Fun Pictures

The other morning the kids were being so cute and lovey with each other that I just had to get some pictures. I know it looks like they're wrestling around and tackling one another, but they're actually giving loves. I love these pictures because they both just look so happy. They seriously took turns giving each other hugs for like half an hour. Love those moments!

And I saved the best for last. Jared's not real proud of this picture, but I couldn't resist. Urban loves to play dress up. After all, he does have an older sister who is ALL GIRL. That's what he sees her do, so he thinks he should do the same. Well, the other day he came walking out of his room wearing this skirt. Then he put on a pair of my heels. Now he always wears my shoes (he's got a bit of a shoe fetish) but this is the first time he's ever put on a skirt. I know it's WRONG, but he looks so adorable. Look at that smirk on his face, he is so proud of himself. It cracks me up, hee hee. Sadly enough, he is actually pretty good at walking in high heels that are way too big for him. Do I have some great blackmail for when he's older or what?

I love my little man! Even if he is a bit girly at times. =)

I want my mommy!

So I don't want to make my mom feel bad because I know she would be here ASAP if it were possible. Quite honestly I'm not even sure there's much she could do, there are just those times when you want your mom. I get to talk to her often on the phone, but it's just not the same. I'm in a very whiny mood, so I will not be at all offended if you don't want to continue reading. This post is purely for me to be a big baby!

I have been feeling so very sick the last couple of weeks and I am just plain "sick" of it. I feel so bad that I'm not being the wife/mom/housekeeper/cook/etc. I should be because I feel so lousy all the time. Jared is so amazing. He's doing such a good job taking care of me and never complains when things don't get done. Whenever he's home he does things around the house, helps with the kids and meals and is on poop patrol (changes Urban's diapers, helps Addison in the bathroom and cleans up after the dog outside). He even goes to the grocery store for me most of the time because I am so sensitive to smells (good & bad) and boy are there a lot of smells out there in the world! He really is such a big help, I'm so grateful for him.

My sister, Heather, is doing a great job too. She calls me everyday to check on me and see how I'm doing. She asks if I need anything and makes sure I'm okay during the day when Jared isn't home. She always offers to take the kids so I can get some rest. She is a very sweet and helpful big sister.

Even Addison and Urban are doing their part to comfort me. I love those kids so much (goodness, I'm getting teary eyed just thinking about their sweet acts of kindness). Almost every time I run to the bathroom to throw up they run in right behind me. Addison stands to the side of me rubbing my back and stroking my hair saying "I love you so much mom, I'm so sorry this is happening to you". Urban just leans on my back giving me a hug from behind and says "I uh you". Occasionally he'll get right in my face and ask me why I'm doing that, which just makes me giggle in an otherwise awful situation. They are so protective and concerned about what's going on, it's so cute. It's just another reminder as to why I'm doing this again. Oh, in case you haven't gotten it yet, YES, I'M PREGNANT! Although I feel like crap most of the time and it's sometimes hard to think about anything other than trying not to throw up, it is so worth it. (I have to keep reminding myself)

Every time Jared comes home and they run up to him and jump into his arms to give him hugs and kisses I feel better for a brief moment. Every time I see the two of them sitting on the couch hugging each other I feel better and can't wait to add another one to that hug. Every time they hug me and tell me they love me and rub my back, I feel a little bit better.

So even though I wish I didn't get so sick, and I know it's possible to have healthy pregnancies & babies without getting sick...I've heard of lots of women, I guess this is just one of my trials. Perhaps it gives me a greater appreciation for my health, for my husband, for my kids, for my mom & sister...who knows!

Anyway, enough with the pity party. I had my first doctor's appointment yesterday and everything looks great. I am about 9 weeks along which will give me a due date around November 26th. I got to see some pictures and the little bug is cute as can be. I know, only a mother... We are all very excited and can't wait for this new addition to join our family.

Happy Easter!

We hope all of our family and friends had a wonderful Easter Holiday. We are so grateful for the true meaning of this day and all that it represents. I am so humbled to know that Jesus died for me and that He lives today.

I tried to explain the resurrection to Addison, which is not an easy task for a 3 year old. First she asked me when SHE died and came back to life. Then she told me that she knows Jesus lives because she sees Him every Sunday in church. How sweet she is! It's kind of funny though because every week in church she points and asks me why Jesus is sleeping. She's always referring to a man up on the stand who closes his eyes for a bit, but it always happens to be a different man.


Today was a BEAUTIFUL day! I'm so glad the weather was so nice. We did our Easter baskets together as a family this morning then later on we headed over to Heather's house for an egg hunt and dinner. It was so much fun. The kids had a blast. They are all so cute together.

On a side note: I made Addison's Easter dress and decided that I've given the seamstress thing a fair shot but I am done with it. It's just not for me and that's okay! Close up it is a mess, but from far away it actually looks pretty cute. Also, I must admit that at first I was not too excited about Urbi's Easter outfit. My mother-in-law bought it for him a couple of months ago and it just looked like a total pimp suit to me. Well, of course he looked absolutely adorable in it. How could he not? This is Urban we're talking about after all! He was pimpin', but in a super cute way. Sorry Dianna, but I didn't get a picture of the full outfit before he got brownie on it or fell and got it all messed up. But I will wash it and put him back in it to get some pics so you can get the full effect. =)

We love you all and miss you lots!

"Because I love you"

I'm not real sure how kids learn to be so sly, but man do they perfect it at a young age. Lately when Addison does something she should not have and we ask her why she did it, she comes up with a very clever response. Apparently she does bad things because she loves me. I suppose I should feel honored that she would risk getting into trouble on a regular basis to prove her love for me but instead I am a bit suspicious of her TRUE motives!
Here are a few examples:

Me: "Addison, why did you hit your brother?"
Addison: (with tears in her eye) "Because I love you."

Me: "Addison Rose, why would you take that toy away from your brother? He just wants to play with you!"
Addison: (chin quivering) "Because I love you."

There are many more scenarios, but you get the picture. So after trying to get her to understand that her defense doesn't make much sense, she really gets the water works going (she is good at fake crying) and looks up at me so pathetically and says "but mom, I really just love you so much." Where does she get this stuff from? My response usually depends on the severity of what she did and/or the mood I'm in. If It's not too bad I'm usually just trying not to laugh at her miserable attempt at self pity and give her a hug and tell her I just love her so much too (even though I know her declaration of love was somewhat insincere at that point). Otherwise I try to explain to her that I know she loves me, but the best way to show it is by being obedient and treating her brother nicely.

Oh that girl, what am I going to do with her? She drives me crazy sometimes, but I JUST LOVE HER SO MUCH! =)

A picture is worth 1,000 words

and these pictures just break my heart, especially the first two. This pretty much sums up our last two weeks and explains why I've been M.I.A. in the blogging world. We have all been so sick. Luckily we're all finally starting to feel better.

It all started with a trip to Las Vegas. We were going for a friend's baby shower and to see my brother so we could give him a bunch of baby stuff because he and his wife (congrats on the wedding by the way!) are expecting a little guy the end of this month. Going through so many of Urban's cute baby things sure gave me the baby blues. But then getting sick for 2 weeks reminded me how much I hate that feeling and am not sure whether or not I'm ready to do it for months on end again. Anyway, back to the point. Jared had been sick before we left but felt like he was getting better. While we were gone he started feeling pretty bad again and I started feeling sick too. Then of course Urban started getting a cough and it was all over from there. If Urban comes within a 50 mile radius of someone who barely sneezes you can bet that he's going to get sick. He always gets the most sick out of everyone in the family and it always hangs around the longest. Addison on the other hand has an amazing immune system, I love it! That girl very rarely gets sick and it's usually not very bad. She didn't get sick until the rest of us had already had it for about a week or so and hers only lasted about 2 days. We ended up taking Urban to a quick care because he wouldn't eat or drink anything for about 3 days and what little he did eat he would just throw up. He had a cough, fever, upset tummy, runny nose, swollen eyes, all he would do is fuss and sleep. He had an ear infection so the doctor gave us an antibiotic for that but the antibiotic totally upset his stomach which then resulted in a horrible diaper rash. Luckily he's pretty much all better, just has a little cough hanging on. I'm so glad he's feeling better, it's so hard to see him sick.


Doesn't he just look so miserable? It makes me so sad, my poor little man. It was after seeing him like this that we finally decided to take him to a doctor. I hate going to the doctor and being told "it's just a cold" or something, it makes me feel like a hypo. It takes a lot for me to actually go, but I just couldn't watch him suffer any more.


Oh yeah, while we were in Vegas we had to take Addison to the ER. This is her lying in a hospital bed. She stuck a little plastic doll shoe up her nose and we could not get it out. We must have tried for about an hour and a half to get it out (as I mentioned before, I hate going to the doctor) but she shoved it up there pretty good. We tried to get her to blow it out, we tried making her sneeze, we tickled her to make her laugh hoping it would shoot out, we had tweezers...nothing worked. She ended up falling asleep while we were in the waiting room (it was close to midnight) and Jared and I sat there the entire 2 1/2 hours sticking tweezers up her nose hoping we could save ourselves a hospital bill, but nope, no such luck. Her nose was bleeding like crazy so we figured we should probably stop and let the professionals handle it. When we got back to the room they told us that they see a lot of kids with stuff stuck in their noses. Even though it was a simple procedure it was very hard for a parent to watch. They swaddled her in a blanket so she didn't have use of her arms and one nurse held her body still while another nurse held her head still. Then the doctor stuck a tube in her nose past the obstruction then inflated it and pulled it out. She started screaming saying "mommy please help, make them stop, I want my mommy!" I've never heard her sound like that before, it was heart wrenching. My eyes immediately filled with tears, I felt so helpless, just as the first tear started to fall down my cheek the doctor turned and showed me the shoe and said "all done". I'm so glad it only took a few seconds. We're hoping she's learned her lesson. She's never stuck anything in her nose, other than her finger of course, and we're hoping that she never does again.

There was one day when Urban literally could not keep his eyes open for even a few minutes at a time. He fell asleep in the middle of getting his diaper changed, on the couch, on our laps, on the floor, wherever he happened to be.

We spent the majority of our time lounging on the couch or in bed. I love his little man boobies. hee hee!

So it definitely wasn't the best couple of weeks we've ever had, but we did get to see both of the grandmas and grandpas and Uncle Nick & Aunt Melanie while we were in Vegas so Addison was in heaven. She keeps asking when we can go back to the hotel to see her grandmas and grandpas. I do feel bad though because not only did I not get any pictures of any of these wonderful people but we also managed to get every single one of them sick. Just a little something to remember us by, so sorry about that! The only good thing that came from this sickness is that it jump started our diet, although I definitely don't recommend this method. Jared lost about 10 pounds and I lost about 5 (why do men always lose it faster?). Now if we can only keep it off once we actually start eating food again. =)

Santa Mormon

Last night we were reading out of the Book of Mormon Reader with the kids before bed. For those of you who don't know, this is a children's version of the Book of Mormon with pictures and stuff. We read a couple of chapters then told the kids it was time for bed. Addison said that she wasn't ready for bed yet and wanted to read another chapter. So I told her that we would read one more chapter and then she had to go to bed. She pointed at the picture on the next page and said "yeah, I want to read about Santa Mormon". It was actually a picture of Lehi, but he has a long white beard so what else is a 3 year old to think? I guess whatever works for now is good. I'm just glad she's interested in reading the scriptures. We'll keep working on the real reason.

Skate-A-Rama

Last week I took Addison skating for the first time with our good friend Lauren and her two daughters Zoey & Sidney. Addison was so excited to go but once she got on the floor and started wobbling around on her skates she was a little unsure of things. She was having a lot of fun at first and we got almost completely around the rink before she fell for the first time. It was pretty much over after that. She fell HARD on her poor little bum (she still has bruises). She got really upset and started crying and said that she didn't want to skate any more. So we took a little break and sat down for awhile until she was ready to try again. For the rest of the night she was kind of hot and cold. She would have fun skating until she fell and then she would say she was done for a little while. Unfortunately she's too much like her mother for her own good. She's usually a little leery of trying new things and if she's not perfect at it right off the bat then she doesn't want anything to do with it.

It was a really neat skating rink though. Pretty much anything with wheels was allowed on the floor. There were skaters, roller bladers, razor scooters, wheel chairs & strollers. Addison pushed Sidney around in her stroller for a little while and actually really enjoyed that because she had something to hold onto to help her balance.

I didn't get any pictures of Addison while she was skating because I was too busy trying to keep her upright so she wouldn't freak out. I made sure though that the pictures I got of her on the carousel (which was probably her favorite part anyway) had the skating rink in the background to prove that we really were at a skating rink! =)


Addison & Zoey

Lauren & Sidney (Aren't her girls adorable? They are such a fun family!)