Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

We weren't able to get Christmas Cards out this year so here are some pictures that we would have sent out if we did. We hope you all have a wonderful holiday and we hope that you know that we love you and wish you a Merry Christmas!!

XOXO

Ella Ann Alfonso

Ella is my sweet little niece that was born on the second of November of this year. She was born with several complications and disabilities. Despite knowing of some of the problems before Ella's birth, we had no idea things would be as bad as they are now. On Sunday morning I received a phone call from my mom asking me if I would go out and be with my sister Tiffany and her family. I jumped at the opportunity to be with and help my sister and her family and immediately booked a flight to North Carolina. We were able to get my friend, Margi, to watch Ammon while Matt was at work until my mother-in-law could make it out Monday night. How lucky am I to have family and friends that will give up anything at any moment to help you out in time of need. Thank you Pat and Margi for all of your help.

Ella has been in the ICN since she was born and this last week she hasn't been doing well. I was able to visit her on Monday. What a blessing. Normally, only parents and grandparents are allowed to see babies in the ICN, given the life threatening circumstances, but Tiffany and Chris where able to pull some strings and get permission for me to see her. I walked in the door and noticed several little babies struggling for their lives. When I saw my sweet little niece lying there among them, completely helpless, with wires and tubes all over her little body, I couldn't help but break down and cry. Even though she was covered with all of these wires and her poor little body was extremely swollen from her struggle, I couldn't help but think how beautiful she was. I felt an automatic sense of peace just from being near her. She has such a beautiful spirit.



I was not able to hold her or touch her because of how fragile she is. All I could do is look down at her, overwhelmed with feelings of love for her. No one knows what is in store for Ella in the future, but I truly do feel so fortunate to know her and to have felt her sweet little spirit. She is one of Gods most righteous daughters who has come here for a body and to teach us how to love. Thank you Tiffany and Chris for letting me be here with you and your little angle.

Please pray for Ella and her family. They really do need all the prayers they can get.

If you are wanting to know more about Ella and to see how she is doing you can go to
http://www.ellastouch.com/
Chris has done a wonderful job on keeping everyone updated.

I love you Ella!!

My Handsome Little Boy

While I was in Utah my mother-in-law took us to kiddie kandids to have Ammon's pictures taken. WOW didn't they turn out just perfect!!! I can't believe how well he did. He did everything that lady asked him to do. Do you think he might become a model one day? I sure think he has it in him.

Enjoy...






Thanks Pat for these pictures, we love them!

More pictures of this little model to come.

My big boy is 2!!!

Last week we celebrated Ammon's 2nd birthday. I can't believe that he is two already. The transformation from baby to little boy is amazing. I can't tell you how much I love this kid. He makes me feel so alive and makes each day worth living. We had a little birthday party for him today with a few of his friends. Nothing to fancy. The theme was Elmo. He seems to always get really excited whenever he sees Elmo, so I thought it would be fun. I made some Elmo cupcakes with some lunch and blew up a bunch of balloons and had music for the kids to dance to. It's crazy how kids really don't need a lot to be entertained. I bet if I just had the balloons we would be good to go. After the party we laid low and then we went out to Pizza Hut for dinner. While we were there he wanted a bouncy ball from the 25 cent machine and I think that was the best part of the day. Why do I go through all of this work and money when in all reality I could go and get him something for 25 cents and be done? Oh well, I had a lot of fun doing all of these things for my little boy for his birthday.

Some things that Ammon is doing right now:

fyi: this is more for the record so sorry if it bores you.

He loves to say prayers. At every meal time Ammon will remind us to say a prayer before eating. He is very good at folding his arms and holding still during the prayer. He also reminds me before he goes to bed. We will be sitting there with the lights off and start to sing songs but if we don't say a prayer beforehand he will just keep saying "prayer, mom, prayer, PRAYER!!!" Sometimes out of habit, I'll start singing a song thinking that I am saying the prayer and he will not let me get by with that. He will even fold his arms during church prayers without us asking him to. I guess he just knows that when prayers are being said its time to be quite and fold his arms.

He loves to sing with me. When I put him down at night we always sing some primary songs and lately he has been singing them with me. He's always a little delayed but I think it is the cutest thing on earth.

He loves talking on the phone to anyone but a especially his grandparents. I think he could spend all day talking to them.

He loves dancing to music. He's just like his momma.

He loves helping me cook. He always says, " Ammon's turn" meaning if mom put in a cup of flour it's Ammon's turn to put in a cup of flour. He's getting pretty good at it.

He loves to clean and be clean. I'm telling you I have a clean freak as a child. Whenever we are eating and if he gets something on his face or on is hands, he starts freaking out! He has to be clean at all times. I know this is a good thing but sometimes it gets a little to annoying to wipe his face and hands after each bit of food.

He loves to help me clean the house. If he sees something that looks messy, he will come up to me and say "mess mom, mess" and won't stop saying it until it's clean. We got him a vacuum for an early birthday present and he LOVES it. He will spend all day vacuuming the house if you asked him. If only the vacuum really worked! He loves to do the dishes, clean the bathroom, and mop the floor. Maybe he is trying to tell me something, you think? Either way, I love it. You don't see many 2 year old kids being this clean so I will say it is a very good thing.

Ammon LOVES his daddy. Whenever Matt comes home from work Ammon has to be with him. He wants nothing to do with me. He will actually get really upset if I even come close to him or his daddy. Just the way he looks at his dad is so cute. He really does think that Matt is it, that he can do anything. He loves to shave. Matt will shave with the electric razor, then put on the clear cover and hand the shaver to Ammon and let him shave. He is pretty thorough. Oh how I love it.

He still loves dogs. Whenever he hears or sees a dog, his little face lights up with excitement. I guess one of these days I will have to give in and get a dog.

His favorite color is green, or so I think. If you ask him what color something is, it's always green.

He loves to count but can only really say 3 and 9 and it's repeated over and over and over again as if those are the only numbers exists.

He loves fire engines, cars, planes, and big trucks.

He still loves to take pictures. He has this cute little cheeser face that doesn't look natural at all but yet still so cute.

Some of my favorite things about Ammon.... 1. His little voice. He has the sweetest little voice and it's so hard to say no to it. 2. His little laugh, It is so contagious. 3. His little tounge. He is so funny with it. Whenever he concentrates, his tongue comes out and curls towards his nose. Matt does it too. I guess that's where he got it from. I love how whenever he wants Matt's attention he yells "MATT!" instead of "Daddy!" It is the cutest thing ever.

A note from dad:

He also loves to play catch, even though he can't catch anything yet. He'll chase down anything you throw to him and attempt to throw it back. Sometimes he thinks it is okay to throw dangerous objects when his parents aren't looking. I took a portable phone to the head the other day while I wasn't paying attention. Watch out! On a different note, whatever I am doing becomes Ammon's favorite thing to do. If I am showering, he wants to shower. If I am fixing something, he makes sure to scatter my tools (so that they are more easily accessible, I'm sure). He always wants whatever tool I am using. If I am going outside, Ammon wants to go outside. The only thing that he doesn't like to do that I like to do is sleep. If I do something wrong I get a "no, no, Matt" to put me back in line. After being at the hospital all day, I come home and sit down on the couch. Within seconds he finds me, grabs ahold of one of my fingers and commands "walk!" which basically means "get off the couch and come play with me." What a fun stage. Oh, and besides mimicking the shaving, he also likes to do his own hair with gel, brush his teeth by himself, and help scrub under his arms when he's taking a bath. Good times!

It's A ......

I'm back:) I know all of you are so anxious to know what the baby is so here's the story. I was planning on going to Utah the last week of October to spend time with my family while Matt was out of town. He had been out of town for 3 weeks previously doing out rotations and was going to be gone for 3 more weeks. I was sick and tired of being alone so it seemed like a perfect time to see family. We decided that when Matt was done with his out rotations that he would come to Utah and spend two weeks there for thanksgiving (which never happened btw). After realizing how long we would be gone for and that we would be gone during the time we would normally find out what we were having. (My Doctor usually has the big ultrasound around 18 weeks and I wouldn't be back till I was 22/23 weeks along.) I had a doctors appointment around 16 1/2 weeks and this was going to be my last one till I got back from Utah. Matt was still out of town but was coming back that night, so I asked the doctor if she wouldn't mind giving me an ultrasound to see if we could see the sex of the baby. She said yes but made it clear that the chances of us seeing what the sex was, was going to be very slim just because of how early I was and that if we did see the sex of the baby that we shouldn't go out and buy a whole bunch of things because they could be wrong. I told her that I would take my chances. We went in and started to look at my sweet little angle. I asked if she would be so kind to not tell me the sex of the baby but instead write it down on a piece of paper so that when my husband comes home we could find out together. She said okay and we started to look. Our little one would not hold still and wanted to keep it's legs crossed at all times. She took a few pictures of the baby and then started to look some more. I thought that for sure there was no chance of us seeing the sex but then our little one started to spread it's legs. My Doctor asked me if I had any ideas on what it was and I said yes, I think it's a girl. She then said YOUR RIGHT!!!

WHAT, I'M HAVING A GIRL!!!!

I could not believe that what I have been feeling this entire time was true plus I wasn't expecting her to tell me right then so I was a little shocked. I think she must of forgotten that I asked her not to tell me but oh well I was so excited. I asked her how sure she was and she said 95% sure. So with that I am pretty confident that we are having a girl. I felt bad though because when I found out what I was having with Ammon, Matt wasn't there and now with this one he wasn't there either. Sad.
That night when Matt came home I acted like nothing happened that day and a few hours later I told him that I had a welcome home gift for him for working so hard the last few weeks. I gave him a picture frame of the baby that shows it's a girl. Cheesy I know but I couldn't come up with anything better at the time so that was as good as it got.

Well there you have it. We are having a Girl:) I can't tell you how happy I am. It's crazy how strong a mothers intuition is. Before I even got pregnant I could feel that a little girl needed to come down. It was such a strong feeling and I just knew from the beginning that we had a little girl coming down to our family.

Here I am 21 weeks pregnant. I'm HUGE!!! I feel like I have gain weight much quicker with this little one then I did with Ammon. It's kind of depressing if you ask me. Oh well, I'm just happy to be pregnant. So far I have been feeling great. I have started to have a hard time at night with sleeping because of discomfort but over all I'm doing good. Our little girl is one active baby. She moves all the time and every night at around 9:00 she starts dancing like crazy. I can see her kick and Matt can feel her move to. I love it.

Welcome chosen ones!

Yes, I know that took me forever but now my blog is safe and I feel much better about it being Private. So for now on I can tell you all my deepest, darkest, secrets and feel perfectly fine about it:) Well, to begin I am in Utah right now while my poor sweet husband sits home all by himself while I am playing with friends and family. So because I am on vacation I'm not going to sit here and post pictures and tell you how cool I am. Instead I will be going and playing with my family and when I go back home I WILL (I promise I will) tell you all about everything that has happened to me and my family including the sex of the baby!!! Yes I do know what it is but I want to post the picture and tell you the story and right now I don't have the time. Sorry. Until next week good bye.

Oh and to everyone that never gave me your email address (FAMILY!) I decided to be kind enough to add you to my list so you could read my blog. If you don't want to be able to read it and there was a reason why you didn't give me your email, well to bad I am forcing you to be apart of our lives anyways. Enjoy!

Going Private

After hearing some freaky stories about blog stalkers, I've decided it is time to go private. I want my family to be safe and I don't like not knowing who is looking at my blog. So, for all 10 of you who actually look at our blog and who would like to continue to be a part of our lives, please send me your email addresses and I will add you to my list. Thanks!

totoleigh@gmail.com

P.S I felt the baby move!!! Oh happy day :)

It's about time

To tell you all that BABY #2 IS ON IT'S WAY!!!!! Yep, that's right, we are pregnant. The baby's due date is April 5. That means I am 13 weeks along. I can't tell you how excited we are. I have been baby hungry for a while now and finally it has happened. So far the pregnancy has been okay. It's been a lot different then Ammon's pregnancy though (which might mean a girl, maybe:)) The first few weeks were horrible. I wasn't throwing up or anything but I just didn't feel good at all. I felt sick all the time and I was STARVING 24/7 . I felt exhausted, yet I couldn't sleep at night. I know that I am very lucky with not being as sick as many women get, but it still wasn't fun at all. Now that I am heading into the second trimester I am starting to feel much better. I am soo excited and a little nervous to have two kids. I have no idea how I am going to do it. I feel like I am so busy with just one that the thought of having two freaks me out. I know some people have said that having two is much easier than one. Part of me believes that just because with two each one has a play mate. I know that Ammon is so excited to have a little sibling. He LOVES babies right now and he always wants to hold them. I know he will be a wonderful big brother.

I had an ultrasound when I was 10 weeks pregnant and it made me want to cry. I love ultrasounds, it is such an amazing experience to see your baby in you. When your this early in your pregnancy it's hard to believe there really is someone inside you, but then you see your baby and hear the heart beat and it just makes me so happy. I already have so much love for this little person. I can't wait to meet him/her and be able to kiss them and hold them and love them.

I love you little one and I can't wait to see you,

Love mommy

All in one

Yes, I know summer is over and I only had one post the ENTIRE time. That is really sad. Even though summer is almost over I still wanted to write down some of the things we did just for journal keep sake. This last month my brother Brandon got married!!! I can't tell you how happy we are for him. Here is the New Mr. and Mrs. Brandon Jones. They looked gorgeous together.
The wedding was in California and it was beautiful. I felt so lucky to be able to be there for them. Each and every sibling of mine is married. It's crazy. Here is my entire family. It is rare to have my whole family together just because we are all over the place, but now we have a picture of all of us. Don't I have a good looking family? (sorry my camera sucks so it's not the best picture)
All of my beautiful sisters.

Aren't these little girls the cutest little flower babies ever!?

I could not believe how beautiful DeEtte's dress was. I love weddings. They are soo fun.


The cutest little man there. Don't you just love his little smile.Ammon flying high :)


While we were there I was really nervous to see how Ammon would do with the 3 hour time change. Everything was planned at night, way past his bed time, and I knew it was going to be trouble. Lucky for me Matt's brother and his wife live in nearby Vacaville and were able to watch Ammon for almost 2 days. Oh what a blessing it was to be able to enjoy the celebrations and know that my baby was safe and having fun with his cousin Sadie. Thank you Sam and Allison!!
We had such a wonderful time in Cali and soon we had to say goodbye to family and come back home. This is where the fun really started to happen. FLYING. Why or why does flying have to be so hard for a 22 month old. We started the traveling day around 10:30am. Ammon was having a hard time to begin with just cause it was his nap time and he was missing it. We got on the plane and all hell broke loose. Ammon screamed the WHOLE FLIGHT. Yes the whole flight. I know that it is hard to imagine such a cute little kid like this being a pill, but it happens to the best of them.
This is his new smile. Every time he sees a camera he says "CHEESE" an gives us the biggest smile he has.
Lucky for me I had Matt this time so at least I had someone to take turns holding our screaming baby. I think that the people around us were ready to kill us and I don't blame them. I didn't know what to do? Here we are cramped in a small space with a 22 month old on our laps. I felt that any second I was going to start bawling my eyes out, meanwhile Matt was about to punch a hole in the wall. We were counting down the seconds to when we would land and get off the plane. We had a connecting flight in Salt Lake so Ammon got a little bit of time to sleep in his stroller before our next flight. For some reason my child will not fall asleep in my arms. He has to have his own space and thankfully he got it. Now onto our next flight. I was praying the whole time that he wouldn't cry and thankfully I got my wish. He did great. He played, watched movies, colored and was a happy little boy. We landed in Detroit around 10:30pm. We were soo tired and just wanted to be home asap. But no, instead they decided that we didn't have a hard enough day yet and thought it would be fun to lose our car seat!! KILL ME NOW. I could not believe this. I kind of knew something was wrong cause when we landed I went to the bathroom and heard my name being called but I couldn't hear what they were saying so we just decided to go down to the luggage claim. We had to walk a mile and a half to get there. When we realized our car seat was gone I had a feeling that someone must of taken it off of the plane at the gate. Matt went to talk to the baggage office but no one seemed to care to find out where it was. They just said that when they get it they would deliver it to our house and for the time being we could have a new, cheap, infant, backward facing car seat. Lovely, my child doesn't fit in a infant car seat any more. We then had to sit there for another hour so while Matt waited for the bus to take him to the other terminal where the car was. I was so tired and I just wanted to be home. When Matt came to pick us up I decided to go and talk to them myself. I talked to a few people who said that there would be no way it would be at the gate and they wouldn't even try and get someone to go look. After another hour I was able to talk to someone who knew what they were talking about and was able to go and get someone to go up to our gate and see if our car seat was there. Guess what! It was there but then it took another freaking 45 min for them to bring it to me. By this time it was 1:30 in the morning and I had had it. Why couldn't someone just help us out in the first place. We got home around 2- 2:30 and by that time we had been traveling over 15 hours that day. I pray that no one has to go through something like that. Sorry for the long story but you wouldn't be able to feel my pain unless I told the whole thing:)

Now that I am done venting, I wanted to write down some of the highlights of the summer. August was kind of a crazy month for our little family. We had some friends stay with us for about 2 1/2 weeks, meanwhile Matt was studying for the boards. Oh how I hate it when he has big tests. It takes up all of his time and energy and we just don't get to see him much during that time. He took the test which was about 8-10 hour test which for me would be hell. After that he was free!!!!:):):) I couldn't wait till the night after the test. He could just come home and relax. We decided that it would be fun to go and do something out of the ordinary with our little family that weekend to celebrate so we went to the zoo. Ammon loved the zoo! We went on a train ride and on the merry go round and saw tons of different animals that he was ecstatic about. Lately we have been working with him on what the different animals say so for him to see them in person was pretty cute.


Monkeys are one of his favorite animals so he kept letting us know what they say. He thought he was pretty cool.

The next day we decided to go to Lake Saint Claire and play at the beach. We went with Jared and Margi and loved it. I don't know why we haven't been doing this every weekend.

I don't even have to say anything cause I know you know what I'm thinking about... I LOVE THIS KID!!!!!




Sorry there were too many cute pictures and I couldn't decided which ones to post so you get to see them all.


My Little Garden

Before I left to go to Utah earlier this summer, I decided to become a true mom and house wife by starting my own garden. Some of my friends were doing it and so I did it, too. We had to start off with digging out an area for a garden. I didn't want it to be too big, just a little space that tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers could fit in. During the whole process of growing my garden, my plants decided that wanted to play dead and look dead as well. This is what my tomato plants looked like..

And this is what my neighbors tomato plants look like, what tomato plants are suppose to look like.

Even though my plants looked dead somehow tomatoes started to grow on them. They weren't big or anything but still I was shocked. My peppers did well, but I still don't know if gardening is for me. At least now it's not for me. Maybe one day when I'm older and have the right amount of skill required to garden I will try again. Until then you probably won't hear much about me and gardens.

Baseball Time

Matt and some of his buddies from school got into a softball leage. Ammon has the time of his life watching his daddy play and he is great for encouragement. He loves to yell "GO DAD GO DAD GO!!" He gets it from his go dog go book I think.

Just to tell you how cool it is to live near Detroit, I'll tell a story about what happened during Matt's last softball game. While we were watching a helicopter with a huge spotlight was circling the area. We all didn't think much of it at first, but it continued to circle and by the lights of the field we found out it was a police chopper. All of us girls started to joke about how we had a fugitive at our game and they needed to turn themselves in. As the game went on we started to notice tons of cop cars swarming the area. So, seriously, there was a big time fugitive running away from the cops right next to us. It seems like there is always something going on with cops and criminals in the area. One of my friends from Ohio told me once her husband was at the dentist and while he was waiting he over heard someone talking to the dentist about living in Iraq. The dentist asked him if it was scary and the man said "no, not really. I would rather live there than in down town Detroit." Yeah, and that is where I live. The number one crime city in the US. Lucky me.

Just to clarify something... I really do like were I live. I've just never lived somewhere where it is so exciting.

Adventures of a Store

The other day we went to Sam's Club and Ammon Loves it there. He gets so excited to go and run around. Yes, I'm one of those mom's who let their children loose at the store (Not all the time. I only do it if Matt's around so that one of us can chase Ammon and the other one can do the shopping). Well Ammon found the coolest place to hide. He's just like his mom and this is where I would hide too if it was me. The only problem was we couldn't get him out. We were there for about 15 minutes and he thought it was the funniest thing ever. Matt finally had to belly crawl over some boxes so that he could grab and arm and drag Ammon out. He wasn't happy to be taken from his fortress of solitude.

Feeding the Ducks

One of our weekly events is to go down our street and feed the ducks at the park. Once you start to feed them I swear 20 more birds and ducks start coming after you. Kind of cool to see but scary at times.



Some random Pictures this summer

Ammon sleeping. For some reason he has to have something over and around his head. I don't know why. I usually end up going in his room at night to take whatever it may be off his head but he always seems to put it back there throughout the night.



Our little super Man

I hope you enjoyed the very very long post and I hope it satisfied your craving to know what we did this summer:). Hopefully, there are some of you still out there that look at our blog. I promise I will do better. Be expecting a new post from me next week.......hopefully:)

There's no place like home!

The last two months I have been in Utah and It was such a fun trip. Matt was able to do a rotation with his dad for a month in orthopedics and then a 2 week rotation in anesthesiology. Meanwhile I was able to enjoy my family and friends:) The only bad thing was our camera wasn't working so I wasn't able to get any pictures while I was there. SO, right now I am trying to get pictures from family and friends. So if you have any of me and my family, please, please send them to me. Other than that it was an amazing trip.
The first week that we were in Utah Matt and I were able to have a little trip for ourselves for a week while my parents and Matt's parents helped watch Ammon. We went to Saint George for a week and stayed at my in-laws condo. While we were there we went to Las Vegas for a night and saw Lion King. We were also able to see Matt's sister Wendi and her husband Mark. They were moving to Florida from Cali and were able to stop by and say hi. We were also able to see our friends Kenny and Celeste who live in Ceder City for a few days. We had so much fun just being on our own again. It is amazing how much things change when you have a child. You never seem to have enough time for each other after you have kids, so it was so nice for us to be able to get away for a week. We were able to sleep in, go to movies whenever we wanted, go out to eat, take long walks, take naps, and play games with out being disrupted. Oh it was so nice, but by the end we were ready to go and see our little boy. I missed him so much!!!!


Sorry it's a little blurry but it's from Matt's iphone. It's all we had

After Saint George we had a week to settle in and be with both families and then we were off again to Lake Powell. Lake Powell was amazing. Matt and I left Ammon with my parents and we spent a week full of food, fun, and freedom with the Nelsons! We hiked, swam, water-skied, wake boarded, played games, and had a great time. Matt swam a half mile every day and was pressured by his younger brothers to work out much harder than he was used to, so he spent a lot of the time being sore. I, on the other hand, almost died on the tube as I was whipped around at 60 miles an hour over choppy water by my father-in-law. He and Matt were really impressed that I hung on to the tube. My life was at stake. What else could I do??!

After coming back from Lake Powell, Matt went back to work and I enjoyed some more time with his family for another week. That weekend Matt and I decided to get away from everything, again, and go up to his cabin. I can't tell you how much I LOVE this place. It's one of the most peaceful and relaxing places on earth. We brought Ammon with us (yes we do love our child and will bring him with us on fun trips, sometimes) and he loved it as well. The weather was perfect to go outside and play with rocks by the lake all day long. We had the pleasure of having our friends Kenny and Celeste meet us up there. They drove all the way from Ceder City just to be with us for one night. They said it was well worth it. I hope so!

When we got back from the cabin the next day, Matt and his dad and bothers went to the Wind River Mountains for a week on a fishing trip. Yeah, we did come here to work, but who cares about work when your boss is your dad and you can take whatever vacation he takes! There's nothing wrong with that, right? I think these boys LOVED there trip. I think they were tired and sore when they came back, but from what I heard it was well worth it. They hiked 9 miles in and rowed rafts two miles to get to their camp site. They caught big rainbow, cut-throat, and cut-bow trout in one of the most beautiful places Matt had ever been. While Matt was there, I was able to go up to stay with my sister Michelle for a week. We had so much fun playing games, watching movies, shopping, eating candy and talking. What more would you want to do with a sister for a week. It was perfect, besides the fact that Ammon had diarrhea the whole time. Other than that, I loved it. I hate living so far away from family. For those of you that live away from home you know what I am talking about. I am very close to my family but 5 out of 7 of us live outside of Utah and are spread out from one end of the country to the other, literally. North Carolina to Cali. Crazy, huh. But maybe when we are all old and gray we will all be in the same rest home together and can laugh and talk all day long. Or maybe we could make it work before we are all that old, HOPEFULLY!!

The next week my whole family came in town just to leave me alone so they could go to Martins Cove. Lucky Them. They were able to be outside in the 100* weather pushing hand carts and sleeping in tents that were blowing away, while I was home alone in an air conditioned house with movies to watch and ice cream to eat. At least there's one bright one in our family, right? JK, mom, I'm sure it was the funnest thing on earth. While they were gone I had two of my closest friends have baby showers. My friend Celeste is having a baby boy. I was so lucky to be able to be there for that. Then one of my closes friends from high school, Kiley, is going to have a baby boy. I feel like every person I know that is pregnant is pregnant with boys!! What's will all the boys? It was so fun to see old friends from high school that I don't think I have seen since high school. Ammon was cracking me up the whole time we were there. HE loved Kiley's sister, Jessica, so much. Every time she would pull out a camera he would run up to her and give her the biggest cheeser you will ever see. Like soo...






That's my boy for you. He's just a little bit of a spas.



Kiley and me. I feel so lucky cause she isn't due for a while, but I begged her to have her shower while I was there and She did :) she must really like me as a friend. right?

When my family came back from Martins Cove we had almost 2 full weeks to be together. It's crazy that for the first time in about 3 years I had all of my sisters with me and no husbands. As much as we love our husbands they can sometime take us away from each other, but not this time. This time we played and talked all day or as much as our kids would let us. I love my sisters so much and my brothers, too:) It was also fun to see all the cousins together. I have 17 nephews and nieces and all of them had so much fun playing with each other. Ammon was a little intimated by all of them, but by the end he warmed up to them a little. He loves, LOVES my Niece Mya. She is 7 years old going on 20. She is very mature and you wouldn't think you would feel safe having a 7 year old watch your kid at all times, but I'm telling you, she's turning 20 next year or at least that's how she acts. I think that Ammon might of thought that she was his mom for a while. I think she might need to move in with me to be Ammons permenant babysitter, that is if it's ok with Tiffany. It was so hard to see my family leave one by one. and then I had to leave as well. It feels like its once every 5 years that we can all be together and actually enjoy it. We do all get to see each other in September :) but who knows when we will see each other after that.

Ok, enough with the crying. We have wonderful news in my family. Like I said we get to see each other in September because..... my brother Brandon is getting Married!!!!!!!!!! We are sooooooo happy for him and so excited that we get a new sister-in-law. The lucky girl is DeEtte. Brandon met her in DC at their singles ward. They have known each other for over two years and now they are tying the knot. They are now living in Cali where Brandon is doing his residency and then they will be married in the Oakland Temple on Sep. 12. We can't wait. Our family will finally be complete.

Congrats Brandon and DeEtte. We Can't wait!
After they got engaged, my brother Brett and his wife Sarah had there first little boy Jake. What a cutie. I love seeing them with a kid. He is so little and so perfect. He had a hard time coming out but sweet Sarah hung in there and lo and behold little Jack was born. Congrats you guys.

On the down side, Ammon and I got sick with the cold. On top of the cold, Ammon had stomach problems two different times (poor little guy). All in all, with 30 family members being at my parents' house over a period of two months, we only had two emergency room visits. I would say that's pretty good right? Poor little Ethan and Rebecca. We are so lucky that they are all right.

Some random pictures of the trip...


Matt went and joined a rogue motorcycle gang. (Really, his brother Scott has all the gear and let Matt borrow everything for a little joy ride or two)

Matt decided to join a hard core motorcycle gang. What a hunk!!


Ammon learned how to drive a car. Crazy, huh?

My family and I went to the Oaker Mountain Temple open house

Ammon enjoying a cousin dance party. He couldn't keep up with his cousin, Dallin, though.

Flower sniffer.

. Sniffing something else, I guess?


Ammon and Sadie. We couldn't get them to look at the camera at the same time, so this is as good as it gets. My goodness, that little boy is soooo CUTE.

Good bye Utah, until next time.....