grapefruit

My husband is a bit of a Grinch when it comes to Christmas. No one would ever guess this because He is so happy all season long. But around our house the holiday season is better known as grapefruit season and that puts a smile on Jared's face. My husband LOVES grapefruit. He has been known to eat ten large grapefruit in a sitting. Normally he has to restrain himself to just a few(3 or 4). I also love grapefruit and Jared constantly points out what an act of love it is when he shares his grapefruit with me. We should have guessed but we didn't expect that our 2 and 3 year old would be equally obsessed with the fruit. Now Jared has to share his precious grapefruit with our daughters. He was doing this this evening. Bethany was sitting on his lap. One bite for him one for her one for him one for her. Jared decided to squeeze in an extra bite for him. "Daddy, why do you get 2 bites and I get 1. You get 1 bite I get 1 bite." Nothing gets past that little one she is sooo cute!

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Kids play with the weirdest things

I let the girls keep playing while I was taking a shower today. When i was finished getting ready I walked into the kitchen and noticed something strange about the dishwasher. Kids play with the darnedest things.

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I'm a little bit big enough

I love being a mom. My girls are an absolute delight. They say and do the funniest things sometimes. Here are a few recent ones from Bethany that made us smile.

Bethany has gotten very adept at using our motorola droid phones. she has now started to download apps to our phones without permission. you can't do that we said. she said "yes. I can, I'm a little bit big enough to do that."

The other day jared was showing me his power point presentation for his relationship workshop. Bethany was on my lap not wanting to be left out. Jared and I were talking about the slides when Bethany cut in "s" "e" "x", that spells sex. You shouldn't have to be that careful around you're 3 year old

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Lets play catch up

Welcome back blogger world. WOW has it been awhile!!! I now have 3 amazingly beautiful daughters and life is WONDERFUL! I'm sure none of you will be surprised that I've had my hands full. So lets play a little catch up. Starting with the most impressive update first.





Ellianna "Elly" Afton Kempton was born the day after big sister Claira's birthday (thanks for waiting Elliana)on July 10th. She was 6lbs 12oz, my biggest baby yet. And boy was she beautiful. My favorite doctor Dr. Evans was able to deliver her. She also delivered Claira. This was pretty neat because she was not my primary doctor for this pregnancy due to her being on maternity leave.

My mom was able to come out for a week or so prior to the big day. We had lots of fun, but as I look back at these pictures all I remember is how TIRED I was.

the aquarium



The swimming pool


the 4th of July


The pond


The Botanical Gardens







The Zoo (me taking a rest at the elephant enclosure and trying to get some comfort from the other elephants there)




A very small celebration with Grandma on Claira's birthday. She LOVES her new doll that cries like a real baby. Grandma couldn't resist getting Bethany one too and ended up get Claira an additional birthday present.

And then it was Sat. Jared was working up in Abq. He couldn't leave his booth at the mall without getting fined. His brother was dropping his sister off hours away in the mountains for camp. This is the day Elliana decided to join us. I was nervous he wasn't going to make it. Not really worried just nervous. It was certainly a relief when he finally got there.

nervous smile
Elly came into the world that Saturday evening with a nick name(Elly) and a middle name(Afton, after Jared's grandmother). Her full name, Elliana, wasn't decided until the following morning. The name came from a little ways down the list of E names we had considered. I always thought the name was just beautiful but I couldn't see myself having a little Elliana for a daughter, that is until I held her in my arms and called her Elliana for the first time. It just fit. The name means daughter of God, and she is just that, a beautiful daughter of our Heavenly Father.

I am so blessed to have these wonderful girls. They amaze me daily. From Bethany telling us its ok we can just fix the clock with duct tape to Claira desperately running through the house so she can wave and say "I love you" to the garbage man as he dumps our trash to little Elliana and her very first smile. I love my life. And I am so incredibly grateful to be married to my very best friend. He is amazing with the girls, he is talented and intelligent and I just love to listen to him and be with him. We will be married for 5 years next year the 15th of March.

We share our anniversary with an incredible couple. They raised my best friend growing up Lisa and lived right across the street from us. Theirs, more than any marriage I observed during my youth, served as an inspiring example of love and commitment. They seemed to me to be best friends not just mother and father of their children. Unfortunately, this year Terry Carlton passed away. My heart breaks for his family he was greatly loved, but especially for Rosalie and the loss of her best friend. I can't even imagine.

My sister and I were fortunate enough to go to his funeral where we grew up in southern california. I hope making the trip helped them know how much we love them and care about them and how positive an influence they have been on our lives.

While we were in ca we were able to visit with my grandparents before they left on a trip out east.


To reward our five kids who made the long carride over with us we spent a few days at the beach. They loved it.





We had a good time and are looking forward to my dad coming to visit in a few weeks. Well actually he is going to Colorado springs and we will all meet there it should be a good time!!!

More updates to come.(hopefully)

My beautiful daughter Claira decided to wake up quite early this morning (4:30-5:00ish). Not wanting to deal with it we just brought her to bed with us so we could get some more sleep. She was doing pretty well just laying there. I was about to fall back asleep when she says, "MOO, MOO". I turn over to look at her and she says, "I'm a Tow". With a big smile and a kiss, "Yes my Claira you're my baby cow". She snuggled up and went to sleep.

I was recounting this story to Jared when he got home from work. Bethany overheard and not wanting to be outdone by her sister jumped on Jared's lap and said, "I'm a cow." Jared and I kept talking when Bethany bursts out with, "Milk comes out of the cow's bottom." Ohhh Bethany you never cease to make me smile.

Gila Valley Temple Trip

Bethany loves to see the temple. She gets so excited when we go. Every time someone mentions the temple in one of their talks she looks at me and says, "He's talking about the temple!" She really likes to point out the angel Moroni on top and tell us how he's blowing his horn. When we heard the gila valley temple was having their open house, we knew we just had to go. Bethany was just ecstatic to find out she was going to get to see INSIDE.

We had so much fun and the temple was beautiful. We had to wait in line as our tour group waited for our turn and Bethany could hardly contain herself. Claira was getting into it too, staring up at the temple pointing, "temple, temple". When Bethany first walked in her eyes were huge. She just scoured the room, nothing went unnoticed. She and Claira enjoyed all the paintings of Jesus and the stunning chandeliers. As we walked out of the most beautiful room in the temple Jared asked Bethany,"Wasn't that a pretty room." Bethany answered, "No, Daddy. That was a gorgeous room."

Needless to say, she loved the trip. Unfortunately, we were asked to leave our cameras for the tour. I left mine in the car and didn't get it back out when we were finished to take pictures. I'm just horrible at picture taking.

chocolate milk

I love being a mother. It is such a joy to watch your children learn and grow, and of course with Bethany around it can be quite amusing. One of my favorite treats in the world is chocolate milk, don't ask me why. The girls have now adopted my love for the drink and every day, pretty much every time we eat Bethany asks for chocolate milk. We made a rule that you can only have one glass a day. Bethany usually has it after dinner for dessert. The other day she was adamant about having it after lunch. I told her that she wouldn't be able to have any for dinner. She considered that, but still decided to have some "now". I poured her the milk and she poured in the chocolate. Jared reiterated that she wouldn't be able to have any later. As she was stirring her milk she looked up at the bottle of chocolate and all of the sudden her face lights up."oh", she says,"This says 2, so I can have 1 more. I can have 2 glasses of chocolate milk." Jared and I were both thinking "what is she talking about". It was all said so matter of factly, we couldn't help but smile. We picked up the bottle and there clear as day, in big letters "2 MORE Oz". How do you argue with that? Luckily she didn't ask for chocolate milk after dinner. My girls are such a joy to me. Claira is getting more and more vocal every day. I am having so much fun with them. Being a mommy is great. Happy Mother's Day!

Taking pictures is not my strong point. I'm constantly saying to myself,"oh the girls are so cute where's my camera" or "that is so funny I wish I had my camera". I don't know why its so difficult for me. But last night I started to feel a little better. I came to the conclusion that taking pictures is bad for my childrens health and well being.
You see I planned to take pictures Easter Sunday in their pretty Easter dresses but, Bethany and Claira both got sick on Easter. Claira was so feverish she didn't stay in her dress long enough for us to get any pictures. Luckily we managed to get pics a few weeks later. Last night Jared chaperoned prom. Before he left he asked if I could take a picture of the girls in their PJs (he had a PJ related blog post and wanted to have a picture). No big deal the girls' hair still looked cute from the day and I was putting them in their PJs anyway. Well he left and I found some cute coordinating PJs for the picture. Bethany got in hers just fine. After I got Claira undressed she wanted to go potty. She loves sitting on the toilet, but she doesn't have the hang of it. Anyway, I got her in her PJs and then left the bathroom to get the camera. It wasn't in my bag because Jared took it canooing. I looked in the container he used to keep it dry and it wasn't there either. I passed the bathroom looking in a different spot and the girls were still in the bathroom playing (a no-no in our house) and I yelled for them to get out. Still no camera I passed the bathroom looking in a different spot. My family knows I get a "little" frustrated when I can't find something. "Claira get out of the bathroom, do you need a time out!" I was searching the kitchen wondering what in the world Jared had done with the camera(had someone stolen it*), he just had it that afternoon! Suddenly, I heard a BIG crash and a startling scream. CLAIRA. She knocked the cupboards above the toilet down on herself. The cabinet can't actually fall on her but everything IN it can. The falling cabinet knocked her off her perch on the toilet. I found her on the ground shampoo, hairties and glass all around. I scooped her up and quickly assessed. There was blood, it could have been a lot worse. Just one slice right by her eye. She was crying of coarse and every time she wiped her eye she rubbed the cut. She wouldn't let me touch it. I needed to clean it so I'm holding her down. This is not the kind of comfort she wanted. Poor thing. Clean enough. She didn't want me consoling her now though, so she just wandered through the house crying. I was following along with a cloth wiping the blood. She was finally settling down, she had already made a few laps around the house. Then she suddenly sat down grabbed her foot and started screaming again. STUPID Mommy. I knew instantly what it was. I took her to the couch quickly and striped off her clothes. Sure enough her foot was bleeding, she must have had a little piece of glass in her PJs. Why didn't I take them off her in the first place!! Why didn't Jared put the stupid camera away?!! Why didn't I just physically take her out of the bathroom so none of this would've evn happened!!! GRRRRRRRR! On top of that I wasn't going to get the PJ picture!!!!! Well, I did eventually calm down AFTER the girls went to sleep, but it required a LARGE glass of chocolate milk.
Sooooo I'll try and get a picture of Claira's eye for you, but I'm a little gunshy, Bethany might end up cutting off her hair before the flash goes off.
P.S. Claira is doing just fine. Thank goodness.
*for my sisters' benefit

Easter Pictures

Daddy with his beautiful girls.



pretty Easter dresses

waiting

Auntie Sarah painted the girls' faces while they waited for Claira to wake up from her nap

Lets go find some eggs!

Bethany was a skilled egg hunter this year

Claira looked so cute carrying her Easter basket around.

Claira had a blast finding Easter eggs

There were bunnies all over the yard that had escaped from the neighbor's house. Uncle Tyler is holding one of the Easter bunnies in this picture after the hunt


There's CANDY in the eggs!?

names, names, names

I am so frustrated with trying to pick out a beautiful name for this wonderful addition to our family. I mean certainly it is fun at first, but I just don't have the personality for it.
I can barely decide what I want to eat off the menu when the waitress comes by (for the fourth time). There are just too many good things to choose from and I am just too horribly indecisive.
But when it comes to picking out the name of my own child that I will love the rest of my life, I might as well give up. You might be thinking, "don't stress you still have 100 days, thats plenty of time". But I've been thinking about names for months and the list hasn't gotten any shorter it hasn't even gotten any longer, it hasn't even stayed the same. It is conitinually morphing like it has a life of its own. And where is Jared in all this, well he's "fine" with any of the names we've picked out. Does that mean he's excited about any of the names, NO. He's completely unreadable.
Anyway new to the list
Enjoli (ahn jol E)
Emmilyn

Floors

Hurray!! I finally got my new floors. I am so excited! They are a light colored maple laminate floor and the house is going to look great. Now all we need to do is install it. 1,600 square feet of it. Yikes! Thankfully my Mom is coming to help with the installation. She did her floors when they moved from CA. Its going to be so much work, but I can't wait!

I certainly hope I will be able to post pictures soon, but we'll see.

Birthday Pictures

The Cake Yummy




Fun at Chuck E. Cheese