aaron.anica.emily.isabel.claire

Love this kid!

Potty training is one of those things that kind of makes me want to gauge my eyeballs out if you want to know how I really feel about it. Kudos to those moms that have all their kids potty trained by age 2 or before.  I am not one of them.  It could be a lack of patience. However, I am happy to say that for the last few months we now have a completely potty trained Izzy!  Just in time to have a few months free before changing diapers again. Apparently 3 is my lucky number because both girls were potty trained about a month before turning 3. I was on my own with Emily at this age and finishing cosmetology school, beginning my program for my bachelor's degree, and working 2 part time jobs, so consistency wasn't one of my strong points, but we made it through. With Izzy I introduced the potty and bought underwear when she turned 2, but she wasn't really interested.  I would keep trying, but not forcefully. When Aaron came home from Afghanistan, I was thrilled ...

When we found out number 3 was going to be a girl there were some mixed emotions in our household. Most of us were hoping to try something new and throw in a boy to the mix, but as luck would have it we get another girl. I think Izzy is impartial, but Emily had a breakdown and so we had a little talk about where we came from and how we chose to be together and to be a family of all girls and she would be the oldest because she is really good at being a big sister. I might have slipped in a promise that I might regret, when I told her someday we could get a boy dog. I have a feeling it wasn't necessarily my little explanation, but this little promise that made it ok with her to have another sister. I love my girls and wouldn't trade them for the world. I'm excited to have another one! I realize I'm going to have to be the one to stand up to them, because they have their Daddy wrapped around their fingers. Izzy put on a pink ruffly dress the other day and was twirling...

I gotta be honest, Disneyland is not my first vacation choice, but seeing Izzy skip for a mile on our walk up to the gates made it worth it. I love that upon entering the gates of Disneyland, Aaron exclaimed, "There's no way in hell I'd stand in line to take a picture with one of those characters!" Well he had to eat his words on the second day when there standing before us was Snow White. He showed Izzy and tried walking away to which she responded, "Can't I just talk to her Daddy?" He tried to suffice her by telling her she could see her right there and she got the pouty lip and teary eyes and said, "But can't I talk to her?" If Aaron has a soft spot Izzy knows how to hit it, so guess who stood in line for 20 minutes waiting to get a picture? :) Priceless, and so is the look on Em's face in this next picture Emily is lacking in her sense of adventure and after one terrorizing ride on Splash Mountain she was about spent. Lucky fo...

Aaron arrived at the airport around noon the day he returned home and after his big welcome home we loaded him and his years worth of belongings in the car to go to lunch. As we were pulling out of the airport parking lot, Em says to me rather loudly, "Mom is he going to shower before we eat?" To which Aaron responded, "What, do I stink?" I informed him that he had a slight BO smell and his response was, "Dangit, I tried really hard not to sweat on the plane!" While driving home late one Saturday night, I was trying to go over getting up for early church the next morning and said to Aaron, "Izzy's probably too big to put in the shower with you now, huh?" He looked at me with a half crazed look and said, "Um, yeah. I don't want her standing there looking up at me saying, 'Daddy what are those?'" Before I could respond, I heard giggling coming from the back seat and asked Emily what she was laughing at. "You m...

Salt Lake Tribune Check us out here on FOX 13 News: Utah soldiers return from Afghanistan after year deployment

I may be in huge trouble for posting this story one day, but it is a classic and must go down in our family history. Emily has a lot of strengths, but when it comes to her bladder it is perhaps her greatest weakness. Shortly after Izzy was born we went on a trip to the sand dunes with my family and after driving down the road a few hours, we realized we had forgotten to pack something important - Em's pull-ups. So we stopped at the last convenience store before our destination and bought the only size diapers they had available, which happened to be about three sizes too small. For the entire weekend, I had her lay down at night so I could put the diapers on her, thinking perhaps that having her wear actual diapers would encourage her to stop wetting the bed. They served their purpose and I had her use the last few when we got home. I always chuckled to myself when I would see her laying on the floor putting her own diaper on. One day she approached me and said, "Mom, I t...