Happy Halloween!!!

Wow, this year is flying right by. It's sort of like I blinked and all of the sudden it was the holidays, crazy.
Chels picked out a costume at a second hand store clear back in August and I told her that if I bought it for her she had to be that for Halloween. I never thought she would really make it the months until Halloween but she did. She was so excited to be a butterfly! Jake wanted Little D to be a fisherman so we kind of used the money we saved with Chels' second hand costume to buy Little D a fisherman costume. Then he got sick. He had a sour tummy for about 10 days and was really dehydrated and loosing weight so we just put him in his costume for Grandma's houses and he'll probably wear it again next year.
Our cute fisherman. He would not keep the hat on or hold the fishing pole. We'll try again when he's 2!

Chels as a beautiful butterfly.

Jake took the kids to a pumpkin patch while I was working one day so we didn't get any pictures of that. But, I did break out the camera for the carving. Once again Jacob out did us all and turned out something professional looking. Chels drew a face on a pumpkin and I carved it for her. My pumpkin was a flower but I didn't even take a picture of it...it was bad!

Little D with his green pumpkin. Actually I think it was a squash.

Doing the cleaning. Chels tried hard but she was so slow that we ended up finishing it for her.

Pink Poodle in Paris Party!

Chels turned 5 on Sept. 17...I can't believe it! I know everyone says that when their child turns a year older but 5 seems like such a big girl! Whenever anyone asks me how old she is (I had someone ask me if she's 3 on Tuesday, haha) and I say 5 they always ask me "Why isn't she in Kindergarten?" since I usually get asked this when we're out and about in the middle of the day. Well she's not in kindergarten because here in Idaho the cutoff date is Aug. 31 and her birthday is Sept. 17. So next year she'll be an old kindergartener, but someone has to be the old kid in the class right? So we are just enjoying our time together right now. I try to do something fun with her on my days off and she has been doing kindergarten workbooks I bought so she will be all ready when the school year rolls around again. I just can't believe I have to send her off into the big world that soon, it makes me very sad. I'd rather just keep her with me!
Anyways, for her Pink Poodle in Paris Party (she picked the theme herself) we went swimming with all the cousins and then had pizza and cake at Grandma Evans' house. It was lots of fun and she already can't wait her 6th birthday party.
This picture is unrelated but I still threw it in there. She hates these things and doesn't let me put them in very often.

This was my little 5 year old on her actual birthday. She got a Zooble that morning before we headed out and she loves that little thing. I have to admit, it is pretty cute.

In her dress that Grandma Davies got her on the day of her party.

Opening presents after swimming. She got lots of fun toys. This is the supermarket that her friend Annika from CA had. She has wanted it forever!

Blowing out candles. I have better pictures of the cake and some of swimming on my mom's camera. I'll have to get them and make another post. I tried really hard with the cake but the poodle and the Eifel Tower were falling off. Oops!

FUN to be ONE!

Is there anything sweeter then a first birthday? Probably lots of things, but Little D's first birthday yesterday was pretty sweet. We were going to have his party at the playground behind our house but we had to switch it to my mom's house at the last minute because of inclement weather. All of his cousins on my side were there and Jake's parents also came. My brother's and Dad couldn't get away from the grain harvest that early in the evening so they weren't able to make it, but it's OK and totally understandable. We had cake and opened presents. Pretty low key but it was still fun. The perfect way to spend his first birthday. I'm just going to say, like all parents usually do, that I can't believe a year has gone by since he was born. It just doesn't seem like he's been around for that long. I'm so glad we have our little Buddy in our lives. He's so sweet and cuddly. He is a total mama's boy and I love it. He has put us through some tough days during this first year but I wouldn't trade him, or the time we've had, for anything. We love him SO much!!!
We got him a balloon bouquet but he wasn't too sure about that. As soon as we took it apart and gave him the football balloon he was happy. The whole bouquet was just too scary!

Can you tell what his theme was? Jake was beaming with pride. His future quarterback.

Buddy got tons of awesome present from everyone. Thanks for all of those who came, it was so fun.

He couldn't decide what to play with first!

And of course, eating his cake. I can't say this is the first time he had cake but it's the first time we just gave him a piece and let him go at it. He loved it!!!

It was weird to see him dig in and enjoy it. Chels wanted nothing to do with her cake on her first birthday, it was too messy for her. But little D loved it.

Such a cute picture I caught. This is the car Grandma Evans got him. He has already gotten on and off it probably 100 times. Jake and his dad put it together and gave him his first ride.

Easter 2010

Chels had had it by the end of the day, so she was throwing a fit about something. I was able to get a sort of smile out of her.

She loved her Easter dress, and so did I! It all came together so perfectly. Thanks to Grandma Davies for getting the yellow shoes to complete the outfit!

Little D playing in the saucer, he loves that thing.

The kids watching the babies do their egg hunt. They were trying to be so patient.

Dying eggs the night before after we went swimming for Luke's birthday. That was a lot of fun.

Sorry for the lack of posts, or any internet activity at all (facebook, emails, blog comments). We have not subscribed to the internet yet in our new place, and I don't know if we will. I need to take some pics of our apartment and post them though. We quite like it. It's 3 bedrooms and we have all new carpets and flooring. It's small, but it's enough for us. I am currently "borrowing" ineternet from someone in our neighborhood. It's a weak connection that's never been available before so I'm trying to hurry because I suspect that it will disappear at any moment! So anyways, here's some pics from Easter.

2010

Ok, so we're already 9 days into January and I've never made a Christmas post, oops. Time seems to sneek right by me these days. Christmas was wonderful. It was so fun to see all our family during the Holidays and be able to attend all the Christmas parties instead of just having to hear about them over the phone. I was a very naughty Mama this year and I didn't take as many pictures as I should have. I didn't even get a picture of Chels in her Christmas dress, ugh!

Christmas morning. Chels crawled into bed with me and I told her we should go upstairs to see if Santa had come and she told me, "no it's not Christmas yet". I don't know what age the real excitement will finally begin!

Marriner with my dad. He just liked crinkling the wrapping paper.

Opening presents.

Jake and I both got books.

And the best gift of all came from my mom. She got Jake a new freezer mug after his broke a couple year ago.

Halloween 2009 & 2 month shots

Little Marriner went to his 2 month check up yesterday. And let's just say...it didn't go well! True to our little man's form, he was MAD! From the moment I layed him on the table to take off his clothes he cried and cried. And not that cute little newborn cry, he screamed! The nurse and the Dr. didn't know quite what to think of him. All they said were things like "colicky babies are hard" and "his face gets really red when he cries" or my favorite "he has quite a temper" haha, that's my guy! He weighed 10 lbs and 11 oz so that put him in the 25th percentile for weight. He was in between the 25 and 50th percentile for height at 22 1/2 inches and his head was in the 50th percentile (big surprise, my kids have big heads!). Then it came time for shots, watch out!!! He was sooo mad. And I felt like an awful mother because I had to rush off to work right afterwards so I left him with my mom. Chels always took her shots like a champ. She would cry during the actual pokes but by the time we would leave the Dr.'s office she was usually sleeping soundly in her carseat. Not Marriner! He has let us know that he did not like his shots ever since yesterday. He is especially fussy. Last night he woke up every 2 hours. He won't sleep or eat today. Poor little guy. I'm hoping he feels better by tomorrow! Even though he can try our patience like no other, we still love him to pieces. He finally is giving us smiles, and somehow in those seconds, it makes all the stress and crying spells worth it!

Now for Halloween. Chels was a puppy of course. Her Grandma Davies made her costume and it was so cute. She even had 3 different pairs of ears she could snap onto the hood. Marriner was nothing really. We had lots of cute ideas (Jake wanted him to be a member of the Lollipop guild from Wizard of Oz) but none of them came to pass. He did get a little Frenchman's mustache drawn on him while we were painting Chels' face though.

Bonjour!!!

Our baby boy and baby puppy.
I've been waiting for so long to actually live in Idaho and be able to celebrate holidays with our family! This is my niece Kaymn, aka the cutest little ghost ever!

Chels and Kodie playing marbleworks. My mom had a pizza party after everyone's Trunk-or-Treats so we could all see the costumes.

My sister-in-law showed all us mom's up and dressed up. This is her little girl Abby.

Chels with my brother Gary's kids. Emalee, Jake, Landon, and Megan.

Chelsea's 4th Birthday!

Chels turned 4 yesterday. We had been telling her that her birthday was coming for so long that I think she stopped believing us. But yesterday morning when she came into my bedroom the first thing she said was "Is it my birthday today?" I told her yes and she got a huge smile on her face. She's been telling me all day today that she is 4 now. We didn't do anything big for her special day but I hope she still had fun. We are planning to do a birthday party for her when we get to Idaho in 3 weeks. Then we can invite her cousins and fun will be had by all!

To start off her birthday we took her to get her immunizations. I know we are mean, cruel parents. These are the shots she will need to start school so we decided to just get them done as soon as possible and while we still have health insurance. I figured her birthday was a good day to take her because then I could bring her home and we could give her the presents and she'd forget all about the shots, and my plan worked! I think she was actually proud of her war wounds by the end of the day. Getting her into the clinic was a joke though. She watched some cartoon a few weeks ago where they talked about getting shots and so she was scared to death. I had to literally carry her kicking and screaming into the building. I also had to hold her down for all 4 shots. She is one strong little 4 year old! It definitely gave me a work out. I felt bad for inflicting this sort of fear and pain on my little girl but I know it's for her own good.

Chels showing off her band-aids.

Opening her presents. She had wished for a blue puppy, this is what I found. It's a baby toy but oh well!
Her Grandma Davies sent her tons of fun stuff to draw with and color with and paint with, hours of fun!

She also got a doggy purse which she has been carrying around ever since she opened it.

This is the kind of ugly cake that results from taking your child to the store and letting her pick out her own cake. She woke up on her birthday telling me she had a birthday dream and in this dream she had a balloon cake. Well guess what happened to be at Foodco, a balloon cake! She was so happy!!!

She also HAD to have the "Happy Birthday" candles.

Then she tasted the cake and wasn't so happy anymore. She hated it, haha, oh well. I think she was expecting that uber sugary frosting that comes from store bought cakes. This frosting was actually just cool whip, which was fine with me! I hate that store bought frosting!

After cake and presents and all the celebrating. Doesn't Marriner looked thrilled, haha. My lips are stained from that frosting.

At the end of the day I think she enjoyed herself, I hope she did. We let her make all the decisions for our little party and for most of the day. We went and ate lunch with Papa at his work, which is one of her most favorite things to do. We went to the playground in the afternoon and Jake took her to get an Icee after he got off work. We also let her eat way too many sweets. But that's what birthdays are for, right?!?!

Anniversary Gifts

Why do couples always buy presents for each other even when you've both decided not to buy presents? It's one of those mysteries of the universe. I decided to get Jake something small and insignificant, but something that would let him know I at least thought of him during the day. I had a hard time coming up with something so I went to the old standby of making him a candy poster. So after standing in the candy aisle for forever and (I'm sure) making the cashier giggle to herself because this fat pregnant lady was buying a basket full of candy, this is what I came up with (you can click on the pic to make it bigger if you want to read what it says).

(We really do sing "Total Eclipse of the Heart" to each other, haha)

Well after I had made the poster and I was all giddy and waiting for Jake to get home I got a delivery. Such a cute little bouquet! I have been hinting to no end about an Edible Arrangement while I'm in the hospital after we have the baby so he said he tried to get me one of those but they don't deliver here, stupid company. But I was glad after he showed me the website, those things are so expensive! I couldn't believe it, it's just fruit!!! So the flowers will do just fine, I love them and I'm already trying to think of something to do with the vase after the flowers are gone, it's such a cool vase!

5 years and counting!

It seems like everyone's anniversary is in August! Well today it is our turn. We were married on Friday the 13th in 2004, it has been 5 crazy years! Here's what we were doing on, or around our anniversary for the last 5 years.

August 13, 2004. We were married in the Idaho Falls Temple. It was a hot and loooong day. But it was amazing. Exactly one week later we moved to Germany.

August 13, 2005. We went to Paris for our 1 year anniversary. I was ENORMOUSLY pregnant with Chelsea but it was still a trip we will never forget. It was so awesome to see the sites of the most romantic city in the world! This picture is in front of Notre Dom. One short month later we were parents!

August 2006. Jacob had recently returned from Afghanistan and it felt like we were newlyweds again. We were just so infatuated with each other! We went to the Bavarian Alps for 5 days and had a wonderful time. This will always be remembered as our favorite vacation spot. We had so much fun!!! I hope we can go back someday. We also went to Amsterdam around August 2006 but I couldn't find any pictures at the moment. This picture is in front of the lodge we stayed at in the Alps. Nevermind my hair, I had a bad run-in with a German hairstylist...

August 2007. We were in Idaho for our anniversary this year which was great! We had a free babysitter!!! If I remember correctly we went to dinner somewhere. Jacob bought me a beautiful 3 stone diamond neclace that year because he had always promised that he would on our 3rd anniversary. Isn't he sweet?

August 2008. We were home in CA for our anniversary last year. I was getting ready to leave for Idaho in a couple days and I had a scary Dr.'s appointment on the 15th so everything was a bit crazy. But everything turned out OK and I left for Idaho on the 17th...or the 19th...I don't really remember.

This year we are in CA again. We had an OB appointment today and then went to lunch. It was fun. We are planning a real date tomorrow night. Call me crazy but I didn't feel like taking any vacations this year to celebrate.

All in all it has been a whirlwind of a ride so far. I wouldn't trade our first 5 years for ANYTHING. It has been so great to live in a couple different places and to look back and realize how strong our marriage and relationship have become. I am so blessed in my life, I don't know what I ever did to deserve all this, but I am very grateful. Who knows what the next 5 years will bring, but I'm ready for it and I know I can handle anything that comes our way as long as I still have the best husband in the world!