed to fit and low and behold she has grown 2 inches in the last 6 months!! It's a good thing she has always been on the small side and now she is getting tall, I love it.

She is really enjoying having a friend right down the street. Only two doors down! They run and play and ride bikes. It has been a blessing for everyone, mommy included! I loved having neighborhood friends and feel grateful that we have a good neighborhood to run and play in.

Emi: While looking at my eyes, "Hmmm...Your eyes are pretty."

Me: "Thank You."

Emi: "mine are prettier."

Another day she said:
"Mommy, my hair is prettier than yours."
I had just gotten out of the shower and she had a bow in hers! But I agree she has great hair! I love to see that she has self confidence. That is such an important thing for a girl.

The other night when I asked her to clean her room for 5 minutes before going to bed it ended up in a tantrum (long day) and we had this conversation.
Mommy: "You want a clean room, right?"

Emi: "yes"

Mommy: "So you want a clean room, but don't want to clean it?

Emi: "Can't we just get a servant!?!"
I had to laugh out loud and say "That would be nice wouldn't it!"

I love this girlie! Dresses have become an everyday thing as well as going back to changing her clothes MULTIPLE times a day! What a girl!


Andrew update:
Loves being "minea handsome a boy". He is a treasure.

Is a big mommy's boy and I love it!

Loves copying anything and everything Emiley is doing. Sometimes I have to point out that emiley is in trouble for the tantrum and she is in trouble and not him. He gets a little lost when emiley is big and goes to school or plays with friends. They are the best of friends and I often find them cuddling up to each other or holding hands while walking.

One of his favorite pastimes is watching and joining daddy while he "plays exercise." Daddy doesn't feel like he is playing so much though.

Man can this boy talk! He says so many words and he can talk in long sentences too. It is amazing. He also loves to sing and sing and sing. He knows all the songs they sing at church and if he hears a catchy tune once he can keep it in his head for awhile.

Kaitlyn:
Sweetest baby ever! She is so good. She lets me exercise at the church while she sits a watches happily. In November we participated in a stake wide play called "Savior of the World." Kaitlyn came to every practice and performance and just was an angel to let me be part of that.

She adores her brother!! Man she lets him really do anything and just laughs and smiles at him. If he isn't on top of her, she is watching whatever he is doing.

She does the army crawl around the room or rolls like a barrel to get what she wants and if there is food out she can really book it!

She has really enjoyed new flavors and tastes and yells if not included! Can you blame her? I can't.

Joe and Janell:
Love our first Home of our own!! We have been here for about 4 months and it just seems too good to be true to be establishing roots. We are in a new ward which has been bittersweet. We had put in sod, painted a little, put in a fan, ordered blinds, put together a swingset the kids got for their birthday, and tried to get organized. What a blessing it has been! We love where we are and feel lucky to be where we were hoping to find a house. The one house we didn't think we would get it the one that we ended up getting. We see the Lord's hand in how it all turned out so much that there is no doubt in our minds that this is where we are meant to be in so many ways.

Joe has been doing P90X and it is challenging! He is enjoying it a lot.

Well, thought I would update and hopefully start posting more often. I know you might not hear much from me, but I love reading all of yours!!

Welcome Kaitlyn!

So....found this one, don't know why it wasn't put up. here it is.

As some of you know it all started with an induction on Monday July 13th at 6 am and ended on Tuesday July 14th at 6:07 pm. Kaitlyn came to us weighing in at 7 lbs. 12 oz. and 19 inches tall. It was long and frustrating, but we are glad that all went well and she is now here!! It was a great day. Joe was my wonderful support and I can't imagine a better person to lean on. We have so many of you to thank for all your support as we "sat" around waiting for her arrival, meals afterwards and even before then with all the doctor visits. So THANK YOU, THANK YOU!! We don't know what we would do without you.

Emiley and Andrew are adjusting well. Yet again if it is anything there is just an abundance of love that might overwhelm her at times. I keep thinking that maybe the adjustment period is over and that this is the new norm. We will have to wait to see, but it feels like we are almost back to a norm in a new way. It has only been two weeks, I know...so we can give it more time. Things are good!!

I want to shout out a HUGE thank you to my mom. She was so wonderful to come and stay with us for 9 days while Joe went to scout camp with the 12-13 year old boys only 5 days after Kaitlyn was born. She pampered me and played with the kids and took care of the house. Mom was a great companion for those early days that are so crazy. I truly cherish my mom and can honestly say that she is one of my best friends.

As you can see we have much to be grateful for, the Lord has rained blessings down upon us and we are so happy to be a family of 5! It sounds like such a big thing, doesn't it? Hope you all can see the blessings in your own lives for I know they are there everyday, you just have to look. Love you all!!

Way late!!

When my sister, Kaylie, came out to see us we had a grand time going to Disneyland and also going to get a 3D/4D ultrasound!! Lately as we get near the day I have been looking at them more and more and wondering what she is going to look like and then realized that I hadn't posted any. I have gotten this way with my other two children as well and I love looking at the ultrasound pics and dreaming of what characteristics she will have from Joe and me and now with Andy and Emiley to also compare to it makes it all the more fun. So, I know it seems like a lot, but this was out of 71 pictures!! Here she is, I tried to pick out the ones with the most personality or vivid features. Tell me what you think?

This one looks like Andy a little to me!!


No pictures please!!

This one was neat because she was all twisted up and we got a whole body shot. She was pressed up so tight next to me that we had a hard time seeing her sometimes, but cool leg, don't ya think?

She loved to have her hands by her face or a foot!! So we have a lot of hands pictures! But this is also a cute face.

Joe loved this one!! It's her "Peace!" picture.

Cool hands!

Sucking on her hand. I haven't ever had a thumbsucker, but she was really trying hard to get this hand in her mouth which was fun. Another mystery to be figured out later, right?

I thought this one was just another good face one.

I wasn't as far along as they usually like to do to get good pictures, but we thought they were good. We were just looking for a little taste to satisfy our craving for our little girl and it has been so much fun. I hope you enjoy them too.

No pictures, sorry!!

So I am a silly expecting woman and some silly way erased all our pictures!! We have been busy and I think I had a lot of good ones on there, but it is nice to have pregnancy brain in this scenario and I can't remember what I am missing. We have been working outside lately and have rediscovered the beauty of family work. We tend to forget how wonderful it is to work together on something and then when the project is all done to see we all helped and it turned out great! We washed out the pool, preparing for the next set of 100 degree days that are lurking out there somewhere. (And yes we have already seen them this year!! AHH!!) We raked up the yard and swept the garage and cleaned it a little bit, still more to do. It was just a great day. The kids were exhausted and cold because if you are cleaning out your pool you might as well enjoy the dirty water too right? They slept so well that night!! They have also enjoyed the yard being cleaned up because Mom doesn't freak out as much if they go play in the dirt backyard. Emiley is getting good at riding her bike out on the back patio too! Another good way to run your kids energy out!!

Another exciting milestone for us happened yesterday. We got Andy a big bed! He has been taking naps on a blow up matress that was left up after Joe's brother Mark came to visit with his wife Niccole and baby Aislee, so we thought it would be a great time to get a bed for him. Daddy was really brave and as soon as the bed was in Andy's room the crib came down!! Mommy was a little worried but with a nap and a nightime behind us with only a little crying and knocking and one time falling out of the bed......I am feeling pretty good about things.

Ya know what I am grateful for? A husband that can laugh at himself! Yesterday morning Andy woke up and was a horrible grump!! He just wouldn't stop crying and just was upset. So while I was downstairs with Andy screaming, Joe jumped out of bed in alarm and started moving around upstairs. I thought this was a little weird that he was so anxious for the day when it was only barely 6 in the morning and he didn't have anywhere to be yesterday, but figured he wanted a good start. The next thing I know is he is turning on all the lights and tapping on the door telling Emiley very sweetly to wake up and if she didn't get up now she wouldn't be able to sleep through the night tonight. She kept telling him, "But daddy, I am still so tired." When he came downstairs we finally got it figured out that Joe thought it was 6 in the evening and that we were waking up from naps. He couldn't figure out why it was so dark and why I am sure we were all giving him some weird looks. He was so sweet, but it was so funny. It kind of gave him a weird sense of the day, but he is great and just laughed it off. Joe, I love you!!

Well, it's a little bit of a catch up! I am doing well with the pregnancy and the baby is a mover and a shaker! My other two were as well, but this little girl is strong!! It's neat to have a little taste of her personality even before we get to see her in our arms. That will be soon too, it just feels like this pregnancy is flying!! The weather helps, it was nice that even with a few days in the 100's we have had a nice little cool off for awhile now too. Life is good to us, hope it is for you as well!!

St. Patty's Day

I have always loved this holiday, probably helps that my favorite color is green. Growing up my mom always made us green milk and pancakes for breakfast and then had cornbeef and cabbage for dinner, it was great!! The last couple of years I have tried to make this a memorable one for my little family as well, but I found out that it hasn't been so memorable because they forgot all about it it seems. (yes, I know... they are young) Emiley after her first St. Patty's had green poopy diapers for days and Joe and I just laughed!! So I made green "poofy pancakes" (my family called them puffy pancakes and most call them german pancakes and emi likes the poofy version...take your pick!) with green milk! I thought it was creative! Emiley and Andy hardly touched their food though and Emi kind of gave me the "You expect me to eat that?" look. She said "I like my pancakes whiter with white milk!! " Once I explained that even if it is a different color it still the same food she tasted it and said "Mom, you're right it does taste the same!" Who knew Mom could be right, eh? It was a great moment!

The day continued onward and we made cupcakes with green frosting and met friends at the park for lunch and to share our cupcakes which was so much fun. A friend took some great pics of the boys loving the cupcakes with cute green frosting mustaches. Mommy ended up turning a little pink though from all the great sun she was trying to soak in. It makes me look alive though! When we came home I walked in to the house to the smell of my wonderful cornbeef and cabbage simmering in the crockpot and smiled knowing that I had dinner already cooking and I was just finishing up with lunch. Emiley's little friend Katie walked in and wrinkled her nose and said,"It stinks in here! It stinks like a dirty diaper!" Okay, so cabbage doesn't really smell great right, especially to little kids. Well, then Joseph, my love, comes home a little later to his happy self-satisfied wife and as he gets to the door and gives her a kiss asks, "What's that smell? An animal must have dies around here somewhere!!" Yet again, nope honey just your wife trying to make dinner for the first time in a month after being sick! Hahaha! Oh well, the kids and the hubby all ate the dinner happily and told me they liked it! I got them all to eat it and ask for seconds without any bribes too!

It was a great day, funny and that made it even better to remember! Maybe next year they will remember what a great day it will be. Oh and by the way a few days later we sat down to a breakfast of blue "poofy" pancakes by request from Emiley herself, so it just gets better and better the farther away it is. I must say that I have learned from this that it is alot like a bunch of things in life and if we take a step back or look back in a couple days it is better than it seemed at the moment and becomes a life long memory. That is so true with parenting, huh? I love you family!!