Bree starts school!

Bree has now started preschool! She is super excited and she loves her new teachers and class mates! Here is a picture of her first (and second) day of school. I didn't get much out of her, other than the boys are scaredy cats and that she likes earning warm and fuzzy's for doing good things. She is already singing lots of bible songs. It's cute. She came home yesterday and was singing, "Thank you God for giving me food.... Thank you God for giving me life... etc..."

It feels a little quiet without the little girl here, but I think I will really enjoy the one on one time I have with Hudson for 3 days a week.

20 month stats

Hudson's stats:

Weight: 26.5 lbs (50th percentile)
Height: 34 1/2 (90th percentile)
Head: 51 cm (Greater than 97th percentile)

Still has a big head, but at least he is tall so it makes it easier to pull his shirt over his head. :)

7 years

Jared and I celebrated our 7th anniversary this past weekend. We decided that instead of spending money on a fancy restaurant, we would rent a jet ski. It was SO much fun. I forgot how much I LOVE to be out on the water. Someday I want a boat or jet ski. My dream would be to live on a lake and spend all summer boating! For now, renting once a year will have to do.

Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures, but you can use your imagination with these pictures. Here is the most recent picture of us, the lake we went on near Coppell (Lewisville lake), and a jet ski. :)

Thanks for 7 great years Jared! I love you!

busy, busy!

It has been forever since I have updated the blog. I have been super busy with finishing up my anatomy class, keeping up with these kiddos and with my new church calling as primary president.

Hudson is now putting two words together, he can follow 2 step directions and express his opinion with words. He still loves balls, swimming, trucks, and lately his favorite things are animals. He is obsessed with his toy animals and barn. He recently learned how to say a prayer. It goes something like this...

Dada (he can't say Father), thank-you, food, amen! :) He gets so excited after and claps at himself.

He is super sweet and super fun, except for the fact that he pulls hair!!! It has gotten out of hand and I don't know what to do! We are trying new things to help him realize that isn't nice, but he will go up any kid and pull their hair hard (for no reason) until he gets a reaction out of them. I even think twice now before going to play group, nursery, the gym, etc... wherever I know he will be around a lot of kids. *Sigh*

Bree is still learning SO much! She amazes me about how much she knows. She is reading now. She can read about 90% of step 1 books. It shocks me every time. Jared reads her novels each night. They just finished Matilda (which she LOVED) and they are now reading Witches.

She is such a tease. She loves to tease and play tricks on people. I think by reading Matilda, it gave her more ideas of tricks. It is kind of cute, if the trick isn't on you. :) She also loves telling knock knock jokes. I don't think she really gets it though, because her knock knock jokes are very random.

It is still super hot here! Just trying to endure one more month of heat! I just finished my anatomy class yesterday and I have to brag about how I got an A! I worked very hard for that A. It am taking it for a prereq for a grad program I am applying to and because I started that class about 5 times and got too scared and dropped it before it went on my transcript. I did it though! I proved to myself that I could do it!

I am also trying to get my feet on the ground with my new calling. I feel a little overwhelmed, but I think after the primary program is written and I know what I am doing more, it will get better.

Here are some pictures, mostly of Hudson this time. His face looks older, I think.

Rain!

A week or so ago we had a lot of fun rainstorms. The kids had a lot of fun playing in it. :)

Great Find

On Matt's wedding day, we took hundreds of pictures. Unfortunately, most of them were mysteriously deleted from our camera. Jess was very upset and asked me to see if there was a way to recover them. I knew it could probably be done, but I thought it would cost a lot of money or something, but I went to download.com and found a free program called Pandora Recovery.

It is a great program. It recovered about 85 percent of the deleted pictures. I think it would have recovered more, but we took more pictures after the first ones were deleted and the ghost files that stayed on the memory card were overwritten by the new files and could not be recovered.

I thought I would share this with everyone because I could see this happening to anyone. Pandora Recovery also works on more than just deleted pictures. In fact, it can be used for just about anything that is deleted.

Download.com is a great source for free programs that are all tested to be spyware free. I pretty much never buy software because I can get almost everything that I need for free.

Utah trip!

We just back from a trip to Utah. The kids and I spent the past 3 weeks there and it all went by so fast! Jared joined us the last week. I started the trip off with the ragnar relay. Wow, what an experience that was. Each team had 12 people, 6 people to each van that ran from Logan to Park City. We each did 3 legs of it. My first leg was straight up a mountain for about 3 or 4 miles at 5pm. It wasn't too bad. I do have to say I was not used to the altitude and going UP a mountain... something that I am not used to living in Texas. My second leg was so hard. It was at 4am for what I think was 7 miles. It is all a blur. I didn't sleep before because you are up all night picking up people after their leg is over in the van. I think at times during this leg I went a little delusional and starting seeing and hearing things that weren't there. By the time I was done, the sun was coming up. My third leg wasn't until about 3pm. It wasn't too bad, but boy was I ready to sleep!!! Unfortantly, when I got back poor little Hudson was sick and I didn't get much sleep for a couple nights.


















After recovering from ragnar, Popie, mom, the kids and I went to bear lake for the day. We spent the day swimming in the pool and lake, eating burgers and fries and resting. It was all enjoyable, except for the ride home with Hudson screaming about 90% of the way.

















Between all of this Aubrey and I also got sick. Not sure what day, but man was I sick for about 24 hours. I had a ulcer in the upper stomach... or so the doctor thought. Still not sure about my confidence in that doctor. Anyway, luckily both Aubrey and I were just sick for about 24 hours.

Megan, Jared and I spent many hours working on Matt and Heather's wedding video. It shouldn't have taken very long, but we seemed to have everything go wrong in the process. I also had to keep up on my class that I am taking. Not to brag, but I did get an A on both tests I had to take while I was there. Don't ask me how I did the week before though. :)

We spent one day at lagoon with my sister and niece. It was way fun and I know Bree had a blast. After we went shopping and the girls had a blast trying on clothes, shoes, sunglasses, etc... (see picture)












































Bree, Hudson and Lexi attended Granny camp. My favorite part was watching Bree and Lexi do a lemonade stand. Bree came home with 23 dollars! The kids also did a skit for the parents. Great time! Thanks for doing a great Granny camp and creating good memories for the kiddos.




























I was able to see some of our law school friends on two different occasions. First, I got to see the Guldbranson's, Sarah A., Ormsby's, and Rebecca at the Ormsby's house. Once Jared got there we went out to dinner with the Allreds, Walter's and Orsmby's. Way fun. Jared and I were also able to see our friend Jake and go to Maddox.































I went out to eat a lot. I love to go out to eat, but I probably put on a few pounds while I was there. I of course went to Maddox. We also went to a fun outdoor place up Ogden canyon with David/Annie, Nanny/Popie and mom. Other great places we ate was at the copper mill with the Scott's and Rickenbacker's with friends.




















Somewhere between all this I went and saw Eclipse with my mom and sister and toy story with the kids, mom, and Lexi. Both were great. I have to admit, I cried in toy story! I know... silly, but it was sad when the boy went off to college.

We had a good time seeing Jared's side of the family too. The kids had a blast playing in the little pool and going on lawnmower rides with Grandpa Dan. Jed and Victoria are getting so big. It is fun for Aubrey and Hudson to have cousins that are close in age.
















We celebrated the 4th of July on Saturday in Honeyville. I love small town events like Honeyville's. They had a chicken chase that Aubrey was going to do, but the wait was too long. Instead, she was able to be a part of the fish chase. She caught a fish with her hands. It was the funniest thing to watch. What fun would it be without running the Honeyville 5k? I got 2nd in my age and I am still sore today. I think it was from running on wet gravel or maybe it was just from eating out one to many times? The parade was a hit. It was about 5 minutes long, but we got a FULL bag of candy. Jared was in a pie eating contest. He was in the lead most of the time, but got beat by Earl, the Honeyville champ year after year.








































Of course, I can't leave out the main reason we went to Utah... to be a part of Matt and Heather's wedding! It was great to be there for it all. Bree was excited to be the flower girl. The wedding and reception all went well. I took like a million pictures, but here are just a few. We are excited to have you a part of the Perry family, Heather. :)
























































For those of you who are still reading this LONG post, here is a slide show of more pics. :)

Good Things to Come

I love the message of this Video

It reminds me a little of our trip across the country from Utah to Virginia that was five years ago this summer. For us it was a miracle that that car and trailer both made it across the country without a major problem. My grandpa (this is Jared by the way) bought that trailer for $75 and gave it to me and my dad welded a hitch onto the car.

I am grateful for the blessings in my life now, but looking back, I wouldn't have changed a thing. Life was a great adventure even if we didn't have nice things or a lot of money. We had each other and we had a lot of fun.

Jess and Jared update

I feel like this blog is sometimes just about the kids, so I thought I would do a little update about Jared and I. I don't feel like anything exciting is going on with us, but here is what we are up to. :)

I have started taking an anatomy and physiology class. I think I started that class about 4 times in undergrad and always got too scared and ended up dropping it before the drop date in fear that I would fail. I am taking it to 1. prove that I can do it and 2. it is a pre-req. for a program that I am looking into. I am always looking at different grad programs because it is a strange obsession of mine. If I actually apply and get into it, I will let you know. :) I don't want to jinx it.

It seems I spend most of my days in the water with the kids. I dream of having a pool like every other house in Dallas since it is so stinkin' hot, but I am happy to tag along at friends pools.

I have also been teaching a primary class at church of 11 and 12 year olds. I really enjoy teaching older kids. I liked teaching younger kids, but this way I get to learn a little more scripture based lessons along the way.

I have had the worse case of poison oak. It has been a very annoying thing to have! It has hurt so bad this weekend, that I had to call a friend's husband (since my doc was closed over the weekend) to prescribe something for me. I am on a steroid that seems to be helping. It really didn't hurt until a week after exposure, but WOW this weekend has been horrible. Not much keeps me from getting my sleep, but this has!!!

I am looking forward to going to hang out with family and friends in Utah soon!! I feel like it has been a while since we have been there and Hudson has changed so much since most of my family has seen him.

I will have to get Jared to post what he has been up to. Just working and hanging out with 3 of his favorite people. :) He loves researching electronics and getting good deals on them. We usually don't "need" any new electronics, however our laptop is giving out so he has spend the past 2 weeks finding the best one for the best deal. He finally bit the bullet (he hates spending money) on one. :)

Jared has been the ward clerk in church. He was over membership, but they just put him in charge of the financial end. Now he has to stay after every Sunday to count tithing.

Anyway, that is all I can think of now..

Sorry about the rambling, but I just didn't want this blog to be 100% about the kids.

Two of his favorite things....

Two of Hudson's very favorite things are basketball and eating! I go to the gym about 4 or so times a week and every time I pick him up from the child watch he runs as fast as he can straight to the basketball courts and claps by the door saying "BALL, BALL, BALL!!!" until I open to doors. If ever I miss a time not letting him play when I am in a hurry or what not he screams the whole way home.


Hudson also loves to eat. Who doesn't though right, you may be thinking, but this kid likes to eat more than most. He loves to carry around a sandwich bag full of snacks all day long. As long as I have snacks on hand, he is set. Otherwise, WATCH OUT! The first thing he says when he wakes up is EAT while signing it too to get to point across to me.