Happy Anniversary!

So the day after Christmas was Ryan and I's 4th year anniversary! (I know, what kind of crazy people get married the day after Christmas?) The past 4 years have gone by so fast, not to mention this year has been the hardest year by far. I am so lucky to be married to such a patient, generous, and wonderful man, Ryan you really are the best husband babe! We were talking the other night and we both agreed even though this has been such a hard year for us, we definitely feel so much closer and know that Heavenly Father has truly blessed us. If it weren't for Nick Baldwin setting us up on that blind date we probably wouldn't have ever met and for that we are both very grateful :). So to celebrate our wonderful occasion we went out to eat at Chili's Wednesday but are really celebrating our anniversary tonight (with no Emma). We are are going out to eat again (I have a hard time cooking these days) and then we are going to the movie "I am Legend." We have been wanting to see this movie forever. We both love intense, action, mystery movies so we are super excited. Well Happy 4th Anniversary babe and I love you the mostest!

Free Rice?

I found a really cool website it is: www.freerice.com. It tests your vocabulary and for every word that you get correct they donate 20 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program. It's fun to see how many words you know and you donate rice at the same time. If you have any more questions about how it works....well then go to the website and try it. It is addicting!

What a good husband!

I have the best husband in the world! Right now I am being lazy, sitting down doing nothing but feeling sick (I have a nasty cold) and Ryan, the great man that he is, is busily cleaning the kitchen. I have slacked on dishes the last few days and Ryan has been so nice and helpful to do the dishes. He is such a great husband and I am so lucky to have him. He has always been so good at doing the dishes throughout our whole marriage. I love you babe!

Christmas Cards

So it is time to start sending out Christmas cards but I need updated addresses. So please leave your address in the comment section of this post and then we can send you a Christmas card! Thanks!

Happy Birthday!

Yesterday was my birthday and I turned 24! It was a good day, except for a darn cold, but Ryan brought me home a dozen roses and a can of Almond Roca, yum! He took Emma shopping with him Wednesday night and they had a lot of fun. I had no idea what to ask for, so poor Ryan didn't have a whole lot to go on, so last night he took me shopping and I picked out my present, a new TV stand. I love it, it matches the side table and the couches. Plus I love having the movies and stuff behind glass, much less tempting for little fingers. I tried out a new girl for a babysitter and she was great, she brought Emma a Mickey Mouse coloring book with stickers for her to keep, she was really excited. We also went out to eat at a new place called Rumbi Island Grill. I think it is my new favorite place to eat, I am already craving more!My mom and dad gave me a new camera, it is really nice, and Mom and Dad Erickson gave me a really cute sweatshirt and a very generous gift card to Michaels!

All in all it was a good day. It was a little weird not celebrating it with my dad though, (we have the same birthday!) We did call and wish him happy birthday and Emma even sang Happy Birthday to him! Happy Birthday Dad!

Ho Ho Ho!

It is Christmas Time! I love this time of year, it is so fun. Emma is sooooo excited for "Santa Claus" to come and bring her a "kitchen!" (It's a good thing that is what she is getting or we would have one disappointed little girl!) We set up our tree a couple of weeks ago but I am finally getting around to posting some pictures of it. Ryan's co-worker was selling their old Christmas tree so we bought it from them for $10, a pretty good deal. I love all of my decorations, one year for my birthday Mom Erickson got me a gift certificate to Porter's (kind of like a Robert's Craft) and I copied her tree an bought all of these cute metal stars and made raffia bows and this year I added grapevines. Super cute! The cat drives me crazy attacking the tree, but he is still cute. Here are a couple of pictures of our Christmas decorations. I remembered having a bunch of Christmas decorations but when I got everything out this year I seemed to not have as many, but then I remembered that living in a 500 square foot apartment, having a tree and some decorations seemed to completely fill up the space. I like having all of this space!

It's taken me a few years but I finally have the whole set!

I couldn't decide on a place for the village set so the counter will have to do!

I think she liked the licorice, what do you think! :D

Jax "helping" with the Christmas Tree.

Whew! What a long day of mischief!

Finally!

So I am finally updating our blog. Sorry! We have had a very busy month and are glad to have December to rest until Christmas. Things have been going good for us, Emma as usual is a handful, but still the cutest thing ever. I was going to post around the middle of the month but Ryan informed me that the blog was too "girly" and he was going to take over so I wasn't allowed to post anything. Well.... you can see how well that worked out! :-) He is too cute!

Lets see, where to start. I can't remember anything before Thanksgiving because it all went by in a blur, so we will just start with Thanksgiving and go from there.
Thanksgiving was a blast. We went to Ririe to spend it with my family this year and it was so much fun. My mom came down and stayed with us on Monday and then she went up with us to Idaho on Wednesday. Every time Grandma would leave to room or house Emma would get all sad and say, "Grandma not go to Idaho yet." She is too funny. Thanksgiving was really fun, we had a lot of family there and the boys left for their annual Green River Fishing trip Thanksgiving night. My mom and I got up at 4 am Friday morning to go shopping (I know we are crazy). We got everything we wanted in one store and were back at Grandma's Cook house by 6:30am. After that we crashed for an hour until Emma woke up! My mom bought me a new camera for my birthday and I love it! (Hence all of the pictures you are about to see)
Saturday we just crashed and the men all came home from their fishing trip. Ryan said he had a lot of fun, so that is good! Sunday we went to church at my parent's ward and then visited Ryan's family in the evening and then drove home! Overall Thanksgiving was wonderful! I can't believe Christmas is sneaking up on us this fast. We are soooo excited to go to a cabin with all of Ryan's family for Christmas!

Emma and her many silly faces!



Ready to go to church with Uncle Luke!

My cousin Sariah is 5 years old and was so very kind enough to give her Dora the Explorer bike to Emma. It was going to the DI when they thought of Emma! I am so glad because she loves it. Her legs are barely long enough to reach the peddles.


Well since we have been home Emma has been busy at causing destruction. Including opening up all of the Christmas presents I had just wrapped for her. I was in the shower and when I got out all I could hear was paper ripping. I knew exactly what she was doing and hurry and took a picture of the destruction and then she got in trouble. What a stinker!


Our little kitten Jax is getting so big. I have had a harder time keeping him out of the tree than I have Emma! He is a crazy cat. He loves the water. I have to lock him out of the bathroom whenever anyone takes a bath because he jumps right in. You also have to be very quick when lifting the seat of the toilet to sit down because again, he will jump right in. Squirting him with a water bottle when he gets in trouble does nothing. But all in all we really love him and he is so cuddly I love it!

Happy Halloween!

We had so much fun yesterday! Emma is so stinkin' cute. She loved her Incredibles costumes and loved getting candy! First we went to Ryan's work to trick or treat. It was awesome, we got a ton of candy (oops I mean Emma got a lot of candy :), most full size candy bars. It was great! Then we went to the ward trunk or treat. Our ward is very small, so we usually combine with another ward in our stake, and they combine with the whole neighborhood. There were so many people, I was very surprised. I ran out of candy half way through, oops! But Emma received another bucket full of candy and had a blast! We parked next to some friends of ours and they have a little girl Emma's age and the two of them were a riot! Hope you all had a very enjoyful day, we sure did!


Emma before we left for trick or treating!


Trunk or Treating with friend Elise.



Emma is admiring her loot after daddy's work and trying to keep the kitty from stealing anything!

Sad News....Again!

To say this past year has been "tough" would be an understatement! Last Thursday Ryan and I found out I was pregnant, again (this WAS number 4 pregnancy)! We were both excited but EXTREMELY scared for another miscarriage. Unfortunately I started to miscarry AGAIN on Monday for the third time in a row after two years of trying. It has been so incredibly frustrating but honestly, I feel kind of relieved. I feel like now the doctors will believe me when I tell them that something is WRONG. You have to have three miscarriages in a row before most doctors will test you for any abnormalities. I have known from the beginning that something is wrong but it is so hard when they keep telling you, "No, it is just bad luck." "You've had one LIVE birth, so just keep on trying." "Third time is a charm!"
I am very grateful for my doctor's office and their prices but it is just so darn frustrating! After I am done with the miscarriage I will get some blood work done and hopefully can figure out what is going on within the next few weeks. I know Heavenly Father is watching over us, and we could not have survived these past years without the Gospel and its many blessings. Knowing that I will get to see those little spirits that couldn't make it down here yet has kept me going. I (and the doctor's) have so many speculations as to what is going on with my body and the latest one is a blood clotting disorder that is sending blood clots to the baby, making it unable to survive, basically my body fights against the baby like it is a disease. (Interestingly enough, my mom has the same condition and it developed with her last pregnancy)
Emma is so wonderfully patient with me when I miscarry. In fact when I found out I was miscarrying again, Emma said, "Mommy crying again, go to the doctor again?" (Her new word is "again") She knows that when I cry like that it usually means I have to go to the doctor again, smart little girl. It made me realize that she is connecting things and that I have spent too much time feeling sorry for myself and not enough time enjoying her wonderful personality and loving my wonderful husband. Ryan is so good to me, and is so patient. His testimony is so strong and I know that whatever happens, we will get though it together.
As I was going through my head what the possible outcome of all of this could be, I decided right then and there that if it came down to not ever being able to carry a baby again, I would be fine. I wouldn't ever want to do in-vitro, not just because of the cost but for the amount of money we would have to pay, we could adopt 2 or 3 children that would be ours just the same. We have one beautiful daughter and someday we will have more. We (mainly me) need to rely on Heavenly Father and say "thy will be done." because HE really knows what is best for us and our family!

Fall Festival Party

Last Friday night we had our Fall Festival Party and we had to paint potatoes. Well I showed you Emma's and I's but I didn't show you Ryan's. He ended up making a bat and it turned out really cute. The party was so fun and they made Emma into a little "sweet potato." We had so much fun and really love our ward.


"Sweet Potato"


Emma losing a potato bag race.


Emma and her friends, Elise on the left and Evie on the right.


Our cute little famly and our awesome potatoes!

Here they are!

Saturday night we went and picked out our pumpkins (amidst a hail storm) to carve. I made homemade apple cider, cooked some Papa Murphy's pizza and we were off! Emma had so much fun cleaning out her pumpkin, and I was really surprised that it didn't gross her out. Every year while we lived in Idaho we spent a night with the Erickson clan carving pumpkins and Dad Erickson would judge whose was the best. So this year we want to be included in the contest. Ryan's pumpkin was the skull and mine was the cat and spider in the window. Ryan, Emma and I had so much fun carving our pumpkins (Emma painted her's)so you get to decide whose is the best.


My pumpkin is on the left, Ryan's on the right.


Mine, Emma's beautiful pumpkin, and Ryan's.


Emma cleaning out her pumpkin.


Emma called these her "pretty baby pumpkins."

New shoes

Emma wanted the "computer" to see her new shoes. She is such a cute little girl, infact we think she is the cutest ever! The problem is, she knows that she is stinkin' cute. After I finished her hair she looked in the mirror and said, "I am so beautiful mom!"

Painting Potatoes!

Our ward "Fall Festival" party is tonight and they asked everyone to decorate a potato and bring it to be judged (The judges will be the Primary presidency, and Ryan already tried to convince me to vote for his). Emma and I decorated our potatoes today and boy did Emma have fun! We went and picked out paint for her potato (and her pumpkin for tomorrow night)and she wanted her potato to be a pumpkin. (Go figure :) Well we started with orange and covered the whole thing. It was torture for her to wait until it was dry. Then she picked all of her colors and painted her beautiful potato! Can you tell which one is hers?

Witch Treats!

Our Primary Program is this coming Sunday, and so I decided to make treats for all of the kids since they have worked so hard on the songs and their parts. I searched and searched for some cute little Halloween treat and found these, witch brooms and hats. They turned out so cute! I found them on www.halloweentreats.com , so you will have to check them out. It was quite the job fixing them all and putting them in their little baggies, b ut I hope the kids will like them. Ryan came up with the saying attached to the baggies, "We couldn't decide "witch" one of you sang the loudest. You did awesome! love, The Primary Presidency" Pretty cute!

Here they are before the packaging.

Packaged and ready to go!

Zoey the Fairy Princess!

My sister, Shantel's little girl, Zoey, is going to be a fairy for Halloween. I think she looks so cute and had to put it up!

The NEW Incredible!

Emma wanted to be an "Incredible" for Halloween. I found her costume on Ebay and she loves it! We went to Halloween night at the Dinosaur Park and the kids could dress up. The other little boywe went with dressed up as a biker and Emma was "Incredibles." She it so cute and I just hope she still likes it when it is time to really wear it!

Conference Weekend!

My parents came down to visit us for conference weekend. It was so much fun! We all had tickets for Saturday Morning Session, and despite leaving late, driving through the snow storm, waiting in line, waiting for Ryan and my Dad to catch up with us, we made it! My dad, brother, and I had never been to conference before, so it was a really neat experience. Ryan and I had tickets on the terrace smack dab in the middle, which was great and my parents and brother had tickets on the balcony way over in the corner :( After we arrived back at our place we had some more family come and visit. It was so much fun. I do have to give it up for my mom. She had had surgery on the bottom of her foot just 3 weeks before, and had to limp around everywhere. She was a trooper! Emma had so much fun with Grandma and Grandpa, but like always cried and cried when they had to leave Sunday. In fact, when Emma woke up monday morning she kept asking where Grandma was hiding. She is too cute! Thanks Mom, Dad, Luke, Jason, Tim, Sarah and baby Alison for visiting us! We miss you guys!

Pretty Princess!

I love exercising! (Well most of the time) On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday a couple other mommies from our ward and I go walking. We usually walk anywhere between 2 1/2 to 3 miles each day! I have missed the last few times and so I decided that I need to get back out there. Emma especially loves it, because she gets to ride along next to her friends Elise and Autumn. As I bundled Emma up this morning (it was only 45 degrees, brrrrr!) she asked me if she could be a princess today. I said sure, not knowing what this was going to entail. Well, Emma proceeded to dig though her dress up basket and pulled out her "princess dress" and wanted to wear it to the park. So like any mommy would do to avoid a temper tantrum, I said sure! It was too funny not to take a picture, and she was so excited. Jax, the new kitty, especially enjoyed the skirt because it was so fun to chase!

Our new Kitty!

So I finally convinced Ryan to let us get a cat. Emma and I went and picked him up this morning, and he is so cute! He is only 7 weeks old, and so tiny. Emma is so proud of her new kitty, she keeps "sharing" his toys, but in the process just scares him. We have a lot of learning to do about how to be soft with the kitty. We haven't decided on a name yet, but the home he came from called him Goliath, so maybe we'll keep that name! He sure is a lot of fun, and is starting to warm up to his new home. Emma and I went to the store yesterday and bought all of the "kitty stuff," she keeps asking him if he needs to go potty! Ryan hasn't seen him yet so hopefully he falls in love with him like Emma and I have!

"No, I'm busy Mom!"

Emma is so creative with her words, sometimes it drives me crazy. Last night while I was cooking dinner, Emma kept bugging me to come play. She just wouldn't leave me alone so I kept telling her, "No Emma, Mommy is busy." So pretty soon she would come into the kitchen and just yell "No! You're not busy! Come here!" Thank goodness daddy arrived home, because I about pulled my hair out. Well, after Dad had to leave for mutual, Emma came out of the bathroom naked. (She wants to do it "all by myself") I let her run around naked for a while, but soon it was bedtime, so I asked her to come here so I could put her pull up and pajamas on. I could tell by the look in her eyes that the little wheels in her head were turing, she looked right at me and said, "No, I'm busy!" She is a quick learner, but sometimes I wish she wouldn't pick up on thing so quick!

"My new dress Mommy!"

Last night as I was cleaning up dinner, Emma came into the kitchen saying, "Oh pretty! My new dress mommy!" So I turn around to look at her and she is wearing one of my little nighties. She had found it and was trying to put it on and was stretching it out, so daddy helped her the rest of the way! She kept twirling around saying how pretty she was. It was really funny. Of course I had to take a picture of her, but I decided it was best not to post it!

Dinosaur Park

Saturday Emma and I went to Dinosaur Park here in Ogden with some friends from our ward. We had so much fun! It is such a cool place and I really wish Ryan could have came (he was camping with the scouts). They had a big playground that Emma just loved and all of these life size dinosaurs. It was really neat. Of course at times Emma would shrink into my arms and say, "scary dinosaurs!" But all in all she had a lot of fun. I think I had just as much fun looking at all of the fossils and dinosaur bones, stuff that I studied in college. I highly recommend this place!

My future little Paleontologist!

Trees??????

Emma always keeps me on my toes. Smiths Food Store had a great sale on the good Campbells Chunky Soup cans so we stocked up for food storage. Well I haven't exactly moved them to food storage yet....anyways I caught Emma making "trees" with the cans so I had to take a picture. She covered the other cans with her blanket because it was "raining." She is too cute and not to forget creative!

Our Update!

I thought I would update everyone on Ryan and I's ongoing "trial." December marks two years of trying for another little Erickson addition to our family. After two known miscarriages, several doctor visits, many tears and sleepless nights, not to mention a lot of $money$, Ryan and I are still "waiting." I have been on several rounds of Clomid and Prometrium, but to no avail. If nothing is new after the next cycle, we are trying to decide if insemination will do the trick. The last two years have been extremely trying for me, and I sometimes forget that it is just as hard for Ryan. I am very grateful for the doctors office I found here in Ogden. Instead of $600 for each appointment at least twice a month, it is only $30. We have to pay everything up front which is just fine, I can handle $30 per visit, it is the emotional wear that is hard to deal with. We are contemplating insemination from this doctors office because it is only $150 instead of a couple thousand!!! Emma's little friend from church just got a new little "baby sister" a couple of months ago and since then Emma asks almost every night where her baby sister is. We just don't know. The one thing we do know is that Heavenly Father is watching over us and that whenever that little spirit (or spirit(s) I hope) is ready to come down to us, we will be more than ready! Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers! We love you all!

Potty Training!!!!

On Monday I started to potty train Emma.....again! I decided that I was going to stick with it this time and not let her go back to diapers. All in all she has done very well, surprisingly. She only went through every single pair of underwear (from wetting them, all 14 of them) in about two days! She has done a lot better today, but she refuses to go big potty in the actual potty, which makes for an interesting clean up. Emma is pretty stubborn, a lot like her mom, but I think we may stick with it this time! I bought some "princess" pull-ups, but she thinks they are just a fancy diaper, so as soon as they go on they are wet. I am glad that she likes her little underwear, it helps! So hopefully when you all se her again, she isn't wearing a diaper!

Camping Trip

Labor Day Weekend we went camping with the Ericksons up in Island Park. Our camping site was in Buffalo Campground Loop G. It was a perfect spot for everyone. First we stopped by Ryan's parent's house to load everything up. The guys were going to the National Wild Turkey Foundation Dinner so they were sending us women up to the camp site to set up camp. Well, as we were leaving it decided to rain, more of a downpour really and we still had to stop at the garage to pick up the drift boat, (much to our dislike). We pulled into the back of the dealership and Tami, Kim, and I jumped out to hook the boat up to the truck. Despite our cursing the guys for having us do this, we could not get the hitch to work. I had to wade across the parking lot to ask one of the shop workers to come help us. Luckily he did, poor guy! Of course it was something really simple that we weren't doing and he fixed it in 2 seconds and ran back in. It was a little too late for us women, we were soaked and not very happy but made it up to the camp spot. It took up a good couple of hours to dry off, so by the time the guys made it up there we were back in good spirits (lucky them!)
Saturday we decided to float Buffalo river. It was so much fun! Emma and Carter had a lot of fun in the boat with Grandma, Grandpa, and I (I got in half way down the river with my clothes on, I forgot to pack our swimming suits) We even floated with the kids in the tubes for a while. Carter did better than Emma in the water, Emma is kind of a chicken. The river was perfect, not too cold and very shallow! Despite me hitting a rock and having a huge bruise on my leg, I should have got in sooner. It was tons of fun!
Sunday Ryan and I were in charge of dinner, so we decided to go Venezuelan style. We cooked dutch oven pulled pork, arepas, empanadas, rice and even fried up some plantains. Grandma and Grandpa Cheney came up for dinner and to visit, it was a lot of fun. That night we went down to the river and caught some minnows. We put them in a plastic cup and then let them go. Later that night when Emma was going to bed she wanted a drink, so we gave her a plastic cup with some water (not the same cup as the fish), she looked in it, looked at us and said "no fish in there?" Ryan and I had a pretty good laugh. Of course we reassured her there were no fish in her cup of water!
Monday came way too fast! We packed everything up and arrived back in Rexburg around 10:30 am. We all headed for the showers and felt much better after we all weren't so stinky! It was fun visiting at Mom and Dad Erickson's and we were sad to go. On our way home we stopped at Mom and Dad Skene's in Ririe and had a good visit with them. We arrived back in Ogden around midnight with everything luckily in order! We had so much fun and really miss Idaho! These are just some of the fun pictures we captured while camping!

Yummy!

We had ice cream the other night and Emma didn't want it in a bowl, she wanted it in a cone like mom and dad. So, we gave her a cone with a little ice cream, and she loved it! Well for the first couple of licks and then she was "all done, mmm yummy!"

Princess Tent

Last week we had a ward temple night and decided to leave Emma at one of her friends house while us parents went to the temple. Emma loves to play at "Evie's" house because they have a lot of fun toys! Well, they happen to have a little Nemo playhut/tent, and Emma was having a really hard time parting with the tent so they let us borrow it for a few days. I knew that when we would eventually have to give it back to them, Emma would throw a fit. I looked online and found a cute little Princess Tent at Toys R Us that I went ahead and bought. It took a while to get here, but it was just in time! It is super cute and she likes to hide in the tent from the "monsters!" We are going camping for Labor Day weekend with the Erickson clan and Emma has decided that she needs to bring her "Princess Tent too!" We'll see how that goes! But all in all it was a great inexpensive investment for her to play in!

Visit with Aunt Shantel and Cousin Zoey in Idaho!

The first weekend in August my sister Shantel and her little girl Zoey flew in from Washington to Idaho. We made a trip up there to visit and stayed for a few days. We were so excited to see them! (We did miss Bryce though!) That Saturday I had my 5 year class reunion. I had a lot of fun, but poor Ryan probably didn't have as much fun. He was a great sport about it all which I really appreciated. It was fun to see everyone. The rest of the weekend we spent playing and having tons of fun seeing Zoey. She is getting so big! Emma had a lot of fun, with the exception of a few "Mine! Mine!" wars, she loved playing with Grandma and Zoey. We decided to get the girls pictures taken at JC Penneys....it was fun but neither was real cooperative. We did get a few cute snaps of them, so I will put those up later. The next day Shantel and I got our hair cut. Shantel's hair turned out super cute, mine on the other hand was kind of a nightmare. I brought a picture to show the girl how I wanted it cut, and needless to say it doesn't look anything like the haircut I wanted and much shorter. I can't wait to grow it out. From now on I am just sticking with my mom cutting my hair. We had so much fun visiting and really hope that Shantel and her family get to come and visit again sometime soon!