summer happenings in Kansas

 The kids and I went to Kansas in July. We spent all of July and the beginning of August there. While we were there Emma turned 6. We went to the zoo with Mema and had a blast! Emma got a bird from the zoo store and named her Jewel. Everett got a monkey sword that lights up. They were both great that day.

 Emma got a dragon from Uncle Kyle and Aunt Brittany. It has a remote control to make it walk and roar. As you can see its eyes light up too. She named it Red.

 We also spent some time with the cousins. Everett fell in love with his cousin Kayla and she is now his girlfriend. They were so cute together. He was always excited to see her and play with her.

 Brendan introduced Emma to Pokemon and now she is hooked. She is a true tomboy. She loves her cousin Brendan and still asks if she can go play with him.

 Go Everett, Go!

 Chris' brother Randall and his family came from Olathe Kansas to spend the day with us for Emma's birthday.

 While we were in Kansas it rained quite a bit. I let the kids run around in the rain since it is pretty much non-existent in Arizona. They had a blast.

 Davis was of course a goof ball. He is so awesome. especially since he can make pink look good.

 Uncle Winn was there in Kansas too getting his house ready to sell which is why we were in Kansas too. While we were there we went to his house and he was wanting to get rid of the stuff that was my Nana's. Emma went into one of the bedrooms and came out with this dog which I gave her a long time ago. It has been missing for a couple of years now and we were super excited to have found what she calls "Brown Puppy."

 We went to the thrift store to find the kids some pj's to wear. i asked Emma if she wanted a princess shirt or a dinosaur shirt that says "Rawr!" and from the picture I am sure you can guess which one she picked.

 The kids decided that it was fun to ride in the front room. This is the house that I was fixing up to sell. they were trying to find any way to keep themselves entertained.

 Emma dressed herself that day. She has a shirt on with her pj shirt and shorts around her neck. She said they were her feathers. She is definitely an interesting girl. I wouldn't change her imagination for anything. Now Everett is starting to have more imagination play and it is so fun to watch.

 Yes, that is a rock in her nose. I have no idea what she was doing. as you can see she also has two shirts on again. she is so funny.

 My pops helped me a lot on the house. I was so grateful that he was there. I loved spending time with my dad. We had a lot of good laughs. It was just like old times. We were both in bad shape. His job has hurt his body a lot and I was 5 months pregnant. We made a great pair let me tell you.

Mema was also a great help. While pops and I were working long hours on the house, Mema was busy watching the kids. They loved spending time there and I was grateful that she was able to do it. I wouldn't have been able to do all that I did without her helping as well. I love my family. 

Emma got to spend the night a couple of times at Jerusha's. she loves her cousins. I am glad I have such an awesome and fun sister who has a great husband and amazing kids. I miss them tons. I can't believe how big they are all getting. I am glad to have spent time with them. 

 Dad and  I had a lot of projects to do. We poured in a back porch together. it was exhausting. We ended up having to go back to the store because we didn't have enough concrete. I am glad I had my van. We couldn't have put all of it in my van though because it was so heavy. I couldn't have done it without him. He was my hero.

 This is also one of the other projects that pops helped me out with. We rented a sander and he did all the sanding. I did all of the prepping. The picture below is what the floor looked like after I took up the carpet. Unfortunately I don't have an after picture of what it looks like being done. I left before that happened. Pulling up all of the staples and wood was tough especially having a big belly in the way.

 this is what the floor looked like after being sanded and with the walls painted. It looks really good.

 Pops and I treated ourselves to some much deserved authentic passage to india cuisine. It was so yummy.

On our way home we stopped in Flagstaff to eat at Freddy's Frozen Custard. Yum. We did have a custard too. It was so good to get home after being gone for over a month. We all missed Chris like mad and I know he missed us. I was glad to have had an opportunity to spend with my family.

Emma is now in the first grade. she is doing really well so far and has already made a lot of friends which are also in her class at church which is a bonus.

We now live in the Foothills in Yuma in a little two bedroom house. This is part of our yard. It is huge, but unfortunately it is all dirt. We decided to get out the kite on a really windy day. The kids had fun.

Cambria is due November 27th and I am really looking forward to that time that she will be here. I love being pregnant but hate the limitations it brings.

Everett is turning 3 September 18th. Time sure does fly. He is such a sweet boy. He kisses my tummy a lot. He is going to be such a good big brother. He is already a good little brother. He is always looking for opportunities to hug and kiss on Emma. If they get into a fight and I tell them to kiss and hug he gets so happy. Emma not so much but she will consent anyways. They are best friends and play so well together. I hope that never changes.

I am going to be 33 on September 6th. I still feel like I am in my 20's so it really isn't a big deal to me. I am just glad that I have experienced all that I have. I have learned so much in my short life and look forward to learning more in the next 33 years. I know it will bring much joy, learning and hard times as well.

Chris has been the co-owner of ChemDry for almost 2 months. It has been challenging. someone has hacked into his phone and has been taking his jobs. Not cool! But he now has it figured out and hopefully we will see a change soon.

I have another ultrasound set up in two weeks. I love my midwives. I have 2. they work together and are both amazing. I am still going to deliver in the hospital. they just work at the clinic I attend. Cambria is super active and has grown a lot. Someone asked me if I was going to have twins. Sheesh! I get that every time I am pregnant. I just carry them out like my mother did.

Chris on his new bike

Woot Woot!!! Chris on his motorcycle.

go baby go!

Happy Birthday Everett!

Everett was super surprised with what he saw

"You mean this is for me! WOW!!

Blow hard

He is having fun playing with his new cars in the parking lot. He wouldn't come to me when I told him to get in the car. He was having too much fun.

My thrown together cake, but it sure was good.

Blow out the candles

My two beautiful angels

Super excited about Lightning McQueen shirt.

Everett and Chris. My two Favorite Guys!!!

Everett wanted to go to school too. He wants to be such a big boy

Emma standing in line to go to class.

I love this little boy. So stinkin' cute

Me with bangs again

So school is going full force. I hardly have time to clean our home. Ahhh, it is driving me crazy. I don't have time to spend with Everett either. Chris is working and doing school full time. He is my hero. I got a new calling. I am the secretary in the primary. I love being with those kids. I felt that I was done teaching in Relief Society. I loved that calling, but I can sense when my time is done and something new is about to happen. I have been in for a couple of weeks and things are running smoothly, thank to being the Secretary in the Stake Primary back in Kansas. The presidency was amazed that I had things organized.
I am doing the HCG protocol again. I am enjoying it more this time around. It is easy because it involves no exercise, I started 6 days ago and have already lost 9 1/2 lbs. This time I decided to eat steak and tilapia and not just chicken, eggs and ground turkey. I made a yummy steak last night. I don't feel hungry until it is time to eat either. That is the magic of the HCG. I did torture myself last night by making banana chocolate chip pancakes last night with an ice cream sauce to go on top. I did cheat, but not big. just a little ice cream.
I love the smell of fall. I miss the changing of the leaves. I went to bath and body works the other day and they were having a fall festival and the 3 wick candles were 2 for $20 so I got 4 candles. Mmmm! I got  the "Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin", "Leaves" and a new one called "Nutmeg and Spice". They also gave me a small candle for free. It smells so good. It is called "Pumpkin Carving." I am in the mood to make pumpkin bread and pie and rolls and turkey and cider and hot chocolate. I love this time of year.

Emma is so awesome. She is doing really well in school. A while ago I taught her how to read and now she has just taken off. Every day after school she has homework to do and I am supposed to read a book to her while she follows along with her finger. Well, I have her read a book to me. She can read the "Biscuit" books. They have some pretty tough words that is stretching her mind. It is awesome. She loves her teacher and she has been getting a green dot everyday which means she is doing awesome. The teacher says she enjoys having her and that she try's really hard to do good. She has gotten the star student twice now. She is just awesome. She still thinks she is a bird and that she can fly. I wonder when she is going to grow out of that. She is easily entertained by playing with her hands. Her hands are her friend. On the way home yesterday she was having a full out conversation with her hands. It was quite funny and entertaining.

In a couple of days Everett is going to be 2! I just can't believe it. He is getting so big. He is talking a lot. He copy's Emma with everything she does. He is my little shadow and is such a mommas boy. He wakes up every morning at 5:45 and who does he want? Not daddy. He comes straight to me and asks for "Bunny," which is chocolate milk. We got the kids a TV to put in their room so I can do homework without any distractions, so I get his milk and put on blues clues and go back to bed. Or I am just awake to get some cleaning done or make breakfast or get ready for the day. I am trying to potty train him but no success yet. Everett told us that he had to go poop so I put him on the toilet and he just sat there with no results. He said he was done and got off. I stayed in the bathroom and he was just outside of the bathroom and started to pee right on the carpet. I jumped up real quick and said, "Ahh, not on the carpet, on the potty chair!" Oh well. Some day! Everett is obsessed with Lightning McQueen. I am going to make him a McQueen cake for his birthday. I think he will love it. He is such a little monkey. He responds when I call him "Monkey." He is silly. I love his energy. Well, not when I am trying to do homework.

Chris I a big boy now. He Has a Motorcycle finally. He has been looking on craig's list for a while for a sweet deal. He has found a few, but we never had the money for him to do it. But now he has one. It is going to be nice to have two vehicles again. All he has to do is take the riders course and he will be official. I am excited to go for a ride on it with him.

That's All Folks!

Changes all over the place.

Since Chris and I have been in Arizona. We have made some really great friends and have learned tons. A while ago I read a book called "The Anatomy of Peace" by the Arbinger Institute. Ever since then I have had a desire to do something similar to that of what I read. I told Chris about it and he has since read he book. So long story short, we are both going back to school to get our bachelors and eventually get a masters in Marriage and Family Counselling. I am really excited.

Another change is that we will not be in Yuma Arizona much longer. In March we are going to be moving again. We are going back to Kansas. cost of living is much cheaper than AZ and we already have a house there. I will miss the winters in AZ but not the summers. But actually the summers in Kansas are hard too. It is hot and sticky and you get eaten alive by mosquitos. In Yuma there are not many  mosquitos but there are huge red ants that are just as bad.

I am excited to be around my family again. I feel like it is time to move back and it can't come fast enough. I know that the months will just fly by. I am going to enjoy Yuma and my friends while I am still here and take advantage of every opportunity to enjoy it.

Another exciting thing that I am going to be doing is teaching private music lessons. Not the Clarinet though. I am going to be teaching beginning trumpet lessons. I have my brothers old trumpet and he is sending me a mouthpiece. It should be here today or tomorrow. I love teaching. I will also be going to Gila Ridge High School periodically and working with the clarinetists doing sectionals. I helped with their summer band camp and had a lot of fun doing that.

August 5th Chris and I celebrated 6 years of marriage. I can't believe it has been 6 years already. We had fun. We took the kids to see the 4th ice age. It was a lot of fun. Then we dropped the kids off at a friends and spend a couple of hours alone. It was fun.

I decided to do something new to my hair. This is the before picture.

 This is the after.

 I decided that Emma would look cute with bangs. I trimmed her hair and gave her bangs. She loves them. so do I. She has stopped complaining that her hair is getting in her face.

 I watched Emmas friend, Rachael Webb and decided that we should do some face painting. These were what they chose.

 I love trying new things on Emmas hair. She has beautiful hair.

 I know what you are thinking. "Whoa, that is a big drink for a little guy. It is filled with gatorade. He is sharing with daddy. I won't drink after him or Emma. I see what ends up in a drink after they have had it. Yuck!

 Emmas other teacher, Miss Sara

 Emmas Preschool teacher Mrs. Whitcomb

 Everett and Daddy at the park. It was a beautiful day and we rode our bikes there. It hasn't been beautiful in Arizona lately though. I am ready for winter time.

 We went to Glendale Arizona a while ago for my brothers graduation. My mom, dad and brother Michael also came.
Here is a picture of Papa and Matts son, Oakley. Oakley is showing off his gun that he built.

 Everett and Peyton weren't done taking a bath apparently. Monica came and got me to show me these two mischevious boys. I had to try to not laugh.

 my brother Matt is now a dentist. Way to go big bro.

 Papa, Oakley and Emma.

 Emma wanted an angry bird cake for her birthday.

Emma on her birthday party. She is now 5 years old. I can't believe it. She has progressed so much. she talks non stop about everything. She is reading books almost all by herself.

 Emmas first day of preschool

 After Emmas first day of Kindergarden. She wasn't this happy when I picked her up. she looked a little distressed. I asked her how her day was and she said that she was lost and that her teacher took her scissors and horse folder. I had to explain to her that the teacher was keeping them safe so she doesn't lose them.