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!!