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?

Family Vacation: The Beach

We kept trying to go to the beach the whole week we were in California but Emily kept preventing us from getting there. I really, really wanted to go so finally on the last day, even though it was Sunday, we made it. Since it was Sunday, we just took it easy and walked along the beach and played in the sand.

Emily loved watching the waves and the seagulls, but when we tried to put her down in the sand, she hated it. She would scrunch her legs up so they wouldn't touch. I think she looks like a flamingo in this picture.

We put her down in the sand and she just cried and cried.

Then we brought her back to the towels and filled up a little toy with sand and let her touch that. Since it was on a smaller scale, she did a lot better with that.

Then she started having fun and spread sand all over me.

Then she tried to eat it.

After that, she was having fun crawling around and playing in the sand. She just didn't want anything to do with the water.

Finally! Happiness!

Allison had brought a kite and was so sad when this sign was posted at the beach entrance.

So she flew her kite down the street on the way back to the car.

Anyway, it was a fun vacation and we are so grateful that we were able to go. Thanks to Mom and Dad for taking us on such a great trip!