Ho hum (October week 4)

Just kidding actually. Life has STILL been crazy, but not in wonderful ways. Jeremy studied like crazy most of last week, and took his first final on Friday. Then Friday evening I got sick with a really yucky cold. By Saturday evening Jeremy was either coming down with that or something else. Whatever it was knocked him out for the day, and we were so grateful he felt well enough to go and take his second final on Monday. At this point he only has two finals left, but he also has no voice! We're both feeling better, though Jeremy's still feeling pretty icky some parts of each day, and, as I said, he can barely whisper. Jaina is teething (again... she already has 6 teeth!) and a little crabby, and Reilly seems to be doing just fine. We are making it, though, and very excited to get these finals over and have our break!
And I am very excited because Friday evening two of my best friends, Karen and Naomi, are flying me out to California to play with them. It will just be a few days (I'll come back Tuesday, but Karen has to back in Seattle before then) but it will be so nice to see them and just have some girl time. I'm trying to imagine what it will feel like to not be "Mommy" for a few days. I'm sure I'll miss the cute little munchkins, and Jeremy too, but it will be a much-needed break, and I can't wait! It was actually Jeremy's idea, several months ago, and really appreciate him being willing to watch the kids by himself during his break for 4 1/2 days! :) Here is a picture from the last time I visited them in California, in November of 05. The two time after that they have visited me, because I was was pregnant both times! (and not much fun...)
Jeremy and I are hoping to have a day/night on our own in Chicago during the last half of the break, if everything works out. We haven't been without kids overnight since Reilly was 8 months old! Wish us luck...

I guess I should do a little update on our cute Jaina, since she's growing up so fast.
She's finally army crawling and cruising along the furniture, both as of this week. She's not too talented at either yet, but she's sure proud of herself!
She's getting so big, but I still can't believe she'll be a year by Christmas time... It's just crazy!
This last picture is for you, Sophie. :)

Random aside: The new Twilight trailer is really cool and got me more excited about the movie than the other ones have... if you haven't seen it, check it out here: http://www.twilightthemovie.com/ecard_widget/. I'm sure there are better places, but I don't know where they are. :)

One last thing. If you're bored (or being a slacker, like me,) you should check out http://www.taaz.com/, where you can play with all sorts of fun hair styles on your own picture. Here are few of the fun ones I created... though I'm not planning to do anything different to my hair right now but hopefully get it cut again... Now I want to see your pictures!

Busy October - Week 3 - Palmer Halloween

So Palmer has a big trick-or-treat party for all the little kids (and their parents) where we go trick-or-treating all over the office buildings, library, clinic, etc. It was a lot more fun this year than last, because Reilly got it, and enjoyed it (mostly, he was in a BAD mood yesterday afternoon - I don't think he's been feeling well the last few days...). I wasn't 8 months pregnant and too tired to do all the stairs, as well, so I got to go too this year. Jaina was a cow, and Reilly was a farmer. He wasn't too impressed with his hat, and I had to bribe him to keep it on for a few key parts (some pictures, the judging, etc.) He didn't like his boots at first either, but once he got the hang of them, he was walking just fine again. Here are a few pictures from the festivities yesterday! In the first one, Jaina is getting into the Halloween spirit early in the day... The rest are at the party!

Here is our cute little pair that actually won a prize! (gift cards to Toys 'R Us - yay!) They won "cutest" in the duo category.

Our Busy October: Week 2 - Emily's Wedding!

Less than 4 days after Jeremy got home, Jaina and I traveled to Arizona for my little sister's wedding. Jaina was amazing on both flights, and we got into Phoenix about 2 hours before Emily went through the temple for her endowment. I think she slept maybe 2 hours total all day (compared to the 4 she usually gets) and then she managed to stay up until 10:30 Arizona time (12:30 our time) and go out to Olive Garden with my family (minus Jeremy and Reilly :( ) after we got out of the temple. She was a little loopy, but a real trooper. Of course she still woke up on Iowa time each day...


The wedding was great and Emily looked so beautiful! Everything went smoothly and Jaina was a sweetheart. Jaina was a huge fan of the luncheon afterwards. This pic is of Jason and Emily at the luncheon (leaving) and is a little out of focus, but cute...
We traveled home to Pima that night (almost 3 hours away) and had the reception the next evening.
While decorating for the reception I got to see 3 of my very best friends (from high school) all in the same room at the same time! It was awesome. We think the last time we were all together at the same time might very well have been MY wedding! (L-R: Jennifer, me, Athena, and Heather!)
The reception turned out really well, and I was so glad I got to be there for everything. We (Jeremy's wonderful parents, Jaina, and I) had to get up about 4:30 the next morning in order to make our 10 o'clock flight in Phoenix, and we got home about 6 local time. It was a whirlwind trip, and not the easiest with a baby, but she was pretty awesome for a 10-month old. She enjoyed seeing all our family, including her baby cousin, Chloe, and we had a great time. She also started working a little more on her army crawling, and it's happening more and more now.


Yes, it's a good thing I wasn't the photographer. Our camera is starting to hiccup after almost 4 years, and this is the best picture of my family I got...

Reilly and Jeremy were hardly home while we were gone. Our great friends, the Noordas and the Turners, both watched him for a day each while Jeremy was in school, and then Reilly and Jeremy went to the temple Saturday with the Noordas and their friends. We were excited to get all back together and start another busy week - the last few days of school and the start of finals!

I couldn't at all decide which pictures to post... I uploade a bunch to Facebook (for our families) - Here is the link!
Hopefully it works for everyone...

Our Busy October: Week 1 - SF

October has got to be the craziest month of this year! We'll let you know all about it... (cause we know you're all dying to hear about every minute! ;-) Jeremy spent the first 5 days of October in San Francisco at a NUCCA conference in San Francisco. He went with Brent Noorda, and they had a blast! Well, they spent much of it in class, but since NUCCA is sort of their hobby as well as their eventual profession, I'm pretty sure they enjoyed that part almost as much as the sight-seeing. :)
To see more pictures, see the Noorda's blog about it, here.





We spent most of the time he was gone just hanging out in the house, going for a few (cold) walks with our new jogging stroller, and watching conference. :) Brent and Jeremy walked about 3 miles to the closest chapel to attend the priesthood session, but otherwise I think they're probably both playing catch-up, General Conference-wise.

A few tags...4 Fun (ha ha.)

The rules:

Go to your picture files.

Pick the 4th file, and the 4th picture in it.

Tell a little about the picture.

Tag 4 friends.

Wow, I got lucky, and this picture actually has a story. (Taken with Jeremy's cellphone, by the way, July 2007). We had just moved to Davenport (Reilly and I had just arrived that day? the day before?) and started driving across town to go to Target when this torrential rainstorm made it so we could hardly see in front of our car. It just kept raining and raining and raining. So Jeremy pulled up right in front of Target, and I got Reilly out and ran in with him. But we still got soaked, and it was cold in there. So we found a towel and wrapped him up in it (we were planning to buy it, don't worry)until he dried off and warmed up a little. This is the picture we sent to our parents.

I tag Heather R, Gina B, Emily N, and Marie C


4 - 4 - 4 - 4
4 things I like about my husband:
He still loves (and even likes) me when I'm crazy and emotional.
He can make me laugh really hard.
He is an amazing daddy.
He likes to do nice things for me.

4 movies I can watch more than once:
White Christmas
Toy Story (and it's a good thing around this place)
While You Were Sleeping
Dave

4 TV Shows I watch:
Sorry, there isn't even one right now!

4 Places I've been today:
The doctor's office
Panda Express!! (it just opened)
Wal-mart
Here at home

4 People who e-mail me regularly:
I don't thing anyone e-mails me regularly...
Emily W, Heather R, and my mom (forwards) are as close as it gets.

4 Favorite Foods:
Cheetos
Chocolate
Cinnamon Nutri-grain Eggo Waffles
Chicken Alfredo

4 Places I would like to Visit:
Disney World
Disneyland
Chicago (one of these days...)
Karen and Naomi! (wherever they decide to be)

4 things I am looking forward to this coming year:
My sister's wedding (so soon!)
My trip to visit Karen and Naomi
Christmas at home with all of my family!
Jaina getting old enough to really play with Reilly

Family Pictures

We got family pictures taken at JC Penny's in August, but I was waiting to post them until our family actually got their copies. Why? Who knows. :) They turned out better than I expected, since Reilly woke up immensely grouchy from his nap that afternoon. The photographer was pretty good and even got him to smile a few times. Jaina was an angel, but we were so busy trying to get Reilly to smile, we didn't work on her at all. We really need to get some frames and get them on the wall now... Anyway, here they are: