He is here!

Wow! What a day!! We welcomed our sweet little boy this morning at 8:27!! He was 9 lbs 1 oz and 20" long. It was a dream delivery!! I was 41 weeks and 1 day pregnant. I wanted to write my labor and delivery story down now before I start forgetting the details.

So I woke up a few times last night from some light contractions but nothing that would keep me up. I easily could fall back asleep and sleep through quiet a few more contractions. Around 4:30 I woke up from an intense contraction. It was soo super painful and I tried to jump right out of bed because it hurt so bad to lay in bed through it. I labored at home with Mike in the tub and on the birth ball for the next hour or so. We were not timing them because Mike was helping me out and didnt have time to time them, but he knew that they were about 3 min apart and he could tell that I needed my doula. So he called my doula who was asking questions on if we were sure she should come. Mike asked her to come and then helped me labor a bit more. After a few more contractions he called her back and told her to meet us at the birth center instead. I am so glad that I have a husband who looks out for me and can read me well enough to know when to make these kinds of calls!!

So around 6 we called a friend to come and get maeli and we got our stuff in the car. We were out of there around 6:15 and Mike drove way too fast the whole way there (like 90 in all speed zones). Im sure glad that there were no cops around cuz he would have gotten in big trouble!! On the way I started wanting to push. Mike was totally freaked out and drove even faster to get us to the birth center quickly. The car ride was SOOO hard because having intense contractions and not being able to move sucks!

When we got to the birth center they checked me and I was dilated to 9.5 cm. I was fully dilated except for a little lip of cervix on one side. I labored for a bit on the birth stool and then some on the toilet too. While on the toilet, they got me pillows to go behind my head and stools to rest my feet on. I feel asleep between a few contractions. It was a nice little rest before gearing up for another contraction. It took everything that I had to stay under controll and make it through my contractions! (Mike wanted me to add that I had enough energy to mention that I should try to sleep on the toilet more often because it was so easy to fall asleep and it was a nice break from the birthing stool) I was begging for the birth pool to be filled up but the plummer that was working at the birth center turned the water heater way down so they had to turn it back up and I had to wait for it to heat enough water to labor in it. FINALLY the birth pool had about 8 inches in it and i climbed right in. It helped SOOO much. I could not have made it through the whole labor without it. It made the contractions so much more manageable! I got in about 7:30 ish and labored till 7:50 when my body was telling me to push. At that time Mike got in with me and helped support me by sitting behind me and holding me up. He was such a HUGE help during the whole process!! He was such an awesome birth partner! Pushing was intense but it hurt less than the contractions so I was greatful for a change. I pushed for 37 minutes before he was born at 8:27. It was the most amazing experience to reach down and feel my babies head crowning! It gave me just the motivation that I needed to get him out. He was such a sweet baby when he came out! He didnt even cry at first. He just looked up and Mike and I with his big beautiful eyes. We waited till the cord stopped pulsing and then Mike cut the cord. It was sooo thick! Then i delivered the placenta which is my favorite part of it all! I love the feeling of being totally empty after 10 months of a growing child inside of you. AMAZING!

We got to spend a few hours with him before they even took him away to measure or weigh him. It was so nice to get to have skin to skin bonding time with him for so long. All the midwifes and nurses left the room and let us spend time as a family getting acquainted. After about 2 hours we had them come in and check him out and I got all stitched up and repaired. It was so nice not feeling rushed and feeling like I was in control of all the decisions that were being made.

My mom brought Maeli over after a bit and and it was so special watching her eyes glow as she held and admired her little brother for the first time. She is such a cute older sister! The first thing she said to me was "Mom! You got the baby out of your tummy??" It was so cute! She kept saying how cute he was and she held him like a champ! It was awesome to have our little family all together. My mom picked us up some breakfast and we talked and ate and played.

We headed home about 2:00. It was so nice to be able to leave when we were ready! We werent required to stay for days and we could have stayed longer if we felt like we needed to. I just LOVE the birth center that we delivered at. It was a perfect experience.

I just cant stop thinking about how proud i am of myself! i totally did it! i labored like a champ and i delivered a huge baby with absolutely no pain meds!! i feel like wonderwoman! i feel so empowered! and i feel so much better than i did after maelis birth! i feel awesome!! I am so proud of my body and that I trusted it to do what it was made to do.

Mike was amazing too! He did a perfect job of helping me without overwhelming me. I could feel his love for the through the whole process. He was wonderful!! And I was so glad to have an awesome birth doula to help me with comfort measures and helping Mike to comfort me as well. The whole experience was just amazing! It was better than I could have ever dreamed of.

So from the time that I really noticed contractions to the time that he was born, I was in labor a total of 4 hours! That sure beats the 36 hours that I was in labor with Maeli for. I pretty much slept through all of the prelabor stuff and went right into transition. Thank goodness too! It made for a quick but intense labor.

Jaxton is an awesome baby! He has been a good nurser today with a great latch and he has been sleeping tons (which im sure will change). We are just so in love with him and are so greatful for a healthy little boy! He is the perfect addition to our family! We love him!!

And on a side note... my mom informed me that I hold the record in my family for the smallest baby (Maeli at 5 lbs 5 oz) and the biggest baby (Jax at 9 lbs 1 oz). Just something i thought was funny :)

Happy Thanksgiving

Since it is Thanksgiving I thought i would blog about a few things that I am thankful for!

I am thankful for a wonderful family who loves me and makes me smile

Im thankful for an awesome husband who is a strong spiritual leader and brings fun and laughter into our home

I am thankful for healthy kids! Maeli makes me smile and laugh every day and is such a joy in our family! And Jaxson is such a blessing to our family. We cant wait to meet him and get to know his sweet spirit and personality

I am thankful for a home and for my husband job which allows me to stay home and raise my children

I am thankful for an awesome birth doula who keeps encouraging me to stay positive and keep my head in the game!

I am thankful for friends who care about me and who look out for me all of the time (especially my miss Carey and Marika!) . Even the friends who live far away who still manage to make me feel loved from miles away! (Emiley and Heather!!)

I am thankful for the little things in life that keep me excited and keep me going!

I am thankful for a ward family who is always so willing to help out.

I am thankful for a little brother who is a great example of service!

I am thankful for the gosple and the ways that is blesses my life every day

I am thankful for the temple and the love that it has blessed my family with

I have so much more that I am thankful for... but Im gonna stop there so I dont go on forever.

We are doing exceptionally well! I am still pregnant and YES I am almost 41 weeks. I have my moments that I mentally break down and just want this kid out but for the most part I am doing really good. I am so grateful for the miracle that the Lord allows me to participate in. Its such an amazing experience carrying a child inside of you and feeling and watching it grow. Its amazing to be apart of this experience and being trusted to raise one of His spirit children. I feel so blessed to have already been able to go through this process with Maeli and that i know how wonderful it is in the end. I love being a mom! My heart feels so full when i think of all the joy that Maeli alone has blessed Mike and I with and knowing that we get to experience that again soon. I have never felt so close to God then when I held Maeli for the first time.

I have so much to be thankful for!

22 week update

I am 22 weeks and 3 days today. I cant believe how fast this pregnancy is going by. My goodness!!! With Maeli it seriously took forever for her to get here and with this little one time is just flying. I think partly it is because I am way busier and also partly because I am SOOO not ready for a new baby.

We had our ultrasound and midwife appt last monday at 21 weeks. They got to do an ultrasound and we found out that we are having a BOY!! I could hardly believe it. I have no idea what to do with a boy. I totally have the girl things down... but a boy? I dont even know where to start. We went out shopping and luckily found some cute boy clothes that have made me super excited to have a little boy. And i think maeli will do great with a little brother!! She is already a rough and tough girl so she will wrestle with him lots. We have two names picked out for a boy that we might name him. I am having a hard time just picking one and sticking to it so we will just have to wait till he is born to pick it.
Mike is soooooo excited as Im sure anyone could have guessed. He is already planning out his future of playing for BSU so that we can have season tickets to all the games...(PUKE)
We are really excited though!

I am getting pretty big. The same size as with maeli (I compared pictures) but I feel so much bigger. This little guy is a kicker and a squirmer! I have been feeling him since 17 weeks or sooner. I just LOVE feeling the kicks and wiggles. I will be super sad when he is born and I cant enjoy this part of pregnancy anymore. I am enjoying this pregnancy much more than i was with Maeli for sure. I feel so blessed to be a mom again and I just love the fact that I get to bring a sweet little life into this world. And I am also super excited about nursing this time where I was terrified of it with Maeli. So much changes when you have become a mother!! including your opinion about everything!!

What did I just agree to??

Mike and I got licensed for foster care the 24th of June. We first off got a call a few days after asking us to take a teenager for just a few days. We agreed to it and boy was that an experience. The first night we had her she climbed out our 2nd story window onto the porch covering and jumped down. Her boyfriend had come to pick her up and she ran away with him. The neighbor saw it all and so he called the cops and it was a whole production with three cop cars, spot lights and drug dogs.

It may seem like way more drama than any normal person would want but we didnt mind it at all. I think it actually prepared me for what we have going on now. It made the thought of taking on twin two year olds seem pretty plain and boring compared to runaway teenagers :)

Yesterday we got twin two year olds; a boy and a girl. With Maeli, that makes 3- two year olds in my house!!! Its like having triplets!!! Let me just say that it is pure madness here at my house!! lol. there is running and screaming and climbing and hitting and giggles and smiles and lots and lots of love. It is gonna be super hard here for a while because the twins will take a little time to get adjusted to our home. And they also have never had any rules to follow so that is hard to teach them the boundaries here at our home. But Maeli loves having two friends here all the time and they are just cute as can be.

Mike is in love with them. He thinks they are the cutest thing ever. I would have to agree that they are cute... but Maeli is the cutest thing ever so they take a close second. We feel so blessed to have their sweet spirits in our home and they truly are a blessing. I may have asked myself what I agreed to... but i know i will grow from having them here with us.

week 16 pregnancy update

I cant believe that I am 16 weeks pregnant already!! I haven't written much about my pregnancy yet and I really enjoy going back and reading about Maeli's pregnancy so I know I need to keep track of this one too!!

I have been feeling great other than my hips and sciatica acting up. I am luckily keeping it under control by putting hot rice socks on it every night when I go to sleep and by Mike being a sweet husband and always doing physical therapy on my and giving me messages :) He has been a huge help this time around!! I have been feeling baby move from time to time and have been for two weeks now! That is my favorite part of pregnancy!! I LOVE getting to feel that little life rolling around inside of me. I also love laying on my back at night and trying hard to get the baby to entertain us. Its so much fun!!

I am showing a lot now and have had lots of people ask about it. Its so funny because they dont wanna be wrong but they know that i wasnt this big a few weeks ago. I cant fit into hardly any of my clothes and I am noticeably round with a pregnant belly! Thats a fun part too! When you get to be huge and people think its cute :)

I have a midwife appt in a week and i cant wait to get to hear the little heartbeat. Such a comforting sound to a momma! I also have a meeting with a Doula to see if I would like her to be there with me at my delivery. I think i will really like this lady! I have interviewed a few on the phone and I just havent loved any of them... but this lady is super cute and has been super sweet to me. She is also LDS so that is a huge advantage for her. I cant wait though! Its fun to start planning the whole birth. That is something i didnt do with Maeli and i wish i had. Although with her I had no idea what i wanted from the birth. I sure did learn a lot from that whole experience.

We get to find out what we are having in a month too. Since we just find out at our midwife office and dont go to a ultrasound place, we have to wait for our next appt. And I will be 21 weeks for that. I cant wait!! Mike is positive we will have a boy because of this gender test that I did. But I honestly have no idea at all! And i dont really care either way so it will be a lot of fun to find out.

Other than all of that... there isnt too much going on. We are loving summer and the sun!! Trying to keep busy so that Maeli doesnt go crazy! We have one last homestudy probably this week and we will be licensed for foster care so we will have another kid around here pretty soon. I am super excited for maeli to have a play mate! Poor girl gets soooo bored here at our house with no one to play with. I feel bad for her but it wont be long till she has a sibling and a friend here all the time.

But everything else is going great! We are just trying to get this baby paid off and get our debt paid off so mike is working lots of extra hours and taking on a few home health patients a week. Its super nice to have the extra income but we sure do miss the extra time with him. He is a great daddy and he is such a hard worker supplying everything that our family needs. He is always willing to work harder to help our family out. And he sure does take great care of me during these painful and uncomfortable months. I dont know how i would ever be able to do it alone! He is such a blessing in my life :)

This is for you Emiley!!!

Maeli has been telling me who everyone is in the pictures on the fridge! I think she is missing her friend!!!

SOOO much JOY!

I know that no one probably reads this but i just had to share my joy today!

First of all it is Easter so that is just a wonderful and happy day all in itself.

But also I am just so happy for the blessing the Lord pours out upon myself and my family and friends. The last year has been kinda hard for myself and a few of my friends and family members. I struggled to conceive a baby while my best friend Heather had a horrible miscarriage that was due to an ectopic pregnancy. My friend Emiley also miscarried and my sister also miscarried this last December. I felt like everyone around me was losing their babies and I was missing out on a baby too.

Well this few month has just been the complete oposite for me!! Heather is pregnant again and is now 12 weeks pregnant and doing great! Mike and I are expecting, Emiley had a baby a few months ago and there are a TON of ladies in my ward who struggled to get pregnant and are all due within a month of me!! And my sweet cousin Gina, who has struggled with fertility for a few years now and whom i have continued to pray for, is pregnant as well! I am just so excited and over joyed with how much the Lord has blessed myself and those around me!! I want to cry with happiness over how excited I am for all these women in my life who are strong and wonderful women of God and who are AMAZING mothers!! What once felt like a sad time for the women around me is now replaced with so much happiness and joy that I cant deny the Lords hand in it all.

I guess I am really just feeling so excited and happy for all the women around me who I love and wanted to share my happiness with the world!!!

What a blessed day to know that we are saved by our savior Jesus Christ and we will live with him again with our families!

Our big news

We are expecting again. Mike and I have been trying for baby #2 for the last 8 months. And we finally have good news that we are expecting a baby around November 21st, 2011. We got to see the heart beating away today at our appt so we decided it was safe to announce the news officially!!! We cant wait for a new little one to bless our family this next winter.

Its been a while!

It had been a while! I have been slacking in the blogging duties. I have been super busy and feel like i am going crazy sometimes and so it hasnt even crossed my mind that i am way past due for another blog entry. So here it goes finally

Mike has been finishing up his one last lingering class to finish his bachelors degree. He has one test left and then he is done. Thank goodness too! It seems like this class is taking forever. He has to wait a long time for each of his assignments to get graded so that is what is holding him up so much. He has been working hard and playing harder. He starts doing home health again next week! That will be awesome to have some extra money coming in to pay off student loans! After all... that is our goal for the year. We have cut down all of our extra spending and are putting every last dime we have into student loans. We hope to have it paid off by march of next year! It is going to be a super hard year but it will be SOOO nice to be free from that debt! Then all we will have left is our house and we plan to have that paid off in 10 years! Mike is so proud of himself to have a full time job and a house and a family and hopefully have it all paid off in the near future! He is such a hard worker to be able to get all of that done and I am so proud of him!

Maeli is growing and playing lots! She has been learning colors and numbers and she is a super smart kid. We enjoy our learning time each day and we especially enjoy our cuddle time to watch "Elmo" That she is always asking to watch! She is an independent and strong willed little girl who is starting her terrible twos with vigor! She has also been potty training and often asks to go potty all by herself and will actually go on the potty! We are so proud of her! But she has to have someone keeping a close eye on her at all times or else the cat ends up colored pink with markers and so does everything else she can make a little prettier with her coloring skills!

I have been super busy with all of my daily tasks that need to get done. Being a stay at home mom is a hard job! I try to keep up on all of the house chores while keeping up with Maeli too. We have fun together though! I also try to take care of myself too so we go to the gym with a friend for an hour most days and I have been loving it! Maeli does great in the child watch at the gym too! I have been doing classes and running the few days a week i dont do classes. I am signing up for my first race this summer! I am running an all womens 5K race with some friends and I am so excited about it. I have never been a runner so this is a HUGE accomplishment for me! I also just got a new calling to the cub scouts that seems like its been taking tons of time. It is like a part time job between all of the trainings and meetings! But the gal that I teach with is super fun so we are starting to enjoy ourselves with that as much as possible. I am sure once we get the hang of it all we will love the fun activities and goofy boys!

On a side note... Mike and I have applied for foster care in the state of Idaho and have been busy getting all of the requirements met with that. We start our PRIDE classes in April and then a homestudy after that. We should have kids this summer I am thinking. We are very excited to take that on and hopefully make an impact on some kids' lives. The reason we decided to do this is because when we bought our house, we both had this overwhelming feeling that our house would not old be a safe place for us but it would also be a refuge for people who really needed it. And I have had this undeniable call to foster care and I am so excited about it. I am super nervous about it at the same time and wonder if i am fit to take on the emotional challenges of it... but a quote always comes to mind when i start questioning it. I have no idea who said it but it goes like this " Never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved." It is so true that my doubts and situations that i may have to deal with are nothing in comparison to the importance of these kids being loved.

Well that is pretty much all that is going on! We are super busy and having tons of fun at the same time! We cant wait for summer and for all the fun we are gonna have outside!! Hope you all are doing well! We love you all and miss ya bunches!!

Nauvoo; where we started our forever :)

We just got back from our week long vacation to Nauvoo. When i pictured my dream vacation it was definitely not snowy and cold! But our trip was a dream come true!

My grandparents served their mission to Nauvoo 15 years ago and we had the chance to go and visit them while they were there. Shortly after they returned home, the church announced that they were going to rebuild the Nauvoo temple and my Grandma told me and my sisters that one of us needed to go get married there so that she could go visit the new temple. Well she passed away before it was even dedicated and my Grandpa passed away a year and a half ago! So when mike got baptized we contemplated the idea of going to Nauvoo. I didn't think it would happen but then I heard rumors that the Boise temple would be closing. So we made our plans to go to Nauvoo! As the date got closer we realized that the Boise temple wouldn't be closing anytime soon but i was so excited about going to Nauvoo that we still planned our trip there.

Well we traveled all day saturday the 8th and finally got to Nauvoo! Our apartment was perfect and had plenty of space for all of us! Sunday we went to the local ward and then drove out to Carthage Missouri. What an amazing place to visit! it was so much fun seeing again the last place that Joseph Smith spent his time.

Monday we went sight seeing. We tried to see as many places as possible. Nauvoo is a little restored town that has lots of different shops that are run by missionaries. They are all set up to look like an 1800's home and they demo how people made things and such. The first place we visited was the brick yard where they used to make bricks. Maeli tripped and hit her face on the door jam so she had a huge lump on her face for the rest of the week. We also got to go on a carriage ride in the 20 degree weather and froze to death. But we came across the house my grandparent lived in when they were there. Then that night we got to go to Rendezvous in Old Nauvoo. Its a play that the missionaries put on. It made me remember my grandparents and we were all bawling by the end :)

Tuesday was the most special day! Mike and I both took out our endowments and then we were sealed to each other for all eternity! The most special and wonderful part though was when they brought Maeli into the room. She was so adorable all dressed in white! She was perfect!! i started bawling my eyes out and she just wanted me to hold her :) What a special and spiritual event.

Wednesday Brittany and Adam and my dad all flew home. Bryce, Mom, Mike and I stayed till friday. We saw some more sights and went back to the temple and just soaked up every ounce of the special spirit there in Nauvoo up that we could. We saw Rendezvous again!! Friday we flew back home and enjoyed the rest of our weekend.

It was definitely a wonderful week. We had so much fun having the whole town to ourselves! And I am so grateful to be sealed to my family now. I feel a much deeper love for Mike and we have both grown so much from it all!

Cloth Diapering

I know! It sounds so horrid and I have gotten a TON of grief about it... but we are doing it. We have been for two and a half weeks and LOVE it!!! But its not quite what you think it is. I PROMISE! There are no diaper pins and there are no nasty buckets of soaking poopy diapers. They are super adorable and super easy and even mike likes them! They go on just like a disposable.

So why are we cloth diapering...?

Well, a while back Maeli got a really bad diaper rash. It was like a blistering sore and it was all over! And we treated it with diaper rash creams but it just wouldnt go away. It took a few weeks of her screaming every time we changed a diaper before it got better. At the time i just thought it was a normal diaper rash but about a month ago i read something about how pampers diapers were causing chemical burns on babies. So i was just reading about it and it showed a pic of a chemical burn and it described what it was like. And i pretty much knew that that is what she had. So then i looked into what kinds of chemicals were in these things that they would cause a CHEMICAL BURN on a babies butt. Well that was enough for me to question our diapering methods. I found out that the chemicals in diapers are the same one that were made illegal in feminine products because they cause TSS. And there are tons of other things in them that are questionable to have near a babies parts. Including the dies and the bleach that is used in them. So i start to talk to mike about it and with resistance he agreed to let me try it. So we got two diapers and i loved it. SO then i ordered two more and still loved it. so then i made 21 more and they are all so adorable and we are loving it all!!!

Another reason that CDing makes so much sense for us is the cost factor. I did the math and figured out how much we would save with Maeli if she potty trained in a year from how. And just her alone we save $450. Well these diapers can also be used on our next child if we ever have one. So that will save us about another $1500 there and so on with each kid we have. So yeah.... the money factor is way worth it.

And no... its not gross

We shake the poop off into the toilet and just throw it in the wash! We never touch anything poopy or nasty. Super easy and they come out super clean. Maeli loves them too. We have put a sposie on her for when we go to other peoples houses or if someone is watching her and she wines about wearing one. She will bring you a cloth and ask for it to be put on. They are super soft and they do keep her bum dry. The inner fabric wicks it away from her skin and pulls it down into the other fabrics. They can stay on just as long as she was in the disposables too. And she has goes all night with no leaks! I have heard that kids potty train quicker with them and also they do not cause diaper rashes because the skin can breath in cloth. So all benefits for us!

Well anyways... Just thought i would share with you all my latest adventure! We are officially cloth diaper converts and we are loving every minute of it!!!

Temples, Tinkles and Thanksgiving

I just love this time of the year! I love all of the family time that i get and i love the warm snuggly feeling you get sitting inside and looking at the snow. Although i do hate the snow! I keep hoping that life will slow down here one of these days but it seems to keep busy still. Seems like we never have a free day even on the weekends ( and that is due to mike always at the BSU football games on the weekends). We have a few things that i needed to update this thing about so i thought i would write a post :)

First of all, Mikes on year baptism date is coming up! And you all know what this means. We have been looking forward to this day for a very long time! We were planning on going to the Boise temple to get sealed and take out our endowments.... but then i couldnt bring myself to get over my lifelong dream of going to the Nauvoo temple. So after many weeks of going back and forth about if we wanted to do that to all of our family ( make them either pay for plane tickets and go or just miss out on it all together) We decided to just do it! I dont wanna regret not going because i wanted to make everyone else happy! Although we love all of our family and friends who would have come, I just cant get over the thought of how special Nauvoo will be. You see... my grandparents went on thier mission to Nauvoo many years ago. Before they came home, they announced that they were gonna rebuild the temple. I remember my grandma telling me and my sisters that she wanted one of us to get married there so that she will have a reason to go to visit it. Well she passed away before it was even dedicated and my grandpa has passes since then too. But i always dreamed about keeping this promise to them. I was reading thought an old journal of mine from when i was little and i even said in there that that is where i wanted to get married. So we are gonna do it! It will be the most special thing ever!!!! I know that my grandparents will be there with us! But the thing that i am most excited about is having Maeli there! It makes me emotional just thinking about it. So our date that we are going though is January 11th. (my mom tried to get us to play the number game when we got married 8/8/08 but we did 8/9/08.... so this time i will make her happy and it will be 1/11/11 :) )

Maeli also has gone potty on the toilet! We got her a little potty chair and I had mike help me put her on it. We were just gonna let her sit on it and giver her candy and do the potty dance just for sitting on it the first time. I wanted her to feel like it was a cool thing to sit on the potty and want to do it again. So we sat her on there and she smiled and we did the potty dance and gave her candy! Then she stood up and mike looked in the potty and there was a little yellow liquid!! We couldnt even believe it! We have no intentions of potty training her yet (potty training sounds like a dog. I dont wanna train my daughter but teach her!) We have no intention of potty teaching her yet but did wanna familiarize her with the potty. So that was a huge success!

Another thing that is on our minds is Mikes blood tests. He had some blood work done and they came back a little alarming on a few things. Nothing too big to get scared of yet but enough to think about it. He has signs of the beginning stages of hypothyroidism and also has low platelet count. They are thinking this is because of the medications that he has been on since he was 16 and so we may be switching to a new medication. He has another blood test in a few weeks to see if they are going down or maintaining. So nothing too serious yet but its on our minds. So we will see what comes of it with his next dr. appt.

There isnt much else going on really. Thanksgiving in tomorrow and we are going to both the grandmas houses for that. We are also going to get a tree on Saturday. Mike already started putting up lights on the house and getting the Christmas stuff out. We love this time of year because it is so magical!

Trunk-or-treat!

We went to the trunk-or-treat last night and it was tons of fun. Our ward had a chili cook-off and so we got to try all sorts of chili and then they had a spook house and a cake walk and then trunk-or-treat outside. I found Maeli a costume at goodwill for $5 and it was the cutest thing ever! It was a little duck costume. She was so adorable waddling around with the big duck butt! It took some time to get used to but after a while she was loving the costume. When we took her out to trunk or treat it didnt take her long to catch on to the fact that everyone was giving her candy! So she was just walking up to people holding out her hands and asking for more. She was so super cute and i loved her costume this year!

Sweet memories

Our little girl is growing up too fast! It is so crazy how much she is starting to understand! She has been learning how to fold her arms for prayer and it is so cute! We havent really taught her but she has just picked up on it from watching us do it. So the other day she gets up to the table and stands on a chair. She put her sippy cup down on the table and folded her arms and started mumbling away! Then said "Amen" and took a drink from her sippy! It was the cutest thing ever and one of those moments where you are so glad that she picked up on a good habit of yours instead of a bad one :) lol!! I was so proud of her though! I truly am blessed with such a beautiful and special daughter of God. She brings so much happiness to our family and we feel overwhelmed by God's love for our family! there is nothing better than when she wraps her little arms around my neck and gives me a big sloppy kiss! Or when she runs to me with her arms stretched out calling me momma and wanting me to hold her. Being a mother is the most amazing job in the world!

Maeli also loves the water! We have been going swimming a lot at the Nampa Rec center! She is such a hoot in the water! She tries to run and swim and then almost drowns! But she giggles and splashes and it so much fun!


We also got a chance to go to Linder Farms in Meridian. It is a corn maize and a bunch of other things. It was so much fun! I know it has been a while since i have posted pics so here they are!!!

Our big girl is now sitting at the table with mike and I. We took her trey off her high chair and moved her to the table! She loves it there too!

Maeli loves her kitty! she carries her around everywhere and is always petting her and kissing her. We also have a boy kitty that is white but he doesnt let Maeli carry him around like a rag doll like the girl does. They are so funny to watch though!!

Just another Rankin life update

Not a whole lot has been going on. What can i say... we have a busy but boring life. Since my last post in July we have had our 2nd anniversary. We went camping at strawberry again with my family and have just been enjoying life. We recently got a membership to the nampa rec center so we have been going there on our free nights. We have lots of fun playing there with Maeli and just working out together. We also were given a little kid bike seat to go on the back of our bikes so we have been going on bike rides at night too. We got a minivan which has been in the shop since like the first day that we got it! lol. And we have been doing yard work. We got three trees to go in our back yard which i absolutely love!! It feels so nice back there now there is some privacy.

Maeli is growing up so fast. She is a little hoot and she is a wild thing. She gets into everything but always does it with a cute little grin that I just cant seem to get mad at. She is getting in her molars so she will have a total of 12 teeth!! Crazy! She is also a climber and so we often have to get her off the of the dining room table and out of the laundry hamper and a number of other places that she climbs into or onto and cant get down. She is sweet as ever though and we are so blessed to have her in our family.

Since the obam health care thing that passed, mike has had to do a lot of extra work to get ready for this friday when it all takes effect. He will no longer be able to take more than one patient at a time so he will have to work longer days and get fewer patients taken care of. This means that he cant do home health anymore which we were enjoying the extra money from that. But it will all be okay because he will have to work longer hours so it will kinda make up a little of that extra we were taking in. We were hoping to do lots of home health to get all our debt paid off but it will just take a little longer now. Mike is doing his last class to get his bachelors degree too so he keeps plenty busy between work and school. Oh yeah... and he has season tickets to boise state games so he is always watching thier games of checking up on the other teams they will play blah blah blah..... I am getting a little sick of football and the season just started!

As for myself.... i have just been enjoying life. I have spent lots of time crafting in my craft room and have been making lot of cakes too. I have started teaching maeli scripture stories with the living scripture dvd's. We usually watch them and color a page that goes along with the story. She loved it too! She has been so into the movies and she loves to color. I am also teaching myself american sign language through library resources and online websites. I think its just so fascinating!! I also got to spend some time with Emiley and my mom and sister for the Time Out For Women thing they did her in Boise. It was SO much fun!! We got a hotel room and spent the night away from kids and our hubbys. It was a nice break and we have a lot of memories that we made from that weekend.


Well that is pretty much our lives in a nutshell. We really dont have a lot going on these days. But for some reason we always are super busy. We are still settling into our house and into our ward and neighborhood. We really do love it here in Nampa. We love that we are so close to everyone and everything and that we get to visit family so often. It is all starting to feel more like home.

P.S. Sorry i dont have many pictures lately. We first lost our camera in the move and then when i fould it i couldnt find the charger. So we finally found the charger and then we realized we didnt have the battery for the camera. But FINALLY we have all of the pieces and have been taking pics that i will get posted sometime. :)

I wrote this a little while ago and just found it. Thought i would publish it :)

Mike and I just had our second anniversary! It seems like we have been married forever! Maybe its just like that because we dated for two years before we got married so we have been together forever! Anyways... since Brittany and Adam were married on the same day 5 years before us, we had a double date to the Melting pot. They are closing in a week so we thought that we should get in before they are gone. It was a great night and we had a lot of fun. I would probably never go back there because it is so expensive for like no food but it was really a great time. Dessert was the best though! I would go back just for the dessert!

We have been settling in great here in Nampa. We love it here and we love our ward and mike loves his job. We havent been doing much but have been super busy. Dont know how that works but that just how it feels. We got a second car finally! A mini van. Not my first choice but it is practical for our family. Its in the shop right now because it broke down on us on our way back from a camping trip. LOL!!

Maeli is getting big and has learned how to open the front door. She is starting to talk a lot more although we still cant understand what she is saying. But she knows exactly what she is telling you! She is growing fast and getting a lot of hair. She is so sweet though and we just love having her around. She keeps us on our toes and entertains us well.

Right now we are taking care of a foster dog which is a lot of fun. She is a great dane and her name is Maggie. I wanted to have a chance to have a pet but mike didnt want one so we agreed to have foster pets that we can take in for a little bit and not have to pay anything for food/vet/ adoption fees and then when we start to get sick of them we just find them a new home. Its been great having her around and she is such a good dog. And Maeli loves her to death!!

We are finally feeling like we are living in our house now. We have most boxes unpacked. Feels like it is taking forever to make this house our home. But i have things up on the walls now and i feel like we are settling in just fine. We love it here but have noticed how hard and expensive it is to be a home owner. We have had many things go wrong and we have had to fix ourselves!! Its a harsh reality but we are grateful that we are blessed with such a wonderful house and friends here.

Mike is doing great at his job. I went to visit some of his patient there and they all said great things about mike. He even calls some of them his grandparents so it makes me happy that they love him so much. Mike got season tickets to Boise State games this year so he is super excited about that. He saved up and dreamed about it for a long time and its nice to have a job that he can make a little extra when he wants to pay for things like that. He deserves to have something fun like that too!

I am just loving being at home. Maeli and I get to play lots and go wander around town. I have also been making cakes here and there for people and that is a lot of fun. It gives me something to do when i want a break from house chores which seem to never end. I mean seriously... I have never had to clean a house this size and it hardly is ever clean because of that. It is a lot of work that i have a hard time keeping up with :) LOL!

So things are going good and we are adjusting to a new life here! We miss a lot of our friends from Pocatello and wish that we could still be close to them but we are starting to make friends here and we love being so close to both our families.

Im so proud!

Mike took his PTA licensing test a week ago and I was so proud of him! He passed with flying colors and is now an official licensed Physical Therapists Assistant. He amazes me with how smart he is! He graduated top of his class and has only one more class to finish his bachelors degree as well.

I could not be happier with the job that he found ( mostly because he loves it and loves working for that company)! He has so much joy and excitement going to work every day and i love to see him so happy! And it has good insurance so that is a plus too! So the good news is that we can keep our house... and our baby... and our car... and Mike gets to keep his happy wife :) LOL! I feel so blessed right now to have an income that can support our family. I am so glad that we are able to start paying back those school loans too!

Fathers Day and remodeling

We were so happy to have Heather and Justin here for the weekend helping us to do a little remodel of our home. Justin is very talented and super knowledgeable about building and so we asked them to come help put up a wall. Well we got the wall up downstairs to finish off that back bedroom and we also got the sub floors laid so that we could redo the flooring. I was so glad to have them here to help out and get this huge project done. And i was so happy to have my Heather here too! It started to pour rain one night and they were huge drops, like a flash flood, so heather and justin went out and washed thier car in the rain. It was pretty funny!!
Although we still have to lay the floors and also tape and texture the wall... i am still impressed with how much we were able to get done. And the rest i feel confident doing myself.

Since yesterday was fathers day, and I knew that we would have house guests and be super busy with the wall... i decided to give mike his fathers day gift early. Maeli and I came up with 100 reasons why we love him and we filled 100 balloons each with one of the reasons. It sure did take a long time to fill each one of those balloons... but Maeli had so much fun running around in them once we were done. She was laying down on them and rolling around. It was so funny!!! We also got him a new tool box cuz his was falling apart and a drill since we seriously needed one. I was glad that we did it early so that he could use it for helping with the wall.


So today I am left here at the house that looks more like a wood shop, trying to get some floors laid and still keep an eye on Maeli. Its a task but Im sure that we can do it!!! We are hoping to have everything done so that we can have a great weekend at my family reunion this next weekend. The best part of this whole living room remodel is that I now have a CRAFT ROOM!!! YAY!! That is what we are doing with the extra bedroom downstairs. So excited to get to work on my scrapbooking because i am way way way behind!

So here are some before, during and after pics of the wall going up. Still lots more to do but Im excited with the progress!

life in Nampa ID

it has been quite a whilr since i have given any update so i figured it was about time. we finally got into our house two weeks ago and it was sure a pain!! there were mistakes that were made that pushed it back a long time and it was hard to wait even one more day. but we made it through the last three months of waiting and finally are in our home.
it has been a headache trying to get all moved it, but slowly we are getting it all done. this next week we have a wall going up and also some floors going in so a lot of work to do. on top of that we have had a very busy schedule. we have had some of my siblings over for half a week and also have had things going on every night. mike just finished two more classes and has one left on top of taking his license test. so things have been crazy! but mike got a fun toy that makes things a little more fun. he found a great deal on a projector screen for our bonus room and we tured it into a theater room. it is so so so much fun!!
we are going to a new ward which is amazing! we love our new ward so much. there is such a great mix of younger and older family. tons of kids maelis age so she will have lots of friends. mike and i had to give a talk today in church. one lady came up to me later and said that she has had a friend investigating the church and that he really felt the spirit while we were talking. i was glad to hear that we were able to speak with the spirit. we have already made lots of friends and cant wait to get to know everyone.
we are so glad to be so close to all our family! its been great seeing them so often. and its also nice to have our own space and also start this new part of our lives!

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Just an update on life :)

Well we are enjoying living in Ontario! It is so nice to be close to all of our family and getting to spend so much time at everyone's events! Not a whole lot has been going on, but i will give you all the lowdown on whats up!
First of all, mike got a job!! He is starting on May 10th! Right after graduation we will finally be making money! He will work as a tech till he gets his license, but at least we will have an income till then! Him starting his job means that we can start moving forward on our house and plan to be moved in by the end of May! Mike starts his last week of clinical tomorrow and i cant wait for him to be done! Its hard working for free!!! And graduation is on May 8th! (Maeli's Birthday)

Maeli is walking everywhere! She has been walking a little since we came back to Oregon, but now she is running! Its super cute but also lots of trouble! She is into everyting!!! Her birthday is in just two weeks! WOW! I cant hardly believe that it has already been a year! I am kind of sad about her growing up so fast already! We have truly enjoyed her sweet personality and her adorable laughes! She makes us so happy and we are so blessed to have her! She has been talking a lot too! Everything about her just makes our hearts smile! We couldnt be more happy!!
As for myself, I have been enjoying staying home with Maeli and watching her grow! We have been learning lots and playing hard! We have enjoyed playing outside and she often refuses to come inside!! I have been doing a lot of crafts and cake decorating! I have discovered that i love to decorate cakes! What a fun and messy new hobby! I have been able to try out a lot of new recipes for fillings, frosting and cakes on Mike and our family and practicing my decorating skills! The picture above was the first time that I made fondant roses and I loved them. I will have to use them more often!


Well not much else is going on in our lives. We are just waiting and waiting till we can move into our house and start that part of our lives. We are looking forward to all of the new things in our life that are to come and all of the new exciting adventures that we will be taking! Only one more week of clinical and two days of class for mike and a whole new life begins!