Tax Collector took 2!

Eric went spear-fishing last night and caught 4 of these huge fish. They are called parrot Fish and in my opinon, are the best fish ever! They actually caught 4 but only came home with 2. After Eric speared the fish, they string them up and put them in this mesh bag (pictured below). Then they just drag the line with the bag at the end while they continue to snorkel.
Then comes the "TUG". That "TUG" would be a shark (yes people, I did say SHARK!) coming to take his share of their winnings. The SHARK bit a whole through the mesh bag and easily ate two of their four fish. Eric calls it the "tax collector" He says you have to give back to the ocean when you are blessed with fish.
AND I AM STILL SHOVELING SNOW!!

Computer wo's

Does anyone have any suggestions on a good place to take my laptop to have it tuned up? It is running SO SLOW and since I know nothing about computers, I have to take it to someone who knows more than just how to turn it on...

attempt at peek-a-boo

Of course when you want your kids to do something oh-so-cute on camera, they NEVER WILL! Neelah has learned to play peek-a-boo, yesterday in fact, and I wanted to get it on film so that Eric could see it too. This was the best I could do honey. You will just have to figure out how to get your web cam up and running!

Wow!

To anyone interested, my friend Amy posted a YouTube clip on President Hinkley that warmed my heart. Click HERE to go to her blog and see it too.

These are the Days...

Most of you think of Van Morrison when you hear the words, "These are the Days". He did make that phrase famous with his amazing voice (of which, I am listening to right now). But those are not they kind of days I am talking about in this post.

In the above picture, you would initially think that the camera is crap but no, it is a brand new digital camera that takes amazing pictures. What you see as blurry, is in fact the actual weather. This is what it looks like out our door. The wind is blowing the blizzardy snow at around 30 miles an hour. Yes folks, these are the days when I resent Eric for being in Hawaii. He tells me last night that he was cold because it was 67 degrees and windy. Suck it up man, I am the one who gets to shovel this off the driveway since you are busy applying sunscreen!

Oh, the independance...

When Finn was a little older than Neelah is now, he used to hide with Maile under this same table in the front room. Now he has another playmate who, according to the look in her eyes, ADORES him! Finn is such a good brother when it comes to making Neelah laugh and giggle. We are working on the sharing thing...that will take some time I think. I hope they are always best friends!

Since Neelah has recently learned to crawl, she has been so much happier. So far, I can put her in the front room and surround her with toys and she stays put in there. She hasn't mastered the crawl up the step to get out of the front room...YET.

From this picture, you would think that she mastered the step but alas, no. Not this time.

Cuties!

Ready for church...

blue eyed beauty!

Farewell Breakfast

Last week when Eric left, we all went to breakfast before I took him to the airport. Here are a few pics of the last goodbyes. We miss you Eric

Beloved Prophet

President Gordon B Hinkley
Our beloved Prophet passed away last night. What a contemplative mood I am in right now. I have been more familiar with President Hinkley more than any other prophet, he was called as Prophet when I was in High School. I loved watching him. He was always so full of energy and always quick to make a joke. His love and concern spread to all continents, all cultures. He was such an example of acceptance. I will miss him and am so thankful to have a Prophet who can guide me and my family. We are all so BLESSED!

HAWAII

We are coming to visit! We arrive March 3rd and leave March 11th. For all those of you who live there, lets plan a get together! Food, friends and the Beach. What more can a person want, well, except me being the sun-phobe that I am! :) To see all of you, I will gladly smother on the sunblock!

See you soon!

Erics Palace

For any of you who aren't familiar with Army Barracks rooms, here is a shot of the comforts that Eric lives in. This is it folks! He has a bathroom and a small kitchenette that aren't shown but this is where he will most likely be if you are talking to him. Or maybe he will be in the ocean but then you can't talk to him then, can you?
Sharlene, check out the IHOME you gave to us on Eric's nightstand. I don't get to enjoy it until he goes to Iraq. Then I will bring it home with me after we visit him in Hawaii in March.

Stealer...

The other day, Amy was gracious enough to deal with 4 wild children while I went to a work meeting. After picking them up, I see this picture and think that this may have been the one moment where the kids played nice together. When I got to the house to pick my kids up, Camden was having a little quiet time in his room. That tells me that the boys were fighting! Sorry Amy!! You are a saint, and I really appreciate you!
If you want to know the crazy story about why Syd is wearing her fleece outfit, check out the Rossi's blog. Apparently, Syd has as much personality as Cam does.
Another happy moment.

So this last week, I had to work on Monday, Tuesday and a little on Wednesday. I felt like I was dumping my kids off all the time! I feel really guilty about it. It is more difficult for me to enjoy my job now that Eric is gone and I have the worries of where my kids are and are they being good or not. I also worry that they feel abandoned. I am sure they don't, but I can't help feeling that way. I am still adjusting to this whole life without my best friend, Eric. I miss you honey!

Best Friends...so far

Here they are, my little angels. Well, most of the time. Here we are, playing blocks before naps. Neelah and Finn love playing in the tent together.
Excuse me...Can I get in too?
Knock, Knock.
So happy until Finn steals one of her toys or shoves her out of the tent.

Fun with Lobster

I know that this is a pretty crappy picture. It was taken with Eric's camera phone but I wanted to show you all just what Eric is up to. If you find yourself beginning to feel pity for the "poor soldier forced to serve his country" ....DON'T!

Eric had dinner with our good friends Dane and Kerilyn last night. Dane has a friend who apparently flies fresh lobster to the island to sell to local merchants etc. Bummer that they saved a few for themselves!

Instead, direct your pity toward me since I am still here wiping poopy butts! :)

Snow Day

Today we woke up to SNOW!! By the time we got around to shoveling there was 12 inches to shovel! We put Neelah down for a nap and bundled Finn up.
The funny thing is that every time it has snowed this winter, Finn will play for about 20 min and then want to go back inside. He has never been a huge snow-playing kid. Today he was out there for over an hour and loving every minute of it! You can't tell by this picture, can you?
Finn climbed the mountian! It took him a while but he never gave up.

This is mom's attempt at teaching Finn how to make snowangels. Finn didn't want to lay down in the snow and then when he tried to get up, he couldn't. When Mom and I were done shoveling and were too cold to just stay outside, we told Finn it was time to go in. He shocked us by saying he wanted to stay outside and play some more!

So when we finally convinced him to come inside, we were in the garage taking off all our snowy clothes. That was when Finn started crying and telling us that "it is freezin' out here! why are you taking my pants off???!!!" When we got his pants off and went into the house to get dry clothes, I felt his underwear and it was wet too so we got a dry pair. His poor bum was beet red from sitting in the snow. The kicker is that he didn't complain until we started taking his clothes OFF! I love Finn!

Any Suggestions?

Today Finn keeps asking to play with his Leapster. I keep telling him that we don't play with our Leapster on Sundays. This is his response to that:

Mommy, why is it Sunday?

I have tried every random response in my mind to that one.
Because yesterday was Saturday
Because Heavenly Father made Sundays special days
Because we always have Sundays once a week


....

Any suggestions?

pictures from Prudens!

Our sweet friends Jamie and Brittany Pruden invited us into their home the other night for a very informal farewell for Eric. There was plenty of FABULOUS food and laughing. Everyone brought something to eat and a great spirit with them. I am so thankful to all of our friends and family who are so supportive during this strange time.
Neelah was SO READY for bed. Poor girl!
The guys! Steve, Jamie, Jason, Eric (Neelah) and Rob
The Girls! Jenny, Brittany, Eric, Neelah, me Imiko Scout and Emily. (of course that is Finn wanting to go home as well)


THANKS SO MUCH EVERYONE!! YOU DON'T KNOW HOW MUCH WE NEED AND LOVE HAVING YOUR SUPPORT. YOU ARE THE BEST!!

D DAY

Today is the day that Eric left. Sad I know. I made it through the day without breakdown although I am not promising anything. Things could swing the other way when I am alone in my bed tonight. No really, I think I am doing pretty well. It isn't too hard for me to have him away since I know that he is just in Hawaii. I can call him and email him anytime I want, all day long if I want to. (His commander may not be too happy about that.)

It really is amazing the way the Lord helps us through trials. Some of you may know that Eric and I were going through some pretty rocky times just after we moved back to Utah. It was such a hard time for us all. If you had asked me then if I would support Eric leaving me alone and prego to go off and play GI JOE I would have laughed, looked at Eric and asked for a divorce! (So maybe that is only 50% true).

But now, things are totally different for us and I know that I didn't change and Eric didn't change. We just relied on Heavenly Father to guide us and help us to accept each other and most of all just LOVE EACH OTHER. I know I couldn't do all that by myself. I am so thankful for the blessings my family has received this last year!

I know this is a pretty sappy post but I wanted to let Eric know that I am so PROUD of him!! Although I don't understand, I am grateful that he is the loyal, devoted person that he is. I am grateful that he can teach those things to our children. I am so blessed to have him as a husband!

I will miss him every minute of every day, especially when I feel sick or the kids are driving me BONKERS!!

Family Home Evening at Chuck E Cheese!

Tonight we went with our friends the Rossi Posse to Chuck E Chesse. I have to say, we haven't ever taken Finn there before (I know, he is deprived!) and we had a BLAST! Above is a pic of Finn and Syd on a "date" in the car. Love the grins!
Camden and Finn hard at work racing...where did they learn to drive?
SCORE!!
You know this ball went into the 40 point hole!
Hit the Alligators as hard as you can!
The girls.

It was so good to go out and spend some time focusing on the kids. Eric is really feeling the fact that he won't be around them for a while. Neelah has become such a daddy's girl, it will be a hard one for her when he leaves. We are still waiting for her to officially crawl. She is taking her sweet time and I am okay with that. I am not ready to re-arrange my house to waist level.

Backwards posts...

Dad and Neelah, Christmas morning
At one point, Finn was more interested in Neelah's toy than his own.
And we finally convinced him to get on the bike, he hasn't been on it since!
This has been the absolute hit of Christmas. We have had to set certian time limits per day or else he would play ALL DAY LONG!!
Sweet girl on xmas!

New Years Announcements....

Warning: I am quite blunt in this post...If you don't appreciate that quality in me then you may want to consider passing up this post but I assure you, It will be well worth it!







Any of you who don't know what an I.U.D. is, let me fill you in. It is a form of birth control called an Inter-uterine device. Basically it is 99.9% effective and doesn't allow for your body to grow an embryo. It is placed in the Cervix and since it is a foreign object, your body produces masses of white cells to try to fight it (which your body can't do) so consequently a pregnancy will never survive with all the white cells down there. It really is a fabulous creation. At least I thought so until I GOT PREGNANT WITH ONE IN PLACE!!!

Back up, after meeting with my doctor, it is more likely that it either fell out or is floating around somewhere in my belly. Don't worry, it is sterile. Since you would think that I would feel something like that FALL OUT, I am thinking it may be floating around somewhere. Don't be concerned if you use one of these, this almost never happens. I just get to be the lucky one.

I am 11 weeks along and have gratefully moved past the part where I cried almost daily for the first 6 weeks. We are thankful that we are blessed with another sweet spirit in our family, however now is not the time we would have liked that to happen. Moving on to the next part of my blog entry......


Eric is leaving in the next week to start his training in Hawaii prior to his 6 month tour in Iraq. He won't be here for almost my entire pregnancy and/or the delivery. He won't get home until early to mid November. He is really excited to go (albeit this new info). It really is his calling to go out and do the things most of us don't want to do. I am truly proud of him and his duty to our country. Don't get me wrong, I wish he would be happy with a 9 to 5 desk job but that just isn't Eric.

Eric will be in Hawaii for 2.5 months and then off to Iraq after that. We are planning to go visit him while he is in Hawaii and have a nice little family vacation. I will be posting updates that he sends to me so keep checking out the blog to see what the latest on Eric is.

Now on to more fun topics....Here are some pictures of the kids on Christmas (sorry so long overdue) and just some other crazy pictures.




Here is Finn getting ready to go see what Santa brought.
Here he is with his loot. Neelah was still asleep. Unfair, I know but she isn't even a year old yet.
He didn't want anything to do with his BIKE at first, just the pirate stuff!
Of course Dad had to join in
Here is the favorite! He didn't put it down all morning!