Mountians and Tessa's Blessing

Thanksgiving and Tessa's Blessing

wow, time flies when your chasing a crazed toddler, constantly holding and feeding a baby, and helping out a husband; all while doing laundry, cooking dinner and keeping up with church callings! i never thought i could be such a proficient at typing with one hand, hence the non-capitalization!

our last few weeks have been eventful! after cory's mom and sister came to help, cory had a week of extreme finals that took a toll on all of us. his break seemed like it couldn't come soon enough. we enjoyed a week of relaxing and fun with the girls. emory basked in every moment of dad time that she could. she's definitely a "daddy's girl"!

my family drove down on the 20th and stayed till the 25th. emory was in absolute heaven! If someone even left the room for a minute, she was asking where they were - "mom, where's josh? where's animal (adam)?" etc. they loved all of her crazy two-year-old jibber jabber. we're especially fond of the fake sneezing when you try to get her to do something, aaaah aah ahhhh chooooo! everybody had a great time lovin' on tessa. she's especially fond of grandpa's shoulder, and kate could get a smile out of her better than anyone else. she's spoiled to death from being held so much, though. the boys golfed a couple times and i'm pretty sure they had a good time. emory got a cold the day before thanksgiving so we mostly stuck around the house. she's a real "treat" when she's sick! we had thanksgiving at a restaurant this year and it was fabulous! now prep or clean up and pretty good food, who could complain? we also went out to the "mountians", that's what they call them around here - they looked more like desert hills. the boys had fun throwing rocks at the cacti and especially were amazed by the teddy bear cholla or the jumping cactus. they're pretty wicked little things, they grab onto anything and everything and hurt like nobody's business - just ask kate!

the blessing was great except for the fact that tessa got the cold the day before. she was just miserable and looked so sad. she was quite the trooper, though. it was a beautiful blessing and she looked super cute in the dress my mom made her - GO MOM! (she's so talented and i'm glad she's mine!) the roundy's came and a few other family members and friends, but other than that it was just a small gathering, we had a good time. the christiansen's had to get up and go right after the blessing, unfortunately, and are back in chilly utah. we finally got our cool weather and i'm loving every minute of it. if i could just get these baby's feeling better, we'd be outside all day! the doctor said it's just a cold and that their chests were clear, so we'll be chillin' in our pj's for the next few days watching never ending kid shows and movies, lots of fun for me!

well, our count down begins for our trip home for christmas and we're looking forward to seeing friends and family!

Halloween and more!

Chupacabra!!!!

Well, I'm finally feeling like a human being!! It took 4 weeks, but I'm definitely going to make it. We're starting to get a little bit of a routine going, and that is helping my OCD a ton.

Tessa is turning into a fabulous "roly poly"! She's got the most awesome chipmunk cheeks. It's possible that they are there because she wants to nurse all day, everyday. I'm trying to feed her on demand, but I've started to try to push her to at least every 2 hours. She's super strong, too! She'll hold her head up forever, just lookin' around. Huge differences from my Emory baby days. Tessa will actually do "tummy time"! She was Sebastien for Halloween. I know, I know, that's a boy thing but we wanted her to go with Emory's costume. We went to Cory's school on Halloween. They do this really fun carnival, with games etc., and they let you trick-or-treat to all the faculty offices. We got way too much candy, but had a ton of fun. Everybody loved the girl's costumes, THANKS MOM!

Emory is still struggling. She's doing great with the actual baby, but just having a hard time adjusting to all the new routines etc. We're also having a very hard time disciplining her. Nothing works! She's simply out of control, when she wants to be, and an angel the next minutes! I pray for patience with her more than anything! She's such a cute little girl, though. Recently, she stared saying "It's too big hard!" when she's having a hard time with something. It cracks us up, all of the Emory-isms: Second-minutes, Push-it-out, Super-Why!, Cock-a-doodle-doo (she does this when she wants your attention, I think it's from Peter Pan) and the list goes on! She LOVES her baby Tessa and is very proud of her. We have to tell all the old ladies at the store about baby Tessa. She's a great big sister.

I, like I said before, am feeling semi-normal. We've showered and gotten dressed before 4:00 pm almost everyday this week! That's quite a feat for us! My "nip-ular" troubles seem to be a thing of the past! (Knock on wood!) Thanks to the great advice from friends and family and the wonders of the Internet, it seemed to be a latch on problem, that I fixed, and then it just took some time to heal. But all is well.

Cory is an official zombie. The poor kid is giving himself and ulcer! I think he's getting less sleep than me, and let's just say, that's not a whole lot! We didn't see him for about 48 hours straight, but the end is in sight. Tomorrow morning is the last test (HOORAY!) and he'll be off for two weeks.

We continue to have record heat in Phoenix. It's been 90+ degrees all week! I miss November sweater weather and we can't wait to come home to Utah at Christmas time. Our plans for the Holidays are as follows: Thanksgiving - We'll be down here. We decided to bless the baby on Sunday November 25th, so that made it convenient for my family to come for Thanksgiving. Christmas - Still no final plans but it looks like we'll come to Utah for the week between Christmas and New Year's. We're flying, so that'll be an adventure!

PS We've nick-named Tessa "Chupacabra"! It makes us laugh! Also, since the baby came not to much cooking has been going on, hence the Hot Pocket. I know, they're super gross, but sometimes you're so hungry and . . . oh well. This is a hilarious comedian talking about Hot Pockets http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFFTwnYXI20

Emory riding her tricycle

She's a little weird about it, but we got her to ride her trike without having a heart attack for about 10 feet!