First Time Swimming!!

Today Nikki and her kids came over to swim! I have been wanting to go swimming FOREVER but was way nervous to take Paige by myself, purely because I didn't know what to expect. So it was a perfect set up with Nik and her kids! And we all had a BLAST!! I am so excited to have them come over again, and more of our family too!!

There was no shade in the pool area, and Nik and I had anticipated that, so I brought two umbrellas to make shade. Nik had the idea to pull two chairs together. IT made for one pretty cool little station for Paige. =>
My friend Julie gave Paige this ADORABLE swimming suit! This suit had a big part in making me want to go swimming so badly! I wanted Paige to use it and look so cute! And she did. =>
When we first got to the pool Paige fell asleep for a little while, which was totally fine with me haha. When she woke up clouds had covered the sun (but it was still a bajillion degrees) so I wanted to brave the pool with her. We went in the "cold pool" first. She obviously did not like it too much.
I felt like such an evil Mom, but I thought it was so cute at the same time! =>
So I decided to try again. This time Paige did not cry, she was just unsure and not enjoying it too well, but it was definately a step up from teh first atempt!
We had survived the cold pool!!! Now time for a shade break. =>
After a little shade break I decided we should try the "little pool". I had tested the water out first and it was not hot, it was as warm as we make Paige's baths (but it was certainly not cold like the big pool). As soon as I put Paige in her eyes closed and she just relaxed.We could not get her to open her eyes for anything while she was in the water. When I took her out of the water she would open her eyes, but put her back in and closed they would go. haha
The cute little girls swimming. A little before Paige and I came in the small pool Nikki and the kids went in there. That quickly changed to their favorite pool and they stayed in there for most of the rest of the time.
Paige and I just chilling in the jaccuzi.
I can not believe how much Paige liked the warm pool. Well I guess I can because she LOVES baths, and it did feel like her bath water.
I know we were there only a couple hours ago, but I can not remember why I was laughing during this picture. haha But I do know we all had a BLAST playing together in the pools!
Nikki and her kids in their favorite pool.
Sydney was learning how to snorkle. She got pretty good at it!
After all her swimming adventures Paige was tuckered out. She went right to sleep in her little cove while Nik the kids and I continued swimming. What a great little baby!
I just HAD to put one more picture of Paige in her cute little bathing suit! I might be a tad obsessed with it haha. I just can't get over how precious she is in it!!
While I was packing up the towels and gear I had to make some shade for Paige. This was the best I could come up with that would stay by itself. haha I amuse myself. =>

I LOVED playing with Nikki and her kids! I am so glad they could come over! And I am so glad I was able to take Paige to the pool and survive! Maybe after a couple more times with company I will be brave enough to take her by myself..... we will see. But Paige will become a water loving/California girl yet! haha

Cousin Fun

This week we had two opportunites to play with family! On Wednesday we (Me, Jared and Paige) went over to Jenny's house for some smores and family! This was the first time a lot of my family would meet Paige. We had a blast up there, and Paige did so great meeting so many new people and being in such a loud environment (my family get togethers are FAR from quiet). I unfortunately forgot my camera and only had my video camera, so I have lots of video from that night but no pictures. Just trust me, we had a BLAST!

The next day Paige and I went over to Nikkis hosue to play with family again! I LOVED seeing them two days in a row!! The little girls could not get enough of Paige that day!

Paige playing with Sydney.
Hailey, I mean princess Snow White, and Paige.
Paige and Tess.
This little girl can not get enough of Paige! It is SO adorable! At the family smores night the night before Bella was ALWAYS by Paige's side when she met a new person. No matter who was holding her Bella would always help out and give lots of kisses and hugs to Paige. It was totally cute!
Raygan could not get enough of Paige either! She was not at the family smores night but when playing the next day, every five minutes she and Bella would come up to me and want to hold, Kiss, touch, talk to Paige. I LOVE that they love her so much! Hopefully we can live around them long enough for them to all play together! HOw fun would that be!?! We just LOVE family!!

Sunbeams!

Last Sunday Jared and I substituted one of the sunbeam classes (our ward has 5). We got a class with four 3yr old boys.

The lesson was on the creation. So how to teach three year olds about what God created..... Jared's iPad to the rescue! He was so excited to use it! We Googled all sorts of animals, insects, and stuff having to do with earth (sun,etc) and made a slideshow-ish thing out of them. The game was to have the kids say what the picture was of (ex:lion, ant, hippo, etc) and sometimes even make the sound of the animal. Then we would ask "Who made the __(insert animal)__?" and they would answer (super excitedly) "Heavenly Father and Jesus!"
It seriously was one of the cutest things I have ever seen! I couldn't stop smiling the whole time they were playing the game! And in the middle of the game one of the little boys decided he was brave enough to touch the screen to change the picture (you just run your finger along the screen and the next picture appears. Again, the iPad is frickin sweet!) That brought a whole new level of excitement to this game! And Jared was cute and let each boy take turns changing the picture on the computer.

I don't know how much these little guys got out of our lesson, but it was fun to attempt to teach them! And I love seeing Jared play with kids! He is AMAZING with kids, and that makes me excited to have one of our own and get to see Jared play with her all the time! =>

I Guess I Need To Put A Ring On It

I kid you not, this is the conversation I eaves-dropped on while waiting in line to get dinner at Cafe Rio (Saturday, while the boys were playing Star Craft)

Little Girl (about 4 years old): Daddy where is that ladies pretty ring?

Dad: She is probably not married yet honey

Little Girl: But she is going to have a baby, isnt she?

**by this time I have looked around the whole line and yep, I am the only pregnant person*

Dad: Well sweetie, people dont HAVE to be married to have a baby, they are just naughty. But you have to be married to have a baby right?

Little Girl: Right, no babies until after I get married, like you and Mommy.


Can I just say, What The Heck? First of all, what a dang observant and smart kid! Second, as a parent shouldn't you try to explain things in a more appropriate way? Like "she must have left her pretty ring at home" or "when your pregnant things fit differently" SOMETHING! For heavens sake! I AM married, and I am too fat for my ring! Goodness, now I am a little floosy to some 4 yr old girl out there......

We Are Pregnant!!

Yes, to most of you out there this is not new news, and to some this is a speculation, but I will confirm: I AM PREGNANT! I am seven weeks along, so not too far into it,but enough to feel pregnant. I have been feeling nauseous, but luckily I have not thrown up yet, and I can feel my stomach (uterous) growing, which can be less than pleasant sometimes. All in all I think I have been lucky to not have too bad of symptoms. And since I write about everything, I will tell how we found out this news.

On Labor day Jared had noticed that I was a little over a week late for my period. I knew that => I had just attributed it to our present state of flux and the stress I have felt from it. Jared did not write my excuse off so willingly. He wanted me to take a pregnacy test. I am pretty sure my exact words for a response were "I don't want to. They always say no. I don't want to waste another one, just be patient" Jared didn't settle for that either. => We had one 'First Response' test in our packed car so he went out and got it and I reluctantly took it. Not two seconds after I ran out of pittle did it say a bright and gleaming positive. Needless to say this took me by complete suprise, afterall these tests never say yes! I ran out to Jared, wanting to scream of joy and fright but I constrained myself, and brought him into the bathroom. He was about as shocked as I was. Then he thought the test could be wrong, because it had been sitting in the car, so we headed off to WalMart. There we bought four DIFFERENT brands of pregnacy tests. In Jared's mind they could not all have the same testing stuff so if one had a fault they would not all and we could get the most correct answer. So we get back to his parents house, there was a lot of pittle, and wala, EVERY test had a bright gleaming positive! We could definately not be uncertain now, we were pregnant. => (For some reason its not as beaming positive in the picture, but trust us, they are all positive =>)

We decided then to not tell anyone until we were 3 or 4 months along. That way we could have our life settled down with a little direction, and be certain that a miscarriage would not happen. Well about two hours later we had no idea what to do next, so we decided we could tell my mom so she could help and talk me thru those months and then tell everyone else later. We wanted to have a fun way of telling her (I have planned ways to tell everyone from family to friends, and all cute ways since we were first married!) We decided the cutest and fastest way to do it was thru text. I sent my mom a picture of all five pregnacy tests and wrote "Your 5 for 5 Grandma" and expected her to call me. Well, little did I know that she was in the middle of a big Walker family Labor day party, and that she would hand her phone to my dad who would then proceed to announce what I had sent to the whole family and then call me and ask me in front of them. Haha I guess thats the dangers of a big close family. Then my mom told my sister to call me, and she was at a big Pommerville family party in Utah so they all found out. Alas, my secret was out, and a total of 3 hours after Jared and I had originally found out. So I guess that took care of telling my family in a cute way, I didn't even need to tell them at all! Haha. And then the speculations came. My Mom was very excited about it, so naturally she would tell anyone who would listen, and my sister was so excited about it she told everyone and posted it on the internet (on facebook). This was definately not how I planned it all to get out, but its not bad, I don't have to do anything cute and cleaver, all I have to do is confirm what everyone is hearing => I guess thats just the lazy in me coming out. =>

Well there you have it, my world wide confirmation! We are going to have a baby! The due date is May 7, 2010 (but I am sure that will change when I get farther along) We are nervous and excited, stressed and happy. It is really a jumble of mixed emotions => And we do have tentative names picked out. (I have been making aa list since I was like 12, and Jared has narrowed it down haha) If it is a boy Jared loves the name Daxton (Dax for short), so that will most likely end up being his name. And for a girl Jared does not have as strong of an opinion, so we will just have to see. The top girl names are Callie, Miley, Loreli, Audra, oh and the list goes on and on => So we will see.
I think that answers about all the questions I have gotten. => We are going to have a baby! Holy cow that is weird!! haha

Long Due Pics

So, we have been in Denver for a little over a week, and NO pictures have been taken yet! I am so ashamed! => lol I was going through our cameras to see if there is any pic we might have taken that I forgot about, but zero! I did, however, find fun pictures that I never poseted, so this post is officially an update post => And all these things happened long before (ok 1-3 weeks) we came to CO.
Ok, so I might have lied => These first pictures are from before I got married. They are on my 19th birthday actually => Thats when I recieved my endowments.
Many members of my family were able to attend the same session! And I loved that!! This is me with my Grandpa Pommerville!


Me and my parents! This was such a neat experience, and a very happy day!!!


I recieved my endowments and got married in the Newport Beach temple. A pink temple! =>

And the best part, my better half was there! It was the first time (other than when we met) that we were in a temple together! I LOVED it!!!

On March 30,2009 I became and aunt!!! Now I know, I am aunt age to many of my cousins, but this is my first legitamate neice! Jared's brother and his wife had a baby girl they named Madison. This is a picture of Jared holding Madison when she was only 4 days old!
She is so adorable! Jared was way nervous to hold her because he has never held a new born baby before. He has held a month old baby, but never this tiny thing. He was so cute with her! It almost makes me want a kid again, almost =>
And this is Baby Madison in her 2 week pictures. Isnt she just adorable?!?!?
This last conference (April 2009) we went down to Utah. Jared had a mission reunion that weekend in West Jordan. Heather was nice enough to let us stay at her house for the weekend! While we were there Jared became Hollands best friend! => She has this rocking elephant, and one time Jared told her to flap its ears, and then it flew! Well, do it once and youll do it a thousand times! Litterally! Jared got a nice little work out! And so did David. They traded off when one of them needed a rest. It was so cute!

Holland is one of the most adorable kids I have ever seen! And she is so inteligent!

A couple days before we left Rexburg, Jared and I decided to go to Big Jud's for dinner. They aparently have "the biggest hamburgers in Idaho". They have this contest, whoever can finish a "big juds" burger gets their picture on the wall. They have a 1lb, 2lbs, and 3lbs hamburger. Jared decided to try the 1lb burger.
This thing is HUGE!!! Jared was way excited to get going. Before the hamburger came out, they brought us large fries, whihc were also enormous! And of course, Jared ate most of them =>
No, he didnt really eat it like that, i dont think it is possible. => I just thought it was a cute picture.
But he really did finish it! Everything!!! He also finished my BLT! The waitress came by after all the fries were gone, his hamburger was gone, and he was eating my BLT! She was so impressed, and of course, my hubby's picture is on their wall!! Wahoo!!! => What a stud!
So, of course, the next day, Jared had to make his own "Big Jared". He made the buns from scratch, put 2lbs of ground beef, 1lb of bacon, lettuce, pickles, and ranch. =>It was crazy!
He was so proud of his little hamburger! => This one lasted two days. => He said it was so good! i didnt have any, I cant say I really wanted some, thats like eating a whole cow! =>

On this same day that Jared made his "Big Jared" I was packing the stuff room. => While I was packing I found my JR High cheer uniform. I, being the nerd that I am, had to try it on => And to my suprise, it fit!! I was so excited! I came out into Jareds madhouse (aka kitchen) and did some cheers for him! =>
I dont know why, and I cant really explain, but I was so excited that I could still fit in it!
Ok, the last thing I will talk about in this long post => is Flat Stanely. HE is a little character that Cole is doing in his first grade class. Its supposed to be this boy, who got squished by a chalk board, and now he is flat, so he can easily travel anywhere. Cole sent Flat Stanely to me and Jared. Some of Jareds friends took him to see moose, go skiing, etc, then when we were starting our drive to CO we took him to Twin Falls.
These are the Shoeshone Falls. Aparently they are the biggest waterfall, next to Niagra Falls, in the United Stated. Let me tell you, they are HUGE!! It was o cool to see them!
Jared and I got soaked just from standing on the looking ledge! It was so fun!
In Jerome there are milk cows (holstine cows) everywhere!! I really did marry a farm boy!! => We just had to get a picture of Flat Stanely by a cow! And the cow really was that close to the car, no joke!
And here is Flat Stanely by the Twin Falls temple. This is the temple that Jared worked on, and its right by the canyon rim and the shoeshone falls! What a gorgeous temple!!
Well, thats all the pictures I have right now! What a long post! Sorry about that => I hope you enjoyed it! I will try my hardest to have pics from Denver up soon, as soon as I take some! =>

Parenting Practice

For the last two weeks (March 18 - March 31) I have been in Boise watching my Aunt Elise's little girls, while she and Mike went on a cruise to Spain. All I can say is they are so watching my kids (if I ever have any) when Jared and I go to Spain! => hehehe They had a blast, and I am so glad I was able to help them have this romantic/exciting/much needed vacation!
While they were on their little adventure, their girls and I had adventures of our own => The first Thursday I was there (the 19th) was their last day of school before Spring Break. I took them to school in the morning then had a while to adjust to the new house and thought of actually watching three girls. => Throughout the next couple days there were ups and downs, as excpected, but always fun along the way! Here are some pics I took of the kid watching adventure!
While Abby was at Gymnastics one day, I took the other two girls to Jack-In-The-Box for lunch. They wanted to go in and eat, then they were amazed at these chairs. (they were just chairs with a swivel table on it, but they thought it was the coolest thing in the world)

After gymnastics one day Sammy was playing 'Super Girl" in the van, and wanted a picture taken of her!
Another day Samantha had a friedn over. They were so cute playing outside! THey were so excited that it was the "first day of spring" The next couple pictures are from the same day. I took the girls to a place called "Planet Kids". To describe to all those who have not heard of it, imagine a McDonald's play place, and give it steroids => It was a huge warehouse like place that had this giagantic play place. The girls stayed in this place for over 5 hours, and when I pulled them away, they still wanted to stay longer!
They were so cute playing in these tubes! I couldnt resist the picture!
These girls loved the ball pit! They were so cute playing in there together!
Can you find Sam? =>
I am such a nice cousin => These girls wanted to get their face painted at the Planet Kids, so I let them! It was fun!

The girls ate slushies and pretzels at Planet Kids, and they discovered that the stools spun, so they came up with this routine! It was so cute!

How could I resist a Krispy Kreme store?!?!?! The girls had so much fun watching the doughnuts on the belt thing, and the donuts were so good!
We must have gone to Krispy Kremes at least five times while I was there. I know, not so healthy, but sooooo good!
One day teh girls found out I could do a cart wheel and the worm and all these other gymnastics moves, so we ended fun having a gymnastics day at home. It was so much fun! But I have not been that sore (the next day) since high school! It was intense!
Madison and Abby are way good at gymnastics, and Abby just loves it! Samantha did some, but she prefered to draw =>
Being there for two weeks, laundry is going to happen. There was one drawback tho, I didnt know who the clothes belonged to, and the girls are so close in sizes, I couldnt do it alone. So, I waashed and folded the laundry and sorted it into two hampers: tops and bottoms. Then I took it upstairs and had the girls sit (like in the pic) and I would hold one piece of clothing up at a time, and the girl who it belonged to would raise their hands to claim it. It ended up actually being fun! And the girls were excited to do it the second and third times! =>
We played so many games while I was there! These girls are addicted to "Sorry" and "Tennishoes among the Nephites" games. No joke, we played eaach one at least 5 times a day! And we did puzzles! I think this picture it so funny, Madison and Samantha did many of those puzzles (with help from Abigail) but the chicken one Abby is frowning at, was the incredible puzzle from heck (i dont think I can say the other word on a blog) => hehehe it took us four days to finish! And it was an amazing feeling when we finished it! =>
So, overall, I am pretty sure the girls enjoyed themselves, and I had a good time too. This was definately an experience. => It hasnt totally deterred me from having kids, just postponed the wanting them indefinately => I knew they were hard work, but I had never been responsible for kids for that long of a period before. I found a whole new meaning of hard work, and I understand how much harder it has to be when they are your own, and you dont have the light at the end of the tunnel (of going home) to look towards! I have a new found respect and appretiation for my Mom, and moms everywhere. And I am sure dads have a hard time too, and they need appretiation, but overall, moms are super heros!