Lately

We have had a big change in our family within the last couple of weeks. It was a very hard and emotional decision to make, but Scott and I felt like we made the right decision for everyone involved. Marley is no longer living with us, she has gone to a very loving home where she will be adopted and have an amazing life. She is still in the family, and that makes it easier for us, but we still have feelings of sadness and guilt. I won't get into all of the details that went along with our decision-making process, but we know that in the end, this will be a positive experience for everyone. We are so happy that we were able to have her in our family for a year, and see her develop into such an amazing little girl. It is strange with her gone, and we miss her.

Scott and I have recently joined a Life Group for married couples at our church, and to say that is has been an amazing experience would be an understatement. We are studying the book His Needs, Her Needs, and it has been an eye-opener. As a wife, you want to believe that you are meeting all of your husband's needs, and when you realize that you could be doing better, it is very humbling. It is so exciting though to know that Scott and I will be able to improve our relationship in ways that we didn't even know needed work! We have made some incredible friends as well. God definitely directed us to this specific group of people.

Macey and Heidi were on Fall Break all last week from school, they didn't go back until Tuesday of this week. It was nice to spend time with them, but we were all ready for school to start back up. Unfortunately, they made it back for one day of school and then both got sick. The cold and flu season is not nice to our family every single year, whether we get flu shots or not. Like everyone else, we are paranoid about the Swine Flu, especially with Ryan's asthma. Hopefully that particular germ will STAY AWAY!

The last little while has been pretty stressful for me (kids, school, getting a business started, life in general), and a few months ago I started losing weight and having a lot of stomach pains. It is pretty common for me to lose a couple pounds when I am really stressed out, so I didn't think much of it. But the weight continued to come off, no matter how much I ate or what my stress level was. I have now lost 20 pounds, which is just ridiculous. My doctor did a lot of blood work and everything looked good. I was happy that everything looked normal, but frustrated at the same time because I really wanted some answers. She sent me to a specialist, and tomorrow I am having a procedure done so they can take a good look inside and get some biopsies, and HOPEFULLY we can figure out what is going on. It's hard not to get nervous, my mind starts going crazy with all the possibilities, but I'm hopeful that we will get some answers soon and get my body back to normal. So if you think about it, send some good vibes tomorrow to me and the doctors that we can get to the bottom of this.

Meet Jasper, the newest member of our family:


For some reason, I decided that I needed a little bit more chaos in my life. This time it came in the form of a Chihuahua puppy. He sure is a sweet little guy!

We are very excited for Halloween, it is a big holiday in our house. Scott goes crazy with his fog machines and he looks forward to Halloween every year. The twins are wearing their octopus costumes again because they are so cute and they still fit, and they don't really care anyway! Macey is going as a blue tiger (she is so funny and creative) and Heidi will be a butterfly. I am glad that it is on a Saturday this year so we can keep everyone up late. (I am also excited to raid the kids' candy!!!)

Labor Day

We were able to escape the heat this past weekend and go up to Pinetop for Labor Day to visit Scott's mom and grandparents. The weather was amazing, and as usual, we had a great time. The kids played outside all day long (without sweating to death), and we went on a picnic by a stream, caught a bunch of crawdads, and the kids all played in the water. Heidi found a crawdad that was so big it looked like a lobster! Unfortunately, in the chaos of trying to get 5 kids out the door, I forgot my camera on that little outing, but my brother-in-law Tim took his and got some awesome pictures which I will post when he emails them to me (hint hint Tim). We also got some incredible mountain storms, with crazy thunder, lightening, rain, and hail. I love storms, so I sat out on a hammock and read a book while it was pouring rain. It was so relaxing. All of the kids had so much fun playing, going on adventures with Aunt Clover, wrestling Dad and Uncle Tim, and playing in the stream. Scott and Tim took Macey and Heidi shooting, and the girls loved it! They are such girly girls, but they sure love doing things like that with Daddy.











My trip out to Madison was awesome. It was a very busy and exhausting week, but I am so glad that I went and got my certification. The class was Monday through Thursday, 10-11 hours a day. Then I would go back to the hotel and read for a couple hours before going to sleep. I missed the family, but it was nice to have a few days away. I have two classes almost locked down already, I can't wait to get started!

I recently finished reading The Hunger Games books by Suzanne Collins (The Hunger Games and Catching Fire). Holy cow, those books are amazing! The third and final book doesn't come out for a year, and I don't know how I am going to be able to wait that long! I was really lucky with the Twilight Series and Harry Potter, because I didn't get into them until all of the books had been released. But this next year is going to be torture! Now I am waiting for the third Hunger Games book, the final Harry Potter movie, and the rest of the Twilight movies. Whatever will I do? ;)

Happenings

Macey and Heidi started school on the 10th, and they are absolutely loving it. Macey is in 2nd grade, and she thinks that her teacher Mrs. Cole walks on water. Heidi is in Kindergarten, and she is in heaven. We decided to put her in all day Kindergarten because she did almost 2 1/2 years of preschool/pre-K, and I thought she was ready and would be bored with more 1/2 days. We are so glad that we made that decision, she definitely was ready and has done so well already. She has the same teacher that Macey had for Kindergarten (Mrs. Tripathi), and we absolutely love her. Mrs. Tripathi has twins too, so she completely understands how crazy life can be at home. It is still weird for me to "only" have 3 kids at home all day, but there is still plenty of noise and plenty to do. Next year we can start preschool for the little ones, and then I really won't know what to do with myself!

I am leaving on Sunday to go to Wisconsin for a class to become certified as a permanent cosmetics instructor. I am really excited to do this; it is a great opportunity and I am so happy that I was invited to this school. It will be hard to be away from everyone for 5 days, but I will be in classes for 10-11 hours a day and then crashing at my hotel at night, so it should go by quickly and then I can get back to my family. I need to find some books to read on the plane, so if anyone has any favorites, I am open to suggestions. I just read all 7 Harry Potter books in 14 days (LOVED THEM!!!), so I need some new books. I have heard that Hunger Games is amazing, maybe I will try that one.

Finally, my website is now up! I am happy with how it turned out. I am in the middle of redecorating my salon, and once I am done with that I will add some pictures to my website. Check it out at www.emergeesthetics.com.

Happy Birthday Ryan and Jenna!

I cannot believe my babies are two! Their birthday was yesterday, Ryan was officially two at 6:10 pm and Jenna at 6:12 pm. I can't believe how much they have grown up in just the last few months. They are these adorable little people with the best personalities. Ryan is definitely a boy, getting into everything and climbing on everything he sees, but he is also the sweetest little boy in the world. He is so mellow and loving, he loves to run around the house and hug all of his sisters all day long. He is definitely a Momma's boy (which I LOVE), and he gives the best hugs and kisses. Jenna is a smart little sassy girl. She is talking so good, and she will definitely let you know where you stand with her at any given moment. She has the most infectious laugh, and the cutest chubby cheeks and dimples. I am so lucky to be their Mom, they have brought so much love and happiness into our family.

Ryan right after birth 3 lbs 15 oz (the little stinker gave us a pretty good scare by scoring a 1 on his first Apgar)

Jenna right after birth 3 lbs 13 oz

Look how tiny their heads are compared to our hands!


My first little glimpse of Jenna (I didn't get to see Ryan for a couple of hours, they whisked him up to the NICU)

This was the first time I got to hold them at the same time.




Here they are on their 1st birthday





And at their 2nd birthday party

Fourth of July and More

The last month or so has been pretty action-packed around here! It has been exciting to have my own business, I am absolutely loving it. It is definitely a lot of work, but definitely worth it.

Scott and I celebrated our 8th anniversary on June 26th. In some ways it is so hard for me to believe that we have already been married for 8 years (and been together for over 10), but then I look back and see everything that has happened in the last 8 years and I can't believe that we have fit it all in there!

We took our first big family to Park City, UT for the 4th of July. We were up there for just over a week, it was so amazing. I don't know if I could even describe in words what 4th of July is like in Park City, you seriously have to experience it yourself to know how amazing it is. Of course, the weather was perfect. It was hard to believe that everyone back in AZ was suffering in the blistering heat, and the high in Park City was low 80's (we wore sweaters at night!). We had a huge 4-bedroom condo right on the golf course, and the kids loved being able to run out the back door and play in the grass without sweating to death. There was a family from Pennsylvania in the condo right next to us who had daughters the same age as Macey and Heidi, so we all became fast friends and enjoyed some late night BBQs and glasses of wine while the kids ran around having a blast. On the 4th, the town shoots the fireworks off from the golf course, so we just walked right out our back door, set down some blankets, had dinner, and watched the show. There were thousands of people just covering the golf course. Kids were running around everywhere, people were shooting their store-bought fireworks off all over the place (they aren't illegal in UT like they are in AZ), and everyone was just so happy and relaxed. The kids all slept awesome the whole trip, too. We seriously couldn't have dreamed of a better vacation. It sure was hard to come back to this heat and reality.

Scott and I went by ourselves one day to Olympic Park, where the Olympic athletes train. We had a blast watching them and going on the Alpine slide and the zipline that goes over the park. We all walked around downtown Park City several times, they had so many things going on for the holidays. I really don't think that we can go anywhere else for the 4th of July now that we have been there. I used to live in Virginia, and even the festivities at the Pentagon don't compare to how things were in Park City. We took our Wii and Wii Fit with us, and after the 3 little ones went to bed at night, we had some awesome family bowling tournaments. What a perfect vacation!

Emerge Esthetics

After much soul searching and consideration, I have decided to start my own skin care business- Emerge Esthetics! The last week has been a whirlwind- finding a location , getting equipment and product, setting up a business with the state, setting up accounts, etc. But I got it done, I signed my lease yesterday, and I have my first client tomorrow morning! Oh my gosh! I am actually booked for this week already. I decided to do this because it is what will work best for my family, and I knew that I eventually wanted to have my own business, so I decided to take the plunge and just do it now. My studio is in Gilbert, so it's close to home and pretty central for my current clients. In addition to permanent cosmetics I will be offering customized facials, microdermabrasion, epidermal leveling, waxing, PCA peels, lash/brow tinting, and professional Image and Rhonda Allison treatments. I am so excited, this is exactly what I had imagined for myself. My website is being built, and once it is done I will put the info on here. So everyone who would like to have some treatments done, give me a call at 480-628-4314!

San Diego

Macey, Heidi and I had a great weekend in San Diego. It was so fun to take a little road trip with them and spend some time together. I was a little worried, because I got my first "Are we there yet?" about 30 minutes into our drive. But we survived the drive and they were so excited to get to their cousins' house. It was so fun that my mom was visiting SD, too!

We had some jacuzzi time:





A tiny bit of relaxation time:

Some Balboa Park time:




Some awesome beach time:





And some Wii Fit time (our favorite was Hula Hooping):




This little trip was exactly what I needed to relax and take a break from the craziness that has been going on the last couple weeks (I will post about that later today!).