aaron.anica.emily.isabel.claire

Here are the directions: 1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you know me a little or a lot, anything you remember! 2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.

We just want to tell our families how much we love all of you and miss you! We missed celebrating the 24th and hope you all had fun! See you soon!

Another reason why I love Aaron. Now you might think this is the beginning of a sales pitch for hearing aids, but it's not. It's the first of a series of post-it notes that Aaron wrote to sell a security system to a deaf woman. The poor guy sat in her house and wrote back and forth with her for 2 hours explaining the whole thing. Then when it was time for her to do a phone survey, he explained the situation to the surveyor who said, "This is a first," to which Aaron replied, "Yeah and probably a last." He wrote all the surveyors questions down and then read her answers to the surveyor. For those of you who are worried that Aaron is taking advantage of the disadvantaged, he slept soundly that night (other than Emily waking us up) and even felt good that he could help her feel safe. Now you might be wondering how she will hear the alarm if she's deaf, but he worked it out so the technician could install the unit right by her bedroom door and she i...

Little did I know what I was getting myself into by coming to Memphis for the summer. Now I mentioned before that I had a little apprehension about being a stay-at-home mom, so I thought I was doing pretty good with my finger-painting, fort-making, cookie-baking ways, that is until I made friends with a group of moms down here that I will refer to as the "Super Moms." One in particular (you know who you are) will probably finish out the year with the title "Memphis Mother of the Year." This is the mom that Emily wants to go live with because she's "nicer than my mom." Hey, I don't blame her, who wouldn't want a mom that makes cute bows to match all her daughters outfits, dresses not only her kids, but herself as a cow to get a free meal at Chic-fil-a, and comes up with the idea to sew capes for all of our kids when Halloween is still months away. I have to say that staying up til 2 A.M. on a weekend night sewing superhero capes may not sound li...

We've made a couple of trips to the Mud Island River Park. It runs right next to the Mississippi River and is a mini replica of the whole river. The kids loved playing in it!

We are so proud of Emily! It is definitely past due, but she has quit sucking on her fingers. For those who haven't noticed, she has a large gap in the middle of her teeth caused by a combination of genetics and sucking on her fingers. She was looking in the mirror awhile ago and asked if she was missing a tooth in the middle : ) We had a little talk with her, Aaron showed her some pictures of people with "bad teeth" on the internet and we explained that if she wanted pretty, healthy teeth she needed to obey her parents and stop sucking on her middle two fingers. We started by telling her she could only do it at night. She did really good last week and has pretty much stopped at night on her own. So when we come back you'll no longer see the fingers in her mouth. Way to go Em!

Aaron happened to get off a little early on Saturday (around 8:30pm) and mentioned that he was bringing home a surprise. When Emily and I opened the door we found him standing there with a cooler. When we took the lid off, this is what we found: Now he mentioned to me on the phone that it was a turtle and not to tell Emily. He said we'd have to get it an aquarium. So I'm thinking, oh fun a little turtle. Well, the fact that he failed to mention was that this turtle was the size of a FOOTBALL!! Emily was freaked out by it and said it was going to bite her and hurt her. I tried to console her and all she could say was, "Mom PLEASE understand what I'm trying to say!" We decided to keep it in the bathtub overnight until we figured out what to do with it. The next morning Emily forgot it was in the bathtub and went to go to the bathroom when we heard her run to our room, throw open the door and exclaim, "AARON there is a turtle in the bathtub and it's head and...

We drove down to Mississippi yesterday to pick blueberries at a blueberry plantation. Now I've never been a huge blueberry fan, but I must say that you've never tasted blueberries til you've picked them fresh. They are so good, nothing like the blueberries you get in the store. We only got a half gallon and I'm pretty sure they will be gone before the end of the week. Yum! THE REST OF THE STORY: Some of you commented on the fact that Emily looks like she's taking a dump in the last picture. Well she did, but not in the bucket. While we were picking she informed me she had to go to the bathroom. I didn't know where one was and thinking she just had to go pee, I told her to squat behind a blueberry bush. I held her so she could go and when she stood up there was a little more than pee. So she stood there with her pants down while I ran to the car to get some wipes. I got back and cleaned her up and fearing that someone would step in it I got a wipe, pick...

Our 4th of July eve was pretty fun. Some of our friends down here really know how to throw a party :) We went to a barbecue with a group of friends from our ward. The food was incredible and the games were top-notch. Emily and I tried to eat donuts hanging from a string with our hands behind our backs and Aaron and I even participated in a couples egg toss. Emily loved having all the kids to play with and especially the sparklers and fireworks we ended the night with.