My Family

I'm Elizabeth, wife to the most wonderful man I've ever met, and mother to three beautiful, sweet little girls. We still have yet to meet the third girl, but I'm assuming she'll be just as sweet and beautiful as her sisters! So far, we have lived in San Jose, CA for most of our married life (we were there 6 long years), and have now been in North Carolina for a year and a half. I am loving living here, and love being able to afford and live in a house again!

My sweetie, Brandon: We met my senior year of college (at BYU). My first memory of him was at a ward prayer where I caught him (and two other guys) looking at me. I thought that he was the cutest out of the three of them. :) Later I found out that he was going to ask me out on his own, but that plan got beat out by someone setting us up first before he got the chance. One of my roommates and one of his roommates were engaged, and they thought it would be fun to set us up and go out on a double date together. (This other couple also are the parents of 3 girls at the moment. . .how ironic is that? lol) So, we had our first date on September 11, 1999 with our engaged roommates. The four of us got some Mexican food for dinner to go, and went Jeeping into the mountains, stopped and built a campfire and ate our food and talked until we left to go home. Sitting around the campfire, my jeans would get too hot and start burning my legs since I was sitting too close to it. So, when that happened, I'd stand up and walk away to let my legs cool off a bit, and then sit back down. I found out later after we were married that he had tried to put his arm around me several times, and just so happened that he timed it just as I needed to get up and walk away before my legs got unbearably hot. I had no clue he had tried to put his arm around me, and he had no clue what the real reason was for all my getting up. He was assuming that I was trying to get away from him, and wasn't interested! ha, ha! It was 3 am on the drive home, and I wanted to fall asleep in my chair sooooo badly, but then I thought it would be rude of me to do that when he had to stay awake and drive. So, I stayed up and talked to him. He told me, during the same discussion when I found out about him trying to put his arm around me, that had I fallen asleep, he wouldn't have asked me out again thinking I wasn't interested in him. He said me staying awake showed him that I was interested despite all my "walking away," and gave him courage to ask me out again. :) He also commented that after having been married to me and knowing that it's hard for me to stay up past midnight, that that must have been REALLY hard for me to do, and thanked me for staying up and talking to him. :)

So, we dated from there on out. He took me up to Idaho quite a few times, and I got to know his family pretty well during those times. I went home for Christmas as usual, so he flew out to Dallas also to spend Christmas with me and meet my family. He proposed to me on April 9, 2000. . .a few weeks before I graduated; and we got married on June 9, 2000. I actually wanted a fall wedding, but my brother was leaving on a mission in July, and I wanted him to be there, so we got married sooner before he could leave. The morning of our wedding day, we decided to accept the job he had been offered at Cisco in California. So, after getting married, we lived in UT for about a month, and then moved to CA in July. I taught 5th grade the first year we lived there.

Rachel Elizabeth: Our first daughter was born July 7, 2002 in Mt. View, CA. I like her birthday: 7-7 like the wonderful year of '77. . .lol. I got to pick it since I was induced. She was 8 lbs. 10 oz and 21 inches. . . .born on her due date. She is 5 now, and is in a year round public school for this year going to kindergarten. I'm hoping to go back to homeschooling after this year. So much wasted time at school, plus what they're doing. . . .she could do when she was 3! I supplement her learning with stuff more on her level when she is at home. It's so hard to do since I now have limited time with her at school. It's easier when she's at home. She also misses out on the homeschool group getting together every Friday morning and the enriching experiences she could be having with them. I've started teaching her basic sewing lessons since we tracked out on September 7, in addition to her usual homeschool work I give her to work on so she doesn't fall behind where she has already gotten. She tracks back in on October 1, and I'm not looking forward to it. :( She's taking ballet/tap again this year, and is now a Daisy Girl Scout! This year they are going to let Daisy's sell cookies!. . . .if her troop gets a cookie mom volunteer. Not sure I want to be that mom with a newborn as well! Hopefully someone else will volunteer. Rachel is extremely outgoing, loves being with people, playing with her sister, and loves to learn.

Michaela Addie: Our second daughter was born April 19, 2005 in the same hospital as Rachel. I like her birthday too! Both her and I are A. 19th birthdays! I'm in August, and she's in April. She was born 5 days before her due date and was 7 lbs 9 oz and 20 inches. I was scheduled to be induced with her on the 18th, but got bumped when 15 women went into labor naturally at a hospital that only has 10 delivery rooms, so there was no room for me to go in that day. We got to go in the next day, the 19th. I didn't get to even pick the 18th, or any day with her like I did with Rachel. Rachel, he let me pick from 3 days; Michaela, he chose the 18th. Michaela is now almost 2.5 years old and has her terrible 2 moments, but is usually a sweet girl. She loves to copy everything Rachel does. I've started homeschooling her going over shapes, colors, letters, numbers, etc. She has the shapes and colors down pretty good, and getting better at letters/numbers. Michaela is in a 2.5 yo ballet class that meets at the same time as Rachel's class. She was hesitant about it at first, but seems to be warming up to it. She is a lot more shy than Rachel was/is. If things don't work out, I may take her out and not waste money on it. I'm going to give her a few more weeks and see how it goes. This past Tuesday she participated really well, so I'm thinking it may work. . . . .

Alyssa Avery: Our 3rd daughter in waiting. . . . the current tum-tum love. She is SCHEDULED to be born on October 9th. Hopefully I'm not bumped again! I'll like that birthday too if we get it. Her half b/day will be the day Brandon proposed to me. :) She'll be our first born in NC. If born that day, she'll be 8 days early as far as the doc is concerned, or 11 days early as far as her actual age is as I know it, so I'm hoping she'll be somewhat smaller than Michaela! (The doc dated the pregnancy based on LMP and not actual O-day.) She spends her days sleeping, hiccuping, sticking her bum in my ribs, kicking me everywhere, and wishing she could meet her sisters. Alyssa had a twin that vanished very early in the pregnancy. On August 16, I had a lot of painful contractions, and was sent to the hospital to be monitored. After being monitored a while, they deemed it pre-term labor and stopped it. Things have been fairly ok since. Still get way too many contractions, but nothing like that one day. I just want her OUT now! And be comfortable again.