The Martin's

Life these days

2012-01-26T23:55:00.000-08:00

Jeremiah is now working in North Dakota in the oil fields. He has been out for 3 months now and I HATE it! I love the money and that we are getting our bills paid off. We are still living paycheck to paycheck, but at least now all of our bills are getting paid every month and we have money to budget some fun stuff also. I hate that he is gone for 4 weeks at a time. It is sooooo hard! It is really hard for Wren also. She asked me one night why daddy no love her! It was super sad! It gets so lonely without him here and some days I feel like I am slowly going crazy for lack of adult interaction and just touching. And nothing dirty by the way, just holding hands, having him hug me and just knowing that he is there. Night times are especially bad, especially when I hear random noises and then can't sleep at night. When he is not here, I don't sleep well and have to take naps most days. The week that he gets to come home is bittersweet. I am always counting down to when he is going to be home but when he gets here, I feel like the silent countdown of when he leaves again starts and I start to feel more and more anxiety as the time goes on.

We have decided that as soon as our credit cards are all paid off that we will all be moving out to ND to be with Jeremiah. It is just not natural to be separated like this.

7 Months old

2012-01-26T23:46:00.000-08:00

Memphis Miles Martin

This boy is my joy! He is such a good baby. He doesn't cry unless he is tired or hungry. He has slept through the night for most of his life and is just so laid back and easy going.

Memphis Fun Facts:
he loves bath time and splashing!
he LOVES Wren, he just stares at her until she talks to him and then just smiles so big! I love it!
he is soooo tolerant of Wren and her "loving" of him. She is so rough with him and he just laughs!
he LOVES mommy also, he will follow me with his eyes everywhere I go.
The boy REFUSES to roll over. he doesn't care if I put him on his tummy. He will just lay there and go to sleep or play with a toy. he does know HOW to do it, he just refuses to actually follow through.
he is my pill bug. He will roll his legs up into his chest and roll from side to side when I lay him on his back.
he has the sweetest giggle and the girliest little scream when he is "talking" Mommy likes it, probably not many others though!
he is starting to like toys and has a couple that are favorites.

My big girl!

2012-01-26T23:38:00.000-08:00

WREN IS POTTY TRAINED!!!

It only took about 3 days total! One day for pee, 2 days for poop and just one more day to be sure she knew what she was doing! She has only had 4 accidents total and we started last week, Monday the 16th. I am so amazed by this girl. She is such a fast learner and so independent. She now will go without even telling me that she is going (which is pretty gross when she goes poop!) and I never have to remind her or even ask her if she needs to go.

The only thing that makes me sad is that I feel like I am losing the last bit of "baby" that she was. I know that she will always be my baby, but now she is my big girl also.

Other fun Wren facts:
She still loves bath time, especially since she has princesses that bathe with her.
She loves all things disney princess
Her favorite disney princess is Ariel
She LOVES her baby brother and calls him Mr. Dude, just like mommy.
She loves Isabella and calls her "best friend"
I think she has a bit of a crush on Ethan and is always sad when he will not let her play with him.
She is still a good sleeper, she goes to bed at 8 (most nights) and wakes up between 10 and 11 in the morning.

I love my Wren Wren and feel so blessed to be her mom. I thank Heavenly Father every day for the opportunity to be in her life.

Wow!

2011-11-01T23:19:00.000-07:00

I know it has been forever since I have updated this blog. That usually just means that I am happy and don't have anything to complain about! :) Life has been super busy and having two kids is crazy! I don't know how my mom did it with SEVEN!

MEMPHIS:
Memphis is a fantastic baby. He is so mellow and easygoing. He endures all of the love that Wren gives to him. He loves to smile and laughs at everybody. He likes it when I "throw" him up in the air, that will almost always get a smile/laugh out of him. He has not yet rolled over. He just doesn't care!!! He is just as happy being laid on his tummy as he is on his back. He usually just falls asleep. Crazy kid! :) I lost my milk with him as well, at about the same time as I did with Wren. Happily he is doing well on formula and getting so big. I think he has more rolls on him than Wren ever has and I would say he is still on the small end. We are loving him a LOT and are very thankful that he is such a good natured kiddo! Memphis went trunk or treating as a monkey this year. We borrowed the costume from Aunt Valerie!

WREN:
Wren is getting so big and talks non-stop. It's usually really cute. She also loves to sing and sings to Memphis a lot of the time. She loves ANYTHING Disney Princess or Tinkerbell. She still loves bath time and likes it when I put Memphis in the bath with her so she can "help". She has started to say that she is "scary" which means that she is scared. She is to the point that she wants to do everything by her self. She always tells me "MY TURN". On one hand, it's so nice... on the other hand, she gets frustrated when she can't do it but she doesn't want help even when she can't do it. Sometimes there is a lot of yelling on both sides for that reason! Wren LOVES waffles for breakfast. Sometimes we have frozen waffles and sometimes we have microwaved eggs that I put peanut butter and syrup on and she calls both of them waffles! She's so funny! She likes to tell you what all kinds of animals say. She will also tell you that Elmo says "lalalala, Elmo's World" and that Papa (Mike) says "kisses". I'm trying to teach her that mommy says "NO,NO!" but she hasn't caught on to that one yet! The other day I asked her if she was a starvin marvin and she said "No, I'm starving Wren!" She's way to smart for her own good! Wren went trunk or treating as a ladybug this year. I made her tutu and borrowed a ladybug print jacket from my mom.

I have put Memphis and Wren in the same room and they are doing so good together. Wren doesn't even wake up anymore when I go in to feed him before I go to bed at night (usually between 2 and 4 a.m.) and they sleep until between 9:30 and 11 a.m. so I would say that is pretty darn good! Wren has not yet tried to crawl into the crib with him so I would say that is another large accomplishment. The front of the crib curves out (like a sleigh bed) so that deters her from that direction, but I think she could get in from the side if she really tried. I think she just remembers that I used to put her in there as a punishment so there's no way she is getting in there voluntarily! :) I love that girl!

JEREMIAH AND ME:
Jeremiah got a job driving water truck in the oil fields of North Dakota with a company called North Fork Oil. He will be gone for 4 weeks at a time, then home for 1 week. He left on 10/16 and will be gone for 7 weeks this time. 3 for training and 4 "regular" weeks. It is so hard here without him. Wren misses him like crazy and there aren't enough words to describe how much I need him. Today is our anniversary. Our TEN year anniversary. I can't believe that it has been that long. It seems so short a time and yet looking back, we have grown so much both as a couple and as individuals. So, today is already a rough day and it hasn't even officially started! I don't want to be alone today, of all days :( but I am trying to be strong! I am even going to try not to cry in front of Wren! I am trudging along being a mom and loving that I get to be at home to raise my kids. They are my greatest joy even though raising them is my greatest trial at times also! The good times are definitely worth the trying times though so I'll take it!

I'll try to do better on my blog!

3 Weeks 2 Days Old

2011-07-09T13:26:00.000-07:00

Seriously! How cute is this kid! I LOVE this picture!

Memphis is such a good baby. He slept 6 straight hours last night and that is pretty normal for him! He rarely cries unless he is hungry or has gas :(

Wren in the Water

2011-07-07T00:32:00.001-07:00

Wren loves bathtime!

Wren loves to take baths! The other day I put her in the bathtub and then was unloading the dishwasher. I heard her singing and came back into the bathroom. This is what she was doing! Of course, when I want to rinse her hair she is violently opposed to laying down but when it is her idea... I love this girl!

Emmalee and Memphis

2011-07-07T00:28:00.000-07:00

Wow, Memphis looks really really tiny next to this kid! It's amazing to me that babies always look so small until you put them up next to a newborn.

Getting Ready to Go Home

2011-07-07T00:27:00.000-07:00

If I Were a Girl....

2011-07-07T00:24:00.000-07:00

awww, how cute... thanks AUNT VAL!

Our Visitors at the Hospital

2011-07-07T00:16:00.000-07:00

Grandma Dixie Martin

Grandpa Clyde Martin

Uncle Kevin Hathaway (I look a lot like him and this is our "first presidency" pose!

Mercedez Eames, she wanted to take Memphis home with her! :) Isn't she a cutie?

Aunt Valerie Hendricks, she was there for EVERYTHING!

Isabella Hendricks

Isaac Hendricks

Ethan Hendricks

Aunt Kathryn Hathaway, she showed up right after Memphis was born!

Grandpa Mike Hathaway and Grandma Lorraine Hathaway, they were also there for the whole thing!

Grandpa Mike Hathaway, he REALLY likes this kid!

Daddy's Boy

2011-07-06T22:42:00.001-07:00

I love the look on his face... Really?

No, Really??!?

Can you tell they're related?

Proud Dada!

The Baby Has Arrived

2011-07-06T22:36:00.000-07:00

So Alert:

Mommy FINALLY gets to hold her boy:

So Handsome!

I love this baby!

The proud parents:

Such a good baby

Before the Birth In Pictures

2011-07-06T12:31:00.000-07:00

The epidural kicking in:

Jeremiah eating my lunch!

Just waiting....

resting...

excited parents!

are we ready yet?

Birth Story - Memphis

2011-07-06T12:21:00.001-07:00

This is the story of Memphis Miles Martin's arrival to our family!

June 16, 2011 at 9:15 a.m. I woke up thinking that I really needed to get up and go to the bathroom since this kid thinks that my bladder is a squeeze toy! Not 30 seconds after that thought, I feel like I am peeing the bed! I run to the bathroom and go pee then stand up and there is still liquid running down my leg. I am pretty sure at this point that my water has broken but don't want to go to the hospital if it hasn't. I call Valerie, she is pretty much useless to me since her water has never broken outside of the hospital! So, I call Dr. Hall's office and they tell me to come in and they will check to see if my water really did break. So, I call Jeremiah and tell him that he should probably head home (he didn't believe me at first!), get dressed, get Wren up and dressed and head over to the Dr.'s office (10:00 a.m.).

Dr. Hall was not in that day so his PA, Stacy came in to check me. I was so glad that I had Wren with me, she stood right at the foot of the bed while Stacy was down there and kept saying, "Mommy bum - stinky!" It was quite funny! They used a little strip of paper to see if my water had broke and it sure had! Interestingly enough, after she had used that paper, she talked to me for a minute then when she walked out of the room and I went to get down off of the table, the floor was COVERED in 'water'! Hello! Did she really need the paper confirmation that my water had broke? Anyway, I went back home to pick up Jeremiah and then we dropped Wren off at Clyde and Dixie's house (10:30 a.m.). I called mom and Kathryn to let them know what was going on and told them that they could meet us up at the hospital if they wanted. Mom asked that I please not swear if she came! I told her I could not guarantee anything because the pain that I went through with Wren was still pretty fresh in my mind! I was having mild contractions at this point.

We finally arrived at EIRMC at 11:00 a.m. and Valerie showed up at 11:30. The nurse on duty, Estelle, checked me at this point and I was dilated to a 3. I talked to her about how stressed I was about the pain and she immediately called to get the epidural started. While we waited for that, she started the pitocin (12:10 p.m.) and Vincent, the anesthesiologist, showed up at 12:25 p.m. Things were looking good at that point! The epidural took really good on my right side, then I had to lay on my left side to get it to kick in there. I was still having very sharp, stabbing pains right above my pelvis so Vincent came back and gave me a "boost" in the epidural.

Mom and Grandma Aldridge showed up at 12:40 p.m. and Kathryn let us know that she could not come until after 3:00 p.m. They brought me lunch at 12:53 p.m. but I was not able to eat it because they had already given me an epidural so Jeremiah enjoyed a lunch of chicken noodle soup, peas, mandarin oranges, cake and 1% milk.

Every time I would have a contraction, the baby's heartbeat would drop dramatically so at 1:35 p.m. Estelle put me on oxygen to help him out. A little after this, Grandma Aldridge commented that it was a good thing we were having this baby so that Wren would not be so spoiled!! She's so funny! Jeremiah ordered Jimmy John sandwiches for everyone (even me for after the baby was born) at 2:05 and at 2:25 p.m. Dad showed up.

At 2:45 Estelle tried to put in a catheter but could not get it in so she checked me again and the reason she could not get it in was because the baby's head was RIGHT THERE!! It was time to have a baby! The Dr. on call, Dr. Isbell came in and checked me as well and they set everything up to have this baby! I started pushing at 2:55 p.m. and they discovered that he was facing up, this is why I was still having pains in my pelvis after the epidural had kicked in! Memphis Miles Martin was born at 3:05 p.m. weighing in at 6 lbs. 12 oz and was 21 1/4 in. long.

Dr. Isbell tried pulling the placenta out using the umbilical cord and it snapped off, leaving the placenta attached to my uterus. He had to manually go in (that's right, up to his wrist!) and remove it. I was VERY grateful for the epidural and the "boost" at this point! It was sooo painful and Valerie and Jeremiah are still traumatized from watching it happen! I was extremely concerned considering that he did not tell me anything that was going on or why in the world he was abusing me in this manner! It took about 10 minutes to finally get everything, then I finally got to hold my beautiful baby boy, look into his eyes and immediately fall in love! The good news is that there was no tearing that had to be stitched back together! YAY!

They moved us into room 109 and I have to say that the nurses that we had were all amazing! I was very impressed with all that they did and the quality of care that we received. Jeremiah stayed with me while I was in the hospital and Mom took Wren while we were there.

It was an amazing experience and I am so glad that I was able to go into labor on my own this time, it was definitely a different experience than I had with Wren and for sure preferable, apart from the whole manual extraction thing!

Rough Day...

2011-06-14T14:27:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was a very rough day for Wren and I. It started out pretty good with Wren climbing into bed with me at 7:30, cuddling up with me and falling asleep. I had a Dr's appointment at 10:50 so I finally woke Wren up at 10:30 and we made it (only 5 minutes late). After the appointment we went to Target and got a couple of things that we needed for the baby and then we came home and had a nap. After naps things just went down hill! I went downstairs to change the laundry and when I came back upstairs Wren had gone into the bathroom, climbed up on the toilet and got my eye makeup remover. She then proceeded to climb into my red recliner and dump it out ALL OVER IT! Luckily it was Mary Kay and oil free and so came out of the material. I had not taken my meds that morning because we were in such a hurry to get out the door so I'm sure that I overreacted a little bit but it made me so angry. After that pretty much everything that she did just made me more and more angry. She got into the pantry and ate a bunch of cookies creating a crumby mess. Then, I'm sure because she could sense how stressed and upset I was, she just wanted me to hold her and hug on her. I was NOT in the mood! It took over 2 hours to clean the chair! I had lots of other plans for yesterday. I kept trying to remind myself that this too shall pass and that I would regret staying angry for as long as I was. Also that Wren probably really didn't remember why she was in trouble and why I was so angry after that amount of time!

Today has been much better! Wren did wake up at 7 this morning, which is fine with me... I just wish that she would be more consistent in the time of awakening each morning! She was sick about a month ago and was waking up in the night needing medicine and milk. It became a habit and now I don't know how to break her of it. She wakes up at the same time every night and she is old enough that I know she doesn't need to be! I am thinking about putting her back in the crib for a week or two to break her of the habit. That way she cannot go wandering around the house and will be confined to her bed...

NAUGHTY!

2011-06-11T23:08:00.000-07:00

There is a reason that this girl has the nickname "Naughty"

The other day I was talking to mom on the phone for about 20-30 min. During this time Wren was in and out of the room and being fairly quiet (never a good sign). After we hung up I went to see what she was up to and this is what I found:

I love that she looks so proud of herself! This was all of the junk food she could reach out of the cupboards while standing on the stool that she is currently sitting on! I have since had to move all of the junk to higher shelves, apparently she is not so interested in canned food or even cereal!

She did clean up the mess all by herself, put all the cupcakes in the correct boxes and "helped" me rearrange the shelves!

Wren and Dada

2011-06-11T23:02:00.000-07:00

Wren loves her dada! Sometimes she wakes up super early in the morning and this was one of those days! The upside to that is that she is super cuddly (the downside of course is that no one else in this house likes to wake up early!) and just wants to watch movies. Apparently dada was not so interested in the movie...

Helping Mommy!

2011-06-11T22:59:00.000-07:00

I had book club at my house in May and was making a chocolate cake. Wren decided that she wanted to help and so I let her grease the pan! It was adorable and she was so proud of herself, I look forward to her "helping" more as she gets older. A couple weeks later we were making some cakes for Scott and Shyanne and she got to help make the frosting by putting things in the kitchenaid. She thought that was the coolest thing EVER and still asks to "pour" every time she sees the kitchenaid! Too cute!

Just a cute girl!

2011-06-11T22:56:00.000-07:00

Just love this kid! She is getting so big and talks nonstop! It is so fun to see her growing up.

OUTSIDE!!!!!

2011-06-11T22:54:00.000-07:00

Wren LOVES to be outside, I bought her some sidewalk chalk and she is always asking to "color outside!" She is so fun, I love her! I am glad that it is warm enough to be outside these days, it makes life a lot more interesting for both Wren and I. There is so much to do these days!

Wren is TWO!!

2011-05-11T15:27:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that my baby girl is TWO! We had a party over at Kathryn's house and Wren had lots of fun! Of course, I took a picture of her cake:

But not of her!! The cake took all night to make though so I am glad that we got a picture of it. Wren is a very smart little cookie, she is putting sentences together and it seems like she is talking all the time! I love it, she is becoming mommies little buddy! She still loves her daddy more than anything, but she is expanding her horizons! :)

Here are some other things that Wren loves:
Her Gankie (blanket)
Her baby dolls
PRINCESSES - anything that has a Disney princess on it she wants!
Tangled - the movie
ELMO
Outside! She wants to go outside everyday so I'm glad it's starting to get warmer!
Colors - she loves to color in her coloring book.
Candy
Juice
"The Kids" Valerie's kids
Bath time - especially if there are bubbles involved
"Songs" Whenever Daddy is home for bedtime they listen to "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" on his iPod together, it's super cute!
She also likes Mommy to sing "The ABC Song" and "I am a Child of God"

and here are some things that she could do without:
Oatmeal - she HATES it (me too!)
Naptime
Bedtime
Whenever any of her "people" leave the room

She's such a good 'baby' although I guess she isn't a baby anymore :( I love seeing her grow up and am so thankful that I get to be her mom. I mourn each stage that she grows out of but celebrate each new stage that she enters. I guess that is part of being a parent! Thank you Heavenly Father for sending Wren to us!

32 Weeks

2011-05-11T15:13:00.000-07:00

32 Weeks Pregnant!

Just for me...

2011-05-10T19:39:00.001-07:00

I know that my life is not so hard... I know that I should be so grateful for everything that I have... I know that I am so blessed... however...

sometimes things are just overwhelming and I need an outlet! This is it!

This pregnancy has been very difficult for me. I have been extremely stressed and anxious. It started when I first started spotting and I have continued to spot throughout. That combined with Jeremiah being laid off at the end of January increased my stress level a LOT! We had just gotten all of our bills out of collection and now it feels like we are right back where we started - We need a BREAK from $$ problems! Then, he was unable to find a job really quickly and so started working on the farm. I am so grateful that he was able to get this job and love dad for hiring him - however, it is a stressful job. He is gone 12-17 hours a day 6 days a week. I miss him! Wren misses him! My doctor has told me that he is not too concerned with the spotting but that I should continue to take it easy and be on semi-bed rest. Not really a possibility with the little ball of energy that we named Wren running around and trying to be a good mom to her. So sometimes I feel like I have to choose between being a good mom to Wren or a good mom to my unborn baby.

I feel like I can't really DO a whole lot to get ready for this baby. I lay awake at night making lists in my head of everything that I need to do before he arrives. Of course during the day I have no energy to do any of the things on my list! Most of the time I want to just lay in bed all day and cry or sleep. I have also been having anxiety attacks, my heart starts beating like crazy and it's hard to catch my breath. So, I talked to Dr. Hall and he gave me an Rx for wellbutrin. I am still waiting for it to "kick in" but I am really hoping that it will make a difference, not only for my well being but for the sake of my kiddos.

On the other side of this conversation - I really do love being pregnant. I love feeling this little guy moving around and punching me so hard in the middle of the night that it wakes me up! I love that whenever Jeremiah puts his hand on my stomach he gets kicked super hard and for a long time also. Wren would always stop kicking as soon as I would change positions or when Jeremiah would try to feel her. I really even love seeing my belly get bigger although I'm sure that will be a source of stress after he arrives! I also love that I haven't gained any weight with this pregnancy. Jr. is measuring fine and everything looks good, but I have just been eating fairly healthy and probably chasing Wren around has helped as well!

Thanks for listening... If you feel like I have been ignoring you or are trying to block you out of my life, please forgive me! I have been feeling like I am in a dark place lately and have not been able to see any light! I hope that things are going to be better with me in the next couple of weeks and that I can hop out of this slump - so just give me a little time, k?

M&M's

2011-03-22T23:52:00.000-07:00

I gave Wren 8 M&M's the other day, this is the result:

Our Trip to Salt Lake

2011-03-22T23:20:00.000-07:00

Our Volvo had a recall on it so we had to take it to Salt Lake to get it fixed. We decided to take a long weekend and invited Jeremiah's brother Blair and his wife, Paige to join us. We left on Thursday afternoon and got to the dealership just in time to drop the car off before they closed. They gave us a loaner car so we would not be stranded and we headed over to the hotel. We stayed at the Radisson just a block away from the temple and also within sight of the Energy Solutions Center where the Jazz play and also where they hold concerts and such.

Wren and I both started getting sick when we left on Thursday and that night Wren had a rash on her upper torso. We started giving her benadryl and alternating motrin and tylenol for the 103 fever that she had and putting lots of essential oils on her. Sadly, I didn't know that we were going to be sick so I didn't have all of the oils that I could have used with me. I got well fairly quickly, by Saturday but Wren was miserable the entire time we were there! Poor kiddo! Jeremiah also started getting sick on Sunday so it was not quite the fun trip that we had planned but it was fun to get away from the stress of it all!

Blair and Paige came up from St. George on Sunday and brought their two boys Parker and Sterling and had also called Jeremiah's other brother, John and his wife Melissa so they came down from Pocatello with their kids to hang out with us also. They all stayed in Sandy at the hotel chain that Blair works for.

Wren really loved the swimming pool where we were staying. It was a non-chlorinated pool so she was able to splash around and be crazy without burning her eyes or lungs. She also loved the elevators but hated riding anywhere in the car.

We were able to go to Temple Square while we were there and Wren LOVED seeing the Christus and couldn't stop pointing at him and saying "Jesus, Jesus!" It was very cute and heartwarming. When we all sat down to take in the spirit, she sat with us and folded her arms like everyone else was doing. She is such a good little baby girl.

Here are some pictures of our stay:

When we came back from our room the first day, our maid had found Wren's baby and "gankie" (blankie) on the bed and left them like this. Wren LOVED it, she thought it was too funny!

Wren really liked being in my bed and hanging out with me watching tv. Because there were only two double beds in the room, Jeremiah and I mostly slept in separate beds.

She also thought it was pretty cool to steal my hat and wear it!

Of course every morning she had to bring her puppy into my bed and eat her yummy breakfast, she thought it was pretty cool that she got to "steal" mommy's bed!

She loved opening the drawers in the dressing that was in the room and one time she climbed in. Jeremiah decided to have her "sleep" in there and she thought it was great. She did not like it when Jeremiah would open the drawer, she just wanted to be left alone in her little cave!

It's a....

2011-02-08T02:15:00.001-08:00

BOY!!!!!

Even though I haven't scanned the ultrasound pictures I wanted to make a note of this day!

The ultrasound was at 10:00 a.m. Jeremiah, Wren, Mom and of course I were there. The tech was great, the best we have ever had although she did not give us a picture of the "money shot".

Honestly, most days I thought that we were having another girl and I have to say that at that point during the ultrasound that the tech said that it was a boy there was a small twinge of disappointment but coupled that was a LOT of joy. I am glad that we are having a healthy baby, no matter what the gender. I think that part of the reason that I was convinced (mostly) that we were having a girl was because that is the only kind of pregnancy that I know! I am already getting used to the idea of a little boy running around this house creating more havoc in our lives! I look forward to the challenge and the excitement of having a little momma's boy and daddy's girl around!

Jeremiah "wrote" (revised) a poem to announce the plumbing of this kiddo:

Roses are red, violets are blue; The nursery was pink, now it will be BLUE!

Kevin's response to the text we sent him of this was " Roses are red we were happy for Venus. But now we're ecstatic that your kid grew a..." LOVE it! :)

Pregnancy 19 weeks

2011-02-06T22:56:00.000-08:00

Finally getting these pictures blogged a week later! Here I am at 19 weeks. After going to the Dr. on Monday, 1/31 everything looks good, the heartbeat was "clocked" at 54 and Dr. Hall told me that I should probably start gaining some weight here soon. I lost 7 pounds the first month of my pregnancy and since then have only gained 1 back. Jeremiah said that he can't believe that I have not gained anything more because I eat everything in sight! I will say that I was extremely nauseous during my first trimester and when I am pregnant and I am as interested in candy and sweet things, I much prefer salads and tomatoes and pickles which is probably why I have not gained weight like I am "supposed to".

Anyway, we go in tomorrow, 2/7 to find out the gender of the baby and we are all VERY excited to finally find out!

YUMMY!

2011-02-06T22:45:00.000-08:00

Wren LOVES to feed herself and has recently discovered that she really likes breakfast foods like waffles, pancakes and french toast. Especially when these foods have peanut butter on them! Here she is eating some french toast:

She is saying "yummy" (which sounds like mummy!)

Here she is saying, "CHEESE!"

and now just piggin' out!

New Bed Drama

2011-02-06T22:42:00.000-08:00

We got Wren a toddler bed since there is going to be a new baby in the house! She was so excited about it, she played on it all afternoon while it was out in the living room and when we first put it in her room. However, when bedtime came around she decided that it was not as fun! She cried, and got up and banged on the door (we live in an old house and she can't open the bedroom doors), when we went to put her back to bed and left the door open a crack she would come right back out. I tried doing the super nanny thing and sat in there with my back to her but that didn't matter to her, I was someone to talk to - she is such a chatty kathy! So, after 15 minutes of that I left and shut the door tightly behind me. She cried and cried (screaming for "mommy" which broke my heart), we could hear her get up and play with the door, but she finally quieted down and when we went to check on her she was laying in bed asleep. Nap time was hard also, even though she has blackout blinds on her windows it is not THAT dark in there. I stayed in there for 15 minutes again and she was sleeping, or so I thought so I got up and left. That was a disaster! Immediately the screaming and crying began again so I just walked away. She of course got out of bed and came banging on the door. Jeremiah went in and put her in bed then shut the door tightly. Once again she cried and cried but went to sleep fairly quickly after that.

Tonight we did not hear her get out of bed although there was crying, but there is usually crying at bedtime so it was not as hard on us parents.

Jeremiah and I were talking yesterday about how we have lucked out with what a good baby Wren is. I would say this is another example of that, she is a very adaptable little baby. Some other examples of this is when I stopped rocking her to sleep and just put her to bed at bedtimes, when we stopped going into her room and giving her her pacifier during the night, when we took her pacifier away. All of these things only took her a day, maybe a day and a half to get used to these changes! I love this baby and am so grateful for all of the person that she is!

Church cuteness

2011-02-06T22:22:00.000-08:00

Seriously, could this kid be any cuter? She was hamming it up before church and I could not resist!

Wren's Chicken Nuggets

2011-02-06T22:18:00.000-08:00

This is the way that Wren eats her chicken nuggets - like they are apples or a sandwich that she doesn't want to eat the crust off of! She is so hilarious, I love that I get to laugh at her antics every single day!

16 Weeks Pregnant

2011-01-10T22:41:00.000-08:00

I am now 16 weeks and 1 day pregnant, I feel huge but not pregnant yet. I have not yet felt the baby move (definitively) and so have a hard time believing that there really is a baby in there! I guess that the things that should convince me are the fact that my gag reflex is on super sensitive, I have to pee ALL the time and cry about every little thing! I know that I just need to be patient for a little while longer and I will feel that kiddo start moving, I am just really excited for that part! It is my favorite thing about being pregnant.

Sickness

2011-01-07T19:08:00.000-08:00

Wednesday Wren and I were supposed to spend the day with some friends. Before putting her to bed on Tuesday night I noticed that she was feeling kind of warm but she had been running around playing hard all night so I didn't think much of it. Jeremiah got up with her at about 5:30 a.m. and said that she still felt warm so he took her temperature and it was at 99.9. I also woke up feeling kind of achy and with that weird feeling in the back of my throat so I figured that we were both getting a cold. She was fairly whiny all day but very cuddley. We went to dinner with Valerie and Kathryn and she just kept getting warmer and warmer. We gave her some Motrin at 8 p.m. and then Jeremiah took her temp again, it was 104! We took her to RediCare and thankfully her temp went down fairly quickly. The nurse practitioner who saw her said that it could be several different things that was wrong with her. She could have an ear infection, one of her ears was red, she could have strep, her throat was red, she could have a bladder infection. So, he gave us an all over super antibiotic that would help any of those things. She is starting to get better but still has a fairly high fever. It has also been nice because she has slept so much because I have also been sick. Yesterday she slept until 2 p.m., took a nap from 4-9 p.m. then went to bed for the night at midnight.

The one thing that I am most worried about is that she has not been really interested in eating, but only wants to drink juice. She won't even drink her milk that she usually guzzles at nap and bed times. hmmmmm.....

Cute Stuff!

2011-01-06T01:34:00.000-08:00

Wren has such the cute personality lately. I can't believe how big she has gotten and the joy that she brings into our lives. I find that everyday she is doing something that shows me how she is growing and maturing. I love the stage that she is in right now, she can play independently very well but would much rather have me or dada or ANYONE play with her. She can feed herself, but not very well as you can see from my previous post. She says SO many words and will try to say anything that you ask her to! All in all, I love this baby! She is my world.

The next two pictures are the day after Christmas when we were getting the tree put up and the living room put back together. The chair was in her bedroom and while we were trying to get it out of her room and into the living room, she decided she would "help" by sitting on the back of it! It was quite cute and if you can't tell, she thinks she is all that also! Oh, and she is holding the "puppy" that Grandma and Grandpa Martin got her for Christmas.

This picture, she had gone through a huge drawer full of toys and pulled out all of her "tools". She then told me that she was "all done" and shut the drawer! So SMART!

Wren did not even know that I was taking this picture! She was watching a Little Einstein video with her "shoosh-shoosh" (juice), "quackers" (crackers/pretzels/cookies), nie-nie (blanket), and baby. Just relaxin'! I love it!

antics

2011-01-05T16:24:00.001-08:00

Wren discovered the toilet paper roll and boy was it fun. I found her just sitting on the toilet pulling it. It was hilarious!

Wren has discovered the joy of feeding herself. She only eats really good when she can feed herself. I would say that she does a pretty good job, the only stuff that got spilled was the stuff on her bib. GOOD JOB WREN! YOU'RE SO BIG!

antics

2011-01-05T16:24:00.000-08:00

Daddy does my hair...

2011-01-05T16:22:00.000-08:00

Today dad did my hair... I'm not sure what the look was he was going for but it ended up looking very '80s mullett!

Packrat Palace

2011-01-05T16:10:00.000-08:00

Jeremiah's parents gave us a dishwasher several months ago. He asked me to clean out one set of cupboards so that he could install it (back in October). It is still not installed but Wren doesn"t mind. She has taken it over as her own pack rat palace. Whenever something goes missing the most likely place to find it is here. She also likes to play hide and seek in here and will close both of the doors and just lay in there and talk to herself. It is too cute!

Santa Picture 2010

2011-01-03T01:21:00.001-08:00

Laura and I took Mercedez and Wren to see Santa Claus before Christmas and Wren was NOT impressed! Aunt Kathryn came with us and when we sat Wren on Santa's lap the only person she wanted was Kath!! I think she knew she was the only one who was going to save her!! It was very funny! I don't think that Santa would agree of course... probably not Wren either for that matter! But I loved it!

Here are the girls waiting patiently (and happily) in line:

and then the placing on the lap....

LOL!!!!

Christmas 2010

2011-01-03T00:48:00.000-08:00

We spent Christmas with Jeremiah's parents this year. My family has always had a big meal on Christmas Eve and then spent Christmas day relaxing and just spending time with family. I decided that this is something that I want to continue with my family as well so we invited his parents to dinner on Christmas Eve. I made EVERYTHING this year (by my own choice). It took all week to make the food for these two days!

For Christmas eve dinner I made: Meatloaf, yummy potatoes, Deedra's Salad, cool whip salad, corn, lettuce salad and rolls.

For Christmas breakfast I made: Caramel Ring with fried ham and breakfast potatoes.

For Christmas lunch I made: Chicken salad sandwiches, lil' smokies, a veggie plate with carrots, pickles, cheese, celery, olives and ritz crackers and the left over salads.

I also made sugar cookies and magic cookie bars and won some really yummy caramels that I did not share with anyone but Valerie!

The Martin's came over for dinner at 3 they went home at 4:45 and we went over to my parents to eat some more and then opened some presents from them. Wren thought it was pretty fun!

Christmas morning Wren woke up at 10, we ate some yummy breakfast then opened presents. After she had opened her presents she and Papa Clyde played tea party, it was very cute. Clyde and Dixie then went home to have a nap at noon so we put Wren down also and took naps our selves for about 2 hours. Clyde and Dixie came back after that, we had lunch then watched Wren play with her toys. During this time she fell into her table and got a huge goose egg/bruise on her forehead. I was very worried that we were going to have to take her to the hospital it bruised and got swollen so quickly. After she had finished crying she walked over to the table, pointed right at where she had hit her head and said "I bonk! I bonk!" So, it turned out to be "okay" and we went over to Kevin and Kali's house at about 6 after the Martin's had left to hang out with them for awhile.

All in all it was a fun, memory building weekend especially because Jeremiah had 4 days off!! That was the best part for me!!!!

Grandma and Grandma Martin with Wren and the puppy they gave her on Christmas Eve.

Wren opening her Christmas jammies on Christmas Eve.

Wren being shy while eating her favorite food, "NANA's"!

Wren's Haul!

Wren's OWIE! It was sooo sad! This was only about 20 seconds after she had "bonked"

Thanksgiving 2010

2011-01-03T00:35:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving was with my family this year and sadly I took no pictures - what the heck??!!

We had a lot of fun though, we had dinner at moms and ate soooo much food that we were all sick! We played games and hung out all day, of course took naps and the kids watched some movies. That night we decided to go to WalMart to get some pajamas and got there at 11:30 p.m. They were supposed to be getting all of their stuff out at midnight but when we got there everything was already out, there were people everywhere and it was the most disorganized disaster that I have ever seen!! Apparently they opened their stuff at about 10 and just wouldn't let anyone check out until midnight! Happily we were able to get everything that we wanted and were only about 3rd in line by midnight. Of course, it still took about 45 minutes to check out and by then we decided we were just going to continue going all night.

We went to my house and picked up Wren, took her out to mom's and had her sleep there. Then we went to Kohl's, Shopko, Kmart and Fred Meyers. It was CRAZY!!! But so much fun! I'm glad that I went.

On Friday we went to the Dunbar church building and played in the gym all day. Kathryn brought some mattresses so we were able to take a nap while the kids were playing. That was nice!

All in all it was a fun weekend!

Harry Potter November 2010

2011-01-03T00:10:00.000-08:00

When the previous Harry Potter movie came out (book 6) I told Drew that if he read the books I would take him. He read the book so I invited him and Jaxon to my house and we had an all night movie marathon of the first five then we went to an afternoon showing the next day. Jaxon fell asleep so I told him he was not allowed to go to the next one!

Of course I gave in and invited him to go to the next one and also invited Bella since she had seen some of the older movies and was having Valerie read her the books.

I asked Drew and Jaxon to make a list of the candy and pop that they wanted at the all night movie and this is the list that they made for me:

I love it! We all stayed up really late - I was amazed that Bella made it as long as she did! I'm pretty sure that she stayed up later than the boys - they took "power naps" during a couple of the films and we got through movie 5 before everyone went to bed! We woke up "early" the next morning and watched movie 6, then went to Drew and Jaxon's basketball game at noon, then went to the afternoon movie. It was a lot of fun, stressful, but fun! I'm excited to do it all over again when the next and final movie comes out next summer!

Halloween 2010

2011-01-03T00:02:00.001-08:00

Halloween was lots of fun this year! Wren didn't really understand what all the fuss was about until we got to the mall and she started getting candy. Then she didn't understand why we wouldn't let her eat all of the candy that she was getting from all these nice people!!

My friend Laura Eames came with Wren's friend Mercedez, they were too cute!

Since we were starting out at the mall, Wren (and Mercedez) wore her Tinkerbell outfit while we were trick or treating there. Isn't it cute how they are holding hands?

After we left the mall, we went over to Kevin and Kali's church and did some trunk or treating there so since we were going to be outside, I dressed her up as a little Indian. I made that wig by the way! How cute is she??

After we were done trunk or treating we went out to Shelley and spent some time with Grandma Aldridge, that was also fun.

Harvest Day 2010

2011-01-02T23:39:00.000-08:00

I am finally catching up on my blogging.

Our family always celebrates Potato Harvest by going out to the fields and seeing the tractors then going to the cellars and playing on the spuds. Since we grew up in Hamer and worked during spud harvest all of our growing up years it is something that we really enjoy watching instead of participating in.

This year was especially fun because we announced to the family that we were pregnant. We bought Wren a shirt that has owls on the front of it and then had it screen printed. The front said "Guess HOO..." and the back said "BIG SISTER!" We had dad take her jacket off when we got there and everyone was very excited once they figured it out! :)

Wren really really loved the potato field, she thought that it was her own personal playground and ate the dirt, the potatoes, the vines, the rotten potatoes... pretty much anything she could get to her mouth before I could stop her! She also really was loving grandpa because he took her on the back of the combine and let her "drive" his truck back to the cellar! When they got to the cellar, she thought that she could do everything that the bigger kids were doing, like climb the potato pile, she soon figured out that she couldn't and ended up trying to crawl through the metal tubes placed for ventilation. I had to block those off also. That kid likes to get into everything!

Pregnant and Resting

2010-10-21T23:03:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, October 13, I took a pregnancy test. Well, actually I took one every two days for about a week and a half before that... but on the 13th I took one and it was POSITIVE!! See what happens when I go on a rant about infertility and what a roller coaster it is??

It is actually pretty amazing that I got pregnant this month simply because I was not on my clomid this month and I usually do not ovulate unless I am on clomid. I will admit that the ovulation issues have gotten better since I had Wren. Or at least I cycle more often than I did before getting pregnant.

I am so very excited to be pregnant. I am scared to death of having two kiddos to chase around, but excited also. I guess that fear of the unknown is okay - right?

BEDREST! That is what I am on right now. Wednesday, Oct. 20th I was over to Val's just hanging out and when I got home and went to the bathroom I saw that I was spotting. I called the doctor on Thursday and they had me come in to do an HcG level test and I will go in tomorrow and do another one. They also put me on bedrest because of my history of miscarriage. Just one little rant here: When I first called the dr's office and told the receptionist what was going on she told me "You're probably fine." HELLO! That is probably not the best thing to say to a pregnant woman who is FREAKING OUT!!!!!!! Which is what I told her, then told her I wanted to talk to Dr. Hall or his nurse... after which she apologized then put me through to the nurse :) hehe!!

Bath Time Fun

2010-10-21T23:00:00.000-07:00

Wren loves bath time and LOVES bubbles. She thinks it is pretty funny when we put the bubbles anywhere on her. This night, dada was giving her a bath and thought she would look cute with a bubble mohawk - I would have to agree!!

Aunt Kathryn

2010-10-21T22:54:00.001-07:00

Wren really loves her Aunt Kath! She gets pretty excited to see her all the time and sometimes walks around the house saying Thath, thath!! it is pretty funny to see! Wren loves Aunt Val also, but I don't have any recent pictures of them to put up here!

She climbed up onto the couch with Aunt THATH and just snuggled right into her, I think "thath" liked it a lot!

This is classic Wren when I tell her that it is time to go nite nite. So, whenever you need her to cuddle, just have someone ask her if it is time for nite nite!! Kathryn was having a bad day when she got to our house this day but I think she left a little happier!

Puppies

2010-10-21T22:40:00.001-07:00

Wren is now 18 months old. I can't believe how the time has flown by. I am getting her pictures taken next week but seriously, this kid is just to cute!

She had just woken up when this picture was taken. She needs all of her "puppies" when she wakes up or when she is tired or pretty much any time of the day! All animals are puppies and sometimes even her blankie is a puppy!! I know that I should teach her what the other animals are but I just think that it is toooooo cute that she calls EVERYTHING puppy! Dolphins, cats, bunny's... everything! I really love it!

I love this girl!!

Bedroom Remodel

2010-10-05T12:45:00.001-07:00

Jeremiah and I have been redoing the paint job in our bedroom. Since it was conference weekend I started moving stuff out on Saturday and Sunday we started painting while listening to conference. It was crazy and took way longer than I expected. The reason that we decided that we wanted to redo the room was because all of the paint in our house is warm colors and the bedroom was painted a navy blue with silver overlay on it. It just didn't seem to flow with the rest of the house and it was so hard to find bedding that really matched the color or our personalities. So, we went out and found the bedding that we wanted and painted to match. We used the money from the garage sale that we had two weekends in a row and it was about $500 for everything! sheesh, so depressing! So these are the before pictures:

and this is the after:

infertility

2010-09-05T14:24:00.000-07:00

I just need to vent a little.

Jeremiah and I tried for 7 years to get pregnant before we received the blessing we named Wren Lorraine Martin. We are now trying to get pregnant again and I hate it. It is a terrible roller coaster ride aided with medication and lots of mood swings. I take two clomid each day which give me the symptoms of menopause - mood swings, hot flashes, night sweats... the list goes on. Then there is the metformin that I take which causes stomach issues, stomach cramps and diarrhea. Don't get me wrong, these are all things that I am happy to "deal" with most of the time but I hate month after month of waiting to see what is going to happen, am I going to get pregnant? am I going to have to continue the roller coaster? Each month I question why I don't get to be pregnant when I see people around me who are terrible parents getting pregnant, I see children going to homes where they are abused and unloved. It makes me sad and a little bit angry. Sometimes a lot bit angry! I know that I need to just be patient and realize that God has a plan for me and that I should trust in him. Before we had Wren I had a lot of anger towards God and once we finally got pregnant and it stuck (we had 4 miscarriages in those 7 years), I was grateful for the time that Jeremiah and I had to become a stronger couple and learn the things that we wanted to teach our child(ren) when we were finally blessed with them. I know that there is a process and that I will once again be grateful for the trials that I am going through when I see the bigger picture but while going through those trials it just sucks!

so like I said, just venting.

Las Vegas

2010-07-31T23:31:00.000-07:00

HOPEFULLY I WILL ADD PICS LATER WHEN I HAVE TIME TO STEAL THEM FROM VALERIE!

My brother, Michael, and his wife, Jackie had the opportunity to go to England for 10 days the beginning of July and they asked me to come and babysit their kids for them. They have 3 girls; Audrey, Kirsten and Ava Marie (I add her middle name cause it's the same as mine!) and one little boy, Evan. Audrey is the oldest at 8 and Evan is the youngest at 3. They are good kids and very independent but coming from a one kid home it can be overwhelming. So, my solution?? To take THREE MORE KIDS!!! Valerie came with me and I was so very grateful! We flew out of Idaho Falls on June 27th. I had to ask a very nice lady if she would switch seats with me so that I could sit next to Valerie but even though she had to sit in the very last row she didn't have to sit next to any babies! The children were all surprisingly good on the airplane, Isabella sat next to me and let Wren crawl all over her trying to get to the window and then to me and then to the window and back and forth a million times!

Michael and Jackie have a pool and Wren would like to live with them for that reason alone. She would stand in the 6 inch deep portion of the pool and jump off of the ledge to me, even allowing her head to go under, over and over again all day long. She even went down the last 3 feet of the slide several time and LOVED that also. We did discover that she is allergic to sunscreen. I tried several different kinds while we were there and each one made her eyes swollen, her nose run like crazy and she even had a rash after 2 of the applications. It was very sad! The solution was quite easy actually. We swam twice a day and the first time was usually when she was still asleep in the morning (at 10 a.m.). So, she would wake up (at NOON), we would play inside for about an hour, make lunch for the kids, then put the kids down for naps (which they hated). After that, I would make her lunch and then back to bed we would go! Valerie and I were able to take naps every day that we were there! It was so very nice! After naps we would have the kids play upstairs or clean upstairs while we made dinner, then after dinner we would go and swim again. That was the perfect time for Wren to swim. The sun was not severe enough to require sunblock and most of the time she was in the shade that evening provided.

Since we were there for the 4th of July, we watched the fireworks from Mike's house. The ones from the casino down the road were very nice, but then the neighbors started setting off their crazy loud firecrackers right below us. I was very prepared to drag Wren inside screaming from being so loud but girlfriend just sat right down in my lap and started clapping! The rest of the littler kids were terrified, but not my girl! She Crazy!

I of course have to write about the TWO times Evan pooped in the hot tub (which spills over into the pool!) the first time a minimal amount of poop came out of his swim suit but the second time there were HUGE LOGS IN THERE!! This, THIS was the reason that I brought Valerie along! She climbed into the poo stew and scooped all that poo right out with a little scooper! I will call her the pooper scooper trooper! :) After the second time that this happened, I told Evan that he could not get in the pool without a swim diaper on and for two days he would not get in the pool because he did not want to wear a diaper. I finally gave in (What, he's not my kid!) and let him get in after that. It's just so hot there, I felt bad for him! Happily, he did not poop again while we were there.

One other small mention: Justin came for a couple of days that we were there and one night he let Valerie and I go see Eclipse! It was SO good and I am excited to go and see it again after I read the books again. THANKS JUSTIN!

Fun Stuff

2010-06-05T22:38:00.001-07:00

I need to write down some of the fun things that Wren is up to lately!

She has a baby doll that Grandma Lorraine gave her for Christmas that she just discovered and oh how she LOVES it!! She picks it up like it is a real baby and pats it on the head, gives it kisses and makes sure that its "bow" is not in her eyes!!

Tonight, she started "beeping" my nose!! HAHAHA! It was toooo cute!

She likes to run away from me and have me "yell" at her to get back over to me and then she will run over and give me hugs! I love it! I am a little worried that now the only way I can get her to do anything will be to yell at her though! HA!

Sometimes she will be playing and will stop what she is doing, come over to me and give me hugs and kisses with no encouragement or askance from me. This is my all time favorite thing, it makes me feel soooo loved! She is such a cutie.

She LOVES her daddy! When he comes home she can NOT hold in her excitement! She squeals and runs to him and pretty much does not let him put her down until bedtime! It is a nice break for me and I love that she loves him so much, they are so funny! Also, if she is awake before he leaves in the morning and he is telling her to come and say goodbye to him, she will go over, give him kisses, look back at me and wave bye bye to ME! So much for being the primary caregiver, right! :)

I am sure there are more and I will remember them as soon as I post this but I really need to start remembering to write these things down, I will be sad if I forget things!

crazy girl!

2010-04-27T00:47:00.001-07:00

Today is my cleaning and laundry day. Usually I don't get much done but today I was killing it! I got all of my laundry done, folded/ironed and PUT AWAY!!! That in itself is a feat and something that usually takes all week! I also cleaned the mats from the car, cleaned the living room, bedroom, Wren's room, the bathroom, vacuumed and made dinner! I feel so accomplished!

After I got done scrubbing the bathroom floor (which had poo on it from Wren going diaper-less because of her rash) I put the bucket inside the bathroom and closed the door to wait until the floor was dry to dump the water down the toilet. I then had to go into the bathroom to get a towel to put in the washer, left the door open and went downstairs. When I got back upstairs (about 30 seconds later) I went into the bathroom to dump the water and there was Wren, sitting in a huge puddle of water with the rag ON HER HEAD, running her hands all over her face and licking her fingers!!!! GROSS!!!!!! I really wanted to run and grab my camera, but I was a little afraid that she was going to be poisoned so instead, I put her in the bathtub and cleaned her off. What a funny baby!

Tonight I made homemade mac n' cheese, lil' smokies in bbq sauce, and beets for dinner. Can you guess what Wren loved the most?? No? the BEETS! She ate about 4 of them and would only eat the mac n'
cheese if I added a piece of beet to it!! Sooo funny!

blogging

2010-04-22T11:40:00.000-07:00

I really need to do better with my blog, I know! It has been raining here the last couple of days and Wren loves to watch it! I am constantly amazed by this girl, yesterday it was thundering SO loud! Wren was sleeping and I was sure that it was going to wake her up but nope! She slept right through it! Also, when she was awake, it didn't faze her at all! I love it!

We have really been loving the warmer weather. Wren LOVES to be outside. My mom let us borrow a small "car" that has a handle on it for me to push and that girl screams when I take her out of it! I need to get a video of her in it. She would rather ride in that car than do anything else, including EAT!

Girlfriend has gotten a lot better at walking, she now prefers to do that over crawling. There is a lot of falling involved, but she is persistent.

We went and got Wren's 1 year old pictures taken by my cousin, Melissa (http://www.melissabelnapphotography.blogspot.com/) and here is a fun sampling of what she did, they are all so cute and she was sooooo good

She has had a really bad diaper rash lately and it makes me so sad! The other night she woke up at least 6 times and just wanted to be held. It was sweet, but sad! Every time she would poop (which was a lot and probably the reason for the rash) she would cry and try to run away from her bum! She would also cover her mouth with her hand while crying, which really hurt my heart but also made me smile. She is getting so big and developing such a big personality! We love her so much and are so grateful for her in our lives!

Happy Birthday Wren!

2010-04-10T02:31:00.001-07:00

Wow, I cannot believe that Wren is already one!! This year has been so wonderful and such a blessing to Jeremiah and I. Wren fills our lives with joy and home with laughter! It is so much fun to have her around, to watch her discover the world around her and to be loved by her.

Wren has started walking and it is soooo cute! We tried to "force" her to do it for so long and then one day, I was folding clothes on the floor and she just walked right past me, over to a toy, sat down and started playing with it!

She loves to play with all things that go in her hair, or MINE! She is always taking my headbands off and putting them on her head - I call them her pretties and she gets the biggest smiles when she accomplishes the feat of getting them to stay on her head!

Wren still loves Grandma Aldridge A LOT and even though she is becoming a BIG momma's girl she does like to give kisses to the people she "hangs" with!

She does NOT like to share her toys and will grab them away from any other child who is near! And in fact thinks that ALL toys that she can see belong to her!

She still loves the bathtub and being in a pool. She can spend hours in the water and be happy as a clam! :)

All in all, we LOVE THIS BABY!!!

Groundhog Day...

2010-02-27T01:28:00.001-08:00

Earlier today, Jeremiah and I were talking about what we did today and I told him that sometimes I feel like I am in that movie, Groundhog Day. Don't get me wrong, I completely enjoy being a mom and everything that goes along with that but there are times that it gets super monotonous and the routine that is necessary to stay sane sometimes drives me to insanity!

For instance, most days this is what my day looks like: I get Wren up, change her diaper, feed her, play with her, feed her, put her down to sleep, clean up her toys, get ready for the day then do laundry/dishes/clean the house, get Wren up, change her diaper, feed her, play with her, feed her, put her down to sleep, clean up her toys, get dinner started then do laundry/dishes/clean the house, get Wren up, change her diaper, feed her, play with her (usually this is when Jeremiah gets home and I can have some me time to relax and take a bath or read a book or check my email!), feed her and put her to bed. Then I have to turn my brain off and try to sleep but it usually takes several hours for me to unwind enough to get to sleep and sometimes end up falling asleep on the couch and waking up later to go to the bedroom.

Now, please don't think that I am complaining about any of this. I am just observing that this is the way that my life is "organized" right now. I love Wren and love that I get to stay at home and be a mom to her. I love Jeremiah and the effort that he puts in to being a great dad, husband and provider for us. He is so busy with work and school but always finds time to make sure that his girls know that he loves them. It is so cute to see how much Wren loves her daddy and the other way around. I hope that never changes and that they always have a special relationship and bond.

TAGGED!

2010-02-25T03:01:00.000-08:00

Eight things I am passionate about:
Jeremiah

Wren

Family

Truth

Reading

the Gospel

Bows Bows Bows

Grammar ;)

Eight words or phrases I use the most:

Really?

Your Mom

Wren Wren

Hilarious

Wren - NO NO

I love you

Give me kisses!

seriously?

Eight things I want to do before I die:

Start going to bed at a decent hour!

Have more babies

Raise a happy family

Run a marathon (but don't tell VAL!)

Do a LOT of traveling

Be independently Wealthy

Learn to Love Camping

Have a Prosperous Garden

Eight places I want to visit:

Australia

Mexico

Hawaii (again)

New York

Florida (again)

Alaska

Ireland

DISNEYLAND (LOTS)

Eight favorite restaurants:

Carino's

Cafe Rio

Bajio

PF Changs

El Fenix

Cantina Laredo

Taco Delite

anywhere with GOOD Prime Rib

Eight TV shows I watch:

LOST

Friends

Desperate Housewifes

Private Practice

Greys Anatomy

The Middle

The Bachelor

Dancing with the Stars

Eighth folder Eighth picture:

EIGHT PEOPLE THAT I TAG:

LAURA

KATE

CHELSEA

BECKY

SHALON

MELISSA

RINDEE

CLANCY

bye bye....

2010-02-10T00:12:00.000-08:00

Some new things that Wren is doing.....

Wren is soooo cute and is developing such a cute personality. She really thinks that everything she does is hilarious and laughs at herself all the time. When she gets tired she will lay down on the floor and then pop her head up, look at us and laugh. When it is time to go to bed or sometimes if we ask her to, she will wave byebye! I love it!! It has to be one of my favorite things so far! I am not sure if I have posted this, but she started crawling the week before Christmas. Now she is just into everything. I have had to tie the cupboards shut because she likes to open the one under the sink and try to eat everything under there. GROSS! So, until Jeremiah can get the baby-proofing done in the kitchen, we are using ribbon!

Jeremiah has started his new job at Regis as of today. He is the manager and is really excited about it. I am happy that he no longer "has" to work on the farm but am sad that he is having to work 40 hours a week :( that means that combined with his two days that he goes to school he will be working the other 5 days of the week. That sucks! Hence the ribbon in the kitchen~

Life has been really good for us lately, we reconnected with some old friends this last weekend and it was nice to visit with them and see their little girl, she is a charmer! We will have to plan to do something else with them soon (hint hint wink wink!).

a few of my favorite things....

2010-01-21T01:26:00.001-08:00

Just thinking.... and these are some of the things that I love:

When Wren giggles or gets really excited and flaps her arms and legs.
When Jeremiah is happy and when he flirts with me.
Having someone (sometimes more than one!)who can finish my sentences and who gets my inside jokes.
When it is dark and snowing outside and I get to be inside watching it come down I feel like the only person in the world but safe and comfy.
A really good thunder/lightening storm with lots of rain.
Lightening bugs!! I haven't seen them since I lived in Arkansas and I miss them!
Getting lost in a good book.
Having a clean house and having the laundry all clean and put away.
Spending time with my family.
Connecting with old friends and hanging with new ones.

That is just a few of my favorites....

Our Christmas Tree

2010-01-08T17:20:00.000-08:00

This is our Christmas Tree this year. Wren really loved the lights and there were a couple of incidents that she got into trouble for trying to pull the whole thing down on her but it went better than I had expected it to so I can't complain!

Daddy and her girl!

2010-01-08T17:07:00.000-08:00

Wren really loves Jeremiah!! It is so cute and he is such a good daddy! He feeds her, changes diapers - even when they are poop - bathes her, puts her to bed, plays with her and too many other things to even list. I am so grateful for him and all the things that he does not just with Wren but for me also. He is the best part of me and brings out the best in me.

I love you babe - and baby!

Sleeping Baby

2010-01-08T17:03:00.000-08:00

I love sleeping babies....

I especially love these because her bootie is in the air!!! So stinkin' cute!

I hate that my camera does not focus well when it is dark but the pictures were just too precious not to post!

learing to crawl

2010-01-08T17:00:00.000-08:00

Since Wren has learned how to crawl her 'world' has got so much bigger! One night she scooted herself right under the couch!

It started out to be so funny because we were laughing at her....

Then she decided that since she couldn't use her legs to push herself out it was NOT funny!

Wren being a cheeser!

2010-01-08T16:48:00.000-08:00

I pulled out my camera to look at what pictures were on it the other day and as soon as Wren saw it this was her reaction!!

I think that she knows what it is used for! :)

still no pictures

2010-01-06T14:18:00.001-08:00

I guess that a post with no pictures is better than no post at all! I will have to add pictures later! Wren is now 9 months old and I don't know where the time has gone! She is such a cutie pie and we love her so much!! She has finally learned how to crawl and she is so BUSY! always on the move and always getting into things!! She loves the vacuum and LOVES to bathe!! She has figured out that she can move around in the bathtub also and thinks that is pretty awesome! the one thing that she does not like is that she cannot pull herself to a standing position while in the tub! Every time she tries it she falls and then she is soooo angry yet she tries it every time she is in the tub! It is pretty cute I think! Christmas was a lot of fun but I am glad that it is over! We spent several days before Christmas Day going over to moms so that we could clean and organize so that there would be room for all of us to stay there. All of the kids were there and because Grandma Aldridge got sick, she ended up spending Christmas with us instead of going up to Montana to spend the holidays with the Hogge's. All of the kids that live in town except for Scott spent Christmas Eve at mom and dad's and Drew and Jaxon were up at 3 a.m. to see if Santa Claus had arrived! Boy had he ever!!! Everyone else got up at 8 a.m. and after some wait, we finally started opening presents. Jeremiah and I had decided that we were not going to do anything for each other this year and thankfully I had purchased stuff for Wren while I was in Disneyland and Black Friday 2008. The only things that we bought for her this year were 2 Little Einstein video's a Yo Gabba Gabba video and some pajamas. It was fun for us to be able to wrap presents for her and put "TO: Wren FROM: Mom and Dad". We then stayed there all the next week until 1/2/10!!! We are CRAZY!!! It was fun and sometimes stressful but it was nice to be around family and play games, have conversation and just BE together!
I was sick on Christmas Day and Wren got a little sick while we were at moms and Jeremiah got sick the day before we came home! He is still not feeling well and has not been to work this week because he has been feeling so terrible. Other than that, life has been great and we have been able to get all of our Christmas stuff put up, the laundry done and put away and the living room back to normal. Now I just need to work on the kitchen and bathroom and I will feel really great about life!

just a note...

2009-12-07T23:59:00.001-08:00

So just when I feel like Wren is "stuck in a rut" she does something amazing like drop something, look at me and say "uh oh"! or while she is rolling around on the floor roll over to the vaccuum and sit up!! She truly is amazing!

just rambling....

2009-12-07T17:54:00.001-08:00

so.... being a mom is HARD!! The thing that I think is the hardest is the worries that go along with being a parent. I don't know how my parents survived me! I was a terrible teen and I am terrified of Wren becoming me as she gets older. She is such a blessing to me and to Jeremiah but I know that it will always be hard to be a parent. Even now I wonder if I am doing it right. Am I feeding her the right things at the right time, are the bottles that I give her the right amount, do I put her down for naps at the right times? Do I put her to bed at the right time of night and get her up at the right time in the morning - sometimes it is afternoon before she wakes up? Do I give her enough baths, not enough baths? Do I play with her enough, do I read to her enough, does she feel loved? Is she doing the things developmentally that she should be doing? Is she falling behind? Should I worry if she is falling behind? All of these things are things that stress me out. However, I look at her everyday and wonder how I ever lived without her in my life. She is my sunshine and my life.

Ward Christmas Party

2009-12-04T19:53:00.000-08:00

Tonight was our ward Christmas Party. Scott told me about it at 6:00 p.m. it started at 6:30!! Wren was still asleep at 6 so I hurried and got ready and by the time Jeremiah got home at 6:30 we were ready to go. He just had to change his clothes and we were out the door and we got there at about 7! I would have to say that is pretty good!! We ate and chatted with Scott, Shy, Jen and Richard for a little while and then home we came. Wren enjoyed being around people and we got to see Kate and had a good talk with her so that was nice also!

Our cutest girl!

Wren with Uncle Scottie and cousin Tuxzyn

Our family!!

Jaxon James Hathaway!

2009-12-04T16:46:00.000-08:00

Isabella received a letter in the mail from her cousin, Daria. It was a picture that she had drawn just for her. When Valerie opened the picture, this is what it looked like......

That's right, it says "Dumbee yuer ded bie tomoroe Kolbe" Valerie was unsure whether this was a death threat to Isabella or someone else so she had me look at it and I assumed that it said... Dummy, your dead by tomorrow. Kolbe. So we thought that this Kolbe person was sending a threat to Bella.

Come to find out, Jaxon has a "friend" named Kolbe who is always very mean to him and Drew and specializes in getting them into trouble. This note was intended FOR Kolbe, not FROM Kolbe!! Every time I see it it makes me laugh though, what a character! Jaxon is definitely Kevin's kid! :)

Thanksgiving....

2009-12-04T15:43:00.001-08:00

We had a really great Thanksgiving this year. We spent the holiday with the Martin's in Pocatello at Jeremiah's brother, John's home. Each year we split and switch the holidays between the in-laws and the "out-laws". It is really nice because then we don't feel like we are always rushing to be somewhere and each family knows what to expect of us and when we will be there. The food was delicious, the company was great and we had a really great time. We went down on Wednesday night and spent the evening just having conversation and catching up and the Wren and I went over to Clyde and Dixie's to go to bed and Jeremiah went back to John's and talked with his brothers some more. Thursday I woke up with a migraine - YUCK- so Jeremiah got Wren up and ready for the day while I tried to sleep it off. We headed over to John's at about 1:00 p.m. and got the potatoes peeled and started them boiling so that we could have mashed potatoes with dinner. We also brought three salads, 2 boxes of stuffing that we mixed with 3 more boxes that John provided and 2 dozen rolls. John made the turkey and a green bean casserole and Paige made the gravy. There was other food there but I can't really remember what else... I am pretty sure there were yams (yuck).... I would have to say that the only thing that I did not love about the vacation was the drinking. Sometimes when people drink they get loud and obnoxious and when there are only 2 or 3 in a group that are drinking, it is really only fun for those people doing the drinking. I am thankful that I have grown to be the person that I am and no longer feel the need to have a party whenever I don't have to work or get up early the next day. I love that I feel comfortable enough in my skin and life to not feel like I need an escape. Anyway, enough of that!

Friday Valerie MADE me get up with her and do some crazy shopping! And yay for me, I barely spent any money at all!! I got Wren some PJ's at Walmart and Target and some socks at Fred Meyer but other than that I think I only got one other thing!! Good job ME! :) After we were done shopping we were all starving so we went to Perkin's for breakfast and woke mom up to go with us. After that we went a couple more places shopping where mom bought some little Einstein movies for Wren and I bought a Yo Gabba Gabba movie and then we went and saw NEW MOON!!!!!!! Oh how I loved this movie! It was so much better than Twilight on the whole special effects side of things. I do love Twilight also but it was kind of corny! I could tell that they had a much bigger budget on New Moon than they did on Twilight! After the movie, I finally got to come home and take a nap - Thank you Jeremiah for watching Wren all day! You are the greatest dad and hubby!! :) I'm pretty sure that we did something else that evening but I can not remember what! :( Blair and Paige did come up to our house that night with all of their kids and we just hung out and talked. The "men" all went over to Papa Tom's and played pool and ate pizza while us girls stayed so that Wren could go to bed and we just talked. Saturday I got up and made breakfast for everyone and then we were planning on going and seeing The Blind Side at 3:55 but it was sold out so we just went and walked around the mall. I got a pair of pants for Wren at Old Navy and we ate some pretzels... YUMMY! Then Blair and Paige went back to Pocatello and Jeremiah and I went home and watched movies and hung out. Wren has now cut another tooth on the top and has started to get a runny nose and is not feeling on top of the world. She is still a little stuffy and acting a bit sickly as of today and I feel really terrible for her but I am sooooo ready for her to be my happy healthy girl again. The plus side is that she still sleeps really well!

Here are some pictures of our Thanksgiving....

Blair and John doing Karaoke

Wren sitting on Grandpa Clyde's lap (probably listening to John and Blair sing Karaoke)

The Feast!!

Uncle Blair with Wren

Chase and Charlee making funny faces!

Another Awesome Giveaway!!

2009-11-20T14:13:00.001-08:00

This one is awesome!!! A FREE Coach Purse!!!

GO HERE to enter: www.recessionistaparty.com

just cause.....

2009-11-19T17:55:00.001-08:00

Okay, so my friend Angela has been having a hard time with some people in her ward and on her PERSONAL blog posted the following entry she has now decided to take it down or I would just provide a link to her blog. Just so you know, Angela is a great person! She is the kind of person that can take criticism very well - she will listen to what you have to say and then really consider it and can admit if she is wrong!! She received a lot of bad feedback because of this post and I just feel that you should be able to post something on your own blog and have the people who randomly read your blog respect what you have to say and even if they don't agree, perhaps just respond in a respectful manner!

Friendship & The Golden Rule
The past month has been a very difficult one for me. I have recieved some deep flesh wounds from some "so called" friends. It began as a small disagreement and then just snowballed from there.But, this post is not about what happened or didn't happen; who is right and who is wrong. This post is about friendship and how to treat people.Anyone who knows me very well knows that I'm the type of person that loves people and makes friends very easily...and I take those friendships very seriously. I will do anything for my friends, just ask them. I also think that the TRUE test of friendship is when there is an arguement or disagreement. If you really value that friend, you'll have an open heart and really want to fix the problem. I've had this experience in the past and it has made the friendships even stronger afterwards. Needless to say, this did not happen this time. These ladies felt it was more important for them to be "right" than to care about me or my feelings or show me any kind of respect and/or love in the process. In fact, they actually used their leadership callings in the church to go to the bishop and have me released from my calling without even trying to work it out with me first. Wow. That's just wrong. I guess they didn't value my friendship, which makes me sad.This whole thing makes me sad: sad that they didn't care enough about me or that they think so little of me that they couldn't come to me to talk it out. Am I really THAT scary of a person? I'm sad that the bishopric had to be involved; sad to lose a calling that I loved and was good at (the bishop said I was the BEST Primary Choirster they've EVER had in the ward); sad that my feelings have been hurt so deeply; and sad to lose two "friends" in the process. But, I guess if this is the way they treat people after some small disagreement, it's better to find this out sooner than later and it makes me really feel bad for them.Thankfully, my wonderful husband and TRUE friends have rallied around me and supported me through this whole emotional rollercoaster. We all just can't believe how this molehill became a mountain to these ladies and sad that this has happened in our ward. I have a wonderful husband. Seth is very wise and has really helped me remember what's important in my life. He knows just what to say and how to say it to help me feel better and keep the right perspective during this most recent drama. He has given me several good things to ponder and pray on and pointed out a couple good Conference talks that have helped me to refocus and try to get over the hurt and betrayal that I've felt. I'm SO blessed to have him in my life and SO blessed for the STRONG testimony I have of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now, I'm not saying I didn't contribute to this mess. That would be stupid. It takes two (or in this case three) to tango. We are all to blame. Looking back I would've done a few things differently, and would hope that they would've too. I have definately learned a lot in this whole ordeal and I'll try hard to make sure this doesn't happen again. I hope that we can all be reminded of The Golden Rule and remember that even if you disagree with someone, you still need to treat them with respect and love, no matter how "right" you think you are. I also hope that this hurt I'm feeling doesn't last too long.Thanks for letting me vent.

These are the following comments:

Cynthia said...
Oh Angela, I'm so sorry this happened. It is so hard to have these experiences. I'm glad for your positive attitude; you can never go wrong when you continue to be kind and love others even when they aren't showing you the same courtesy. That said, that is VERY difficult to do. Keep at it, girl. You're awesome!!
November 9, 2009 6:58 PM

SWhitleyNC said...
I love you...Hate, Hate, Hate...I am really sad those sisters did that...Hate, Hate, Hate...I am sure Heavenly Father is sad, too...Hate, Hate, Hate...I guess we just need to "pray for those sisters" like one of them emailed the other day...Hate,Hate,Hate...they need to listen to their own words and rememeber actions speak louder than words, but words hurt, too...Hate, Hate, Hate...stay true to what you know is right and I LOVE YOU!!! Sharon
November 13, 2009 12:44 PM

Christy Ivory said...
Man Ang,I must know somemore details. I'll call you in a couple of days. Hang in there. You don't need them. Make other friends. You don't need to waste your time with people who don't appreciate you. DOn't let them bother you. You are totally above that. Have a good day and just pretend like it never happened. Otherwise it will eat away at you like.....umm....something. Keep your chin up!
November 15, 2009 3:35 AM

Anonymous said...
I am afraid that any healing that is to be done will be more difficult now that things have been "vented" all over the internet. I hope "true friends" aren't being asked to take sides. Adversity comes in many shapes, sizes, and guises, and they help us see our weaknesses and strengths. I have been so torn not knowing what to say to help you. I am empathetic to your sensitivity and feelings, but you will get more peace from prayer than from writing people off and not remembering that none of us are paid to serve in the church. We are not only judged by our actions, but how we react to others. I love you.
November 16, 2009 9:02 AM

Anonymous said...
The first anonymous comment was right on the button. This post really wasn't the best way to retrieve the spirit, nor to invite others to feel it. We love you Angela and so does your Heavenly Father. He is the one who can really turn this around appropriately, Not the masses in the ether.
November 16, 2009 7:51 PM

Anonymous said...
Oh Angela, I hope that your anonymous "friends" realize that a PERSONAL blog is a place to vent your PERSONAL feelings - kind of like a journal. When you have been betrayed like you have, its okay to feel hurt and even blog about it. (It kind of sounds like your "friends" are on the defensive because they know they have something to be ashamed about). Sometimes it helps just to write it all down in order to let it go. It is a part of your life and it is something that you are clearly struggling with and attempting to deal with right now. I hope that you can find peace from this and I am so proud of you for trying to gain eternal perspective too. And as far as "true friends" are concerned, it sounds like those women never were. Just know that there are people out here that think you are an amazing person and that we are wishing only the VERY best for you!!! - Valerie H
November 17, 2009 3:29 PM

Shauna Martin said...
Angela, I would like your permission to repost this entry onto my blog. I love so much how you have handled this issue and hope that all of the other parties involved have had the opportunity to soul search as you have. You are such a wonderful person and certainly do not deserve to be treated in the manner that you have. I think that you are a great example and a wonderful leader! Love you! Shauna
November 18, 2009 12:52 AM

Anonymous said...
Anybody read the October 2009 Ensign? There's a great little blurb about blogging. If you want something to be private, this is not the venue. Don't give in to the natural man! Peace, sisters! : )
November 18, 2009 6:54 AM

Sharon Whitley said...
We all get to make choices in life...we can choose to go to PERSONAL blogs and read what that person has to say...or we can CHOOSE NOT TO READ IT. (Maybe the last entry should re-read the article since they left a comment on a "blog" themselves.) We don't have control over waht someone else says or does in this temporal world. We don't even get to have control over the consequences to choices...and that is the part that stinks. It is funny how when someone uses their God given right to "voice their opinion"...and we all have opinions on everything (especially women)...it becomes a "choosing of sides". There is something called respect that was lost somewhere along this journey and it makes me sad. We are ALL Heavenly Father's children and I am sure He is saddened at what we are all doing to each other...why not pick up the phone and call and do the old fashion thing of apoligize...blogs, emails and even letters can be interpreted the wrong way. We need to FEEL of each other's spirits...and it is hard to do in a format like this. Yes, there might be yelling to start with...but if we try to see the others point of view...whether we agree with it or not...we might be able to heal those deep flesh wounds. I saw Angela extremely heartbroken this past Fast Sunday at what happenend to her. I was very disappointed that two of my fellow ward members were involved in this huge heartache for her (even if they didn't mean for it to be interpreted the way Angela did)...and they have not made any attempt to phone HER and try to straighten this out. This is not how Heavenly Father would want this to end. We don't just brush it under the rug and think it will go away. When a married couple is having difficulty in their marriage...I am sure their Bishop would not suggest "divorce" at the first meeting...he wouldn't even just talk to one of them, then the other and then make some life altering decision for them...but through counsel with the Lord and both the husband and wife...he would have them work this out.That is Heavenly Father's plan. Friendships are the same. They ARE worth fighting for. We are suppose to be a ward family...and families do disagree...but in the end...we have to keep that eternal perspective...who we are, where we are going and "why we are here"...please dear sisters...please CALL each other and meet for lunch. (Pray first so the Lord will guide you.) I will look after children so that this emnity that is growing at such a fast pace...ends. YOU CAN make a difference in the life of your sisters. Pride goeth before a fall...don't let Satan win this.Much love and peace to all involved at this point.
November 18, 2009 10:04 AM

Anonymous said...
I just think these comments are very commical that you people actually THINK you know what's going on and who's to blame! Stay to your own business and LOVE ONE ANOTHER!
November 18, 2009 11:40 AM

Shauna Martin said...
One other thing that I wanted to tell you Angela, I am proud of you for your faith. Someone with less faith than you would surely have let this contention cause them to go inactive. I truly hope that everything works out here although I really don't see how that could be possible when "anonymous" refuses to acknowledge any part in what is going on. I completely agree with what Sharon has said and loved her example of a marriage that was having problems. Surely that couple would not really think that email was the way to actually communicate. LOVE YOU! :)
November 18, 2009 12:15 PM

Anonymous said...
Ditto the last comment! You can still love your friends but don't contribute to the gossip. Yep, that's what it is...GOSSIP! Nobody knows what the full story is but the people involved, and that's the way it should stay. I love my ward and everyone in it! I hope the parties involved can resolve things peacefully, because I know that all of the ladies involved are sweet, sweet women!

Giveaway!

2009-11-05T18:47:00.000-08:00

Go here!! www.recessionistaparty.com Great Giveaway

Way to long....

2009-11-02T23:26:00.000-08:00

Okay, so it has been way to long since I last updated my blog and I have no good excuse... I have actually been waiting to upload pictures to my new computer but still haven't gotten around to doing it so this will be a pictureless entry!

This summer was crazy busy! We went to the Tracy Family Reunion, the Mike and Leda Hathaway Family Reunion and the Mike and Lorraine Hathaway Family Reunion all within about a week of each other. They were all a blast but my favorite was, of course, my families reunion. We went to the WorldMark resort at Wolf Creek in Utah and our family is just getting SO big! We had to have 3 condos and we all did a fair bit of walking! There was tons of yummy food, games that we played and swimming. The most surprising thing that came from this reunion was that I discovered that I really love to play racquetball!! I am not very good at it (YET) but I want to get better. It is quite the workout and fun to do.

Wren was held pretty much the entire reunion (By Grandma Aldridge!) and so when we got home, she was S.P.O.I.L.E.D! She was kind of driving me crazy (like making me want to scream into a pillow kind of crazy) and I thought that maybe on top of me not holding her 24-7 she was not feeling well also. So about 3 days after we got home I felt her gums and sure enough, there was a little tiny tooth trying to poke through. Well, add that into the equation and I thought that she was actually being really good!! She now has two little teeth and I think that she looks sooooo darn cute with them!

In October, Kathryn invited Valerie and I to go to Disneyland with her because she was taking Drew and Audrey for their 8th birthday. OF COURSE we both went and it was fantastic!! We had quite the adventure, starting with me driving down all by myself 3 days before the rest of the party came so that I could drop Wren off with Blair and Paige and hopefully get her settled in before abandoning her. Mom couldn't believe that I would leave her and I have to admit that it was WAY harder than I imagined that it was going to be. Yes, I cried! Isabella did ride down with me and was supposed to help me with Wren but really it mostly came down to her getting to watch movies and eat at McDonald's on the way down! :) She was really cute though and I loved having her with me. I then met the rest of the party at Mike and Jackie's house in Vegas and we took off for California. Valerie got her apples confiscated at the California border then remembered that she had 2 more in her purse and ate them with great satisfaction to the amusement of Kathryn and I. We went straight to Disneyland the first day and Drew was completely convinced that it was a water park and was a little confused as to why we were not getting in our swimsuits!!! That boy was so hyped about going that on the drive there, we stopped at McDonald's and he was literally climbing on the tables! It was awesome. We finally took a break at around 5:00 p.m. and realized that since about 11:00 that morning we had neither fed nor "watered" the kids... I guess that we were really excited to be there also! There was so much fun stuff that we did while we were there and so many times that we were able to laugh at Valerie... Seriously, of all of the girls in our family, I would have to say that I am the most hot tempered and get irritated about things way quicker than the rest. On this trip, it was ALL Valerie! :) It was great fun to just sit back and watch the crazy roll off of her!! hehe, love you Val! She even cried at one point and the kids were flabbergasted as to what the heck was going on even though she was upset "for them". I will have to post more on the Disneyland subject when I finally get my pictures loaded.

Wren is still a wonderful baby. She sleeps through the night, usually for up to 13 hours. We have broken her of waking up in the night to have us put her pacifier back in her mouth. That only took one night of her (and me) crying for 2 1/2 hours straight. I am glad that it has not happened since because it really truly nearly broke my heart. It was completely worth it though. Now she will also go to sleep without being rocked for nap times also. There are times that I really miss that but it is such a blessing to be able to just lay her down, have her smile up at me, roll over and go to sleep. I also miss her sleeping in our bed with us. She sleeps better in her own bed but I really did love waking up to see her looking over at me and smiling when she saw that I was awake!!

Some of the funny things that she does now are still the fake coughing, she will do one real one and then it is all fake after that! Sometimes that also segues into fake laughing which I think is hilarious! She still loves the bathtub and now that she can sit up on her own she loves it even more, if possible. She discovered splashing and I can't even get mad at her because she has this look of pure bliss on her face as she does it! She has only had two diaper rashes, neither that have lasted very long or been very traumatic. She stands up (with my assistance at her insistence) holding on to couches or her walker/toy but is not very good at getting back down and usually just takes a nose dive and ends up hitting her head on the toy as well as the ground. She is really good at eating now and has decided that she does indeed like peas and green beans! The only thing that she has ever turned her head away from is red potatoes that came from Johnny Carino's and I think that it was because there was just to much "stuff" in them!

So that is pretty much all that has been going on and hopefully I will remember more detailed stuff once I find my pictures and then I will be able to update some more!! YAY!

Wren's 4 Month Accomplishments

2009-08-11T00:47:00.000-07:00

Already 4 months old!!

How the time flies! Here we are already into August and Wren just turned 4 months old! This summer has been so hectic and our Internet has been down for about a week and a half so we have lots to catch up on!

At 4 months old, Wren weighs 13 pounds 1 oz and is 24 1/2 inches long.

Wren LOVES baths! She actually fell asleep in one the other night and whenever I am trying to hold off bed or feeding time, I can put her in the bathtub and she is instantly content!!

She has also discovered that she really loves the car. When I was pregnant with her I would listen to the song "Let It Rock" by Kevin Rudolph and she would always move around and now whenever she is super upset in the car I can start that song and she will stop crying, I think that it is very cute!

Wren has discovered her thumb. She doesn't suck it often but when she does it is adorable! I don't really want her to continue with it, but right now it is fun to see her realizing what all of her body parts are. Another body part that she has figured out are her feet and toes! She loves to grab them but has not gotten around to putting them in her mouth yet! We are just waiting for that day. The other day she was pulling her pacifier out of her mouth and then would cry and put it back in her mouth, I don't think that she realized that she was the one doing it! :) How cute!

She also FAKE coughs! It is pathetic (but also cute!) When I am swaddling her in her blanket at night and she is hungry she will start to cry and then do the fake cough! She will also do it sometimes when I do it to her. I love that she is getting so big but it breaks my heart that she is getting big! It is a catch 22 I guess, they can't stay little forever so we have to live and love every minute of it.

She also GIGGLES!! She likes it when we "eat" her tummy or when I kiss her neck. I love her giggles!! It melts my heart every time she does it!

We have started her on Rice Cereal and I have just been putting it in her bottle because she mostly just spits it out when I give it to her with a spoon. This created a bit of a problem when she became constipated and got a rash so bad that it bled but a little bit of prune juice later she was back to normal. We put her on the cereal in hopes that she would not spit up quite so much and it helped a little bit. I also bought a Dr. Brown's bottle ($7.00 later -sheesh!) and that seems to have helped some as well. She still spits up more than I would like (and a lot on Aunt Kathryn!!) but at least it has gotten to the point that I feel like I can move her around and she won't vomit all over me! The first time that I gave her Rice Cereal I did try a spoon first but she was not so good at it! What she was good at and really really loves is her HIGHCHAIR!!! She loves to be in it! It is so cute! I think she thinks that she is a big person when she gets to sit at the table in her chair!!

Both Jeremiah and I are fascinated by every little thing that she does and are so grateful that we were blessed with this precious spirit in our home. We are doing our best to be the best parents that we can and hopefully we won't mess her up too badly!

I love it... But I did steal it from someone else's blog!!!

2009-07-28T22:11:00.000-07:00

Professor is a Genius
An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had once failed an entire class.
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That class had insisted that Obama's socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama's plan".All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A.After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy.As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little. The second test average was a D! No one was happy.When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F..The scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.Could not be any simpler than that.

Dixie

2009-07-24T17:48:00.001-07:00

Jeremiah's mother, Dixie went into the hospital (Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center) on Friday to have a pain pump removed they were having here spend the night so Clyde stayed the night with us. Saturday they kept her in the hospital for observation. Sunday morning the nurse called Jeremiah to let him know that she was acting a little "loopy". Clyde had just left to see her when they called and when he got home he confirmed this and said that she was threading the blanket through her fingers and kept sitting up and grabbing at things that were not there. Clyde went downstairs to take a nap and Dr. Cache called Jeremiah and told him that Dixie had a Subderal Hemotoma (which basically means that there is blood on the outer layer of the brain)and that they needed to get her in to surgery ASAP to drain it. So, Jeremiah called his brothers and we headed to the hospital to wait for her to come out of surgery. John came up and was there in about 20 minutes although he lives in Pocatello, I think he drove about 120 mph! Blair said that if anything went wrong in the surgery that he could be here in 8 hours. She came out of surgery and they told us that she would be in the ICU for 5-7 days and would probably be sedated that entire time. They also told us that there could be a chance for some brain damage although older people usually do better when this happens to them because their brains have started to shrink so the blood has more room to go before it starts causing damage from the pressure.

Clyde gave her a blessing that evening and she was not looking so good when we left. Monday she was doing better but they told us that they would not know more for awhile. Tuesday she was awake and no longer intubated but Clyde said that she didn't recognize a lot of the people that came to see her and when Jeremiah went in to see her she introduced Clyde to him. They also discovered that she had MERSA again so everyone that goes to see her must be fully gowned and wear a mask. Wednesday she was not able to finish her sentences and was getting frustrated with that but today Clyde said that was much better so each day seems to see an improvement with her health and we continue to pray for her each day that she will continue to get better and be able to come home.

We love you Dixie!

Garage Sales.....

2009-07-24T17:30:00.001-07:00

So, Mom, Valerie, Shyanne and I decided to get together and have the "annual" garage sale at my house on July 10th and 11th. We had soooo much fun doing it and had so much stuff left over that we decided to do ANOTHER one the next weekend! That one we held at Valerie's house and both weekends we made about $1000.00!

Wren did not enjoy the garage sale experience. The first weekend on Friday she was perfect. Grandma Aldridge came and just held her most of the day so that was a huge help but on Saturday, I think that she got way to hot and was just miserable most of the day. I had been up making bows to sell and getting all the last minute things done on Thursday night and so I ended up not getting any sleep at all so by the time things wrapped up on Friday I was pretty much worn out! I just sat in the recliner with the blinds open and slept the rest of the day. Waking up occasionally when people would come to buy stuff. We seriously still had people coming by at 10:30 p.m.!! How ridiculous, they couldn't even see the stuff! Luckily, we learned our lesson and covered everything when we were at Val's the next weekend!

Here is Mom, Val and Shy under the canopy staying "cool" in the shade.

The kids were all pretty good, mom set up this train track and let them play with that and Isaac especially loved that.... Ethan just loved to destroy it! He is a little like Stitch in the Disney movie "Lilo and Stitch"!

This was the best purchase that I made at the garage sale :)

By the time we were done on Saturday all the kids were blazin' hot so I put the water on the lawn and off came the clothes! Then we were loading up the tables to take back to the church and they thought that Grandma's suburban was the funnest toy EVER!! I'm not sure why, it was hotter in there than it was outside!

After we got the tables taken back and everything put in the trailer, we all (Mom, Dad, Grandma Aldridge, Valerie, Bella, Isaac, Ethan, Me, Jeremiah and Wren) went and ate at Garcia's the first weekend and the last weekend Valerie made us dinner!! It was delicious!

Boy, am I glad that is over with!

Funny Bella!

2009-07-24T17:22:00.001-07:00

Okay, since Valerie doesn't have a blog, I have to write the funny things that Bella says in MINE!!!

Valerie and Justin went to Girls Camp on Wednesday so Bella and Isaac stayed with mom and Ethan stayed at my house (that will have to be a seperate entry!!!). While she was at moms house, Bella was crying over something and mom told her to "save the drama for your mama" and Bella stopped crying, looked at her and said "she doesn't like it either!"

Today on our way to "Ribbon Retreat" Valerie told me that this morning she was leaving to go somewhere and Bella told her "Adios" and Val responded with "Adios, Amigos". Bella immediately said "No, no, no, I'm not doing the rhyming thing!"

How hilarious is this child? She totally cracks me up all the time! She usually acts just like a grown up and it is so dang cute I just want to hug and kiss on her all the time!!

4th of July

2009-07-22T11:14:00.000-07:00

We had a really good time at Kevin and Kali's house this 4th of July! All of the family was there and it was so nice outside! Kevin set up the Bonzai water slide, a couple of kiddie pools and other water sports fun activities. The kids really enjoyed that and the adults all enjoyed watching them.

Wren was a very good baby the entire weekend! She is such a cutie and we all love her sooo much!

Isabella and Daria are best friends! They are the same age and love to hang out together and play with dolls or barbies. It is so cute to watch them play together!

Ethan is a CRAZY DOOD! (yes, I know that I spelled that wrong, it just seems appropriate for this kid!) He loved the water so much! He was even going down the slide like the bigger kids and loving every second of it!! He just wanted us bigger people to help him up the slide so that he could go down and then he would stand in the bottom where the water would pool and jump. It was pretty funny since he would mostly just fall down after one or two jumps! :) He would then taking a running dive into the pool that you can see in the background of this picture! We were all pretty sure that he was going to drown, but he lived through the weekend and seemed to love every second of being in the water.

We put Wren in the swim suit that we bought for her in Hawaii and it was so cute! She fell asleep in it with her sunglasses on!

Then when she woke up we tried getting in the water but it was not so much fun for her! :) I think that it was still to cold so we tried the next day and although I do not have a picture of it, she did a lot better. That may have been because I sat down with her in my lap in the water so she may have felt a bit more secure, but it was pretty cute! Grandpa Mike kept yelling at me that "She doesn't LIKE it, get her OUT!" I'm so glad that he was there to defend her!

Isaac was funny! I think that he has found his calling in life!! He was done in the water and just went over to the railing and started modeling his underwear! Yes, those are little boy boxers, how cute are they!:)

After we all got done in the water and were playing and watching a movie (Inkheart) inside, Valerie and I were downstairs with Wren and found this little doll stroller. We wanted to see if Wren would fit in it and sure enough, she did!! Ethan and Trey had such a good time pushing her around! Of course, as you can probably tell from Trey's face it was not as fun when they were not the one pushing!

Daddy and HIs Girl

2009-07-03T01:16:00.000-07:00

I don't think that Jeremiah likes this kid at all, can you tell from the look on his face?

Can you tell that they are related?? They have the EXACT same look on their faces :) It's so cute!!

This was the result of their "play time" together! Man, I love her smile!

Jeremiah is a great dad. He loves to do the fun things with Wren that make her smile and he is also willing to do the "yucky and not so fun" stuff also, like changing her diaper. He also feeds her a lot of the time and likes to help get her ready for bed and give her baths (which really is one of the fun things to do because she loves it so much!). I really appreciate all that he does to help me with her and I am so glad that he truly enjoys doing these things as well. I also appreciate all that he does around the house, he tries to help out with the dishes and he is always taking out the trash without having to be asked (mostly!!). He will also pitch in and do whatever I ask him to do. He has also given up his "shop" for the past two years for us (me, my mom and Valerie) to store "garage sale" items in for when we annually have a garage sale. Hopefully this will be the last year that he has to suffer through that!

Today was the last day of the summer semester for Jeremiah and I am so proud of him for sticking with it and giving it all that he has. I know that school can be really hard and I am glad that he has decided to do this. It has caused a massive hiccup in our finances, but I know that in the long run it will be worth it. There have been a lot of sacrifices and one major sacrifice is about to come up for Jeremiah when he has to put a "For Sale" sign on his motorcycle and I hope that he can remember that it is all "for the greater good" (that's a Harry Potter reference in case anyone cares!).

I love you Jeremiah!

My little lady

2009-07-03T01:01:00.000-07:00

I just love this picture

This is another one of those days (pretty much everyday!) where she was hamming it up so much that I couldn't help but pull out the camera... who am I kidding, I have the camera with me everywhere I go! :) I just adore how happy and cute she is in the morning's. It really helps me to start my day off on a happy note!

Also, I love her feet!! They are so stinkin' cute!! I just want to chew on them! and sometimes, I DO!!

So Stylish!

2009-07-03T00:58:00.000-07:00

okay, so I don't think that Wren loves her sunglasses :)

I'm so mean! I don't know why I feel the need to torture this child as much as I do, but I still think that is the cutest face ever! I also love that the sunglasses are soooo HUGE on her face, she looks like a rockstar! Jeremiah thinks that she looks like a flapper girl with that headband and bow on!

Lately Wren has found that she can warble. It's kind of like she is rolling rrrrr's off of her tongue. She really sounds like a bird. Sometimes, when she is crying she will do that on accident and then stop crying and just do that for awhile, then go back to crying. It is so dern cute! Also, she SNORTS all the time when she cries!! It is hilarious! Poor kid, I'm sure that she must think that I have no sympathy for her because I find all of the things that she does to show me that she is irritated amusing! Oh well, that's what mom's are for, right?

4 Generation

2009-06-30T17:21:00.000-07:00

So a couple of weeks ago Kali, my sister in law, took Wren's 2 month pictures and I also wanted to get a 4 generation picture taken.

I have the greatest family in the whole world! Grandma Kathryn Miles Tracy Aldridge is the most selfless, giving, Christlike person that I know. She does so much for my family and she loves Wren so much. I am so blessed to have her in my life. She holds Wren every chance that she gets and in fact everyone else calls her a "baby hog"!! I think that Wren is the favorite. :) She has taught me many things, that the Gospel is so important and that it is always okay to treat people like they are the most important person in the room.

Mom, Lorraine Tracy Hathaway is also a great person, she is the friendliest person I have ever met and I don't think that she has ever met a stranger! It used to be so embarrassing to go ANYwhere with her because she would talk to EVERYONE!! Nothing was ever a quick trip but I have really grown to appreciate that about her and I strive to be more like her. She has taught me that life doesn't always need to be quite so fast-paced and busy and that people matter!

GREAT GIVEAWAY!!!

2009-06-29T22:10:00.000-07:00

okay peeps!! go to this link to see some WAAAYYY cute bows and enter to win some also!! This is my friend from St. George and she is super talented! She has made lots of bows for Wren who LOVES to wear them everyday! :)

http://itsallaboutthebow.blogspot.com/

New Pictures... Surprising!

2009-06-26T00:35:00.000-07:00

We were at Sears on Saturday buying pants for Jeremiah for Fathers Day. They were having a huge sale and mom had given us money to buy some pants. While he was looking for and trying on pants, Wren and I were just cruisin' around the store and some people from the portrait studio came over and asked if they could take some pictures of Wren because they were in training. Of course I said yes because she was looking soooo cute and being so happy! Valerie was on her way over to Sears to buy pants for herself and so she met me in the studio and we got some very cute shots of Wren. Of couse, then they wanted us to buy a package for about $400.00!! HELLO! Are you kidding me?? So the lowest that they could go was to $120.00 with 10% off for pulling me out of the store and that was just for the CD. I walked away even though I really really really really loved the pictures. Mostly because they were the first pictures that she has ever taken that she was not being sooo naughty in and actually smiled for most of them. I told Mom what had happened and she came into Sears today and bought me a package of pictures with the CD. She is so great! What a woman! I am so appreciate of her, she does so much for me and I love her to death. Here are some of the pictures that we took....

Smiley Sue!

2009-06-21T13:58:00.000-07:00

Every morning I have to try and resist taking pictures of this cutie!! As you can probably see, I give in to the temptation most of the time! She is just always so smiley and happy in the mornings that I have to take a picture! It is so adorable, I love her more and more all of the time!

It is so fun to just sit in front of the computer and watch the screen saver with all of our pictures on it!

Blair Martin Family

2009-06-16T11:06:00.000-07:00

This is Jeremiah's brother, Blair and his family: Paige, Sterling and Parker.

They came and stayed at our home from Friday night until Sunday after we had dinner at mom's house. We had a lot of fun with them and I am so grateful that they were able to be here.

Saturday, Paige and I had to go and get something black to wear for pictures that we were taking later that day so we went to Old Navy and Sears and found some good deals. Then we went down to Freeman Park and Kali took our pictures. Jeremiah said that they have not had a professional picture taken of their family since he was 3 years old so I am glad that we were able to do that. Blair's daughter, Randi was not able to come so she is not in the pictures, but all the boys families were there and everyone did a pretty good job in their pics. I will have to post some of those later.

After we took pictures, we went to Chuck-a-rama to eat and then Dixie and Clyde went home and the rest of us came back to our home and just hung out, held Wren and chatted. We went and shopped some more at Sears where Paige bought some very cute outfits for Wren and a pair of tennis shoes that are SOOO adorable on her! Then we went and ate at Red Robin and got our food for free because the service was just terrible and the waitress actually argued with us! Sterling stayed at home and played the Wii while we went shopping and I believe that he was up until almost 3 a.m. playing Super Paper Mario! I'm glad that he had fun on that! :)

UNDER ARREST!!!

2009-06-16T10:52:00.000-07:00

Wren's first run in with the law!!

This is her Uncle John Martin. He was called in to work but was able to come to the blessing before going in. We were all so glad that he was there!

I am loving that bow!

Uncle Kevin

2009-06-16T10:49:00.000-07:00

Everytime that Kevin has held Wren she has either given him crusty looks or started crying!

She has FINALLY forgiven him for whatever it was that he has done to her!

Can you tell that he is so relieved??

Wren's Blessing

2009-06-16T10:46:00.000-07:00

Wren was so great for her blessing!!

I was not so sure that all was going to go as well as it did. She started her day off waking up at 9:30 a.m. Well, I had to wake her up because she was just soooo tired!! Then she ate and got dressed and off we went to church an hour late! Luckily we have reverse schedule so we hadn't missed the slot for her blessing. She was so tired from eating and riding for 10 minutes in the car by the time we got to the church she was screaming her head off! So, Jeremiah went down to the clerks office to do the paperwork needed and I walked around trying to get her to sleep. She never really went to sleep and was pretty fussy up until Jeremiah took her to give her the blessing. Then she was perfect. Jeremiah said that she just laid there and looked around at all of the people who were there to see her.

A lot of people came to see her, those who stood in the circle were: Jeremiah Martin, Mike Hathaway, Clyde Martin, Kevin Hathaway, Scott Hathaway, Justin Hendricks, Blair Martin, Kent Roberts, Aaron Roberts, Tom Brown, Dave Hathaway and Bishop Pete Demitropolis.

The blessing was beautiful, Jeremiah did a wonderful job. I was so happy and grateful that everyone was there for us. I know that it has been a long hard road getting to where we are. I have had a lot of moments in my life that have been rebellious and I have not understood all of the challenges that have been put in my pathway but I am so very grateful for where I am now and I know that I am the person that I am today because of those challenges and roadblocks and the way that I responded to them. I am so grateful to my parents for always being there for me and believing in me. They have not always agreed with my decisions but I have always known that they love me even though they could not accept the things that I was doing. I hope to do as good of a job raising Wren, and any other children that we are blessed with, as well as my parents raised me. I am also so very grateful for the gospel in my life. I am so grateful for the gift of repentance and for the love of my Heavenly Father. I am so thankful that Jesus gave his life that we all might have the opportunity for eternal life and to Joseph Smith for being the boy and man that he was. I am also so very grateful to Jeremiah. He is such a strength in my life and I love him so much. He is so patient with me and with Wren. He is such a wonderful father and I know that Wren loves him so much. He does so much for us and I am proud of him for going back to school and being committed to making his life and our lives better.

Blessing...

2009-06-12T02:37:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone, we are blessing Wren on Sunday and all of you are invited!! :) Our sacrament starts at 10:50 a.m. and the church is on S. Boulevard between 8th and 9th!

2 Months Old

2009-06-07T23:11:00.000-07:00

I just get cuter and cuter!

6/1/09

Wren had her two month appointment and weighed in at 9 pounds 6 ounces! She is gaining like crazy!! According to Dr. Bennett she is still a perfect baby and we are inclined to agree with him.

We have found out some interesting things about Wren these past two months... For one, she really doesn't love it when I eat lots and lots of peanut butter M&M's. It makes her break out in a rash. Now, when I say lots and lots, I mean that they were my main food for several days! At first I thought that it was just baby acne and that it would go away but I found that as soon as I stopped eating the M&M's the "acne" would go away! Poor poor me! Another thing that we have learned is that she is a morning girl unless she is cuddling with her mom and then she will sleep for an extra couple of hours as long as I pull her into bed with me before she is STARVING to death! I really don't mind her being a morning person because she is so cute in the mornings. As soon as I unwrap her from her swaddled blanket she starts stretching and does that for about 3-5 minutes, then she is so "talkative". She ooh's and aahh's and coo's and really mostly sounds like a cat mewling most of the time!

The car still doesn't really soothe her, she would rather have someone holding her!

She loves to have her face cuddled right up next to my neck to go to sleep and this position also soothes her when she doesn't think that she is full but I have no milk left to give.

We are still falling more and more in love with her daily and everyone that she meets seems to fall in love with her as well! She is such a smiley happy baby and I appreciate the fact that she is such a wonderful spirit to have around. It is so easy to be happy with her and Jeremiah in my life. Sure, we still have problems, but the big picture is so beautiful that it is hard to look away!

Jackson Hole

2009-06-07T22:57:00.000-07:00

Last thursday Valerie and Justin invited us to go to Jackson Hole, Wyoming with them to go swimming. They say that there is the best swimming pool for little kids there and their kids just love it. So, I decided at the last minute to go. They waited for Jeremiah to get out of school and then waited for us to get something to eat, then waited for us to go back home and get our camera... so, we got a kind of late start. We finally got out of here at about 2, 2:30ish. Joel, Whitney and Ellie came also. The drive is pretty long and Wren was not completely loving it! Because of the delays that we had she was very hungry about half way there. Luckily we were stopped by road construction so I climbed into the backseat and fed her while we waited for our turn to cross the bridge.

When we finally arrived at our destination we found that the pool was closed!!!!!! They had some problems with the chemicals in the water and it was not going to be open until 4 o'clock. We went ahead and paid so that we could get right in at 4 but then they checked the pool again at 4 and said that it may be ready by 5 or 5:30. We decided to just head back home and maybe stop at Heise to swim since the kids were so excited to get in the water.

On our way back Wren was hungry AGAIN! I don't think that I am producing enough breastmilk for her because she is hungry all the time and even when she waits for three hours or more she will attach and then pull of and scream at me then reattach and start that whole process over again. I had remembered to bring some formula with me but unfortunately I forgot a bottle! We stopped at a gas station and they said that they did not have any bottles but the gas station down the road did so off we went and finally got the screamer under control! I guess that was a good lesson on being prepared! :)

We arrived at Heise to discover that their pools were closed except for their hot pools which the kids would not have enjoyed anyway so we went and ate some pizza and let the kids run some of their pent up energy off. When we were getting ready to leave the pizza place us girls went in to find the bathrooms and the owner was standing at the door holding it open for us. When we walked in, he said "Restrooms?"in this really creepy voice. It was quite funny and we were all glad that we were there together and not alone with him!!

Here are some of the pictures that I took of Wren on our way to Jackson

She looks a little worried in this one:

This is what Valerie, Justin, Joel and Whitney rode up in, a really really old suburban!! We kept calling them the Klampits! The poor old beast had so much trouble getting there with all the hills and turns that they had to take another way out to save the brakes! I'm hoping that they did not carpool in this thing to save on gas 'cause I think it only gets about 2.5/3 mpg!!!

Yeah, I just had to add this picture of Valerie because she is lookin so great here!

just one more Memorial Day post!

2009-06-07T22:39:00.000-07:00

Here is me and my girl!

I love her!!

by the way, I can see you back there Mary!! :)

More Memorial Day

2009-06-07T22:26:00.000-07:00

The kids had so much fun at Kathryn's house! They love to go over there because she has so much fun stuff to do!! All of them that have bikes brought them over and we spent one afternoon out front riding bikes and riding in the motorized mini car that Kathryn has. It was hilarious when Kevin got in on the action by riding Daria's little red tricycle! Even the neighbors down the street came out to watch the action! Mom and Dad came over each day. Grandma Aldridge had Aunt Marjorie and Uncle Vernan Hogge, Shalon and Schyler MacDonald and Doug Hogge and his family over at her house because they always come on Memorial Day to help her around her property to get things done like stabalizing her fence and hand rail to the front door. So, all of them came over on Sunday afternoon to have dinner and visit with us. It was a lot of fun! Luckily, it was a very good weekend with a lot of sunshine and we were able to spend most of our time outside!

1st Annual Memorial Day Weekend at Kathryn's House!

2009-06-07T22:24:00.000-07:00

Memorial day weekend we went over to my sister Kathryn's house and "camped" the whole weekend! Valerie and her three kids came; Kevin, Kali and their four kids and Mark and Mary with their three! It was such a blast! Jeremiah and I slept in the very downstairs basement bedroom with Wren. Kali slept upstairs in the guest bedroom with Trey, Mark and Mary and their kids slept in Kathryn's room. Monster (Ethan) slept in a pack-n-play in Kathryn's office and Kathryn and Valerie slept on foam mattresses in her living room while Kevin and the rest of the kids slept out in a tent which was totally tricked out! He hooked a tv up out there with a dvd player and they watched movies each night! Kathryn bought all of the food and actually prepared a lot of it herself also! She was so patient with all of us and I hope that it was as fun for her as it was for the rest of us!!

Sunday, Valerie Mary and my families all went to Kathryn's ward to church and this is what Wren wore, unvortunately, I did not get a picture of her when she had her bow on but she was looking sooooo cute!

Smiles...

2009-05-22T14:53:00.001-07:00

So very cute!!

This is the first really cute picture that I have taken where Wren has been smiling and I just had to post it! She is such a cutie and I am so lucky to have such a good baby.

Since I haven't posted in awhile...

Mothers Day was wonderful!! It was the best Mothers Day that I have ever had! ;) We went over to mom and dads and had dinner there and celebrated with all the mothers in our family. Dad bought Mom flowers on Saturday which is when all of us kids who live in town went over and did a list of things that she was wanting to have done. That was our gift to her for her birthday. Dad also bought flowers for me for my birthday, that was very sweet of him! I am so lucky to have him as my father and really just lucky to be in the family that I am in. Even though we have issues from time to time it is nice that we are able to "talk" (okay, yell) it through and then we are the best of friends again. It is a real testament to the way that we were raised that we are all still as close as we are and I just hope that Jeremiah and I will be able to raise our children to love one another and be each others best friends as they grow older because family really is the best medicine for anything! They won't dump you for no apparent reason... they won't let other people talk trash about you... they know all the bad about you and can somehow get past it and love you despite that and in fact, not hold it against you!

Anyway, on anther note, Jeremiah has started back to school and is stressing out about all of the work that he has to do. He is taking a pre-algebra class and an english class. It is surprising how much you can forget when you have not been going to school for awhile!! Both him and me! :) I am so proud of him for taking this challenge "by the horns" and trying to make a better life for our family. It is pretty stressful not knowing how we are going to pay to stay afloat for the next couple of months but I know that we will make it through!

Leg Warmers

2009-05-04T00:26:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I bought these last Christmas at Fred Meyers. Today is the first day that she has worn them. I LOVE them! They are still a little big on her tiny little chicken legs, but still, she is so CHIC!

How could anyone not love this face?? I just think that she is the most beautiful child I have ever seen!

Movies and more...

2009-05-03T20:53:00.001-07:00

Wren went to her first movie on Friday with Aunt Kathryn, Aunt Valerie, Jeremiah and me. We went and saw State of Play. I wanted to break her in slowly and not take her to a huge action packed movie that was super loud and she actually did really well... considering... I had pumped right before we left to go to the movie and then fed her a bottle right as the movie was starting. When she got done with the bottle (in record time), I sat her up to burp her and half of the bottle had dripped out onto the burp rag!! So, she was still hungry for most of the movie and I had nothing to soothe her with! She sucked on her binks and Aunt Valerie held her for the majority of the movie and she actually only squealed 2 or 3 times so I am very proud of her and she is cleared to go to other movies! I know, people with no children hate me, but what can I do?? :)

We also went to the Art Museum of Idaho Falls on Friday to see art work that Drew had on display there. It was pretty awesome of him. It was a polar bear and it was amazing!! We all then went out and ate at Bajio. Kevin and Kali don't often go out with us so it was nice to have them there. Mom and Grandma Aldridge also came with Valerie and her kids, Kathryn and Me with Wren.

Jeremiah got up with Wren all of last night and I feel like a new person today. I do wish that he could do it for a couple of weeks but I guess that would mean that I would need to get a full time job so I am okay with him doing it on Saturday nights! ;) I was pretty stressed out when I finally went to bed at 3 a.m. because I was worried that I would wake up whenever she cried, but I did not hear one sound until 11 a.m. and then I just rolled over and went back to sleep for another 30 minutes!! It was great! When I went to bed Jeremiah was asleep on the recliner with Wren on his chest. I was worried that she was going to roll right off of him and fall on the floor! That was after I asked him to not sleep with her on the couch all cuddled up next to him 'cause I didn't want him to suffocate her. Although, I do it all the time (sleep on the couch with her, not suffocate her!!!)! So that was another thing that I thought would hinder my sleeping abilities... not so much at all!!! Jeremiah did tell me later today that he would wake up whenever Wren made any noise at all, even a sigh because he was worried that she was going to suffocate or stop breathing. I told him that he probably needed to spend more time with her at night so that he could get used to her sleeping noises and it would also make it a lot easier to sleep if you are a little more deprived! I am very grateful that he is willing to be so involved with her and so willing to help me whenever I need it. He is the best husband and father that I could have ever imagined!