Birthday festivities

Yesterday was my wonderful honey's birthday! Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of the festivities, but I hope he had a great one. On Saturday, we had a few friends from our old ward over to celebrate. Sunday was the family party (and another family party the previous Sunday). Then on his real birthday, I got up and made him french toast and bacon for breakfast and Emily gave him her present, which was a silly T-shirt with a pizza and an equation on it.

Then Emmy and I went to campus to take a picnic to Matt for lunch. But poor Emmy has been sick this week and she fell asleep on the way to campus (she NEVER does that!) even though it was an hour before her regular nap time. So we had our picnic in the car.

Then after Matt got home from school, we went to Magelby's for his birthday dinner. We had a really great coupon, so we were able to get 2 dinners, salad, bread, an appetizer and dessert for basically the price of one! Our food was so delicious, and we got so much that we brought home 5 boxes worth! Matt got BBQ pulled pork and I got this tasty chicken pasta stuff. And of course we had to get the chocolate cake! It is THE BEST! And thanks to Kyle for babysitting (aka...doing his homework at our house while Emmy was in bed.)

After we got home I gave Matt his presents. I got him a game of Risk because that is his favorite game. I (really my mom) also fixed his favorite pj pants because they had gotten a big rip in the bum. And we hemmed a couple other of his pj pants into the length he likes. And then we went to bed because Matt has also been sick this week.

Anyway, I hope he had a good birthday because he is so great. I am so thankful that he is my honey and that I get to celebrate his birthday with him!

56

56. That's how many articles I have written since I started working at home. Plus I have done 2 huge online projects. Most of my articles are just short, little articles for ehow.com. Some are kind of boring, and others have been fun. The assignments for ehow are based on what people are searching for online, and have to be pretty general and straightforward. Here are a few articles I have written: "LDS Dating Tips", "How to Make a Chinese Dragon", "The Best Practices for Creating Website Roadmaps."

Anyway, let's just say that some assignments are more enjoyable to write than others, and sometimes it's a struggle to find titles I am at least somewhat interested in writing. It always makes me laugh (and sometimes roll my eyes) to see what people are searching for. I prefer to write the longer features that can actually have some personality and depth. But it's a lot harder to get those assignments. But even though some of my assignments are boring, they do help pay the bills and let me stay home with Em, so I can't complain.

Em's new trick

Yesterday morning I went to get Emmy up and found her STANDING UP in her crib. Holy cow! I didn't think she was old enough to do that.

I also found a tooth poking through yesterday. I am going to miss her little gummy smile. But I suppose a little toothy grin will be cute too. This little girl is going to be walking before we know it!

This the shamrock plant that Matt got me for St. Paddy's Day. It's pretty cool. The shamrocks close up at night and then open again in the morning. Maybe I should take up window gardening as a new hobby. :)

Speaking of new hobbies, I have been trying out some new things to keep myself from getting bored. I made this little pillow for my cousin's little girl for her birthday. I think it turned out pretty cute. I actually had everything to make it sitting around the house. I stuffed it with rice though, and poor Lily could barely pick it up! It was pretty heavy. I guess if I ever do another one, I'll have to just use something lighter.

I have made a few more things, but they are gifts for people that I haven't given them yet, so I can't post pictures yet. But I think they are cute!

8 Months!

Emmy is 8 months today! At 8 months she...

-weighs a little over 17 pounds
-is crawling all over the place
-still does not have any teeth
-loves graham crackers & loves to eat anything we are eating. Especially if it's off our fork instead of hers.
-loves books (she will crawl over to her book bin and pull them out and look at me like she wants me to read it to her. And she will actually sit on my lap and look at about 4 books in a row that I read to her.)
-absolutely refused to nurse at all a couple weeks ago, so it's all formula now, and she has graduated to the fast flow bottles. (this cuts feeding time by about 2/3!) She is still on soy formula since the regular stuff still gives her a rash.
-LOVES her daddy. She will start crawling over toward the door when he comes home.
-is sleeping about 13 hours each night with 2 naps during the day (most days anyway...she still struggles with naps sometimes)
-sleeps with her bum way up in the air.
-can say "da-da", "bo-bo", "hey" and "whoa" but I'm sure she has no idea what it means.
-loves to fly and play patty-cake. She even knows when to throw her arms up in the air.
-can't quite get the hang of drinking out of a cup yet.
-loves to take her socks off and play with them.

Kiss me, I'm cute!

Top 'O the Mornin' To Ye! It's my first St. Paddy's Day. I got a cute new shamrock dress and ate beans and peas. I made sure to spit them all over my mommy so she could be wearing green too.

She likes to take my picture, but I like to make it hard for her by not smiling and trying to grab the camera. She tried 52 times, and this is all I would give her. I also had a cute bow on my head, but I took it off and ate it before my mom could take any pictures of me wearing it. Who needs a leprechaun when you can cause so much mischief all by yourself! I may not be Irish, but I sure am stubborn!

At least I have a cute little froggy on my bum. And at least I am cute and get lots of kisses from my mommy even though I'm not Irish.

I thought I'd do a little Irish jig for you to celebrate. It's called the Blarney Crawl. And I didn't even forget to include an authentic Irish belch at the end. I'm just so festive like that.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

And the winner is

Remember when I was trying to choose a bike jersey a few weeks ago? Well, I found some non-race-specific ones online that I liked but I couldn't decide which to get. So I ordered 5 of them so I could see them in person. (I know that is crazy!) But here they all are. I'm going with the green one in the bottom right corner of the picture. And the rest are getting returned. :)

Run for a Cure

We did the Rex Lee Run again this year. It was Em's first race! She did great. She loves her stroller. We tag-teamed the stroller pushing. Thanks to Matt who took his turn on the ginormous hill. :) This race is sponsored by the Cancer Research Center, and all the proceeds go toward future research. We ran in honor of Dad, Grandma & Grandpa L, Grandma B, Grandma S, Grandpa R, and Zac.

Who needs a nap?

Who wants to take a nap when there are so many more fun things to do...like take your socks off and eat them!

This is how I have found Emmy when I go in to get her up from her naps lately. Just sitting up in her crib playing with her socks that she has taken off. It is so funny. Ever since she has learned to crawl, she has been such a hoot. She loves her newfound mobility. And I love watching her discover all the new things she is discovering now. It's amazing to me how fast she has learned just in the past week. She knows she can get stuff by herself now. She can sit up from crawling and go into crawling mode from sitting up. She knows how to get stuff out of containers like her toy basket and her diaper bag. And she knows she can get to me when I'm in the kitchen and she's in the family room. It is so fun to see her learn so fast.

She loves other babies. She must be socially deprived or something. Whenever she sees one, she just lights up and tries to hold their hands. It is so funny! Some other funny things she is doing lately are: whenever she has a cracker, she taps it on the table like she is dipping it in something. She loves to play with her toothbrush and acts like she is brushing her teeth. She turns her cup upside down and shakes it like she is trying to get more out. Anyway, I love that she makes me smile and laugh every day. And even if I'm in a grumpy mood, one smile from her can turn it right around. I am looking forward to even more funny stuff as she discovers more and more.

Thank you!

My friend gave Emmy a whole ton of adorable clothes. This is one of my favorite dresses that she gave us. Thank you!

And she's off!

She started crawling on Wednesday and she has already progressed so much! It's fun to watch her get better and better at it. Last night she beelined for Matt's bag of chips. It was so funny!

Lame and Boring

That is how I feel lately. Anyone have any suggestions on some new hobbies I can pick up?

Although I would not trade Matt and Emily for anything, sometimes I miss the old me. The one who usually had friends and plans and adventures and a social function almost every night of the week. Even though I really don't want my life to be that crazy and busy (and single) again, I do wish sometimes that I had more of a social life.

There is another couple in our ward that we do stuff with sometimes, so that is fun. But I am still finding it hard to make friends here. I tried taking Emily to our ward playgroup, but that was a complete disaster because Emily was by far the youngest kid there and she was scared because all the other kids were screaming and yelling. And the other moms didn't even really seem to be too interested in talking with each other...they just played with the kids. Which I thought that talking with and supporting the other moms was the whole point of having those things. I guess not for this one. I have also tried taking her to storytime at the library and I just feel ridiculous because again she is the youngest and most of the other kids are like 2 or 3.

It just seems like most of the things I enjoy doing involve having friends or leaving the house. So I need to find new hobbies. Something I can be good at and enjoy doing.

I know I'm probably the most terrible mother for saying this but sometimes I feel so guilty when I hear my friends talk about how wonderful motherhood is and how much they love it and can't see themselves doing anything else and how it's the best thing of their life. I am just not like that. I don't gush and goo over motherhood. What is wrong with me? I love my baby and think she's the cutest thing ever, and I enjoy being a mom some of the time, but I also enjoy doing other things. I guess I just haven't "gotten it" yet. I'm still trying to work on that.

But I am very grateful that we were able to find a way for me to be home with Emily. I am grateful that I don't have to miss out on watching her grow and develop. Like how yesterday she started crawling. It was so cute, she was so rocky and shaky but also so determined to get across the room. And I'm grateful that I get to be the one who will tell her what she was like as a baby. And that is worth being bored. And she is getting more and more fun, so that is encouraging.

But I still feel lame and boring.

Beach?

Anyone ready for the beach? Me!

Too bad we have to wait til June to go. (And it looks like we'll have to get Emmy a new swimsuit before then.) I guess we'll just have to work on our volleyball skills in the meantime.

And getting rid of our muffin tops. :) Here is Emmy's new favorite toy...

She loves it! Even though she still doesn't have any teeth.