Happy Birthday Abby!!!

On The 28th Abby turned 4...Wow I still can't believe she is 4!! My baby is getting so BIG!!! We celebrated her birthday with a few good friends and cake and ice-cream. We decided to keep it simple this year with just having Jonas and everything. We got her a "big girl" bike and she loves to ride it fast and then quickly hit the brakes! Abby will be starting school for the first time in a few weeks. I don't know if I am really ready to have her go just yet. It makes me realize that she is growing up and I find my self looking at her baby pictures and wishing she could just stay little forever. Happy Birthday Abby!!!

My Name is Jonas...

For all who have been wondering (the question has been asked a number of times now), Jonas Robert Pilkington was not named after the totally awesome Weezer song from their self-titled debut album. I like Weezer, but not enough to pay homage to them with the name of our first-born son. However, because the song is so awesome it definitely got listed in my "pros" section of our pro/con list.
In reality, I wanted to give our kid a meaningful and unique name. I remember asking my Dad why he named me Aaron, to which he told me that shortly after his conversion to the church and having received the Aaronic Priesthood, he was in a priesthood meeting and saw this picture...
and learned of the ordination of Aaron (brief summary). I've always been very impressed with my Dad's reasons for naming my brother (Adam) and myself what he did and I always felt honored to have a legacy to live up to. For the reasons I have just given, some may wonder why I like Jonas of all the prophets. He was scared, he was chastened, etc, etc. I have my reasons. Robert is my Dad's name and my middle name. Abby and Emma's names were also chosen with great people and inspiring stories in mind.
Jonas is derived from Jonah. I just happen to like Jonas better than Jonah. If you feel the need to learn more about the name "Jonas," please do so...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonas_(name)
Apart from the Book of Jonah, Jesus speaks of the Sign of Jonas and the impact of Jonas' missionary work in Matthew 12:38-41 and Luke 11:29-32.
The fact that our kid has a theme song is a definite bonus.
Megan rarely has the urge to ever get pictures of me with the kids...or of me at all. When she does it is because I am sleeping or in some other random state that she believes will bring me some sort of embarrassment later on down the road. Thanks, Megan.

He's Here!!!

He is finally here! And we FINALLY decided on the name Jonas Robert (yeah I know Aaron won) He was born July 22 at 1:40am. He just missed Emma's birthday. He weighed 8lbs 13oz and was 20 inches long. He is a big boy!! He came fast too. I felt like it was time to go around 8pm. Aaron was planning on working that night so he was asleep. I thought I would let him sleep and just get things ready just in case. I had been feeling contractions for days now and they would usually stop after a few hours...so I didn't think it would really happen. But before it was even 9pm I was having some pretty strong contractions and decided to tell Aaron it was time to go. We quickly got the girls over to our neighbors (thanks again Shari!!) and we left for the hospital. I started having really bad contractions right away, but had to wait for blood work and such to get the epidural. Finally I got it around 10:30 11ish, but unfortunately it didn't work and by then it was too late anyway because he was coming!! Luckily I only had to push for about 5 min and he was here!! The girls really like to have him home now...ok maybe Abby more than Emma! Abby has been such a good little helper, but Emma isnt really interested just yet and she insists that his name is Mason. We are still trying to adjust to 3 kids. So far its a bit crazy, but hopefully we will get some sort of routine down. I think Jonas looks like Aaron. He looks a lot like Abby did. Right now we are just enjoying having Jonas here!!

Happy Birthday Emma!!!

Emma is 2!!! I still am having a hard time with how fast time goes by. Emma is getting so big. She is very funny too...everyday she is making us laugh!! She is really excited to be a big sister! We spent the day at home. Nothing too crazy. We figure that with Abby's birthday next Monday and the baby due any day now we will just have one big party later in the month or at the rate we are going..sometime in August. We did take her to the store to get present and pick out a cake. She ended up getting a scooter (just like her big sister of course). We are excited for what adventures lie ahead with our sweet Emma! I still am trying to get used to the idea that she wont be our baby anymore!! Happy Birthday Emma!!!

a few updates

Thursday Aaron graduated from ALS (airman leadership school). He has been in South Carolina for the last 5 1/2 weeks for this training so it was nice to finally have it over with and Aaron back home. The Graduation was very nice. He got the Distinguished Graduate award. We are very proud of him. Sadly, my sister left us on Friday to go back to Utah. We had flown her out to help while Aaron was gone. She has been such a blessing!!! The girls loved to have her here to play and I really loved the much needed help!! But she was excited to get back to go to girls camp...so we had to let her go. You can tell in the picture that Abby was very sad to have her go. She had asked Lauren that morning if she could go with her. Lauren told her she needed a ticket. Abby found some change in the house and thought that she would be able to go so it was really hard to explain that Utah is just too far away and I would miss her too much. So now we just wait for "baby brother" to come(still no name for him)!! Thanks so much Lauren for all your help and we really miss you already!!!!

EdVenture Childrens Museum

We went yesterday to the EdVenture Museum in Columbia. They had a family night and since Aaron wasn't too far away he met us there once he was done with his classes. There was soooo much to do and the girls really loved it...since it was a family night (which means only $1.00 to get it) it was a little crazy with people, but overall a lot of fun. They got to go grocery shopping and drive a firetruck and lots lots more!!!

Fireworks..Fireworks...Fireworks!!!

These last few days have been a lot of fun. Aaron was able to come home a day early for the 4th of July weekend and we went Thursday night to see the fireworks on base. The girls really enjoyed them. Emma was a little scared at first, but Abby loved them and would tell us which one was her favorite (there were a lot of favorites). Then Friday morning we went to the ward breakfast. We went and saw Wall-E and then did a few fireworks at home. HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!!