Temples Around the World - Redlands Temple

Jacob and I have decided we want to try and visit as many temples as we can with our girls and take a picture in front of each one. Easier said than done....I know. However, we can at least start here in California. We went to the Redlands temple first and the girls had a lot of fun. We walked around the temples grounds, talked about temple marriage and took at lot of fun pictures. We ended it with a great picnic in front of the temple. Now, Emma talks about the day that she will get married in the temple! I guess that is what this is all about!

Emma's First Day of Preschool

Emma started preschool this year and she is already doing so good!! She walked right into preschool on the first day without even saying goodbye to us! We had to go and tell her goodbye and she barely looked at us before she started playing again. Miss Heather is her teacher and her two cousins, Rylee and Taylen, are in the class with her. So far, she loves it and is already able to write her name. We are thrilled to see everything that she will learn this year!

Makenna Elizabeth Bock

Introducing Makenna Elizabeth Bock to our family!! I wasn't due to have a c-section until Sep. 2nd but she arrived on August 19th at 4:18 pm. A lot of people have said, "I just knew you wouldn't make it to the end!" But really, it wasn't Makenna that decided to come early. I had a lot of extreme itching on my hands and especially on my feet that drove me crazy!! My doctor decided to have me get some blood work done on Th. morning. On Friday morning, I called for the results and they said my liver functions came back elevated which is not a good thing and they wanted me to come in and get checked out. So we went in and they decided I had something called Cholestasis which pretty much means that my liver was producing too much enzymes (I am not a doctor!!) and causing the itching. This can be dangerous for the baby so they told us they were going to deliver that day. SHOCKER!!! So thank you to Courtney Davey and my sister MaryBeth and both of our moms for dropping everything they had and coming to help us with the girls. I checked into the hospital and got prepped for surgery and Makenna entered the world at 4:18 pm weighing 8 lbs 14 oz (two weeks early!!!) and she was 20 inches long. This was by far my best c-section yet. I asked them not to give me any sedatives after Makenna came out and so I was able to stay alert the whole time and even got to hold her immediately in the recovery room which I have never gotten before. I have also recovered quite nicely and have been able to do things by myself pretty quickly which has been surprising to all of us. We were able to leave the hospital only 40 hours after surgery and we were so happy to be home! Makenna is doing wonderful! She of course sleeps a lot but she is eating well and just so cute! The girls absolutely love her. They just like to sit or stand next to the crib and watch her sleep. Emma even got to hold her and she felt like such a big sister! Jacob is amazing as usual and has been busy taking care of ALL FOUR of his girls!! Both grandmas have also helped us tremendously and the girls have enjoyed having them around so much. We are so excited to have this extra addition to our family and we love Makenna so much!

We are so proud of Emma and Maddie!

Most people know that Emma broke her leg last year right at the beginning of summer and so there was definitely no pool time for us last year! Well, the year before, I had just had Maddie so we didn't swim then either! So needless to say, when we went to the pool for the first time this summer, Emma was not too happy about getting in. As a matter of fact, she screamed a lot. BUT, she has come a long way!!!! Thanks to Jacob working with her A LOT, and the fact that we have gone to a pool at least twice a week, Emma can now:
1. Swim completely on her own with her floaties on.
2. Put her face in the water.
3. Lay on her back in the water with Jacob's help.
4. Jump in the pool from the side of the pool.
5. Let Jacob throw her in the pool.
6. And for the first time today, she took her floaties off and was able to swim a few feet on her own.

This may not seem like that much to everyone else, but if you saw Emma at the beginning of summer, you would know that it is a HUGE step!

Also, let's not leave out Maddie. She is doing amazing just on her own. Without any help from anyone, she figured out how to swim in the pool with her cool floaties we got her, puts her face in the water and swims like a pro swimmer, and will jump off of anything and everything into the pool. We are so happy that our girls now love the pool and are getting better at swimming every time we go!

34 weeks!

For those of you who don't see me on a regular basis, here is a picture of me at 34 weeks. Yes I know I am large....please stop telling me that!! I still have 5 weeks to go and I am feeling it. This pregnancy has by far been the most difficult for me. Pray for me!!!!

4th of July

The 4th of July was a lot of fun this year as it usually it! We went to my mom's house to swim and ordered yummy Juan Pollo to eat. (It's the best chicken in the world!!) We had a lot of fun with all of the family in the pool and I think the nieces and nephews had a ton of fun with Jacob. He was throwing them all over the place! We stayed there all day and then went home and crashed since I couldn't take much more. Emma had already watched fireworks from our house over the weekend so we didn't feel too bad not going this year. They had plenty of fun in the pool with their cousins!

My Awesome Birthday Get Away!!

As many of you may know, I don't have the best luck with my birthdays. My family calls it my "birthday curse" because things always go wrong on my birthday. Last year was the final straw for me when Emma broke her leg on my birthday. So this year, I told Jacob I didn't want to celebrate at all! I just wanted to stay home with my little family and keep them all safe!! Well, he didn't listen very well. He came home from work that morning and surprised me with a trip to Palm Springs for a few days!! Let me tell you......it was AMAZING! We went to this awesome little resort that my sister had gone to and it didn't disappoint. They were so friendly there and it was so private. There are only ten rooms there all surrounding a beautiful pool and no kids are allowed! They had all sorts of FREE snacks, drinks, movies and games. All we did was watch movies in bed while we ate and swim. It was wonderful! I can't wait to go back there again!This is the front gate to the resort.This is where we stayed...it doesn't look like much from the outside but it is awesome!A picture of our room.Eating in bed! Gotta love it!You can see all ten rooms right around the pool.We took this picture from our doorstep.We ate at a popular burger place called Tyler's and it was yummy!This place even has bikes you can take and ride around. I didn't dare actually ride it so we just took a picture with it!