Happy Anniversary, Wade!

Portland, Oregon Temple. Married on the 9th February 2002

I can't believe another year has come and gone! Today is our 8 year wedding anniversary and seriously, it doesn't feel like 8 years. It has gone by SO fast! I have had the best time being married to Wade. He makes life fun and easy...easier. I can't imagine life without him and I'm so thankful we've been married in the temple for time and all eternity. I love him and my little family SO much and to know we will be together forever is the best gift I could ever have. Our Heavenly Father loves all of us so much that we can have the opportunity to have eternal families. And I'm so grateful that this is only the beginning. How cool is that?!

I feel like the last few posts have been mainly of Charlotte. And it's not like I favor one baby or the other, I just have to write about Jack! I love them both dearly. That sounds so old fashioned, doesn't it?!

Jack just melts my heart. This kid just smiles and makes you smile so big. He just turned 18 months on Saturday. YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS. This means he's going to Nursery at church. Oh heavens. It was beautiful. I could attend my meetings and go to YWs the whole way through. And he did fantastic! Some of the older kids were screaming their heads off and scared a few of the little nursery kids but he did great overall. He even helped clean up and throw things in the trash. He's really good at doing that at home too. Because big sister does it and he does everything she does. He also has been amazing during Sacrament mtg now that we've switched to 1pm church. I also sit in the middle pews and have the help from Lisa and her family but still! It's wonderful!!! I love it! I don't have to look up at Wade with a stern look on my face of annoyance dealing with kids by myself (I know selfish especially since it's just one hour...) and feel like I'm going to have a mental breakdown.

Last night, I made the nastiest lemon meringue pie. The meringue was awesome but we decided to try pudding in a box. um, no. Don't try it. SERIOUSLY. It looked so good and we sat down at took a bite and I was like, this is sick. And Wade took a bite and his face was HILARIOUS. He's like, it's rubber. Seriously. It WAS. The flavor was really good but the texture was sick and rubbery. ha ha ha. The funny part was we finally got Jack to take a bite just to see if he'd eat it and he put it in his mouth and immediately spat it out. You had to be there but we laughed so hard cause we knew it was rubbery and it was awesome to see Jack discovering the same horrid texture. Seriously funny.

Jack loves to tell you no, especially if he has to go to bed. No no no no and shake his head. He doesn't scream, he just tells you. And he LOVES to sing Popcorn popping on the Apricot tree and loves the actions. He tries them and it's so cute.

He loves people! He will say hi and wave to almost everyone. He loves my friends especially Nicki and Jen and will just go and sit on their laps and love to be held by them.

He still says "heppee" for Help me. Which probably sounds exactly like happy to everyone else. He says apple for the words apple and temple. Loves to say down when he means up.

He loves to drag the vacuum pipe around. It's his favorite thing. Crazy kid. Loves to make a mess. Seriously. I don't know a kid can be so messy. He makes messes every time he turns around and the kid is so messy eating but he's so picky at the same time! I don't get it!! But I love it.

He's still a Daddy's boy but he's starting to like me just a little more : ) I'm so proud of this kid. I can tell him to do something and generally he understands and does it. Quite a contrast compared to Charlotte (But she's doing phenomenal!!!).

There's so much more Jack can do and say but this is just a little taste of him. He's getting quite the personality and I love him so much! I'm so excited to have another girl in the family but I'm really happy that I still get to call Jack my baby boy. He's going to be spoiled by me and his sisters!!!

One year ago...

Well, it's been one year ago yesterday that I posted about Charlotte walking from the living room to her bedroom (that was upstairs at the time.) Take a look at this old post HERE. It's incredible to think of where we were and where we are now. I've been thinking of Charlotte these last few days and am so grateful she's in our family and no one else's. She's my baby and I love her. I love Jack. He makes me smile all day. I am truly blessed to have two wonderful children that make my life better. I wish I could be the best mom I can be but I fall short of it everyday. I REALLY do but then again, I reflect on my choices I made during the day just before I fall asleep and think how I can be better and really try harder the next day. Sometimes my brain is gone and I forget that I am trying to be a better person but I guess the thing to remember is I'm trying. I love my children and Wade so much. I hope they know that.

Christmas Day FEAST

Here it is. The Feast. We were full for days--well, seemed that way. We always made room that night for it!! We had ham, chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, roast potatoes, stuffing, carrots, broccoli and cheesesauce, olives, corn, garlic bread, jello pretzel salad, green bean casserole, cherries, shrimp, brie and crackers and cheeseball and crackers and bubbly. For dessert we had mini cheesecakes, Ambrosia and pecan pie! YUM.

Just another delicious view of the food.

Whatcha lookin' at? he he

This is what our day consisted of, opening presents, eating breakfast (ham and cheese croissants and OJ), relaxing for 1 minute and then off cooking the Christmas Dinner while the kids played with their new things. It was a great day and it was great we could celebrate it with Lian, Joff and then kids.

Temple Picture

I forgot to add in the temple picture. We had such a hard time choosing which temple to purchase. The NZ one is dear to us, especially Wade since that's the one he's grown up with and he received his endowments there. The Portland temple is dear to us but especially to me because I grew up with it plus I received my endowments there and we were married in the Portland temple. But we decided on the Logan temple because this is the temple we are living next to and this will be the temple our children will grow up with. Don't worry, we'll get the NZ and Portland temple. Probably not so big but we'll get them. It's always hard to choose!

Christmas Day

Look! Santa came!!!! I think we need a bigger living room. Tight squeeze with two families!!

All the goods from Santa. I bet Mrs. Claus did all the wrapping. She did a REALLY good job, especially with all that pretty ribbon....; )

Charlotte had SO much fun putting out cookies and milk and a carrot for Rudolph the night before. She's sporting her new pjs she opened the night before. But I love how she's interested that the cookies are gone. It was so fun to see her so excited about Santa. She's really understanding so much and I'm just so happy. Jack really didn't care, that's why he's not in the pictures...

Charlotte loved investigating what was in this box. But it was to mom from dad. Sorry girl, that one is MINE. ha ha. Wade bought me a beautiful ROOM IN A BAG BEDDING SET! Seriously 24 pieces. I love it and think it looks beautiful! I just need to add in a beautiful headboard to match it...hint hint. Well, I can hint all I want. That room is tiny and there's no room for anything else. It's okay, I'm VERY patient. : D

Checking out Jack's stocking! I'm sure Santa would have put more presents with the stockings but it would have been just one giant present mess. He's a smart Santa.

Look at that face! So excited!!

Checking out one of her gifts. She loves that little "movie" thing. Just is pictures and push a button to get to the next one.

Charlotte kept asking everyday until Christmas about opening the presents but I think the advent calendars really helped her understand that she had to wait until a certain day to open them. She loved talking about reindeer and santa and snow and presents and candy canes and a lot of things she learned in school. It was SO much fun to see the excitement in her face. Really made Christmas that much more special. I think Jack enjoyed it too but don't know since he wasn't too interested with the presents after awhile. I'm sure he'll catch on real fast next year. It was a wonderful day to see their faces light up. Oh, I got from Wade an awesome makeup kit, room in a bag bedding set, and lots of needed kitchen utensils. I got Wade some shirts, tie rack, 2 DVDs and a few other things that I can't think of right now. It was fun! We got some beautiful things from Wade's sisters--New Zealand dipping bowls (shaped as the country of New Zealand) and cookie cutters that are of New Zealand and the Kiwi Bird. And we especially love the beautiful NZ books that Crystal gave the kids. They are really special so they are out of reach and only read with mom and dad. I don't want them ruined. Thank you! And of course, Ma and Grandpa Ardern gave them lots of clothes, a toy each and new church shoes. And we received money that we put towards a temple picture from them. THANK YOU. My parents gave the kids their special ornaments. I think they're beautiful. And of course, thank you mom and dad for your gifts. We love them!!!

Christmas Eve Party

The Ardern side of the family has this tradition of having a Christmas Eve party. All yummy finger foods and bubbly! We had to have it a bit earlier because Jack NEEDED to go to bed. He was being a stinker. ha ha. That's okay. We stuffed ourselves silly and it was absolutely DELICIOUS!!! Or as Rachael Ray would say, "delish". Hate that woman.

We ate Croissants stuffed with Chicken Salad, mozzarella sticks, veggies and dip, truffles, brie and crackers, cheeseball and crackers, cherries, pretzels with hershey kisses, M&Ms, shrimp, chips and dip and bubbly. Am I missing anything else?? Can't remember. All I know is I gained 10 pounds that night. Awwwww.

Truffles

Truffles are an art with Lian. Seriously. She is an amazing cook and knows thousands of recipes by memory and they always turn out perfectly. I'm not exaggerating. Maybe the thousand number is a bit much--ha ha. But yeah. I'm not kidding. But her Mum and her sister, Crystal, are incredible cooks too. It runs in the genes. So I know Ryan and Elle are on their way. Wade is a great cook and I've learned a LOT from him and his sisters/mum since we've been married. (Mom, I learned a lot from you but didn't care to cook when I was younger. ha ha). Lian always makes Truffles at Christmas (am I getting that right??) and so for our Christmas Eve party Wade had to have them. I made them the year before but they were okay nothing special. So everyone got involved with the truffles and they turned out awesome! Thanks Lian, Ryan and Elle!! Oh and of course Charlotte too : D

Charlotte made one for herself and for Jack. It's pretty special.

TA DA! Here it is!! :)

Look how happy she is!!!! I love that smile.