Family Photos and Blue Bonnets

I wanted to put this picture first in honor of Emmett turning 5 months today!!! He is so sweet!
A neighborhood friend wanted to take some pictures of the girls to put on their new photography website (hitormissphoto.com), so I asked if we could take some family pics as well. I am so happy with the results....especially since they were free!!! So here is a little taste of what we got. Enjoy!!

Maren is one stubborn little girl. She did not want to smile with the camera in her face. (It probably didn't help that she had just woken up a little before we left to take the pics.)
I am sure you are thinking that she has dinner left on her face......nope, you would be wrong. That would be road-rash.......again.

Isn't this picture hot?!?! I love it! It's not very often that Josh and I get pictures of just us. In fact, I don't think that we have gotten pictures of just us together since we got married almost 8 years ago. I think that our friend did a great job!! Hope you enjoyed the preview. I'll post the rest on facebook in the next few days.

Potty training

Well last week I decided that I was done buying diapers for Maren. So I went to the store and bought a new potty. Maren was pretty excited about a new frog potty. I didn't know if she was ready, but I pushed her into it anyway.
The first day-and-a half was brain damage for me. I second-guessed myself and the timing. But then all of the sudden she started going on her own and without having accidents. It has been several days now that she has gone without having any accidents with the exception of dropping a few bombs in her underware. Which is oh so fun.

I got out the camera the other day to get some pics of Emmett. He is growing so fast it makes me sad. There is an upside to him growing though. He gets more and more durable. So I don't get as stressed when Maren is around him.


This last pic is of Emmett and his cute cousin Julia at six days old. Huge difference 4 moths can make.

1,2,3,4 every body get sick....it worked.

I have a cold, again. We cannot seem to stay healthy since we moved to Texas. I blame the crazy weather. Though I do think things have improved since we moved out of the apartment (at least now there are periods of time where we are relatively healthy as opposed to months on end moving from bug to bug without any break so you can't tell if you are sick with the same germ, or if it is just moving from your sinus to your eyes, then ears, then throat). This particular cold came home with Jess. She was sick and spiked a fever of 104. Once we got it down she was healthy again in about 24 hours, or so we thought. She maintained a low grade fever and slept a lot for the next 3 days (one of which was spent and Zeb and Leah's, Sorry guys). Then it hit Cora and Maren at the same time. They both ran low grade fevers and at times felt nausea's. Cora threw up once, as did Maren, but we were never able to tell if it was due to the coughing (which was crazy) or the actual bug. Then Emmett came down with it. He's a trooper, but last night he didn't sleep well, so neither did Carol. I went to a BBQ for the Elders quorum and then to a GASP (Graduate Association of Students in Psychology) party. So when I got home the girls were in bed and Carol had already been up once with poor little Emmett. He is a trooper, even being sick he just hangs in there and smiles and acts happy. Me on the other hand, just kidding, I haven't been grumpy, though I did lose my voice which made teaching yesterday an ordeal. I didn't lecture which helped, but even just correcting students and answering questions, by the end of class my voice was cracking like a 12 year old little boy talking to his first crush (I happen to like the imagery of that statement, ah my first crush). So that has been our week. The pictures are not layed out in this display the way they will be once it is posted so I will just explain. The napping picture is the one that gave me the cold. Maren and Cora, both not feeling well, asked me to lay down with them while they took a nap last Sunday. Maren kept picking her nose, and eating it, and then rubbing my face, and for some reason my lips. Pretty sure that was what got me sick. Number 2 is of Jess and me. This was at Zeb and Leah's (same day as the fam pic below) and you can see in her eyes she still isn't quite up to par. The final one is actually a couple of weeks old. Maren was walking around in the high heels (so loud and annoying on tile) and a onsie. So Carol wanted to take some pics. I thought we would make them fun and have her pose. She is so unnatural it is hilarious. She would just stand stiff where ever I put her. We all laughed a lot. Oh, I am also experimenting with a goat again. Carol won't let me grow my hair any longer than about 2 inches, and well I've been looking at the same face and hair for about 12 years. I think I would like a change so we will see how it goes i.e. how long I can stand to have a furry rug attached to my chin before I go crazy (going on two weeks now). And none of this is in APA format. yEah.
_Josh

P.S. The APA thing is a nerd joke, I hate them but they keep tumbling out of my mouth.

Spring Break

Alright, Spring Break is over today, and we haven't posted. Nothing terribly exciting is happening. We got to hang out a lot with Zeb and Leah. The girls have loved it. The family picture was taken at their house on Friday. We slept over so the girls could play. Carol and I tried to convince Zeb and Leah to go on a date since the opportunity would probably take a while to come around again, but they opted to stay home and watch The Office episodes they have been missing. I think they really just don't trust us with their kids. Besides that, Carol has started a garden. As you can see. We talked to our landlord about gardening when we moved in and he wasn't thrilled with the idea of tearing up the yard, so we just bought a whole bunch of 5 gallon buckets and filled them with dirt. One of the families in the ward order a half a yard of composted top soil for her garden, and the people who processed the order misunderstood her .5 and interpreted 5, so they dumped 5 yards of top soil on their driveway. Kind of sucked for them, but most of the ward was able to get a whole bunch of free dirt, including them. So, other than that not much going on. OH, I posted a while ago on my Death and dying class. Well last night I started doing research for my paper which is on spirituality and death. That may just end up being my dissertation topic. Which works out great, since data gathering would probably take very little time, and I could probably do a qualatative design, both of which would make my life easier in a lot of ways. Just a thought, I haven't actually written anything, or gotten past the abstracts for that matter, but I already have a ton of articles, so hopefully, maybe... we will see.

I don't want to think of a title

Okay, so I don't know how these pictures got layed out this way, and I don't know how to change it. So this might be a little confusing to read, trying to determine what text goes with what picture. Sorry.

Look how big my baby boy is.....it is so sad how quickly they grow up.






The pictures of Maren in the linen closet make me laugh. I had gone to the grocery store and when I got home, Josh told me to go look at Maren. Well, I turned the corner to go to the girls' room and saw that the linen closet was open obstructing the girls bedroom door. So I went to shut it. Well, it was open for a reason. Maren was partially inside the closet asleep. The story is that she didn't want to let Josh brush her teeth but he did it anyway and that really upset her. So she decided she wanted to be by herself in the closet. She even pulled down towels to make a bed. So by the time Josh was done getting Cora and Jess ready for bed, Maren was out. I have so many pictures of Maren sleeping anywhere. It should be interesting if she falls asleep on the toilet when she's potty trained..
















The next pictures are of the girls dressing up Matt and Brandon We had a bbq a couple of weeks ago and invited some of Josh's friends from school. The girls had a great time and I think that Matt and Brandon secretly had a fun time being dressed up like princesses.

Masquerade Ball

Cora and Jessica's school had a Daddy-Daughter dance yesterday. I have been so excited to help get the girls ready for it. The preparation began a couple of weeks ago, my sweet sister-in-law Leah, gave us two boxes of princess accessories that came with shoes, bracelets, gloves and a purse. Then I was able to find masks for the girls to decorate. So Thursday the girls and a friend / classmate of Jessica named McKenna came over and decorated the masks. They had a blast!! Josh didn't want his decorated though. I think that he looks like a handsome old school batman.

Josh without his batman mask.( Opps, I think that he might be upset that I posted this picture before he got a chance to edit. You can see that his suit needs to be dry cleaned.)
No daddy -daughter dance is complete without corsages and boutiniers. The girls came with me to pick out the flowers. They were very excited about the idea of wearing flowers on their wrists. I even made one for Maren, which she kinda ate this morning. So as far as I know orchids are non-toxic. Good thing. Aren't the girls beautiful.
Cora likes to pose for the camera. I have no idea what Cora is doing with her foot in this picture. Silly girl.
Apparently, there was a chocolate fountain at the dance. So the girls enjoyed chocolate covered strawberries. Mmmmm.

And so you have it. The long aticipated daddy-daughter date. It's a good thing that the PTA only put this on once a year. To buy tickets for the three of them was$25. Josh complained that High School formal dances aren't even that expensive. Oh well. I will gladly pay $25 for the fun they had and the memories that they will have.

A brick wall...

Ever have an assignment that just didn't go right. I am teaching a statistics lab, in which I am supposed to instruct tomorrows budding social scientists in the wonders of SPSS (Statistics package for the social sciences).
Day one, I grab the wrong syllabi (argghh).
Day two, there is supposed to be a drive linked to all computers in the lab to access information, I do not have access to that drive (arggghhh).
Day three, supposed to have the drive issue fixed, but no still don't have access (ARGGHH).
Day four (today) email students data set for class because I figure the stupid drive won't be working, students go to open file and it won't open properly (ARRGGGGHHHHH).
Add on top of that one of my students was looking up something online during lecture and talking about it with the kid sitting next to him, so I have to tell him to stop and at least pretend to pay attention. Honestly, I don't mind teaching Statistics (which is rare) but this class is starting to suck. Plus I started class with a sinus headache, and that never helps. I can already anticipate bad reviews from students. Hopefully next week will be better.
Also, if you ever happen to be in or move to Texas for any duration, may I suggest don't do so with little children. They seem to have an infinite supply of cold germs in Texas, all of which quickly come home and spread like wildfire. In Utah I maybe got one cold a year, and it wasn't bad, a week or so of a runny nose, some sinus pressure, a single night of tylenol to get a goodnights rest and I was back and at em. I have had three colds this year, three. The first one lasted for a month and a half, plugged up my ear for 5 weeks and I had to take z pac to get rid of it. Emmett has only been here for three months and poor kid is already on his second cold. So if it can be avoided, I highly recomend it.
-Josh

Emmett's Blessing

I have the most handsome boy ever!!! (I may be a little biased, then again maybe not)

Papa, Granny and the Girls with Emmett.

No Wonder that kid is so good looking, what a hot Mom.
(and man does he look stylin' or what)

Well, Zebby graduated (YEAH ZEBBY), and my parents came out for the graduation. Since they were here, I thought it would be a good idea to bless Emmett the same weekend. In retrospect it was and wasn't. It was great to have Mom and Dad here, but it made for a pretty hectic Saturday. We woke the girls up at 6:45, got them dressed and had breakfast in the truck as we headed down to Waco around 7:30. Fortunately we didn't hit any traffic and we pulled into Baylor with 10 minutes to spare, then we couldn't find where we were supposed to park. 15 minutes later we got out of the truck and went searching for the right building and ended up getting to the graduation about 20 minutes late. What we did see of it was good, and we didn't miss anything important. We got to Zeb get hooded in the "robes of the false priesthood" haha. Then we went back to Zeb and Leahs house for a while before driving back home to get ready for the blessing. After that we got the girls in bed, I went to the store for some last minutes items, and Carol prepped food for the next day. Needless to say we got to bed late. In the morning I started the brisquette smoking and we went to church, and were heading home just as my Mom and Dad got into Denton. We actually timed it almost perfect, so that they were able to follow us right back to our place. We hung out with them and Zeb and Leah got there about 20-30 minutes later. At 5:30 we got started, had a prayer, I blessed Emmett, and we ate and mingled. I gotta say I felt a little dorky since I ended up talking to Jeff (Mormon and in the Psyc. program) and two other students we invited most of the time, and most of it about psychology, teaching, and stats. Oh well, gotta embrace that lovable nerd in me sometime. Then one by one people began to leave and we got the kids in bed, talked for a while and headed to bed ourselves. Mom and Dad decided to stay through Monday, which was great. The girls and I ditched school and we went out to the Bass Pro Shop. Dad kept telling me that they were getting robbed blind at Cabella's and Sportsman's in comparison. Then we went to Grapevine Mills, not for any particular reason, it was just something to do. After that we headed home, rested for a little while and Dad told us he wanted some really good Mexican food. The only place Carol and I know of is all the way down in Fort Worth, so we set out again. I will say the drive is always worth it. Then we made an unscheduled stop at Cabella's in Fort Worth. The girls liked all the animals, though they have been before, and Maren keeps telling me she saw the crocodile eat a frog. It's cute. So there you have it, our jam packed, self proclaimed, three day weekend. Thanks Mom and Dad for being here, we were all so glad you came.
-Josh

And time marches on...

I tried to post a video of Emmett starting to show signs of giggling, but it didn't work. The sound was just awful, and while you could see his sweet smile it just wasn't the same effect without the sound. SO in lieu of that video, I am going to share an insightful exercise. I am taking a class in Death and Dying. Yep, it is a real downer. I don't know why but I came to grips with death fairly early on. That being said, we had an exercise recently that got the gears a turning, and Carol's tears a flowing. We had to make a Will. It was fairly informal, and I honestly am not going to post it here (mostly because I said things to certain people that I wouldn't say with out the guarantee of a more permanent barrier between me and retaliation, hahaha j/k) It was just a little to personal thus Carol crying. But if you have a late evening with your thoughts, think of the possessions in your life that you have assigned some value to and then think of whom you would like to have those things if you were to be called back home tomorrow, or whom would you like to have some momento to remember you by, and what that item would be. Then take it a step further and think what kind of message you would want that item to carry. I think you might discover a few things about the people whom you love and interact with and the relationship you have with them.
-Josh

p.s. There may be few more thought provoking threads coming out soon. I seem to be in a contemplative mood (and if you know how my brain works that is really saying something). Not all of them will be introspective, but hopefully they will help you take a fresh look at our world.

SMILES

I used to think that Emmett (above picture) resembled Jess the most, but after I saw this picture of Cora (below) I now have a different opinion.

Last week Emmett has discovered that he can smile on demand. Many of you don't know, but Emmett has a dimple on each cheek. We found that out a few days after we came home from the hospital with one of those involuntary smiles that babies do. So now I make an effort to get a handful of smiles each day from him.
I absolutely love his dimples.
Isn't he so handsome? I just love my little man!!
(fyi these are not my white hairy legs. They're Josh's)
So not much has been going on around here. Josh started school again yesterday, and Jess and Cora have been back in school since the 6th. I have been working on another baby blanket for Emmett. It's been in the works since August. I'll post it when I am done. Hopefully soon.
-Carol