Snug as two bugs

Snug as two bugs in a bed.
Emmalee loves laying in bed with Ariana. Jared and I tried having them sleep together in the same bed one night (becasue they both insisted on it) and they stayed up laughing and talking and playing, so we had to seperate them. They are going to be the best of friends growing up. It is so much fun watching them together.

Ariana Can Fly

The Plan of My Life

Let's see. Where do I start. Okay. Jared and I put our house on the market the beginning of June. We found this house that we were going to buy and fix up once our house sold. It was a fantastic deal, 3,000 sqft in a decent neighborhood for only 137,000. We were so excited. There was holes in the walls the size of a table, electrical problems galore, and I was excited to get to get my hands dirty. We had planned where we were going to put carpet and so forth. I only prayed that we would get this house. Needless to say, we didn't get it. Someone put a bid in. So then Jared got a call. He was going to Korea for a year. We both scrambled to get me to go. We did all the paperwork. Our passports are currently being processed. We had to go into the office a couple days ago to finish paperwork for our visas. We are so close to getting done and should have an answer in a couple of months (who knows with the military). That same day that we had to go in to to sign our visa's, we had a showing on our house. So returning home I checked the mail and then went inside to clean. I opened the letter from the college I am attending. It was an acceptance letter to the Nursing Program. I was planning on attending after we came back from Korea (the normal waitlist was 2 years). I was just put on the waitlist in August so I thought I wouldn't get one of these letters for at least another year. The letter said that I was to attend in Spring 2009. I thought, sure, I can get everything together by August of 2009. I called friends for watching my children, made arrangments for housing. I thought I had it all covered, until I discovered that Spring 2009 was in JANUARY!!!!! I was not expecting this at all. I know people that have been on the waiting list for over two years and have still not gotten in. I had only been on the list for 2 months. So yesterday I had to go to the police department to get finger printed for background checks and I have still so much to do. Before you can enter the nursing program you need to be CPR certified, have all your hep shots up to date, and many other things. So now my life is crazy trying to finsh the classes I am in, while preparing for the nursing program, while trying to sell our house, trying to fulfill my relief society presidency calling, while trying to spend time with Jared before he leaves me for another year, while I try to be a mom and a student all by myself AGAIN!!!! I just have to take a deep breath and know that this will all be worth it in the end. Heavenly Father has blessed us so much. He has done everything to make this all possible. So my future plan is: not to have a plan. If we go through life being flexible, accepting all things, we can overcome anything.

Emmalee's Birthday

Just a little late in posting these (I am trying to catch up) Emmalee turned 2 on August 26th.
Ariana loves her snakes and dinosaurs. Her favorite dinosaur is a soopersaurus.
Her are the girls and Ariana's raptor.Mmmmmmm......yummy cake!
Emmalee is such a girl. She loves her princess stuff.

Tickle Time

Need I say more???

Raquetball and Our Father

Jared and I have a membership to a very large community center/ gym/ family fun center. They have child care where the children can go outside and play, and our girls love it. So recently Jared and I have gotten into raquetball. At first we looked so pathetic. We could barley hit the ball and spent most of our time trying to get the ball. Then we got a little better. We could actually have a game when we could hit the ball consecutively, maybe 3 or 4 times. As we kept getting better, Jared figured out it was harder for me to hit the ball if he bounced it off the side walls. This sent me in several directions as I tried to guess where the ball might bounce to next. As we mutually tested eachother's limits, we got better. Now we can both hit the ball several times no matter what wall it bounces off of. So, last week, we played again. Jared pulled another trick out of the bag. As he served the ball, his muscles, which are very large, put great force behind the ball. I found it almost impossible to hit the ball. As he kept hitting the ball very hard serve after serve, I felt like almost asking him not to. I was unable to hit the balls. It was very hard. Then a thought crossed my mind. We are tested in this life pretty much the same way. We don't get hit with the really hard balls first. We are tempted and tried by little things. As we overcome those we have the opportunity to grow and become better. As we do, trials get a little harder. We become better. If we had "hard ball" trials from the very begining, without our testimony being able to grow, we might give up. Heavenly Father loves us and wants us to be better. And who would have thought that this would have come from sweating on a raquetball court.

The Mall and an Escalator

We went to the mall with my grandparents and my Uncle Michael and Christine (his girlfriend). The girls loved the escalators (normally when I go to the mall they are in the stroller). But since the great-grandparents were there, the girls got whatever they wanted, which was, 10 rides up and down the escalator, in a row.

The North Pole

When my grandparents (Oma and Opa) visited from Germany this summer, we went to the North Pole. Everything is Christmas themed and there is even a pole of ice. There is lots of wildlife (and semi-domesticated animals). They had goats, tons of deer, and llamas.


Grandpa was brave enough to let Ariana drive.
Jared's handprint is somewhere on that pole of ice.

Garden of the Gods Visit

This summer we visited Garden of the Gods and walked a couple of the trails there. We also climbed the red rock and had a picnic.

Major Help from Catherine

Okay...thanks to a highly technical and very smart sister-in-law I was able to figure out my blog and begin posting again. She also helped me get this cute template (thanks a ton!!). So hopefully I will start blogging again. My life, or should I say our lives, have been so hectic. I am taking two classes and trying to still sell our house (stupid economy). Jared, on the other hand, is working himself to the bone. Emma and Ariana are still being cute as ever, and we are having fun watching them grow up. Stay tuned for more to come.