Happy Four and Twenty Seven!

Last week Erik and I celebrated our 4th anniversary! We were married on August 14th, 2004 in the Dallas, Texas temple. It was a beautiful sealing ceremony and day. Since then we have added 2 beautiful girls to our family. We have struggled through 3+ years of medical school and are currently trying to survive our 4th year rotations, much of which will be spend apart from each other. Erik has put up with my whining and complaining during the pregnancies and has been my greatest support. I'm so proud of him for all that he has accomplished and so grateful that he continues to work so hard for our family. The road has definitely had some major bumps but I'm so glad that he's the one who has been by my side. I love you sweetie!

Here's to many more happy years to come :)

Happy 27th birthday to Erik! His birthday was August 16th and I'm glad that the girls and I were out here to be with him. We went out to dinner at Old Chigago's pizza which wasn't anything special but Erik didn't want us to make a big fuss over his birthday. That's very him :)

Here are 27 things you may or probably do not know about Erik:

1.He loves to watch football, preferrably the NFL.

2. His favorite dessert is donuts- any and all donuts.

3. He prefers pie over cake.

4. He loves meat. I'm amazed at the amount of steak this boy can consume. Eating meat acutally makes him hungrier.

5. He's a great soccer player. I love to watch him play. I haven't seen him play since we've had kids because his intramural games were always at a bad time.

6. He loves to watch movies which is something we do together a lot. He's a sucker for action movies. He always says if there's a couple of good explosions, etc. then he usually likes it :)

7. He's an incredibly fast runner. It's amazing to watch him run at full speed.

8. This guy can sleep anytime, anywhere. He has narcolepsy and even on the highest does of medication he is still drowsy and can fall asleep no problem. I'm amazed that he continues to do so well with his schooling despite this challenge.

9. Erik became a diabetic when he was 19. They should have caught it prior to him leaving on his mission. He had to come home a month out in the mission field and was so sick- he should have been dead.

10. He loves to lift weights and keep in shape. It's been hard for him to find time the past few years but especially now that he's on rotations. He works really hard at it.

11. He's often quiet around people he's just met or doesn't know very well. But, once you get to know him he's a lot of fun. He likes to joke around a lot.

12. He gets a lot of enjoyment out of riling me up. I can get worked up (not really) over some things and he thinks its fun.

13. He grew up in the mojave dessert in California.

14. He's very stubborn. I never thought I would marry someone who could be even more stubborn than me.

15. His dream is to live in Alaska after residency...I'm definitely not so keen on the idea.

16. Erik gets hot very very easily. As long as the sun is shining on him, he's hot even if it's 30 degrees out. When we were first married, he kept the window open at night in the middle of the winter. I was being a very nice wife at the time. Hahaha!

17. He loves loves to fish, especially for trout.

18. He loves the outdoors- hiking, camping, etc.

19. He loves his little girls so much and is so good at playing with them. Reagan gets so excited when he comes home. Mommy just isn't as much fun.

20. He has a great singing voice but unfortunately doesn't think so.

21. He's the oldest of 5 kids.

22. He used to want 8 kids and now he says we're done at 2. Hahaha! Little does he know but I will get my way with 4 :)

23. He wants to teach at a podiatry school later on in his career. He's a fantastic teacher- a very natural gift to him.

24. He loves the cartoon Dexter's Laboratory.

25. His nickname for me is Pooky. I love it.

26. He has the most infectious laugh when he REALLY laughs. I absolutely love it. It's the best sound ever.

27. He's the best husband! I love you!!!!

Sleep Deprivation..*Yawn*

WARNING- post may contain a bit of whining/venting...

I was blaming my sleep deprivation on the fact that I have been addicted to the Olympics in Beijing this year! I couldn't turn off the tv and go to bed. As a result I've been a zombie the entire time I've been in Indiana. I love the Olympics! I don't think I've ever watched the Olympics as much as I did this year. My favorites were swimming (Go Michael Phelps!), gymnastics, and track. I also enjoyed watching volleyball. Wasn't Clay Stanley amazing?

I'm sad that it's over but glad that I should be getting more sleep, especially since I'm flying back to Idaho by myself with both girls on Thursday. Can I say NIGHTMARE?!? I flew for the first time by myself with both of them last month and it was awful. It's a good thing I love my husband or else I would never do it again. A few weeks ago was beyond horrific. I don't think that Reagan has ever been that onery and misbehaved so much. Please, please pray for me.

Oh and my kids have both been sick the past few days and have tag teamed in the middle of the night, causing me to get out of bed oh...every 20 minutes or so. Nice. Too bad I don't drink coffee.

Let's Not Forget About Sarah

A lot of my posts have been focused on Reagan but Sarah has definitely been busy this summer. She's now 8 months old and a little firecracker in her own way. It's really funny to watch her get fired up and try to fight for mommy's attention with her older sister. She'll sit there and yell and her face will get all red then she'll be perfectly calm afterwards. She's just ticked when she feels left out. She'll definitely let everyone know. She's also my little cuddlebug. Reagan was never one to cuddle so I'm loving this.

A few things Sarah's accomplished this summer:
1. Started sitting up by herself pretty much exactly at 6 months old which was the same as Reagan.
2. I started trying to feed her solids at 5 1/2 months and she refused them until just recently (about 7 1/2 months). She loves bread and gerber puffs though. I'm thinking she may be even pickier than Reagan, ugh!
3. She started army crawling on August 12th at 7 1/2 months. She's now trying to get up on her knees and will ocassionally rock back and forth. She's super cute army crawling though!
4. Just yesterday she completely surprised me. I went into the kitchen to wash bottles and left her sitting in the living room. I came out maybe 2 minutes later and Sarah had pulled herself up to standing next to a chair. She was grunting because she wasn't fully upright but was determined. It was so cute because her facial expression was like "How in the world did I get up here and what the heck is going on?" It was priceless! I thought for sure she wouldn't walk anywhere near as soon as Reagan but the fact that she pulled herself up out of nowhere has me nervous. I don't want her to be walking anytime soon.
Here are some random pictures from over the summer of Sarah. She's a little more photogenic than she used to be, hahaha!

Spending time with daddy when he came to visit.
With mommy in the Ergo baby carrier. I so HEART the Ergo carrier. Best thing I have ever bought for my kids. AMAZING!
Sarah with Aunt Elizabeth sporting daddy's sunglasses.
Meeting her Great Grandma Elaine Haroldsen, who she is named after.
Showing off her beautiful smile. She loves her big sister Reagan so much!

Unusually happy on her tummy.


Look at her already waving to the crowd! She really does wave to people already. So cute!

I think she looks a lot like some of my mom's baby pictures. We love you "Little Bunny!"

Lastly, here's a short video clip of her crawling:

Reagans 2nd birthday party

Reagan was super excited about all the people at the party, the balloons, the swimming pool in the backyard, and all of the attention.
I had plans to make a homemade cake but my mom convinced me to just buy one. I had enough going on with the rest of the food and everything else. I'm glad I gave in :) I went with the Elmo theme because she loves Elmo and hasn't gotten into the princess thing yet. Somehow I don't think she ever really will...she seems more of a tomboy that likes to do boy things instead.
Reagan was all business about the cake. She scarfed it down good- shoveling it in pretty fast! Too bad she took after me and loves sweets.
Here she is unwrapping and admiring her gifts. Her main gift was early and was a pink and purple tricycle. She loves riding on her "bikeacycle" as she calls it. She also got a fingerpainting kit with different textured paint roller brushes, a bubble gun, a playdoh kit with textured stamps and textured rolling pins, and other various gifts. She had a blast playing with her second cousin Cassidy, eating junk, and playing in the pool. We also had water balloon volleyball in the backyard and she had a blast helping load the balloons on the towel and getting in the way. It was so much fun to actually have family around to celebrate.

Here's a video of us singing and Reagan blowing out the candle.

Reagan turns 2!

Birthday pictures to follow. I just can't believe my baby is 2 years old. She has grown up so much this last year especially. She was born on Sunday June 25th, 2006 at 2:06 a.m. She weighed 7 lbs. 6 1/2 oz. and was 20 inches long. Reagan is such a joy in our family. She has SO much energy, is so bright and curious about everything, super sensitive, intense, sweet,, observant, and loving. Here are a few pictures of the first 2 years of her life:

Sorry that the above picture is sideways. I couldn't figure out how to flip it. This was the first picture taken of Reagan after she was born. Not too happy eh? That seemed to be the theme for the first three and a half months of her life.
This is Reagan at 3 months old

Reagan is about 7-8 months here
This is Reagan on her 1st birthday
This is Reagan with her daddy when he came to visit us at the end of June

We're looking forward to many more years with our little Skunk. We love you Reagan!

We're still alive...crazy summer! June recap...

Everyone probably gave up on me getting up a new blog post but I am still alive. It's been a crazy and event filled summer for the girls and I. I have SOOOOOO much blogging/journaling to catch up on. I feel like I've been around the world a couple times. I guess I have to start somewhere so I'll start where I left off...

Erik came out to Idaho the last week of June through the 4th of July. We had Reagan's birthday party the night he flew in, which will be in the following post. That following Monday he surprised me with an overnight trip to the Black Swan Inn in Pocatello, Idaho. It was AMAZING! We went out to Texas Roadhouse (one of our favorite restaurants), bought a ridiculous amount of junk and candy and watched movies and relaxed. It was fantastic to spend time with just the two of us. Thanks mom!! Here's a link to the fabulous room we stayed in. If you're ever around Pocatello and you and your hubby need to get away and relax, I totally recommend! Go HERE and click on virtual tour. We stayed in the Mayan Rain Forest suite. By the time we left I was sooooooooo relaxed which is so not like me these days :)

Here's a brief recap on what life was like in June:
1. Trips to nearby park- Reagan loves to swing and slide
2. Reagan unleashes the REAL terrible two's, (which I might add, has continued to intensify since) as shown in the picture below:

3. Sarah continues to demand for you to be in her face at all times and/or holding her or she's screaming and crying, as shown in the picture below:
4. Reagan decides that she doesn't want her picture scriptures anymore. She loves when we sit down and read before bed and she can hold her own copy. She loves to read the scriptures (with our help of course).
5. Both Reagan and Sarah LOVE being in the water, whether it's the bath or the pool. Sarah gets sooo excited and flaps her arms and totally drenches her face with water. Reagan just can't get enough. I had to end on a sweet picture of the two of them together. Such cute girls I must say so myself :) Sarah is 6 months here and this is 2 days before Reagan's birthday.

Livin' it up in Idaho

I feel like I have an ok excuse why I haven't blogged in ages. The last few weeks in Des Moines were insane. I really don't know how we managed to get out of there on time. Erik and I parted ways on Friday, May 30th and I met my mom later that afternoon in Omaha at the airport. About a bazillion pit stops later, 30 movies later (thank heavens for portable DVD players), 2 very horrendous nights in hotels, 2 bags of animal crackers, and some real bad food- we staggered into Rexburg on Sunday afternoon. I was so incredibly exhausted emotionally, mentally, and physically that I proceeded to crash for the next week and a half. Ridiculous I tell you....just ridiculous.

We've been having a lot of fun here at Grandma and Grandpa Garner's the past three weeks. It has been more than lovely to be living in a home with a backyard and a family friendly community. I will NEVER EVER EVER go back to apartment living. If we don't buy a home during residency we will surely rent. Enough said. Reagan has absolutely been livin' it up here. We've been spending lots of time outdoors watering Grandma's garden, strawberry patch, and gorgeous flowers. We've been grilling yummy food and playing in Reagan's new sandbox and making frequent trips to the park just a few blocks away. I've also been trying to teach Reagan how to ride her new tricycle but it's just not clicking for her yet. Oh well, she still likes it. It has been so nice to be out here with family so close. Two of my brothers are here, along with Erik's sister Elizabeth and a lot of my dad's family. Reagan has loved all of the attention. We also had a visit from Erik's mom Kathy, her parents and brothers, and Erik's youngest sister Rebecca. So spoiled are we.

I have no pictures to post because I somehow managed to forget to pack my USB cable. So, we'll have to wait until Erik gets here in a week. Yes, a WEEK! I am beyond excited to see my husband!!! It will have been 4 weeks since I last saw him. I have been dreading the 4th year for quite some time and to be honest, it just plain sucks. I think we're both actually dealing with the separation a lot better than we thought. My family has been a huge support and Erik is such a trooper and is soooo busy. He barely has time to sleep and eat every day. I can't say enough how proud I am of him! I am so so thankful to him for all that he's doing for our family. He'll be here for a week and it is going to be so fabulous. Thankfully we've been able to chat on the webcam almost every night. What would we do without modern technology?

Erik is surprising me with an overnight get-a-way while he's here. We haven't been on a trip just the two of us since our honeymoon. Those who know us know we rarely ever go out without kids so this will be a real treat. I can't handle surprises- I just get so anxious and impatient so this is really bugging me that I have no idea where we're going but I just can't wait!

So, that is a little update on what we're up to. To all of my dear friends in Iowa who I didn't get a chance to say goodbye to, I am so sad and so sorry. I was so overwhelmed and Reagan was sick the last Sunday we were there. I miss you all terribly and I hope all is well. Best of luck to you guys who are leaving soon for rotations.

Pictures to come soon and Reagan's 2nd birthday is next week :)