11 wonderful years!!

Happy Anniversary! You are such a wonderful husband and father. You do so much for our family and I want you to know how much I appreciate it all. I can't believe it has been 11 years -- I know you say that it seems like a lifetime, but what a great life it has been so far. I am looking forward to the rest of eternity with you :)
I LOVE YOU!

Thank you for the beautiful flowers!

I got tagged!

My friend Tiffany tagged me with this "Two by Two" tag a little while ago so here it goes:
Two names you go by:
1. J (I have had lots of nicknames -- JJ, Jolly Jump, finniger, John, potty mink -- don't ask :)
2. Mom
Two things you are wearing right now:
1. Really bright pink, green, blue, and orange plaid lounge pants -- it seems that I only wear lounge pants these days.
2. A pink t-shirt.
Two of your favorite things to do:
1. Be with my husband and kids -- I love when we are all together doing whatever -- eating, watching T.V., exploring our new surroundings, playing games, talking, etc.
2. Reading -- I haven't been doing it enough lately. I got the host for Mother's Day and I just started it. I can't wait for the next book in the Twilight series and the last Eragon book to come out!
Two things you want very badly at the moment:
1. To go home to visit my family and friends!!
2. To have a clean house.
Two pets that you have or have had:
1. Padfoot, our ferret -- even though I don't really enjoy animals and he was a little stinky and messy I do miss him. We had to leave him with Jer's sister when we moved. Z still considers him part of our family and talks about him often. *since I wrote this I found out that Padfoot died a few weeks ago. How do you tell your cute little boy that his pet has died? Bye Paddy :(
2. Numerous fish -- again we left our blue fishy, this time with our friends, when we moved and Z misses him. We didn't think either pet would survive our cross-country trip! *just found out that blue fishy died last week -- at least they are together :)
Two things you did last night:
1. Went over to a couple's house in our ward who invited us to dinner -- it was nice.
2. Watched some of my reality shows -- Design Star and The Next Food Network Star (it is ironic that I like these shows since I can't decorate and I really don't cook! -- maybe I hope they will rub off on me.)
Two things you did today:
1. Made lunch for Z and I
2. Cleaned the kitchen -- well sort of :)
Two things you ate today:
1. Granola cereal
2. Soup for lunch (Progresso Light only 60 calories per serving. Not a very fun summer lunch, but Jer and I want to lose some weight before going home to visit -- wish us luck!)
Two people you last talked to:
1. B and Z
2. Jer on the phone
Two things you're doing tomorrow:
1. Z's swimming lessons
2. I am going to try to give blood at the blood drive at our church.
Two memorable vacations:
1. Disneyland when Z was 18 months old with our wonderful neighbors.
2. Nauvoo and other Church History sites with my family a few years ago -- minus Jer (that part wasn't fun!)
Two favorite holidays:
1. Christmas. I love getting together with my family. It has always worked out great -- Christmas Eve with my family and Christmas dinner with Jer's family.
2. Thanksgiving. Again I love being with family and then going to my grandma's to get Christmas trees -- that is the best!! I will really miss that :(
I think most of you have done this already, but if Heather, Heidi, or MarKay haven't , I tag you guys or anyone else who would like to!

B is 6 months old!

Our cute and precious baby girl turned 6 months last week. I cannot believe that we have the privilege of having such a sweet spirit in our family! Her smile and laugh can light up an entire room and make your heart melt away. Every time you walk in the room she has the biggest smile to give you. We get so many people who come up to us and say "I just have to tell you what a beautiful baby you have!" and when Jer is holding her in the halls at church lots of people come up and say "Hi B", but not hi to him :) She loves to sit up, play with toys, and hold your hand. She is a cat napper, she is not sure about being tossed up in the air and she doesn't like baby food yet. She loves to cuddle and loves when you talk to her. She has the biggest brown eyes that just sparkle. She blows bubbles and makes such cute sounds. I was so nervous to have another baby after not having one for so long, but she is such an easy baby that all the worries are long forgotten. Thank you for being part of our family -- We love you B!!

Make sure before you play this video that you pause our music at the bottom of the page so you can hear B.

Yeah we had more visitors!

My sister and her husband came to visit us July 10th - 13th. They are spending the summer in Memphis and I told them they had to come see us if they were so close. It was so fun to have them here! First we drove about 3 1/2 hours to the coast. We saw the huge Battleship North Carolina, but only from the outside. Some of our ward members said that it is way too hot to tour during the summer.

We then went to the NC Aquarium at Fort Fisher. It is a small aquarium, but it is so fun to see such cool and different animals up close.

It was a stormy day and so we only went to the beach for a little while. My sister and her husband went swimming while our little family just walked in the water and Z played in the sand. It is so strange to look out and not see anything but water! I loved the beach -- even Jer liked it and we plan to go back often. We then took a ferry ride across the Cape Fear River and then drove in the dark and scary wet weather back home. And all of this was just the first day!!



On Friday we just stayed close to home. We drove around our town, went to the Alamance Battleground where at one time they claimed it was the first battle of the Revolutionary War (it's not -- it is just one of several small battles that occurred a few years before the war started), we went to Jer's work, we played video games and watched a movie. On Saturday we went to Duke University. What a beautiful campus!! They have gorgeous gardens and spectacular Gothic Architecture -- wow and I didn't even take art history in high school:) The Duke Chapel was amazing, from the outside -- it was closed for a wedding. We did peek through the windows on the huge front doors and saw the bride getting ready to walk down the isle. We were told that weddings are booked for the chapel 6 years in advance. It was fun, but would have been better if we were not melting in the heat! On the way home we drove by our beautiful temple.

They left us on Sunday and it was really sad to see them go. Z even looked for them in the back seat on the way home from the airport and cried when he remembered that they were gone. Poor kid! Thanks for coming to visit us S and D -- come again!! :)

Random Things about NC

Here are a few things we have noticed so far while living here in NC --
*No sidewalks -- how am I supposed to push a stroller to the park that is just around the corner, but on a busy street?
*It is really, really dark here at night.
*The freeways are so green and pretty, but you can't see anything but trees.
*Lots of road kill and I gasp every time -- Jer says that I better get used to it, but people do stop for turtles and get out of their cars to help them cross the road.
*Churches on every corner -- just not LDS ones.
*Everyone waves to you as you drive down the road and many people will come up and talk to you while in the store or in line for something.
*We have a baby and mommy bunny that roam around our neighborhood. The baby keeps coming into our little fenced off area, because all of the other people have dogs.
*There are lots of birds -- my favorites are the pretty blue and reds ones.
*The sky is not as blue here.
*It is easy to get lost without the mountains.
*Mold grows faster and easier here and nothing dries :(
*Everything grows so well here (our little garden is amazing!), except grass and it is awful.
*In our town newspaper they not only list the births and weddings, but also all of the people who got divorces.
*If you commit a crime and your story makes it in the newspaper, they tell everyone what road you live on.
*Most stores close really early.
*Lots of small mom and pop Italian restaurants, but no Greek food (Jer really likes Gyros).
*It rains really hard here and it is not fun to drive through it!
*Our family and friends do not live close by and we miss them so much!! :)

Most cities have these towers with their name on it. We noticed this a lot in the Midwest as well.

 

It is hard to describe how pretty and green everything is even the freeways.

 

Here is our wild baby bunny. Z likes to leave him carrots and lettuce.

 

This is a flower that grows on a big tree that I don't know the name of :)
This is Jer's road that leads to his work -- again how pretty and green!

 

The Raleigh Temple

 
 

A few weeks ago my computer screen on my laptop went crazy and we had to take it to Raliegh to get fixed. (I didn't realize how addicted I was to the Internet, my email and my blog until I couldn't work on them for a few weeks!) It was the first time I had been that far East in NC. On the way back home we took a different route so that we could see the temple. I cannot explain how I felt when I saw it for the first time. I have always lived so close to many temples and really took that for granted. We are so lucky to have a temple only an hour away. It is beautiful!

Z's Soccer Camp

Z went to a British Soccer Camp all the week of June 16 - 20. We went each morning to the park from 9:00 to 10:00 a.m. Yeah a little early for me, but we survived -- barely :) His coach was from Great Britain -- I loved her accent. She was wonderful and taught Z many things. There were only three kids in his class, so Z got lots of attention. They played lots of fun games and he practiced things like dribbling (baby kicks), stopping the ball with his foot, turning on the ball and scoring goals. He did keep asking when he was going to play real soccer. I guess the fun games and drills were not real soccer :) It's a little hard to scrimmage with three young kids. I was really impressed at how well he did and he had a great time. Good Job Z!! (I hope to post a video of him at his soccer camp if I can get Jer to help me -- so check back!)