We've been parents for a whole six months

Wow, I can't believe it. It's gone by so fast, I can't believe we've had Emma in our family for half of a year. Here's a little about Emma:

-Emma loves to laugh, and she does a lot of it
-She sits up by herself
-She likes grabbing faces and hair
-She is really trying to mobile- rolling over, turning herself around, throwing her weight- you can tell she really wants to move
-She still likes to talk- and seems to be starting to copy noises
-She is really aware of noises and where they come from, when I'm driving around with just Emma, I'll turn back and start talking to her and she'll turn her head so she can see me
-She really likes to stand, she doesn't stand by herself, but loves to stand all the time


Emma has had a couple of busy weeks, my cousin Rachel just came home from her mission, my dad, and brothers Curt and Carter came up for conference weekend, we went camping, just lots going on. Here are some pictures . . .
Emma was really good for conference, especially having her dad watch her and letting mom go to a session. But, I was really disappointed in so many of the people who came to conference. I know they have good intentions, but when on the ticket is printed, no cameras- video or picture taking, and no food or drinks, and then they ANNOUNCE IT while everyone is seated, how can you not feel guilty when the prophet comes in and you're snapping pictures away, or you're in the middle of conference and feeling like snacking so you bring out some snacks. I mean you can justify all you want, but how sad is it that you are at general conference and can't even obey the rules they have there for you? Wouldn't you just feel guilty about having a picture of the prophet that you took- when you know that they specifically told you not to take one? That's one of my pet peeve's is people who directly disobey rules. I personally think that that will be one thing we will be judged on is how well and how closely we tried to follow rules, guidelines, and commandments. Anyway, this post was really mostly about Emma, but I had to make that statement because it really is sad that people come to hear the prophets speak to us, but can't even listen to the first few rules that are presented even before conference has even started.

Joshua Bell

I read this story the other day. I want to always remember the message:

In Washington DC, at a Metro Station, on a cold January morning in 2007, a man with a violin started to play. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that over 1,000 people went through that station, most of them on their way to work.

Three minutes went by and a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried up to meet his schedule. A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip; a woman threw the money in the till and without stopping continued to walk. A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work.

The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old little boy. His mother tagged him along, hurriedly, but the child stopped to look at the violinist. Finally, the mother pushed hard and the boy continued to walk by, turning his head to watch the violinist the whole time. This action was repeated several times by other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on.

In the 45 minutes the musician played only 7 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money but continued to walk by at their normal pace. He collected $32.17 that morning for his efforts. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it, and no one applauded. There was no recognition at all.

No one knew this but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the finest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a 1713 Stadivarius violin worth 3.5 million dollars.

Three days earlier, Joshua had played to a full house at Boston's Symphony Hall, where the seats averaged $100 each to sit and listen to him play the same music.

True story.

A writer for the Washington Post named Gene Weingarten set this up as "an experiment in context, perception and priorities - as well as an unblinking assessment of public taste: In a banal setting at an inconvenient time, would beauty transcend?"

This is how Weingarten described the crux of the experiment:

Each passerby had a quick choice to make,

one familiar to commuters in any urban area where the occasional

street performer is part of the cityscape:

Do you stop and listen? Do you hurry past with a blend of guilt

and irritation, aware of your cupidity but annoyed

by the unbidden demand on your time and your wallet?

Do you throw in a buck, just to be polite?

Does your decision change if he's really bad? What if he's really good?

Do you have time for beauty? Shouldn't you?

What's the moral mathematics of the moment?

(The Washington Post won a Pulitzer in the feature writing category for Gene Weingarten's story about his experiment.)

Oh she's just so fun!

We LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE our little girl! Emma is (like my title) just so much fun! She has really started to love the peek a boo game. And she does it herself! She'll pull the blanket or shirt or whatever over her head, and then when we pull it down she starts to giggle. Such a smart girl! Her hair is now at the stage where after she takes a nap we have to wet it down with water because it well basically looks like she just woke up from a nap. She still loves her jumper, but has recently been using her walker. Oh and she started scooting around on the floor. I knew she'd probably be an early mover- - she just wants to be going places. Oh and baths are still so much fun, except now rather than relaxing in them, she spends all of her time splashing. So mom has had to pin her arms down, we even tried distracting her with bath toys, but it only drew her attention for a couple of seconds and then she proceeded to splash all over and drench the entire floor.We took this picture on Sunday when we went on a drive through the Alpine Loop, the colors were starting to change and it really did look so beautiful! Here Emma is getting ready to cheer on those Cougars, who obviously needed our help! Too bad they couldn't hear us! This is the dress my mom helped me make for Emma, I think it's cute, but I had to post this picture because it shows one of Emma's favorite past times- grabbing her feet! Emma loves sitting in the Bumbo that aunt Ashley is letting us use. She is just a smiley girl! I love it. Soon that smile will have some teeth! I'll try and post some videos later! We just love what she brings to our family and house!

Someone in our house is 5 months old

Well we don't have an accurate scale, but Emma doesn't seem to have changed very much in weight. But she changed so much from birth to 4 months that her weight was bound to slow down. She is getting to a friendly stage right now and smiles all the time. She loves to laugh- and we love to laugh with her. She is all about toys right now, and loves to play with pretty much anything, but her favorite is this little crab rattle. I am ALL for babies playing with things that aren't toys too, but who would have thought the car seat would be one of those toys. I wish I had a picture, but by the time I got it out, she stopped. You know those boxes they put on the carseats that describe the warnings and rules about carseats? Well Emma loves looking at them!
She also is a proficient roller! She does not like lying on her back and if you lay her down like that she will procede instantly to roll onto her stomach!

She is the cutest little girl!

Well onto other areas in our life, James has an internship right now with Beneficial Financial Group, which he loves. Oh yeah and after 2 years in Chile, Osorno - - - CHRIS IS HOME FROM HIS MISSION!

I love this picture! My poor grandpa is shorter than all the boys except for Carter, who is 11. In our family we get our growth spurts later than most, and when James and I got married Curt was my height, but here 2 years 8 months later, Curt is practically as tall as James. This was also really fun for us, because Chris and Curt seem so alike. It's crazy my family is growing up. At least I'm still taller than Carter!

Emma at 4 months

I know she's almost five months, but I'm kind of using this to track her progress since I haven't really opened her baby book. So at Emma's 4 month doctors appointment she weighed 14 pounds 5 ounces. She was 24 inches long. She moved up from the 50th percentile in weight to about the 70th. YAY Emma, which also means those legs of hers are getting quite chunky! I have to admit that that is one of my favorite things about babies- the chunky legs! Her head size hasn't changed much. But, she is just so much more talkative and sociable. Anyway, here are some pictures- we just love her! TA DA! Look what we can do!

Happy 25th Anniversary!

A few days ago my parents reached 25 years of marriage. YAY! It's been an exciting year . . . my grandparents celebrated their 50th, my mom turned 50, and my parents celebrated their 25th. Speaking of family though, Chris gets home in 6 days! I am so excited. I can't believe its been 2 years! But, I'm really excited he's coming to Provo for this fall semester.