Happy 6th Anniversary to Us!

Yes, Sunday will be our 6th wedding Anniversary! It seems like every year goes by faster and faster. It's amazing to think how far we've come. How much we've grown and how much we've been through together. I love Tony so much and am so thankful that we have been sealed together for not only time, but for all eternity too!

Christmas

It's the most wonderful time of the year! We had a great Christmas. Yes, it wasn't as extravagant as in years past but it was just as enjoyable as in years past. Just being able to spend time together was the best part of all. I do have to admit that Christmas Evening I felt like something was missing and I couldn't think of what it was. Then I realised that we hadn't read the story of Christ's birth from the scriptures. Usually it's done Christmas Eve with all the other festivities, but this year somehow it got missed. Yes, the little kids did the nativity, but we sang hymns and primary songs with the acting. So before we went to bed that night I read the story aloud. What a difference just reading about the true meaning of Christmas made! What a wonderful gift we have been given from our Heavenly Father, the Christ child.

Flu Bug

Yes, we got it too. On Saturday night Carson threw up all over himself and all over our truck. It was so much fun to clean up vomit in the Home Depot parking lot at 7:00 at night when it's freezing outside. Tony's brother had to bring us a change of cloths for Carson because we didn't have any for him. The poor kid was only in his underwear and socks wrapped up in one of Alaina's blankets which barely covered him. After that ordeal I got the flu Sunday morning. I was able to make it through Sacrament Meeting but wasn't able to do much more after that. Then Tony got it yesterday. I felt the worse for Tony. At least Carson and I could stay home and rest, but Tony still had to work. Thankfully he has Wednesday through Sunday off from both jobs so he'll be able to recuperate. We're just praying that Alaina doesn't get it. Christmas wouldn't be much fun with a sick 15 month old.

Decorating the Tree

Yes, Alaina really did put some ornaments on the tree. Carson did a pretty good job too. Of course my job was to spread out the ornament after he was done. I think it turned out pretty good.

Halloween

I know it's really late, but here's Carson's pumpkin. Of course I did all the carving, but he picked out the face. I think there is quite a resemblance, don't you?

Just Sittin' Around

Alaina thinks anything that she can fit into is a chair or seat for her. And of course once mom takes a picture of Alaina, Carson needs his picture taken too.

Another Update

We'll I thought that I should fill you all in on what's going on in our life right now. Carson and Alaina are growing and learning everyday. I am continually amazed at how smart they are. Carson is in a preschool group with some other kids in our ward. Each of the moms take a turn teaching. I have a difficult time when it's my turn to teach 4-5 3 and 4 year olds, but they are learning, and they enjoy the time together. Alaina is progressing very well. She jabbers all the time and lately I've been able to understand a word here and there. It's been very gratifying to see my children grow and progress. I'm still working part-time at JCPenny. I actually enjoy it. It's really close to my home, the work is fairly easy and low stress, and the discount is really nice. Tony's job is difficult right now. He is working 30 hours at Diamond Z doing drafting and 40 at the Scentsy Warehouse doing shipping. He is very tired and of course me at the kids only see him for about an hour a day and weekends. While he isn't working at Diamond Z or Scentsy he is searing for a new job to replace the two he is working now. It's been a very trying time for our family. Each day we hope a pray for a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. The good thing about have big trials in our life is that we are able to rely on the lord for help. Tony and I have been reading our scriptures and praying more often and fervently than we ever have in our married life, which will be 6 years in January. At first I was just going through the motions of "doing what I was supposed to" hoping that that would be enough for the lord to bless us with what I wanted ( a new job). But now I'm coming to the realisation that God has a plan for us and I need to submit to the plan. I need to be "doing what I'm supposed to" not for blessings but for my own good and for the good of our family. I don't know what God has in store for us, and part of me is a little scared to find out. But going through this time has humbled me and I know that I will be more willing to accept God's plan. I love my family so much, and thank them for their continual support, i.e. babysitting and moral support. I am also so thankful for Tony. I love him so much! I respect him so much that he is able to do what he is doing right now. Yes, times are hard but we will be better because of it.

Our Trip to the Zoo

We took the kids to the Zoo for the fist time a while ago. Carson had filled up his chore chart, so his reward was to go to the Zoo. Neither one of the kids had been there before and they really liked seeing all the different animals. Carson's favorite animal was, yes, the Monkeys!

Alaina's Birthday

Finally here are the pictures of Alaina's first birthday. It was September 18th. We had two parties. Our house isn't big enough to hold both sides of the family, so we started have two parties for the kids. Hey more cake is always a good thing, right? Anyway Alaina didn't eat very much of the cake but had a good time making a mess of it!

Update

Well I've been waiting to post until I had some pictures to go with it but Tony has to do some "reformatting" before I can download the pictures from our camera. So anyway this is what's going on with us. Alaina had her first birthday in September. She of course had a lot of fun making a huge mess with the cake while managing to eat very little of it. It was fun though. Carson also had a birthday. It was on Halloween again this year! Can you imagine that? He's 4 now. This was the first year that Carson really understood what his birthday was all about. It was fun to get all excited with him. He got his first real bike with training wheels and everything. He's really only been able to ride it once because the whether has been so crummy, but I'm sure the bike will get lots of use in the future. The last couple of weeks have been pretty hectic around here. Tony got a second job, so now he's working 70 hours a week! We don't get to see him a whole lot which is difficult but the second job will really help us get through the holidays. I'm still working part-time at JCPenny in Nampa so we are going back and forth a lot. So with Tony and I both working, preschool, and being in the R.S presidency my days are pretty full. But I know that things will get better. We just continue to have faith and pray that God will provide a way for us to follow. I'm so looking forward to Thanksgiving in a couple weeks. It really gives me the opportunity to think about what I'm thankful for. My list may not be very extravagant, but I mean it. I am thankful for my husband. He works so hard and everything he does is for his family. I love him so much! My children are wonderful. Yes they can make life hard sometimes, but they are worth it! I am so thankful that we have a home to live in, together. Yes, that is it but they really are what I'm most thankful for!

More pictures of the Coast

Everyone has to take a picture of the sun setting over the ocean. Here's mine.

Alaina had so much fun playing in the sand and water. If you look close there is sand everywhere, I even found some more the next day when I changed her diaper!

Daddy's little girl!

Tony's monster crab. This thing was huge compared to all the other crabs we caught. He was mean too. We had to separate it from the other crabs because it was cracking the shells of the other crabs and tearing their limbs off.

I promised this isn't photo-shopped. There really is a Foster Lake in Sweet Home, Oregon.

Playing at the Beach

Just pictures of us playing at the beach. The water was very cold, but it was so much fun to play in the water!

Fishing at the Coast

When we visited the coast in July Tony, Perry, Thomas, Melissa, Davin and Karen all went fishing for Halibit and Rock fish. They were all sucessfully. Tony also caught a ling cod, but couldn't keep it because he caught it in the wrong part of the ocean. Bummer!

How time does fly!

It seems that there is never enough hours in the day, or enough energy in my body to get everything done. Lately I've been doing some "fall cleaning", and some decorating. That's on top of my normal cleaning, laundry, church calling and work. But I don't need to complain to all you busy people out there. Work is just the nature of life whether at home or at the work place. So even with our slow Internet connection I'll try to post some pictures tonight. Thanks for your patience.

Slow Connection

Well, I have to apologize for not posting in awhile. The problem is that we still have dial-up-Internet. Yes, I know we are still living in the stone age. So as you can imagine it takes forever to post anything, especially pictures. But soon we'll be upgrading! So when we upgrade it'll be much easier to post and hopefully I'll be doing it more often. So please be patient with me.

Well I can't seem to get blogger to download any pictures so I'll just tell you about our trip until I can get the pictures downloaded. We left Nampa on Friday and came home the next Saturday night/early Sunday morning. We stayed in Sisters, Oregon the first night at the city park. Sisters is a neat little tourist town. We walked through a couple shops before heading on. That day we stopped at Foster Lake which is near Sweet Home, Oregon. We liked the name so we stopped and had lunch. We had planned on staying somewhere near Corvallis, Oregon that night but to no avail no suitable camping areas were available. So we continued on to Newport, with no idea where we were going to sleep that night. We knew it would be an especially difficult feat because it was Saturday night. For some odd reason I agreed to go on this trip without any prior reservations for Friday, Saturday, or Sunday night. I know, What was I thinking? Anyway we drove down the coast from Newport looking for a place to rest our little heads. Hoping it wouldn't be in the car in the Walmart parking lot. Of course everything was full or extremely expensive. The last place we checked was a camp ground right on the coast near Waldport, Oregon. We drove in and asked the camp host if there was anything available. She must have felt sorry for us, what with two little kids in the car, because she said if site 50 is still open I'll give it to you. Well lucky us that site 50 had been reserved and the people never showed up. So we didn't have to sleep in the car that night. Sunday we looked around Newport and went to the Oregon State Science Museum. It was free and they had some pretty cool stuff to look at. That night we were able to get into South Beach State Park and we stayed there the rest of the week. The week was spent leisurely playing at the beach, crab fishing, walking down the bay front, doing laundry, going to the tide pools, playing at the beach, doing laundry, and fishing. We'll Tony, Perry, Thomas, Melissa, Davin, and Karen all went fishing while Alice, Jana, Rachel, and I stayed with the kids. But they were very successful and had a lot of fun too. The best part about it all is that the guys got schooled by Karen who caught the biggest fish of them all. On Friday we went to glass blowing place and had a custom bowl blown for us. We got to watch the whole process. It was really neat. Anyway buy Saturday we were ready to come home. We hadn't planned on coming home until Sunday, but we decided to just make the long drive home. We ended up getting home about 1:00 in the morning, but we were glad to have all day Sunday to recuperate before going back to the real world. All in all the entire trip was very relaxing and we had a chance to spend some real quality time together as a family.

Our Trip to the Oregon Coast

In July we went on a much needed vacation. We headed to Newport, Oregon. Here is a picture of the bridge in Newport. The weather was actually really good the whole time we were there. We had so much fun! More pictures are to come.

Walking Machine

Here are the pictures of Alaina walking. She's walking all the time now. She falls a lot but she still gets up, and that's the important thing. I also discovered that Alaina is finally getting her first tooth!

Alaina's Walking, Oh No!

Alaina starting walking this week. Crawling is still her quickest mode of transportation, but soon she'll be steady on her feet and be walking all the time. Looking at her you have a hard time believing that she's even capable of walking, especially since she's only 10 months old! I'll have pictures soon.

Alaina's First Ponytail!

Alaina's hair is finally long enough that I can put it in a ponytail. I've been trying to be good about putting her hair up everyday. I hope that by starting young she'll let me do her hair when she's older. Maybe.

What The...?

Last month Tony's friend put on a hot wing cookoff. While we were eating Alaina reached over to Grandpa Foster's plate and took a rib bone. She proceded to chew on the bone for quite a while. Her appriciation for good BBQ is starting young.

Our "New" Trampoline

A few months ago Tony's parents FINALLY sold their house in Carey, Idaho and bought a house in Meridian. Their new house came with a trampoline so they let us have their old one. Here Carson is showing it for you all.

A Parent's Joy

Every mother has to take a picture of their messy baby. This occation Alaina was eating carrots, and with every baby she wants to feed herself. Isn't she just so cute?!

Samson "the trained dog"

In April and May of this year Tony and Samson went through a 10 week dog training class. These pictures are from the day of graduation. Samson graduated 3rd in a class of 30. The later picture is of Tony, Samson, and April the woman who teaches the class. I would say the class was a big success. We took Samson on recent trip to the Oregon Coast. We wouldn't have dreamed of doing that before the classes.

Life According to Carson

The other day Carson, Alaina and I were at the park eating lunch. Carson run up to me and said, "Hey Mom, check this out!" He then proceded to make the following face. That same evening he said the same thing to Tony at least a dozen times with the same face each time.

Fun in the past year.

This is what Carson calls his "Uncle Nathan" hat.








Fishing with the kids.








Need to cool off anyone.

Help! I'm stuck!

Where'd that kid go?