"Our Father in Heaven has given us, His children, much more than any mortal mind can comprehend. Under His direction the Great Jehovah created this wonderous world we live in . God the Father watches over us, fills our hearts with breathtaking joy, brightens our darkest hours with blessed peace, distills upon our minds precious truths, shepherds us through times of distress, rejoices when we rejoice, and answers our righteous petitions." Dieter F. Uchtdorf, "The Love of God," Ensign, Nov. 2009



Tuesday, June 30, 2009

We need help with a name!

We normally already have a name picked out for our children by now. With Julia the name was picked out while we were dating, before he ever left on a mission and I just remembered it and loved it and thought I’d use it even if we didn’t get married. With Haley it was a little harder I liked the name Jordan Haley for a girl and he liked it too. Then someone in the ward had their baby first and it was a boy and named him Jordan. So we decided they would be close in age and school together maybe, so we changed the name to Haley Storm. With this one we have yet to agree on any name. I suggested Kameron before we found out it was girl. He thought it was ok now he says Kameron is not girly enough. We went to a dedication for a gravesite on Saturday so I looked at other headstones that were close and came up with Morgan Blake, he says that's not very girly either. He thought I was crazy trying to pull names off headstones at the cemetery! He likes names like Lindsey, Rachel, Gracie, Lacy, Ava , and of course I don’t like them.  I also suggested Kaylyn he didn’t like it of course. He suggested Kayla I had to remind him he had a niece in Organ already name Kayla. We’ve only got 4 months left to find something. We’ve went thru a baby name book and he said I was to picky! Whatever ! I think I get the final say! Right! Any suggestions I can throw at him?

Monday, June 15, 2009

Lets play Name that Plant!

Ok we planted a garden this year and it would have probably done a lot better if all the rain hadn’t drown most of it. The tomatoes are doing great we have about 30 plants or more of all kinds of tomatoes. A few of our squash or cucumber plants made it. The leaf looks the same to me so I’m not positive but I know its one or the other. These are a few of the plants that survived and I have no idea what they are! Do You????? Can anyone help????IMG_0399

1 this one is kind of like a vine about 4-5 feet now growing on the ground. No blooms, no vegetable yet. Any ideas????

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2 These are next to each other no idea what it is. It also has no blooms and no vegetable yet. It’s about foot and half to 2 feet tall???

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3 This I think is a bean. We only planted green beans. But we didn’t plant them in this row. It does have tiny white flowers on it so I guess we’ll find out for sure in a few weeks what it is????

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4 There are 2 of these no blooms, no vegetable. I think they are maybe okra plants but I don’t know they are about foot and half tall. ?????

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5 last one it’s about 2-3 feet tall no blooms, no vegetable, and it is growing in the middle of two rows.  Not sure what or why it is there. There are a lot of weeds growing around everything but none of them look like this so I figured it was a veggie????? Any Suggestions

We planted a lot of different things: Cauliflower, okra green beans, potatoes, corn, tomatoes, lettuces, spinach, purple carrots, watermelon, squash, cucumbers, about 3 different pepper plants. I think that was it. Some of these I have never seen grow so I have no idea what they look like, and the seed packages i ordered online were all gold wrappers no pictures!

First day of VPK!

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Julia had her first day of VPK today. She was so excited weeks before. Last Thursday there was a VPK workshop that we went to and she got to meet several of the kids that would be in her class, and they read a book called The Kissing Hand. It was about a raccoon who did not want to go to school, very cute book. Two days before she started to get upset about it and told me she didn't want to go, and would cry. So on Sunday after church I told Paul to give her a blessing. Well she cried several times after that. She wanted mom to stay with her. I explained I already went to school and was to old to go to VPK. We said several prayers Sunday night, with her crying before bed. This morning she was ok she did not cry at all. We got there 15 minutes early and I gave her a sticker of lips that went long with the book the kissing hand. She liked the sticker and I reminded her about the book. Then she got to meet her 2 teachers. One we knew from church (Sister Zedenek) that we had not seen in about 2 years so Julia did not remember her. She recognized us immediately and said she was excited when she saw Julia's name on the role. She took Julia over to the table and sat her down with a coloring book, and went out to get breakfast and the few others stragglers that were still coming in. I waited a few minutes thinking she may start to cry if I told her bye. And some of the other moms started to leave so Julia decided it was time for me to go too. She gave me a hug and kiss, and said, "I'll miss you mommy!" Of course I did start to cry so I went ahead and left so I didn't upset her. But as I opened the door I looked back to take a picture of her and she had this cute little face, and of course I cried all the way home!

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They grow up way to fast!

Thursday, June 4, 2009

The New Chapman Baby

Opening mouth wide to swallow.


Waving

As You can see from this picture the new Chapman Baby is a Princess! Her Due date is 11/2/2009, but will be a C-Section done the end of October. Probably the day before Halloween!

Everything is noraml all test so far have come back good.

Friday, May 29, 2009

Happy 40th Anniversary

Hola,
Happy 40th Anniversary. Thanks for being a wonderful example to us and everyone you come in contact with. We hope your days are filled with love. Wish we could be there to celebrate with you. We are sure that your new family in Columbia are surrounding you with love today, with a big surprise CELEBRATION. Hope you liked all the pictures and messages that were emailed. Best wishes for the eternity ahead. We love you and miss you.
Love,
Paul, Ilene, Julia, and Haley
Flowers for you from your garden!

Haley big smiles for Grammy and Pop-Pop!

Julia can't wait to give you hugs and kisses!

Your BRAT!! Hopes he makes it 40 years : )

Happy 40th Anniversary!!

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Happy Birthday


Just as sweet as sweet can be,
Under it all you are part of me.
Little right now, but you are sure to grow.
It will happen to soon, that I know.
All I can do is laugh and play

Every moment of every day.
Vast blue skies and warm sunny days.
Ever and never will cease to amaze.

Cartwheels on the grass put a sweet smile on your face.
Having everything just perfect in pink and lace.
All the love you have and all the love you give,
Put something special into all who live.
Many years will pass and I will grow old,
All the love and hope I have for you this you can not know.
Not until you have spent a lifetime with a daughter like mine.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JULIA! WE LOVE YOU BECAUSE: You are sweet, and smart and funny, and a wonderful daughter of GOD who is always smiling! And who is growing way to fast!

Things to know about Julia she loves to make up her own songs, she loves fast food, she loves her cousins. She loves to see Bryant everyday. She loves all her friends at church. She hates spaghetti. She loves having birthdays. She can't wait to start school in a few weeks. She likes puzzels. She loves her little sister Haley and wants to have a baby brother.

Monday, May 4, 2009

Our Little Secret!

Ok the 16 week secret is out 4 people know at church so it won't be long before everyone else knows. We've expecting our 3rd baby.

I realised back in February that I was pregnant. About 2 weeks after I found out I started light bleeding. That's never happened with any of my other babies. So I wasn't to happy about it. I thought I had or was going to miscarried. We still do not have insurance so I waited a day and the bleeding stopped. And 2 days later I was bleeding again and then stopped and 2 days later bleeding again. I did this for 2 weeks off and on. The bleeding was all light, so I had no idea what was going on. The Monday after we came back from our camping trip the bleeding was heavier, so I called my sister because she works at the OBGYN that I go to. She put me online with a nurse who wanted me to come in for blood work. And since I had no insurance and my sister worked there and (I'm sure she was upset after I told her) the Dr told me they would bill for the blood work as if I worked there. My hormone levels went up during the blood test. But I was still bleeding. They explained it may be a Molar Pregnancy or a partial molar pregnancy or ectopic . In either case I'd have to have a D&C done. I was pretty upset and cried all the way to the office. They did an Ultrasound. And there was a heartbeat!!! They could find nothing wrong with the baby or the placenta. The bleeding stopped about 2 weeks after the ultrasound. And everything seems to be ok. (If you want to call being nausea all the time ok!)Hey I didn't make it to 20 weeks like I did last time but almost 17 weeks is pretty long too ;)

Friday, May 1, 2009

Miss MoneyPenny and Felix

Ok everyone keeps telling me to update our blog and Julia wanted it updated about our pugs because she misses them. Felix and Miss Moneypenny.


Miss Moneypenny


Felix




We got Miss Moneypenny on our second christmas together. (I had been begging Paul for a baby and he kept saying he wasn't ready so he bought a puppy instead!) We payed way to much money for her at a pet store in the mall around christmas. Paul is a James Bond fan so he named her Miss Moneypenny. About a year later around thanksgiving (I was still begging for a baby) so he bought another male pug out of the newspaper (he was half the price) And named him after another james bond character. Over the first few years that we had them they went everywhere with us. And slept in our bedroom in a bed of there own. Until there snoring started keeping me awake and I had to move them to another room! They were the funniest things there favorite treat was pop corn. (They would get all excited and run in circles barking whenever we popped a bag.) We almost lost Miss Moneypenny about 2 years after we had her. We were visiting The Chapman's and Tristian had been playing with her outside while Paul was working on our car. I noticed he had come in and She wasn't with him. He said he left her outside with Paul. So when I asked Paul where she was he didn't know. We walked up and down the neighborhood calling for her but couldn't find her. It got dark so we left and I cried all the way to the interstate. Right before we got on Lonnis called and said that a neighbor had found her.
They were a little Hipper and chewed on way to much furniture. When we moved in with the Chapman's the pugs had to move outside. Needless to say they were a little ignored out there unless we were going off or comming home or playing outside. We didn't play with them as much. But Haley and Julia always ran over to tell them bye and hello whenever they could. Miss Moneypenny passaway a year ago in April and Felix passed away last friday. We had both of them for about 8 years. We had a funeral service for them and Julia went back out after we were done to sing them a song. We told her we'll see them again not to be to sad about it. Haley still runs over to the pin looking for Felix.

Friday, February 13, 2009

I LOVE YOU BECAUSE

This is from Julia, she wanted to send grammy and pop-pop an email.


Happy Valentines!

Friday, February 6, 2009

Late Tag

I forgot to post this several weeks ago oops!

A-Z Tag
brought to by Kim
All you need to know about me from A to Z!

A--Attached or Single: Attached for 8 ½ years
B--Best Friend: Jeannie
C--Cake or Pie: cake - cheesecake? Is that cake or pie???
D--Day of Choice: Sundays
E--Essential Item: wet wipes
F--Favorite Color: purple or blue
G--Greatest Accomplishment: starting a family
H--Hometown: Jacksonville
I--Indulgences: blogging
J--January or July: July
K--Kids: Julia (4 ½ ) Haley (19 months)
L--Life is incomplete without: my husband
M--Marriage Date: June 3,2000
N--Number of Siblings: 5 (3) younger sisters and (2) younger brothers
O--Oranges or Apples: Oranges
P--Phobias or fears: SPIDERS
Q--Quotes: “What would you do if you knew you could not fail”
R--Reasons to Smile: My kids, they say the funniest things
S--Singer/Songwriter:
T--Tag 4 Friends: Afton, Melinda, Savannah, Jesse
U--Unknown fact about me: I keep having dreams of triplets…
V--Very favorite stores: Wal-Mart, Target, Burlington
W--Worst habit: picking at my cuticles
X--X-ray or Ultra Sound: ultrasound.
Y--Your favorite food: Japanese
Z--Zodiac: Aquarius

The One-Word Thingy
made possible by Kim

1. Where is your cell phone? Paul.
2. Your significant other? Paul
3. Your hair? bun
4. Your mother? Strong
5. Your father? Loving
6. Your favorite thing? Family
7. Your dream last night? Weird
8. Your favorite drink? Coke
9. Your dream/goal? exaltation
10. The room you're in? Living room
11. Your fear? SPIDERS
12. Where do you want to be in 6 Years? HOME.
13. Where were you last night? bed
14. What you're not? organized
15. Muffins? Blueberry
16. One of your wish list items? Solar oven
17. Where you grew up? Florida
18. The last thing you did? Made pancakes
19. What are you wearing? clothes
20. Your TV? Dora
21. Your pet? Pug (Felix)
22. Your computer? old
23. Your life? average
24. Your mood? discouraged
25. Missing someone? no
26. Your car? jeep
27. Something you're not wearing? socks
28. Favorite Store? Walmart
29. Your summer? Hot
30. Your favorite color? Purple
31. When is the last time you laughed? yesterday
32. Last time you cried? Wednesday
33. Who will/would re-post this? Who knows

A) FOUR PLACES I GO OVER AND OVER: Library, Walmart, Winn Dixie, Church
B) FOUR PEOPLE WHO E-MAIL ME: Aunt Pati, Dad, Emily,
C) FOUR OF MY FAVORITE FOODS: Pizza, Fried Rice, Shrimp, Chili Rellenos
D) FOUR PLACES I WOULD RATHER BE RIGHT NOW: Hawaii, on Vacation, With my family, cabin in mountains
E) FOUR PEOPLE I THINK WILL RESPOND: zero, nobody, zilch, nada

Tagged





OK I'm laughing about this because I just scanned these photos from my mom’s box of pictures to get them ready to go into my scrapbooks, and didn't pay attention to what folder they went into. I can't tell you much about the photo except the little curly haired blond is me and the other person is my mom. It must be in Florida because I’m not wearing much clothing. I look like I'm about 2 ½ in the picture. But none of the pictures has dates or names on them, so I'm not even sure where we are. I'll have to ask my mom but she may not even remember. It was probably 26 ½ years ago.

I was tagged by Afton

Here are the instructions
1) Go to your picture folder, or wherever you store your photos on your computer
2) Go to the sixth folder and pick the sixth picture
3) Post it on your blog and tell the story that goes along with the picture
4) Tag four friends to do the same thing

So tag Katherine, Kelly, Kim, and Savannah.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Happy Birthday Grammy


Julia also picked you some of your favorite flowers.


And we had some birthday cake.



It was yummy! Chocolate with raspberry filling and Buttercream icing. Hope you have a wonderful day! WE MISS YOU.

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Merry Christmas Grammy and Pop-Pop

Hope you two had a Merry Christmas in Columbia. WE MISSED YOU!
Emily and Bryant


Julia


Haley


Saturday, December 20, 2008

Christmas Newsletter

For anyone I missed!



Gingerbread Carousel

This Christmas I wanted to start a tradition baking a ginger bread house with the kids. Ours didn't quite turn out (good thing I wasn't an architect) the roof was way to heavy for the house and after half the shingles were on it caved in. Luckily I live with a Culinary Arts Graduate, (Emily) who decided to help us build another one. But instead of a house we built a carousel with reindeer. It was fun, it helped get us into the holiday spirit. We really enjoyed it. I let her know I expect her over every year now to help us build one, because she did such a great job.
ROOF




TOO CUTE

Friday, December 19, 2008

Our last trip to the zoo for the year!

Every year for Christmas my dad buys me a year family pass +2 to the zoo. So this is the last trip of the year. We had a lot of fun! Paul had the day off work and got to come with us. The Jaguar was moving around alot so we got really good pictures of him. The kids love going to the zoo, and this trip it was nice and cool outside not to hot and not cold yet.

Decorating the tree for FHE

We put up our christmas tree 2 mondays ago for FHE. The kids loved it. Haley likes to sit in front of it and watch the lights flash. She blows at them like they're little candels. After we put up the tree, we had some yummy brownies and sang christmas songs. Paul tried to play the Piano. Grammy has a childrens song book that has numbers for the keys and Paul remembered how to count the keys...Grammy was much better! He played way to slow for us to sing along.
CAN YOU NAME THAT TUNE?

Ward Christmas Party

This year for the ward party each organization put on a skit and the audience had to guess what they were doing. Kinda like a Who's Line Is It Anyway. It was cute and way fun. The bishopric was acting out Christmas caroling to a deaf person, I think the Primary presidency's was one of the FUNNIEST and kept the kids attention. They helped Rudolf get her light to work on her nose, because she was sick. The Young Men and Elders Quorum together was fixing santa's sleigh, the young women was christmas cooking with the food network, the High Priest was keeping frosty from melting, and the relief society was christmas shoping with a bad GPS system. They were all too funny.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Happy Birthday

Today is Paul's 31st birthday. We cooked him his favorite dinner shrimp, and his favorite dessert cherry cheesecake. Julia also said he needed some balloons so I blew up balloons. We put little paper messages inside some of them and the others I put stickers on that we're some of the things he brought to us as a family. I also helped the girls make cards for daddy. When he came home Julia ran to the door and said no dad you can't come in yet wait right there! She knew I was finishing up Haley's card. When I was done she ran back to get him. When Haley saw the balloons she was so excited that she would not eat dinner. She kept pointing at them and saying something incoherent to me and Paul.



We love Paul because he is the BEST daddy and Husband in the world. He's FUNNY and plays SILLY games and sings silly songs with the kids. He shared the gospel with me. So I now have an eternal family, and all the blessings that come with it. He has brought so much goodness into my life and now our childrens lives. Happy Birthday

Friday, November 21, 2008

Canning chicken



Last Wednesday I canned chicken. I never really thought about canning meats before. I've canned pears and tomatoes, and made jellies and jams, and pickled okra, and peppers but never meats. We had a combined lesson a few weeks ago about food storage, and they showed a video clip by Wendy DeWitt about canning and preserving other stuff. I was sick that Sunday so I missed the video, but Paul came home and told me about it and brother O'Conner sent me the link to watch the video on the computer. In Relief Society this past Sunday they were ordering 40 lb boxes of chicken breast for $44.00 so I ordered a box. I put half of it in the freezer and the other half I canned. It was pretty easy. I actually cleaned up the chicken before I froze or canned it and boiled all the skin and other pieces that I cut off and also canned 4 quart jars of chicken broth. It smelled so good. No idea how it will taste, but it is suppose to last for about 5 years. It looked like a weird science project after it was finished. Next thing I have to do is set down and make up a menu so I know how many and what else I want in our year supply of food. Does anyone else have a year supply of food? How long did it take to store it up? The link to watch the video is on my blog.