Hands OFF Ladies....

This FINE lookin' HUNK of a MAN is mine!!

For anyone who hasn't seen Cody in a while, he's been growing his hair out for work. Actually, it hasn't been cut in almost TWO years. He has decided that he's sick of it, and he wants to start working some off-duty jobs. So, it's time for the hair to GO. But, he couldn't pass up the opportunity to be silly in the process. He is Rockin the 80's MULLETT extrordinaire! The general consensus is that it's very Billie Ray Cyrus. It's actually quite disgusting. I teased him that I would NOT go to church with him like this. But, I did. I don't think people know what to make of him anymore, or they are scared he's serious so they don't say anything. It was pretty funny to watch people laugh at him.

Here is the "before" picture

My poor friend Mandy got to do the honors. She was actually cracking up. Her first Mullett cut, not much call for it these days! This is all the hair they cut off.

This was a picture about a month ago with he and Em

This is now. I find that it's very hard to take him seriously. I will be having a serious conversation with him, then I realize what he looks like and just start cracking up.The only positive thing about this is that it's one step on the way to SHORT, normal hair. I think I forgot what he looks like. Can't wait to see. Although he's threatening lots of crazy stuff before it actually gets there. I promise more pictures if he does anything else!

My girls

Emrie is EVERYWHERE!!! and into everything. This is where you will find her..crawling around the kitchen and eating everything she shouldn't! She's very busy and active right now. Still waiting for those stupid teeth to pop through. None have made an appearance so far!

This is Liam doing his "homework" He is so funny, he loves to pull these books out and see what he can learn. His fourth birthday is next week and he cannot wait for preschool to start again.

We had a play day and lunch with our cousins Caleb...

and Shaley today.

In other very exciting news...Avery's hair that she has been growing and growing is long enough for pony tails again! She decided she wants long hair again. Which is very cute, but also a pain because we have to do it everyday. We'll see how long that lasts when school starts!

Emrie"s New Friend

recent picture updates

Since my last few posts were more like journal entries, I decided to put up some recent pictures...

Me and my sweet girl before church Sunday

I'm a sucker for a girl in a fluffy skirt!

Avery surprised me by finding a matching on in her closet that I completely forgot she had...she loves to be twinsies with her baby sister


Happy girl getting ready to go to church



Avery and Kendi striking a pose at Grandma's house on July 4th

she got all dirty inside eating, so we plunked her in the pool..clothes and all! She LOVED it and played forever in the water.

yes that is a nice bruise on her cheek. she climbs on everything! this lovely one came from aunt Ken's cabinet that she was trying desperately to get inside of...I have a feeling it's the first of MANY!

Liam's cheezy grin. and yes, that is a third eye in the middle of his forehead. Another injury sustained, you guessed it at aunt Ken's...his head was running faster than his feet apparantly!

Miss Emrie's favorite thing lately is listening to her dad play guitar...she listens for a minute and then...

She HAS to help! We thought these pictures will come in handy for when she is on season 87 of American Idol!

We were eating dinner Sunday evening, Emrie was crawling around like usual. She crawled up to Cody's feet, gave him a really loud "DA DA" until he picked her up. She then proceeded to make the HUGEST mess out of his plate. Helping herself to some rice, and a corn cob...the girl is serious about her food!!

pictures of vacations past....

I guess I'm feeling nostalgic about vacations we've taken, probably because we're not going on any this year! I'm at grandma's and came across some old pictures of places we've been...

Lots of our favorite times as a family have been at Cody's grandparents place in Alaska where you walk outside and see beautiful things everywhere...like these flowers in the yard.

Two years ago, we took the kids for a couple weeks, it was lots of fun. They both got to help daddy catch fish

This is Cody's mom and I in Cozumel.. I think this is about 4 years ago?

Avery and I went to Alaska in February of 2004...my sweet little eskimo baby

Avery, summer 2004. This is on the dock behind the cabin in alaska

Summer 2003

You can tell she was our only child...she was well traveled her first few years! This is in Maui January 2004.

This is in our living room, but I couldn't resist the cute girl in a grass skirt!

It's fun to remember the places we've been, and will hopefully be going again!!! Happy Vacations to all.

Summer

This is a long, long, very wordy, post. It's journal time I guess. I'm not good at writing things down or remembering them later. So, here is a little update on everyone. No pictures today, I need to download! So, summer is flying by. And I'm not sure why, we haven't been doing all that much. Playing with friends and cousins, trying to stay busy and keep the kids from killing eachother! They don't do well with too much time together at home. Unfortunately there are no fun trips planned in our future. We're sticking pretty close to home this summer.

Avery is loving sleeping in, I'm gonna have a hard time when school starts again. She wants to be busy all the time, wants to do something fun everyday. I'm trying to keep her reading everyday so she'll be ready for FIRST GRADE when it starts. She's starting to get excited. Both of her top middle teeth have fallen out since school got out. She's got a cute toothless grin, and it's really interesting to watch how she eats lately. I think I take teeth for granted, because it looks hard! She seriously is a great help with Emrie. We put a gate at the top of the stairs, and Avery loves to "watch" Emrie for me. She plays in the play room so sweet with her. Emrie loves being anywhere the kids are. She just crawls around whatever room they are playing in. I'm grateful they love her so much and are so sweet to her!
LIAM is starting to talk about his birthday, I can't believe he's almost four! He's such a little man. He still likes to be my baby once in a while (only when he's tired!) He has been really into telling jokes lately, some of which actually make sense and are funny. We need some new ones though. He has had a rough week. He's had some kidney issues since before he was born. We have a pediatric urologist who's been taking care of him and tracking the problems since he was born. The last ultrasound showed that it had gotten a little worse. So, we had to take him in to Phoenix Childrens yesterday for some tests. I was nervous to take him because it involved catheters and IV's. Not too fun with an almost four year old. But, they had a wonderful child life specialist who explained it all to him and used some really smart distraction therapy to keep him busy. He did GREAT! He barely flinched when they did the IV, I was amazed. The cath was a little harder for him. But he layed there, strapped to a table with those things in for over an hour and was awesome. He got a new transformer when he was done. Hopefully the tests turn out good and we won't be back for a while. The worst part was after. He went to the bathroom right after and it burned and hurt and he cried. I tried to tell him it would only be for a while. But then the kid was afraid to pee and held it for almost 24 hours! We thought he'd go in his sleep but he didn't. He needed to, but he was scared. Then he didn't want to drink, because he knew he'd have to go. He's pretty stubborn! He's at Kenra's now, and she just called and said he couldn't hold it anymore. He'd been pacing the house for half an hour when he finally decided to go. He called me and was so excited that it didn't hurt!!!

It was hard for Cody and I to take him and put him through those tests. It was even harder being at that hospital where they take such good care of so many REALLY sick kids. We are so blessed that our kids are healthy and well. We were there for a couple hours, and he's fine. But thats not the case for so many other families!

Miss Emrie is EVERYWHERE!! She is a crawler, and a climber. She's already bruised everywhere because she never stops moving! She is very LOUD too. Whenever there is a really quiet moment, she yells out. I think she just wants attention. She is very sweet and fun. She LOVES when her daddy gets out the guitar. She'll sit and listen to him for a minute, then she needs to get in on the action. She climbs his leg and reaches for the guitar. She's learned that if she hits it just right, it makes noise. I think I feel a bottom tooth finally coming through. She's acted like she's teething for so long, she is a wet mess all the time. She loves other babies and is quite agressive when she wants a kiss. She climbs, and tackles until she gets what she wants! She is a sweet, chubby, smiley baby and we love her.

They exhaust me, but I'm so blessed to have the husband and kids I have. We have so much fun together, we are all healthy, we have a job. Over all life is GOOD.