Chuck Wicks

Safford is becoming quite the entertainment town. The other night (Sept 22) Chuck Wicks was performing. For anyone who hasn't heard of his music he is a country singer. He has a few hit songs like "Stealing Cinderella" and "All I Ever Wanted" and "Man of the House". He has some other good songs too. Jeremy took me too see him. It was a great concert. He really gets into his music. He was opened by a singer named Nick Nicholson. He was real good too. Not yet known but he has one song out called "Somethin' Somethin" that he said is on the charts. Oddly enough he reminded both me and Jeremy of Jeremy's cousin. Weird. The pictures I got were on my cell phone. I didn't think I would need my camera. I'm kinda sad that I didn't take it. I almost got to shake Chuck Wicks' hand. I went up to take a picture with my phone just as one of the "security" guys was having everyone go sit down. So I got my picture and turn to go sit down just as he came to the stage and was shaking hands with those that stayed. He continued to shake hand throughout the concert but I didn't try to shake it. It was a nice night. I was worried about Avery who we left with my niece. I know that she would be fine. I was worried about my niece having to deal with a cranky baby. But everything worked out nice. Quinton played and Avery fell asleep early. No problem at all. It has been a long time since I went on a date with Jeremy. At first I didn't want to go and kinda made Jeremy fell bad but I'm glad we went. We had a good time.

Temple in the Gila Valley

Months ago it was announced that there will be a temple built in the Gila Valley. The plans were drawn up and the site was dedicated and the work began. The temple is being built in Central. I have driven by the site many times and each time I say I want to stop and take pictures. But each time I drive by I either miss it or forget or don't have time. The temple is getting close to being finished. I think it is suppose to be done by January. The other day a co-worker in another office said they were putting up the Angel Moroni on the temple and went down to watch. He had one of his friends that was there taking pictures send him what he took. He was nice enough to send them to my boss who sent them to me. They are pretty nice pictures. I think this is real neat to see a temple being built. I've never seen one in all the stages from being planned all the way to being operational. This is an opportunity that I doubt that I will ever happen again. History in the making. And it's even neater that this one is so close. No more having to drive hours to go to the temple. Well I guess I will have to drive at least an hour since I moved to Morenci. I can only imagine how busy it will be.

Another Blessing Weekend

Jeremy's sister Jennifer had a baby 10 days after Avery was born. She had a little boy named Grant. We went up to Coolidge for his blessing. While we were there we did a few other things. One thing was we pierced Avery's ears. She was mad but it didn't last long. She looks so cute with them. I got the smallest diamond they had but they still look so big in her ears. But that's ok. We had to stay in a hotel because there wasn't room in Jennifer's house for so many house guest. Quinton loved staying at the hotel and playing with his cousins. While at the hotel we took Avery for her first swim. She loved the water and didn't fuss until it was time to get out. It didn't bother her that we had to take her out of the pool after she pooped in her diaper and it was leaking out the sides. Such is life. Quinton had so much fun swimming. He wasn't afraid of the water at all. He was even jumping in where there wasn't anyone to catch him. I wasn't very Happy about that and he scarred us all, but he had so much fun. The blessing was nice. After church I put very back in her blessing dress so that her and Grant could get pictures together. She was so mad. She doesn't like being in her dress. I sat her up and she would slip right down. So I got the best pictures as possible. The earings never bothered her at all. We had to go home Sunday because I had to go back to work. My first day back was the Friday before. I'm only part time so I guess its not that bad.

Labor Day weekend 2009

Every year on Labor Day weekend, Jeremy's family has their annual Wiltbank Family Reunion. This year it would be Avery's first camp out. For the most part she did pretty good. It was cold and rainy and she took it all in very well. Quinton had a lot of fun too. He played with cousins. Matter of fact, within 5 minutes of getting to the camp site, he found some kids to play with. And as usually, found some way to get into trouble. Funny story... I let Quinton and one of his cousins play with our old camera. I told them to go take picture of plants and trees. When they brought back the camera I looked to see what they took pictures of. As I'm looking through the pictures, I notice picture of Quinton climbing the ladder that led to the roof of our camp trailer. As I continue to flip through the pictures, the continues to climb the ladder then get on top of the trailer. He was caught on film (so to speak) doing something that he wasn't suppose to do. It was so funny that I couldn't get mad at him. He's lucky he didn't fall. The last time he climbed the ladder he did fall but I was right there and caught him. He was luck. So back to the camp out. It rained a lot. We had a dutch oven dessert cook off. And guess who tied for first? Yup my dump cake tied. It is one of my family's favorite desserts. I wasn't sure if it would turn out. I was more surprised that it won. We played one hand of chicken foot dominoes Sunday afternoon before we had to pack up and leave. Jeremy had to work Monday so we actually spent Labor Day at home. But it was a good first camp out for Avery.

Avery's blessing

Avery was blessed August 16 by her father. As any other time you want everything to go smooth and perfect, things are stressful and rushed. With such a big family that I have we had to make sure we were at the church early enough to get lots of seating. I think even as early as we were and as many rows we saved, we still didn't have enough. I guess that is how it goes. The blessing was beautiful. We had a big circle and even though Jeremy was nervous, he did great. Then pictures after the meeting. Lunch was at my mom's house and that was crazy. My mom has a big house but there were a lot of people and things weren't ready. So that was stressful. But it all turned out good. Avery looked so beautiful. My mom made the dress, my sister-in-law made the bonnet and my sister made her a bracelet. It was a good day. Not to mention the dress was saved from the traditional blessing day diaper explosion. Thank goodness. We had four generations there from both side. it was nice to have so many grandma's around. Unfortunately there was only one grandpa at the time.
We had a little lunch after at my mom's house and man was it crowded. She has a good size house but there were a lot of people. It turned out to be a nice day.

Avery's birth

Where does the time go??? It has been four months since my last blog. So I'll just start with July. July 1st we signed papers on our house. It's not really our house, just a rental. Jeremy's work has company housing that they rent to the employees real cheap. We've been on the list for probably a year and finally we got one. So that was a Wednesday. Before leaving Safford we went looking for new living room furniture since we didn't have any. Then on to Coolidge. At the time I was 38 weeks along. On Thursday (July 2nd) I had a doctor's appointment. We were also going to get stuff from storage and take it back to Morenci. However, the doctor said that I was 4cm and about 50% effaced and that the baby would probably come that night or that weekend. Jeremy was not going to let me go back to Safford let alone Morenci. So we still went out to the storage unit and loaded up the truck. Jeremy dropped me and Quinton off at my sister's house and left for Morenci. The doctor was right again. While he was gone, I started having contractions. Not bad ones. Just little ones here and there. About 10:30 they were stronger and coming more often. Jeremy was going to drop the stuff off in Morenci and come straight back. Around midnight (July3rd) I had timed the contractions for the past hour. They were different then when I was pregnant with Quinton. The contractions were coming every 5 min. unless I changed position. Then it would be 7 min and then back to 5. The contractions hurt but not like with Quinton. Quinton started out strong and literally brought be to my knees. Jeremy got back a little after 12. I called the hospital and talked to a nurse to see what I should do. She said to come in. So we did. Jeremy barely had time to sit before we were off. I was admitted to the triage. When they checked me, I was just about 6cm. With Quinton I was 3cm when I went into the hospital. So I figured it would go fast. Once they had a room for me, I was taken to the L&D room. I didn't get the epidural right away. I thought maybe it won't be so bad and could go without it. I was wrong. Eventually the contractions got worst and got the epidural. I stayed at 6cm for about 6-7 hours. When I got to a 7 my doctor broke my water. Even then I didn't progress any faster. Finally I made it to 8cm. I felt a couple of gushed and next thing I knew it was time to push. I went from and 8 to 10cm in a matter of minutes. I pushed for probably 10 min and then my beautiful Avery was born. 7lbs 5 oz and 19 1/2 inches. Some may think its gross but I got to watch Avery be born. The nurse brought in a mirror and I watched her come out. It was the neatest thing I have ever witnessed. She looked so much like Quinton only with beautiful little girl fingers. She had lots of hair and cutest round face. Quinton was happy to see her. Both Quinton and Avery were born 11 days early, both 7 lbs babies, I was in labor 10 hours and only pushes for 10 min with both. Both are very beautiful (even though Quinton says he's not beautiful, he's handsome).