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!
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!
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!
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!
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! 
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!
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!
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!
