hoping today for a miracle

Yesterday Aaron took our computer in to find out why it just stopped working. Found out it was the hard drive. Not a big deal we had been backing up all our stuff after the last time our computer crashed and we lost all of Emma's baby pictures. Or so we thought. Turns out the backup to an external hard drive (im pretending to know what im talking about... aaron tells me and I just repeat) didn't work because of damage to "something". this is the last picture we have that was saved



That is Noah just days old. Everything else is gone. Aaron is taking in the old hard drive to (cross your fingers) see if anything can be saved.

I feel sick.

emma

Sometimes I wish I could see the world through Emma's eyes. She lives in this crazy care-free world. Emma does things her own way and she doesn't care what anyone thinks. She can't go anywhere without a little lipstick (thank you Grandma Vi) and the world is always so much better with a little glitter. Emma is crazy and spontaneous. When she comes home the first thing she does is start making some kind of "art". She goes through more tape than anyone I know. As soon as I empty a box (like a pasta box, or cereal) she HAS to have it for some kind of project.

Last week we had parent-teacher conferences and Emma's teacher said "emma is...emma" while laughing. I knew exactly what she meant. And its a good thing.

One thing I really love about her is she calls Aaron her prince and has since she could first speak. He will always tell her she is his princess to which she will always reply "you are my prince" and then they will dance while he sings "so this is love". The other day she didn't want him to leave to go to work. Its like that everyday, but this particular day she was determined to make him stay. She had me put the chain on the front door to lock it (i guess the deadbolt wasn't enough to keep him in). Then she stood guard at the door with her pink foam baseball bat. If he came close she let him have it. He somehow finally made it to his car. But she was fast and opened the back door and climbed in. After pulling her out about a dozen times and trying to tie her to a chair in the house and Aaron getting karate chopped while he dragged her back in the house she finally let him leave as long as he kissed her good-bye and promised treats on his way home. He was only about an hour late. but worth it.

I love her.

I also hope her lisp never goes away.

Sometimes I wish I could melt into the walls

Jonas likes to get up really early. Early meaning anywhere between 5-6am. Its fun. Not really. Sometimes Aaron and I are just way too tired and Jonas will entertain himself with TV. Yesterday he decided to treat himself with some apple juice. I guess at one point it became more exciting to just dump that juice all over the floor. Every inch of the kitchen. All the way down the hallway. Ending with a big puddle right in front of the front door. I didn't come across this until it had sat for a little bit because when I went to wipe it up the towel just stuck to floor. It took a few moppings to get it all up and im still finding some sticky spots.

While trying to get the girls ready for school while trying to get sticky off the floor Jonas and Noah found some markers. All I could do was say "really?!?!" and move on with my day.

Next was take Abby and the boys to Abby's doctor appt to get her cast off. While there the "joys of boys" just got better. Jonas just couldn't sit still. Go figure. He would promise to be a good boy then take the doctors chair and get on it laying on his belly and fly it across the room like superman.

Oh wait, did I mention we were not in a private room like at the usual doctors office? This doctor just has a large room in the back called the "broken bone club". Along all the walls are beds and chairs and everyone just hangs out in this same room watching each other get casts taken off and put on. So we were among a few strangers.

I tried threatening, bribing, holding both crazy boys on my lap for make-shift "time-out's". They didn't care. Jonas then stood in the very center of the room, legs apart, arms up in the air, paused, then stuck one hand down the front of his pants, then did this very weird dance. I hurried to grab Noah from crawling under a chair and tried to grab Jonas. He saw me coming after him to put an end to his hand down the pants dance and took off running. I was holding a struggling to get down baby while chasing my very fast little boy apologizing to everyone as we ran down the hall all the way around to the front desk. Where he ran into the area where they keep all the files and hid. Very embarrassing!!

We finally were ready to leave and while at the desk again making an appointment for Abby and talking to a nurse about physical therapy Jonas found his way to the printer. taking everything off as it was printed and handing it to the other nurses in the office. Awesome. I had to take the papers. Apologize again for the billionth time. And ran out of the office as fast as we could.

It was the same craziness at lunch and after stopping a mandarin orange throwing fight between the boys it was time for naps. Even for a boy that doesn't take naps.

Not by best moment.

Roly-Poly invasion

We moved to our home here in Virginia mid July and finally decided to cut the grass. It was a major jungle out there in our tiny backyard. Since we left our mower at our house in Georgia (with the hopes that our tenants would keep up with the yard) we had to borrow one from a nice neighbor. Problem was it didn't have a bag and so we had to rake and pick up the piles and piles of months of uncut grass. While Aaron mowed the bugs ran for their lives. We did not realize just how many roly-poly's were living in that jungle. They came by the hundreds onto our concrete patio. Our kids went to collecting. They loved it since they really haven't ever seen many of them before. They tried to see how many they could collect. There were so many that you couldn't hardly step without stepping on one and once an area was cleared and all the the rolies put in a bowl more would come.



Jonas thought it was the coolest thing ever that they turned into a ball.



Noah was happy to point to the bugs until someone came to collect. He did NOT want to touch one.




The whole thing was gross.

Aaron then thought it would be funny to put some black sprinkles into Noah's bottle and tell the kids they were some of the roly poly's. It was pretty bad. Emma kept saying "but they have a family!" and turns out they didn't find it funny at all. Don't worry once the kids had their fun all the Roly Poly"s were set free.

fashionista

Emma loves to dress herself. Do her own hair. Add some makeup (if I let her... she usually sneeks it). And yes, I let her go to school like this. She fights anything that isnt a dress or skirt which just adds to the fun. This particular day was when she finally figured out how to do pig tails all by herself and she was really proud. I have been meaning to take more pictures of her before school just so we can remember all of her creative coordinating... hopefully i can be better at doing that because she can really come up with some great outfits (this one actually matched) I just hope her teachers know that emma is dressing herself and not me. I guess its only Kindergarten and she doesnt care.

halloween

Lately Jonas has been obsessed with Mario Bros. It was obvious that he had to be Luigi (his favorite) for Halloween. I tried to do a whole Mario Bros theme, but once the girls saw these "princess" dresses at the store they refused to wear anything else. At least the boys are young enough to not have a choice. I ended up sewing the boys' costumes the day before the ward trunk or treat which is why they are without white gloves... I just didn't have enough time. Jonas cried when I wiped off his mustache when it was time to get ready for bed. The morning after the ward trunk or treat he demanded to wear his costume (mustache and all) all day.
Halloween was cold and the kids really lasted all of maybe 20 houses and they were done. Maybe next year I can convince them a theme is cool.

Busy Busy Busy

This is Jonas.

He has a smile that makes me melt. Especially when he flashes that one dimple.

Last night after a very chaotic day he pulled me close and said that I was "the bestest mommy" and then he proceeded to try to wrestle me to the ground while screaming "mommy sandwich".

Those of you that know... this little boy is a lot of work. But he is always the first to remind me that what i am doing is important to someone. He loves me. He lets me know quite often.

Love this boy

(picture was taken at the zoo here. since living here we have been a few times and we love it. its so big that we can never see it all in one day. jonas said that his favorite thing at the zoo when asked was the unicorn....ummm I dont remember seeing that)

back to blogging... i know you missed me

We have moved to Virginia. We love it here. So much to do and see. The kids love our neighborhood. I love that I don't have to hover over them while they play like I had to at our home in Georgia. We have gone on more family bike rides than we ever have. Its great.

Since being here I have really only taken pictures with my phone and I haven't yet uploaded them. I could do it. I know its easy. I am really that lazy. Next time I will overload you with pictures of all our recent adventures. I promise.

Remember all the "fun" stories I have told about Jonas? Well Noah is doing his share of "fun" around here so look forward to the "the joys of boys" series. In fact right now he is climbing on the built in bookshelf knocking everything over and while writing this post I have pulled him off more times than I can count. Yay!

Anyway, sorry its not the update you were looking forward to. I am just letting you know that we are alive and doing fabulous. Right now we are looking forward to school to start. It wont happen until Sept 6th. They got out for the summer in Georgia in May. MAY! did you forget I said they do not go back until Sept. That is a long summer. 3 1/2 months. Don't you feel sorry for me? You should.

Well I promised chocolate chip cookies to Jonas like hours ago. I should probably go do that now. Plus chocolate anything sounds really good.

until next time....


p.s. sorry about the randomness.

thoughts for today

Today I realized that I haven't posted in a long time. What's up with that. It could be because I have been crazy busy with 4 kids and an even busier husband. We may have also took on more than we probably should have lately.

We are in the middle of soccer season with both Abby and Aaron. Abby has really improved this year. She has gotten a lot more aggressive which is great since she is still half the size of all the other girls. I have tried and tried to make it out to Aaron's games, but have only managed to make one and half so far. But he was pretty good from what I saw.

Abby is also still doing guitar once a week and she loves it and even showed off her new rock star abilities during a primary play a few weeks ago.

Emma is still dancing away every Wednesday with tap and ballet class and will be having her recital this May. (May 14th to be exact... grandparents... just sayin)

Jonas and Noah are becoming the best of buddies and just like predicted are beginning to plot against me. Jonas will help Noah get into things he knows she shouldn't. It's lots of fun. Noah is also always trying to wrestle Jonas and I am still trying to explain to Jonas why he cant sit on Noah like Noah sits on him. Ahhh Boys!!

Noah Is now 10 months. 10 MONTHS!! Seriously where does the time go. He just barely made it to 15% for weight and a whopping 30% for height (he is 18 lbs and I forget how tall). So he is more of an Abby than a Jonas for sure. I think he knows that and so he is already trying to show Jonas he isn't scared and tries to attack Jonas all the time. Also, big news for Noah he finally decided to on the night of his 10 month birthday to sleep through the night and has continued the trend for a week now (yea!!). This is a big deal for me and so I guess after a lot of prayer he just decided that sleeping sounded like a good idea. We put him to bed the same way and he just.... slept. It was AWESOME!! The best part was no crying involved. Noah doesn't have much interest in walking (the 3 others all were walking by 10 months), but im really okay with it. He has been such a good baby. Especially on Sunday's. I have to teach primary and with Aaron in the bishopric Noah always seems to get passed around the ward a lot. Usually he will NOT go to a stranger, but I think he just knows how it is on Sunday is just goes with it. So thanks to anyone who might have had to hold him for us. We really appreciate it!

We never really announced it, but since we got the actual acceptance letter in the mail not too long ago I think its safe to go ahead and let everyone know. Aaron was awarded a scholarship for Graduate school to to get his Masters degree. yea!! And because its a scholarship thingermajig his work is pretty much paying for him just just go to school for a year. So we will be moving to the Washington DC area mid July. We are so excited for this new adventure and cant wait!!

and since most of my pictures are now taken on my phone and I havent put them on the computer yet this one of some super cute brothers will have to do. I will post more later.... maybe in a few months

im in love

Jonas loves his tiny iron man action figure and yesterday just before bed time I showed him that he could fit perfectly in the pocket of his cargo pants (iron man not jonas). He was amazed and for an hour kept asking "where's iron man?" and then point to his pocket until someone peeked in and said "there he is!".
He thought it was so funny.
It was a good night.


This month has been a rough month.
I have found myself mean and grouchy.

I have dealt with sickness,
messy house,
laundry that reminds me of the two-headed monster that if you cut off a head two grow back in its place. except in my case it seems that at least 4 take the place of one...
and so on and so on

But tonight as I sit on the couch with everyone asleep. eating my own personal pint of ben & jerry's (yep, my husband loves me).
I cant help but remember that even though things are not going as I had once planned I am truly a lucky girl. I have a husband that loves me no matter how many melt downs in the last few weeks I have had or how many times he has come home to me still in my pajamas. I have four incredibly amazing children who can figure out just how to make me feel frustrated and pure joy all in a matter of moments. Dinner tonight was no exception. It started like every dinner... aaron and I trying desperately just to get them to take a bite... ONE bite. We sing "yo gabba gabba" songs, try to make it a game, threaten, time out, and try not to completely loose it. Then Jonas does something funny and we all cant help but laugh. Abby then somehow starts a starring contest and its HILARIOUS!
I cant help but look around the table and feel totally amazed at how great things really are no matter how hard the journey seems.

I am in love with life. my life. its amazing. and I wouldn't change any of it.

and here is another favorite moment of the month I thought I would share (just so it doesn't seem like it was such a horrible month after all)

we were fortunate at the beginning of the month to have some really nice weather and so we ventured out on a family bike ride. Emma made it maybe 10 minutes and then she just... stopped.





and our bike cart went from this





to this.


she makes me smile. they all make me smile. and these are the very small moments in my life that I cherish. and every time I go back and remember them I cant help but feel good. I have many many of these "little moments" and I need to remember them more instead of the not so awesome ones all the time.

the end.

This would be Noah.
Yep, still cute.

saying good-bye is super hard to do

Being a military family we have had to say good-bye to many friends, but this time was the hardest. The Davis family have been our friends (more like family) for a long time. We met when I was pregnant with Emma and she was pregnant with Lilli. Its going to be weird not having Shari just two doors down. I miss them so much already!!

Moses

On Monday Aaron had told the girls all through dinner that someone special was going to visit for Family Home Evening. They were so excited to have Moses come and teach us about the ten commandments!



paper beard and all!