A Story by Jessica

Jessica was telling me a story today, which is pretty common. I finally decided to write one of them down. Funny kid.

Once there was a Jessica and she heard a "click, click." And it was the rain falling down. Then the lion came. A scary lion! They scared away the lion cause they jump on him and give him an owey and he run away! And I cried and cried. And I put a bandaid on his back and he feeled all better. And then he was a nice lion and said sorry for hurting grandma. Jessica gave the lion hugs. And then Jessica made a real fish. She throw it in the water. It said, "smack, smack" (kissing noises) and I said, "Fish, get away from me! ha ha!"

Twins...kind of

Sometimes I think Jessica and Chandler are practically twins. Other times they are just two TOTALLY different looking kids. What do you think?

Thatta boy Jimmer. Thatta boy.

More Pictures!

Here are just a few more pictures of the kiddos. Love them!

Valentine's Day!!

I love Valentine's Day! It's just a perfect day to have fun and show those around you how much you love them. Since Feb. 13th is our half anniversary, we go out on a date just the two of us that night. This year we were a little tight on time with little Chan-Man at home, so we went to Smoky Mountain for pizza. It was just nice to have some time with the man I love so much! Thanks babe! Our first Valentine's Day together (while we were dating) Michael made me heart-shaped pancakes for dinner with sparkling cider. It's a tradition we've kept ever since. We love that it's a tradition we can share with our kids as well.

Michael doing his best Michael Scott impersonation


The beautiful pancakes


Another tradition that I've done is something I call "14 days of Valentine's." For each of the days of February leading up to Valentine's Day I give Michael some kind of a small present. Usually it's just a little treat. It's always fun to come up with ideas. For Valentine's Day itself I got him the book "Applied Economics." It may sound lame to get him an econ book, but he's wanted it for a while and I think he really liked getting it.


I have been so lucky this month. I have a new beautiful little baby and I couldn't ask for anything more. I made Michael promise to count the new shoes he let me get be part of my Valentine's gift. He also got me a thing of 3 Musketeers Mint (super yummy, if you haven't tried them), and a nursing cover I've been wanting to get. Thanks babe! You're the best and I love you!

We got Jessica a little stuffed frog and she LOVES him! We love you so much Jessi-bug!

I love these pictures!

Here are just a couple of pictures from the last couple days that I absolutely LOVE!

Chandler so far

Flowers

I was surprised with lots of beautiful flowers when I came home from the hospital this time. Michael and Jessica got these for me:

And Michael's law firm sent these:

I love them all! Thank you all so much!

Pictures!

Welcome Baby Chandler

Just wanted to let you all know that Chandler was born today at 1:39 pm. He weighs 6 pounds, 12 ounces and is 19 and 3/4 inches long. And while I'd love to have a picture posted here of the little stud, I left the camera at the hospital so I'll get that on tomorrow. Fortunately, he looks a lot like another dark-haired child of ours who was born at 6 pounds, 12 ounces and was 19 and 3/4 inches long. If you know what Jessica looked like as a newborn, you know what Chandler looks like.

Laura just called to let me know that Chandler's picture will soon be on the hospital's website at www.gritman.org/stork/index.htm so you can also check that.

Laura was a champ and is recovering quickly. Jessica and I are looking forward to having her and Chandler home tomorrow morning.

Hondo Night

Michael was in Honduras on his mission back in the day. We were surprised to discover that there were two other guys in our ward here that served in the same mission. They all barely missed each other, but it's still a crazy coincidence. We decided we needed a Honduras Meal Night. We included some stuff from Belize too (also a part of their mission).

Us - Michael and Laura

Steven and Brooke

Nicole and Randy

The menu: Baleadas (tortillas with refried beans, crema, and fried egg), Fried chicken, Belizean rice and beans, potato salad, fried plantains, lime OJ drink, and banana soda. It was a fun night sharing stories and having fun with friends.

38 Weeks

I had a request for a recent pregnant picture. Here's me at 38 weeks (today). I am so big and so ready to be done!

Life is Good

Just wanted to make a quick update post. Life's good. Jessica still has her moments, but she's also doing great. Better than great in fact. After a not so fun day of potty training (I don't even want to admit how long we've been at this), I decided we needed a new approach. So off we went to good old Wal-Mart where we bought a step-stool and one of those potty seats that sits on the big toilet. Up until now she's just had a little training chair. She is IN LOVE with this new thing! Never before would she even tell us when she needed to go. Now we find her in there taking care of it all by herself! I wouldn't pretend we're perfect, but no wet accidents since the new chair. She's only in a diaper/Pull-up overnight now. The only problem? New baby coming ... can anyone say "regression?" Let's hope she adjusts great. Anyways, just wanted to say that life is good.

It's all worth it

It's been one of those weeks... already. I don't know if Jessica just senses that something big is getting close with the baby or if she's just having a few cranky days. But MAN! She has just been something else to have to deal with. It started Sunday where she was just miss clingy in nursery. It's rough the weeks we're not teaching, but I think it's even worse the weeks that we are. She gets SO upset when we're paying attention to other kids - especially if we're holding them. It was tantrum after tantrum all morning. Thank heavens for her little friend Troy being willing to share his crackers during Sacrament meeting, because all Jessica's dumb mom brought was carrot sticks as a snack. :) Michael and I figured she'd take a nice long nap for sure after church. We really needed her too since we'd invited some neighbors over for that afternoon. I spent a good two hours doing the nap-time fight with her and it ended up being for nothing. When she makes up her mind, it does not matter what you try. That afternoon we had some neighbors over. I've felt bad that I haven't made more of an attempt before now to get to know them - they have a little girl a few months older than Jessica and a baby boy that's just a few months old. Our complex is mostly single students, so I really should have made more of an attempt sooner, but oh well. Anyways, I finally talked to them and set up a playdate kind of thing. Jessica, predictably, could have been better. It's not a big deal when it's people you already know well, but she was supposed to be my happy little sweety, not Miss Cranky. Monday was no better. Arguably it was worse since Michael was off at school most of the day. Super early wake up, no nap (until 5:00pm), cranky, cranky. Since she went to bed so late (b/c of her late nap) we figured she'd at least sleep in for us. Nope, wide awake at 6am. I realize that I'm feeling 9 months pregnant on top of everything else, but there were times this morning I just had to walk away from her in order to calm down. I knew she needed a nap today. But I was so worried it would be another fruitless 2 hour battle. When I told her it was nap time she, predictably, starting screaming and running away. Never mind that I'd given her TONS of "15 minutes until nap," "5 minutes until nap," etc. Finally I dragged her off to her room kicking and screaming.

The point of all this? I just held her in my arms and wrapped her up in a blanket and actually got her to calm down as I sang her a new song I made up. I sang to her about how much I loved her from the moment I first saw her and how happy I am to be able to be her Mommy forever. There were times I had to choke back tears as it just put it all in perspective for me. And then she fell asleep in my arms, with her arms wrapped around me, holding me tightly. It was exactly what I needed to just help me realize that no matter what she does and the hard it can be sometimes (and how much harder it's probably going to get), it is SO worth every second. I love her more than I ever realized it was possible to love. I am the most lucky person in the entire world.