Monday, April 25, 2011

Happy Easter

Happy Easter! Emily got this cute dress from my friend Jill clear back at her baby shower. She finally (almost) fits into it, so I decided to break it out for her Easter dress. It has cute little sandals that match it, but those are still way too big.

 Em wasn't too happy about this photo shoot, so I didn't get any good shots. Oh well. At least she is still cute!



 And here are the two pretty girls! (and Emmy's bunny.)

Em made sure to share her Easter dinner with the dog, steal some of Daddy's strawberry cake for dessert, and climb up Grandma Lively's stairs. It was a very busy day.

The Basket

 Look what the Easter Bunny brought to our house!

 (Please disregard the mismatched clothing.)

Emmy got some cereal-filled eggs, some books, and a couple things to prepare for summer and our trip to California.

 She was not too sure about those sunglasses!

Instead of an Easter dress, Emmy got a new swimsuit. I figured she had a few dresses already, but what she really needed was a swimsuit. Unfortunately I think I will have to take it back and get her a different one because although it fits ok now, I think it will be too small before summer gets here.

The Eggs


Coloring eggs is one of my favorite traditions!

 We take it very seriously. :)

Monday, April 18, 2011

SLC Bike Tour


On Saturday, we did the SLC Bike Marathon for the 4th year in a row. It is a 25-mile bike tour through Salt Lake and some of the surrounding cities. It was kind of scary at the beginning because it was dark and raining. I hate the first 4 miles or so anyway because it's dark and crowded, but the rain made it worse. But we all finished without any accidents, so I'd call that a success!

Here are Nathan and Jessica coming in at the finish line.

And here are Matt and I at the finish. Good thing it stopped raining, or it could have gotten ugly! Only 3 more weeks til my Goldilocks race!

9 Months

Our little Emmy is 9 months today! At 9 months, she...

-weighs 17 lbs, 13 oz. (30th percentile)
-is 28 inches tall (70th percentile)
-has a head size of 42 cm (5th percentile)
-crawls all over
-can pull herself up to stand
-can pick things up with her fingers
-can say dada, mama, hey, bobo, hat (although she doesn't know what they mean)
-knows what a ball, cup, frisbee and her bunny are
-loves stories
-loves to go outside and on stroller rides
-is scared of the swings at the park
-sleeps about 13 hours at night, and takes 2-3 naps
-loves to be turned upside down
-waves her arms around if she doesn't want something
-has a hard time sleeping at other people's houses (hopefully this gets better before we go on vacation!)
-hates it when people leave the room she is in
-likes to chase her ball around
-can't make it through church without spitting up on the floor and a hymnbook
-sucks on her two middle fingers as she is going to sleep
-gives "kisses" and sometimes when we are reading a story, she has to kiss every page
-has 1 1/2 teeth

Friday, April 15, 2011

The baby spike

Sometimes I am at a loss for what to do with Em's hair. It's getting to that weird stage where it's long enough that if I don't do anything with it, she looks like a ragamuffin, but still not long enough to do ponytails and stuff. Usually I don't care unless we are going somewhere and then I just throw a headband on her head to hide the sgragglies. But today I tried the baby spike. It turned out more like a fountain since the ends curl up. But it worked!



Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Expired

I was writing an article today about passports, and I was reminded that mine expires soon. So I checked and my passport expires TODAY! I am really sad about it. I think I shouldn't have to get a new one until I fill up the old one! I love looking at all the stamps in it, and now I have to start all over. I'm pretty sure I won't be traveling internationally nearly as much in the next 10 years as I have in the past 10 years. This passport has taken me to Australia, New Zealand, China, Argentina (twice), Uruguay, Costa Rica, Canada, Mexico (a few times), Aruba, Curacao, St. Thomas and St. Marteen. And not to mention my visas for Argentina and China. Those are pretty cool.

At least my Reefs are (mostly) still in tact. They have been with me to all those places as well. :) And one of these days it is my goal to completely fill up my passport before it expires.

Monday, April 11, 2011

Engaged

My brother Nathan recently got engaged. When he was thinking about how to propose, my sister had a dream that he proposed using a Powerpoint presentation. So she called him to make sure he was not going to do that, and he said, "Oh that's a GREAT idea!" So we were all nervous that he was going to propose with his laptop in hand. We all tried to talk him out of it. I told him that when a girl announces that she is engaged, the first question asked is, "Can I see the ring?" and the second question is, "How did he propose?" I told him that poor Jessica should not have to go through the rest of her life telling people that he proposed with a Powerpoint. Luckily he didn't end up doing that.

But the funny part was that when he brought her over to my parents' house to tell everyone they were engaged, the first question everyone asked was, "Can I see the ring?" and the second was (of course), "How did he propose?". Ha! I love it when I'm right!  And even my 82-year-old grandma had to tell the story of when she was proposed to. So my point is, girls tell this story for their whole lives, so you boys better make it a good story to tell!

Luckily, mine was a good story that I still love to tell. Read all about it here. And congrats to Nathan and Jessica!

P.S. The way he DID propose was he took her to their favorite spot out by the lake, read her some lines from her favorite play, Persuasion, and "persuaded her to marry him" and then he told her that he had a star named after her that is some Hebrew name for Little Shepherdess.

Students

Last week I was able to attend the annual BYUSA end-of-the-year luncheon. It is a time when we get to recognize the growth of the students we have worked with throughout the year. Even though I don't work at BYU anymore, I was so happy that I got invited anyway. After all, I did work with them for 2/3 of the year. Anyway, it was fun to see everyone and see how much they have learned and grown during their year of service.

Then I decided that I really wanted to see some of my favorite former students that I worked with throughout the years. Especially the ones who are graduating this semester and moving away. So I invited them over for lunch on Saturday. It was really fun. I am so grateful for the chance I had to work with them and see them grow and be successful. I really learned so much from them. I"m sure I learned way more from them than they ever learned from me! I loved hearing about all the things going on in their lives every day. I'm excited for them to graduate and move on. They have so many exciting opportunities ahead of them. Anyway, I"m glad I got to see most of them one more time before they take off.

It's kind of sad that I probably won't know anyone anymore if I go in to visit my old office. There isn't even anyone left in my area who even knew me or what we did. I guess that's just the nature of working on a college campus.

Even though I miss it a lot, I'm so glad we were able to make it work for me to stay home with Emily. When I picked Emily up from my cousin's house after the luncheon, I was just so happy to see her. Runny nose and all.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

M&C

This time M&C doesn't stand for Matt & Christy. I made these cute little decorations for my cousins' soon-to-be-born babies, Mason and Charlotte. I think they turned out super cute. :)


And an R for Rivers.

Friday, April 1, 2011

My little monkey


 


I just can't help it...she is so stinkin' cute!