I am ONE Lucky Gal!

Today marks 7 years of wedded bliss for Ryan and I. We were married on August 31, 2002 in the Boise Temple. Our wedding was planned pretty much in 11 days. I know! Fast huh? Though there are some things I wish we would have done differently on our wedding day, (my hair for one!) overall it was THE perfect day! I couldn't have asked for more. Most of our close family and friends were able to attend and afterwards we had lunch at the church. There Ryan sang and played a song for me on the piano, called "Close Your Eyes". He wrote this song shortly after we met. It is so amazing!! I wanted to share it with all of you because it is very special to me. (I will probably embarrass Ryan a little bit but I never get to brag about how amazing he is so here's my chance!)

Isn't that the most beautiful song?! Ryan is very talented and has wrote and recorded many more. Someday I will have to share a few more of my favorites!


We have had our ups and downs during the past 7 years like everyone, but continue to grow closer and more affectionate towards each other everyday. Ryan is truly my best friend. I feel so blessed to be sealed to him and that he picked me to marry out of the millions of girls that wanted him! ;) He is a wonderful husband and an amazing daddy to our girls!

So thank you babe for being mine! I love you so much!!!

An Apology from Football fans

My wonderful wife recently posted about her favorite show, "The Biggest Loser" about to start the next season in 2 weeks. That got me to thinking, I need to let the world know that, not only does the Biggest Loser, school, and autumn start in a few short weeks, but so does FOOTBALL!

Ah, my friends, there is nothing like the sweet smell of clipped grass and the colors of falling leaves as they drift across the streets, parks, and yards. Nay, 'tis a time of year second to none. But hark! What is that sound? The distant rumbling of snare drums and the blare of marching band brass lights a fire in your soul. The shrill TWEEEET of a referee's whistle awakens your

spirit from it's involuntary 8-month hibernation. The loud BANG of crunching helmets against shoulder pads, the roar of rabid fans, and the cry of victory emminating from the stadium.

That's right, folks. College football is here and I am chomping at the bit to watch teams both beloved (Boise State and Utah) and teams loathed (most BCS conference teams and especially the Idaho Vandals, Oklahoma Sooners, and Ohio State Buckeyes) do battle on the gridiron.

I understand that most of you reading this are not as super stoked about the coming college football season (because most of you are girls or pansies (except you, Aaron Moore, Jeremy Johnson and Nate Morin), but please do me a favor and don't judge those of us that are as being couch potatoes and worthless bums (although you are mostly accurate in your assessment). We, the worshippers of the game of football, only ask for 4 months of Saturdays with which to fill our cravings. There are only a proverbial handful of games that we are able to watch amidst the chores, duties, and labors we must perform.

So when your hubby begs you to hand over the remote and go grab him some snacks, do him and all us guys a favor, forgive us for our couch potato-ness and take a seat beside us for a while and enjoy some pure unadulterated testosterone driven man-sports. Your husband will love you for it!

Time to Weigh In!

So I thought I would do a follow up post to my weight loss goal. And all you all's that wanted to lose weight with me,

"HOW ARE YOU DOING ON YOUR GOAL?!"

My report: I lost 10 pounds as of last week from when I started two months ago, today. But as soon as the weekend hit and we had so much "junk" food for Avery's birthday, I will confess, I gained 2 pounds back! Ah well, you win some, you lose some. I have 9 weeks to go before November, which is the goal I set to lose the remaining 14-16 pounds...hmm, that's going to be some work! Yet, I know it's possible, so I am here to say I am going to jump back on the wagon and commit myself to full work outs and eating more healthy...again. Cuz really we all want to do our bodies some good, right?!

The Biggest Loser Show - my favorite TV show!... Begins in just two weeks I believe! I can't wait!

I hope everyone is doing good on their goals! Keep it up!
You CAN do it!!!! (I'm just trying to motivate myself is all...) :)

Here's a little weight loss humor....

Avery turned TWO!!

Little miss Avery Eve had a birthday! She turned two on Friday, the 21st. Hard to believe sometimes how fast they grow up. We had a mini party for her with just our little family Friday night. We bought some little cupcakes and had a feast!

On Saturday we invited my family; mom and dad, Adam, Genn and Colton, April and Josh(except Josh had to work...we missed you Josh!) and Randy. Ryan's aunt and uncle, Wendy and Jerry came. And our adopted son :), Dan, who is in Ryan's PA class came over too. We had pizza, veggies, cake, and icecream.

I made a white rainbow chip earth worm and mint chocolate chip caterpillar cake. Avery was so excited when she saw the finished cakes. But before the cakes were done the girls got to lick the beaters and here is the aftermath of that...

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

Total Cuteness!

Avery got some fun presents from everyone, a play dough set from Genn, Adam and Cole. A horse you can ride from grandma and grandpa Newman. Wendy made Avery a little bag that she can carry around all her books or babies supplies. April and Josh got the girls dinosaur hats and a baby doll. And Ryan and I got Avery some puzzles, a doctor set, and stroller/carseat for her babies. She seemed pretty tickled by it all and kept saying, "Wow"! everytime she opened a present. Thanks family for coming to celebrate Avery's birthday with us.
(These picture of the girls riding the horse was actually taken on August 9th the day they met their baby sister, Emily.)

Yeehaw!!!
This is our hillarious TWO year old. Trying to get dressed like big sister Madi...She took off her pajamas and diaper and this is how I found her... putting on her shirt?
Haha! Almost Avery! :)
-Some fun facts about Avery-

She is always making us laugh. She pulls these faces out of the blue that total surprise us and makes us all laugh so hard. She is talking so much and repeats almost everything we say, which is so cute! Since she copies what we say all the time, I try and say big words like Constitution, medicine, United Sates of America, Boise State Football... and she then repeats everything back. Everytime her and Madi are seperated for more than an hour, either in church or nap time as soon as Avery spots Madi she runs and gives her a hug. They are such good friends and play so well together. Another one of Avery's passions is eating. She loves to eat and is always asking for a "nack pease, mommy". This girl could eat all day long, I tell ya! But of course she burns it off as quickly as she swallows it, making her therefore STILL hungry. haha. She likes to say the prayers and read books. She likes the show Calliou, but I think that's just because her big sister Madi does so much. She loves to scream out letters of the alpahbet when she sees words somewhere (even though they are not always the right letters! ;) She is just a fun happy kid and we love having her in our family!


Happy Birthday Avery!

Welcome Home Emily!!!

Geez wiz...my poor blog just doesn't get the attention it deserves! I wish I was more motivated to make my posts a little cuter, a little funnier and maybe a tad more frequent...yeah, that would be nice.

BIG NEWS!!!


EMILY is HOME!!!!


Emily and Madi both have the same red stork mark on their foreheads. Madi's has faded a lot since she was born and so will Emily's.
This is the first time the girls got to meet their baby sister. They were really excited to hold her and very curious about her. Every time we took Emily away from Avery, Avery would just bawl. It was pretty cute!


We got to bring Emily home last Saturday. She has been home for a whole week! We went down last Friday and stayed with her until Monday. Came home Monday night then went back down Thursday and on Saturday Emily was released from the hospital to our care....kind of scary at first, but she is doing great and we are really so excited to have her home. So.....

Welcome home baby girl!!!
(I have been wanting to say that for a very long time!;)

Emily is now 6 pounds 9 ounces as of Tuesday(so she probably weighs more today). Emily is on oxygen and the doctors have told us to keep her away from stores,church, public places probably until next April/May, after RSV season. Emily will be four months old on the 19th! I can't believe it! Technically she and Ethan were suppose to come today! August 15th was my due date with them.

I have a ton of pictures to share, but unfortunately most of our pictures were downloaded to our home computer, which currently is not working. Don't know what happened, one morning it just didn't want to turn on and hasn't turned on since(I have mornings like that too, I guess). We got a new video card for it, hoping that would fix the problem, but it didn't. We will have to take it into the shop again! Ugh. So I am typing on my husband's laptop, which has a few pictures on it to share.

Emily's little profile. She was sleeping while being gavauge fed...one of her last tube feedings! Sunday, August 1st.

One of the nurses that takes care of Emily said Emily had pulled her feeding tube out of her nose and from then on she has been drinking from a bottle ever since. The doctor's and nurses were pretty surprised she did so well with her feedings after being on a ventilator and having a tube down her throat for so long. I guess Emily was ready to be a big girl and took matters into her own hands! :)
Emily's first bath at home! I wrap her all up in a warm towel and she loves it!

Chuck E. Cheese!

While Grandma Graf was visiting this summer, we got to go to Chuck E. Cheese's for the first time and we all had a blast! I haven't been to Chuck E. Cheese's since I was like 8 and we had a great time. We were there for hours playing and eating! I wish they had one here in Southern Idaho because we would go all the time.

Avery with Grandma Graf watching Chuck the mouse perform.

This was Avery's favorite ride. She kept loving on this dog like it was real and would cry if she had to get off.

Dad getting in on the action.

In the end we had lots of tickets and the girls "helped" dad feed them into the machine to see how many tickets there were to get a prize. This was pretty funny to watch as Avery and Madi would try cramming the tickets into the slot.

Pioneer Celebration Day!

For me the celebration started off by running in a race. There were signups to do a 5k and a 10k run. Leanne, Angela (from the ward) and I signed up to do the 5k two days before, but when we got to the race to sign in, we decided right then to do the 10k instead. So instead of 3.1 miles, it's 6.2 miles. What's another 3 miles of good road?

Right before they yelled, "Ready, Set, Go!" the volunteers in charge told everyone that the race was actually a bit longer than that. *cough* Excuse me?

It was an 11k. An 11k?! I know… pretty uncommon, right? Usually races are a 5k, 10k, half marathon, or marathon. Yet, the course that the race was held at was just about 7 miles, which is an 11k.

Ok. Well then. What's another mile on top of the extra three miles I wasn’t planning on doing? Piece of cake.

Right!

Did I train at all for this?
Not one bit.

Was I nervous?
Not really.

Did I doubt my ability to do this?
Only for a slight moment.

Did I finish the race?
Yes I did! And I happy to say Angela, Leanne and I didn't stop running once! (Well, except to tie my shoe and jump and scream at the site of a snake not three feet away from where I going to step next. Luckily, the snake wasn't dangerous or poisonous. It was just a big garden snake, but it gave me quite the scare!)

Leanne, the running machine that she is, finished the race with an amazing time of 1 hour and 7 minutes. Good job Leanne!

Angela and I on the other hand, finished dead last out of like 20-30 people with a grand time of 1 hour and 32 minutes. But we finished. We were close to "dead" too, at the end, but we finished. And this was Angela's first ever race!

Do I ache beyond all reason now?
Absolutely.

Have I been limping around the house like a 90 year old woman ever since?

Pretty much.

Was it worth it?
Totally.

Angela~Leanne

My next goal: To run a half Marathon.
------------------------------------------------------

After getting home from the race and taking a much needed shower we took off to watch the Pocatello Pioneer parade! So many hours were put into the making of these floats, costumes and planning to make it special for the children and people of Pocatello. The theme for it obviously, was about pioneers, but it was finding “Joy in the Journey.” Which has been my motto for awhile now!

http://athomewiththehodges.blogspot.com/2008/11/joy-in-journey.html?zx=634f9a914357d3c8

In the car, ready to go!

Hanging out snapping some pictures before the parade came marching down the street.

Looking cool in their shades, Madi and Avery eating a snack.

"Hi mom!" Madi was having so much fun, waving at everybody as they passed by and grabbing candy as it flew her way!


"Joy is Help From Above."

Hand carts
What a good looking bunch!

Awww...




The girls had a great time and we are glad we went this year, as we have forgotten to go the last two years in a row! We came away with big smiles, good feelings and a diaper bag full of candy! Swwweeeet.

Weekend with Emily

Ryan and I drove down to Utah on Friday to see Emily. We couldn't believe how much Emily has changed in a just two weeks! We were not able to make it down the weekend before due to various reasons, and have only had our morning and nightly updates over the phone from the nurses. The nurses at the University Hospital have been nothing but nice and so helpful. We feel so grateful to them for taking care of Emily and keeping her so comfortable and happy. I was able to nurse Emily twice this weekend, and she did so good! She latched on and totally exceeded everyone's expectations! It was so great to be able to bond with her more and hold her whenever we wanted to... which was always! We also got to see our good friends, Alan and Cristi from California and have dinner with them Friday night in Provo. We stayed with them Friday and Saturday night and had a great time like always! Proud Daddy- these pictures are from Friday night, she weighed in at 3 lbs. 15 1/2 ounces

Saturday morning- this is Emily in her new BIG girl bed! She is now able to maintain her body temperature better so she has been in a crib for about a week now. Emily is still on oxygen but it is pretty much on the lowest setting you can go, so pretty soon she will be off of everything!
  We took turns holding Emily.... it was like we were two years old again, learning how to share, as we would "fight" over who had her the longest! haha! :)A little smile. She smiled a lot when we were talking to her. She also smiled when she was getting fed through the tube the breastmilk. Emily and Dad in a deep conversation about the meaning of life. Of course Emily wasn't in the mood for such a deep topic so early in the morning so she starting teasing dad. The teasing has already started...You can see from this picture how much she has grown with my hand over her head from the picture on the side of our blog with my hand on her head. She really liked it when I lightly moved my hand back and forth over her head softly touching her. Her eyes would roll back and she would shudder almost everytime. It was really cute.Emily looking around as we continued to talk with her.This was right before I got to nurse her. We were hanging out comparing hands waiting for the breastfeeding specialist to come in. I think Emily's got MY hands.Emily is getting her first bath! It was neat how we did her bath. We wrapped her up in a towel and kept her wrapped up tight just taking out an arm or leg washing it and putting it back in the towel. Right before her bath though, we weighed her and she was 4 lbs. 3 ounces!Emily after her bath! She smelled of shampoo, had clean fluffy hair, a new outift, and a little pink bow on top to complete the cuteness!Kisses for Emy!And this is what happens when Ryan gets ahold of the camera...What a goof!I told him I was going to post those pictures on the blog. His response, "Go Ahead!" Me laughing at him. He always makes me laugh!Emily stretching
Hasn't Emily grown so much!?

Who does Emily look more alike?

A. Madisen

B. Avery