World Travelers

Dallas likes to make fun of me because before we got married, the only places I'd ever been (with the exception of a school trip to New York) was Boise and Utah.  The last two weekends the girls and I took a couple of roadtrips, one to Utah to see Dallas' parents, and one to Boise to watch the State Boys Basketball Tournament.  When we got home, Dal said that Amaya and Oaklie have now been everywhere I've been :)

 Our first stop was Layton to visit my wonderful friend Kristin, her husband, and their adorable baby boy.  Of course, I forgot to take any pictures, so you'll have to use your imagination to picture the wonderful time we had.  I had a serious case of dry mouth and chapped lips by the time I left because we just sat around and visited for hours!

We then traveled south to Highland and saw Grandpa and Grandma Abrams! Amaya and Oaklie were super excited to visit them and Aunt Tiffany and we had lots of fun.  Amaya was especially intruiged by Zoey, their little dog.  She loved to watch her run around and play, but she would freak out if the dog got within 10 feet of her.  She is still talking about the "ruff ruff" and how she's "shhhh!" sleeping. haha.  Tony and Jackie spoke in church that Sunday and shared a great story about Dallas and read a letter he sent home from basic, which I had never heard.  It was really cool.

I did a terrible job taking pictures, but I got a few.

Aunt Tiff. She's a freshmen in high school in Utah and such a fun auntie!

Grandpa Abrams

I got home from Utah and I was super ticked I didn't take more pictures, so when we headed to state I went to the other extreme and took TOO many pics!

I've been watching Nathan play ball since he was just a wee lad playing Rigby Youth Basketball.  It's hard to believe that the same kid now towers over me and is going to be filling out his mission papers in a few months!  When we heard their team made it to state, we knew we'd have to make the trip to Boise and watch. 

Nate is not only a great basketball player, he's a phenominal person.  Amaya and Oaklie adore their Uncle "Nee" and Nate stops by our apartment several times a month to play with the girls. It means a lot to me that he makes such an effort to see them because with their daddy gone they love and need the extra boy time.

We had tons of fun cheering them on! Go Trojans!

The little chunkers in the top right corner are Oaklie and her cousin Paxton.  Come on Oaklie! You really need to pick it up on the weight gain!

My lovely sister Hailey, Kory, and Pax.

The huddle before Game 1

Oaklie was our little dancing fool at the games. Sorry, I had the camera turned the wrong way.

Nate won Amaya this bunny in the quarter machine after his last game and she just loves it! She kept that bunny in a death grip for two days after we got home.

We went swimming at the hotel after and Nate threwAmaya up so high she almost hit the rafters!

The drive home.  Is there anything more precious than a sleeping baby?

Of course, we got home and all got sick.  Thankfully, I've got a paramedic for a sister-in-law to cheerfully answer my questions at 11:00 pm.  We're feeling better now but we're quarantined to our house for a few days. 

Now I've got to brag a bit about my baby bro.  Each year they have an all star team in East Idaho.  They choose the best seniors from each school to play in an All Star Game and Nate was selected to play this year!  It's tonight but we didn't get to go because we've been sick :(  Nate and Megan Olaveson won the three-point contest during halftime of the girl's All Star Game.  Way to go! The guy who was commentating on the game online said this about Nate, "Clark can get up the air. He might not be very tall, but boy he can soar!"

A little update on Dallas.  Of course, he was bummed to miss seeing his parents and Nate's games, but we're also getting super excited for his two week leave in June! It can't get here soon enough! There's an old saying that "no news is good news" and that's definately true of the news coming out of Baghdad.  Nothing too exciting, which is great. Dallas has been working less and less as more power is handed over to the Iraqi Army.  Today he worked for 30 minutes, went to the gym for 2 1/2 hours, and talked to us for over an hour.  Pretty tough life.

I guess the guys in Dallas' section tease him about being super hard core, and they made this movie poster making fun of him.  Pretty funny if you know Dallas that well.

Here's the cool flag Dallas got.

I am very glad we're not taking any more road trips anytime soon because I am EXHAUSTED!

Our Little Ladies

Our girls are getting so big so fast! Amaya is now 1 1/2 and Oaklie is six months old! Time is just flying by.  I took Oaklie to get her six month pictures taken by the wonderful Brianne Serrano and she took some of Amaya and me. As always, they turned out great! Brianne has been our photographer since Amaya was born and I have absolutely loved our pictures every time! She is great with kids and really efficient and they always turn out beautiful!

I wouldn't exactly call these "family pictures" because we are missing one very important member of our family.  I am SO excited for the pictures we will all be taking when Dallas gets home!

Our little girls are growing like weeds! Here's some updates:

Amaya is a full blown toddler--and boy can she light up a room! I can't believe how big she is! She was 26 lbs at her eighteen month appointment and is getting taller all the time. Amaya is talking more each day.  Oaklie used to be "Oh", then she was "Oh-ee", now she's "Okee".  Pretty impressive! I love being able to hear what is on Amaya's mind, and she loves to tell me all about it.  Her favorite things to talk about are dogs ("Ruff-ruff"), Dad, Jesus, Grandpa (Bam-pa), and Uncle Nate ("Nee"). 

Oaklie is now six months old! It's amazing that half a year has already gone by.  She's growing too but she's still a little shrimp at 14 lbs 15 oz.  Her baby cousin is about to pass her up! At her appointment she was in the 26th percentile for her weight and the 97th for her head, which made me laugh pretty hard.  Dallas' nickname was "Fat Head" when he was little, but I couldn't bestow a nickname like that on sweet little Oaklie.  She must have lots of brains in there! :) Her personality gets bigger every day.  She loves jumping in her jumper and laughing at her sister.

I heard this quote when Amaya was a baby and I just love it.

“A baby will make love stronger, days shorter, nights longer, bankroll smaller, home happier, clothes shabbier, the past forgotten, and the future worth living for."

This is definately true and I can tell you that it's DOUBLY true for two little ones! We love our little girls to pieces and love watching them grown and learn!

Dave Ramsey

Inspired by THIS blog, I am trying to do better about writing down funny things my kiddos do.  Most of you have already heard this story, but I'm going to share it again.

Amaya is talking up a storm.  She loves nursery and learned how to say "Jesus" recently. She loves to point to the pictures of Christ in our home and say, "Jesus, Mom."  It's pretty heartwarming.  I'm reading a finance book by Dave Ramsey, and Amaya picked it up the other day and said, "Jesus" and pointed to his picture on the front.  I told her no, that it was a picture of Dave Ramsey, but she kept saying, "No, Ma.  Jesus".  She carried it around and sang, "Jesus, Jesus".

For the record, these are the pictures of Jesus at our house:


And this is the picture of the book:


  
Easily confused, considering the beard, but I'm worried we might need to have a talk with Amaya about idol worship.


Coming soon...new pictures done by THIS fancy lady and updates on my SIX month old and my 1 1/2 year old!

Emotion

So this blog post is rather abstract and not like what I usually post, which is the comings and goings of our family, but it's something I've been thinking about a lot lately. I good friend of mine recently said that emotion isn't something to be afraid of because it is what makes us human.  I've thought about that a lot.  People have accused me before of not having or showing emotion, I guess that is because I don't always show my emotions the way other people do.  Each of us expresses our feelings differently; some of us wear it on our sleeves, and some of us play it a little closer to the chest.  I don't think there is a right or wrong way, it's just different.  One of the ways I express myself and share emotions is through writing.  It is much easier for me to share a thought or a feeling through writing than aloud, and my very long journal is proof of it :) 
We are roughly halfway through this deployment. We've had a lot of ups and downs, thankfully more ups than downs, and overall I feel like our family has grown a lot.  I'm excited and terrified to see the growth that will happen the next six months.  Although, (as wimpy as this sounds) Dallas being deployed has been the hardest thing I have ever done, I have never been more grateful for my blessings.  Sometimes as Amaya, Oaklie, and I are bumping along, I find myself being rather numb to Dallas being gone and think to myself, "Oh this is just normal life." And then I stumble across a picture like this:


This is Dallas and me in June of 2008. We had been dating for two weeks and this picture was taken the night before he left for his annual two week training.  At this point in our relationship, we had already decided to get married and we had already set a date, but we hadn't gotten engaged officially yet (Dallas told me later he'd already bought my ring :) ).   I remember this night.  I felt like my heart was breaking. 
Even though twelve months is a lot longer to go without seeing Dallas than two weeks, it doesn't mean that it was easy the first time he left for Army stuff.  It was still really hard.  I missed him so much it ached.  It was all I could think about, and I looked at his picture a thousand times a day. It was the longest two weeks of my life.
The thing that is so amazing about the Atonement is the compassion that Christ has for us.  Although he has suffered more pain than we could ever imagine, He doesn't tell us that we need to suck it up.  He loves us and He mourns with us.  When Lazarus died, Jesus saw the sorrow of His friends, had compassion on them, and wept, even though He knew that Lazarus would be brought back to life soon. (John 11)

It brings me so much comfort and teaches me so much that Christ is a perfect man who lived a perfect life and showed emotion.  It teaches me that I need to have more compassion for others and that it is not wrong to share your emotions with other people.  I started crying last week in Relief Society and I was really embarrassed about it, it's something that's really out of character for me. Although, to be fair, they shouldn't do a lesson on sacrifice unless they want a lot of crying :) But then I thought about the story Dallas and I had read about Lazarus and it reminded me that it is okay to share our feelings with others.  I have learned so much from other people who have shared their precious moments with me.  If having emotion is what makes us human, then sharing emotion is how we connect. It is what makes us brothers and sisters in the gospel.

Valentine's Day

We had a great Valentine's Day this year! Below is the card we sent Dallas

Poor Dallas had a bit of bad luck today.  They do a lot of races on holidays for the soldiers and Dallas ran in a 5K today.  A few minutes in, his ankle gave out on him and he completely faceplanted onto the concrete and got some road rash on his arm.  He said his ankle didn't hurt, so he started running again and a 1/4 mile later it did it again! He walked over to the doctor's office and he just had a mild sprain, which is great news.  Unfortunately, he didn't get to finish the race but if he baby's his ankle for a few weeks, he'll be set to run the 5k on St. Patrick's Day.

Dallas sent me these beautiful roses and a card. They perked up quite a bit after I put them in water and I think they will be gorgeous in a few days! Amaya puked Valentine's Eve at my parents, so we ended up staying the night there and in the morning my mom watched the girls so I could Skype with Dallas uninterrupted :)

Below is one of the gifts I sent Dallas;  a book by Oaklie to match the one Amaya gave him for his birthday (Amaya's can be seen here)

| View Sample Photo Books | Create your own Photo Book

Since Dallas left I've had the opportunity to become friends with a lot of other army wives. We started getting together on Monday nights for family home evening and the Bachelor. It's been a lot of fun and we had heart shaped pizzas and fondue on Valentine's Day.

For all of you who are watching it this season, I've just got to put in my two cents.  I was so happy that he sent Michelle home!

I really hope he

ends up with her

Because Emily is definately my favorite! Although to be honest, if I was single, I wouldn't date him. So I couldn't really blame her if she dumps him.

Anyway, here's a few more pictures from our night.

I need to take a picture of all of us together but I keep forgetting! Amaya kept loving on her friend and Eleanor would just walk away. haha

My friend Heather took this picture and this is what she said about it, which was so sweet

"I love that I have made friends because of this deployment, but I really love that my daughter made a friend too. Eleanor got visibly excited when Amaya walked in the door tonight. Later they were playing in her room and we could hear them laughing. We went in ready with our cameras and they were jumping on the bed!"

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!