Sentences

Sometimes Emily really surprises me at how fast she is learning and catching on to things. Over the past few weeks, she has really been putting sentences together. Some examples...

"Mommy, come sit down."
"What's Daddy doing in the kitchen?"
"Eat dinner now."
"Clean up toys."
"Eating fishy crackers."
"Go Grandma's house and have cookie."
"Bye new house!"
"Go library. Get books."

One time I asked her what she wanted for breakfast and she said, "Eggies and tatos (potatoes) and bananas and toast!"

We read her a page from her children's Book of Mormon every night and lately she HAS to read the page about Alma EVERY DAY. It's hilarious. We try to read a different page and she says, "No. Find Alma."

She has also gotten really good at stalling for bed. She asks for "one more drink" or "one more song" or says she's hungry. Little stinker. At least she's a cute, smart little stinker.

Bike tours and spring games

Last Saturday was a busy one. We rode in the SLC Bike Marathon for the 5th year in a row. It was fantastic. The weather was perfect and I love how they close off the roads for 26 miles so you can just ride!

I, unfortunately, got a flat tire at about Mile 22. Some nice people helped me pump it up and I made it a few more miles and was flat again about a mile from the finish. The same nice people stopped again and pumped up my tire and I made it to the finish line, and my tire was flat again about 3 minutes after I rode across the finish line.

In the 5 years we have been doing this race, none of us have gotten a flat tire. I hope that was the first and last time that will ever happen. But it was still so fun.

We also went to the U's spring football game. Matt has been counting down the days to this for months. We took a gamble and brought Emmy with us. She mostly did ok.

It was HOT! But Emmy was pretty good and only had a few minor breakdowns and loved throwing her little football at the row in front of us. :) And spilling Gatorade all over herself. (P.S. The only reason I am wearing red is because that was the color of my bike marathon shirt.)

Then we came home and tried to do something with our yard. It still needs a lot of work, but at least we (meaning Matt) got it mowed, edged, fertilized, and the sprinklers working. Happy Spring!

The story of the Argentine key

So when I was on my mission in Argentina, they used these really cool old, antique keys for everything. Even the church doors. Like these...

I thought they were so cool, and I wanted to bring one home. Luckily, I found an extra one in one of my apartments that no one knew what it was for. So in my suitcase it went. I thought, "Someday I am going to make something cool with this to hang my keys on."

Fast forward almost 6 years later, I saw this on Pintrest and was reminded of my Argentine key.

So I went to DI, bought an old frame, some hooks and some paint and went to work. Then I could not find my Argentine key anywhere! This foiled the whole plan! But after weeks of searching and opening every box in the house, I finally found it and finished my project. It didn't turn out as cute as the one on Pintrest, but oh well. My 6-year key project has finally been completed.

 I made all my sisters and sisters-in-law make one too for girls night. Theirs turned out much cuter. And then my sister wanted me to make a letter for her new baby (Olivia) coming in May.

And that will probably be the extent of my crafts for another 6 years. :)

The best Easter ever!

This was seriously the best Easter EVER! Emily was so stinkin' cute and hilarious that I had so much fun. Here are our Easter baskets. They are sitting on top of our brand new entertainment center that we had bought the day before but hadn't set up yet.

Em was beyond excited about her Easter basket.

She would take each egg out, shake it, tell us what color it was, and then hand it to me and say, "open?, open?" So then I'd open it and she would shout out whatever was inside with such excitement. We mostly put goldfish crackers and Teddy Grahams inside so we kept hearing exclamations of "Fishies!, Teddy Bears! Candies!"

Then we had to put all the stuff back in the eggs and she'd do it all over again. And she kept taking out the grass and putting in back in too. Then we went to the park for the egg hunt. Em wasn't so sure of the Easter Bunny.

But he gave her a pinwheel and she was elated. She wanted me to blow on it all day. It was so funny when she would try to blow on it herself because it wouldn't turn, so she turned it with her hand while blowing on it.

She was a little apprehensive about the egg hunt.

It was so crowded!

Then when we got home, we had to do the whole egg-opening routine again.

I love how excited she was to see what was in each egg.

I really wish we would have gotten it on video, it was so funny and cute. Even a few days later, she is still asking for her basket and the eggies. She wasn't so excited about the dyeing of the eggs though.

Nor did she want to take a picture in her cute Easter dress.

For Easter dinner, we went to Matt's parents' house, and all Emmy wanted to do was play with the dog. She kept shoving food in its mouth and trying to give it toys.

It was so funny.

And, of course, I am so thankful for the atonement of Jesus Christ, which is why we even have Easter. I'm thankful to know that we will live again after we die, and that because of Him, we can repent and be forgiven. Happy Easter!

The successes and failures of Lent

So we didn't make it all the way through Lent with giving up sugar. Lent was 6.5 weeks and we only made it 4.5. We did really well for the first month, but when we moved everything pretty much just fell apart. First of all, by then I was so sick and my doctor told me to try drinking ginger ale and eating gingersnap cookies to help ease the nausea. I was desperate, and willing to try anything, so I gave in and started sipping ginger ale all day long and munching on gingersnaps. I don't even like soda or gingersnaps very much! But seriously, anything was better than being sick all the time. And it helped some.

Then, when we moved in, some of the neighbors brought us treats. People never bring me treats and I've always wanted them to! So I gave in to the neighborly welcome gifts.

But instead of choosing to look at it as an epic failure because we choked the last 2 weeks, I'm choosing to look at it as we went a month with no sugar. That's still pretty good.

We also only made it 2.5 weeks on Jillian's Ripped in 30 workout program. We did really well for the first half. And then Matt cracked his rib playing basketball and I started puking all day, and so we quit.

This is the hard one for me. I really, really wanted to get back in shape before getting pregnant again. And I just waited too long to get serious about it and lose that last 10 pounds of baby weight. So here I am, sick as a dog, unable to exercise much, puking up every vegetable I attempt to eat, and about 10-15 pounds heavier than I was before I got pregnant with Emily. I feel like a cow. And it's just going to get worse before it can get better.

But I also know that I just need to accept it and deal with it, instead of dwelling on it for the next 6 months and being miserable. I just don't quite know how to do that. But I have already declared 2013 as the Year of Fitness because this time I am not going to procrastinate losing that weight and getting back in shape. And I will try to have as healthy of a pregnancy as I can, and hopefully I will be able to eat vegetables again soon and quit drinking soda again. And exercising.

On buying a house

People have been asking about the whole house buying process, so I thought I'd post a short review of our realtor/lender/etc.

First of all, I wanted to say that I am glad that we waited and saved our money for a larger down payment rather than buying right away, even though that meant we had to rent longer. This way, we were able to afford a house that we can stay in for the rest of our lives (if we want), and get something we can grow into rather than grow out of. I also did not want to live in anything that had an HOA, which we found were characteristic of most newer developments. Anyway, it just worked for us to wait, and I feel we got a great deal because our insurance rates/interest rates were lower because of our bigger down payment.

For our realtor, we used Darren Mansell of Mansell Real Estate. He was recommended by a friend. For the most part we liked him. He was very knowledgeable about the south SL Valley. He has a great, user-friendly website and daily email that was helpful for online searching. When it came time to do all the paperwork, his staff was awesome. I felt like everything went really smoothly and they really took care of everything for us. He also has a moving truck that you can use for free if you buy or sell with him.

I only had 2 complaints. The first was that he has a few different people on his staff, and I didn't like being shuffled around among them. I would have rather just worked with one person. It was confusing to know who I was supposed to be communicating with. My second complaint was that I felt like he should have been more proactive in the finding process. His website does let you enter in your criteria and then it gives you everything that fits into that criteria, and then sends you daily emails if anything new comes up. That was helpful, but it's all automated, and I wanted him to personally point things out.

For our mortgage lender, we used Brent Crockett from Security Home Mortgage. He was recommended by my cousin. We really liked him. A lot. He was EXTREMELY helpful and on top of things. He was always available to discuss different scenarios of payments and estimate how much the monthly costs would be depending on our offer, the taxes, insurance, etc. I felt he was fair and honest. And I honestly felt like he really cared about us and getting us the best possible option...he wasn't just doing his job. He's kind of a talker, so don't expect to have a super short conversation with him, but it wasn't unreasonable or anything. Anyway, I would highly recommend using him.

Anyway, there you have it. Now we just have to figure out all the ins and outs of home ownership. :) And here are a few funny pics of Em during packing time.

 She LOVED this box. She would sit on it, stand on it, jump off of it, color on it...whatever!

She has gotten very into drawing lately. We always have to draw trees, fishies, starts, hearts, and bubbles.

Changes

We have had a lot of changes going on around here the past few weeks. We finally moved into our new house on March 24. We have been up to our ears in packing, boxes, moving, unpacking, etc. I have most of the upstairs unpacked, but the downstairs is still full of boxes, and I still need to get the decorations up.

The first night we were here, we commented to each other that it was so quiet without neighbors banging on the walls/ceiling/etc. or playing rock band all day or whatever. So far it has been great.

As we were moving in, many of our new neighbors came over to help and introduce themselves. That was so nice. In fact, moving only took about 3 hours total from starting to load the truck at our apartment to getting everything unloaded at the new place and even cleaning. I was really shocked that it only took that long. And now I never have to move again!!!!

A few of the new neighbors even brought us treats and someone brought us a pizza. I have been waiting for that. No one has ever brought us anything all the times we have moved, and it has been my little test. And the new neighbors passed!

I hope that we will fit in in the ward and neighborhood. It seems we are on the young end of the spectrum and everyone seems to have 4-5 kids or be retired (there is a senior citizen community in our ward).

But we are glad to finally have a house of our own. Other changes going on around here include this....

We are expecting Baby #2 in October! I have been extremely sick and miserable, which has made for quite the interesting moving situation. Packing and puking are not a good combination. I NEVER was sick with Emily at all, so I was really surprised when I started puking multiple times a day. I was really nervous that it would be twins since I have been so sick, but the doc assured me that there is just one in there. All I have to say is this better be a really calm baby to make up for making his/her mommy miserable.

I am really hoping it gets better SOON because I really need to get the rest of the house unpacked and prep for my class I am teaching at BYU-Idaho which starts in 2 weeks. And, you know, do normal things like cook and clean and take Emily to the park or whatever. Poor Emily and Matt have to deal with a miserable, unfunctioning wife and mommy, and I feel like such a disappointment to them.

Anyway, even though it is stressful, we are excited for all these new changes!