Our Little Monkey

Our Autumn is a little monkey...a Curious George that is. We have always thought this, but she did some things this summer that proved her identity. She has dug deep in our travel bags; found and opened a bag of medication; then proceded to eat a Zantac. (She thought it was candy.) This required a call to poison control. Just so you all know, Zantac is not harmful to most children. It could have hurt her kidneys, but luckily it did not. (This all happened within a matter of two minutes.) She also got a stool, drank water out of two glasses on the counter, played with the glasses and broke them. She thought she was just playing, as she had four little cuts on her hand. (This all happened within a matter of two minutes.) Another day this summer, she was a bit jealous that her sister was having a bath and she wasn't (she had one the night before). Here is what she did...

Placed her stool under the water jug that we use for her...
Pushed down the handle to let the water flow...(the picture was staged to capture what she had already done)
Emptied the jug half way...
And created her very own bath! What a character! We are going to have our hands full with this one. Dr. Juarbe tells us that she is simply making up for the life that she missed out on in the beginning. I agree with him and add that God has given her extra spunk to remind us of the blessing and miracle that she is. Kids...just gotta love 'em!

Water Play

The girls love running in and out of water (like most kids). Grandma took these pictures as they were playing by a fountain at the Navy Pier in Chicago. They had so much fun! They also had fun the other night playing in the rain. Unfortunately, our camera ran out of batteries as I attempted to take pictures. Then, I decided to just join Aaron and the girls in play, so no pictures. I hope you enjoy these...

Chicago-Day 4 (Last Day)

Day four included a trip to the zoo with the Timbers family before we got on the road. After checking out of the hotel, we headed for a gas station and some breakfast before we even started for the zoo. 'Sassy' (our GPS) couldn't get us to a gas station so I didn't know what to do (we were very near empty). As we were getting a bit desperate we just happened on a gas station with a McDonalds right across the street from it. OK-We didn't just happen upon this, I know God provided as He did many times on this trip!!! Thanks be to God!!! After this excitement we easily found our way to the zoo. Here are a few pictures of our time there. Autumn and Grandma enjoying the animals together. Autumn loves animals, so she enjoyed this event very much.
Here are the four girls in the pouch of a giant kangaroo. (I should have gotten the kanga's head, but I was too focused on getting the girls.)
The four girls piled into the stroller Kay was pulling. She sure had a load to pull here, but they were having a lot of fun. Thank you Kay for pulling them most of the day.

After this, we left the zoo and got on the road. We left at 4:00-4:30 Chicago time and we arrived home at 10:45-11:00 our time. It was a very fun trip with lots of memories made!

Celebrating 10 Years

Ten years ago today, Aaron and I began our life together as husband and wife. We agreed in the beginning that we would be married only if we could serve God better together than apart. I will say that not everyday has been perfect in this mission, but we do strive each day to honor God and each other.

I am so thankful that God has brought us this far. I know we are still fairly early in our marriage and we have a lot more to experience together. However, the past ten years have been full of challenges and new adventures. We have grown in our faith and in our own relationship. We have had our trials in these areas too. We have welcomed two beautiful girls and wait to meet a baby in heaven. We have said goodbye to some very important people in our lives. We have endured many illnesses, some major and some minor. We have had financial hardships and many financial blessings. We have seen some friends come and some friends go. We have served in many different areas in the church. We have gone through good times and hard times at work. The list could go on and on. What matters most is that God has been the head of it all. He is the leader of our home, our marriage, our family and our everyday. On good days and bad, we give Him praise. He is our all in all. We still have so much to learn and so much more growing to do, as does everyone. I encourage you to love God first today and love others second. This is what God desires most in our lives. This is my pledge to my husband today...I will love God first and then love you second only to Him. I will strive to honor Him and you each day, Aaron. I love you!

I included some pictures so you can see how time has been to us. Unfortunately, we didn't get a digital camera until Jayna, so I couldn't post any beginning years pictures with just the two of us. Here are the last 5 years...

Chicago-Day 3

Day three began with an early morning after a late night. Autumn had some trouble being in the same room with us all and sleeping. Therefore, we were all a bit tired as we headed to Shedd Aquarium. We did have a pretty good time though. Autumn did have a melt down after a couple of hours, so she and Grandma went back to the hotel early.

Here are the girls enjoying the fish displays in the very beginning. (Still happy!)
After Autumn and Grandma went back, Jayna and I enjoyed a dolphin show. Here is one jumping in the air. These are the only two pictures I took while at the aquarium. We then went back to the hotel ourselves for some food and a small bit of down time. When we were all feeling refreshed, we headed down to the Navy Pier. It was a short walk from our hotel...
Us girls were enjoying our time together as we began this next adventure.
These girls love their grandma!
And she loves them! (I absolutely love this picture!)
Jayna, Autumn and I rode the "horsie ride." This was Autumn's first time. She kept saying, "WEE!"
Here we are with our friends, Kay, Kaytlin and Talayah (sleeping in the stroller).
A tired Jayna holds her dear friends hand as we walked to our seat for the fireworks. I didn't catch any pictures of the fireworks, but they were really neat. Then, we walked back to the hotel and headed to bed. The girls fell fast asleep. Grandma and I enjoyed some adult talk time until late, but it was so worth it. We had another fun-filled day. (I do have some very cute pictures of the girls playing in the water at the pier, but I will share them later.) Stay tuned...

Chicago-Day 2

Day two of Chicago was Jayna's favorite by far. We started the day by walking about 1/2 mile to the American Girl Doll Store. You can tell by her smile that she was really enjoying herself...

This is when we first arrived.
Jayna stands next to her doll, Julie. Each doll is from a time in history and has a story of struggle and triumph. Julie is from the 1970s. She has divorced parents but finds joy and happiness in her life despite.
Taylor Morley gave Jayna an American Girl baby to take along with us. (Thank you Taylor!) It was nice because this doll was able to have brunch with us. (We didn't purchase Julie until after we were done with brunch.) Notice the baby even has a seat at the table.
Jayna and I enjoyed our time together at the brunch. I always love spending time with her.
Grandma had a nice time with us too. Jayna so enjoys having Grandma around. (Notice the doll now has her own little tea cup. What a place!)
Here we are at the end of brunch. We had mousse for dessert in flower pots. You were able to keep the flowers, which gave Autumn something to play with and bought us a little more time at the table.


After this, we shopped a little and went back to the hotel so Autumn could have a nap. Later, Jayna and I went back to the American Girl place to watch a play. It was a wonderful play, and we had a nice time just the two of us...thanks to Grandma for staying with Autumn. As soon as we returned from the play, we hopped in the Tahoe and headed over to see Jayna's friends, Kaytlin and Talayah. We had dinner at their house. Then, the girls played together for a couple of hours. It was really nice to spend some time with them. We didn't get to bed until late though. Isn't that what vacation is all about? Be watching for day three...

Chicago-Day 1

We are back from Chicago safe and sound, thanks to 'Sassy' (our GPS). We had a wonderful time. I think I will share the events one day at a time so you can feel as though you were there...well kind of anyway. Our first day was spent travelling, swimming and dinner at Rainforest Cafe. Enjoy!

Jayna loves to swim so much that it didn't take her more than 30 minutes to throw her things in the room, change her clothes and get the rest of us down to the pool. She then jumped right in. She is a lot tougher than her mom because it was a little chilly. This was the outdoor pool. We had a great view of it from our room.
She had a ball swimming. I had to convince her that we needed dinner to get her out of the pool.
Autumn on the other hand is more like her mom...cold. She didn't stay in for more than 5 minutes. She has the look of torture on her face. This is how I felt too, but I love Jayna too much to not swim with her.
We then walked about 7 blocks or so to the Rainforest Cafe. The girls enjoyed looking at the animal displays, but they did not enjoy the noise. Also, Autumn had zero patience for sitting there and waiting. They did eat their dinners, but Grandma and I took ours in a box.
As we were about to go Jayna said, "Mom it is really raining outside." I replied with, "That is just a reflection of the inside. No wait, you are right it is really raining outside. Let's go get Grandma and find a way to our hotel." Well, we got Grandma and found a nice man to catch us a cab. We then all jumped in the cab while throwing all of our stuff in quickly. Needless to say, we still got drenched. Autumn was freezing the whole way back to the hotel. Jayna was uneasy about riding with this stranger. Grandma and I were laughing about the whole situation. What else are you going to do? I thought it was fitting to take a picture of the girls wet hair. By this time, Jayna found the situation comical as well. Day one ends. Stay tuned for day two.

Jayna's Arm...No Cast!

Jayna got her cast off last Tuesday!!! She was so happy and is doing great! The bones are healing and look very good. Of course, she had plans made with Aunt Vicki and Uncle Eldon to go swimming that very afternooon. She is such a fish.

Here she is, free arm and ready to swim.
Here's a close up of the arm. The surgery scrub was still on along with a lot of dead skin. Since then, it has come off.
She's ready to jump in.
Here she is swimming with her cousins Madison and Ava. She had so much fun. She says that Madison is a great swim partner. Thanks Aunt Vicki and Uncle Eldon for letting us swim...two days in a row!

A Day With Kaytlin and Talayah

Jayna has some friends from daycare/preschool that moved to Chicago two years ago. We usually get to see them when they visit Michigan, which is a couple of times a year. This makes Jayna very happy because she really misses Kaytlin and Talayah. As a matter of fact, we are going to Chicago to visit them on Monday, so be waiting for those pictures. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the ones here from their day at the park in Midland. These girls are such good friends!

Autumn loved driving. I think she liked having the control. HMMM
Here are the three girls playing together. Jayna was able to hang in there with her cast and all.
Here is a beautiful shot of the three friends...Talayah, Kaytlin and Jayna (left to right).
Jayna and Kaytlin have been friends ever since Kaytlin was a baby (Jayna was 1).
The girls had fun on the train too. They are silly and cute!