California Sun

We made the long drive to California yesterday, and got here safely. The kids were calm and entertained by "Finding Nemo" and "101 Dalmations". We arrived at my dads house at 1:30 am. Besides lack of sleep on my part, everything in Califrnia is wonderful....it is going to be a wonderful 85 deg. in Sacramento, and 75 deg. in San Francisco today. We are going with my family to the Reds vs Giants baseball game at AT&T park. It shall be fun. I will post pictues from the trip when we get home (I didnt bring my camera adapter). I will keep you updated.

Anticipation. 1.

One more day until we leave...

I have decided that for day one I will tell about the one bad thing that could happen in order to make our trip not as great as it should be...Eric was originally planning on missing school next week on Wed, Thurs and Fri. He only has one class on those days, but it is the same class and it is from 7-10 am every morning. So he talked to a kid that is in that class, and the kid said that the teacher told him that he needed to be there every class period. So Eric called the teacher today and the teacher basically left it up to Eric to decide, but said that each class is really like missing 3 classes because the class only goes for 1 month. Anyways, long story short...we are going to have to come back from our trip a little earlier than we expected, but I am sure that it will still be a lot of fun, just a couple of days shorter. Oh well....I am still excited, just a little bumbed that we wont be able to do as much as we wanted to do while we were there. Wish us luck in having a smooth drive (it seems like everytime we drive to California, our car resists and either doesnt want to drive us back, or wants to take a vacation once we get back).

Anticipation. 2.

2 more days until we leave for California...these are the two things that I am not looking forward to doing to get ready for the trip on Friday....

1. I really dont want to take the Satellite Radio out of Eric's car and put it into my car. I am the one who originally set the thing up, so I guess I am the only one who knows how to make it work. Anyways, I really dont want to do it, but if it keeps my husband happy on the drive so that he can listen to the Reds baseball game, then I will happily do it.

2. Loading the Car...Our Pontiac does not have a very big trunk, so I am trying to figure out things that I can leave behind so that we can fit everything...I guess if I imagine it as a puzzle, then maybe it will be a lot more fun considering I love puzzles.

Brother and Sister

I absolutely adore the relationship that I continue to see forming between Emma and Marcus. You can tell from these pictures that he adores Emma. There are times that I will look at him and he seems to be in a trance. He learns so much from her. Every morning when I bring Marcus out of his room, Emma yells his name and he pulls the largest smile that you have ever seen. She acts like a little mommy and he just smiles at her. Even when he pulls her hair and she screams, he thinks that she is playing with her and grins. I hope that it will be a relationship that will continue to grow and bring so much joy to our family.
Lately Marcus has started to wave. I think it is the cutest thing in the world...I will see if I can get it on video.

Emma and Emily

Here is some video of Emma and Emily dancing, trying to be princess'. Emily is one of Emma's very good neighbor friends that is a very girly girl. We love her!(sorry in advance for the nausea from the video...not my best work)

I am finally a Aunt !

Congratulation Cortney and Amy!! They had their baby this afternoon. William James McAllister. He was born today (not quite sure what time), but around 1:00pm. He weighed 8 lbs. 8 oz. I am so excited for Cortney and Amy...it has been a rough pregnancy for Amy, and all of the hard work has finally paid off.
I am excited to finally be an Aunt. I want to be one of those really cool aunts that you look forward to going to their house and when you get older, you continue to keep in contact with them because you know that they care. Anyways, here are some pictures of Will.

Sorry...

I am sure you are all tired of hearing about how excited I am to see my family....I only get to do it about once a year, so you wont have to hear about it after this month for another year or so.

Anticipation. 3.

For my 3 days left until we leave for California, I am writing my 3 favorite things that I love about the area that I grew up....
1. The green rolling hills...They are beautiful. Even during the time of year that they are brown, I think they are still beautiful.

2. Folsom Lake...it was so nice having a lake 5 minutes away and being able to go play anytime I wanted.


3. The best thing about living in El Dorado Hills was being 1 hour from Lake Tahoe and 1 hour and 30 minutes from San Francisco.

Anticipation. 4.

Okay, today I was thinking about the Four things that I am going to have to keep Emma out of while staying at my dad's house....here we go.....

1. The most important thing....THE POND. (It scares me every time that we go to Grandpa Tim's house and after Devin's terrible accident a couple of weeks ago...my dad saw me freaking out, so he got a cover for his pond so that nothing could happen. Thanks DAD!)

2. Tashly's makeup. I know that many of you who know me are like..."Tamber has a sister that likes makeup?!?!",...and yes, neither of my sisters are like me...I will go days without putting a thing on my face, and Tashly is the complete opposite. One time in Junior high, she tried to see how far into the year she could go wearing a skirt everyday....lets say that she made it like 115 days more than I could have made it....that explains her girlieness doesnt it?

3. My dad's famous cookies. Everytime that we go to my dads house, he makes his famous cookies and if I dont keep Emma out of them, then there wont be enough for ME!!

4. The Cat statue and all of MISTY'S nice things. The reason I say Misty's is because my dad knew better than to own anything fragile with the children that he has. If Misty had known that a year or two before she moved in Tawni threw a golf ball at Trace and missed hitting the VERY large window on the backside of the home I think that she would have seriously reconsidered bringing all of her nice furniture and accesories into my Dad's house.

Besides keeping Emma out of everyones things, I know that we will have a blast and I just keep getting more and more excited. I told Eric that I was going to have to be packed on Thursday afternoon....he was like....we dont leave until Friday afternoon and my response to that is "I dont want anything to go wrong so that we have to leave any later than we are suppose to"....Love you Honey!

Anticipation. 5. (sorry its late)

For yesterday's countdown I will list 5 things I will do to keep Emma happy on the car ride to California (10 hours). Here we go...
1. Sing primary songs (she loves to sing, and she especially loves primary songs)
2. Teach her important things about herself....
How to Spell her name
What her birthdate is
What her telephone number is
AND Her address (I know that these are all pretty aggressive goals, but atleast we will
have a start)
3. Get her out at the rest stops and run her around so that she gets really tired and goes to sleep.
4. Let her play with all of her toys, including her new laces bear (you know those toys that you had when you were little that you weaved the laces in and out of...she has a bear that you can weave clothes onto it...it is so cute)
5. And last of all when nothing else works...I will surley pull out the DVD player

Emma Loves the Jazz

Here is a picture of Emma looking at pictures of Jazz players with Eric. She knows most of them. She calls Deron Williams "D.Will", and Okur "Lemit" and Andre Kirlinko "A.K" and then of coarse there is BOOzer. She doesnt really know Kyle Korver yet, but trust me she will know his name soon...he is my favorite. Anyways, here is the video.

Emma hearts Hannah Montanna

Well, I would have loved to get Emma tickets to the July 4th Stadium of Fire with Miley Sirus playing, but they were like $35 each and they were sold out in like 10 minutes, so I guess letting Emma watch her sing on youtube is the best I can do. Emma loves her songs...well, really only one song...."See You Again"....Here is some video of her singing to the song, she is also doing all of the hand and facial movements....it is so Hilarious. I love watching Emma sing and dance she is so good at it. I am going to try and put her into dance lessons this summer when she turns 3. Well, here is the video...

Marcus' Mobility....or lack there of

Well, I keep thinking that Marcus is just going to take off crawling at some point, but he just gets up, rocks and then army crawls to what he wants. At some point I am sure that he will start crawling, but until then here is a video of his attempt to crawl at six and a half months.

Anticipation. 6.

In my anticipation for going to California this week I am going to do a daily countdown until we leave...we leave on Friday when Eric gets off of work.

6 Days until we Leave.

SO, today I will say 6 things that we will be doing while we are there....
1. Stay the night in San Francisco.
2. Got out on Folsom Lake with my dads Wave Runners.
3. Go to the Sacramento Zoo.
4. Have multiple dinners with family including some of my favorite foods (Grandma's homemade rolls, Dad's Famouse Tri-tip, and Pizza's in Dad's new pizza oven)
5. Go see the Red's play at AT&T Park against the Giants.
6. Go swimming in the warm, NO...HOT wheather. (we will not be missing the snow)

I may realize something, but that doesnt mean that I learn

I have decided to join in on Eric's Tag....for those of you who have blogs and are reading this...you should write your own version. Tag...Your it!

Things I've come to realize:

1.I've come to realize that my family... is full of very amazing people who are so strong that they get through the hardest times in life with a smile on their faces.
2.I've come to realize that when I talk...I usually jumble my words and cannot express what I am thinking in my mind.
3.I've come to realize that I need... to cherish every moment that I have with my husband and children and learn to enjoy living in the NOW, not the soon to be.
4. I've come to realize that I have lost...my mind!!!
5. I've come to realize that I hate it when...I go to long without seeing my family members....including my in-laws, siblings and especially my husband (12 hours seems like an eternity sometimes.)
6. I've come to realize that when I'm hungry...I might just be bored or be emotional .
7. I've come to realize that money... can bring so much fun and joy, yet bring so much stress.
8. I've come to realize that people....are so generous and giving even when they dont really know you. Our ward is awesome.
9. I've come to realize that I'll always be...a different shape that I was in high school. Who knew that decreasing exercise from 4 to 1 hour a day, having 2 children and cooking our family meals would have caused one to gain 40 lbs.
10. I've come to realize that I'm hopelessly in love with...Food...the reason it is hopeless is becuase I will always struggle with an addiction to food.
11. I've come to realize that my cell phone...is necessary.
12. I've come to realize that when I woke up this morning...I just wanted to go back to sleep. Marcus woke up and cried from 1-2, Emma was wide awake from 2:10 till 4:15 and then Marcus woke up at 5:45. Considering that I went to bed at midnight and woke up at 8:00, I did not get enough sleep.
13. I've come to realize that right before I go to sleep at night... I have to check on my chidlren or else I worry about them all night.
14. I've come to realize that right now I'm thinking about...how I just want to watch ER instead of the dumb hockey playoff game between Calgary and San Jose. I love ER.
15. I've come to realize that babies... grow up so fast.
16. I've come to realize that when I blog... I feel like I can keep in touch with so many people, instead of one or two people.
17. I've come to realize that today I will... regret sitting in the sun for so long because my face is already red.
18. I've come to realize that tonight I will...Clean up the kitchen and then go to bed after watching this dumb hockey game.
19. I've come to realize that tomorrow I will...Sit out in the sun even though I know it is not good for me.
20. I've come to realize that I really want to... go to California next week so that I can actually spend time with Eric for a full week and see my family.

Battle Scars

I knew that at some point in Emma's life she would start getting hurt, and all I would be able to do was comfort her. Thus far in her life, she has not had any serious injuries. She has bit her lip a couple of times, tripped and fell, small things like that. Well, and I guess what happened last night wasnt so bad, but it really scared me (and her) because I think it could have been a lot worse than it was. Last night we were at Erics Softball game and all of a sudden I hear Emma screaming....she had fallen down the concrete bleachers and rolled a bunch of times. She ended up scraping her nose and forehead pretty good. Needless to say, the first thing that Emma talked about this mornign when she woke up was her scare....well, temporary scare. She was so excited to tell her friends. I think I need to not worry about what is going to happen to my children and when. If I did, I would live in fear my whole like.
( I know the picture is a little blurry, but it is just a really goodlooking scrape)

Warm...Cold...Warm....Cold....I cant handle it

Here are Marcus, Jayden and Emma swinging on the swings at our complex on Saturday when it was warm outside. FYI...it is suppost to snow tomorrow....SUCKS! oh well.
Marcus on his first swing ride on a sunny day. Isnt his hat the cutest?!?

Homeless Bird

Many of you who know me, know that I am not much of a reader. I guess I just get discouraged because I have never been a very fast or comprehensive reader. So one of my neighbors convinced me to read the book that some ladies in our ward are reading for their book club, so I told her that I would. Last week on Friday night I read from 7 pm until 11:30 pm straight. I thought that Homeless Bird was a wonderful book. I have discovered that cutlure really interestes me and relating to the characters in a book help me become intrigued. Anyways, I have now listed on the bottom of this page a couple of new books that I have heard are great and that I would now like to read. I just have to sit down and tackle them like this last book and I am sure that I will end up loving them.

Good Luck Nikki!

Well, I finished my first blanket this week. I have been in a sewing mood and since my sister Tawni has so graciously lent me her sewing machine, I have been working very hard on multiple blankets for friends and family. I was so excited to take my beautiful rag quilt that I made to Nikki's baby shower today becuase it was my first blanket ever. (I was going to take a pic, but I forgot). Anyways, I was so embaressed when I got there and Nikki pulls out this beautiful quilt that she made for her babies room. Anyways, she ended up loving my blanket anyways (well, she says she does). So I guess that I can say that my first blanket was a success. I also wanted to tell Nikki after talking and listening to her today that she is going to be an amazing mother. She has so much humor, love, honesty, enthusiasum, and beauty among many other qualities to offer her soon to be son. Good Luck Nikki....oh, and all of those compliments are contingent upon the use of that baby blanket that I made you, so you better use it....haha, JK.

Sleeping Beauty

So I just took this dinner tonight at dinner. Emma was so tired that she fell asleep sitting up at the dinner table. It was so funny that I had to take some video of it. Her head kept bobbing from side to side. I LOVE THIS LITTLE GIRL!!

Marcus is trying to crawl

Marcus is trying so hard to crawl. Here is the latest on what he does, but I will keep you updated with videos.

Double Trouble

This is Emma and her friend Braiden. They tend to get into trouble together quite often. These are the two children that so kindly spread poop all over emmas bedroom floor (well, Emma is the one that did it, I think Braiden was just not egging her on). Anyways, keep your eyes on these two if they are around, cause if you dont, you will find a lot more than you went looking for.