Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Wilcock Family!!

We feel and know we have been so blessed each year as we reflect on all that has happened in our lives. We have been blessed with wonderful friends and family, a happy and eternal marriage, two adorable kids, a beautiful home, food on the table, and the gospel of our Savior Jesus Christ. This is such a wonderful time of year and I can't help but feel gratitude in my heart for these wonderful blessings. What more could we ask for? We love you all and hope you have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!
Our family picture with Santa. This was the cutest setup. A couple in our neighborhood decorates their garage like this and they dress up like Mr. & Mrs. Claus.

Emma and Elias with Santa Claus. Emma actually did really good because she knew she would get a candy cane. Elias wasn't too happy, as you can tell from his boo boo face.haha

Elias, Savannah, Emma, Aubrey & Malin outside playing while we put up our Christmas lights.
Jesse putting up the lights. (Notice the orange extension cord on the roof, well, it's still there all bundled up like that. We were too lazy to move it or hide it.)haha

Emma dressed as Elmo for Halloween, Elias was Spider-man but I don't have any pictures of him yet. Emma loved going around to all the cars at the trunk-or-treat in show low. She loves candy!!
Emma has a cousin on the Wilcock side!! Baby Brooklyn Cali Ellsworth is here!! She is soooo adorable and precious! These little ones bring so much joy and peace into the world. Congratulations, we love you!!

Emma and Malin all dressed up to go outside in our "freezing" 70 degree weather.haha

I'm ashamed to say I didn't take any pictures of our Thanksgiving but we did have a wonderful time with Jesse's family. They all came out to Maricopa and we had it at our home. Thanksgiving day we participated in a Turkey Trot and Turkey bowl, had our delicious feast, played volleyball, watched movies, and played soccer. Too much fun! Thanks everyone for making the drive out here. The following day we celebrated Mom and Dad Wilcock's Anniversary by going to the temple. It is always so wonderful to go with family. We then did a little Christmas shopping and headed home. The next morning at about 2:45, Malin called me and I went over to their home to stay with the kiddos so they could go to the hospital. Sarah gave birth to baby Ashlyn Lewis 7:56a.m.

October and November

These pictures were taken at the AZ state fair!
John Wayne exhibit

Elias is having Fun!

This is such a funny face!

A day at the zoo!

The kids and I just returned home this morning from a fun trip down to Ajo for 4 days with Colleen and her girls. I am on a month break from school right now so we thought we would take advantage of this opportunity to go play and have fun. We had so much fun planning for Christmas and putting up the decorations, visiting, eating, watching movies, reading books and just relaxing!! It was also fun to go running with Julianne a few times. I need to do that more often. Emma loved being with her cousins and brothers even though she didn't act like it towards the end. She is starting her terrible two's and I think my mom and Julianne are scared for us to come back for Christmas!haha It will definitely be crazy for Christmas but we are so excited!! Thanks mom for a great week!

When we walked in the door. There was a bag full of gifts from Dad Wilcock who just returned home from China after being there for 2 weeks. Jesse's dad along with several others were invited to go there to help improve China's water system. What an honor and privelage to be picked. Dad was so nice to bring back some very beautiful gifts for the kids and us. He brought the most beautiful little dress for Emma, and of course she had to put it on right away. I had to take pictures to show. She looks so cute!! Thank you dad!

The following pictures were taken these these past two months.
Jacob and Nicki petting the sting rays while Emma and Kade enjoy watching!

Bath Time!
Aubrey, Emma, Malin and Savannah are playing under the stairs

Emma and Malin are buds!

Tagged

Yup, I got tagged. It was actually awhile ago and I finally got around to doing it, sorry Carol. This is a picture of Emma wrapped up like a little burrito just a few days after she was born. It's hard to believe that was 2 years ago. It's amazing how much she has changed in such a short amount of time. They grow up way too fast!! Emma has brought so much joy to our lives. She makes me laugh every day at the silly things she says and does. It was so cute to have her fall asleep in my arms the other day for her afternoon nap. That doesn't happen very often anymore as Elias occupies much of my time. Emma left early this morning with Jesse as she will be staying at her Aunt Janna's for the weekend and I am missing her so much already! Emma is so good to say "Thank you, Mommy!" after every little thing I do for her, and it melts my heart each time I hear it. What a sweetheart!

Well, I am now tagging Dayna, Kelsey & Sarah! (open your picture folder, click on the 4th folder and then the 4th picture and write about it). Have fun, I did!

Here are a few more pictures of the kids. I forgot to add them earlier. I believe they were taken around Labor Day weekend.
Elias and Emma are proudly wearing their "I love my soldier, My Uncle" shirts that Grandpa Wilcock got them. They love their Uncle Jason and we are so grateful and proud of him for serving our country.

I love the bright colors

Emma looks so grown up in this picture

I Can't believe Emma could actually sleep like this

School and Emma's Birthday!

More changes continue to come our way as I am finally back in school again and hopefully for the last time (well, at least for my bachelor's)!! I am getting my degree in Psychology and eventually I want to go on and get my masters degree in Marriage and Family Counseling. That will probably be down the road when our kids are in high school! I started taking classes September 2nd going to the University of Phoenix ground campus. I decided the online classes weren't for me. Jesse is also going to the UOP ground campus. It is fun going to school together. I feel like we are newlyweds all over again.haha Jesse has about 1 year left for his bachelors and my plan is to double up on my classes and finish in a year as well. It is nice living so close to Malin and Sarah as we are able to swap babysitting. Sarah watches our kids when I go to school and I watch their kids when she teaches piano. It works out perfect.

I have been begging Jesse the last few months to get orange trees for our backyard. As soon as September came around, we finally went to the Leaf and Feather farm down here in Maricopa and picked out a Naval and an Arizona Sweet orange tree. We planted them right away but it was not easy work. It took us all afternoon just to dig 2 holes in the ground. It was like trying to dig through rocks. I am so excited to finally have the trees and can't wait until they start producing.

We celebrated Jesse's 26th birthday on September 16th. He stayed home from work that day but we both had homework and class that night so we couldn't do much to celebrate. I want Jesse to know that I am so grateful to him and love him so much! He is such a wonderful husband and father. Jesse is always so willing to help me whenever I need him and he always has such a positive attitude. I am so grateful for the love he has for the gospel and his desire to serve. He is so outgoing and always wants to invite people to our home to develop new friendships. His latest desire was to get a volleyball net for our backyard so we can invite family and friends to come play. We did end up finding one on craigslist, of course, and now that the weather is so beautiful, we can actually start playing. Last Friday, as soon as Jesse came home from work we ended up calling some couples in the ward to come over and play volleyball. I thought we had a pretty good turnout for being so last minute. After it got too dark, we all went inside and got some games going. We had a lot of fun and hope to keep it going. I think Jesse's dream is coming true.haha We love our husband and father!!

Two weeks later, on September 27 (her birthday is really the 30th), we celebrated Emma's 2nd birthday!! Emma is growing up so fast. She is quite a girl! Emma is always wearing her princess dress up clothes and changes outfits at least ten times a day. Her latest thing is that she has to do everything herself. She used to bring all of her clothes to me to put them on, but now she tries to put them on herself. However, 90% of the time she has them on backwards or inside out or some other way and when I try to help her, she adamantly says, "I DO IT!" OK, whatever precious wants.haha It was fun having lots of family over to celebrate her birthday. Thank you everyone for making the drive and thanks to Dayna for saving my Crayon cake. I thought it turned out pretty good for piecing it all together. Emma loves her cousins and talks about them all the time. It was so funny watching Emma open her presents as the cousins were swarming around her all trying to see what she got.

After the party, all the women went to the Relief Society Broadcast while the dad's stayed and watched the kids. It was so nice to go with my mother and mother-in-law as well as some of my sisters. The talks were all so excellent and I came away feeling so uplifted and motivated to do good. I love that feeling! We came home from the broadcast and got 2 games of Acquire going with Nelson & Kelsey, Malin & Sarah, Sarah's parents, and Jesse & me. Guys on one game, girls on the other. I am ashamed to say I lost but I'm sure there will be more games to come.

Elias is now 8 months old, he has 8 teeth, and he is crawling all over the place. I can't believe how fast he is going through each stage. It seemed like it took Emma forever to scoot across the floor. Elias pulls himself up and tries to climb over everything. He is such a cute kid and is constantly smiling. We love both our kids so much!!

Family Pictures

Here are some family pictures taken on July 19, 2008. It was quite the experience! The whole time we were trying to take pictures, Emma would not cooperate. She was trying to run away the whole time. Finally we gave up and settled with what we had. As soon as we were sitting down with the lady to pick out our pictures, Emma goes in the photography room, sits down right in the center where we tried to get her to for the longest time, looks up at the camera and says, "Cheese." What a character!!

A Brand New Home!!

I can't believe it's been almost six months since I have last updated our blog. So much has happened and many changes have taken place. The biggest change for us has been moving to Maricopa and purchasing our first HOME!! We absolutely love it and have had fun fixing it up and adding our own special touches to it. Jesse and I came out here one day with a realtor to look at some homes. Surprisingly, ALL of the homes we looked at were foreclosures. It is so sad. The first home we looked at scared us because it wasn't in very good condition and the realtor said this was actually pretty good condition for a foreclosure. We were afraid all of them were going to be like that. Anyway, as we went from house to house, they kept getting better and better, thankfully. The very last home we looked at was not on our list. Our realtor just picked it out thinking we might like it. The home ended up being right behind Malin and Sarah's home! Out of all places. We immediately fell in love with the home, and the fact that it was SO close to family made it all the better. A few days later we put a bid on the home and a month later we moved in. Our home has 3 bedrooms/3 full bathrooms and a den. It has a pretty good size backyard for Emma and Elias to run around and play. I was so excited about that. With lots of help from family, we were able to paint practically every room and move in. We want to thank all of you that helped! Many hands make light work. Our digital camera has been broken for a while so we don't have many pictures of the home yet, but will be adding them shortly.

As for the kids, it's hard to believe Elias will be 6months old on Tuesday the 29th and Emma will be 2 in September. They are so cute and I am so grateful for the opportunity I get to stay home with them to watch them grow. Emma is definitely a girl. She tries on everyones shoes and loves to dress up. But I think her favorite "outfit" is her swim suit. She cries when we take it off and we have to hide it from her so she won't want to wear it. Emma talks all of the time, but as for understanding what she is saying, that's a different story. She is speaking a complete different language.haha

Elias is our little chunk! Oh he is so cute and juicy. I can just sink into his cheeks.haha He had colic the first 4 months, but has been so much better ever since we have moved. He now sleeps through the nights(woohoo) and takes 1 to 2 hour naps. His smile just melts us.

Jesse and I have been busy continually fixing up our home, painting, pulling weeds, decorating. It seems like our projects are endless but we are grateful for them because it means we have a home (if that makes since). I feel it also brings us closer together as a family. Jesse continues to work hard and go to school full time. Emma loves when her daddy comes home and I definitely love it. Every once in a while Jesse will get off work early and surprise us when he walks in the door. We love those days and he loves to see our surprised faces when he walks in! We have been so blessed as Jesse has a good job with good managers and people to work with. It also helps that Jesse is able to carpool with Malin and another guy in our ward into work. It saves on gas as we now live 30 min. from his work. Well, this has gone on long enough. Life is good!

Elias William Wilcock Has Arrived!!

Woo Hoo! Elias has finally arrived. We have been waiting for this day for quite some time and can't believe it's already come. We are so happy and love our new addition to the family! He has already brought us so much joy, and this is just the beginning!

Elias William Wilcock was born on January 29, 2008 (my birthday) at 11:42p.m. weighing 7lbs. 4oz. And 20 1/4 in. long. So here's the story. On Tuesday, the 29th, Jesse woke me up before he went to work to give me a birthday present. He had printed out a lot of our wedding pictures, which we had failed to do for 2 1/2 years. He also printed out many other pictures for me and put them in an album. What a great surprise! He then headed off to work, so I thought, and I went back to bed. Around 8:30a.m. I see him pull up to our house with flowers & breakfast in his hands. After handing me these things, he had me put on my jacket and follow him outside where he had a BIKE waiting for me. I couldn't believe it! We had joked about getting bikes before but I didn't think he would actually get me one, especially right now. I was so excited and shocked at the same time! It had been a very long time since I had ridden a bike and I forgot how fun they are. Well, Jesse ended up taking the day off and he went with me to my Doctor's appointment. My doctor said I was dialated to a 4 and said she had an opening that night at 7p.m. if I wanted to be induced. To make a long story short, Jesse and I talked it over and decided to take that opening. We spent the rest of the day shopping, cleaning and doing laundry trying to get ready for the baby. We even had time to squeeze in a little bike ride together. I looked so funny riding a bike at 9 months pregnant, but it was so fun. The day went by so fast and we rushed off to the hospital. We arrived at the hospital at 7p.m., they started me on pitocen about 8:30, at 10:40 they broke my water and at 11:42p.m. the baby was born! It really was such a fast delivery compared to the Emma's and I feel like my healing process has been a lot better. Emma has also been handling this older sister business pretty well. She just loves holding Elias and giving him kisses! It is so fun to watch her with him. Overall we are doing great and loving life.

Catching Up!!

These are a few pictures my Uncle Wick & Aunt Lynn took of our family!

Wow, has time flown by! I can't believe the last time I updated our blog was Halloween. Everything has happened so fast. Well, Halloween was fun, Thanksgiving was great & Christmas was even better. I guess that sums it up, thanks for checking out our blog!j/k I'll back up to Thanksgiving. We had such a great time spending Thanksgiving together with my(Esther's) family up here in the Mesa. I'm not going to lie, I was a little disappointed we weren't going to Ajo for Thanksgiving as I was looking forward to getting away from the city. However, Colleen's brother-in-law and family were so generous to let us use their beautiful home with a HUGE backyard for our family get together as they were out of town. We had so much fun playing tennis, eating, playing football, eating, relaxing and of course eating. It was fun to be all together and have Grandma Lewis and Aunt Duraye join us as well. The day after Thanksgiving, Colleen, Dayna, Janae, Julianne & I all got up at 4:30a.m. to go shopping!! That was probably the first and last time I will ever do that but it was lots of fun. A few hours later, we all went to the temple together as a family. I love going with family, it always brings us so much closer together. I truly have so much to be grateful for.

Christmas

For Christmas, we went up to Show Low to be with Jesse's family. I think one of the highlights of this trip was going down to the Cibicue branch, where Mom & Dad Wilcock serve, for our Sunday meetings. Most of the family was there and each one of us shared our testimonies of Jesus Christ. It was such a neat experience and the spirit was so strong. It was also neat to hear the story of Christ's birth with all the Smith family gathered in the barn at Grandpa Smith's home. I have never done that before and it really put it into perspective for me the humble circumstances that our Savior was born into. Christmas is such a wonderful time of the year and it was fun to spend it with the Wilcocks.

(Left)

Emma & Aunt Jenn

get caught eating food

inside the pantry!!haha

New Years!

For New Year's, we went down to Ajo with all of the family. We played lots of games, especially Acquire. I don't think anyone ever gets sick of that game in our family. The guys went out to the "beautiful, green" Ajo golf course and played golf while the girls went to the church with all the kids and learned part of a dance from Janae and Julianne. I didn't want to miss out on all the fun so of course I joined them. I looked so funny trying to dance with my big pregnant belly. The biggest highlight of that trip was the announcements of Colleen & Dayna both expecting! We are so excited for them. Also, early New Year's Eve morning, we opened up our family gifts to each other (I love it when Christmas is extended). All the kids got mom and dad Lewis a blanket with pictures on it from when mom and dad were babies up to now with their entire family. Dayna was so nice to put in so much time and effort to making the blanket. She did such a beautiful job.

It is now January 22nd and things have calmed down a little as we are waiting the arrival of our second child that will be born any day! We are so excited and anxious to get this baby here. Hopefully the next time I post, we will have put pictures of our new little boy on!!