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Going Private

2009-10-08T22:37:00.002-04:00

Hi all! I know I don't post much here. I've decided to go private as I've been concerned about the privacy and protection of my children. If you'd like to be added to view our blog, please let me know and I'll put you on the list.

Thanks!

Our fun trip to Houston!

2009-07-04T14:13:00.008-04:00

We had such a fun time visiting family in Houston. Hope to see you all again soon!

Dan's brother David and sis-in-law Eleanor. Clay's restaurant. Such a fun place for families. They have animals, a sandbox and things for the kids to do while parents can sit out on the patio and watch.
Out to dinner for some real Mexican food.

Atlanta has zero options for great tasting Mexican food.

My brother Loren and sis-in-law Allison

My brother Dwight and sis-in-law Mandy

On the way to the beach! (Galveston)

Sam loved the beach and the seagulls!

We spent most of the trip outside and in the water.

Cutest Kids Ever....

2009-05-04T11:56:00.004-04:00

Here are a few new pictures... in no particular order. Hope everyone is doing great!

Emma 3 Years - Sam 6 Months

2009-02-18T12:27:00.002-05:00

Much needed update...

2009-01-08T20:45:00.007-05:00

Can you believe I've been accused of being a bad blogger? The nerve, huh? Joy and Jason... this update is dedicated to you. :)

Dan and Sam

This picture just cracked me up. They both have that "I'm not amused" look on their face.

I love this kid!!!

Christmas - Notice there are no ornamants on the tree. Emma has been worse this year about taking them off, more than any other year. She had a gift bag she would collect them into. I give up!

Decorating for Christmas

Sam has the best smiles!

This was Emma's thoughts about ice skating. Not her thing!

Wish I had a video of her getting off of the merry-go-round. Can you say DIZZY?

Thanksgiving at the Children's Museum - So much fun- Thanks Cheek family!

Thanksgiving - Indiana - Children's Museum - (Like my double chin?)

Sammy - 4 months old

Trick or Treat!

2008-11-03T10:02:00.001-05:00

Here's a couple pictures of my Halloween cuties! We had a great time at a Halloween party and then Trick-or-Treating!

We're around

2008-10-30T22:00:00.006-04:00

First I'd like to say thank you to everyone for your kind words and generous orders regarding Dan's brother. It's all very much appreciated.

I've been enjoying my kids and trying to snap pictures whenever I have a free hand. Not as often these days... I need to be better about it. Sam continues to be a little flirt. He smiles at any one who looks his way - especially the ladies. I'm in trouble.

This onsie made by a friend has turned out to be pretty appropriate. :)

Emma still loves to hold Sam any chance she can. I thought by now she would have calmed down and backed off a bit, but she loves still being right next to him always.

On a sugar high after the trunk-or-treat at church.

Emma and I recently made cookies together. She loved decorating them! I love spending time with Emma in the kitchen - it's some of our best times together. She's actually a great little helper.

I'm loving her attempts to make happy faces on these cookies. Actually not too shabby. She's been determined to cover the world in happy faces. If I leave paper out on the desk, pretty soon it's completely covered in smileys. So far she's been pretty good about just keeping it on paper.

Being silly! Emma loves to have fun.

Hope everyone has a great weekend and a Happy Halloween!!!

Family Tragedy

2008-09-15T16:08:00.003-04:00

We've spent the last 6 days in Arizona, and it's been a long hard week. Last Sunday, Dan's younger brother Matt was killed in a car accident. We flew out as soon as we could the next day. His funeral was on Saturday, and so the time prior to that was spent making arrangements and spending with family.

Words can't describe the pain I feel for Matt's family. He has two little boys and one on the way, due in just a few weeks. This news link is an interview with Matt's wife Brenda. She's been amazingly strong during this time. http://www.azfamily.com/news/local/stories/Gilbert-local-news-091108-wife-fatal-wreck-talks.695cffbd.html

If you're interested in assisting, we have some of Matt's CDs available for sale. ($10) He was an accomplished pianist and his music is beautiful. All of the money will be given directly to his family. Please contact me if you are interested.

A Week in Pictures

2008-09-05T23:15:00.003-04:00

Smiles, smiles and more smiles....

Grandmas are great!
Made cake for a friend's baby shower.
One happy princess.

Comfy

2008-08-20T09:55:00.002-04:00

Sam was about 3 weeks old in this picture. It's one of my favorites. Can't wait till he starts sleeping like this all through the night.

Growing Boy...

2008-08-20T09:41:00.004-04:00

Sam continues to change each day. He's getting bigger and bigger and is full of smiles. The other night as I was rocking him to sleep he broke out in a full on belly laugh. I've never seen a baby that small have such big chuckles. I think he must have been having some sweet dreams.
As you can tell Emma loves her little bro. She hasn't become jealous one bit, but is on the complete other end of the spectrum by being overwhelmingly helpful. Best to have it that way I suppose. :)
Sweet...

Blessing Day

2008-08-20T09:36:00.006-04:00

We blessed Sam when he was four weeks old, so these are a little late. It was a fun day! Dan's mom was able to be there, and afterwards we had a couple friends over for food and fun. The yellow dress Sam is wearing is the blessing outfit that he and his brothers were all blessed in.

Proud papa

He's Here!

2008-07-31T14:45:00.004-04:00

Hi there! So what's it been 4... 5 months since my last post. Oh well. I do what I can. Here are some pictures of Samuel Jonathan. He was born on July 3, 2008. He's a little sweetie and we are so happy to have him in our family.

It's a....

2008-02-13T13:10:00.006-05:00

BOY!!!

We had our ultrasound this morning. Everything went well and so far we've got a healthy baby boy working on getting here June 30th. The tech said there was no mistaking it. We're excited to know, and I'm excited to start shopping! Emma still doesn't quite get it. She watched what was going on pretty intently, but looked very confused when we told her that was her new baby brother on the screen.

Dan's mom came into town to be there for the occasion. It's been fun to have her here. She's treating us by spending one-on-one time with Emma today. Dan and I are going to head out and get massages and then go to dinner. An early Valentine's day treat. Happy Valentine's day to you all!

(Disclaimer: I tried to send an email out to all friends and family. If you didn't get it, please check your spam box.)

Baby steps

2008-01-27T22:19:00.001-05:00

I'm back! Feeling much better, thank you. A lot has happend and I'm finally able to take a bit of a breather. We moved in to our new home (LOVE IT!), unpacked pretty much everything thanks to Dan, took a nice long trip back home for Christmas, Emma turned 2!!! (Pictures to come), continuous contract work for me, sewing curtains...

Pictures are always more fun, I'll try to post some soon. I don't know why that seems like such a chore to me.

We made the appointment for our 20 week ultrasound, Feb 13th. We plan to find out the sex of this baby too. I'll keep you posted. Any guesses?

Checking In

2007-11-29T13:29:00.000-05:00

I promise there is a good reason why I haven't been posting lately.

As soon as I start feeling better, I'll be back in the swing of things. :)

Trick or Treat!

2007-11-02T08:21:00.001-04:00

We got together with some of our friends on Halloween night. They had twin girls (2 and a half yrs) and we weren't sure if they would get the whole idea of trick or treating. Well to give you an idea, the first door we knocked on, the lady opened the door and Emma immediately held out her basket and walked right on in! She wasn't the least bit afraid or timid.

Tootsie Roll grin!
House number 2, Emma already started in on the candy. When her basket started getting heavy we asked if we could carry if for her. No way - she started to cry if we looked like we were even reaching for it.
Give us some candy!!!
I love this one - chocolate mouth and all.

Please go check this out!

2007-11-01T09:14:00.000-04:00

I'm getting Emma's pictures from trick or treating ready to post. In the meantime you have to go watch this!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84_QL1kEmH4

New toy... hours of fun!

2007-10-29T21:36:00.000-04:00

Emma has been glued to this toy ever since I brought it home for her on Saturday morning. It took her just a few minutes and she had it all figured out. It was so fun to watch her spinning all day. Pretty soon she started lining up her stuffed animals and requested that I help each one take a turn as well. She has a couple of stuffed bunnies that she's been packing around with her everywhere lately. They've even used the potty. Speaking of that, I've been a bad mom with potty training. Last Tuesday Emma spilled a glass of water all over my laptop- I'm still hoping my files can be recovered. Then at the end of the day she managed to spill a full bottle of sesame seeds all over the kitchen. Yes, I know it's my fault for leaving those things within her reach... So anyway, after a week of similar similar experiences I'd had it and I haven't been very consistent with reminding/helping her to go.

Loving the Fall & Other Great News!

2007-10-16T23:14:00.000-04:00

It's finally starting to cool down here. Fall has finally arrived! We've been soaking up as much of the good weather as we can lately. Windows open, AC off, trips to the park... I'll have some pictures to post in a bit. Our big news of the week is that Emma has started to use the potty! I had one on hand but didn't really expect her to go for it this soon. Every few weeks I'll show it to Emma, just so she is comfortable with it. Last weekend I let her try it out right before bathtime. I was shocked when she actually - went! Since then it's been the same story. She loves to use it! She hasn't started to tell me when she needs to go, so there is certainly still progress to make, but I'm amazed at how eager she is and how well she is doing. I guess I sort of asked for it by introducing her to "it" so soon, but wow, this whole process has been keeping me on my toes.

Back again...

2007-10-04T20:45:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the unexpected break. It wasn't really planned, it just seemed that everytime I thought about updating the blog, something else popped up.

We bought a new house! That's been exciting. Dan's company recently was acquired and they have decided to move him to a different office across town. His commute would be way too long if we stayed put, and we hadn't really planned on being in this house for too long anyways. The best part... his company is going to pay for the move. Yay!!! That means no packing boxes! I'm thrilled. Dan is very happy with all the new changes at his work. We still haven't heard about his very last CPA test - every day we're hoping to see it in the mail.

Here are a few random pictures to update you on what Emma's been doing. Busy, busy girl!

We went to the county fair a few weeks ago. We had a great time. It was a lot smaller than the county fair that I'm used to. Less crowded, which was nice. Emma loved seeing all the different animals.

My friend came over with her kids recently. Emma loves her little baby boy, and plays with him the entire time. Here she's showing him how to type, because she is a professional already. She's going to make a great big sister... some day. :)One of Emma's favorite things to do is to help me cook. She loves to mix anything that is in the bowl. As soon as she gets her spoon dirty she wants to get a new one out.

Video of Emma and her friend Libby at the fair.

A Late Weekend Update

2007-09-11T20:53:00.000-04:00

This is a little late, but I wanted to share some cute pictures from last weekend. Friday evening, we decided to bum around the mall and take Emma on her first carousel ride. I'd forgotten that at the particular mall we were going to they also have an outdoor fountain designed specifically for kids to play in. We didn't bring her swimming suit, but decided to go ahead and let her play anyway. She loved it - more than the carousel ride, I think. It was a relaxing time after a busy, work filled week.

I think Emma's horse is more excited about the ride than she is. :) She's used to the real deal when it comes to horses, back at Grandpa and Grandma's.

Here's a quick video:

Our Labor Day Weekend!

2007-09-06T20:56:00.001-04:00

We went to Franklin, NC for Labor Day weekend - camping! It has been way too long since we've gone and we had a great time! We have some friends with land right along the river. They graciously allowed us to camp there with some friends. When I say along the river, I mean right along the river. I had to watch Emma like a hawk, so that she didn't fall right in.

Emma spent a good amount of time guarding her little chair from the other kids. She doesn't want a thing to do with it at home, but for some reason she was glued to it all weekend.

Here are some pictures of us out on the kayaks. They were so much fun! Emma loved being out on the water and the boats didn't scare her a bit.

Piggy Tails

2007-08-27T20:59:00.000-04:00

I put Emma's hair in pigtails for the first time today. She wasn't too sure of the whole idea at first but she warmed up to it. It wasn't that they hurt her, she just doesn't like to sit still long enough for me to do them.
I wanted to show off the cute outfit my mom helped me sew too! Wished I lived closer so we could sew together more often.

Fun Contest!

2007-08-22T22:24:00.000-04:00

Hi All,
I saw this link to a fun little giveaway on Nicky's blog. What a fun idea. Go check it out, here!

Parks, playgroups and pools...oh my!

2007-08-19T17:34:00.000-04:00

We've had a fun, busy week & weekend! Saturday was one of the first Saturdays Emma and I have had Dan all to ourselves. He's been cooped up since January studying for his CPA exams. (We're still waiting to hear back on the final test.) We visited the park, went to the pool and just enjoyed time together. It was great! Emma is a little fish. I've never seen a kid enjoy the water so much. We went to a fairly new public pool near our house. The picture below doesn't do it justice. It's equiped with water slides, a lazy river and all kinds of fun water toys. Best of all, it's not crowded.

Cute hairbows courtesy of my good friend Jeannette! Thanks Jeannette- we love them!
My cutie husband...

On Fridays we attend a playgroup for about an hour. This is one from a couple of weeks ago, when I actually remembered my camera.

My First Meme!

2007-08-14T20:44:00.000-04:00

5 Things

Gina tagged me to complete my first meme...

5 Things I Was Doing 10 Years Ago

1. Moving up to Idaho to attend college – Go Vikings!

2. Having so much fun with new roommates

3. Studying… just a little

4. Eating like a college student.

5. Starting a very part-time job at Melaleuca. Loved those free products.

5 Things on my to-do list today

1. Pick up after Emma

2. Work

3. Check up on my faculty intern
4. Watch Hell’s Kitchen with Dan

5. Grocery Shop

5 Snacks I enjoy

1. Popsicles

2. Brownies

3. Banana Bread

4. Anything Chocolate

5. Popcorn

5 Songs I know the lyrics to

1. I am a Child of God

2. Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes

3. Anything from the Moulin Rouge soundtrack – Kathryn, I miss singing the parts with you.

4. I’m a Little Teapot

5. My Maria – this is my happy song!

5 Things I would do if I were a millionaire

1. Quit my job
2. Pay off our house

3. Go back to Europe and travel to many other locations.

4. Get a personal chef

5. Buy lots of diamonds for myself

5 Bad Habits

1. Not exercising enough

2. I’m a worry wart
3. Staying up too late at night

4. Don’t drink enough water during the day

5. Rolling my eyes

5 Things I'd never wear again

1. The belt buckle I won for Grand Champion Feeder Steer. (Much better as a trophy than as an accessory.)

2. Rockies…. They go with the buckle

3. Scrunchies

4. Wedding dress

5. Panty hose

5 Favorite toys

1. My laptop

2. My camera

3. Sewing machine & the new serger I just bought

4. My scrapbook/craft stuff

5. Digital Photo frame that Dan got for me.

Tag, you’re it!:

1. Leslie

2. Amanda

Random, recent photos

2007-08-10T20:28:00.000-04:00

Here are a few recent pictures of Emma. I haven't sent any new ones out in a while, so these go back as far as 4th of July. She's becoming quite a ham for the camera these days. It used to be that whenever I got the camera out she was more interested in viewing the pictures rather than having her pictures taken. That's all changed in just the last week. She makes a cute, cheesy grin each time she hears the flash button.

Happy Anniversary!

2007-08-08T20:52:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was Dan and my three year anniversary! In many ways it seems like it’s just flown by and in some ways it seems like we’ve been married much longer than that. I mean that in the best way. I’m actually shocked at the many things we accomplished in these three years. We’ve seen and done so much. This is one of the many things I love about my husband; he likes to get out and do things. I always have a great time, but it’s harder for me to break out of our normal routine. Before I met Dan I actually didn’t use up my vacation days. What single person does that?

Around noon I was surprised with a fabulous delivery. Aren’t these beautiful? They are some of the most fragrant roses I've had. Thank you, honey! There’s no one else I’d rather be with than you!

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em!

2007-08-08T20:08:00.000-04:00

Several of my friends have maintained blogs as a way of updating friends and family on what's taking place in their lives. I absolutley love reading them, but just never got one going myself. Just one more thing to do. I actually attempted to start a blog almost a year ago, but got a random email from a stranger after my first post, telling me what I was doing wrong. They then proceeded to list off in confusing blog language how to do it right. After a quick delete, I decided it just wasn't my cup of tea.

So with another encouraging push from Gina, here I go! (thanks, Gina!) Bear with me, it may be a slow start... but something I'm looking forward to.