The Hedges Unit

Finally!

2011-10-02T09:22:00.000-04:00

So this is the only picture I could get loaded. It took FOREVER!!!

Catching up

2011-10-02T08:30:00.003-04:00

So I realize its been way to long since I've updated this thing but my internet out here in this wanna be town is terrible. Last time I got on here and tried to update pictures I got so mad that I just quit and haven't tried since. Today I'm feeling a bit more patient so I'll try it again.
I guess the biggest thing that has happend since last time was the birth of our latest little man, Luke Isaac Hedges. He decided to bless us with his presence on June 19th at 12:11 am. Labor was super easy. He did decide to play a trick on us the week before and he is the first baby I had false labor with. Woke me up at 6 in the morning on Sunday so I got up and took a shower and got all ready to go and then the contractions just stopped. Talk about annoying. So when they started up again while we were all in the Kung Fu Panda 2, I refused to go anywhere. By the time we got home around 5-7 min apart. They stayed that way until around 7 when we finally decided to go in. We actually were afraid they might send us home but when we got there around 7:30pm my back was killing me. Back labor, ugh! We got pretty settled in and the contractions really weren't so bad. I felt them in my ribs really which was weird to me and is why I wasn't sure if I was really in labor. But I was a 4 when we checked in and that is usually where I am at that point. I got the epidural around 10 I think and then they broke my water around 11 ish. At 12:02 I pressed the call button and sure enough this kid was trying to come out on his own. Seriously! The nurse was like "Don't breath, we aren't ready yet!" Half a push and he was out. 6 lbs and 13 oz and 21 inches long. That was three months ago. He is now a heafty 15+ lbs and 24 1/2 inches long. He's a biggon! Seth absolutly adores him and is always hugging and kissing on him and telling him "Wu you baby".
So everything else has been pretty good too. The kids started shcool in August (of course). Elyse is in the 3rd grade. That still shocks me. Jacob in 1st and Noah started Kindergarten. They say they don't like it but I think they secretly do. Noah gets his color changed at least twice a week. Usually for not listening. He's fallen out of a chair and bonked his head twice and had to go to the nurses office. I wouldn't be supprised if it happened again either. Seth misses his sibs while they are at school and he shows it by getting into everything. He's a terrible two for sure. Josh has spoiled him rotten. Ok I guess we both did. But he's just so darn cute that its hard not to. Josh is in KY teaching his last (hopefully) class before he gets out of the Army. He ETSs in April. I'm a bit nervouse but I think we will be just fine. Josh is taking college courses and has been vollunteering for Habitat for Humanity building houses. He's gonna try to go into the construction business. At least thats the plan for now. He could change his mind any day. I am also STILL taking college classes. Yes I know, it is taking FOREVER. But that's ok, I'm in no rush. Prob gonna take a break around the holidays too. No one should have to worry about school during the holidays. :) So enough chatter. I'll start working on loading pictures. If you don't see any its cuz it didn't work.

Jacob's Kindergarten Graduation

2011-05-28T19:17:00.004-04:00

Jacob graduated Kindergarten May 17th. They had a super cute ceremony. Afterward, they had cake and cupcakes for the graduates and their families. It was a pretty great morning. I was one proud mommy.

This was a super cute song and dance that they did. They had the whole room cracking up.

It's a boy!!

2011-03-19T11:53:00.000-04:00

Baby number 5 is another boy! We are so excited.

2011-02-08T15:09:00.002-05:00

I added a button to a blog called Weekly Give-Away. Check it out. You could win some really cool stuff.

Christmas Eve and Christmas 2010

2011-01-12T12:11:00.011-05:00

Family

2010-12-01T20:25:00.005-05:00

These r from the sand castle compitition on Fort Myers Beach

Belated Turkey Trot

2010-12-01T19:51:00.011-05:00

So for those of you who are wondering "What the heck is Turkey Trot?" In my hometown of Yellville, Arkansas, we have an annual festival where there is great food, fun games, super cool booths to buy things and of course...a parade. These pictures are mostly from the parade.

My handsome nephew, Sabastian.

My beautiful sister, Laura

Sweet baby Ava

This was me 10+ years ago.

Guy with a turkey hat.

Woooooooo Pig Sooie!!!

Sisterly Love

Wonder if Chik-fil-a is ganna sue?

Grandparents!

LOVE this picture!!!

My great Grandmother and a few of her grandchildren

Guy who caught a turkey...I'll explain later.

I LOVE these horses!!!

Yes, that is a turkey falling out of the plane from the previous picture. As part of the tradition, someone (who now must remain anonomous) flies a plane over the square and drops turkeys from the plane. No they are not frozen, they are alive. The kids chase down the turkeys and then take them home or whatever their parents decide to let them do with them. If you happen to me one of those animal rights acitvists who is outraged at this, you are not alone...but the lovely town of Yellville, Arkansas doesn't care. You'll never stop them (insert evil laugh)!!!

Latest News

2010-11-22T15:05:00.002-05:00

So for all of you who have been left out of the loop (not on purpose of course), here's is our family update. Josh was on orders for Alaska, but that has changed. We feel strongly that it is time to end our military career. So instead of accepting the Alaska orders Josh is going to sign a DEC (not sure it that is the right letters) statement and get out of the Army. That being said we still have a year and a half left in so we are now waiting on our report date for Fort Stewart, Ga. Yes it's still GA but its closer to the ocean so I am fine with that. Always wanted to check out Savanah anyways. In the meantime, we have moved out of our Columbus home and are living with Josh's sister, Angel, and her family in Cape Coral, Florida for the time being. Yes I am enjoying every minute of it. I love the warm weather. The kids have been enrolled in school. For future reference if you plan to move to Florida from out of state the schools are WAY harder here. Jacob has spelling tests in Kindergarten. KINDERGARTEN!!! It drives me nuts but what makes me even more nervouse is that when we get to Stewart the kids will be starting their third school of the year. That's gotta be rough on them. Anyways that's the update. Hope all your lives are less crazy than ours.

FLORIDA!!!!

2010-09-10T09:21:00.010-04:00

For Labor Day weekend we took a trip down to Florida to see John, Angel, and the kids. Saturday we went to Siesta Key and Sunday we went to a beach on Sanibel Island. We had a blast!

Siesta Key

Bridge to Sanibel

Boys found a lizard (well one of many lizards)

looking for seashells

Burned my foot the day before cuz i forgot sunblock on one foot

Yes I know how rediculous I look but they were the only glasses that didn't hurt my face so :P

I did it!

2010-08-18T16:07:00.003-04:00

So I finally got around to setting up a blog site for my wipe cases. Check it out at lilmamascreations.blogspot.com. I am also in the process of ordering buisness cards. Sounds so professional doesn't it :)

More Crafts!

2010-08-13T20:53:00.002-04:00

Here are my latest works. The blue one's flower is actually blue but for some reason my camera doesn't like the lighting in my house. Thinking about getting a blog set up for the biz this week if I can find time. For all my Arkansas friends and family, my sister is planning on setting up a booth at Turkey Trot and I will probably be there with her with my cases. If I can't make it then I'm gonna leave a bunch with her to sell for me.

1st Day of School

2010-08-13T20:46:00.005-04:00

Monday started the new school year for our family and this year instead of sending one off we sent three. Elyse is in 2nd grade and Jacob is in Kindergarten. Noah has started Pre-School. 1sth day went pretty good. Kids seemed to enjoy their new adventure. The new has quickly wore off though. I only cried after I called Josh and told him that Jacob didn't even say goodbye. That was my brief meltdown. I can honestly say that I am enjoying the somewhat quiet house but that I do miss those little boogers sometimes.

This was actually the second day.

Elyse's 7th Birthday

2010-08-05T08:49:00.013-04:00

Seth

2010-07-21T14:37:00.004-04:00

2 more

2010-07-21T13:57:00.003-04:00

The lighting on this one doesn't do it justice. The flower on it is the same shade as the green fabric.

My New Biz

2010-07-19T15:20:00.005-04:00

So here is what I've been up to lately. Last month when I went to visit family, my sister-in-law had this super cute little wipey case cover that someone in her ward gave to her as a baby gift. So naturally I really wanted one. Realizing how expensive most of the ones I found were (average $30), I decided I would start making my own. My plan is to sell them for $15, which is what the lady that gave my sister-in-law hers sells them for.

This is the first one I did.

This was the third one I made and I think it turned out pretty cute. It has black velvet ribbon and I used a pearl as an embelishment which I don't think I will use again because it's kinda big and bulky. Other than that I really like this one.

I think instead of using the flowers around the outside I may try a different kind of ribbon, and I might use a solid ribbon underneath the flowers on the top.

I absolutely LOVE this one. It is the one I made for myself. I pretty much love the rest of them as well but this one is sooo my favorite.

The fabric on this one was kinda thin and cheap and the ribbon on the outside was too big but I now have an idea of one that can be done based on this one.

Just did this one today. Pretty proud of it. The lighting isn't the greatest in the picture but it looks pretty awesome in person.

Seth is 1!

2010-07-13T17:06:00.016-04:00

These few were taken in the couple of days before he turned 1.

1st card came from Toys-R-Us. it had a $5 off coupon.

He wasn't supposed to be playing with these but he was just so excited.

Seth started the day with Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins, Sausage, Eggs, and Bacon. mmmm...

After church and Daddy's return home from helping the missionaries, we had a dinner of grilled, bbqed chicken leggs. Then we had cake and ice cream.

Daddy took the cake away :(

Family Vacation part 1

2010-06-29T10:22:00.008-04:00

All of these pictures were taken with my IPhone so most of them aren't great pictures. You get the idea though.

Elyse with Olivia

Grandma B's AWESOME cheesecake

While we where in Kansas City, we went to the Union Station's dinasour exibit. The kids enjoyed it quite a bit but Jacob was scared of the dinasours. Noah was a little nervous around the "shark-tooth". They had the most fun in the gift shop and the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory(which was also my favorite part).

Seth was NOT happy to be in the truck again!

Family Vacation part 2

2010-06-29T09:47:00.006-04:00

More fun with Seth

2010-06-29T09:38:00.003-04:00

Some of these were taken the day of the "tounge" pictures. Looks like I even missed one. The rest are random.

Mmmm Noah left his cookies where I can reach them.

Had a rough night. Woke up in tangles. :(

I wanna be like Mike!

2010-06-29T09:34:00.003-04:00

He might be a bit short to be a Jordan, but at least he's got the tounge thing down.

WOORRRRMMMSSSS and more

2010-06-04T15:27:00.005-04:00

So today has been a pretty relaxing day. We spent last night at Holiday Inn Express b/c our air conditioner is out yet again. We got some super delicous breakfast that I didn't have to cook and the kids enjoyed some nick time. Josh made a trip to Dick's again and came home with some new fishing equipment. He can't help himself. These are some of his fishing worms. Seth may have killed a couple of them but he sure had fun.

Elyse is wearing her dress around her waist like a skirt. She wanted to check the mail so I took the opportuninty to catch her in her sas.

I have a think-face, just like my dad!

Shoes go outside!

One of the few peaceful times in our home!

My Angels

2010-05-27T10:04:00.004-04:00

Recent Pictures from our lovely lives

2010-05-13T11:23:00.008-04:00

Grandma B. bought these outfits for the kids. Seth has one too but its and 18mo.

Eeeeewwww Mooooommmmm

Elyse's 1st lost tooth

Sprinkler fun!

Nokie's 4th Birthday

2010-04-16T16:41:00.009-04:00

No, I did not make the cake :P

Poor SpongeBob

Fun With Seth

2010-03-17T18:57:00.004-04:00

2010-03-17T18:45:00.002-04:00

Jacob's 5th Birthday!!!!!

2010-03-17T17:10:00.014-04:00

We started Jacob's big day off with a yummy breakfast of Chocolate Chip pancakes, eggs, sausage, and bacon. We got to go pick up his cake at Wal-Mart (Yes he wanted a batman cake and I am not that talented) and all his decorations. He got to blow up his own balloons and he had a blast. Might have been his favorite part of the day. His friend Brantley got to come over and spend a few hours with him. We ruined our dinner with cake and ice cream and candy from a decapitated Spiderman. He got to have his favorite dinner-Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas. I'd say he had a pretty good day.

February Fun

2010-03-17T16:38:00.008-04:00

So Seth learned to wave a couple days ago.

2010-02-28T21:19:00.002-05:00

Seth learned to wave on Friday (I think). This was later that night when he was getting really good at it. He's soooo stinkin cute!

Seth @ 6 months

2010-02-07T15:02:00.008-05:00

Here are a few of Seth's 6 month pictures. He was having a rough day as he does most days. He's been working on some teeth and I'm pretty sure he has some sort of fear of cameras. That aside, he gave us some pretty cute shots.

A New Year (and some from before)

2010-01-25T22:57:00.006-05:00

We went to Callaway Gardens with some friends to see the Christmas lights. It was very cold and wet but we had fun.

Jacob on the boys new Vtech game.

Seth getting ready for his first baby food.

Christmas Eve and Christmas

2010-01-25T21:58:00.012-05:00

Ok so I realize these are a month late but I've got four kids and I'm in college so get over it.

Christmas Cards

2009-12-17T14:37:00.000-05:00

Just ordered these from Kodak.

Merry Chrismas!!!

Gingerbread Houses

2009-12-17T14:25:00.004-05:00

So here was our Family Home Evening activity on Monday. I think we'll stick to the ones that come already put together.

too much icing

the roof broke so they just decided to eat it

my side

kids side, they took all the candy, and ate quite a bit too

Putting up the tree and decorations

2009-12-10T10:16:00.004-05:00

2009-12-10T09:56:00.002-05:00

So this is his second roll. We were pretty excited!

Seth's 3 Month Pictures ( A little late)

2009-11-13T12:07:00.004-05:00

Still haven't quite figured out that pictures upload backwards. :P

So there's a funny story behind these amazing pictures. Kim and I were heading out to the pumpkin patch to take these pictures but they closed just before we got there. We decided to take them anyways out front by a small rock wall. I was following Kim since I didn't know the way. We decided to pull off to the side of the road and guess what....not solid ground. We go major stuck in like 4 feet of mud. Not exaggerating! She was in her big ole Suburban and of course I was in Josh's monster F350. Both of our passenger sides were buried up to the bumper and over the front right tire. It took 3 hours, 3 trucks, some of Kim's in-laws and a couple strangers to get us out. We got quite a kick out of it and some awesome pictures too. I'm impressed big time because Seth wasn't being very cooperative. She got some cute ones of the other 3 kids too.

Seth is 2 months old :( well 2 months and a day

2009-09-12T14:20:00.006-04:00

Here are a few pictures of Seth in his second month of life.

Boy I'm mad at you!!!

Look over there!!

I give up!

Blessing day- 8 weeks 1 day, Jacob and Noah wore this outfit for their blessings, or at least Jacob did. Seth was too big so we changed him out of it and put him in his tie onsie.

My Curse

2009-08-30T10:34:00.002-04:00

So it's been a rough couple of weeks around here. I have this curse that everytime I have a baby, I (or Noah) end up in the hospital. With Elyse, I got the flu when she was a month old and got so dehydrated that I was sooo close to a heartattack. my potassium and magnesium levels were really bad. So then after Jacob, the night we came home Elyse got so way sick and puked all over me. So two days later I was in the hospital again from puking my guts up and getting dehydrated, that time they found retained membranes that the stupid doctor didn't get. Anyways, Noah was born in respatory distress and was flown to the Anchorage NICU and was there for 11 days. Few days after Seth was born, I got bronchitis. Thought I got of pretty easy. Not so, not so. Durning my pregnancy with him, I was having this insane pain in my stomache that went thru my right side and to my back. The OB doc said it was reflux and put me on zantac witch totally helped with the heartburn but that pain kept coming back. Was in the hopsital for it once. So I figured after Seth was born the reflux would go away, but it kept comming back. A week ago last Wendsday, so like a week and a half ago, I had Josh take me to the ER because it was the third day in a row I had this pain and it just wouldn't go away that day. They did x-rays and an ultrasound on my galbladder but didn't find anything and instead of running more tests they sent me home on prilosec and demoral for the pain. Next day, pain came back, demeral wouldn't work. I took 50 mg at noon and another 50 mg at 1:20 and called the ambulence at 2. You figure if you take an ambulence you'd get seen right away right? Wrong. I was wainting in the waiting room for 8 hours before I got seen. They were soooooo full and backed up it was rediculous. Just stupid aweful. So about 2 1/2 hours into it Josh talked me into taking 2 more demorals, so 100 mg. worked that time, I was all drugged out. They got me in at like 10 that night and admitted me a couple hours later but I spent several hours still in the ER while I was admitted because they didn't even have a bed on the floor for me. Ugh. So I spent all of Friday being poked and sucked dry of my blood and talking to drs. Saturday morning they did an MRI and found stones in my galbladder. Took it out few hours later, but there was still a stone in my bile duct that they couldn't get out. So Monday I had an ERCP done where they stick a scope down my throat and thru my stomach and intestines and cut out the stone. Crazy procedure but they got the stone and I went home Tuesday afternoon. Luckily we had a lot of help from friends at church and Josh's mom drove down to stay for a while. She left yeasterday and Josh's sister and her family were here for the day on their way down to their new home in Florida. So that's what's been up with our family lately. I'm so glad the insanity is over. Hopefully I didn't just jinx myself.

Seth's Pictures

2009-07-24T08:31:00.004-04:00

We had Seth's newborn pictures taken yesterday. Here some of the ones that were posted.

Our Day in the Rain

2009-07-19T10:41:00.008-04:00

So Josh thought it would be funny if he could get the kids to run to the fence and back in the rain. Elyse and Jacob took off to their rooms, so he grabbed Noah and threw him in the pool. Noah wasn't too happy but he had fun anyways. Later while we were eating dinner, Noah was asleep on the floor in his room, Josh dared Jacob to run to the swings and back so he did. Then it turned into a party in the rain. The kids had so much fun. When Noah woke up, he went back out but I didn't get the pictures cuz I was on the couch feeding Seth. I'd say it was a pretty good day.

"Noah do this."

Elyse kept loosing her flop and Jacob kept getting it for her.

More Seth

2009-07-19T10:21:00.005-04:00

Here are a few pictures of Seth's first day home. (2 days old) We had a Welcome Home/ Happy Birthday cake and some ice cream to celebrate. There are also a few more from his first week.

Noah's finally a big brother

Grandma B.

First night home, getting ready for bed

3 days old. First at home bath, getting ready for dr. appt.

5 days old

1 week old

Seth Adam Hedges

2009-07-16T14:24:00.007-04:00

Seth Adam Hedges was born at 3:38 pm, Saturday, July 11th of 2009. Light contractions started when I woke up at 9:30 in the morning at 5 min apart. After a shower and a walk they grew stronger and closer together. When we left home at noon, they were 3 min apart. I was admitted at 1, got the epidural at 2, got water broke at 2:30 and delivered an hour later after 3 min of pushing. Pretty good, I'd say. We made it home on Monday and everyone is doing great. Seth is a wonderful baby and we are so blessed to have him in our family.

4th of July

2009-07-15T19:22:00.006-04:00

Ok so the pictures are sort of posted backwards. We started out with a bar-b-q in the backyard. Started the fireworks out with the poppers of course. Moved on to the sparklers. Had a few fountainy things that we did for the kids while they ate ice cream. Ended up out front watching the neighbors setting off their fireworks. We could have watched the city fireworks but their happened to be two very tall trees standing exactly where they were being shot off.

Baby Belly

2009-07-04T13:34:00.003-04:00

So I have this friend at church who has her own photography business. She shot these for me. I really love how they turned out.

This one took forever to get because Josh kept laughing.

Just a few pictures

2009-06-22T10:28:00.005-04:00

They attacked Daddy when he got home from Texas.

Jacob is actually asleep using kitty as a pillow. How funny!!!

So Mr. Kitty's been kinda weird the past couple days. He keeps jumping up on me and laying on my tummy. Think he know's something I don't?

A little drama

2009-06-22T10:05:00.002-04:00

So last Tuesday we had a bit of drama. I've been having some problems with reflux during this pregnancy. Like the bad kind that hurts like your guts ganna burst or something. So the dr. put me on zantac and it had been helping for a while. Well Friday night after our bar-b-q, I woke up in pain for the first time in a couple months. I had some tums and drank some milk and after about 10 min I was fine. Woke up again Saturday night after we had grilled chicken this time, and it lasted for almost an hour. So obviously the medicine wasn't helping anymore. Monday was ok but I got sunburnt sitting out in the sun while the kids played in the pool. I made sure to drink plenty of water that day so I wouldn't get dehydrated, cuz I tend to have probs with dehydration around this time in my pregnancies. So Tuesday morning I woke up, ate, had a V8 fusion, which gave me heartburn, and by 10:30 or so the reflux was back. Only this time I called 911 around 12:30 cuz the pain wouldn't stop and it was getting worse. The ambulence came and then Josh got there to deal with the kids and off I went to the hospital. By the way, ambulence rides suck big time. So I got to the hospital and they took me to L&D, which freaked me out cuz I'm like, hey I just have reflux. Yea, I was wrong. They stuck me like 6 times before they finally got an IV in me because I was so dehydrated. Turns out the sunburn was sucking all the water out of me overnight and since I didn't drink any water that morning cuz I wanted juice, you get the picture. I was having contractions too and was dialated to a 2. He said I wasn't in active labor or anything so I don't know. Finally Josh got there after they got the first bag of fluid in me and right after that they gave me some pain medicine. Took long enough. I crashed so hard. I haven't slept like that in months. So then they discharged me at like 5 and we headed home. On the way home we got stuck in traffic for like an hour because up by our exit, 10, a car caught fire and traffic was backed up all the way to exit 7. Josh got a little nervous for me so he took one of his blue ice blocks out of his cooler and stuck it on my neck cuz I wasn't supposed to be in the heat. Then when we finally got almost home he stopped at a gas station and got me a slurpy. mmmm. so that was our drama for the week. Now I'm drinkin so much water my feet are swelling up like balloons. I had my dr. appt on Friday and he said I'm still at a 2 so I could have the baby soon or I could hold on. He doesn't expect me to go the full 40 weeks thought so we'll see.

Our First Bar-B-Q in our new home..... took long enough huh

2009-06-22T09:44:00.004-04:00

So last weekend the kids were bugging us about how they wanted to go to McDonald's for dinner. So while we were doing our grocery shopping, Josh decided to give them a choice, McDonald's or we could get stuff to bar-b-q. He kinda bribed them with the pool, said if we bar-b-q'd then they could play in the pool but if they had McD's then they had to go to bed when we got home. So obviously they chose to grill out. We got to have s'mores too.
Man it's hot

Check out Elyse's face

Can you tell she's gettin full?

The Pool

2009-06-01T18:55:00.003-04:00

Ok, so here's the pool that caused me so much greif. I started putting this thing together last Friday morning around 10 or so. I finally had it all put together and ready by 3. Ugggghhh. I remembered to put sunblock on the kids so they didn't really fry except poor Jacob. He was pretty pink. I didn't think it would take so long so I didn't put sunblock on myself at first thinking I'll get a little sun before I put it on and I'll work slowly on my tan over the next couple weeks. Stupid move. I got so cought up in getting it put together that I lost track of time. I crispy fried my shoulders and back and, believe it or not, my knees. Who burns their knees? So for the last few days I've been soaked in aloe and drugged up on tylenol ( cuz that's all I'm allowed). Anyway, hope you enjoy the pictures. The kids have been having a blast.

Elyse + scissors = bald spots

2009-05-21T18:58:00.003-04:00

So I was checking out a few blogs today and noticed that a couple friends had posted evidence of their daughters (who along with Elyse, happen to be pretty close in age) cutting their own hair. I thought this was pretty funny since I've just had an incident of my own. So I was standing at the pharmacy counter on Tuesday and happened to notice a patch of hair missing from Noah's hair. I immediately though "O no, did I do that," (I had just cut the boys hair on Sat. night) but before I could finish the thought I found myself asking Elyse if she had done it. Of course I felt bad for automatically accusing her, until I saw her face. I said, "You need to tell me because I need to know if I did this or if you did." She said she did it with a little pouty face. I didn't even get mad, I laughed. How could I get mad when I did the exact same thing to my brother, sister, and myself around her age. She also cut part of Jacob's hair but it's not even really noticeable. So the top right spot is just his cowlick, or however you spell that, but the other two spots are from her. Yea I found the second spot today. Gotta love kids and their mischief.

A Little Background

2009-05-21T11:50:00.003-04:00

Josh was born in Missouri to his Patricia and Keith Hedges and an older sister Angela, aka Angel. His parents divorced and his mom remarried and along came Lee and Becky. She divorced again and later found the love of her life, Marc Bergstrom. They then had Tyler. The moved to Arkansas and eventually ended up in Flippin where Josh went to high school. After high school he went to BYU in Utah for a semester and then headed to Washington to live with Keith for a while. He moved around a few more times and made his way back to Flippin where we met. Josh grew up in the church and although he had a couple inactive moments in life, he never lost his testimony. He now holds a calling as 2nd councelor in the Elders Quarum and tries to serve others whenever he can. Angel is married with three kids, Lee is married and is also in the Army. Becky is married with an adorable, rambunctious little two year old daughter, and Tyler is still in school at 14.

I was born in Texas to my parents Alan and Debby Phillips. At two months old we moved to Arkansas. I grew up on a small town in the north central part of Ark. called Yellville. I have a younger brother, James and a younger sister Laura. James is soon to married to mother of his beautiful 2 year old son, Sabastian. Laura is married with a cute stinker of a two year old daughter. They both live in Yellville close to my parents. We grew up on the lakes and rivers of the Ozarks and spent most of our summers at the park involved in some sort of sport or another. When Josh and I decided to get married, I met with the missionaries and easily made the decision to get baptized. I have held several callings in the primary and was at one point a teacher in Relief Society. I am now teaching the CTR 8 class in our ward here in Columbus. We have been blessed enough that I am able to stay at home with the kids. Although somedays it feels more like a prison :). I love that I get to be here for all the little milestones in their lives and I get to be the one who fills their little brains with all the crazy things they get to learn.

The Story of Us (the long version)

2009-05-21T11:22:00.003-04:00

So Josh and I met in August of '02 at a friends birthday party. He was passing thru visiting some old friends from High School, who I happened to become friends with my senior year, we went to high schools one town away from each other. I was 2 weeks away from leaving for college. The connection was instant. We visited each other on weekends after I left. He asked me to marry him on Christmas Eve of that year and we got married on Feb. 15th of 2003. In March, two weeks later, I got baptized into the church. After I finished my first year of college at the University of Arkansas, we moved to Warrensburg, Missouri where Josh's family lived. He joined the Army a couple months later and at the end of July, we had our daughter Elyse. Two months later we all moved to Kansas City, MO and Josh left for basic in October. In Feb. he left for his first duty station in Alaska and in April, Elyse and I followed. The first summer there was pretty cool. I saw a couple moose my first day there. The winter sucked but we were able to be sealed in the Anchorage temple. We had Jacob in March. In August, Josh deployed to Iraq for 17 months. In September, we found out I was pregnant with Noah. Josh made it home for r and r 12 hours before Noah was born. Most of it was spent in the NICU in Anchorage cuz he was born with fluid in his lungs and needed extra care. Josh ended his deployment in Dec. of 2006 and from there we finally began enjoying Alaska life. We made some awesome friends and and we got real big into camping and fishing. In the winter we got to do all the crazy stuff you'd never get to do in the lower 48. Like ice parks and the ice hotel/museum, I finally got to go skiing. Not to bad for a beginner I would say. Josh went to selection for special forces and made it thru so we moved in July so he could go thru his training. In airborne school, he got hurt on his second jump, so while he was in his month of recovery, he reevaluated his priorities and in October we ended up in Columbus, Ga. Josh works as an instructor for a mortar gunnery class. He has to go on tdy sometimes for a few weeks to teach classes afar but that's better than a 17 month deployment and we get paid for it so I'll take it. We are expecting another little boy in July and that will top our family off at 6. Crazy huh? I would have never thought about having four kids but they are all incredible blessings to me and I'm so greatful to have such an amazing family. So that's our story.