Father's Day

Emily is so lucky to have such a wonderful daddy. She loves him so much. Every time she hears the garage door open, she says, "Daddy's home! Better go knock on door!" And then she runs to the garage door and knocks on it until he opens the door. It's so stinkin' cute. Whenever her daddy is around, she wants to be by him. She really does have him wrapped around her little finger. I'm grateful to have a hubby that our children love so much. Happy Father's Day!

Poor Emily woke up about 4 a.m. on Sunday morning puking. And proceeded to puke some more the rest of the morning. So we didn't get to do all the things we had wanted to for Matt for Father's Day. We did still make him a special breakfast and Emmy had to put the tape on his present, which was pretty cute because there was all this wadded up tape all over the package. Ha! It was so sad to see Emmy so sick though. And especially on Father's Day.

The no-good, very bad birthday

My birthday this year was pretty crummy. I usually love my birthday, and love celebrating with lots of people and fun things. But not this year. The night before my birthday I spent most of the night in the bathroom throwing up. The early part of the morning was pretty much the same. Then I was dead tired, but couldn't take a nap because by that time Emily had woken up and needed to be taken care of. Matt had to leave early for work because of a special project he had going on that day with some people from out of town. I felt sick and tired most of the day, and couldn't eat much (my birthday breakfast and lunch consisted of toast and juice). Emily was whiny, since she was getting over being sick. And then Matt came home from work feeling sick too.

By late afternoon, I was actually feeling good enough to eat something and maybe actually do something celebratory, but poor Matt came home feeling sick and crashed on the couch for the rest of the night. So I went to Zupas and got myself some soup and ate it by myself. It was the most lonely, boring birthday I've ever had. I don't think I've ever had a birthday where I've just had to stay home by myself and not do anything fun at all, let alone take care of myself while sick and take care of a whiny 2-year-old, and have a sick hubby. I like my birthday to be a special day full of visitors and fun things and decorations and yummy food.

I know it's not anyone's fault that we all got sick, but I was really sad that it happened on my birthday. This better not be an omen of how this upcoming year will be. Good thing I'm going to Alaska next week to forget about the whole thing.

For Uncle Kyle

This is for Uncle Kyle, who has been teaching Emily to say all sorts of crazy things...

Translation:
Me: Emily, what does Grandpa say?
Em: Achoo!
Me: What does Grandma say?
Em: Bless you!
Me: What does Kyle say?
Em: Nunya Business!

Ha! But Emmy sure does love her Uncle Kyle.

13.1

Last weekend we participated in the Utah Valley 1/2 Marathon. My brother Nathan convinced most of my family to sign up with him. I found out I was pregnant like 3 days after we signed up. I haven't been able to run during this pregnancy so I decided to walk it.

It was still fun, although I wish I would have worn a shirt that said "Baby on Board" or "Walking for 2" or something because I got A LOT of pity looks/cheers, and at times I felt kind of pathetic being SO far behind everyone else. However, I met my goals of finishing before the medal cut-off time (by 1.5 minutes) and beating Nathan, who was doing the full marathon. (I beat him by about an hour.) And I was not dead last. There were 6 people who finished the half marathon after me.

It was harder than I expected it to be. My legs really started hurting about Mile 9, and I was pretty sore for a couple of days afterwards. Matt did awesome! He beat his best 1/2 marathon time. He was pretty sore afterwards too.

Here are all the family finishers! (There were some of us in each distance from the 10K to the full marathon.)

Lots of people ask why we do these things. Why we pay money to go run and be in pain and be sore for days. I was thinking about that on my long walk, and I do it because I feel a sense of accomplishment by crossing that finish line. Even though I was 6th from last, I still accomplished something. I bet not a lot of pregnant ladies have walked a 1/2 marathon. I like to have a challenge to work toward and the sense of accomplishment that comes from reaching your goal. I have felt that in every race I have participated in, except the marathon (oddly enough). And I love that feeling of triumph.

We came home and crashed. Even Emmy. She had spent the day at her Grandma Lively's house (thank you!) and was worn out from having so much fun. All the way home she was telling stories of what she did at Grandma's house (play football, play on stairs, play with Sissa, play cars, feed Roxy dinner, etc. She even told us she went to the farm and saw tigers. Ha!)

She was so worn out that even after her nap, she sat on the couch with her daddy and watched almost an ENTIRE movie (The Princess and the Frog). I was shocked! She has never watched anything for more than 2 minutes. It was nice though because that meant we could sit on the couch too instead of chase her around.

Confessions of a pregnant lady

So I'm pregnant. Due in October. We're having a boy. This pregnancy is more than halfway over (21 weeks). I have a ton of thoughts running through my head that I'm not quite sure what to say. So here goes the ramble...

This pregnancy has been SO different from the last one. With Emily, I was never sick, I felt pretty normal most of the time. I remember being really tired in the first trimester, but after that I was fine. I was working full time, finishing up my master's degree, and I still woke up early and exercised most days. I was even still running at 7 months, and I swam 3-4 times a week up until the day before she was born! I wanted to eat fruity things, but pretty much consumed a normal diet.

This time I was so sick during the first 16 weeks. I have been really tired even in the second trimester. If I attempt to get up early and exercise, I pretty much crash around 2-3 p.m. (Not good when you have an almost 2-year-old.) I have had major food aversions and it seems like I just want to eat junk. Not good. Last time, I still fit into my pants at 6 months, this time I feel like I'm already as big as I was when Emmy was born and it's only 21 weeks! At this rate, I'm gonna be in major trouble! Especially since I can't exercise as much this time around. With Emily, I constantly thought about the pregnancy and devoured all those emails they send you, took "tummy pictures" every week, spent hours drooling over nurseries, clothes, names, etc. This time, I haven't really thought a ton about it. Probably because most of this pregnancy has been full of house hunting, packing, moving, unpacking, etc.

I was kind of shocked when we found out it was a boy. Even though the pregnancy has been so different, making me wonder if it was a boy, I still had been envisioning 2 little girls running around together, giggling, and being the best of friends. I always felt like my sisters were too young to really be friends with until we were all adults. And so I wanted Emmy to have a sister.

I have NO CLUE what to do with a boy. I have NO boy stuff. His room currently has a pink wall. Matt is ecstatic. He is so excited to have a boy. I'm nervous that I won't be a good "boy mom". I'm nervous that I won't be able to handle 2 kids. We wanted this baby and planned for it, but I'm still nervous.

During the ultrasound, he kept running away. He is a very active little boy already. I started to feel him so much earlier than I did with Emmy. Em is already pretty active and crazy and I'm nervous I won't be able to keep up with 2 very active children. And he already has chubby cheeks apparently, which makes me nervous he will have a big head, making the delivery harder.

Anyway, at least I have 4 more months to prepare and calm down. And paint his room. But I am grateful for modern technology that allows me to know my baby's gender 4 months early so I can have time to prepare. And also to know that he is healthy. Bring on the boy name suggestions!

P.S. I've decided maternity clothes are like mission clothes...once you're done, you want to burn them and never see them again! Only with maternity clothes, you have to endure them for 9 more months if you have more than one kid.Where do people find cute ones...I am trying to figure out what I was thinking when I bought some of these things!

Singing

We have been teaching Emily some Primary songs. Here she is singing "I Love to See the Temple" and "I Am A Child of God" It's pretty much the cutest thing ever.



She also loves to read stories by saying the last few words of the sentence.

Dirty Dash

Last weekend at the *very* last minute, Matt and Nathan decided to run the Dirty Dash.It's a 5.5 mile course that is all through the mud and has different obstacles you have to get past. Our friend, Caron, had gotten a group together and some people dropped out so she had some openings. Here they are at the start.

The beginning was a run up a muddy hill. The course was at Soldier Hollow...all up and down the mountain side.

Emily and I watched. (Well, we couldn't really see anything besides the start and finish.)

Em was just chillin in the camp chair watching the finishers dogs.

I missed Nathan coming through the mud pit at the finish line, but here is Matt (in the red shirt).

Gross!

Almost there!

And they finished. (This was after they had hosed off.) They both said it was a blast and want to do it again.

After that, we went to Park City to hang out with my cousin who was up there for the week. It only took us an hour to get Emily into the pool. But then she loved it!