Happy New Year!

We have had a very busy week. Christmas came and went and it all seems to be a blur now. So I will skip through the details and post lots of pictures! We already miss Kasey, Matt and their kids who left today. My parents three bedroom, two bathroom rental was a little cramped for all of us but it was worth it. I know I've said this before but the best part of getting all of us together is seeing the kids play together. Each one of them is just so adorable and unique from any of the other kids.

Hello

So first I must apologize to everyone. I have not been checking or commenting on any of your blogs lately. So, sorry but this could be a good thing. It means I may actually have a life! I am not suppose to be up for too long so I will try to get going with the details of my life lately.

I got back from Stanford Tuesday night and got the best welcome home from my family. Ammon screamed, "Mommy" when I walked through the door and Cohen gave me tons of kisses, which is not like him, and kept laughing and smiling at me. So Wednesday morning I got up and got right back into my regular routine. Feeding the kids, changing Cohen's diapers, bathing, cleaning up the apartment, etc. Well I was feeling a little bit of pain in the lower part of my pelvis and didn't really let it slow me down. I thought maybe it was just one of those, have to go to the bathroom, type of pains. So I sat down to pluck my eyebrows, finished and got up to get a snack when I felt a sudden gush of blood run down my legs. It was a lot. I instantly starting saying, "no, no, no" and unbuttoned my paints to see that it had soaked through my jeans. I was shaking and trying to call Jody and the Dr.'s office. I finally got myself under control got on the toilet and called both. Jody came right home, went and got Alex to watch the kids, and then gave me a blessing. We obviously had to head straight to my Doctor's office. So the whole way their I had a flood of emotions. I was crying a lot. I mean once you get to 14 weeks you think, okay I am in the clear of the miscarrying thing now, and had started even thinking about when we would find out what the baby was. I never realized how emotional something like this is. To feel like you are pregnant one second and not the next is really, really emotionally disturbing.

So we got to the office and I was bleeding a lot. Then I went into the room and waited for my doctor. When he came in he made it seem like it wasn't a big deal, he thought it was because we had intercourse or something like that. Then he left the room so I could get undressed and he could do an examination. Well when I took my pants off I started bleeding like crazy again and he came back in while Jody and I were trying to clean it all up and looked very worried. He did the exam and then said he needed an ultrasound right away to see exactly what was going on. Luckily they have a machine in their office. So we walked around the corner and waited about 20 minutes for the tech to come do the ultrasound. Meanwhile I was bleeding all over the chair I was sitting on and Jody was giving me gobs of paper towels every minute to try to clean it up. It was so stressful waiting there. I just didn't know what I was going to see on the screen and didn't really want to see but wanted to know what was going on. So she came in and asked me a few questions and then started the ultrasound. I was shocked when she quickly said,"well something is definitely moving around in there." Then we saw our little baby moving and trying to grab his/her feet. We saw a good heartbeat, a perfect placenta, a closed cervix, and absolutely no reason for so much bleeding or any bleeding at all. When she was done she said everything looked perfect inside and around the baby. You have no idea what a relief this was to me. A few minutes before I was sure that I was losing our baby.

So we waited two more hours to talk to my doctor who was in a C-section at the hospital. But I didn't care. I was just so happy to still be pregnant and to see our sweet little baby. When we finally talked to him he said that once in a while this happens and that it probably has something to do with my cervix changing. At this point there is no medication he could give me to stop or control the bleeding. So I have to basically rest a lot and not do anything. I am still bleeding but it is not as often and as much. It should stop in the next few days and things will hopefully get back to normal. I have so many things to do! Finish Christmas shopping, make goodies for friends, wrap presents, clean, plan a Christmas party I am co-hosting with a friend tomorrow night, take stuff to my visiting teachers, get stuff for the family we are doing the 12 days of Xmas for, I could go on and on. But right now all I want for Christmas is to have a healthy baby in June and so for now I will sit and relax and let my body heal.

Joseph Edmondson: Bachelor of Science

I am so proud of Jody. He took his last two finals Thursday and is done with school forever! (Unless he decides to get his masters at some point, which I could see him doing.) I am so glad that he stuck with it and didn't get pulled away by other ways of making money. School is a wonderful thing and having your degree gives you so many more options. I am excited to have a husband around on Saturdays and in the evenings during the week! He is excited to be able to concentrate on two things, work and family. No more studying!

Janelle, Alex and I drove down to Stanford yesterday to spend some time with Tasha and Makynna. Tasha has been stuck in the hospital alone since Thursday and needed to see some familiar faces. Makynna is doing so good. She is such a trooper. She finished her last round of chemo yesterday and will have the bone marrow transplant on Wednesday. They are having a ward fast for her on Wednesday so if any of you would like to take part in it please do! I will post pictures when I get home.

Ammon's Christmas

Weekend Highlights

This weekend we didn't anything too exciting to blog about, but here goes. Friday night we watched our friends kids while they went to a Christmas party. They left about 9:30 and then we got Ammon to bed and Jody watched Pirates of the Caribbean, alone, because I fell sound asleep within the first 5 minutes.

This is a picture of our ward missionaries. Elder Hardy is the one on the far right. He is a really cool missionary and is leaving our ward on Monday. The other missionary is Elder Anderson. He has only been out on his mission a few months but he's a cool guy too. Jody and I are trying to set him up with Alex, a few years down the road, of course (By the way I think he is cuter in person, right Tasha?)

Saturday I ran a few errands with no kids, which was nice and then I took Ammon and his 7 year old friend, Madison, to Happy Feet. I thought it was cute and Ammon left the movie tapping his feet around like the penguin on the movie. Later that night we went to the annual trucker's Christmas parade. It was raining so we sat in the car and watched. It wasn't too exciting but good to get out and do something different. As you can see Cohen wasn't too fond of the honking each trucker did as they passed by.

This is a picture of the tree on our car. It only took Jody about 30 minutes to get it tied up to drive 2 miles. But it did get here safe and sound! Alex gets home on Friday! It will be so nice to have her home for a few weeks. We are planning on going down to see Tasha in Stanford next week for a girls only trip! Ammon is out of school now so it will be interesting trying to keep him entertained.

Season's Greetings

I am just loving this holiday season. I have already been to two Christmas parties this week. We went to Jody's work party on Wednesday and last night I went to our relief society party at the church. We had a progressive dinner at the church and just went into different rooms and there was a wonderful program to go along with it. It was so nice to feel the true meaning of Christmas and be inspired to make this year about service and giving gifts from the heart.

I've officially decorated our apartment which was completed on Wednesday with the purchase of our Christmas tree. Jody was very particular about the tree. I guess his family took their time picking out the perfect tree and mine would send my dad down to grab the first one he saw. But it's a good tradition and one that we will be keeping. I've realized that decorating is so important when you have toddlers who are excited about everything. Ammon can't wait to come downstairs every morning and see the Christmas tree. He is also loving the snowmen and tiny sleigh I have around the room and will play with them for hours. He makes the season even more magical for me.

I had a doctor's appointment on Wednesday. I am always paranoid about the appointments until I get to the point where I can actually feel the baby moving around. I guess I am afraid they won't find a heartbeat or something. So Wednesday I went in and my doctor, who is a very good doctor, seemed to be in a hurry. He listened for a heartbeat for about two minutes, didn't find one and then said, "lets just do an ultrasound to see just how far along you are." Luckily they got me in that afternoon so I only had to wait 5 hours. But I was worried and preparing myself just in case there was bad news. Jody and the kids came with me and the lady got me right in. When she first started the ultrasound she asked me if I had been feeling any pain in my right side. I nervously told her no and then she told me I had a cyst on my right ovary which she continued to tell me is pretty common in pregnancy and helps the baby along for the first 12 weeks. She said it would probably just go away. Then she finally moved to the baby and everything was just fine. We got to see the baby's tiny feet and hands moving all over and the best of all was to see a heart beat. They did a vaginal ultrasound which was really cool because you could see more of the baby and check for any deformities. Everything was a okay! With each pregnancy I am worried until I get them in my arms and then once I have them I worry about SIDS, sickness, or them getting hurt. I guess being a mother is a never ending worry! But I am getting really excited to start feeling this baby move and find out what it is. I feel so blessed to be a mother.

Santa and his reindeer

Christmas is coming and should be pretty exciting this year with Santa, his elves, and reindeer living in our home. Santa (A.K.A. Ammon) is being his usual creative, imaginative self and has decided that he lives at the north pole. If he is going to bed he will say, "come on Comet, Donner, Dasher, and Dancer." He watches The Santa Claus with Tim Allen everyday and the other day Jody rented him The Santa Claus #2 and Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer. He enjoyed Rudolph but was a little nervous when the abominable monster came on. I am planning on taking him to see The Santa Claus 3 this weekend. On the way to school the other day he told his friend Brayden not to talk to him because he was busy talking to his elves and reindeer. I was telling Cohen to stand by Ammon so I could take this picture and Ammon said, "no tell him to stand by Santa, I'm not Ammon." Needless to say, this kid never ceases to bore us.

Back to real life. Right now Jody is in the process of interviewing and waiting on call backs. It looks as though we could end up in the Bay area starting with pharmaceuticals. But he would really like to get into medical sales. He would love to dress in scrubs and be in surgery. I think he's thinking it will be like Grey's Anatomy, he could be in for a rude awakening. So we are just waiting on people to call or email him back. It's a waiting game for now!

A few of you have asked about the age difference of Cohen and the new baby. They will be 22 months apart. Hopefully Cohen will do some major growing up in the next few months because I still feel like he's a baby and I definitely don't want to take care of two babies. I am feeling nauseous on and off through out the day and have been living on satsumas, thanks to Costco and this wonderful time of year! I also enjoy kiwi, trail mix, hot chocolate (Stephen's that I brought home from Utah, and by the way Alex I will be having you bring me more at Xmas), and other random things like frito pie? I'm excited for this wonderful time of year and plan on doing a lot of fun things with Ammon since he is definitely feeling the spirit of Christmas!

Crazy, probably insane, but exciting...

Remember how I posted about being bored a few months ago? Well we have decided to resolve that issue. Some of you already know this but for those of you who don't, we are expecting baby number three June 21st, 2007.

Jody had been on my case about having another baby for a few months and I just wasn't feeling ready. But after a few personal experiences I had I couldn't ignore the urge I was feeling to have another one. It usually takes me a 3 to 4 months to get pregnant. After trying for a month Jody begged me to take a pregnancy test, for fun, even though I hadn't missed my period yet and was scheduled to start the next day. I took a test and it didn't instantly turn blue like the other two did. After a few minutes of staring at it I said to Jody, "Is there a faint line in the pregnancy window?" He agreed that there was. So I took the second test in the box and it did the same thing. Jody decided to go back to the store and buy another test that actually said,"pregnant" or "not pregnant." This time it said, "pregnant." Seriously I didn't know how to react and even think I started hyperventilating. I know we were trying but I wasn't expecting it to happen this quickly. We want to have 4 or 5 kids so it will be nice to be done having kids young and be able to enjoy them while we are young but life could get pretty crazy for me. Especially with us probably moving in the near future for a new job. So that's our big news for now. Our family of four will be a family of five soon. I always dreamed of being married and having a big family, I just can't believe I am old enough to be doing it!

Sledding

Ammon and Madison go crazy in the snow! Make sure you check out the pictures below.

Utah

We are back from Utah. It was the perfect break for me. We left on Friday morning and got to Snowbird Saturday afternoon. The resort there is so nice and perfect, I could have stayed another week. Whenever we go to Utah our first stop is always Cafe Rio, this trip we continued that tradition and went there at least 4 more times after. We ate at all of my favorite restaurants, saw good friends and played in the snow. Kasey and Matt surprised us and decided to fly into Utah on Wednesday. Ammon had the best time with his three cousins. They went sledding together, played and got into pillow fights. All in all it was a great trip and I look forward to going again.

Driving back from Utah we listened to the BYU football game. It reminded me of the good old days with Linds. I'll never forget the game we went to at the BYU stadium against Utah and we had the best seats, besides the fact that we were surrounded by Utah fans. That was the last time BYU had beaten Utah until last Saturday, Go Cougars!

We're Off!

We leave tomorrow morning for a much needed vacation to Snowbird, Utah. My parents own a timeshare there and we go every other year for Thanksgiving. I love going to Utah. I love visiting Provo and reminiscing about my college days there. I also love eating at Cafe Rio, Famous Daves, Pei Wei, and Los Hermanos. We are driving with my parents and my brother and his family will be there next week. Of course we also get to see Alex who is going to UVSC right now. I am also excited to go shopping and to see old friends. If any of you who live in Utah want to get together let me know!

Cohen

Most of you don't know Cohen enough to really know his personality. He was a great baby. Slept all the time and smiled at everyone but things change. At about 8 months of age he turned into a little whiner! I swore he was teething day after day as he whined and cried a lot! Well a few weeks ago Jody and I decided to have a better attitude about him. We decided that if we kept talking badly about him to everyone he would grow up to actually be a whiner. So we started saying only saying good things about him. When he would fuss about some silly thing like not getting his food the very second he wanted it because it was too hot I would say to Jody,"Isn't he great?" Well maybe this new idea worked because the last two weeks have been great! He entertains himself more, doesn't bawl when I leave the room and he just seems much happier. Don't get me wrong he did have his happy times before and he really is a sweet natured little boy but his moments of losing it could really get to you. So here's to my son Cohen who has taken on a new personality that we are all growing very fond of. Cheers!

Brothers

Watch Cohen and Ammon.

Hall '06

I'm sad to say that Halloween is over and reluctantly began taking the decorations down today. I just love this holiday. Oh well at least there are more holidays to come. Tuesday night we headed over to Tasha and Craig's house to eat dinner and then went trick-or-treating in their neighborhood just after six. She lives in a neighborhood called Heartwood and it is by far the most popular place to trick-or-treat. Anyone who lives in this subdivision has to spend lots of money on candy because they go through it quickly. Ammon had a great time with his friends but was a little worried if I wasn't right by his side. I can't complain about this because it keeps him safe!

After Ammon left for preschool today, Cohen and I headed to Kmart so that we could get out of the apartment for a few minutes. On the way home I stopped at McDonald's to get a much needed order of fries. I pulled up to the drive thru to hear a female voice start singing, "Da da da da da I'm lovin it." And then, "Welcome to McDonald's can I take your order." Well after the beautiful rendition of the song I could barely get my order out. Was I in the twilight zone? When I pulled up to the first window to pay I was waiting for the girl to be laughing or something. But she obviously took her job very seriously because she was very professional. I almost asked her if this was a new policy in greeting customers. If anyone goes to McDonald's anytime soon let me know.

P.S. I am not an avid eater of this greasy stuff. But every so often I get a craving for it!

Party People

We went to a ward party Saturday night. Jody was Clark Kent, I was Lois Lane, and Ammon was Superman. Poor Cohen didn't fit in with the rest of the fam in his chicken outfit. The kids had a great time running around in the gym. I lost track of Cohen for a minute and found him all alone sitting against the partition in the gym. He was happy and content because he had found some candy on the ground and had chocolate dribbling down his chin. Ammon loves the girls in are ward. He was running around with them all night long.

Ammon

Ammon talking like Uncle Alan. Make sure to check the blog post below.

Pumpkin Guts

We finally cut into our pumpkin tonight for Family Home Evening. The smell of fresh pumpkin guts bring back so many wonderful memories I had as a kid. Carving pumpkins as a family was one of my favorite traditions. I love how smells can take you back in time.
Ammon enjoyed the pumpkin carving but the one who really gets into it is Jody. He decided that when the kids get old enough to carve their own pumpkins we will still have to get one for him. I'm just glad I don't have to do it.

Last weekend Ammon went to a cowboy themed party. He got to ride a real pony. I had to post a picture from it. To hear a funny story go to my mom's blog.

Help Me!

When should you stop letting your kids see you naked? It seems like Jody has been on my case about this ever since I gave birth to Ammon. Ammon never says anything about us having different body parts and doesn't even notice when I am dressed or not. I wasn't planning on stopping this anytime soon until today. I was getting dressed and Ammon said,"Mommy my bum is not big like yours. My bum is little. Why is your bum bigger?" I just had to laugh! Now I realize that I didn't even answer him. If I am going to start getting these questions from him on a regular basis I will definitely be changing behind closed doors!

Recently my cousin Kadi posted on her blog about being bored. I have to second everything she said. Lately I just don't know what to do with myself. Yes my kids keep me busy with cleaning, bathing, changing and cooking. But they are both at the ages where they can start entertaining themselves. Cohen still takes two good naps everyday and goes to bed by 7:30. Ammon is the easiest kid and goes to preschool 4 days a week for close to 3 hours. So after I feed them breakfast, bath and dress them, and put Cohen down for his nap I have about two hours of free time. I usually clean for the first hour and the second hour I am reading blogs, talking on the phone, reading magazines or doing some other random thing. When Ammon goes to preschool I am once again putting Cohen down for a nap and have another two hours of free time. I know most of you are saying how do you have free time with two kids? What are you complaining about? But I just need something to do! I can't stand to stay home all day and I don't have money to be out shopping all day. If I had my own home I could spend the day decorating. Because of the recent boredom I have made attempts to clean out closets and reorganize things. I also have been going through cooking magazines and pulling out recipes I want to try. My next plan is to go through all of our clothes and put them on ebay. I could scrapbook, which I enjoy doing, but it is so hard to get everything out. Any ideas? I would love to take a photography or pottery class but I live in an area that doesn't have much to offer. I never thought that I would be counting down the days to go to Enrichment Night, story time with friends, Halloween parties at the church, birthday parties, and the list goes on and on! I long for having things to be at or go to. Don't get me wrong I love my life and being able to stay home with my kids but sometimes I just need something to break up the monotonous routines.

This crazy picture was taken when Alex left for college. I am suppose to be sad but I really just look insane. Ammon took the picture above.

Fall Fun

I love fall. This time of year makes me miss living in Provo. I loved Provo in the fall. Driving through the canyon and seeing the beautiful colors on the trees was one of my favorite Sunday activities. I just love to think about all of the fun holidays coming up. Especially anticipating the arrival of family and being all together again during the Christmas holidays. One of the funnest things is seeing all of our kids play together for hours and hours.

So last week ended up being beautiful. On Wednesday we drove out to the pumpkin patch in Blue Lake. We met some of our friends there and rode the tractor to the field where Ammon grabbed the first pumpkin he saw. His friends took a little more time in finding the perfect one. It must have been about 80 degrees out there but I really couldn't complain.

Thursday we went on a walk to Kmart where I let Ammon look at all of the Halloween decor for about 20 minutes. I ended up having to promise that I would get him some of the "cool" stuff he found, for his birthday. Otherwise I wouldn't have gotten him out of the store. We continued our walk to Round Table Pizza where we got lunch to go and took it to the park to eat it. That night I went to a Service Auction at the church where I won some pretty cool services. I won three hours of free babysitting, a dinner and a batch of homemade rolls. It was a fun night and a great activity. We spent this weekend hanging out with friends and relaxing.

Sunshine!

Over the summer I complained, complained and complained some more about the weather in Humboldt County. I guess mother nature heard my cries because this fall has been warm and beautiful. Two weeks ago we had 5 days of warm beautiful weather and I assumed that would be the last of it, until next year, but low and behold it is back for another week. Today the temp was 71 degrees and tomorrow it is suppose to reach 75. To most of you this probably sounds unexciting but for us it is simply unheard of! I have already tried to plan a few activities outside before we lose it again. Number one on my list is heading to the pumpkin patch.



Last weekend Jody and I drove to the Medford Temple for a youth temple trip. We drove up with four 12-13 year old boys. I have to admit I was a little disappointed because I wanted to have girls and hear about all the boys they like. Suprisingly the boys came through for me! We were about halfway into our drive when they finally turned off their ipods and started sharing all the gossip in the ward with us. It was hilarious, I had no idea young boys even cared about girls enough to talk about them for a full hour and a half. They had the future planned of who was going to marry who and who would be inlaws with who, even down to my kids!

Later that night I was able to get the gossip from the girls because I stayed with three of them in a hotel room. They too were hilarious! We stayed in a hotel that has a water slide. After a lot of work Jody coaxed Ammon into riding it. After Ammon went down the slide he was so excited. He came over to me and said, " Mommy I did it. I went on the slide with daddy!" Then Jody said, "Do you want to do it again?" Ammon said,"No!" and ran back into the hot tub. It was pretty cute. His friend Brayden was there and they enjoyed sitting on the chairs and watching the people come down the slide.

The only unfortunate part of the trip was that we all seemed to catch a cold while we were on it. As a result I have a squeaky raspy voice. Yesterday Ammon said, "Mom talk like a girl, you sound like a boy."

Deep thoughts by Ammon Joseph (SNL)

1. I was just waking up (thanks to Ammon) and Jody was in the bathroom. Ammon wanted to go downstairs but I wanted to lay in bed a few more minutes and I told Ammon to ask his dad to take him downstairs. Jody didn't want to so Ammon said, "It's okay mom he will because I'm the boss!"

2. Later that morning Jody was heading out to work and was saying goodbye to us and Ammon said, "You be a good boy at school today dad."

3. We were just sitting down to dinner and he looked at Jody and said, "SO, how was school today?"

4. We were at my parents house and Ammon said to my mom, "We brought you some jelly suckers." My mom and I did not understand what he was saying. Some kind of jelly suckers? He kept saying it over and over until I suddenly got it and burst out laughing. We had made strawberry jelly and brought some over to my parents. He was literally telling her that we had brought her some jelly and was then calling her a sucker! (If anyone knows my grandpa, he calls everyone a sucker, including Ammon!)

5. This one is for his grandparents. Yesterday we were driving in the car and he randomly said, "I miss my Grandpa Chuck, my Grandad Larry and my Grandmom Cindy." He knows how to say just the right things to make your heart melt. Later he started listing all of our family members that were here for Labor Day weekend and how much he missed them.

6. We went to a ward luau last night. When the were done doing a fire dance Ammon asked, "Are we going to open presents now?" I guess he thought it was a party. Later at home he said, "I had so much fun." I asked him where he had so much fun at and he said, "at the wedding."

These may not seem funny to some of you but he is only three and half of the humor comes from the expressions on his face.