Finding Our Home in Iowa

We have now been in Iowa for about a week and a half, and Let me tell you all that it is a lot different than Idaho. The weather itself is really different, on Sunday we had our first really humid day. It wasn't really hot but we could tell the moisture was there. We took a couple of days to drive out with Mom and Dad, Spending a night in Sidney Nebraska. Yep, We even got to spend a really short time in the home of Cabelas. When we got to Des Moines, we unloaded and started unpacking things. We didn't get far before we picked up and went to Nauvoo and Carthage. It's all pretty close. This picture is of a house there (I not sure which one it is). It was a very good experience for Jenn and I to go and see the history of life in Nauvoo and learn much about the Prophet Joseph Smith. It was also very interesting to go from the LDS designated sites to the RLDS sites. I would have thought to feel the same in both areas, but there is a distinct difference between the two areas.




Moving is always an interesting experience. About three days before we left Pocatello, I was packing with Jenn in the kitchen when the Folding doors to the laundry closet fell. It gave us a pretty good scare. Then we had a pretty good laugh about how the aprtments has always had little things that just didn't work. Also while packing we found these swim shorts. I put a pair on Luke and it squished his eyes down making a sort of "Grumpy" face. He thought it was really funny, and tried to put one on my head. We had to take a picture.

When we were in Nauvoo, Grandma gave Luke an Oreo Cookie. Like every other kid that has Oreos, it got everywhere. This reminded me of "Chocolate Nah".

Luke Loves Books. Or anything that slightly Resembles a book. Here is has found a Pcket Calender Jenn had from work. he was reading it to us like it was a very interesting story.

School starts on Monday, and I must say that I am a little nervous. I am really lucky to be in the apartment complex here in Des moines, there are a lot of medical school students that are ready at anytime to give any advice. We have been able to take the last two weeks and spend time together and get the house all put together and see Des Moines.

Long Time No Blog

Hey all! I thought I would give everyone an update with what Giff, Jaden, and I have been up to that last while.

Jaden:
Jaden has been doing lots of new things these days. He has been crawling up a storm all over the place, climbing stairs, walking along the couches, eating table food, and enjoying life. He has two teeth on the bottom and loves to move his tongue all around them to make sure they are still entact. He doesn't really like baby food too much anymore and he really hates getting dressed, undressed, and diaper changes. They take away his play time apparently. This last weekend Jaden and I were able to go to a family reunion in Cedar City and Jaden had a few hilarious experiences. First of all, while he was chillin' in just his diaper, he found a tub of ranch sitting within arm's length and thought it would be fun to dump all over himself and the floor. I wasn't paying attention and I came in my brother's living room to find a ranch covered Jaden laughing and smiling at himself as he was licking his hands covered in the dressing. At first, I was not happy, but I quickly decided it was pretty funny. Jaden also recieved his first black eye this weekend. He was playing with his cousins in Utah and smashed his eye on one of the toys. He had a few cuts, but was over it pretty quickly. These are a few things Jaden has been up to.

Gifford:
Giff is trying to juggle working full time, nursing school, a family, and his calling as 4th sunday elders quorum teacher. He is busy busy trying to balance everything, but he's doing a great job. He was a little skeptical of being in the OB area at the hospital this semester for many reasons (you can imagine) :) , but has really enjoyed taking care of the newborn babies. He was able to watch a c-section and thought it was pretty cool as well. His classes have been tough, but worth it as he goes and applies his knowledge every Saturday at the hospital. The nursing staff and his teachers have really enjoyed having Giff around as he makes them all laugh and feel at ease around him. Giff is still going strong with his little Ebay business and recently he was able to sell enough to buy himself a black powder gun kit. He worked on building his gun all memorial day weekend while Jaden and I were gone and he's pretty excited to use it.

Amanda:
Well, I have been going here and there and everywhere. Jaden and I went down to Texas during Easter and Jaden had fun re-getting to know Grandma and Grandpa H. and had fun with the Easter basket they gave him full of stuff his mom and dad won't give him (candy). I am still working at Melaleuca just 4-5 days a month and enjoying being a mom. I just got called to be the 1st counselor in the primary presidency and I am thoroughly enjoying it. I have been going to nursery activities, doing sharing times, and actually having a blast in church. Giff has to deal with Jaden the last two hours which can be a good thing or a bad thing. I went to my family reunion over Memorial day weekend (1st reunion I've ever been to) and was able to see my parents, my brother's family, and many other family members that hadn't met Jaden yet. Jaden survived with the driving of 7 hours strait pretty good. For mother's day Giff gave me a really nice camera so I can start posting more pictures on the blog.

This is what we've been up to and I promise I'll put some pictures up soon as well. We love all of you and enjoy reading about how y'all are doing.

The Parsons

Our family away from home moved from Moscow last weekend and things just haven't been the same without them. The Parsons have been here with us through alot over the last 2 years and I'm so grateful to have had them here. Thanks for being such great friends! We'll miss you and your two little Munchkins! Here are a few memories.

-Fishing at Springvalley reservior and Carly falling through the space in the docks.

-Playing rook and loosing to the guys on the weekends.

-Aaron killing everyone at scrabble.

-Girls trip to the temple and talking nonstop about life when we are 30 :)

-Eyecandy (Camile will know what I'm talking about)

-Christmas eve dinner, and Christmas day, and Easter, and many other holidays

-Carly teasing Graham and making him squeal (such sweet justice)

-Carly and Ellie sneeking out in their pajamas first thing in the morning, while Camile was in the shower, to come over and play

-Camile teaching me how to make bows

-Camile and I talking at my house while all the kids were over at hers (we put Graham in charge)

-Treats on Sundays

-Camile not being ashamed to admit that she almost ate a whole box of cookies at one sitting

-Carly knocking on my door and then walking in while she yelled "Come In!"

-Babysitting their girls and wondering how Ellie got chocolate all over her hands and the floor-- it wasn't chocolate!

-laughing to the point of tears, alot

We love you guys and wish you the best in SLC.

Emery, Ellie, Carly, Katherine, and Ashlynn

The Perry's live next door to us and they have also been great friends this last year. How blessed we have been!

Some fun pictures

Crazy hair day.
Olivia's first taste of chocolate pudding. I think we have another sweet tooth on our hands.

I wanted to get a picture of the girls in their matching outfits before Olivia outgrew hers. She can't squeeze her little bum and thighs into those pants anymore. I know how she feels.

Baby Bracelets

Hey all! Well I decided I would try my hand at something so I'm making and selling baby bracelets. I have loved Olivia's ever since Saundra gave it to me and get so many compliments on it. I decided to start a new blog that tells you how to order my bracelets. I'm going to put a link to that blog on here so if anyone is ever interested, feel free to shop or give the address to friends. It's over under the Contributor's square. Thanks!

Favorite Jeans

Jordan took a picture of my jeans the other day because he thought I was wierd for patching the same knee three times. He asked, "Are we that poor?" Well, it's not that, don't we all have that favorite pair of jeans that you try so hard to hang on to long after you should have gotten rid of them? I think it's about time to come to grips.

What We've Been Up To

In chubbuck there is a small pet store that has a petting zoo in the back. Luke has had an obsession with animals since he was really little. So once in a while we'll take him so he can see the animals. To him all the animals bark like dogs (It's the only animal sound he knows). This is the ugliest bird that I have ever seen.




Easter was cold this year. This didn't stop us from having our own little easter egg hunt. Luke had no idea what was going on, but he always loves to go outside so he had a blast.















For Luke's first birthday we got him a big bag of plastic balls. We put them in a laundry basket and let him go to town. He was able to play with them for a long time. he would burrow himself into the bottom of the pile and them pop up making the balls spill all over. It was his favortie toy he got for his birthday. The only problem is now we are finding them all over the house in the small places.






Here he is burrowing into the ball pit.

He would do this for a long time. I liked this since it would allow me time to do my homework and he was still entertained.


In March Jenn's oldest bother finally got married. So we took a weekend and drove out to California. We left Friday, went to the wedding on Saturday and Drove home Sunday for work on Monday. It was a long weekend, but we did what we could to make it fun. Luke was a heck of a trooper being in the car for almost 72 hours. We watched a lot of movies and kept him entertained. Here he is with cool sunglasses, they didn't hold up very long, he pulled them apart.





Here we are in front of the Oakland temple. It has now been four years since Jenn and i have been back here. It was really neat for us to see the room that we were married in. It brought back a lot of memories from the day we got married.



I thought this was a nice little family shot taken before the ceremony. To think it all started out here.


Look was a trooper while we were in the wedding. The temple grounds are really nice and spread out so Luke got to walk his Aunt Kristen around. Even though it was over cast, luke still got sunburned. This was his first sunburn.



Luke loves his shoes. Anytime he can get his hands on them, he wants to put them on. Here he doesn't even care if he has clothes on before he puts on his shoes.

He'll sit down to put them on, but can figure out how to. He get frustrated and throws them down.





Here Luke has shown his true colors. Dirt Brown. He like to be outside, and when he is he tends to find the dirt. Here we had a planter box full of soil that he got into and tried to shower in. I Love Dirt!!!



















Here's Luke with his Skunk Hair. He thinks it looks good as hair gel.



















Luke is truly a toddler. He finds all sorts of ways to get into trouble, by making messes and trying to hide from them.


We actually used to keep important stuff in the cupboards but only toys are usually in there now.



































And What Do Think About That, Huh?