Emmy's Birthday: Presents

Emily got a ton of presents! She sure is a spoiled girl. She didn't quite know what to think of opening presents. She sort of tore little pieces of the paper off the first one, but didn't quite get to the actual present. But she got so many fun things!

I love her little bike helmet! After my dad's crash, I don't want to take any chances toting her around in the bike trailer. So she is going to have to learn to wear a helmet.

She got tons of new books. She loves them!

My family is obviously slacking in their duties to provide Emmy with the appropriate sports attire. Her auntie Melissa makes sure that she has plenty of red. It appears that Em is more concerned with the wrapping paper on her foot.

Guess what her favorite present was? This little bottle of bubbles. She held onto it for the entire night.

Her uncle John made sure to fulfil his uncley duty by getting her the most annoying toy he could find. But she loves her new talking phone.

She also got some fun new toys and clothes. Matt and I may or may not have stayed up late after everyone left and opened all her toys. :)

She also loved that envelope. She kept pointing at the stars on it.

Rivers wanted some presents too!

Laurie was the only one who wore a party hat.

Em wasn't the only one who got presents! Nathan and Jessica got their first wedding present.

Matt and I got Em this little push car walker thing. I think she will love it. Anyway, thanks everyone for all the fun gifts! She sure is a spoiled little cutie.

Emmy's Birthday: Prep

My little girl has turned ONE! I was so excited for her birthday, I planned her party for weeks. I decided I wanted to do a butterfly theme with purple, teal, and green colors. I made her a butterfly cake. Matt thought I was funny because I was so serious about making her the perfect cake. So he documented all the preparations.

Emily got a hold of a bottle of sprinkles and dumped them all over the floor. She had a ball spreading them all around the floor. I have a feeling we are going to be finding sprinkles for a very long time.

She played in them for like 30 minutes. It was pretty funny.

This is how her cake turned out. I think it turned out pretty cute. I even went to like 5 different stores in search of the candy stick for the middle. I finally found one at the Cracker Barrell.

I got her some balloons the night before her party. But by the time we got home from church they were already not floating anymore. I almost cried. So I did the next best thing and taped them to the wall. Again, Matt was making fun of me so he had to document.

And the finished decorations and treats!

I had so much fun getting everything ready for her party. Even though she didn't care, I still enjoyed it.

We had a BBQ and birthday party for all the family on her birthday eve. It was really fun, even though our house was busting at the seams with all the people. I can't believe she is a year old! This has been such a fun year watching her learn and grow.

At one year old Emily....
-weighs 19 lbs, 12 oz (30th%)
-is 29.75 inches tall (75th%)
-has a head size of 43 cm (5th%)
-hates to be confined. She loves to be on the move.
-can stand up for a few seconds by herself.
-can say daddy, doggie, duck, yuck and book.
-sleeps from about 6:30 pm to 7am, nap from 9-10:30 and then from 1-3.
-loves to bounce on the exercise ball.
-loves to eat Cheerios.
-likes to play peek-a-boo (especially with whoever sits behind us at church).
-is such a daddy's girl.
-loves to climb the stairs.
-is so much fun! We love her so much.

Cabin

This weekend, Emily and I went up to the cabin with some of my family. Matt is diligently trying to finish up his thesis here in the next few weeks so he can defend before summer term ends. So he wasn't able to go. :( Em and I missed him but we had a fun time.

I practiced my bow hunting skills.

Allison and Kyle were shooting off the deck.

Emmy had a grand old time in the little swing. She would say "deeeeeeeee!" (wheee!) while swinging and hold her feet. It was so cute.

We also went 4-wheeling. Allison was trying to find the mud pit so she went off the trail.

It was a lot of fun!

Friends and neighbors

The other night we went to a fun party hosted by our former bishop of our old singles ward and his wife. It was so much fun! We had so many friends in that ward and it was great to see everybody. I loved having so many friends and always having something going on.

It got me thinking about how by the time I got to the 9th ward, I'd been in singles wards for a long time so I was getting pretty good at being single, and I'd developed some surefire ways to make friends and get involved. 1) Go to all ward activities, FHE, and anything else going on. Stay after to help. Talk to at least 1-2 new people at everything. 2) Go to things you are invited to. 3) Host a get together once in awhile and invite everyone you know. 4) Sit by different people at church and activities instead of sticking with your roommate the whole time. 5) Start networking (i.e. meet your friends' friends).

I've discovered these tactics don't work in a family ward. 1) There are no ward activities or any sort of get-togethers. 2) No one invites you to anything. 3) When you try to host something, no one comes 4) People are always chasing their kids so it's hard to catch people to talk to them at church.

The only thing I can think of that even somewhat works is to hang out outside. That way when other people are in their yards or taking a walk you can talk to them for more than 30 seconds. Am I just super lame or is this how it is everywhere?

Anyway, by spending time outside, we have realized that we have some very interesting neighbors. I was hoping to get some pictures to illustrate, but I couldn't figure out how to do that discretely. :)

Neighbor #1: The Bird Lady--Across the street there is a lady who raises exotic birds. Some of which squak extremely loudly and we can hear them from inside our house.

Neighbor #2: The Sign Builders--Next door we have a guy who builds signs for real estate companies. So we have like 50 signs in our driveway half the time. They also have a trampoline so all the neighbor kids are constantly over there jumping on it. And the dad is always trying to talk to me in Spanish. They are pretty nice though.

Neighbor #3: White Trash #1--These people have moved, but it was a single lady with 5 kids (plus she was pregnant as a surrogate mother) and her hooker sister. There were always different guys coming over and they would always sit and smoke in the driveway. One time they were having a dance party or something in the driveway at like 1 in the morning, and their music was totally nasty. Our other neighbors went out and yelled at them about 2 seconds before I was about to.

Neighbor #4: White Trash #2--This family lives across the street and the dad is always sitting out on the porch with his shirt off (and a big potbelly) and they are always talking really loudly so we can hear them loud and clear across the street.

Neighbor #5: The polygamists--When we first moved in and found out we lived next to polygamists, I thought it was really weird. But honestly, they are super nice and some of our best neighbors. The girls love Emmy, one of the boys comes to our Sunday School class and is awesome, and some of the kids are often selling treats.

Neighbor #6: The appliance repairman--There is always a fridge or washer or something in these people's driveway! Ha!

Anyway, I just wanted to document some of the interesting times we've had here in Springville before we move.

Synchronization

Every summer my grandma throws a big birthday party for all the grandkids/great-grandkids. This year she rented out the Spanish Fork swimming pool. Every time we have the party at the pool, somehow a synchronized swimming routine emerges. And it is always funny.

Yes, my cousins are weird. :) Emmy had a fun time at the pool even though she threw a fit on the way there. My cousin had this awesome floaty that Em loved! She loved being able to kick around and move.

 I love summer!

The 4th

We had a fun 4th of July weekend. We took Emmy to Seven Peaks to go swimming. She loved the lazy river. It was so cute. She would kick her legs out and splash her arms and try to drink the water. She liked the pool ok....it was a little cold so she didn't love it at first but once she got used to it she was better.

She kept trying to escape! She would crawl in and out of the pool. It was pretty funny.

We also went to Colonial Days, which was part of the Freedom Festival in Provo. They had a bunch of stuff from Revolutionary times like costumes, war camp tents, a printing press for the Constitution, etc. They also had a museum that had stuff from that time period. Most of it was pretty random, but they did have a document signed by George Washington, a letter from Paul Revere, George Washington's wallet, and a few other cool things.

And then I insisted that we get some shave ice. My students told me about this place last year, and I've been wanting to try it ever since. It was quite the disappointment.

But it was still fun. But for future reference, the Paradise Bay stand in South Provo is WAY better. And they have sugar free flavors, which is awesome since starting today I'm going off sugar again until Aug. 13, which is when we are doing the Bear Lake Triathlon. (I'm exempting Emmy's birthday and Nathan's wedding though.)

Em looked so festive in her cute 4th of July outfit.

Happy Independence Day!

Oops

I accidentally deleted everyone's comments on all my posts. Anyone know how I can get them back?