Oh... Hi There.

Well hello there. Remember me? I know, I know... it's been a while. I have a good excuse, I promise! Life got crazy there for a few weeks and for the last week and a half we have been enjoying Europe. It's been wonderful. Italy, Switzerland, France and Spain yet to come! Until I get back in the states and do the already overwhelming me post, here is a lovely picture of the beauty of Venice. Ah, Venice. I already miss you!

Primary Program and Some Other Things

We had our Primary Program (where the children of the ward, ages 3-11, put on a special program during church )last Sunday and Ethan was given a scripture to memorize and participated in a musical number singing "I Love to See the Temple."

His scripture was from James 1:5, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him." 

Kinda a hard scripture for a little 4 year old to remember, right? Well, we worked on it the whole week prior to the program and on Saturday he had a practice at the church. I wasn't there to hear it but I had so many leaders telling me just how cute his line was. This is what he said, (you must replace the "l" sound with a "w" sound... we are working on that :) 

"If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God,.....that giveth....for liberty and justice for all." 

Haha! I guess liberty and liberally do sound a lot a like! Everyone was hoping that he would say it like that for the real thing but we worked on it some more and he did awesome!

I mean, I know I am a biased mother  but isn't he just a handsome little kid?!

I think he's pretty cute even with his white trash pajama shirt and missing arm :)

 This little lady is just a ball of energy! She is everywhere. She can now open our circular doorknobs, she climbs on everything, she can reach on the counter and into drawers, and she loves to play in the bathrooms-particularly the toilet area. Child locks will be going on doors asap! 

We had a rainy day a few weeks ago and she loved playing in the sprinkles. When it was time to go in she threw the biggest tantrum too. I guess she loved it that much!

 I love this picture. It makes me laugh everytime I see it. This was taken before Ellie could climb up on the couch and sweet Ethan was trying to help her up there. Ellie is a big girl and is just a few pounds shy of weighing as much as he does even though they are like 2.5 years apart! Ethan kept trying to lift her up there but couldn't even budge her off the ground! I was laughing so hard!

Oh how I love these two.

A Beautiful September Wedding

For Labor Day weekend, we traveled up to beautiful Utah for the wonderful wedding of these two love birds.....

Justin's brother, Barrett, married a sweet and wonderful girl, Lindsay, from Herriman, Utah. It was a beautiful sealing for time and all eternity in the Oquirrah Mountain Temple. 

Their sealer (or the man who married them) did a fantastic job. He said some really cool things that reminded us all of the covenants that we made in the temple not so very long ago!

Now on to the befores and afters. We hadn't been back up to Utah since we graduated from BYU 3 years ago, so we were pretty excited to head back up to the place where so many good memories were made. We drove up there (only about a 10-11 hour drive) and the kids did so good! Of course, we pretty much rotted their brains out by playing movie after movie but hey, it made for two happy and entertained kids!

We had some pretty awesome babysitters watching our kiddos while we were inside the temple. Chalene, Caryn and Jordan, we just love you guys!

 The kids loved playing around the temple grounds (err... reverently of course :) and Ellie throughly enjoyed trying to pick off all the flowers in the flower beds. Who can blame the her? They are just so pretty!

 All the brothers minus Nate, who is serving a mission in Taiwan, with Barrett's best friend on the far left and Nate (Chanda's new hubby) on the far right. 

 All the cousins on the Chapman side that could make it! There are a ton of cousins on this side (most not pictured I think)! I'm still working on all the names....

 The reception was very nice and was beautifully decorated. It was a dessert reception which I have never heard of before. Apparently they are really popular in that area of Utah! There were cookies and ice cream bowels. 

Here is a blurry picture of all the bridesmaids. It was so fun getting to get all dressed up and wear 3 inch heels!

 Here is the simple but classy cake that Aunt Candy made for them. She is getting better and better with every cake she makes!

 And this is the best picture that I could get of Miss Ellie. She was sleep deprived and running on fumes which made for a very defiant and grumpy little girl. But she looked adorable with her matching dress that I made last minute! Seriously, like the day before we left I thought, I want to make her a dress! And so I did. I've never made a dress before and long story short, my good friend Alyson came to my rescue on the sleeves and the whole project was an all day affair. But it turned out pretty good and her matching headband (made the day of) and her sparkly Dorothy shoes were a hit. Maybe next time I'll plan a little better though :)

 The next day we headed out to Justin's Aunt Rhonda's house to have dinner and have family time. The kids were so cute racing out back!

 Poor Ellie's little legs couldn't quite keep up with those bigger kids' though. They were all having so much fun!

 All the adults chatted out front and enjoyed the crisp, chilly Utah weather. The weather made me so excited for our own "winter" here in AZ.

 We ended the night with a walk up to the Draper Temple (yeah, she lives that close!) and I just loved this picture of Ellie and her daddy....

I think she was just looking for a more secure way to hold on :)

Ethan's Sweet Prayer

As I was reading with Ethan for quiet time, Justin called all the way from Turkey to say hi and chat. Ethan was sitting on my lap and was listening to our conversation. I was telling Justin that I wasn't feeling very good with my cold and all of a sudden I saw Ethan close his sweet little eyes, and quietly say, "Heavenly Father, please bless Mommy that she can feel better and please bless Jesus that He can know I love him." And then he closed his prayer and went about reading and talking to his self. I looked over at him and my heart just melted. What a sweet little boy to out of the blue say a heartfelt prayer for his mommy to feel better. It's times like this that I am humbled to be the mother of such a special child of God. I am so grateful that Heavenly Father has entrusted us rookie parents with two of His most precious children!

The Witch Doctor

A few months ago, my mother in law told me about a herbalist here in the valley that was able to help her cure some really, really bad acid reflux and then told me that she has been known to help women who have difficulties with infertility. So I casually decided to check into it and called and spoke to her secretary. I asked her secretary all sorts of questions about the methods that are used and how it all works. The secretary told me some amazing stories, miracle stories really, and by the end of our conversation, I knew that I needed to make an appointment to go see her. I had a really, really strong impression, that brought me to tears, that this would be the right thing to do. So instead of justifying myself out of this one, I took the plunge and made an appointment. 

She is apparently a very busy lady and I got in to see her a few weeks later (about 3 weeks ago now).  She used reflexology and kinesiology (the idea that your spirit knows all truth) to pinpoint exactly where my problems were and I'll admit, I thought it was all a little cooky but I just kept reminding myself of that strong prompting that I had earlier that month. Justin jokingly told me one day, "Ya know Ash, back in the day they called these kind of people witch doctors!" 

So what is wrong with me? Well, apparently it's a total hormone problem. While my estrogen levels and testosterone levels are good, my body is only producing progesterone at 10% of what it should be. Which is why if I don't get progesterone supplements before I even know I'm pregnant, I miscarry. My hypothalamus, which basically tells my body to release hormones, is only functioning at 12%, my right adrenal is at 30% and only 2 of my 4 parathyroids are working properly which means I am seriously lacking some good calcium which is essential for a good healthy baby. I know, it sounds like I'm going to die or something with all the low functioning percentages, but really this is why I can't keep a baby very easily. So there ya go. That's what my body is up to. 

I left there with some liquid herbs and a few other things and she told me to come back in 3 months to check my progress. She promised me that this stuff is not a bandaid fix and that the corrections would be permanent, and I completely believe her. Sometimes I do doubt the validity of it all but mostly I have had nothing but good feelings about it.. I feel as if this is an answer to prayer. We shall see I suppose. So we must wait to try to get pregnant for a few more months and hopefully I'll be a new woman able to carry and keep a precious baby without any "bandaid" fixes :) I hope and pray that my leap of faith in this is the right thing to do. Wish us luck!

Fun At the Children's Museum

Last week, my friend Kristina invited us to go to the Phoenix Children's Museum with her and her kids and had free passes for us to use! We couldn't pass that up! This place is huge and could definitely be an all day activity for the kiddos. They had fun putting the pieces of fabric through the air tubes and watch it zoom through them and then blast out the other end...

 They played with playdough and decorated their very own name monsters....

 Ethan liked making designs on the light up sand table and Ellie thoroughly enjoyed dumping the sand onto the floor...

 The fort room was a lot of fun as well....

 And they loved going through the "car wash" together. I love Ellie's cute little worried face!

 I am so glad that Ellie didn't try to eat these beans but instead she did what she was supposed to with them! Hooray!

 Their little grocery store area was SO cute! Ethan felt like such a big boy loading his grocery cart full of goodies and then checking out with the cashiers!

It was a fun afternoon and our kids were exhausted after! Those are always the best kind of play dates :) Thanks Kristina for inviting us along!

Our Ellie Bellie

We just love this little cutie patootie. I have a hard time believing that she is already 18 months old! Here are just a few reasons why we love this little lady so much...

• We love her adorable little personality! She is so funny and cracks herself up frequently. 
• She LOVES animals. I take the kids to Petsmart (it's as close as they will get to having a pet)every once in awhile and she squeals and screams with delight when she sees the kitties and puppies. Everyone always comments on how excited she gets!

• We love those squinty little brown eyes, her perfect little lips, and her bald little head :) Her hair has actually started coming in pretty good now and so far it looks like she will be platinum blonde. Brown eyes, olive colored skin with blonde hair? So cute, right?!

• I'm trying to love that she is my picky little vegetable eater! She sneakily picks around her veggies and stashes them beside her in her booster chair so it appears as if she has eaten them. It didn't take too long before I caught on and now she gets her veggies first and her dinner only after she has finished it. She especially dislikes brocolli and we have had many a broccoli battle! I will win!!

• She is a feisty one! She has a very independent and strong willed personality! When she has her mind set on doing something, she is not easily distracted! If she is frustrated  she will turn away from me, squat down, put her hands out to the side and scream out her frustration. It is actually quite cute to watch :) She is also really good at dropping all of her body weight and throwing a mean tantrum. It's ok, we still adore her :)

• We love what a little girl she is! She always is trying on different peoples shoes and loves to walk around with my church shoes on. She also uses anything as purse and puts her stash of little trinkets in there. It must be inate because I have in no way taught her to do that or have modeled that for her!

• 

•  She is a dancer. This girl loves to have the music on and show us her best moves. If music isn't on, she will run  over to the DVD player, point to it and move her body from side to side. I ask her if she wants to dance and she squeals and jumps up and down with excitement!

• She still doesn't talk much, I would put her at about a 9-12 month old vocabulary. She has maybe only 2 or 3 words that are clearly said but she somehow tells us what she wants. Sign language has helped a ton. She is a smart girl just a little behind verbally. I'm not too worried about it yet. She does know all of her animal noises and her little piggie grunt is SO cute!
• She loves to be cuddled and sang to before going down for her nap and bedtime. Her favorite songs are: Skimmer-a-rinky- dinky- dink , Wheels on the bus, Head-sholders-knees and toes, Itsy bitsy Spider and Pat-a-cake. She knows the actions to all of them! I love that time with her.
• She loves nursery and so do we! 
• She has her own word for Ethan, it sounds something like "TeeTan!" As soon as she gets out of her crib in the morning she yells "Tee-Tan!" and runs into Ethan's room to wake him up. She loves to follow Ethan around and make him mad by "ruining all my toys!" 
• She is my little shadow! She isn't needy with constantly having me play with her but she just likes to be where I am. It's really cute!
• She is such a climber! I have found her multiple times standing on top of our kitchen table trying to hang from the light fixture and on top of my desk banging on the computer keyboard. She takes Ethan's little multi purpose stool  around the house and uses it as her little climbing boost. Smart girl :) 

We couldn't imagine our little family without her and we are so glad that she chose and trusted us to be her parents. We feel pretty blessed to have two busy, fun, and simply wonderful little kiddos!

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Impressed!

Ethan's first class of Let's Play Music was last week and I'm already so impressed with this program! This video is kinda long but it shows that Ethan is already recognizing the different parts of classical music. He knows that the magic lamp has a certain sound, the carpet, the genie, etc. I'm so excited for him! Enjoy!