Day 3 in Ohio

For those of you who don't know, Emma and I went to Ohio to visit my sister and her family last week. This is the last day of pictures. You'll have to forgive me for my blogging messups. If I had thought about it I would have done the days in reverse order so they posted in order. So, keep scrolling down. There are several new posts and lots of pictures. These pictures are from Friday. There is a park near my sister's house that has lots of rides for little kids. It was a lot of fun. The rain had stopped so we took advantage of the nice weather. Then later in the day we went to a barbecue with a bunch of families in my sister's ward. It was a fun, busy day.

Emma loved the rides. The boat ride was one of her favorites.

She wasn't so sure about the airplanes...

I thought this picture turned out so cute.

Playing in the Rain

It rained the first 2 days we were in Ohio, but it was really warm outside still. So the kids ran wild outside and had a blast. There were so many pictures, so here are a few.

If you've ever seen the movie "Out of the Mouths of Babes" (or something like that) I think this picture looks like the little girl who sings the song "When Susie was a schoolgirl..."
Maybe it's just me. I thought it was funny.

Day 1 in Ohio

We had SO many pictures from our trip to Ohio that I decided to divide them up into days. The pictures are out of order but I have no idea how to fix it....oh well. We had such a fun time and it was fun for Emma to play with cousins.

Emma meeting cousin Spencer. I don't think she's ever seen a baby before. She thought it was great.

We were running out of ideas to keep the kids entertained so we made cookies at 10:30 in the morning. Good stuff.

Emma and Jenna taking a hike in the backyard.

Emma loved this boat...all the kids did. But doesn't it always work that way? :)

One happy little camper. (I really do get her dressed, but she managed to escape out the door before we could finish)

This was our little setup on the airplane on the way to Ohio. It was SUCH a long flight but Emma did great. We sat next to some sweet old grandparents who were on their way home from visiting grandkids so they were so great to help entertain her.

Emma with Kaden and Spencer the night we got there.

Emma is obsessed with other people's belly buttons. Be careful because she might try to lift your shirt up to find yours...
Emma: "Here Kaden, it won't hurt at all."

Kaden: "I'm not so sure about this."

Emma: "See, there it is. That wasn't so bad."
Kaden: "Man, this is weird."

So that's day 1 in a nutshell. It rained all day, but it was a warm rain so the kids spent most of the day outside in the backyard. I can't wait for the day we have one. It's starting to rank right up there with a washer/dryer and a dishwasher. Soon enough.

Life's little instruction manual...

This is day 2 of our trip to Ohio (yes, it's a little out of order. I will post other stuff when I get home). Enjoy!

Instructions for WHAT DO TO WITH 4 CHILDREN (under the age of 3 1/2)...

A life lesson by Rachel Holloway and Sarah Farrell

Do not assume that a 7 passenger mini-van will hold 7 people...once you have 4 car seats in there, it really turns into a 6 passenger with a "no-fight" zone. :) Also, be sure to check ALL car seat seat belts every time you get in/out of the car as your 3 year old might have unbuckled her booster while trying to buckle Buzz Lightyear in his seat...

(at least Buzz was safe...who KNOWS how long her seat was unbuckled!!)

If children outnumber adults, don't attempt getting around if you can't restrain all mobile parties with selective hearing. :)

Bring LOTS AND LOTS of treats...
Do not....I repeat, DO NOT take children who like to touch things to any place that has roped off areas and big signs that say "DO NOT TOUCH".

If there are only 2 adults, do not volunteer to watch ALL 4 children by yourself while your sister goes on a tour of this great historical building...If so, you will find yourself not even able to make it 15 feet from the car to the front door of the visitor's center without a bloody lip, an attempted runaway, an urgent potty request, and 3 cries/screams filling the air. The 4th will not be crying but will be wandering around looking at (and picking) the landscaping...You will then have to accept help from the good Samaritan who will then watch half the children while you clean up a bloody face and wipe a bum.The rest of the 10 years you are waiting (okay, only 35 minutes) you will find yourself engaged in a new exercise routine that goes something like this...

RUN, LIFT, WALK, SET DOWN

RUN, LIFT, WALK, SET DOWN

PLAY A SHORT GAME OF PEEK-A-BOO

DANCE IN A CIRCLE

WARD OF GLARES FROM THE EMPLOYEES

RUN, LIFT, WALK, SET DOWN...

Repeat 554 times until your sister GLORIOUSLY returns from her tour and you then have a big diaper-changing party in the bathroom where anyone who can't be held at one time will proceed to play in the toilets and string toilet paper all over the seat.Pretend it didn't happen and leave as quickly as possible so that one adult can run ahead and create a barricade in front of the gift shop while you lead the troops back outside.

Once all children are buckled in, take a deep breath and drive to the closest Chuck-e-cheese. Divide up your tokens evenly so that each child can have a chance to go on some rides and play some games. When your 3 year old keeps going on rides when he tokens are gone, don't assume people gave her more tokens...instead, watch closely to see which table she is climbing on and stealing them from. :)

Eat expensive, low-quality pizza...it is part of the experience. :)

When the time comes to go home, make sure you let the 3 year old trade her tickets in for a little pink, plastic lizard that she will refer to as "Oscar" all the way home while the other children are crying and whining.
Upon returning home, place children in water, read them a story, and place in bed for 10-12 (maybe 15???) hours.

The Latest Happenings

I sat down to update our blog and realized that we have almost no new pictures. I really need to be better about keeping the camera out and using it! I'll go ahead and update today though because I am going to be out of town for the next little while. We are going up to Idaho this weekend to visit my family and then Tuesday Emma and I are going to visit my sister and her family in Ohio. I am SO excited! I just really hope Emma does okay on the airplane. I have a feeling it's going to be a really long day. But it should be a fun trip and I will take lots of pictures.
Emma discovered a new talent last weekend...the ring toss. We went to the Wymount opening social. She played this game twice where she had to throw rings on rubber ducks. I helped her the first time and she totally missed. When I stopped helping her she totally scored. For her amazing skills she won a slinky and a sweet pair of yellow sunglasses. She LOVES the glasses. She puts them on, pushes them up on her head and then rocks out on her Winnie the Pooh rocker. The picture I got isn't the best, but you get the idea. It's hilarious. Emma also learned where her belly button is this week. She will pull up her shirt (and anyone elses she can reach) to point to it. We love her! It's hard to believe how fast she's growing up.
We have been loving the fall weather here, though it is still pretty hot. We are grateful though and spend most of the day outside. Emma takes after her dad and could spend all day outside. So, we are taking advantage of the nice weather and are praying for it to continue. Maybe we can skip winter all together this year...
Well, here are a couple pictures. There will be a lot more after next week.

Emma rocking out on her Pooh rocker. Good times!

We drove up Provo Canyon last weekend. It is gorgeous this time of year.

I thought this was so funny. She got my shoes and worked so hard to get them on.

She was smiling and laughing until I pulled the camera out :)

Blessings!

We have been busy this last week that we've been back in Provo. We had to find a job and get Jon's school schedule all sorted out. It all seemed so daunting. But it has been SO amazing how everything has worked out. Jon applied for a job on Monday, interviewed, and was offered the job on Tuesday. They offered to pay him the exact amount of money we had decided we needed to be able to live off of. He will be working on campus doing animations for different departments on campus. He loves his job and it will give him lots of practice for future job experience.
I also got a job babysitting an 18 month old boy 3 days a week. He and Emma play really well together which is really nice. There are the ups and downs but I am grateful to have this opportunity and it will definitely help us financially.
The most exciting news though was that Jon was able to work his school schedule out so that he can finish this semester. He is going to interview with all the studios that come to BYU in October and if he gets a job offer, we will be done with school in December. He would have some general courses to do online winter semester and then would officially graduate in April, but it would be so nice to be out in the real world making a real income and for him to be able to be doing what he really wants to do. Please keep him in your prayers! If that doesn't work out, then we'll just be grateful for the few extra months here.
We have really seen the Lord's hand in our lives and are so grateful for the way everything has worked out for us.

Dishwasher in training!
Emma's new fashion statement

Celebrity Look Alike

I saw this on someone's blog and thought it was so funny. Try it...you can get some REALLY funny matches.

Emma's Halloween Costume and Other Pics

I feel like I haven't updated our blog in so long. So, here are a couple pictures from the last few weeks. I posted some of our trip pictures in the next blog. Enjoy.

We went to the Jelly Belly factory in California. It is SO cool. Emma loved driving the Jelly Belly truck.

Ya gotta love trampoline hair. Holy cow!

This is Emma's Halloween costume. I think it is SO funny. And the pose cracks me up too.

Trip Pictures

We are back in Utah finally. It is so good to be home again. We loved being in California this summer and we had so much fun but it really is good to be back. We really enjoyed our trip to Mexico/Southern California. It was so nice to have a little vacation. We started out going to Tijuana where Jon served his mission. We went to a ward and a stake conference on Sunday hoping to find people but almost everyone he knew was gone...mostly to "the other side" (the U.S.). But it was fun for him to go see all the places he served and to see a couple people. We were also going to go to Mexicali, which was another one of his areas, but our air conditioning died (BIG bummer) and it was 130 degrees there. Maybe next time. After Tijuana we went to San Diego. We had some extra time so we explored some of the parks near the zoo. There is so much cool stuff there. The next day we went to the San Diego Zoo, the temple, and stopped by the beach before we drove up to Anaheim. As luck would have it, Southern California had record highs the couple days we were there and we had no AC...I thought I was going to die. The next day we went to Disneyland. Thank goodness for water rides! It was hot. But it was so much fun. We drove home the next morning and finally got to see Emma. We really missed her. Anyway, everybody's been asking for pictures of our trip so here are a few. For some reason it put them out of order and I don't know how to move them around. So, I hope it all makes sense. Here goes...

This was a really funny poster at the San Diego Zoo. If you can't see it, it's a zebra getting a piggyback on a giraffe.

We stopped at the San Diego Temple coming back from Tijuana. It is Beautiful!

A quick stop at the beach after the temple. This was in Del Mar, north of San Diego.

Outside of California Adventure (Disneyland). The letters spell California. It is huge!

This picture is also in California Adventure. They painted this backdrop to look like the street continues.

Blanca and Guillermo(sp?). Jon baptized Blanca and her oldest daughter on his mission. We visited with them while we were in Tijuana. In true Mexican style she insisted on feeding us (even though we really weren't hungry) a huge meal...half a cantaloupe, chicken cordon bleu, corn, cactus, beans, tortillas, quesadillas, and a huge glass of homemade limeonade. We were stuffed but it was so worth it. She was SO happy to see her Elder Farrell.

This was the view from our hotel room in Tijuana.

There were several parks by our hotel in San Diego. This is Jon in the desert garden. It was huge. I had no idea so many things could grow in the desert.

Giraffes at the San Diego Zoo. The baby was 140 pounds when he was born...I am SO glad I'm not a giraffe!