HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

So I haven't posted in awhile cause I've been so busy with the holidays. I didn't even send out Christmas cards or a family newsletter this year, so this post will have to do. We had a wonderful Christmas as always and have had so much fun just spending time with each other over the Christmas break. We all enjoyed taking turns talking to our missionary on Christmas morning. He is doing so well and was recently made a Zone Leader in the Pasay Zone. He is due to come home in February, but that may change. He has permission from his Mission President to extend 29 days and he is really excited to do that, but is not sure if the numbers will work out right. If there is an odd number of missionaries he will be able to extend but if there is an even number then he will come home. He has mixed emotions about coming home. He loves the Philippines and the people there and can't imagine ever leaving, but at the same time he misses his family and also knows that it's almost time to move on to a new phase of his life. He has grown up so much and has learned so much while serving his mission. The one thing I am most grateful for is his beautiful testimony of the gospel. He sent an email for our ward with his testimony and I've included it here...
MALIGAYANG PASKO AT MANIGONG BAGONG TAON!!!!!
Musta na ang mga banal ng Garner Ward? How are the saints of the Garner Ward? I'm doing great in the Philippines. I love everything here so much, and I'm getting nervous and scared to come home and leave this great land and beautiful people behind. I've never met a more humble, or kind people. It will be so hard to leave them. One of the things i've really learned on my mission is the importance of charity. Other than the example of our Lord and Savior, the Filipino people have shown me the best example of charity and love for all people. Especially at this time of year, more than any other time we should remember to be charitable, and give freely of what we all have been so blessed with, which is....Ang Ebanghelyo ni Jesucristo, or the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As a full time missionary, i've felt the true happiness that comes from sharing our unique and beautifully simple message to the world. It's the best christmas gift we have the opportunity to give. As we celebrate the birth of our Redeemer, lets reach out and lift hands that hang helplessly down, and bring joy into the lives of our family and friends. I testify that we will all be blessed as we all go out and help others to accept the great truths we have. I know that this is the church of Jesus Christ, and that Joseph Smith is the prophet He called to restore His gospel. The Book of Mormon is the word of God, and will lead us to live better lives, and help us to return to the presence of our God. Of these things i testify, in the name of our elder brother, Jesus Christ, Amen.
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!
Love,
Elder Edmund

Ashley is doing great. She stays busy with school, work, and church. It's hard to believe that she's a junior and is looking into colleges already. She attends seminary every morning and then heads to school for a busy day of honors classes. She also enjoys her drama class and has already performed in a play this year and did an awesome job. She loves being able to drive and having a car at her disposal and is having fun being able to go off campus for lunch everyday with her friends. She has a job at Chick-fil-a and loves it. The owner is a great guy and she couldn't work with better people. We love that it's closed on Sundays.

Kayla is a social butterfly and can't get enough of her friends. She loves school and is in the eighth grade and can't wait to enter the life of a high school student next year. She tried her hand at drama this year as well and landed the lead role of Belle in Beauty and the Beast. She was fantastic! Ashley participated too as the makeup artist for the cast. The drama teacher was so pleased with both my "drama queens", haha! Kayla is also quite the baker. She loves to work in the kitchen and create treats. She does a great job and we're all gonna have to work off a few extra pounds. She also loves to babysit. The kids just love her because she's so much fun and enjoys playing with them. This has made her a favorite babysitter for many of the families at church.

Johnathan is in the sixth grade and has really enjoyed the freedom that comes with being in middle school. He took to it like a duck to water and has done well in all his classes. His teachers love him and for the most part I think the feeling is mutual. He is in beginning band playing the trumpet and really does a great job. His band teacher is impressed with his dedication and he even taught himself how to play Jingle Bells so that he could perform it at our church Christmas party. He enjoys being in Webelos and had fun going on his first Scout campout a couple of weeks ago with his dad. Another Eagle Scout in the making.

Joseph is in the fourth grade and loves his teacher. We do too. She's really great and is so enthusiastic about learning that it rubs off on her students. Joseph participates in Safety Patrol at school and takes his responsibility seriously. He's such a little man!! So responsible!! He loves helping his dad work on cars and has even gotten paid for doing a brake job (with dad's supervision of course) on someone's car. He enjoys being a Cub Scout and loves that his dad is the Cub Master. What could be better than more time with dad!?

Rebecca is in the second grade and absolutely loves Mrs. Kelsch, her teacher. Mrs. Kelsch loves Rebecca too and even made Rebecca her personal assistant. Rebecca loves the responsibility and gets to help out with all sorts of things in the classroom. She's growing up so quickly and is such a beautiful little girl. She's very excited to turn eight in 2009 so she can be baptized and most importantly...she gets to attend the Faith in God for girls class at church on Wednesday nights. She can't wait. She's also a great help to mom and is such a good big sister to Rachel & Jacob.

Rachel is two. Need I say more? She's into everything and goes, goes, goes, non-stop! She keeps everyone on their toes! She's still quite the snuggler and we hope that she doesn't outgrow that anytime soon. Daddy especially...he loves his snuggle bug! Her favorite time of day is still when he comes home from work and just yesterday when he came in she squealed with delight, ran to him and said "hey buddy" (with her cute little southern drawl I might add)! She's so stinkin cute and it's a good thing, cause that has saved her many times, haha!

Jacob is so adorable! We have enjoyed our "little caboose" so much! He's almost 3 months old already and it's so sad to see him grow so quickly. We just love all the stages and all the new things he does. He rolls from his tummy to his back like a pro, but actually likes to play on his tummy and have tummy time. He also loves his activity chair where he can sit/stand and play with the attached toys. He loves this vantage point so he can be a part of all the action going on around him. Trust me...there's always plenty of action, haha!

Johnny and I stay pretty busy most of the time as you can well imagine. He enjoys his job as a project engineer and loves learning new things. He's the neighborhood/church mechanic so he stays busy on the weekends helping people with their car problems. He also has enjoyed being the Cub Master at church and getting to spend some extra time with our boys. I enjoy my job too. Being a mom is the best job in the whole world! I have been so blessed that I have always been able to stay home with our children and be here for them when they are coming and going! It's so much fun to watch them grow and be a part of their lives. I especially enjoy the friendship I have with each of them and love our chats! I'm currently the choir pianist at church and that has been very challenging for me. I love to play the piano at home, but accompanying makes me a nervous wreck. I have no idea why, but I'd rather sing in front of a million people than play the piano in front of two. I guess that's why I was asked to do it. Gotta get over those nerves and share my talent. It's been good to "have to" practice piano everyday. My mom would be proud!

Well another year comes to a close and once again we have been so blessed! We hope each of you have had a great year too and we can't wait to see what 2009 will bring. We want to express our love for all of our family and friends and we also want to express to each of you that we know God lives. We know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer and we are so grateful for his atoning sacrifice that makes it possible for all of us to repent and become like him and to return and live with our Heavenly Father again someday!

Love,
The Edmund Family

GOT MILK?

Today Rachel gave Jacob an m&m. I wish I had thought to take a picture of the lovely blue goo around his lips. He was sucking away on that m&m. I'm so glad he didn't choke on it. Luckily she had just given it to him. I called Johnny laughing and told him that Jacob would never want me anymore (nursing) now that he had experienced chocolate and he said that he would probably want me more now than ever. Got milk?

My cute buddy!

That is one full belly!

Gotta love those big eyes!

And how about that cute face?

The gang's almost all here!

The other day I got this cute shot of Jacob and some of the kids. I only wish the older girls and Ryan could have been in the shot.

Two Peas in a Pod

The other night I wanted to catch up on some chores so I handed Jacob off to Johnny. They both fell asleep in bed together. I just couldn't pass up the chance to get a shot of my "Two Peas in a Pod". Don't they look just alike?

Before Jacob was born, Johnny would joke around with Rachel when she was up to no good and he would tell her she better be good or he was gonna throw her away and make another one that looked just like her (all in fun of course). I'm seriously gonna have to make sure and label all the baby pictures so when we're old and gray we can tell them apart.

A Moment to Breathe

Well I finally have a quick minute to try and catch up. Rachel and Jacob are actually napping at the same time. YEEHAW! These past few weeks have been great and we are all really enjoying our new addition to the family. The novelty has somewhat worn off with the older kids, so there's not quite as much fighting about who gets to hold Jacob next. Rachel is still completely fascinated with him and we have to watch every move she makes. She likes to hear him make noise and we never know what she's going to do to get a response from him. That has definitely been my biggest stress this go around. She is getting better about being gentle, so there is hope. She just loves him so much. She loves to sing to him too which is absolutely adorable! She has a memory like a steel trap so she has quite the repertoire for a two year old. Her favorite is the Barney song "I love you, you love me".

My "blog title" disclaimer

Okay, so yesterday I was at a Dr.'s appt. and the nurses were oohing and aahing over Jacob and asked if he was my first baby (I always get a kick out of this question). I told them no and that he was my last baby (the caboose) and that he was number 8. One of the nurses immediately asked me if I had seen a reality show on cable tv about a couple who have 8 children (twins and sixtuplets) called "Jon and Kate plus 8" (not sure if that's how they spell it) and I told her no that I had never heard of it before and that we don't have cable (apparently it comes on TLC). So...for the record...when I created my blog I sat down and tried to come up with something creative and original (or so I thought) for our blog title and "John and Marie plus 8" is what I came up with. I had a couple of comments from people that they liked our blog title...now I'm wondering if that's because they are fans of that reality show. Oh well...we've been working on our crew of 8 for 20 years...I'm keeping "MY" blog title, haha!

Reading Time!

Rachel is so into reading! Not that she can really read, but boy does she love books! She constantly brings me books to read to her, especially when I'm nursing Jacob...which is a great time to read to her if I can keep her from squishing him :) Yesterday she made herself a comfy spot to read in the recliner while I was getting some stuff done and when I realized it had been kinda quiet for awhile I went to check on her. She had fallen asleep while looking at her book. Too cute!

Best Job!

I sure love my job as a mommy! It's the best job ever! I have great people to work with...who all work together to get the job done! We're all enjoying our new addition to the family and the fighting over who holds Jacob next is tapering off, haha! All the kiddos love having their turn and Jacob just goes with the flow. He's such a sweetheart! Rachel is just loving him nonstop! We have to constantly remind her to be gentle. I finally figured her out the other day. You know that feeling you get that you just want to squeeze that baby cause they're just so darn cute...yeah...well that's Rachel only she hasn't figured out yet that you have to control that urge, haha! It's a good thing that she's pretty darn cute herself!

Jacob's Arrival...

Well after waiting around for most of the day, we finally got the call that there was room in the inn! We got to the hospital at around 3pm. They got me all hooked up and started the pit at 3:35pm. At 4pm they came in and broke my water and then started the epidural. It was awesome! I had one with Rachel but never got the full effect because in the 30 minutes it took them to give it to me, she was born. So this time I said I wanted it early. I was in heaven. I told Johnny after I had Jacob that I felt like I had cheated on a test or that I had gotten something for nothing because it was so easy and I was never in any real pain!!! Man I wish I had done the epidural with all of my kids. Anyway, back to Jacob. He was born at 6:05pm (just 2 1/2 hours of labor and one push). He was born with a true knot in his umbilical cord. The doc made a comment that the occurence of a knot was 1 in 1000. I don't know if that was just a comment or a fact, but at any rate he said that he was glad that they had gotten me in and induced me today and glad that the knot wasn't any tighter or it could have killed Jacob. We're so grateful to Heavenly Father for protecting him and for all the well wishes and prayers for us today. He's beautiful and healthy! He weighs 7lbs 2oz and is 19 1/2 inches long. He's got light blondish/brown hair or should I say peach fuzz and is so sweet. He was very alert right after he was born and has already enjoyed meeting the rest of the Edmund bunch!

No Room at the Inn

Ugggggh!! Well we got up this morning bright and early at 5am to get ready to leave for the hospital. We were supposed to be there at 6:30. Unfortunately, we got a phone call telling us there was no room available until they discharge some patients today and they would call and let us know when to come in. Since then we received another phone call telling us that my Doctor definitely wants to get me in there today and we should be able to go in at 1pm. Apparently all was quiet up until last night and then the flood gates opened and they had 9 deliveries just last night. Lucky for me they have 6 patients that will be getting discharged today by lunchtime. So....maybe we will have a baby by late this afternoon. We'll post pictures soon! :)

I am a child of God

Tonight as I was fixing dinner I noticed a splotch of lipstick smeared on the edge of the countertop. I wiped it off and then wondered where in the world it came from. Johnny said that he had found my tube of lipstick sitting on the glasstop stove and put it back in my purse. I instantly knew that Rachel had messed with it. I checked it out and sure enough my close to brand new, expensive, Mary Kay lipstick was not so new looking anymore. I was so frustrated and looked at Rachel and said in an exasperated tone "why can't you leave mommy's things alone?" She said (in an adorable voice I might add) "I sorry mommy" and then in her own exasperated tone of voice said "i a child of god and he sent me here" (the only part of the song that she knows and sings all the time). The timing was perfect!!! Johnny and I just both busted out laughing! Once again...she was saved!

More jungle pics from Alfonso

I received an email from Ryan this morning. He's doing amazing and said that they had 10 investigators at church last week, almost all of which have baptismal dates set! GO ELDER EDMUND & GREENIE COMPANION!! (Ryan hasn't told me his companion's name yet-he's training a greenie)

Ryan also said the following...

"i have some AMAZING pics for you. We found another waterfall. This one is maybe 10-15 feet tall. We climbed all over the place. Its BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!! The pool that the water goes into is WAY deep. people go swimming there. Its super crystal clear. Aww....youre gonna love it. Its in a valley between 2 mountains, and the pathway to get down to it is WAY steep and muddy, and you pretty much have to rock climb down the cliff to get there. It was so fun!!!"

He also found a really tall bridge in the middle of nowhere and thought it looked kinda cool so he stopped and took some pics and then took a pic of a coconut tree in front of the setting sun.

He said..."ahhh....paradise, in tagalog, i would say something like "ANG GANDE NG PARAISO NITO!!!!" that just really describes how i feel about that area"

Cream on the bum-bum!

Anyone who knows Rachel, knows that the girl goes non-stop! It's one thing after another. She is so much like her big brother Ryan was when he was her age. She definitely keeps me running, which isn't so easy these last few weeks of my pregnancy, ugggh!! Her latest antic included a tube of Lansinoh ointment that I purchased in preparation for the new baby. I was practicing the piano and heard her yell something from her bedroom. I'm thinking..."wasn't she just on the couch watching Between the Lions"? Anyway, I headed to her bedroom only to find that she had locked the door. Not a good sign! I got a key and went in to find her standing in the baby's crib with the opened tube of Lansinoh and she was looking quite shiny and her room stunk to high heaven (hence the locked door-she likes to hide to poo-poo). She then wiped her fingers on her backside and said "i put cream on the bum-bum! First this cream is for soreness from breastfeeding (not for bottoms) and second she was wiping it on her pants, not her bare bum (which of course is a good thing considering she was poopy). It's a good thing that she is so darn cute and has the sweetest smile, cause i tell you what...that's the only thing that saved the girl, hahaha! I only wish I had thought to take a picture of her while she was so nice and shiny!

BAD DOGGIE!!!!

Our dog Rylie hasn't been feeling well the last few days and has just been kinda moping around. She is not supposed to be on the furniture but I caught her in the act, as you can see from the incriminating photos I took. She does not look like she cares one bit about the rules. I'm glad that she's feeling better, but rules are rules!

Paradise

Here are some pictures of Ryan's new area, Alfonso (paradise) in the Philippines...The absolutely gorgeous mountainous jungle area where Ryan is now serving.Ryan feeding a cow (in the middle of nowhere) some yummy leaves that were just out of his reach.
The smallest volcano in the world(it's the first small mountain in the middle of the lake)

I guess all missionaries look alike :)

Last night we were at church for the Cub Scout Pack meeting and I took Rachel out of the meeting to get her a drink from the water fountain. The missionaries were standing in the hallway with their white shirts, ties, nametags and backpacks and Rachel saw them. She immediately pointed to the tall one and said "Ryan". I just started laughing. I had to explain to the missionaries that her big brother "Ryan" is also serving a mission and that we have shown her his picture quite a bit since she was just a baby so that she would know who he is when he comes home. I can't believe he has less than 6 months. I can't wait for him to come home. He left on his mission when Rachel was four months old and will come home to Jacob Isaac who will be four months old. Weird! Here's the picture she always sees of Ryan. It's my desktop picture.

Elder Edmund's New Area -District Leader

Hello everyone from ALFONSO!!!! actually right now i'm in manila again for my once a week therapy. Oh mom, it's everything i could have imagined. I'm in paradise!!!! We go tracting in the jungle, and teach people in houses made of bamboo and palm tree leaves!!! It's pure mountains, and we hike long trails to get to houses, and it's farms everywhere of corn, sweet potato, pineapple, rice, bananas, and even coffee trees. It's AMAZING!!!! There is this beautiful river in our area that we found the other day while we were tracting, and it's in the valley of some mountains. It has a huge deep pool that little kids were swimming in, and it's CLEAN!!!!!!!!! I'm soo excited everybody in case you couldn't tell. I love it out here. And yes, it's cold. at night it probably gets into the 60's. during the day it is in the lower to mid 70's maybe. IT FEELS GREAT!!! I'm gonna buy a long sleeve shirt for working in the evenings. It's gonna be really sweet. Ok in other news, I saw Elder Bednar last monday. i shook his hand too!!!! It was cool. We had a mission tour, and his "lesson" ... we had an open forum!!! We could ask him questions and stuff, and it was really cool. I never got to ask my question, but it got answered. It was soooo sweet!!!!!!!!!!!! Anyway. I don't really know what else to say. It's fun, the branch loves me already, and umm....no i didn't find my camera. I bought a new "pirated" camera at greenhills earlier. It was much cheaper. I withdrew from my savings again. Sorry mom...i won't lose this camera. I bought a little cord to tie it to the inside of my bag, and it will never be stolen. I also tie that pocket of my backpack shut so it will make it a lot harder to get in. I'll realize that something is up before they get all the stuff untied. And i'll never put it in my pocket again either. that was my biggest mistake. ARGHHHH!!!!!!!!! this is my 4th camera now!!! All well. Thats life. I'll be able to send pics next week. I'll be taking a lot of them of all the sweet places this week. Including the volcano, and the lake, and that river i told you about, and the jungles that we walk through, and the farms, and all of that great stuff. I got some new pants made too. brown...they are pretty sweet. I got them brown so they would hide the mud. My shoes are already thrashed. we walk for MILES daily, and I LOVE IT!!! my knee gets sore, but MAN!!! I'm walking in the middle of a rainforest!!!!!!! it's sooo awesome. i can't even describe it well enough. It makes me want to buy a house there when I get older and go on vacation there all the time. Housing is cheap, so its a good possibility. Especially if i fly for Philippine Airlines. That would be so sweet!!! anyway. So we had a baptism last week. not a biggy for me since i never taught her before. My district here has 4 sisters and 4 elders in it. It's fun. they baptize a lot, so i always have interviews. Its a 2 hour bus ride to get from my area to the farthest area in my district. its about 3 hours to get to the zone leaders area. CRAZY!!! everything is so far away...thats why i have a cell phone now. We had interviews with president howard on monday too. He told me that i'm the elder he trusted and would turn to when he was in a rough spot. It was amazing, because it was prophecy of Pres. LeSueur fulfilled. he told me that a long time ago, that one day i would be the elder the president could turn to for help. I almost cried in the interview. It was so spiritual. I really like president Howard. In the interview, he said he would pay the fare for my therapy since he is the one that put me in the farthest area of the mission. My p-day is changed to thurs while i get therapy, and he told me when i'm here in manila to do something fun. So i asked him if i could go and get the camera. he told me yes of course. he said i could do whatever i wanted. I might try to go to see some of the sights if i can in the following weeks. the zoo, the war forts, etc. I'll ask him again if i can do that just to be sure. I'm so excited mom. I wish you could see the area. It's the most beautiful place i've ever seen. And the people are nicer. There just aren't nearly as many. It makes it harder, but it's a lot of fun. I love all of you guys so much and I miss you. tell sam i said thanks for emailing me. I can't believe shes off to BYU. I thought she was younger than that. And about the house i would have to say WAG which is tagalog for don't i dunno why...it's just weird. i don't want to come back to a different setting. It would just...well suck. Plus, you won't be close to me anymore when i live in sister morgans house at walnut. Those 2 houses aren't close at all. But eh...i'm not in charge :) Well, i dunno what else to say. I'm just living it up while i can. President mentioned some things that made me think that i won't be there very long. I'd like to finish my mission there, but i doubt it. I only have 6 months left...it could still happen. He wants to make me a Zone Leader is what he told me in the interview. I begged with him to let me stay for a little while in Alfonso. And i told him to try to make sure i stayed out of the city. i don't want to come back to manila...i've had enough experience there. Anyway....i think thats about it for this week. I don't really have anything else. I just want to send pics. I'm off to my therapy now....I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Love,
Ryan

Breaking Dawn

OH MY GOSH! What an awesome book! I predicted to a friend of mine after I finished the 3rd book that Bella would get pregnant. I guess being a mom of almost 8, I really wanted her character to be able to experience that human aspect. My friend and I discussed it and were just not quite sure how it could happen. Stephanie Meyer is amazing and didn't let me down! I won't say anymore for those of you who haven't read it yet. I can't wait for the movie in December. If you're planning on attending the opening night, let me know. Maybe we can get enough people to fill an entire theatre and have it all to ourselves.

So Blessed!!

We are so blessed! I sure love Sundays! I'm so grateful to have a day where we can just slow down and spend time together as a family away from the craziness of everyday life! Yesterday was just a quiet day of going to church and enjoying testimony meeting. I sang a special musical number right before the bearing of testimonies. It's a moving song called One by One. That was my testimony for the day. After church we went to a picnic at the park. Ashley works at Chick-fil-a and they had their work picnic yesterday. We debated whether or not to go since it was the Sabbath, but ultimately decided that we would not be breaking the Sabbath as no one was going to be doing any work and it was a wonderful opportunity to meet Ashley's employer. We weren't disappointed. He's a really nice man and has good christian values and very family oriented. I guess that's what makes him a great employer. We love that the restaurant is closed on Sundays too. Anyway, he spoke highly of Ashley and her great work ethic and told us that we were raising a wonderful daughter. He told Kayla that he would be looking forward to her coming to work for him as well. WAY TO GO ASHLEY! It's nice to see the fruits of your labors once in awhile. It makes it well worth the effort!

Idiot Drivers

Okay...what is up with idiot drivers who break the law and then act like you're the one who did something wrong? Oh my gosh! Tonight on the way to take Johnathan to a scout swimming activity there was a ton of traffic on Rock Quarry Road because of the Jonas Brothers concert. When I was pulling out of his scout leader's neighborhood (thanks to a nice driver who left a big gap so I could get out and turn left into the turning lane)a minivan almost creamed me. He came out of nowhere (speeding I might add) and was driving in the turning lane passing all of the stand still traffic. Mind you, he had his left blinker on but there was nowhere to turn left. He was just trying to get past everyone else. Luckily I was proceeding with caution and saw him at the last second. I slammed on my breaks and he only barely slowed down and then proceeded to look straight at me as he continued past me and cocked his fingers like they were a gun and mimicked shooting me. I was horrified!!!! I mean good grief...he was the one breaking the stinking law. Not to mention I had my 3 youngest children in the car who witnessed him shooting me. What is wrong with people? Sorry...I just had to vent!

Blog Bandwagon

Okay...so I decided to finally jump on the blog bandwagon. I have blog addresses for several friends and although I don't have time to peruse them very often, when I do, they're so cool. What a neat way to stay in touch. So...now you can keep up with the Edmund's! I can't say how up-to-date it will be because the kids are out of school for the summer and shortly after they go back we will welcome Jacob to our family. I'm pretty sure I won't have a lot of down time to play with my blog and I don't really know what I'm doing anyway. Oh well...I guess you get to see the work in progress.