Short and Sweet

I have a really good friend who pointed out to me that I needed to blog more since we moved away.  I guess it is true.  I have realized though that if I am going to blog it has to be short ans sweet otherwise it won't happen. I am very inept when it comes to computers and this is not my strong point, but I will do my best.  So here we go...

About a week ago Cam and I took the kids down to Florida to surprise Cam's parents.  We had tried every which way to be able to go down and spend a week with them there, but it didn't work out.  However, at the last minute Cam was able to get an extra day off, so we made a 3 day weekend into a 4 day weekend and drove down to Florida.  While there we went to Sea World and we also spent A LOT of time swimming.  It was so much fun and we wish it could have been longer.  It was nice to spend time with Cam's parents.  We don't see them much since they live up in Alaska so it was a wonderful blessing for all of us.

 It was rainy for most of the day, but we loved it anyway.

 I am not sure who enjoyed themselves more...the kids or "Grama and Papa".

Sammee was "GO, GO, GO!" all day.  She fell asleep within 5 minutes of being in the car and she didn't wake up.

 Emmry thought it was pretty great he could stand up right underneath the table and still see us.

The Franklin Family 2012

Emmry - 2012 was a rocky start for me. I was born November 2, 2011 and was gratefully welcomed into my new family. Soon after I joined my family, my daddy left for Korea. About this same time I became very sick.  My mom spent many sleepless nights and countless hours trying to help me get better.  In March, I ended up at Primary Children’s hospital for almost a week after losing 20% of my body weight at only 4 months old.  It was a very hard time for me.  I wasn’t sure if I was going to stay with my earthly family or go back to my Heavenly Father and Mother.  But after all of the priesthood blessings, the countless heartfelt prayers from my family, friends, and people that hadn’t ever even met me, and because of the hard work and determination from my mom, I decided to stay here with my earthly family for a little longer.  With the help of a lot of doctors and the intense research of my mother, we discovered that I have some extreme food allergies and sensitivities-even more so than my older sister.

Finally about June my health began to improve.  I started rolling over, scooting, talking, playing with my sister and dog, and doing everything else a little boy does.  Some of my favorite things to do included talking with my daddy on Skype and looking at my daddy’s pictures.  Then on November 15, 2012 my daddy came home and I play with him as much as I can.  I also LOVE to eat!  I eat as much as I possibly can whenever I can get it.  I turned 1 on November 2, 2012.  I am still little, but I am as smart as can be.  I mimic everything my sister and parents do and I talk all the time.  I am still trying to figure out the walking thing, but I can army (air force) crawl faster than most people can run.  I crawl “normal” when I feel like it, but the army crawl works so much better.  Plus, I’m trying to be just like my daddy in every way I can!

Sammantha- 2012 was a special year for me.  I got to spend a lot of time with my mom.  My dad went to “Koreera” for work and I was only able to talk to him on the “compooter”.   He would call me almost every day and we would play peek-a-boo a lot.  I sure missed him.  But while he was gone I was a big helper to my mom and I am trying to continue to do that still.  I love to help her fold laundry and cook dinner.  I also pick up all of my toys and I feed our dog Bear.  I am extremely independent, pretty much an exact duplicate of my mom.  However, I am a much better dancer than she is.  I love to dance like a ballerina.  I also love to dress up in dresses, jewelry, pretty shoes, and anything else that is pink, frilly, or girly.  I didn’t get this from my mom.  My fashion sense comes from my Aunt Lauryn.  I am a social butterfly and I love to play with friends.  I talk to everyone that I see and tell them about anything that happens to pop into my head at that moment.

We just moved to “South Carowina” and I am making lots of new friends.  But my favorite person to play with is still my daddy.  I am so glad that he is home and every morning when I wake up, I ask my mom where he is to make sure he is coming home after work and that he didn’t go back to “Koreera”.  On December 11 I turned 3.  I got to celebrate my birthday in a hotel because we were moving.  I loved it! Even though we are moved into a house, I still ask to go back to the hotel.  I am learning a lot every day and my already large vocabulary just continues to grow.  I make my parents laugh every day with the crazy things that come out of my mouth.  I just love my life!

Camarron- 2012 was a stretching year for me.  I left for a yearlong tour of duty in South Korea on November 26, 2011.  I spent my birthday (November 27^th) on an airplane flying to the other side of the world.  (I actually left on the 26^th and arrived in Korea on the 28^th. Because of the time change my birthday technically didn’t even exist last year.)  I spent the Christmas and New Year holidays all by myself.  It was quite lonely.  After being in Korea a couple months we discovered that this tour wasn’t going to be anything like what we were expecting. (Thank you military!) It proved to be much more challenging than we ever thought.  However, I took the mountain head on and climbed up it the best I knew how. 

Despite the challenges of being away from my family, working  10-12 hour shifts on average, going through many military training exercises, and constantly worrying about my gravely sick child back at home, I managed to finish my CCAF degree, pass my Staff Sargent test in the top 95%, and was awarded Armament Systems Technician of the Quarter at Kunsan AB.  I was able to come home two weeks early and surprised my entire family.  They had no idea I was coming and it was the best moment of my entire life.  We have since moved to our new duty station at Shaw AFB, South Carolina.  I am currently working on getting separated from Active Duty Air Force and transferred into the Air National Guard in Alaska.  There I will continue to pursue my goal of becoming a military pilot. 

My yearlong tour in Korea was a challenge.  It stretched me in every way possible.  But if hard things don’t kill us, they will definitely make us stronger.  I gained a greater understanding of what it means to be an eternal family.  I missed my children terribly and recognized how much I love being a dad.  I can’t describe with words how hard it was being separated from my wife, but I learned how much I rely and depend on her and also how much she does for our children.  I am so grateful to be back with my family and it was a wonderful blessing to get to spend the Christmas and New Year holidays all together again.

Aleesha- 2012 proved to be the most challenging year of my life.  We knew that Camarron was going to be gone and I tried to prepare myself for it.  I thought him leaving was going to be the hardest part, but it actually ended up being one of the easiest.  Soon after Cam left, our little Emmry became extremely ill.  I tried for months to figure out what was going on and went to see multiple doctors.  Every visit though was counterproductive because they all told me the same thing which was that they had no idea and I again left with a new prescription that I didn’t dare use since it was just a guessing game.  After ending up in the hospital and being blessed with some great doctors, we discovered that Emmry has some really severe food issues.  For several weeks Emmry’s life hung by a thread.  The military kept wavering back and forth on whether or not to let Camarron come home.  It was the biggest and longest emotional rollercoaster ride I have ever been on (or ever hope to be).

            Then a miracle happened and a dear friend pulled some strings and got us in to see a naturopath practitioner who was able to give me some answers to why my son had been so sick and how to help him get better.  She helped me discover the rest of the foods that were reacting so terribly to his little body.  Because of Sammantha’s food allergies we had already changed our diet a lot and had eliminated dairy, corn, soy, citrus, and processed sugar.  But after Emmry’s health started to turn around we realized we had to eliminate wheat/gluten, peanuts, eggs, food additives and dyes (all of them), and many oils on top of our already restricted diet.  So I spent much of 2012 learning how to cook again.  During all of this chaos I was able to complete my FootZonology Instructor certification and I taught and graduated my first class of students at the beginning of December (which included my mother).  It was wonderful!

The best moment of 2012 was on November 15 at about 6pm.  I had spent the entire day getting my children and myself ready for pictures.  A dear friend of mine was going to take some family pictures for us.  We had a framed picture of Camarron so he could be in the pictures too.  We were all dressed up and went to the Bountiful, Utah LDS temple grounds to take them.  My friend posed us in front of the entry way of the temple and had me holding both of my beautiful children.  She stepped back and said “On the count of three smile…one…two…” and then my husband walked out of the temple entry way in his uniform and surprised us all.  I collapsed in tears, Sammantha ran as fast as she could into his arms, and Emmry sat reaching for him until he came over and picked him up.  Thanks to my amazing friend, we have beautiful perfect pictures of the entire thing. (Look up this link to see all of the pics she took. Awesome! http://katiannphotography.blogspot.com click on My Work, then Kids/Family, then scroll down until you see Welcome Home Cam)

So once again we are all back together.  We are also all healthy and couldn’t be more happy.  We are currently living in South Carolina, near Shaw Air Force Base and soon we are anticipating another long move up to Homer, Alaska once Camarron gets accepted into the Air National Guard.  As difficult as 2012 was for us, it was also a wonderful growing experience.  We learned how to better utilize the Atonement in our lives.  We learned to have faith in ourselves, in each other, and most of all in our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.  We learned that Heavenly Father really does answer prayers, even when it seems like there is nobody there to listen.  We learned that serving others can fill up a void that was left wanting in our hearts.  We learned that we are much stronger than we ever thought possible And we learned that God places amazing people in our lives at just the right moments to help us through some of our most difficult trials.  So thank you to all of you who helped us learn and grow and make it through our 2012! May you and your loved ones be blessed in 2013!

Love,

Camarron, Aleesha, Sammantha, and Emmry

 

Introducing...Baby Emmry! Saying good-bye to Dad...and a few things inbetween.

 A lot has happened in the last couple of months.  However, the most important was the birth of our new baby boy.  His name is Emmry Cort Franklin and he was born November 2nd at 10:05 pm. He weighed 8lbs 10oz and was 21.5 inches long.  He's a keeper!

 With his Uncle Curt

 I was so glad that he was finally here.  There were moments where it felt like he would never come.

 Daddy and Sammee with Baby Emmry.  (Sammee always calls her brother baby Emmry and if she ever sees another baby or even a picture on one she yells, "Look Mommy, Baby Emmry!"

 What a proud big sister.  I will have you know though, when she came to the hospital to see him, Sammantha was way more interested in the food her mom was eating than she was about her new brother.

 Emmry's Baby Blessing.  We did it quite early so Camarron's parents could be there.

About a week after Emmry was born, Cam was given an Achievement Medal at work.  We were able to go to the ceremony to watch him receive it.  That was really cool.  I was (and still am) one proud wife!

Then for his birthday present, I took Cam up to Brigham City so he could have his first flying lesson.  He was like a kid in a candy shop.  He was SO excited!

 

Here he goes...

 

Here he is about to take off.  He actually got to fly the plane for most of the flight.

Doesn't he look like this is where he belongs?  I think so!

He had this grin on his face from the moment we got into the car and headed to Brigham City and it was there for the next 2 days after his flight was over too.  You think he had seen a killer whale for the first time with as happy as he was.

Camarron left to go to Korea for a year on the 26th of November.  Before we left to take him to the airport we went to the park so he could play with Sammantha one last time.

 

She loves her daddy and they had so much fun!

 

Now that he is gone, I am trying to keep up on the blog so he can see what we are all doing here back at home.  

Our two babies...being as cute as they can possibly be asleep on the couch!

Notice that Sammee is sleeping with an Air Force blanket that has an F-22 on the front of it.  She calls it "Daddy's Jet Blanket" and she has to have it when she goes to bed or takes a nap.  It is just as important to her as her pink blanket that is tucked underneath her as well.  Did I mention that she loves her daddy?

 

Then after nap time, of course it is time to eat.  And Sammantha loves to eat!

 

Soup with crackers is one of her new favorite things to eat.  She asks for it all the time.  I think she got about half of it in her mouth. :.)

 

Cheese!

 Little Emmry is pretty much the perfect baby. This is what he does most of the day.  He wakes up about every 3-4 hours to eat and then is usually up for an hour just looking around at everything.  He never cries, only squeaks and he sleeps about 5-6 hours at night.  He is a huge blessing for me now that I am by myself.  Plus, he is pretty much the cutest, most handsome baby I have ever seen!

Camarron's favorite time of the year is Christmas time.  He loves everything about it...the lights, the festivities, the FOOD, and especially all the Christmas songs.  So I really didn't want to go through getting everything out and putting up decorations by myself.  I thought it was going to be too hard.  However, my wise mother told me that I needed to do it anyway, for my daughter.  So I forced myself to pull out my tree and box of decorations.  Sammantha was super excited as soon as I mentioned the Christmas tree.  A few days before a couple of my wonderful friends took her with them to the Festival of Trees and she had the best time and she gets extremely excited whenever she sees a Christmas tree.  

I turned on some Christmas music and decorated our apartment, and I actually enjoyed doing it with Sammee.  And it is nice to have a festive home, even if my husband isn't here to share it with me, my kids are.  And to see Sammantha's excitement, ya it was definitely worth it.

 

Here we are in the beginning, just getting started.

Sammantha loves the Nativity Set and the Baby Jesus.  She plays with it all the time.

She LOVED putting on the ornaments!  She also loves taking them off.

 

Our finished product!

 

 

Please note that this only looked like this for about a minute.  Sammantha always has the little figurines strewed all across the table.

 

Our stockings...Cam, me, Sammee, Emmry, and Bear.  Yes, there really is five of us!

 

Yep, still sleeping!

 

Yep, still eating!

And of course Bear is still waiting...and wanting.

She has just recently learned about "Black Fingers", so when she found a can in the pantry she had to have some.  And by some I mean half of the can all by herself.

GRUMPY FACE!  Just for Daddy

Sleepy face...just for daddy too. :.)

Didn't we just do this ten minutes ago?  Aren't you full yet?

Apparently not! 

Cam check out this comparison...

This is Emmry at about 1 month old.

And mommy sure does whaley love him!

 And this is Sammantha at just over 3 months.

I think brother is going to be just a bit bigger than his sister.