John and Amber

So May is going to be broken up into a few separate posts as it was a very exciting month!  Most of the month of May we, meaning the Amber and the girls, didn’t spend in Virginia.  We few out to Idaho on the 11th of May and spent 10 days in Idaho and then we drove to California, with Amber’s parents (THANKS!!) and met John there where we spent a week with his sister and husband, and then we spent 3.5 days in Utah until we headed back to Idaho!  It was a very busy month full of A LOT of traveling!

With April came the first signs of spring and all that goes with it.  We were able to have a big BBQ with friends from our ward.  It was great to have so many kids playing in the yard and the adults just visited for a handful of hours.  It was a great time and we’ve looked forward to having more BBQs.  April also brought Easter.  Emma’s friend had an Easter party, the kids got to decorate eggs, go on an easter hunt, and we all enjoyed a great lunch.  Emma had a lot of fun really understood the hunt for the eggs.  Easter Sunday we spent with John’s parents up at the lake house and the girls loved finding the eggs and enjoying the Easter candy.  Ashleigh is our little eater and it was so much fun seeing her fully enjoy the sugar, I don’t think she’s had so much sugar at one time and she thoroughly enjoyed it.  On the way home from the lake we got to stop into a farm that John’s mom knew about and the girls got to see baby chicks, calves, lambs…basically all the farm animals.  Emma loved it and it was fun to really see spring in such a fun way on Easter.

Finally at 9 months Ashleigh started crawling.  YAY!!  I know for some people don’t want their kids to be mobile but for me it makes life easier.  All Ashleigh wanted to do was move around and play with different things so I had to be there moving her but once she started crawling we were all happier as she could get where she wanted to be!  Other than that exciting news the month was filled with the every day things!  We love our lives with two little girls!

We’re into the New Year

Out Jan. and Feb weren’t too exciting but we did have a few snow storms.  So we had fun shoveling and playing in the snow and the rest of the time we spent inside staying warm.   In Feb. some friends invited us to go to a Wizards game.  We hadn’t been to a pro basketball game since we were dating so it was fun to go to that and have a night out without the kiddos.

Can’t believe I have to go all the way back to 2010 to get caught up….ahhh!!  So I guess here’s our Christmas in July.

Our December was so much fun!  We got to go to Idaho and spend about 10 days with Amber’s family, we went to the cabin with EVERYONE, it’s been a while since we’ve got to be all together as a family and it was great to spend time with everyone.  After Idaho we went up to John’s family’s lake house at Deep Creek Lake in Maryland.  It was a great transition especially for Emma since she had just left all her cousins and then she was surrounded by her Aunts and Uncles.  Plus she got two Christmas, what more could a 2 year old want.  It was really fun this year with her as she got opening presents and Santa but even more fun was the time we spent learning the Christmas story and hearing her talk about Baby Jesus and his Mommy Mary.  We have a Fisher Price Nativity set and she loved telling the story and having it throughout the season.  It was great!  We just love the Holiday Season filled with family!! YAY!

I can’t believe it’s been so long since I last posted….sorry about that…granted I don’t know how many people actually look at this so really I’m sad for myself because I’ve missed documenting so many fun things!  So I guess now it’s time to play catch up…the story of my life I feel like, especially these last couple of months.  So hopefully in the next couple of days I can catch up on the previous 7 months and cover everything we have been doing!

So ever since General Conference last month I have been thinking about everything that I’m blessed with.  Some of the talks really made an impression on me.  Plus it’s Thanksgiving here in a week and half and well it will be the first Thanksgiving that we aren’t surrounded by other family.  This year we’re staying home and doing our own Thanksgiving (I won’t lie I’m a little intimidated with the Thanksgiving feast thing…) anyway back to the real reason I started writing…I have just been reflecting on everything I have to be grateful for especially my family.  I have a wondering and loving husband who works so hard for me and the girls, I’m SO lucky!  I have two beautiful and amazing girls.  I never thought I could be so lucky.  We have some friends that have had some challenges with their kids in one way or another and even though we have the “typical 2 year old” she really is a good girl and I love Emma dearly.  And while most people don’t know this we had a scare with Ashleigh while I was pregnant with her, it turned out to be nothing but it was such a relief when she was born and there really wasn’t any problems.  Now to have this wonderful and happy 5 month old, it just really is amazing.  We know we are truly blessed to have healthy and happy girls.  I have an amazing family both my family and John’s.  I don’t know where I would be without their love and support.  I have just really felt strongly how much my life really is blessed and I hope that I can always remember that!!

Now I know there are some of you wanting to see Halloween pics of the girls…yes Rachel I know I’ve been killing you not posting this…SORRY!!!  (Just an explanation of  Emma’s costume…it was a little big and falling off her shoulders because we had to buy the 3/4T size as we tried the 2T size and they didn’t even cover her diaper she was so tall so to get one tall enough we had to go up and well it was to big but at least it covered her bum!) Halloween was fun, we spent the night before at our ward Trunk-or-Treat.  Emma had a BLAST and got more than enough candy.  Sunday (Halloween) we went over to John’s parent’s house and had dinner with his parents, his Aunt & Uncles on his Dad’s side, as well as some other relatives.  It was a fun evening.  John weighed and carved his pumpkin that he grew….yes it was 88 lbs and he is very proud of it!  We made doughnuts and just really had a lot of fun together.

One last thing that I’m really excited about….this past weekend we (mostly John) put new blinds in on the main floor.  The blinds that were up when we moved in were to put it lightly disgusting and I’m so happy to have new blinds up, not to mention the past couple of weeks I’ve got new things in the house, a coat rack, key holder, new picture decorations…basically I feel like my house is becoming mine and even though I’m not the greatest decorator I’m pretty happy with the way it’s coming together!  I don’t have pics yet of the many things we’ve done but I’ll work on getting those posted as I know some of you have wanted to see how it’s coming along!  Look for those soon….I hope!

To end I just want to say THANKS to everyone (friends and family) for your friendship….it’s really meant a lot, and more than likely I’ve been thinking about you the last couple of weeks!!

Well I know I’ve said that I’ll be better at keeping this updated but while as you can tell that didn’t really work out so here’s a long post with short clips of what has been going on in our lives for the past two and half months.

So we had a pretty exciting August.  My little brother Randy got married and so we packed up the girls and headed to Idaho for a very quick weekend in Idaho.  It was SO much fun to be with all of my family, despite how quickly it all went by.  Granted we learned our lesson as Emma was more than tired the day of the wedding so we will have a day of “rest” after traveling before trying to do anything organized.  It was so nice to see family and friends that I hadn’t seen in a while and to spend time with my parents after the wedding festivities were finished.

When we got back to Virginia the very next weekend we headed to Deep Creek Lake to spend time with John’s family at their lake house.  His whole family was there for a little over 2 days.  Emma loved being showered with attention and the center of attention for pretty much the entire two days.  It was great to spend time with John’s family and have a few relaxing days at the lake.  Did I mention fall is BEAUTIFUL on the east coast…

Other August activities: attended a Redskins preseason game, Emma rode a horse for the first time (thanks Aunt Rachel!!), Emma got her first haircut (thanks Aunt Bethany!), while in Idaho we rode Segways for the first time (AWESOME),

September brought a very busy month.  It’s John’s busiest month of the year so that meant early mornings and a few late nights not to mention he was training for Ragnar Relay which occurred on the 24th and 25th.  They ran just about 200 miles in about 31 hours I believe.  There was 12 runners on their team and they ran through the night and everything.  I think he was crazy but know that initial soreness and everything is gone I think he really enjoyed it and would consider doing it again. We were lucky enough to have a mature pear tree in our yard when we moved in so we picked and canned pears.  Emma loved picking pears with her dad and would even get upset when we asked her to come inside and quick picking…think that will last into the teenage years?

Most importantly updates on our new addition.  Ashleigh is such a joy.  Who could of thought I would be blessed with two perfect daughters.  Ashleigh so SO happy.  She rarely cries and is just a giggly, smiley, prefect little girl.  I am the happiest most blessed mom ever!  We go in tomorrow to see what all the stats are at 4 months, but she’s so cute.  She’s tall like Emma but she has more rolls than Emma had, and I LOVE IT!  Emma was so skinny from the beginning so it’s fun to have a baby with the cheeks and thighs.  I just think she’s the cutest thing!

Since Oct is almost over the exciting thing this month for me is I’m taking a photography class.  Anyone that knows me knows that I LOVE to take pictures and last year for my birthday I got a nice SLR camera and so now I get to learn how to use it…and boy is there a lot to learn.  I have really loved to learn about photography and the right and wrong way to do things.  I’m really excited to take my camera off of auto and onto manual and actually get some good pictures.  The last pictures are those that I’ve taken for my class…hopefully my pictures keep getting better as I learn more and PRACTICE!

Conference weekend we took Emma down to Reagan National Airport and watched the airplanes take off.  We live by Dulles Airport and see planes ALL the time.  Whenever we are out in the car Emma will always point and say “plane”…it’s amazing how small they can be and she will still see them.  So she had a lot of fun and it was a gorgeous day.

Over  Columbus Day weekend we took a few friends up to the lake house with us and got to have fun with them and just relax.  The Judd’s have a little girl Emma’s age and my cousin Heather’s family have a girl just a year older than her so Emma was in heaven having playmates for 3 days.

Finally we got some family pictures taken while we were in Idaho, thanks Ryan for taking them!  Then I got some studio pics taken of the two girls together because I could never just what I wanted with the two girls…anyway I think that’s a pretty good summary the happenings for the last couple of months…enjoy all the pictures

(So I tried to put all the pics in order but I bet I missed some…so hopefully you can place all of them

Saturday was Emma’s 2nd Birthday!  I can’t believe she’s two!!  It has been a great 2 years getting to know her and her personality.  We planned a water party with friends…unfortunately only one showed up but she didn’t know any difference.  She had a lot of fun with her friend Sophia as well as family that came.  Afterward we had a little BBQ and visited during the afternoon. Our Realtor and friend made Emma her cake.  She just loves Emma and thinks she is the cutest so she willingly made her her cake.  Isn’t it amazing!  Emma loves Nemo and Dory and so we did the water theme and had everything orange and blue.  She juts loved the cake and would look at it and say “Nemo” “Dory” “Emma” “Turtle”, needless to say it was a HUGE success…THANKS Colleen!!

In the evening we went over to John’s parents and went swimming.  Emma loved it!  She kept saying “self”, so we put the arm floats on her in addition to the body float and she had so much fun.  I think she’s going to be quite the swimmer!  So I took a TON of pictures and I only included a small handful here but there are still a lot because I know some of my family are wanting pictures…so hopefully you’ll enjoy!  Thanks to all that came and helped us celebrate Emma’s birthday.

So we had a really special 4th of July this year.  We were able to bless little miss Ashleigh Anne.  It was a very special day full of friends and family.  Amber’s parents and grandma were able to come out and John had his parents, sister & brother-in-law, and brother came as well.  It turned out to be a perfect day!  Thanks to all who came.

While Amber’s family was here we went up to Harper’s Ferry and spent a day doing some sight seeing and just relaxing.  It turned out to be the perfect day to go up there and we all enjoyed the laid back atmosphere. Enjoy the pictures!

Also here is a link to look at the birth announcement that we sent out.  Sorry if you didn’t get one!…but you can enjoy it here (Just copy and paste it in a new window)

http://www.heritagemakers.com/projectBrowserStandAlone.cfm?projectId=1353120&productId=67&projectSponsor=237705