Resolutions Revisited

Back in January 2013 I set a few New Years Resolutions.

• Finish my BYU class by April 1st (after I order an extension it will be due on May 3rd)
• Go to the doctor about the warts on my foot and get them removed
• Read The Book of Mormon
• Pick a pediatrician
• Have a baby
• Survive

I finished what will be my last BYU class (at least for the foreseeable future) back in March. After Emma was born I decided to order another class, but ended up withdrawing from it. I decided that right now there were other, more useful skills that I could be learning and using rather than continuing on with my Bachelors degree. It was really hard to make that choice, but now that I'm not facing the deadline of a class I find myself happier and less stressed out. I don't feel guilty now when I take a day and just spend it enjoying time with Emma--I don't feel like there is something hanging over my head. 

I read The Book of Mormon, finishing a few days before Emma was born. 

I picked a stellar pediatrician. I love love love her. Thanks Marissa for the recommendation. Dr B is the best! 

Emma was born. Right on her due date. While Dr S was in Mexico. 

And I'd say I survived. I may have a cold and be feeling a little lousy right now, but I definitely am alive! I have my days where I feel like a truck ran me over, especially when Emma had her ear infection, but I'm doing pretty good now that we're past that.

I even went to the doctor about the warts on my foot, but she didn't want to remove them til Emma was older. Something about my body needing more time after having a baby for hormones to level out, and that until they leveled out more the warts would probably just come back.

Stay tuned for the 2014 resolutions, once I figure out what they are :)

Lately

The last three weeks have been pretty miserable here at our house. Emma stopped sleeping well, and started crying all the time. It seemed like she could've been teething, but then at her 6 month well child appointment we found out she had an ear infection. 10 days of Amoxicillin didn't clear it up, so as soon as the doctors office opened after the weekend (she finished the amoxicillin Friday night) we headed in and sure enough, her ear is still infected. She's now 3 1/2 days into her Augmentin script. So far I haven't noticed a difference. She still wakes up about 4-5 times a night, tugs at her ears, and is super clingy. This means I haven't had a decent night sleep in over 3 weeks, have had a near constant headache for three weeks, and am feeling pretty crappy overall.

Here are her 6 month stats:

Weight: 16 lbs 15 oz (68th percentile)

Height: 25.75 in (50th percentile)

and less than 2 weeks later when she went back she weighed 17 lbs 4 oz (and they didn't tell me a percentile for that)

She LOVES her exersaucer, her stacking cups, all of her giraffe toys, and her stuffed monkey. She's a big fan of carrots and apples, not a fan of peas. 

This face is just hilarious. I wish the picture was a little more clear, and that the leaf wasn't covering her eye, but it makes me laugh every time I see it.

This was a day or two before we found out her ear was infected.

Same day, a few hours later.

Waiting for the nurse to come give Emma all her shots at her 6 month appointment. 

Having lots of fun with her stacking cups

This was after she had started meds... 

Emma started sticking her tongue out a lot. It's super cute.

Our little turkey on Thanksgiving!

There's that cute tongue!

25

*I started this post 2 1/2 weeks ago, when it was the day after my birthday... since then Emma got sick and life got turned upside down as she stopped sleeping all of a sudden! Expect more posts soon!*

Yesterday was my birthday. I turned 25. It was a fantastic day-- my visiting teachers took me out to brunch, Chris took me out to dinner, and Emma took two decent naps! I didn't do any dishes (except cleaning Emma's bottles... I can't skip that) and I only did one batch of laundry (we needed our whites done...)

In honor of my 25th birthday, here are 25 factoids about me, some that you may know... others that you may not.

1. I love tootsie rolls. A friend in my ward has five kids, and last year after Halloween she complained that nobody in her house liked tootsie rolls so after all the other candy was eaten they just had a big bucket of tootsie rolls left. I told her I love them. On Sunday at church she told me to come over to her house and pick up all their tootsie rolls. Yesterday I went and picked up the candy, they are so tasty!

2. A friend introduced me to Vanilla Dr Pepper (from Sonic). It's my new favorite drink when I need a hit of caffeine. I just wish that I could buy Vanilla DP in a can at the grocery store. Good thing Sonic isn't that far away.

3. I love Harry Potter. A week ago we started watching the movies again, and after I finish the few books that I'm working on right now I'm going to start reading the books again. I can't wait for Emma to be old enough for us to read them to her.

4. I love Sea World. I love the sea lion show. And Shamu! And oh man, I love to go through the "coral reef" (aquarium) which Emma loves. The penguins house is awesome too, but it does stink. We went to Sea World on Saturday as part of my birthday celebration. We had a BLAST!

5. One of my favorite games is Ticket to Ride. We don't own the actual game (it's kind of expensive and has lots of pieces) but we have the iPad version. For my birthday I got the Switzerland map, and so far have really enjoyed playing it. The actual board game would be fun to have someday, but it sure is quick to play on the iPad, since it doesn't require any set up and it does all the scorekeeping for you. This is also why I love Monopoly and The Game of Life on the iPad.

6. At the beginning of October (or maybe this was back in September sometime) I withdrew from the BYU class I was taking. It was poorly written and the professor was in the process of completely rewriting the class. I decided not to sign up for another class for a while (aka, I don't know when/if I will). Instead I thought of lots of other skills that I wanted to learn. So far I've done a few crafty projects, starting making Emma's fruit/veggie purees, and started learning about canning. I don't have the equipment to do canning, nor do I have the space to do much of it (we have super limited cupboard space) but someday not too far away (hopefully) we want to buy a house and will then have some more space. I hope then to do some canning!

7. I LOVE having my toe nails painted. I never have my finger nails painted (they chip too much) but I always like to have my toenails a fun color. Right now they're a pretty pink!

8. One of the crafty things I've been working on lately are File Folder Games. I started them over a year ago, but then I got pregnant and didn't really feel like working on them. So far I think I have seven completely done. They take a while to make, they require lots of coloring, cutting, laminating, cutting again, and attaching velcro. I have a bunch of games printed, just waiting for me to do all the other steps. I like to do this while we watch tv at night.

9. After Emma was born I discovered that Hulu Plus had 20 seasons of The Amazing Race. I know I have seen some episodes here and there (especially with Paul and Jeanne years ago), but since Emma was born I've watched seasons 1-6, and then I introduced the show to Chris. We've watched 3 other seasons together. This is one of my new favorite shows. It actually makes me want to travel.

10. I've never owned a curling iron. I'm thinking I might want to change that sometime... maybe.

11. My Amazon wishlist is way smaller than my "wishlist of things for Emma". It's WAY more fun to look through the toys/books and pick things out for Emma!

12. When Emma was 3 months old I found out that our next door neighbor (not the ones we share a wall with) had a baby the day before Emma was born. Her baby is also a girl. They're hardly ever home since she and her husband both work lots of crazy hours otherwise I would totally try to have our girls get together for play dates.

13. We had a free Redbox code the other day. We chose to rent Montser's University even though there were a ton of action/comedy movies to choose from too. Likewise, for my birthday I got Wreck-it-Ralph and I just watched it. I would rather watch a fun animated movie than most other movies lately.

14. I've been loving fruit smoothies recently. My favorite is 1 large banana, 1.5 cups Strawberries, 1 cup Pineapple chunks, 1/2 cup vanilla yogurt. YUMMO. I make this smoothie often for breakfast. Or for a snack in the afternoon.

15. My ward just started up a book club. After picking our first book (for January) I ordered the book from amazon off my phone (while I was still at book club) and it came on Saturday. I finished it Saturday night. And now I've already read the sequel and am upset that the third and final book in the trilogy doesn't come out til May. What am I supposed to do? I'm so curious about what will happen!

16. I'm working on a quiet book for Emma. I know she's only 6 months old, but by the time I get it done (in forever and a half) she'll probably be ready for it. I'll do a whole post about this after Christmas once I get a chance to have my mom help me with some of the pages. I'm getting some sewing lessons from her!

17. I love soup. Broccoli Cheese soup in particular. And specifically now the one from Our Best Bites. It is delicious, and I want to eat it every day.

18. I have a goal to be like my friend Sarah and completely give up fast food. She's been off fast food for years now, and I think that is AWESOME. I'd also like to be like her and give up pop/soda/whatever you call it. I think I'd even be willing to give up Vanilla Dr Pepper.

19. I like doing yoga. I don't do it often enough, and I don't do it at a yoga studio, I do it at home. There is an awesome Bob Harper yoga dvd, and I love Jillian Michael's yoga dvd too. Amazon Prime Instant Watch has a ton of Jillian Michaels workouts and I've been working through some of those lately. I need to shake things up a bit and try some new things because working out gets boring in the winter here when it's too cold to go on walks.

20. I'm obsessed with Food Network. This probably isn't much of a surprise. But I love it. There are so many shows on that channel that I just love! I could watch a Chopped marathon all day and be in heaven! I am disappointed that Paula Deen got the boot from them, but I'm learning to deal with it.

21. One of my favorite movies is 27 Dresses. I really like James Marsden in it. A lot. And Katherine Heigl.

22. A dog kept getting into our yard recently and I was disappointed when the Animal Control guy wouldn't take it. Then I wasn't as disappointed when my next door neighbor realized it WAS his dog, which he denied earlier. I'll have to write a whole post about this, it was kinda funny but mostly irritating.

23. I used to hate socks. Now that I have some awesome Nike running shoes I am learning to not hate socks anymore. Apparently I just needed fun shoes to learn to like socks.

24. I could eat a whole batch of muddy buddies in one day. There is just something about that combination of peanut butter, chocolate chips, powdered sugar, and rice chex. Oh man just thinking about them makes me want them very badly.

25. Coming up with 25 things about me is super hard. I probably shouldn't do a post like this ever again.

Five Months!

Today my baby is FIVE months old! Wow, time has gone by so quickly!!

I have no idea what she weighs, although I'd say she's around 16 lbs now! She's getting so big! She is wearing 6-9 month pajamas (her thighs are too big for the 3-6 month ones now) and sometimes wears other 6-9 month clothes too! She's a pro at eating rice cereal, and not a fan of oatmeal cereal. I need to take the time to make some veggie purees for her to see how she likes them, maybe that will be my next post.

Emma was so excited for some cereal! 

Emma loves to look at the colorful pictures in books, we spend time reading each day!

Emma has mastered rolling over... not just from her back to her tummy, but she just keeps going! A few days ago she rolled over and grabbed the remote control and started pushing buttons. She managed to turn on the playstation3, so I laughed and sent a picture to Chris. He suggested I pull out one of our "extra" remotes (we use a universal remote control, so remotes that come with a device end up in a box) and let her play with it. Emma's new favorite toy is her PS3 remote!

Yesterday I said "let's take a picture for daddy!" and she flashed me this smile!
She loves this giraffe that her Aunt Kristi made her!

This picture is from this morning. She loves this giraffe as well.
Basically... Emma LOVES giraffes.

Four Months

4 Month Stats:

Weight: 15 lbs
Height: 24.25 inches

Emma LOVES her Sophie giraffe!

Look at those thighs :)

 Emma figured out how to roll from her back to her tummy. At first she would freak out and scream every single time because she couldn't get back onto her back... but she's getting better at holding her head up and now she doesn't hate it as much! This past week she has suddenly figured out how to roll from her tummy to her back, but sometimes her arms get in the way and make it really hard for her. She still screams sometimes from her crib because she'll pin herself up against the railing and have nowhere to roll.

Emma has gotten better at holding her head up!

Emma flashes this smile all the time now!

Emma got to start eating solids after her 4 month appointment. So far she's only had rice cereal, we're still working on swallowing.

At 4 months Emma had to say "see ya later" to one of her bff's who was moving. Our good friends moved to Houston this past weekend. These two pictures are from the day I went to help them pack. Emma is 2 months younger than her friend, but definitely weighs more! Just like she was supposed to, Emma cried when her friend left, although the nasty poopy diaper she had may have contributed to her tears. We were so sad for our friends to leave, but are excited for them to have a new adventure. They'll be back sometime this month to get their stuff out of storage, and we hope to hit up Sea World with them while they're here! We're also starting to plan our first trip to Houston!

pictures

I finally got the chance to spend some time figuring out what was wrong with my phone... and though I didn't completely solve the problem I found a pretty easy work-around. So here is a post with pictures and few words! Emma doesn't really look at cameras anymore, so she's normally looking at me and I'm trying not to let her see that I have my phone out to take a picture.

I love sitting in my Bumbo chair... most of the time!

Headbands

Today we had Stake Conference. Miriam (my mother-in-law) had been asking for pictures of Emma in her dresses, with headbands on. Emma doesn't particularly like to have anything in her hair, or on her head, so I very rarely put them on her. I thought that I would at least put a headband on long enough to take a picture. For some reason this particular day she didn't take it off immediately.

Once Emma and I sat down on the pew at church it was a different story. I had her laying down on the pew while I fixed a bottle for her, and then all of a sudden she started screaming. I looked down and this was what I saw:

This is probably the funniest position she could possibly have gotten the headband in.

Chris was stuck working from home because of some major network issue that happened the night before, so I had to snap a picture really quick and send it to him. I am so glad that I captured this picture. After taking the picture I pulled the headband off and she was happy throughout Stake Conference.

Pictureless Post

I still need to figure out the setting that will make it so pictures taken on my phone will sync to my computer, so no pictures today, sorry.

Emma stopped sleeping through the night a few weeks ago, so we get to spend a good chunk of time between 3-4 together each morning. As much as I would LOVE to get a solid nights sleep, she is so cute and happy when you go in to get her out of her crib in the mornings. I just can't be upset with her for waking up when she flashes that smile at me!

Emma also stopped smiling when I pull my phone out. So she isn't quite as much fun for FaceTime because she won't smile at you, and she also won't really talk when the phone is out either. I can sometimes get her to ignore the phone during bathtime and she'll still smile and talk.

Yesterday she woke up from a nap and started screaming bloody murder. I ran into her room and found that she had rolled over onto her tummy, and she was NOT very happy about that. As soon as I helped her flip herself over she was fine. Apparently we need to work on tummy time a little better to see if she'll calm down. When I put her down in her crib, if she's tired at least, she automatically rolls onto her side. I knew it was only a matter of time before she'd flip over. Maybe next time she won't absolutely hate it.

We can't go to the grocery store without someone stopping to look in the cart at her. I realized it's best to avoid the grocery store when the retirement home busses are there... way too many people stop to look at the baby. It's cute, but it sure makes shopping take longer, and I am not a big fan of strangers touching her feet, which they all think is okay to do.

Emma loves to hold onto things and bring them up to her mouth. Yesterday a pacifier was next to her on the floor and she grabbed it and held on to it for about 10 minutes before she tried to get it in her mouth. After a few attempts she gave up and just decided to hold it. She fell asleep with it in her hand. I love when she falls asleep on a blanket on the floor or on her playmat. 

Yesterday she was super cranky. I put her in her swing, which is next to my piano. I sat and played some primary songs and sang along with them. She started smiling and cooing. I think the combination of the primary songs and the swing is a genius combination. If only the swing was small enough that I could take it to church and put her in it during primary. Last Sunday she screamed through half of primary, it was great. 

I've mentioned screaming a bit... Emma has realized that she can scream. So she does. Often. I should probably invest in a big case of Dr. Pepper to help the headaches go away as she screams at me. If only she would fall asleep when I know she's starting to get tired, then we may be able to avoid some of the screams. 

Emma

Because I don't really keep a journal separate from my blog I thought I should post these updates on Emma somewhere! She's almost 3 months now, but at her two month check up she was 11 lbs 10 oz (70th percentile) and I don't remember how tall, but she was 50% for height. She had to get a ton of shots, and boy oh boy did she scream like crazy. It was kind of funny though, as soon as the lady let go of Emma's leg she stopped screaming and started smiling. Emma hates having her feet/legs held down.

Emma is pretty much the happiest baby ever. Unless she's hungry or if you're holding her feet down-then she'll scream at you until she gets fed or you let go of her feet! She loves to talk. She absolutely loves her play mat still, and will lay on it and stare at her little duck toy for a few minutes. She recently realized that she can hold onto its feet, and occasionally even pulls his legs down (if you pull him down, he shakes). She smiles really big when he shakes back up, but tries to get his feet into her mouth. This is a picture of it, in case my horrible description hasn't helped you figure out what I'm talking about.

Lately when I put her in her carseat to go somewhere she gets really smiley, which is crazy because I think I would hate being strapped into a carseat. She often falls asleep in the car, although when I turned on a Backstreet Boys cd the other day she cried until I turned it off. Apparently I have an Nsync fan?

She LOVES her swing! When Chris's parents were in town for her blessing they got her a swing, and holy cow is it fantastic! It turns so it can swing side to side or front to back. It has some songs and some sounds that it makes, and it has an awesome monkey mobile.

While they were here we also got season passes to Sea World. In the last month (since we got the passes) we've gone at least 3 times, but I think we're at 4 now. We like to watch the Sea Lion show, watch the dolphins and go into the aquarium exhibit. I put her in her stroller without her carseat for the first time last time we went to sea world and she was in heaven. I pushed the stroller right up to a big fish tank and she looked around and was smiling. I don't know how good her vision is or how far away from herself she can see things for reals, but she seemed to really like looking around. We haven't seen a Shamu show yet, but hopefully we'll see one of those later this month when we go. We're also going to explore the water park there sometime before it closes for the season.

Emma's favorite time of day is probably bath time. She loves to kick her legs in the water and is just figuring out that she can splash with her hands as well! One of her least favorite parts of the day is getting into her pajamas after bath time. Not sure if she hates pjs or if she just hates that bathtime is over. When we take her into the bathroom for her bath she starts smiling. I put her towel down on the floor, put her on the towel and then get the tub ready. Once she hits the towel she starts grinning, and then will flash you even bigger smiles once you start taking off her onesie. I'm hoping she'll love playing in water/swimming as much as she likes bathtime, it's really too hot here during the summer to not spend a bunch of time doing water activities, I'm already excited for next summer!

Emma comes to Primary with me on Sundays now. I don't know how but she tends to sleep through at least parts of junior primary, and smiles when senior primary sings. I have a cd of the songs that will be in the primary program this year and I stuck it in my car. I like to turn it on when she's freaking out in the car.

She's almost outgrown her 0-3 month clothes which makes me kind of sad because she has some super cute clothes in those sizes. We do have a bunch of cute 3-6 month stuff too, but her 0-3 stuff has been just so fun! She's also pretty much grown out of size 1 diapers. I probably should've switched her to size 2 by now, but I'm working on finishing an open pack of size 1s, unless she has a blowout in the next few days.

She still has a ton of hair. I was thinking it would've started falling out by now, but it's still pretty crazy hair. One side of her head has thinned out a bit, and it's thinning a TINY bit in the back from her rubbing her head back and forth, but she's still got awesome hair. We like to play with it when it's wet after bathtime but no matter what we do with it there is just no good way to control it.

We recently changed the settings on our phones so for some reason right now the pictures I've taken on my phone aren't showing up on my laptop, so I don't have any super recent pictures to share right now... so these ones are at least a few weeks old, but you deserve photos if you've read all the stuff above.

Her Halloween pajamas! We love these pajamas and I will be so sad when she grows out of them :(

I love the way she has her hand, and the smile!

Don't you just want to squeeze those cheeks?!?!?

Love this face. She didn't find me very amusing!

Her staring at her duck!

What was I thinking?

I had every intention of blogging again soon after my last post. Life is kinda crazy though. I apologize in advance for typos, I'm writing this post on my phone and it's a little tricky.

The night before her 2 month appointment Emma decided to sleep 8.5 hours straight. Her pediatrician was  super impressed.  Shortly thereafter she started sleeping even longer. My sweet two month old would easily sleep 10 hours (8-6) and then one day it was 8-8. When Chris woke me up to say prayer before he left for work I  made him go in and make sure she was still breathing, she was at 11.5 hours, her record.  Life was fantastic! I was getting tons of sleep, she was taking great naps, and it seemed like I was able to do all sorts of stuff!

Chris and I talked for a while and I decided it was time for me to start my next byu class. Emma was sleeping til 7:30 or 8 consistently, would eat and stay awake for about an hour, then take a 2 hour nap. I felt like this was the perfect time. I could get plenty of sleep and then work during her nap.

Then  two nights ago Emma woke up at 3:30. She was cranky fr a good chunk of the day too because she wouldn't take a good nap. Finally from 2:30-5  she slept and was in a great mood for Chris when he got home from work at 6.  I didn't have the time or the brain capacity to touch my class.  I made sure before I put Emma to sleep that she was nice and full and was hopeful that tonight would be better.

She slept from 8:30-4:40 this time. I was a little disappointed, but then I had to remind myself that her doctor said that at her age they want her to be sleeping 4-6 hours. I had been spoiled by her sleeping 10-12 hours. I'd love it if she'd start spoiling me again so I could function a little better and be able to work on my class.

For  now though I'm wondering why I thought starting my next class was a good idea when Emma isn't even 3 months old...

new calling

I have a few posts that I'm working on right now, hopefully they'll be up this week.

In the meantime, know that I'm brushing up on

because I just got called as the Primary Pianist! I'm so excited, this is one of my dream callings!

I'm also busy practicing some other songs- I'm accompanying the ward choir as they perform this week, trying to figure out the song I need to help them rehearse on Sunday at practice, and struggling over a song for our non-exisistent Women's Choir to perform sometime in September. I've got to make good progress on that song this week though, because by the end of next week my next BYU class will arrive, and then I need to use nap time to do homework not practicing the piano.

Photo Dump

Emma's blessing was this past weekend, and today we dropped the last of our family off at the airport. That said, there is a lot to do to catch up on life... piles of dishes, baskets full of dirty laundry, bathrooms to clean, and some seriously searching to do (other people put things away in my kitchen and now I can't find things... they've got to be somewhere!) so instead of a post with lots of words you get a post of pictures until I have time to write a real post.

Sporting an outfit that her cousin only got to wear once... so far Emma's worn it TWICE! 

Being super cute!

When she sleeps her arms are almost always up like this!

She finally fits in pajamas! This was the first time she wore real pajamas besides the outfit she wore home from the hopsital. These pjs were from my good friend Jessica who went out of town for three weeks. We miss Jessica!

Rocking her "My First Fourth of July" onesie,  smiling at Daddy!

Smiling after a diaper change!

Emma's Blessing Day!

Emma was blessed yesterday, July 7th, by Chris. We were so excited to have my dad, and Chris's parents & little sister here for the occasion! In the circle was Chris, his dad, my dad, our bishop, and our friends Matt, Gary, Thomas, Ryan, and Josh.

Some of these pictures may be duplicates. And not all of them are great. But they are what I have on my computer right now. I have others that were taken by other people that I need to collect still.

Emma's friend Rylee was also blessed yesterday in our ward, and now I wish we had taken a picture of the two girls together!

This blanket is the blanket my grandma made for MY baby blessing, I was excited for my mom to send it down for us! And the dress was made just for Emma by my mom!

When all else fails...

...put her on the playmat.

This playmat was one of the first gifts that Emma received. It is from one of her great-grandmas. Last week I decided it was time to get it out, even if she may not be old enough to really enjoy it. I was wrong. She loves this thing. There is a little cat that hangs off of it that is a rattle. I don't know if she intentionally hits it around, but she sure does flail her little arms around and smiles when the cat rattles.

I've also discovered that it doesn't take long on the mat for her to fall asleep. I went to put her down for a nap this morning and she just wouldn't go for it in her crib. I was doing things out in the kitchen so I decided to bring her out to her mat. She played for a few minutes, and then this is what I found:

Totally knocked out. Not even the shredder running for 10 minutes could wake her up

I've got to make sure we send pictures to her great-grandma so she can see how awesome this toy has been.