JAutry's

Reese Ava Autry

2010-06-03T07:37:00.000-07:00

Reese Ava Autry was born on April 1, 2010...My little April fools baby. She is two months old now and I feel somewhat able to function enough to blog for a moment.

For those who don't want to know the details, just look at the pictures and be happy. However, if you want to know how Reese got here:

I went into labor on March 30th. In the middle of the night I could not sleep and got up with contractions. I knew they were nothing big, but they did keep me up. So I went to the doctor and I was dialated to a 1 and 50% effaced or something. Anyways, I went home and did my usual routine and had contractions all day. When John got home and the contractions were every 3 -5 minutes we were trying to figure out if we should go in. I called a good friend who works in OB care. She said since I was a previous c-section I should go in just to be on the safe side. I never really had a ton of pressure, just back labor. So we got there at about 7 pm and I was dialated to a 1.5. The baby's head was not in position at all and I was definately having contractions that were good every 3-5 minutes. So I walked the halls, squated, drank a ton of water, and nothing changed. They wanted to keep me overnight for because I was a previous c-section. So they gave me some medicine around 2 am to help me get some sleep and see if I would stop contracting. Well, I just kept having those contractions without any progress in labor. Then a new doctor came in the morning, Doctor El Gammal. She checked, no change, no head. So she called for an ultrasound machine. Now you know it is not good when the doctor takes 10 minutes doing an ultrasound and sits down and says where is that head. Then she called for an ultrasound tech to come in. The ultrasound tech comes in and sits down and starts looking for the head. Once again it was a challenge. Reese was sideways, bum up, head close to the bottom with her hand dangling in my cervix (explained a few random pains) and she was facing my back. The doctor said there is no way I could deliver her that way and she can't change her position because of the risks involved from being a previous c-section.

So there I was on the operating table being cut open...now they warned me, but you never want to think it will go that way. They cut me, then the uterus and then I hear straining and a vague inclination that my body is being rocked back and forth. I hear the doctor grunting and she can't get the baby out. I will never forget my husbands eyes. He was watching with interest at first and then they get out scissors to cut my uterus again and his eyes were all I saw. At any rate Reese came out very healthy. she was 6 lbs 14 oz and 20 1/4 inches long. I hate that I have so many issues, but that was not the end for me. I had to have 3 layers of stitching because my scar tissue was bad with my previous c-section. I also had to have my bladder wrapped because of scar tissue. Then when she was trying to put my uterus in she noticed it didn't go in nice and snug cuz my sacrum (lower spine) was not toward my back like normal. There is no way I could have delivered ever. That really would have been nice to know before the whole process. Oh and did I mention my uterus is a little thin at the bottom. Man, well I might be lucky to have one more, but it will be a scheduled c-section at 38 weeks.

The recovery was not fun. I had so much gas in my tummy afterwards that I looked 9 months pregnant and as the nurse said you could play my tummy like a drum......

I am still very much recovering, though I can do just about everything like normal. I know I had surgery and can still feel it, but it does not hurt.

Still I am so grateful for Reese and I hold her and love her so much. I also have to note that during the whole delivery I was so calm and peaceful. I felt the presence of Heavenly Father so strongly that I knew everything would be alright. I am so grateful for that.

There is the hand that Reese loves.

They made Reese go under the lights because of a antigen issue. She was so strong she kept pulling off the socks and the goggles. John was vigalent about taking care of her, even though it was rough night. She also pulled up her head and on all fours in the hospital when they first put her in this on her belly. Strong girls :)

Hello Again :)

2010-03-05T11:22:00.000-08:00

Ok, I know it has been quite a few months since I blogged. I thought about doing a mass update and going back, but that would make it a lot harder to catch up. So lets just say pregnancy, John breaking his Fibula on Thanksgiving, the Holidays, and life has happened and I will just update with a few recent pictures and move forward.

So this is what comes from old photos....Celia has a photo like this when she was younger. She thought that looks great and begged me to do it again until I did....So here she is getting her hair curled before school.

So one day the little boy I watch during the day, Daniel Embry, didn't come over because of sickness in the family. I thought great, I can do that baby quilt for my friend that I have been meaning to do. Two baby quilts and these two doll quilts later, I wondered why I had even started looking at fabric in the first place. It was fun, but I am glad to be done with those projects.

Yes it Snows in Georgia - once, maybe twice a year. This was taken on our first snow of this year. She was so happy to play in the snow.

Celia and her good friend Daniel Embry. They loved playing in the snow and throwing snowballs at each other.

We had to run an errand and so we didn't get a chance to make a snow man at our house.....so we did the next best thing and made one at the grandparents house. Here's our snowman on my parent's porch.

All of the above pictures were taken at Bear Hollow in Athens during Winter Break. The kids (Daniel and Celia) were so cute and fun. Celia made friends, like always, we played at the park, looked at animals and just had a nice day out.

Ever wonder what a 5 foot nothing girl looks like pregnant. Wonder no more. I have not gained too much (17 lbs) weight this pregnancy and my waist is smaller (currently 41 inches, with Celia it got to be about 44 or so inches) this time around. Yet this picture really shows what 8 months of baby growth can do for you or to you. Either way I am happy to be pregnant and excited to meet my baby girl. It hasn't been an easy pregnancy, but she will be worth the small inconviences of food not tasting good and having a nose that constantly runs.

Celia Starts School

2009-09-04T05:25:00.000-07:00

Celia started school, ok pre-school, on July 31st of this year. She was so excited. Georgia has a lottery funded preschool program. So it is free, but it goes the normal length of school. In fact Celia goes to the elementary school for preschool. I have yet to let her ride the bus, though she really really wants to, I am just not ready for that. I really like her teacher Mrs. Purvis. She is a great teacher that is challenging, fun and loves my little spirited daughter.

Pregnant

2009-09-04T05:18:00.000-07:00

I really am ever so glad to be pregnant. I am about 9 weeks along now and hoping that at the end of this first trimester I will start feeling better. Just a month or so to go to find that out. This pregnancy has definately been completely different from Celia's. I am grateful my husband is so supportive and does so much around the house to help out. Even if he does call me a slug. I have medicine for the naseau and vomiting so as long as I can keep it down I do much better. Every time I pay homage to the porcelin throne I have to remind myself that my baby is doing good and that this really will be just a short time. I really am looking forward to October to find out what I am having. My young women keep telling me that I am having a boy. My mother insists that it is a girl. I don't have a really strong feeling, but am leaning toward boy. So I am sorry if I am cranky and out of it, please don't take it personal I still love you, I just don't feel good at all.

Disney Fun Part 2

2009-08-21T19:45:00.000-07:00

We took Sunday off parks and went to church and then the Orlando temple. It is an absolutely beautiful temple, just wish we had known how to get there before leaving the church building. Lost and hungry do not make a good combination.

Our family photo reflects the cranky and hungry.

Isn't it such a gorgeous temple. We were privileged to go there previously for a friends wedding and it really is so beautiful.

Monday was spent at Magic Kingdom, which is packed with lots of fun stuff to do and see....packed being the word for the day. We started it out with Breakfast with the Princesses. We all loved it because the food was good and we got to eat in the castle and we got to meet the princesses, they all came to our table.

Snow White came first and Celia wanted to know where all the princes were. Snow White said hers was waiting for her and they would dance in front of the castle soon, which I heard they did.

Sleeping beauty came up with this pose and I am with celia, is this really necessary...whatever.

Celia loved having all the princesses come and meet her. It was so fun to see her face and enjoy it with her. I would definately do it again.

Celia and Belle, one of my favorite characters....They give you a wand, a wishing star, and a photo package with Cinderella. We really enjoyed ourselves.

I guess this is a pretty rare picture to get, but we were waiting to ride the tea party ride and John went with Celia to wait in line and get her picture with Alice and the white rabbit. By the way 4 grown adults and a child do not fit in one tea cup, we learned that the hard way.

This makes me laugh so much. During a break time for the adults we went to a play area for Celia. She promptly made friends with these two boys and became the leader...ok their master cuz they were her dogs. I laughed and felt bad, but they seemed to be enjoying it as much as her....my little leader.

Can you tell how hot it was, look at those cheeks. Celia really enjoyed minnie's kitchen. So much fun to be had.

Who doesn't love a merry go round ride...we all enjoyed it.

I love this picture of mom and her new t-shirt, Cotton is your best friend when outside too long in Florida.

I love this picture of my dad cuz it shows his cowboy attitude. Too fun.

One of the benefits of going during the summer is the Disney waterparks are open. We went to Typhoon Lagoon. It was really so much much. The wave pool had the biggest waves that I have ever seen at a wave pool and literally knocked people over and into each other. This was a fun, but exhausting day. Playing in the water is so tiring.

Celia loved the kids area complete with slides and their own little tube ride. She rode a couple bigger ones, but loved the independence of being able to carry her own tube and do it all by herself at this one.

John and Dad loved the snorkeling with the fish attraction. It was really fun to be able to just enjoy the animals in that way. John took some pretty good pictures with our waterproof camera.

This is the entrance of the waterpark, but this is the end of the day. So much fun...I really enjoyed Disney and wish I could have gone to the other waterpark as well.

Disney Fun part 1

2009-08-21T19:09:00.000-07:00

Okay slightly out of order, but that is otay. Our Second day at Disney was our favorite. We went to epcot and loved the gliding ride so much we rode it twice. We got to see a lot of really cool stuff and Celia loved the masks and coloring stations they had in each country. Celia also loved all the characters she met. Though you can't tell from this picture. Problem was she only wanted to see minnie mouse and had waited in a long line to do that. Then she found out she had to say hello to all the characters. Since poor mickey was first Celia had nothing to do with him.

Then it was pluto's turn, at least he got a look and a smile. She still wouldn't go near him though and Dad had to help.

Finally she got to minnie and she was golden after that.

She liked Donald so much that his was the only one stuffed animal she wanted.

Goofy was last and she was so happy she got to see everyone, especially minnie...

Celia also talked grandpa into waiting in a line for her to get to see snow white. Yeah for grandpas.

The Disney tradition is to get a mickey mouse shaped ice cream treat when you go, but Celia liked our ice cream much better. We all shared and it was still fun to try to beat the heat a little. Just so you know June is very hot in Florida.
Celia with her grandma and grandpa in front of Epcot.

The thing we love about Disney is they really try to make your experience great. You will randomly get taken to the front of the line just because one of the workers is being nice or anything like that. You may spend a good deal of money, though it wasn't too bad for us with the military rates. Anyways, the customer service and the way most of the rides and parks are run are great. There are a few rides that have horrible lines or are not the greatest, but it was still fun.

Our First Day was spent at Animal Kingdom. Which was a good day, but not our favorite. The Lion King show and Nemo show were really cool, and they had some nice rides, but the one we really wanted to ride we were unable to ride. Celia loved the ride above because she was in control of the movement of the ride.

The Dinosaur Display outside the dinosaur ride. Yeah we should not have taken Celia on this ride. We all felt like it was made for the hearing impared and wondered if we would need hearing aids after riding it because it was so loud. Celia does not handle loud noises at all. Then the Scary dinosaur right when they flash a light (take a picture) in your eyes...Yeah the end you look and the picture and everyone is going huh.

Really good advice we were given was to go to the Safari first thing in the morning. We did and the animals were definately out. It pays to go early.

Yeah I know the mass post again part 1...

2009-08-21T18:40:00.000-07:00

John graduated from all of his training with the army in the beginning of June ....Yeah that means he gets to come home and be a reservist right? This is John and Celia with his good friend Jose. We miss Jose :(

Celia and her ice cream nose.

I really wanted to take pictures of them both that day. Celia was so cranky and John helped loosen her up, I am really glad he did cuz I love these pictures now.

Isn't this so cute....their little smoochies....
Celia, John, and another good friend Chelsea Jenson at graduation. It is always good to graduate, but hard to say good bye to friends.

Strawberry picking with friends at the end of May. Joanie and her little Serenity. Joanie is my best friend who until next week lives about a mile away. I will be so sad to see her go, maybe it is better that I am sick right now and can't think about it.

Joanie's little girl Destiny and my Celia. They are really good friends as well. Strawberry picking is always fun when you get to eat the spoils.

I am not really a person who usually likes pictures of myself, but I actually really like this picture. I just had my hair cut and colored and it looks pretty good.

Close up of the strawberries and the flowers. The coolest thing about strawberry picking is you get to see the different stages of growth a strawberrry goes through.

May 2009

2009-05-31T19:28:00.001-07:00

My three helpers - Daniel Embry, Celia Autry, and Destiny Campbell. Daniel's apron I made for him, he's a huge Blues Clues fan, I think it turned out pretty good. Celia, well I tried to help her, but in the end she made her own apron and Destiny's is just one someone gave me. It is a fun project if you are looking for one to do. They are pretty cheap at Hobby Lobby. We've been crafting lately.

Celia holding little Serenity Campbell. She loves babies and is always excited at the thought of holding them. She doesn't have a very long attention span, but she does pretty good. She wants a baby brother lately.

Destiny (the big sister) and Serenity. Just before Serenity was born, Destiny kept telling me she could do things by herself because she is the big sister. She really is a great big sister.

You have to enjoy the sequence of events in these pictures from Rebecka Duggan and Isabelle Riddling's joint birthday party at my parents (they are only a day and 4 years apart).

Looking at the cake.Lighting the cake.

Hey wait, don't blow the candles out yet.
Too late, Let's try this again.

Adam Duggan at the park enjoying a favorite past time of mine as a kid. Who doesn't secretly dream of being a monkey when they are younger...before you remember the part of monkeys throwing their own poo at people.

Mass Update - April 2009

2009-05-31T18:42:00.000-07:00

I just knew I needed to do this mass update. This week John graduates from his nursing program in the army and then we go to Disneyworld for 10 days or so and I know the pictures will pile up this week. At any rate, I love this picture of Celia (miss independent) making a pb and j sandwich and Daniel (little man) helping out in his funny clothes. He always makes me laugh, such a funny kid. The only just 3 year old I have ever heard tell a knock knock joke.

I love this picture. Celia had her face painted like a butterfly. I wish we had more pictures from this day. We went and did a 10k in my parents neighborhood. It was to support the Fallen Heroes of Georgia. Only appropriate that it rained on us the whole time and it was a very hard and trying run. There is nothing but hills in my parents neighborhood and none of those nice soft rolling kind, more like straight up and kill yourself kind. Yet we made it through and it was somehow a sobering experience to pass by all those names most of them really boys. You couldn't complain too much because they gave their life to support us and our country...what's a little pain, sweat and rain.

Our beautiful niece Emily turned 8 this year and had the privelege of being baptised. We always love it when we get a chance to get together with our family and especially love these momentous occasions. Yeah Emily.

At the very beginning of April we had the privelege of going to Hilton Head, South Carolina. It was fun. It was Celia's first time going to the beach and she loved it. The water was still cold and unfortunately it was not hot enough to make that ok. We still had a good time though....Here Celia is with her new friend. The girl seems to make them wherever she goes :)

Celia attempting a sandcastle. I have to admit I was less than impressed with the sand at Hilton Head, it was impossible to make a sandcastle. Oh well, maybe next time we'll go to Destin and enjoy that good sand.

At a park in Hilton head, they had this really cool thing...it kept moving and there was only water underneath. It was fun.

Even John took a turn in the fun. I love this picture of my husband, it truly displays his fun playful side. One of the reasons I love him so much.

Don't you love our tree lizard. I did.

Easter kisses. Ben and Amy on Easter. I used to have a tradition that I tried for a few years of taking pictures of family on Easter. I don't really press my family to do this anymore..But if they show up dressed up, I can't help but take a few shots....maybe someday I will get better.

Tabitha - Isn't she beautiful. I wish I could show her cute dress, but I am too lazy to load the picture onto the computer and flip it the right way, so you'll have love her face.

Celia (4), Izzy (almost 2), Kyla (2 1/2), and Becka (almost 6). They are all making such interesting faces. They were loving the picture taking though.

Kyla and Rebecka Duggan are just too cute. I love their easter dresses and them.

The newest Duggan edition - Lena. She is also so stinking cute... I can hardly believe she is crawling already. I saw it yesterday though.

Our Easter eggs that we dyed and stickered. I think they turned out decent this year. We did have some help though.

Celia hunted easter eggs with the Carter family and then with my family at my parents. She had so much fun hunting easter eggs. The Carter's did something I think is kind of fun, she didn't put stuff in all the eggs. It certainly makes for a more interesting hunt.

Isabelle Riddling loved the chocolate on Easter. She really was so cute.

Celia and Izzy both beautiful blondes. I love how unique we all are from birth. No one comes out a carbon copy of anything and I really believe they come out with their own personalities. The goal is to guide the personality to the best possible choices.

Isaac waited so long for his sister Isabelle. I think he would agree that she was worth the wait.

Hello Pain!

2009-05-10T19:46:00.000-07:00

For those interested, this last week I underwent laproscopic surgery. On Thursday in the early morning. It was an exploratory surgery to see if I have endemetriosis and to see if everything looks good. I thought I would hurt a little and be a little out of it that day, but good soon after. I think I am slightly delusional. It is crazy the lengths that we will go to in order to have children. To be honest I would not have gone after this at all had it not been for my sister Rachel and Heavenly Father. My sister thought she might have had it and brought over a pamphlet on it. Yeah surprise surprise I had a few symptoms. At any rate I was praying about whether or not to start college next year when my dear sweet daughter goes to pre-k all day. I always told myself when my kids went to school I would go to school. My answer was wait and see, probably not, and I was praying about the wrong thing. The next day, I got the distinct impression I needed to have surgery. Since it was not at all something I wanted I had a slight disagreement for a week or so, until I read scriptures having to do with slothful people and heard a talk on revelation that said similar...Thanks Bishop. At any rate I went through the process of getting it all taken care of, the first doctors appointment was frustrating and I cried the whole way home. The doctor was nice and called later to talk to me and it made me feel better, although it is still rather embarrassing to cry at a doctors office and not be able to stop. At any rate a few months later due to surgery rules and doctors schedules I have now had the surgery. As always, Heavenly Father was right (there was a chance I would have surgery and they would find nothing). The doctor not only found stuff, she found quite a bit and even took care of some of the scar tissue I had from my c-section with Celia. There is a chance that one of my tubes is blocked, they did a dye test. However, I could have just reacted to the dye. Now it is just a matter of dealing with the pain, it reminds me of the c-section pain....why oh why do I want to do this....No pain no kids. So hopefully in a few months you will see a nice post saying that I am expecting a beautiful baby.

Friends

2009-04-26T19:56:00.000-07:00

In Case you are wondering why the massive posting. Well I have a feeling that is the way I will do this blogging thing. Not to mention I finally I have my computer functioning enough to stand trying to update and I have had a chance to upload the digital prints. At any rate I am picking up more film later this week and hope that it won't take quite so long to add them.

This is Celia's BFF Destiny Campbell. Isn't she so stinking cute. They are a really good match for each other. Destiny can hold her own, but she is pretty calm and obliging.

Garrett Taylor, 3, at the park for playgroup.

All the kids getting their exercise on the outdoor treadmill at the park.....why they must all get on there at the same time ...their kids.

Peyton Jordan at the Valentines Day play group.

Celia and Daniel writing in their blues clues notebooks....Isn't the shower a great place to do that?

Celia loves to read and it is not uncommon for me to wake up to her on the couch reading books. This morning she chose to read to her dolls, Sophie and Nancy.

Celia with her good friends Destiny and Charity Campbell playing dress up. I love that I made that costume for her a few years ago and though it is far from perfect she still likes to wear it and dress up.

Hopefully a better picture of Rachel's quilt she made for our friend Joanie Campbell's baby Serendity. She is so awesome at quilting and so giving of her talent. She really blesses so many people with such beautiful quilts.

The Campbell (Landon, Destiny, Joanie, and Charity) family and their relatives at Charity's baptism. I am so lucky to live so close to such an awesome person and have such a good friend in my life. Joanie is the best.

Fort Gordon

2009-04-26T19:38:00.000-07:00

Army Strong

Celia is ready to ride.......

It is crazy to think that my daughter is that small and that this tank is that big.

Celia absolutely loves planes and helicopters. She knows that planes have wings and helicopters have rotors. She can spot them when they are a speck in the sky and is just fascinated by them.

Memorial to the POWS and MIA soldiers. Always good to remember those who have sacrificed so much to help keep freedom alive.

I loved visiting John and getting the awesome opportunity to play the best sport ever invented. Volleyball...oh, I didn't realize I was in the picture, but anyways loved it and had fun.

This is a pretty old picture as you can tell from the Halloween candy in the room. I just thought some people might be interested in where John stays. That is his half and there is a bathroom and a sink, microwave, small cabinet space, and a fridge all in one little room.

A daddy-daughter moment. John is a loving father and just loves his little girl.

The weekends John is not able to come home, he is usually on Flag detail. Which means he wakes up and helps put this flag up and then takes it down every night. Since we live 2 hours away it doesn't make sense to try to come home in between.

It is not easy to live seperate like this and we are not sure what the future holds. All I know is that I love my husband and I am willing to do what it takes to make it last for eternity. I am a lucky woman.

Family

2009-04-26T19:13:00.000-07:00

I love close ups on baby hands and stuff...so cute. This is Lena Duggan. She's a cutie and really pretty sweet. I love to get to see her.

Look at that face...so cute.

Aunt Amy is loving on her.

Don't you just love that hair....ok, so it is a weird picture, but sometimes those are fun.

Becka and Celia eating next to each other at the table and on the table. One of those silly things. My parents have since taken one of the tables down.

Celia and Becka had the digital camera for a little bit in the back seat while I was driving. These are the lovely pictures they took of each other. They also did a lovely video, but seeing as that camera no longer works I can't get it off.

My camera snow pictures.

2009-04-26T18:23:00.000-07:00

I just love the close ups my camera can do of flowers and people. These are my flowers before the snow...so pretty and this year was the first year Celia didn't pick every last one of them in a day.

This is the way they looked when it snowed and they didn't really live after the snow left.

Celia and John smiling super big in the snow.

John leaving....so what do you think....John's digital or my camera...I like mine. Especially, since Celia got to John's camera and now it doesn't work.

Callaway Gardens - Valentines and another quilt

2009-03-06T12:28:00.000-08:00

Isn't this so cool. I loved seeing the stages of bananas growing. We went to Callaway Gardens with my parents on Valentines Day. It was free to get in for the Month of February. There is not a lot growing, but it is still pretty and fun.

Isn't John so cute. Here he is by the vegetable garden.

Celia and I by the vegetable garden. We really did have a great day. My parents are so fun. Funny story, we saw this cool rock formation by a stream. It looked pretty slick as it was a rainy day, but fun. Mom decided to climb on it and check it out. She slipped and dad helped her and I screamed. John laughed at me and said, she was fine. Still funny that the love for adventure is ever present.

Mom and dad in the butterfly garden. It was so pretty in there and even though there were not a ton of butterflies, there were enough to interest us. Especially the names. A few were called common mormon butterflies. The prettiest were of course the blue morpho butterflies.

Some of the indoor gardens. We just loved the way this looked.

Celia and her Daddy. They have so much fun together and I love these opportunities of having fun and doing stuff as a family. We really should go back with bikes during the spring or summer it would be a blast to ride around and enjoy all the beautiful nature.

My sister Rachel is awesome....she made this quilt for our friend Joanie Campbell. She is having her 3rd little one and said this is her first baby quilt. I helped only a small bit, but it is still awesome.

Snow Day

2009-03-06T11:35:00.001-08:00

About a week ago, I took these pictures on the digital camera or our flowers. I also took some with my camera, we will see how those turn out. They were just so beautiful and I wanted them to last a little longer.
Imagine our surprise when just a few days later we leave church to kids talking about snow and have a little snow storm. Our area was hit pretty good, my parents didn't get as much snow. We certainly enjoyed it while it lasted. When I was I kid I lived in California and where we lived it never snowed, it might have left a light layer, but never even an inch, nothing you could play in. So Georgia was the first place I experienced the snow. I love the way it snows here. Just every once in a while so you can play in it and love it, but not enough to ever get sick of.

Celia kept eating the carrot nose. She really loved carrots that day.

Dad and Celia. I believe this is the first time they've been able to really play in the snow together. Last year he was in Texas when snowed and before that she was too long to play in it when it snowed (less than 1).

Celia took this picture of John when he was getting ready to go back to base.

I took this because the trees looked so beautiful and I love how big the snowflakes were as they fell.

Celia took this one, I took one with my camera. This is John leaving in the snowstorm. Others might feel like this is a little silly, but it had rained for two days before the snow hit and their was ice on the ground everywhere. The snow isn't what worried me, it was the ice. Plus tree limbs were falling everywhere. It took him 2 hours to go 20 minutes and shortly after that he didn't have any issues. Course a little after he left (about 3) we lost power and it didn't come on until about 10. It was fun and we didn't have it too bad since our stove is gas and I have enough candles to light a house, plus a few flashlights. I did realize our heat was run by electricity and I will need to prepare with wood for fires for next year. It got a little cold, but we have enough quilts to keep warm.

This is our girl snowman. She has hair and yes those are some of the branches our tree lost, it couldn't support the snow.

The next day we still had plenty of snow to play with so we made 4 more snowmen, including a girl and a dog.....it was fun. We also made a snow fort. I am in awe that anyone makes igloos and such. It is quite a bit of work. I certainly hope they have more than just one adult and a 4 year old. We had fun demolishing the small fort.

Celia and the snowman we built to kill. Yep, we kicked it down the hill. It really did get to be a big snowball and we both couldn't push it anymore.

Dogs are so silly. Maze wanted to help us decorate our snowman. Thanks, but no thanks. Next time we'll do the decorating without him. Maze really loved the snow and played in it, peed in it, and ate it (not the stuff he peed in I hope).

Stuff

2009-03-06T11:22:00.000-08:00

So, I am making a public vow to get my knee back into shape so that I can get into shape without having to take a break to get my knee to stop hurting. I know all the physical therapy stetches and stuff I need to do, I just need to do them everyday and ice and all that stuff. No more excuses. The occured when I got my hips fixed through physical therapy. Once they were better and I don't feel the run in my hips anymore, it has affected the rest of my legs and my muscles are not strong enough to help my knees out and so it just causes pain. I have also put on a little weight and even 5 lbs add an extra 25 lbs or more of pressure to your knees. So there are two things I need to work on.

I am going to do some runs and I am getting ready. I know I will have more time now that my daughter is going to pre-k. I will just send her to school and excercise my butt off....Hopefully literally. I am not waiting for that, but I am trying to look forward to that kind of stuff and not think about my baby being big enough to go to school....she even wants to ride the bus. Mom might not be ready for that.

The near future also holds a surgery for me, another on my long road of infertility issues that will hopefully have a successful resolution. I have known spiritually that I have needed surgery for a month or so, but getting doctors and that kind of stuff to agree is another issue altogether. The surgery is the only way to figure out if I have endemitriosis. It is also a way to treat it, just a temporary solution to something I will probably battle the rest of my life. However, I feel like I am doing what Heavenly Father wants me to do and nothing brings me greater joy than knowing that.

Celia's second set of tubes and third surgery

2009-02-22T21:03:00.000-08:00

My little sweetheart and me waiting for surgery to begin. Since this is my third time with it all and I knew it would be a very short surgery it wasn't too bad. John was unable to be there because of course he is still in training with the army. Luckily my dad was working close by there and was able to be there.

Celia absolutely loves her grandpa. She misses him sometimes and wants to call him or see him. She was so happy he was there.

After surgery is a lot less happy, but she did pretty good and was just hungry because it was lunch time and she didn't even have breakfast. So after she got some liquids in and got ready to go we went to lunch and I even let her stay in her pajamas and pick out where she wanted to go. She wanted to go to Sweet Tomatoes because she likes the ice cream. She goes with her grandparents sometimes when we meet them at the temple after they work so we can go and they take Celia with them.
Not too long after getting home she is fine and just playing away drawing with some chalk. No long recovery here. Plus I finally don't have to have the volume so high on everything that I feel deaf. Course now my allergies are acting up and I have fluid in my ears and want to turn up the volume. At any rate, I am glad we did it and that she can hear again. I can hardly imagine what her PreK teachers would have said come July 30th. Yep that is one of the other things we did this month. Register her for PreK for next year.

It has been a busy month. Our car died, then we borrowed 2 different cars from a friend (funny story). Then finally our car is alive and well and my husband is the hero of the moment. It has been an adventure and I am just glad that we are getting through it all.

Lena's Blessing Day

2009-01-28T20:11:00.000-08:00

I was unable to take Lena's pictures until a little later, unfortunately she was cranky and her outfit was soiled. So this is what happens.

I really wanted to take a picture of the shoes. They are shoes that our grandmother made and all four girls in my family wore them to their blessings...course we were all summer babies.

Here is Erin loving the car. She really enjoyed playing in the big car.

I love random silly pictures...so here is Izzy or Isabelle picking her nose.

This is Heath's sunday outfit. So fun, I just had to take a picture...ok so I took a few.

Kyla, Celia, and Rebecka played dress up. They are so beautiful. Celia loves playing with her cousins and is always so excited to see them.

New Year's Day

2009-01-28T19:58:00.001-08:00

New Year's eve we spent the night at my parents house. The next day we went to a new local park. It was lots of fun. Mom climbed the rock and was so proud of herself. She did awesome.

John spun himself so dizzy and then ended up on his back, but was hilarious to watch.

Erin was as cute as ever.

They also played a little teeter totter. Sometimes it is so nice to just play and be a kid and have fun. John is pretty good at that, one of the reasons I love him. He has always made me laugh, even the way he says things is so creative and fun.

Christmas

2009-01-28T19:34:00.000-08:00

We started our celebrations Christmas Eve by doing our annual building of the gingerbread house, which over the years has gotten better and better and it took less time than other years.
Then we followed with the annual tradition of opening up a present - yep pjs every year. Celia really liked hers.
Christmas morning, this is what Celia woke up to and she really enjoyed herself. She had a much better response than on her birthday which made me very happy. We all had a fun time. John was very happy and excited about his car parts. I will have to do a post sometime about Stinky - John's project car.

This rather ugly looking thing was our dog's, Maze, christmas present. It had a picture of a rot on the tag and it said it was a toughness of 9. This is what it looked like less than an hour after we gave it to our dog. He is a very strong chewer. It didn't even last a day.

Lena, the newest Duggan on Christmas.

Celia looking oh so cute with her flower she picked. I decided to use the opportunity as a photo shoot.

The last few years Jared and Alicia have sent all the nieces and nephews $20 for Christmas. This is what Celia got with her money this year. She loved everything she got and gave the rest to one of those donation bins in the store. She liked to watch the money go in.

Georgia Aquarium and Centenniel Park

2009-01-28T19:21:00.000-08:00

Here is the crew minus me that went to the aquarium. It was loads of fun. A lot of work, but a lot of fun. We went when they had a sale of $20 per adult if they went with a child. A mother's day out promotion. It was a great day. Celia is on Kevin's head, Daniel is in his lap and Kyla is in Rachel's lap. LaFae let us borrow Kyla for the day to take advantage of the deal.

Kyla was so cute all day and really enjoyed herself and all the attention.
She even loved the aquarium mascot.

After the aquarium we went across the street to the park and it was not too long after that Celia tripped and landed on some stairs to the play equipment. This is the end result of that day's clumsyness. It went away and she no longer has that lump. Fun times fun times.

This slide was the hit of the park and they really enjoyed going down it. It really is quite fun, it feels like a little butt massage as you go down.

Babies.....

2009-01-10T07:45:00.000-08:00

Celia has really been interested in babies lately. Maybe because we know about a billion pregnant ladies or ladies who just had babies. Well just before my niece was born Celia started talking to me about wanting to hold babies. So in order to prepare for this, I have been having her practice with her dolls. Well the practice paid off because she did and excellent job holding the Peterson baby. She was so happy I thought her smile would never end.

Celia is 4!

2009-01-10T07:20:00.000-08:00

I can't believe Celia is 4. To celebrate we had the family over for a party and a couple really close friends. Which was quite a number of people in our little humble abode. We had fun, though.

Aiden is the one posing in this picture as Celia opens her present and her friend Destiny looks on. Celia loved all her presents and it has amazed me how much she is playing with all of them. She has especially liked to dress up lately. This was a dress up party in case you are wondering why some people are dressed up.

Rebecka decided to help Celia open her presents. Celia really enjoyed doing this...I will have to figure out how to download video and put the clip of that morning on. She did not have a great response to the presents mom and dad gave her.

We tried to take a few group shots of the kids...yep our dog Maze decided to join with the kids....

Aren't these two girls beautiful....Amy and Christina Humphrey. Hard to believe I have a niece in college.

Heath and LaFae Duggan....aren't they cute... bet you never would guess she has a 1 month old baby.

We decorated cookies and they really enjoyed that. Destiny and Celia look so good in their princess dresses.

Kyla Duggan and Daniel Embry. They are only a month different in age....Too cute. I am lucky enough to watch this cute funny little man during the week.

Tabitha is getting so grown up....this year she goes to young womens. She is beautiful.

Emily Humphrey and Charity Campbell met that day, but quickly became friends. Their birthdays are about a month apart and they really enjoyed hanging out together. The cookies were a hit.

My sister Rachel makes beautiful cakes and she really does have fun doing it. The kids got to this beautiful barbie cake and the icing rather quickly. Rachel has made this cake 2 times in a row for Celia. I said we could do something else, but Celia insisted upon a barbie cake...

Elvira

2009-01-09T19:40:00.000-08:00

So here is the story.... Kevin thinks Celia's middle name should be changed to Elvira. I kind of see his point ("I want to love them and squeeze them and hug them forever"). January 2nd my husband decided to buy Celia some fish to fill this glass bowl we had. He brought them to her just before bed time and she only got to see them, name them (Frankie and Eleanor) and wish them good night. While John and I slept the next morning Celia decided to play with her fish. I woke up to a drenched thermometer, water on the table and Celia talking about holding her fish. Needless to say that her fish did not even last til the afternoon. Just FYI in case you have never owned any fish, they don't necessarily float to the top when dead....So here are some pict of the whole event. Oh and yes we got her new fish (Charlie and Lola) and they have almost made it a week. She has learned her lesson....

She had no problems taking her fish out and it only took a little talking to her to get her to say goodbye and put them in the toilet. Poor Eleanor and Frankie such a short traumatic life at our house.

Charlie and Lola....hopefully they will have a better life.

It appears our cat Sophie is also a big fan of the fish....the bowl is already dirty because they really require such a little amount of food and we are still trying to get that right.

Thanksgiving Day Half Marathon

2009-01-09T08:29:00.000-08:00

On Thanksgiving morning I did my 3rd Half Marathon and finally got the time I wanted. I was also so happy to do it with my husband and a couple of guys he knows from the army. John did awesome and placed 80 out of 509 for his division. He finished in 1 hour 43 minutes and 43 seconds. (7:55 minute miles).

There were 8,697 people who did the race that day. They corralled us and I think most of us felt like livestock waiting for the race to begin. Cold livestock as the temperature was a little cold 30s. John placed 957 out of the whole group and I placed 2,759. I placed 148 out of 777 for my division.

I finished the race in 1 hour 56 minutes and 50 seconds (8:55 minute miles). Just so you can know how I have improved over the years....the first time I did it in 2005 I finished in 2 hours 4 minutes and 9 seconds (9:43 minute miles)...the second time I did the half marathon in 2007 (with LaFae and Amy) I finished in 2 hours 2 minutes and 22 seconds (9:28 minute miles). All the physical therapy has appeared to help because although I was sore, my hips did not hurt and I was able to walk away without feeling every step in my hips. Now I move on to the goal of doing another half and a full this year. Now that I know I can do it without killing my hips and being able to walk, besides I want some runner legs.

FERT....

2009-01-08T18:27:00.000-08:00

I don't have pictures this time, but feel a need to write some thoughts down. I have been married 8 years now. Less than 2 of which we have done anything to prevent pregnancy. I have one beautiful, fun, sassy girl of which I am eternally grateful. However, I have always wanted 7 children just like my family and my husbands and both sets of grandparents. I figured it was my lucky number. After a year and a half of trying the first time, I went to the doctor. I went through a very not fun round of tests only to hear that we were both picture perfect. They gave me some clomid to help the process along and that was that. Until I had a kidney stone two months later and stopped taking the medicine. All the testing for the kidney stone stuff revealed I had a cyst. Which I now took care of itself. I finally got pregnant with Celia more than 2 years after I started trying. I was so afraid that it was going to end in a miscarriage that I really tried to tell as little people as possible for a while. Luckily, nothing went wrong. Then after Celia was born, I was slightly tramatized by delivery and wanted to do a half marathon. So we waited and prevented for a little less than a year. I just knew it wouldn't take as long the second time around. I even felt like I was pregnant once.... but no, it has now been more than 3 years. After a year and a half again I went through all the testing. This time going to a fertility specialist. Still nothing showed up as wrong. They once again gave me medicine and all that has come from that is a very cranky Jenny that can't even stand to be around herself.

I can't even begin to tell you how many people have said it will happen when it happens and it is all about the Lord's timing. I know these little tidbits of facts, but they just don't help to ease the pain of never being able to get what you want and having no control over it. I am so happy for all those wonderful ladies that surround me that are blessed with babies, but it is also so challenging to be around that. Most people are working on their 3rd or 4th....

Anyways, after years of this I finally have felt like I have some answer this year. I have read a book Taking Charge of your Fertility. Through following the lovely taking my temp every morning and everything else I found some answer. I have cysts and not every month do I ovulate. I never expected to have a doctor confirm this, but this last month I had an ultrasound done and it was finally comfirmed. I have cysts on both my ovaries...the plan of action is to wait 6 weeks and see if they go away on their own. I have no idea after that. Does finding an answer help? I don't know yet. I am still waiting to find that out.

I am grateful for this experience because of how much I can understand others that have gone through something similar. I know that I will someday open my house to anyone who needs a home, whether it be adoption, fostering, or just taking anyone who needs someone to love them. I wish I was able to afford that or had a more stable home to be able to do this, but I know now is not the right time. So to all my friends who have/are going through this. I feel your pain and love you and know that in the end it will make us stronger....or at least hope.

October's Many Events

2009-01-05T19:17:00.000-08:00

Ok, I am having a heck of a time trying to move these pictures around the way I would like, so I will just make do with the way they are.

This is LaFae's shower toward the end of October, only weeks before she delivered. Mom and Fae look awesome and it was a really nice time with the girls.

I love this picture of Amy tasting the goods to really know what kind of candy bar is that poop lookin stuff.

Every year we go up to north georgia and go to Burts Pumpkin patch and Amicolola falls. I probably spelled it wrong, but oh well. At any rate it is a tradition that we love and these are just some cute photos that happened from it. This year our friends the Campbells went with us, but somehow I didn't get pictures of them...better luck next year.

I loved this one (above) so much that we used it as our Christmas letter picture. Thanks Campbells for taking it.

The annual carving of the pumpkin. It came out pretty cute.

Sorry forgot to flip this first. Anyways, Celia in her Pocohontas costume. She threw the biggest fit before and after the picture. She said pocohontas does not wear her hair in braids and does not have a thing on her head. Course Disney's version does not so I let her get rid of it after the pictures were over.

This is Celia and Daniel, they always amaze me with what they think up and how much trouble they can get into.

Celia just finished proving that she knows all her uppercase and lowercase letters by sight. Now she is ready to read some easy books... She has since learned how to read 3 Bob books. She is way smart....now if she just knew her numbers by sight.

I love this picture. We went to a farm and rode a hay ride and had fun with the ward play group. Here she is playing with corn and a tractor.

This is the group at my parents house on Halloween night. Don't they look great. I wanted to include a lot more individual shots, but there would have ended up being a ton of pictures, so this one will have to do. We had fun trick or treating as a family, though.

Quilt and Celia

2008-11-02T18:43:00.000-08:00

The above pictures are of the quilt that I was involved in helping make. According to my friend, I did 75% of it. Anyways, it was a ward service project to make the quilt and donate it to charity. It will go to a needy family. It was very frustrating for me and it was a lot of work. According to my sister Rachel the quilter, it was a 6 month project that I did in a little over 2 months or so...I am so glad it is done though.

To the side - this is Celia she has been really into drawing lately. Mostly on paper, but one day she drew on her legs. I washed most of it off, but she really did not want me to take the picture of Tigger off. It was gone by bath time, but at least I have a picture of it. Kids are so fun and silly.

Learning every day

2008-10-30T13:53:00.000-07:00

Yeah for me I finally figured out how to get John's digital camera pictures onto the computer...I do not have a hookup from his camera to the computer. So now I can add some of those pictures onto this lovely blog. I will not add all 100 + pictures, but maybe juat a few of my favorites. If you want to see them all I have uploaded a lot to my facebook page and I can send you the link. I will post them in order from the most recent pictures back...

Six Flags

Here Celia is riding on the Thomas the Tank train engine. They let us take this picture here. She loved the little Thomas play area with slides and stuff. I hate that she is so grown up that she doesn't need help with anything like that anymore. We were able to get into the park for free, awesome, it was military appreciation day for the army.

This totally cracked me up. I had showed her the park map and information on-line the night before. She was so excited to meet Bugs Bunny - she actually watches a little Bugs on occasion. Unfortunately he was sick so they couldn't do the preformance. They did a little meet and greet and Celia had talked about getting her picture taken with them. She went so shy when she saw the characters that this is the closest she came. She kept wanting to see them though.

I was so impressed with how many rides Celia was actually able to go on. None of the big ones, but she was still able to go on a kids roller coaster and some kids rides. Probably the funniest was the water fall one where you go down. She was fine until the water hit us....Then she screamed and cried and was so mad at us for taking her on it. I really did warn her she would get wet...I guess it was just too much for her. She dried off quick and was fine, but it was funny.

After 5 or 6 pictures, I finally got a good one. The first he closed his eyes, second made a weird face, and the rest he kept purposefully closing his eyes. I don't know why he would do that, he has gorgeous eyes.

I finally decided that I should probably get my picture taken as well. Maybe next time I won't bend my neck all wierd. I am always the one taking the pictures, never in them. In fact, these are all digital pictures from John's camera. He has taken less than 20 himself. Chris keeps telling him to take pictures, I even begged him to take a picture of some stuff on base in San Antonio. He forgot....

I love this picture. John took it and you can just tell that she was having a fun day.

New Beehive Spend the Night

These are my beehives (the girls I teach and stuff at church). Michaela Buckner, Kyra Taylor, Sarah Embry, Brooke Mosby and the newest edition Tara Nye. We decided to have a spend the night to welcome Tara into Young Womens and beehives. They wanted to go to Waffle House and Walmart. So here they are at Waffle house listening to the music they picked out on the juke box.

You may think that Brooke is giving a disgusted look. Ok you'd be right. Brooke had made a mixture of stuff from the table, ketchup, syrup, pepper, etc. Tara decided to give it a try. Brooke was obviously shocked and yeah disgusted.

This was a radom picture that ended up being totally awesome with Sarah making a wretching face that looks like a ducks bill. She felt ill.....Little did they know I was slightly ill myself having found a hair at the bottom of my food.....

Sarah and Michaela are good friends. Here they are at Walmart trying on boots, I must also note this is their before picture. Everyone had wanted to wear pajamas to Walmart, but Sarah forgot hers.

Here they are with their newly acquired matching pajamas.....They cracked me up. The whole outfit was less than $10....

They love trying on silly clothes at Walmart. Brooke is in the tamer outfit of a mumu type night dress. She doesn't love it and neither did I, but it was fun to try.

Kyra and Tara try on some costumes since we went at the beginning of October.

Fishing at the Jones'

One of the many things that we did this year was take a little fishing trip to a family in the wards house. They have a lot of acreage and a pond. John is holding up the fish he caught...

John helping Celia fish.

This is from the beginning of the year, but I had to throw it in there. Celia was digging the georgia red clay and throwing the dirt over her head. I don't know if you can tell, but yes that is dirt all over and in her hair.

This is the silly face that Celia learned and has loved this year.

She loves putting on shiny gloss and will just keep doing it for quite some time if you let her. I even caught her adding watcr to the gloss when it ran out.

This is at the entrance to SeaWorld in San Antonio. We went to visit John for Spring Break _ an interesting trip filled with a flu bug and a 13+ hour drive in the car. Anyways, SeaWorld also does military appreciation stuff and lets you get into a park once a year if you are in the military. So yeah, we got in for free here too....Course as John puts it he does put his life on the line to have this privelege.

I love this picture from seaworld. I have no idea why that turtle is on his head, but it strikes me as very funny.

The only pictures John took at any of his Army Stuff were in San Antonio. These are a few. The one above and below is of his good friend Victor Armenta. They have good times together.

Yes I know this is disgusting, this is the kind of practical exam stuff John had to go through in San Antonio when he was doing the Army Medic school. That is a pre-requiste for the LPN type nursing school that he is currently involved in at Fort Gordon. It has been well over a year since he left for boot camp and there is not immediate end in sight.

Stuff

2008-10-23T19:13:00.000-07:00

I will soon be posting new pictures... i would have already if I could get my husbands digital camera and the computer to peacefully coexist. Until I can figure that out or pick up some film from Sam's there are no new pictures. I just felt like posting a note to say that training for the half- marathon this time (3rd time) is a lot more challenging. I recently have been going to physical therapy to correct a lifelong pigeon toed leg problem (my feet turn in from my hips on). It has been a painful process to try to correct this problem. Now I no longer have pain in my hips when I run, but my legs hurt. Yes I know that is the way it is supposed to be, but it never was for me. I am also having to change the way I run, make it quieter and make sure my arms are at my sides and don't cross my body. I have to do all kinds of stretches and stuff. Fortunately, the physical therapist told me that I should be able to get greater definition in my legs because I am now using those muscles. We shall see how that goes. All I know is that I ran 8 1/2 minute miles on my 9 mile run on Saturday (a very hill run I might add) and it felt great. Ok, I was sore, but it was awesome to realize I could do that. I really feel like it is such a good experience to do long distance runs. My body does not tell me when to quit, of course if I broke something or it was excrutiating I would have to stop. But a little soreness and aches they aren't going to hold me down.
I have had a lot of help as usual in this training process. My friends and parents have watched Celia so that I can go on the long distance runs and occasionally the short ones as well. My normal routine usually has me running with the stroller in front and the dog attached running by my side. I should have someone take a picture of us like that so y'all can see my normal routine. I feel like an iron woman sometimes - course that's after I finish.
I must say that I was very hesitant to do this half-marathon. I just wanted to be pregnant. Well I decided that I can not change what happens in that area. Only Heavenly Father can help that and He has said that my kid(s) are busy right now doing their stuff. So I have to let go, a constant theme in my life. It really helps to have a goal of something else that you can focus on and running really does make me happy when I am done. It feels so good to get out there and use that wonderful body that Heavenly Father gave you.
I also wanted to add that I love my beautiful little girl and she really does bring peace to my life having her beautiful, energetic, love around. I have a blessed life.

Win a free handbag

2008-10-05T20:38:00.001-07:00

Hey....If you post to your blog page you get extra chances to win...

So here is a new website that is giving away a new handbag everyhour on the day that they open, October 15 ....Hopefully one of us will win. www.handbagplanet.com

September Family Fun....

2008-09-17T12:54:00.000-07:00

Does anyone know how to rotate pictures that are put on through cd.....if so let me know cuz this is driving me nuts?

Celia loves the computer. She plays games at Mickey mouse clubhouse and also has some educational games she plays that she loves. This is at grandma and grandpa's house, aren't the glasses - not hers- cute.

Celia being her usual daredevil self and climbing around at the park.

Celia and Daniel swinging at the park. Daniel loves the swings.

Isaac Riddling, he loves the sunnyd drinks.

Grandma making Izzy laugh while Ben holds her.

Amy wearing her hellofacatch shirt holding Izzy. They just got back from swimming.

Rachel and Kevin Crawford, I hardly have any pictures of them and so this was a nice moment to get one.

Erin Drummond looking so cute as usual.

Erin and mommy playing at the park...

I love how much Greg is smiling in this picture. Greg and mom were swinging side by side. Mom jumped off and somehow landed on her back. Greg didn't want to jump from the heighth he was getting to and so he slowed it down to a better one and jumped.

Crazy busy Month

2008-09-14T19:51:00.000-07:00

Ok so this is a mass posting, just be grateful I took the 3 rolls of film and condensed them to one. I have had a crazy busy month and it is not quite over yet. I have been working on a service project quilt for the ward and it should have been started months ago. Unfortunately, this quilt followed the anything that can go wrong will go wrong motto and has been quite the trouble. I try not to feel too bad because my quilt expert sister, Rachel, assured me this was a 6 month project that I have done in about 6 weeks or less (I have had some help from a few of the ladies in my ward, as it was a ward project). At any rate between that and taking care of the kids and house and everything else I am spent. Can I get a vacation from life....no not really because vacations are a lot of work in and of themselves. Life is crazy and I am ever so grateful that I have my husband home every weekend, but just wish I was a little more caught up on the housework from the quilt project. That is the goal this week, right after I finish the quilt.

Ashley's Wedding

Ashley Galbreath became Ashley Guptil at the end of August and she is the first of 4 young women in our ward that will be getting married in the next few months. It makes me feel really old to be a young womens leader to someone who is now married, but that is the way it goes.
Ashley married Doug at the Charleston, South Carolina temple. It was beautiful and I loved being able to attend the wedding.

Ashley's dress is so pretty and it was cool because the bottom is part is removable so it becomes a party dress.

Celia was able to come and have some fun outside the temple with Ashley's sisters Macey and Katie. Luckily, there were plenty of my young women age girls out there to help watch.

Here are some of my girls Meghan Galbreath, Madison Buckner, Ashley Guptil now, and Kayla Mahedy who will also soon be married.

Ashley and her mom C'less. Both awesome women.

Michaela Buckner, Ashley, and Madison Buckner. Michaela is one of my current Beehives, but I have been in all of their leaders at one time or another. Aren't they beautiful.

The Buckner clan - Most of these crazy fun people are in my ward and I love them all.

Pictures at Home

Here is my crazy part time son Daniel Embry - he has recently decided that he is definately two and needs to act the part. He gets into everything. Pens, pencils, walls, furniture nothing is safe. The other day I tried to put him down for a nap, which I think he no longer will take, he took off his diaper and poop was everywhere when I came in. He definately is keeping me on my toes. Don't let this cute face fool you.

I must admit that he is also so funny and will throw himself on the ground to get you to laugh. He dances, sings, and even plays mock guitar. Celia and him act like siblings and love and hate each other depending on the moment.

Celia playing peek -a -boo under the toddler bed. I was just amazed she could fit under the bed.

Celia loves to wear pajamas and most days it is hard to get her out of them. If she had the choice she would wear pajamas everyday. She also loves her blanket and has started calling it a her and will not sleep without it. I love the fact that she is totally getting into imaginative play and will act out things with her dolls. She is with my old snow leopard stuffed animal from when I was younger.....ok well it is what I have slept with most of my life.

Ward Activity at the Jones'

The ward activity was fun. I was able to hit a volleyball, eat an apple off a tree, go swimming in cold water, and have very good food that I spilled all over the place in yet another one of my clutzy moments. They also had softball games going and games for the kids....I also ran into some poison ivy and am definately allergic. It takes forever for that stuff to go away....

This is my good friend Tiffany Harper. She is 6 months pregnant with her little girl, Lilly. I am so excited to meet this little girl and hope that she has brown hair - that is what Ryan, the dad, has requested. Either way she will be so cute.

This is one of my beehives Michaela Buckner playing with Celia in the pool. The water was so cold I don't know how they even could stay in the water.

Another one of my beehives Sarah Embry being thrown into the water by her brother Steven. Families are so fun that way.....

Celia eating one of the apples from the Jones' apple trees. It was awesome. Nothing better than picking an apple right of the tree and eating it. Course I love apples.

Celia and some friends went and checked out some cows and were on the fence while viewing them.

This is Alfredo Taylor he is 4, just a little older than Celia.

This is Theresa Taylor, I believe, I am sorry but there are 7 Taylor kids and I don't know them all by heart yet.
This is Gabriella Taylor,....again I am not 100% positive on this, but pretty sure. I think she is beautiful though.

July Pictures

2008-08-16T06:46:00.000-07:00

In July I was able to go with some of the youth from my church, I work with the girls 12 - 18, to Ana Ruby falls on a hike. It was part of their youth conference and the part I most wanted to attend. So we hiked 5 or so miles to the falls and I enjoyed it all.
Here is Rene and Paige at the first break we had.

Here are some of the boys Steven Embry, Brett Galbreath, Dean Mahedy, and Ally Chambers.
Joey K is hiding

Tara Polston, Ally Chambers, and Rene K taking a break. Aren't the girls beautiful when they glisten.

Madison Buckner, she made friends with a group of guys and was one of the lead group. Toward the end, they just ran to the falls.

Tara Polston is particularly pretty in this picture and to think she woke up and took a shower and did her hair to go on this hike..

Ally Chambers, too cute.

This is my totally cute and adorable niece Erin Drummond. Greg and Cindy sure do know how to make them.

My part time son Daniel Embry when the girls and him decided to have a hat day.

Celia and her good friend Destiny wearing their hats on hat day. It is always too fun to have her over. Sometimes they play well and sometimes not, but it is fun when they do.

Damon, Victor, and Skyler Armenta on July 4th in Augusta. They had free rides for the kids and we had fun despite the oppressing heat.

John and Celia on one of the rides.

Dallys and Damon on another ride.

June/July 2008

2008-08-11T19:43:00.000-07:00

I am a little behind in picking my pictures up and dropping them off and stuff....so this is a picture from Kyla's 2nd birthday party. Celia is wearing Adam's robin costume and looking good.

I really wish I could remember why she was doing this, but it sure is cute.

This is grandpa Autry, he loved playing with Celia almost as much as she loved playing with him. We went over there for dinner and fun at the end of June. Jean cooked us a nice meal and James entertained us.

Celia was so funny at her grandparents house. She loved playing in the sand they had in the back yard, but she hated to feel the sand on her feet. So John decided to make her get in the sand..she didn't.

Friends of the family. John met the Armenta family through his military experience. The dad, Victor, went through combat medic training with John and now they are still in training together. The wife, Dallys, has been lucky enough to follow her husband with her two kids. These are their boys Damon and Skyler. We went over for dinner one Sunday.

Here is Damon on the 4th of July sliding down one of the blow up slides at a festival in Augusta. We were lucky enough to stay with the Armenta family 4th of July weekend in Augusta.

Celia decided after waiting in line and climbing to the top, that she did not want to slide down the side...whatever.

Celia and Damon holding hands.

Celia and Grandpa Autry....

John, Jean, Celia, and James Autry. It is always so nice to be able to get together.

Kyla's 2nd birthday party

2008-08-05T11:19:00.000-07:00

Kyla is so funny, she is little, but she is no pushover and she has a good strong personality. It will be interesting to see what kind of an older sister she will be.

Kyla blowing out her candles, it took so much air. Nah, Tabby is the cute one looking over her in pink.

Klya even got to help make her cake.

Rebecka Duggan on their trampoline, she is too funny.

Rebecka was loving having her picture taken that day. This is Rebecka and Kyla's room.

Celia looked so cute in the Duggan's cinderella dress up clothes. She loves to play dress up whenever she goes to their house.

Kyla loved her cake so much she had to save some of the frosting for later.

Isaac and Adam are great friends. They love playing superheros together and can often be found in some sort of costume that goes along with their superhero play.
Issy absolutely loved the cake as you can tell.
Isabelle like the cake so much she decided mom should have some as well, too bad she missed the mouth and got the nose.

Everybody loves cake. After the cake was over, Amy wondered how she got to be so lucky and have the cake girls sit on her lap. They all got cleaned up though and it was just a fun night. It is always good to spend time with family.

Celia Antics

2008-07-27T20:06:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I had to post these older pictures from the begining of the year....This is Maze our lovely and sweet dog...Celia decided to do his makeup. Can I just tell you, I bathed him twice and then had to use makeup remover and he was still pink for a while...

This is what she looked like because she decided to do her own makeup. I got the lipstick at a shower party years ago and thought it was more of a gloss type deal so I agreed to let her play with it.....Big mistake

This is my little helper in the kitchen who is a big fan of the batter. She would much rather eat that then the whatever we are making. Man do I love her though.

She certainly keeps me on my feet. Last week she lost her 2nd big toe in her young life and for some reason had more than 4 or 5 scratches all over her body. I know for a fact 2 of them were from falling onto books, you know those dangerous objects. Ah well, both her parents are slightly clutsy, so that is the way it goes for her.

Fun Pictures

2008-07-20T19:41:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I take a lot of pictures (at least when I have a working camera) So this is my little sweetheart after getting herself dressed. Everything ended up backwards, I thought it was so cute so I took a picture before she fixed it.

Most of these pictures are at family events - birthday parties for the kids - It is a great chance to get together with the family. Even though a lot of us live in the same state, we are still far enough away that regular visits are hard. So thank goodness for the holidays that get us together. Course we are both from 7 and that means plenty of birthdays.

This is Sydney Stover isn't she cute, she's a niece from John's side

Cute Emily Humphrey - also a niece from John's side

I love this picture of Celia. It almost captures the sassyface little girl she is, part cute, part wild child.

John at Jacobs 2nd birthday party protecting Celia

Count how many wet balls are going at John at once, he had so much fun playing with the kids.

Christina Humphrey - niece on John's side - Still don't know if I love her hair, but I am boring plain Jane kind of girl.

Micah, grilling up some burgers

Aiden with his mega stash of balls.

The cute little girl above is Isabelle Riddling. My niece who is 1 and well is just cute.

Celia having a rare moment and taking a nap on the couch. It almost never happens, a nap that is. Daniel (the "little Man" I've been watching for two years) asleep on the couch.

I swear this is an absolute miracle, them both asleep at the same time. Daniel Embry has reached the stage where you have to trick him into sleeping and Celia almost never takes naps. I just need a moment....

Kyla Duggan with a lollipop in her mouth. I kept asking her to smile and this is the best she could give me. Pretty cute though, huh

Celia is the cutest little spitfire ever. Ok so maybe I am a little biased, but she's my only kid it's allowed.

Just a beginning

2008-07-07T19:50:00.000-07:00

Ok, so here I go joining the band wagon and starting a post. I can't promise I will be good and do regular posts, but I surely love reading other people's posts. Mostly I am sure I will do pictures since I love taking pictures. So I will start with that and throw in some random comments here and again. Right now my husband and I live in two locations...only 2 hours apart, yeah. That may seem weird, but since he's been in Texas and me in Georgia since the end of last year, it is a great improvement. I will get to see him on the weekends and I get to talk to him and I could drive to see him. John is training with the Army at Fort Gordon in Augusta and is working in the M6 program which is fairly similar to an LPN program. He joined the army just last August, but in some ways it feels forever ago. I absolutely love my husband and hate being seperated. I could have joined him in Texas, but every time I prayed about it, it didn't feel right. I have learned over the years to trust in the Lord and do what he says. So once again I tried to see if I could move to Augusta and it wasn't right. We are both were we are supposed to be and I just need to make sure that we are doing what we are supposed to do. I know if we do that we will be all right in the end. The strength will be there and we can handle what is needed. I really do wish I was perfect and that I always said and did what was right.....I bet it would be great to be just like that, just like Jesus....no guilt, but no to be human and have that experience of flaws and stuff is what is needed...I'll have to work on it, that way I would never get bitter at being apart from my husband or cleaning up after the animals or any other reason....anywooooo...tmi