Random Stuff

Ammon is out of town on a business trip. He left super early yesterday to fly to Minneapolis for a Target meeting. Noah and I have been fine and have been keeping up with our routine but it's sad not to have Ammon here with us. He'll get home late tonight and I'm so glad!

In other news, we didn't get into the Air Force. They told us that we really didn't have a good chance of getting in from the very beginning. They told us that they recruit their officers first from the academy, then from within the AF, and lastly, outside hires... Plus, they are not in need of many officers right now... Not many are leaving the AF! I guess the benefits are too great. Ammon has a good job right now and staying in NC is good too. Not getting in the AF means that we now get to look for a house to buy! We're very excited to get our own house but haven't had any luck finding one yet. We've looked at quite a few and we have more that we're going to look at tomorrow. Hopefully we'll find one soon. We'd like to move before this baby comes! (in about 3 months!)

Noah is slowly getting better with the clinginess. Hooray! He is so funny. He is learning new words all the time and really communicating like a little person! It's fun to see him grow up. Last night we were playing in his room before bedtime and he kept laying down on the floor and saying, "night night." I was hoping he'd stay up a little later since I didn't have Ammon here but, he was ready for bed. Mom says that I would tell her when I was ready to go to bed too as a baby. Like mother, like son. I went in to check on him a few hours later and he had piled his blankets up at the foot of his bed. Then he had put his pillow on top of the blankets and was sleeping on top of his pillow! I wish I could've gotten a picture of it but he is such a light sleeper, it would've woken him up. I am amazed when I see other children sleep through noises and being picked up and moved other places. Not my Noah... he needs to fall asleep in his bed and he will wake up if he hears or feels anything.

I think while Ammon is gone, I'm going to organize our bedroom. I've been doing a good job at keeping the main area and Noah's room clean but our room is another story. Ammon bought me scrapbooking furniture for Mothers' Day and I'm still trying to organize all my stuff to fit in there. So I've got that all over the floor and desk, I've got piles of clean laundry around and who knows what else is in there... Seriously, it's bad. I'm hoping that Noah will sleep awhile so I can get it done. I'm also hoping that putting it up here on the blog will make me do it! We'll see...

Bubble Time

Noah and I have gone out to blow bubbles just about everyday lately. I've wanted to get some pictures of him because he has SO MUCH FUN chasing them. Sadly, blowing bubbles, putting the bottle down, picking the camera up and then taking a good picture is too much for me to handle. Believe me, I've tried... While dinner was cooking, we all went outside and I was able to get a couple good ones. And some blurry ones too. ;)



Chasing the BIG one!



I want to try!





He does this sometimes and it really makes me laugh! "I can't hear you!"



Noah thought it was funny to crawl through Ammon's legs like this. Silly boy!



Lots of bubbles!





I like this one a lot.



Pop!





Trying to push Daddy over.



ACTUALLY pushing Daddy over. Haha!

Growing Up

When Noah is on a chair, on the couch, on the table, or in the bathtub he likes to look at me with a smile and slowly stand up until I say, "sit down". I must admit, I don't say it very nicely but he always chuckles and sits down. We've done this for awhile and yesterday I noticed him saying something while he was on the table. "sit down! sit down!" haha! it makes me laugh so much. This morning I was on the phone with my mom and I was telling her about it. As soon as I said it, you could hear Noah in the background... "sit down" over and over. Mom thought it was hilarious and I couldn't stop laughing at him. He really does crack me up all the time.

Another thing he's been doing lately is driving! Noah and I are usually outside playing when Ammon gets home from work. As soon as Noah sees the truck pull into the driveway he gets all excited to "drive". He runs right to the passenger side door, Ammon lets him and and he goes to town! He turns the wheel, uses the turn signals, he even shifts! He honks the horn and today Ammon taught him how to turn his hazard lights on. He tries to make car noises, which is pretty funny. It's usually a high pitched tongue roll. Ha! He'll stay in there as long as you'll let him. I should get a video of it before it's not so cute anymore.

And I'll leave you with a picture of Noah. He looks so much older to me these past few weeks! Maybe it's because his hair is getting thicker? Not sure... I haven't taken many pictures lately. I think it's partly due to the whole clingy thing. I told Ammon that I'd like to take some portraits of our family soon. Hopefully we can make that happen. This picture was taken at Sciworks last week. My good friend, Shanna and I took all the kids there. It was fun to get out and be with friends for awhile.

Immortality - Eternal life

Post by Ammon

I am going to make a lot of assumptions as to your understanding and knowledge so that I don't have to do a lot of explaining. I apologize if you are not able to follow this and get lost. If yo uhave questions ask and then I'll explain.

As I read through Russell M. Nelson's talk, Salvation and Exaltation, from this past general conference I came across the following two paragraphs.

Resurrection, or immortality comes to every man and every woman as an unconditional gift.

Eternal life, or celestial glory or exaltation, is a conditional gift. …eternal life, which gift is the greatest of all the gifts of God.

This makes a clear distinction between immortality and eternal life. I would have to say that most of the time these are used together and rarely compared to one another. Did you know there was a difference? Do you know what that difference is? This got me thinking as after some brief research I have found a few interesting tidbits.

Immortality, to my understanding, is to basically not end. If you are immortal you don't end. To contrast this, eternal life is to continue. I'm sure this made things clear as mud. The thing you have to keep in mind is the "life" part. "Eternal life" describes what is going to continue. The example I got in my head to be able to grasp this mind puzzling phenomenon is this:

A rock cannot die, it is immortal. This does not mean that the rock has life. Those that only receive immortality only will not die; this does not mean they have continuing life. Life constitutes growth, adaptation, and most importantly reproduction. Those that meet the conditions to obtain this "greatest of all gifts" are those that will get to have continuing life, without beginning or end, eternal life.

TAG!

ok so no one actually tagged me but I wanted in on the fun too! I'm going to start this one and then tag 5 people at the end.

A-Z Tag

A- ATTACHED OR SINGLE: Happily attached to Ammon!

B- BEST FRIEND: My boys, Ammon and Noah, and also Corey.

C- CAKE OR PIE: I actually don't like either so much... I don't have much of a sweet tooth but I must admit that since I've been married, I've grown to like chocolate. If I had to pick, I'd pick pumpkin pie with PLENTY of whipped cream!

D- DAY OF CHOICE: Saturdays! Ammon lets me sleep in every Saturday. Oh and Thursdays too... The Office! Holla! (haha, mom)

E- ESSENTIAL ITEM: My Reef flip flops. Seriously, I wear them every single day. Even in the snow.

F- FAVORITE COLOR: I really can't pick just one. Right now I'm really diggin' green.

G- GREATEST ACCOMPLISHMENT: Noah. Man! He is one cool kid!

H- HOMETOWN: Hmmm... Ohio?

I- INDULGENCES: Right now with the pregnancy, I indulge with Resse's milkshakes from
Cookout. Yum!

J- JANUARY OR JULY: This is a toss-up... I hate the awful heat in July but don't like the ice in January either.

K- KIDS: 2 (Noah and Baby Boy 2 in August)

L- LIFE IS INCOMPLETE WITHOUT: My family.

M- MARRIAGE DATE: July 16, 2005

N- NUMBER OF SIBLINGS: 5. 2 brothers and 2 sisters.

O- ORANGES OR APPLES: Yum! Oranges all the way.

P- PHOBIAS OR FEARS: Bad things happening to my family. and spiders.

Q- QUOTES: If you watch the Office, you'll understand. "What part of shorn't don't you understand?!" - Michael

R- REASON TO SMILE: I have an amazing husband who takes care of me. My family is all healthy at the moment! Noah has started to "pretend". It is so cute. He'll pretend to take a bite out of something and then say, "Mmmmm..."

S- SEASON: This one is hard! I have a hard time picking a favorite anything! I pick spring. No, fall. No wait, spring. Ugghh! I don't know...

T- TAG FIVE FRIENDS: I tag Mom, Michelle, Joni, Corey and Beck.

U- UNKNOWN FACT ABOUT ME: I have never broken a bone or been stung by a bee.

V- VERY FAVORITE STORE: Does craigslist count? I find the best deals on there! Other than that, Target.

W- WORST HABIT: I asked Ammon and he said, "not putting stuff away". Yeah, it's true...

X- X-RAY OR ULTRASOUND: what? I'll say ultrasound because you get pictures of your cute baby!

Y- YOUR FAVORITE FOOD: I'm a sucker for bread. I love rolls, breadsticks, garlic bread... All bread!

Z- ZODIAC: Gemini - The twins

Ok, i did it. Now back up to the letter "T" and if I tagged you, then it's your turn to do it! Have fun! And I have a few more of these that I'm sure I'll break out soon. :)

Home Alone

For the past um, 2 weeks or so, Noah has been SUPER clingy to me. He really just wants me all the time. It gets so bad that if I stand up and walk a couple steps away, he is screaming, holding onto both of my legs begging for me to pick him up. The only time he gives me a tiny bit of space is when we are outside. I don't know why he's started doing this. The only thing we can think of is that he senses the new baby is coming. I'm 23 weeks now and maybe I'm looking different to him? Or maybe this is just a phase totally unrelated to the pregnancy... Anyway, I'm sort of mommied out. It has been totally exhausting to not get the tiniest break from him. Even when Ammon comes home from work, he still wants to be in my lap. If I sit on the floor and try to play with him, he can't sit next to me, he has to sit on me. On top of that, he's been waking up between 6 and 6:30 all week. MUCH too early for me. Ammon knows that I've had a hard week this week and he made me go to bed at 10:00 last night. He also let me sleep in this morning! (well, he lets me sleep in every Saturday morning but, this time it was super special) I got up around 9 and was feeling good. As soon as Noah saw me this morning he had to be right in my lap again, which I was ok with. I got some snuggle time and then Ammon said that he was going to take Noah to the park so I could get some things done. He knows that I've had this list of things to do all week but, they just haven't happened. So, the boys are at the park and I am home alone! It is so nice. I've already loaded up the dishwasher and the washer. I've swept and swiffered the kitchen and I was picking up a few things in the living room when I decided to take a break. I know that things will be the same when they get home but it is so nice to get a small break! Thanks Ammon for realizing I needed some "me" time. I love you so much!

Any ideas on how to break the clinginess? He really didn't used to be like this. I don't give in and let him have me all the time but that doesn't seem to make things any better... Hopefully outings with his dad will help. Happy Saturday! Back to cleaning for me.

Ammon's Score

I love Jessica

Speedtest

I thought I was faster than this...

68 words

Speedtest

1st Family Bike Ride

So I think this will be my last catch- up post for the night. I can't believe I missed so many moments. This was right before we went on our first family bike ride. Noah did ok. He didn't especially like it but didn't really oppose either. I love these pictures on the porch swing! He has so many different facial expressions and it's fun to look through them all. Not just the perfect smiles. I'm sure I'll put some more "old" pictures up. I want this blog to kinda be a record of our family life. Can't miss these precious parts!

This is the Good Stuff

So, I guess I didn't blog during this time of Noah's life. I was totally consumed with Mommyhood. When Ammon came home from work this particular day, I was a little frazzled. I had not been able to do any cleaning or get anything done because Noah was having a tough day. No doubt it was those darn teeth coming in. Anyway, Ammon said that he would take him outside so I could have a little bit of time to myself. I went to check on them a few times and this is what I saw. I love my boys! It's funny to look back at pictures like this and see how much things have changed. Now, Noah will not just sit on the porch swing with us. He wants to be running around, picking dandelions or picking bark off the tree. And he will NEVER fall asleep unless it is in his own bed.

My Dad is the COOLEST!!

Ammon is amazing and can do all sorts of cool things. Here he is doing a backflip over a 7 month old Noah. Pretty cool, eh?

7 months!

Ok, so Noah is 7 months old in these pictures and also in the 2 posts below... I really can't find any of these pictures on this blog so, we get to do a little reminiscing. Aww, look how adorable he is! This is the night before we took him to get professional pictures done. I wanted to try on these overalls to make sure they fit him ok. He ended up posing wonderfully for me! I got some of his best smiles. Ü

What is Samd, Mommy?

This is another set of pictures that I'm not sure if I've posted yet. Noah learned what sand was and that it is NOT fun to eat it. He loved picking it up and letting it run through his fingers. He's always been such a curious little guy. Enjoy! (again?)

Are these on here yet?

I was going through some old pictures and came across this fun little set. I thought for sure these were on the blog but, I can't find them. Oh well, if they are, it's fun to look at them again. I'll have to check the dates on these to see exactly how old Noah was when these were taken. I took him out to play in the grass and he got really interested in it. Even started eating some of it! I loved this age so much. Mmm mmm mmm, I love being this kid's mom.

Behind...

I have a few things that I want to blog about but I need to get the pictures first.... I'm making a note on here so I don't forget.

Blog about:
craigslist findings!
fetus status :)
flowers out front
one more easter post

K, so I'll work on getting the pictures for these posts and hopefully get back to you soon!

Shooting Practice

While we were up at Will and Ginger's, my family was able to get some shooting practice in. Will has many different kinds of guns. In these pictures, Mom and Dad are shooting a pellet gun and Josh is shooting a 22. I think they all had a great time and they were pretty good shots too!

Easter Egg Hunt

Ammon's sister, Joni, and her kids were able to come visit for a couple weeks. These pictures were taken Easter weekend during the Easter egg hunt. My parents, along with Josh, were able to come down for the weekend too! We had so much fun!





Look Aunt Joni! I can carry 4 eggs at once!







Holding onto Nana's hands.



Noah wasn't really into finding the eggs this year. He just wanted to run and play. Oh well. Maybe next year.





Kiera LOVES Noah





Lathen found one too!