!!!HAPPY 6th BIRTHDAY EMMA!!!

Emma is thoughtful, heartfelt, caring, sensitive, shy, tender, creative, imaginative, inventive, and the best first child anyone could hope for. She helps out with her sisters and because of her personality, I learn so much from her. She is exactly like me.

I am so thankful for my sweet Emma. I was remembering the night before her birthday how I was so unprepared for a quiz I had in school the next morning and whether my patient would show up. Those are the things people without kids worry about. Little did I know how wonderful it would be to be a mommy. Emma is my only child with whom I went into labor on my own. I was doing my best to try to induce labor day (walking to church in 105 degree heat, sitting through stake conference on hard metal folding chairs, walking home) and trying to just be comfortable between contractions. After dinner at my folks' house we went home and I was so bummed I had to go to school the next morning. I went to get into bed when I had a contraction that broke my water! I said, "Tim, I think something just happened?" and he jumped out of bed like he should do something, but we were both clueless. It was 10:30pm and I called the hospital to ask them if my water broke. They told me to come down for a check. I knew I didn't want to be turned away, and at 12:30am they admitted me, I was at 2 cm. I labored all night trying to be heroic without an epidural until about 6am when I got the epidural. I hadn't really progressed in my labor (only 3 cm) until 8am when my doctor came in and broke my water. Everything went into motion after that. Emma was born around 11:15 am on Monday, June 16, 2003. She was as sweet as they come, the nurses all loved styling her dark shoulder length hair and she was such an easy baby. She brings us so much joy every day and is a wonderful daughter. I love you so much Emma. Happy birthday

Brand new

about 4 weeks old

about 6 weeks old

1 year old

2 years old

3 years old

4 years old

5 years old

Amazing 6 year old Girl!!!

Breathe!!! Tim may be testing with his job he's working towards next month!!! I admit, when he told me, I saw a light. Not the proverbial "go towards the light" light, but "light at the end of the tunnel" light. Even if it doesn't change anything right now, it tells me it will. Can I get a ho-rah, ho-raaaaaaah! Yeah!

overdue update

Emma is out of school now and she is reading like a first grader! I am amazed at how much she has progressed in the last quarter of school. We made a cool sticker board for her and set a goal for her to read 100 books this summer. It is good because it gets me to the library with her and it is good for her because it fuels her "A-type" mode of her personality to check it off the list. I am so proud of her.

Audrey is doing front hand springs. One day she said, "Mom, watch my hand-stand." and proceeded to put her hands on the floor then flip over to her feet and say, "ta-da!" I was amazed. I used to do that, maybe one day again...

Kennedy is toddling all over. She is awesome at picking up something, taking it to another room, putting it down for something else, and continuing this until nearly the entire house is reorganized. If she can lift it, it has been relocated. I always wanted a personal organizer!

Tim is in school at Rio, plugging along, after much stinkin' ado trying to get sallie mae to fund our future, he has been able to maintain his classes without getting dropped, so hopefully full steam ahead. He has 2 classes left at rio then GCU online where we are hoping to get finished in 9-12 months. Hallelujia!!

I believe that May was the longest and most stressful month for me. I did a bit of growing up this month (yes even I can do that at 30, sad though that it is so needed). Soul searching is hard work, and rearranging priorities is even harder and then waiting for all of it to settle to see if it "feels" right is the icing on the cake of adversity. That is what life is about right? I am learning I can do hard things and after it's done I am grateful for the challenge. Until then, crying helps, kicking things usually doesn't and my kids make me laugh more than yell. That is good. I think.

On to Summer!

It's finished!

Yeah! the laundry is done. Tim did it. Thank you! Wahoo.  You have to get excited about little things (in this case a big thing), because Tim did it. Now to fold it.... ugh.