Tuesday, June 19, 2012

An update and pictures

Well it's been kind of an uneventful, but busy summer so far . . . and it seems like it is going to continue in that direction. I was recently called to be in the young women's presidency in my ward- great timing with girls camp coming up, I missed youth conference because I had recently been called, but now my Wednesday nights are all penciled in, plus several Saturdays and etc. They have been pretty good with me bringing Emma along when I have to leave early or bring her to planning meetings etc. . . In fact the young women really want me to bring Emma along for girls camp :) Which will probably be the case, and I think Emma will love it too, she loves the younger girls especially!


Oh yeah and it's been busy with doctors appointments (well midwife appointments). Which by the way I love my midwife- not that I didn't love my doctor, because I really did, but since we're not living in Provo anymore, that wasn't practical, and I didn't want to find a new doctor, so I went with a midwife, plus my bishop's wife works with them, so she referred me to one of her associates. They've moved me now to appts 3 weeks apart. Things seem to be going really well. No problems, and this pregnancy really seems to be so much easier than Emma's. I know I'm busy with a toddler now, but I was so busy with school and work while pregnant with Emma which seems like it would be harder now... Anyway, I guess I haven't announced on this blog about the gender, which I found out about a month and a half ago. But we're having . . . .


another girl!
These were two pictures from our ultrasound a month ago. I love the 4D picture. I love that you can see her hand in front of her face. This one we might have a little trouble keeping her from sucking her thumb. We are SO excited to have another little girl. I really couldn't believe it though- this pregnancy was SO DIFFERENT! I still felt nauseous, but I didn't throw up at all- which was a daily occurrence with Emma. Also, I am carrying differently, and didn't have to start wearing maternity clothes until much later- which is weird since it is a second pregnancy- overall I have been smaller in gaining weight (even despite the fact that I am not walking all over BYU campus all day everyday- and I only get a 30 minute daily walk in). I was especially sensitive to smells last time, but not really at all this time. I never had heartburn with Emma, but it's been a much more regular thing this time- it was a weird discovery cause I had never had heartburn before. Even despite that I started showing later- I felt the baby kick much earlier. I already took my wedding ring off, because I had to permanently resize it from keeping it on the whole time last pregnancy, but I can still put it on- so hardly any swelling. One thing that has been consistent though, is that my temperature still runs higher, and since it has been a warm summer already- we are probably going to spend a lot of money on air conditioning because I can't stand the heat. Even my baths have lowered quite a bit in temperature. There have been a ton of differences those are the only ones I can think of right now, but if all of my pregnancies could be like this one I would love it!

But I was so convinced that it was a boy because there were so many stark differences, but we're excited to have 2 little girls in a row. Emma is really excited to, she asks about her baby sister daily, and the other day I was bending over to put on Emma's shoes and I got a sharp painful kick, and made a pained face and Emma asked, "baby sister doesn't feel good?" She has a list of things she wants to teach her- certain songs, how to walk, how to play with toys, how to run through the sprinkler, how to play the piano . . . It really is so sweet, she's going to be such a great big sister. She goes to all of my appointments with me and sits next to me while they measure my uterus and listen to "baby sister". We've mentioned some names to Emma, and she has her favorite picked out, and sometimes calls the baby, "baby ____". It's really sweet, but we're not ready to share our favorites just yet. But Emma's choice might just end up being her name, unless she comes out looking so different from this name.



Updates on Emma, I guess since I haven't done them in a while. Emma LOVES nursery, all week she asks to go to nursery, but knows that we only go on Sunday after Church (which is apparently the part where we sit down and listen to talks) and asks all week when Sunday is. She's even figured out that after we listen to talks and sing a song and say a prayer that that means it's time for nursery. It was a harsh reality going to stake conference where there was a song in the middle of 2 hours of talks, and no nursery . . .  Her teachers all rave about how she is always so willing to participate in the lessons and saying the prayers, and helps clean up all of the other kids snacks :) The music leader actually came up to us this last Sunday and said that Emma is the most enthusiastic about singing time, and sings all the words clearly for all the songs, and even does the sign language for "I am a Child of God". She loves it so much, which makes us so happy! Her vocabulary is so extensive I wouldn't even know where to begin, she basically knows every noun I could think of mentioning- all the animals, every kind of food, clothing item, basically anything you could find in Wal-mart with a few exceptions. Sometimes she even surprises James and I with words that she has learned- I wish I could remember a few. I know it's pretty unusual, but it's hard to imagine having another child who isn't as verbal as her. She is also very aware of and observing of social etiquette- like please, thank you, your welcome- she usually never misses these, as well as she will always say bless you after anyone sneezes or coughs, when we were in Oregon my mom had some coasters and Emma loved that you put coasters under cups. She learned from daddy that after you say bye, love you comes with it, until clerks and cashiers were receiving her "bye, love you!"s. So now it's "bye, see you tomorrow" to everyone who leaves or who we leave. She also never misses saying a prayer when we sit down for any meal. She is very aware of the rules of how things work and the order we do things in. Here are a few pictures from this summer, I need to be better about taking my camera along to things, but we've really enjoyed our sprinkler, the parks near our house, and we've been taking advantage of our zoo pass!


Friday, April 13, 2012

Some new news


Well I can't believe that Emma is 2 years old. We went to her doctors appointment and her stats were pretty surprising- we have a little petite girl, she was in the 5th percentile for weight and 50th for height. She only weighed 22 pounds- so I'm determined to help plump her up. But celebrating her 2nd birthday was so much more fun than her first. She loved opening her presents!



Easter was also a lot of fun, after she opened her shopping cart, she wanted to take that in the backyard to collect the eggs.

And there she goes after the eggs . . . there is something precious about the excitement in this picture.

Emma was very particular about which eggs she would pick up, the ones that had dollar bills in them- she definitely didn't want. And she started out only picking up certain colors of eggs. That slowly changed when she realized that there were treats in all of the eggs.

But Emma's favorite treats were the colored fishy crackers! As you can tell she stuffed her face :)


It just feels weird to think that I have a little two year old. But, I guess even weirder than that is to think that in September I'll have 2 children.... That's right, we're pregnant! I'm 16 weeks along, we wanted to wait to announce it since we'd had a couple of miscarriages and didn't want to announce that we were and then have to retract what we'd said. But, we're so excited that we have another little baby joining our family in September. My due date is September 28th- Emma was almost 2 weeks early, but I'm trying not to plan on this baby being early in case that doesn't happen. But so far it has been a great pregnancy. I haven't thrown up once, and morning sickness was not even close to as intense as it was with Emma. And I'm at the point where I'm almost completely over it. Yay! We are so excited. We've already felt the baby moving around and it's starting to seem more real as my stomach is poking out a little. Emma is pretty excited too and knows where mommy's baby is. In a few weeks we'll be finding out the gender, so does anyone have any guesses?

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

February Update


Well February has been pretty fun, we went to a couple of the BYU basketball games- and got AWESOME seats, thanks to Jaren! And since we were in the front row, Emma and Halle got great seats too!

It is so fun to watch and cheer on the cougars especially when these little girls cooperate and cheer right along beside us :)


We drove down to Arizona one weekend because one of James' best friends (Nate) got married! Yay! He's the one in the middle. These 3 have been best friends for years, their history goes way back to elementary school.

And now, we're all married, although it was a long time coming....

Oh and the last picture I just have to share because I thought it was hilarious. Emma got this tent for Christmas, and she brings James into it to read her books at night. I love it, because it's the perfect size for her, but James clearly doesn't fit. Anyway- that's a little bit of our February.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

My December Catch Up

Our little Emma is just adorable, I took this picture before church one Sunday, and I love it. She really is the cutest little girl.

We went up and saw Santa- but knew Emma wouldn't like him, so didn't force her to sit on his lap.

But Christmas was SO fun this year. It was way more exciting to watch Emma enjoying Christmas, and opening her presents than I think any other Christmas has ever been. I'm excited for her birthday in a couple of months!







Then Grandkids Retreat was partially at Disneyland. And many of you know- I love Disney. I know the strategy of when to go and rush to get the fast passes for the rides whose lines always are the longest. Because I had my list of rides that I always wanted to go on. But it was different this time . . . it was a lot more fun to watch Emma's excitement over seeing Mickey, Donald, Goofy, and the other characters- and seeing signs with them all over. And taking her on little kid rides- which I was always so impatient to go on.

Christmas was so fun, we ended up getting Emma a little laptop, a pop-up tent, some clothes, a couple of books, a mickey mouse clubhouse sticker book, and it was so fun!

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Feeling a bit crafty

Well, one of the reasons I have taken a little hiatus is that I have become so interested in this website- pinterest- and I've found myself becoming more and more crafty. I've done a few things that I've found on it already. Like for instance- I finally found a way to organize Emma's hair bows.

Or making these hurricanes.
I also made a cupcake platter, and some curtains- but I haven't found where I packed the platter, and we haven't put up curtain rods yet- but their white and navy striped. I also made a bunch of Christmas glitter ball ornaments- which you'll probably see when I post our Christmas pictures. I also made these season blocks, they rotate to say spring, summer, and autumn too.
Oh and I added a bunch of pages to the quiet book I've been making Emma. . .

We also recently heard a story in our ward of a couple who the mother passed away leaving young children. Sad- I know, but it got me thinking about how I would still want to be a part of my children's lives so I started making a cd- which has taken quite a bit of time- mostly in figuring out how to record the songs- and then record songs from playing on the piano. It's mostly children's songs that I sing Emma, but then I decided to add pieces that I like to play on the piano. Oh and last but not least- I've been working on Emma's big Christmas present, that I'd been working on for a while and was putting on the finishing touches.



She has a couple of lights on the ceiling above the sink area, and a phone and chalkboard on the right side and an apron that hangs on the left side. It's not perfect, but I love it- I especially love the faux tile that I did for the counter top.

And I have many more projects on my to-do list- so I'm not sure how long I'll be able to keep up the blog updates :)

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

November Catch Up

I had to go to Oregon in November, just before Thanksgiving- I had my crown break. Yikes! So we got to see my family a little bit, while my dad had his lab make another one.



For Thanksgiving my mom's extended family goes to Zion's National Park every other year, and so we got to see a lot of my cousins. It was so fun, this picture is of my cousin Landon and my sister Melissa holding Emma's hands while walking around the park. Emma loves my cousin Landon, who just left on his mission to Mexico.
While daddy went hiking up Angel's Landing, we took a shorter hike and found some squirrels that were extremely friendly. We were even a little worried about how close they were getting. But Emma loved them.We did more moving and one weekend when we stayed the night in Provo, we discovered Emma doing this- and we thought it was hilarious.

Catching Up

I know I haven't posted for such a long time. But, it has become such a hassle now to load the pictures and try to think up all of the exciting things that I should be sharing about our family and our life . . . but then it builds up and then I feel overwhelmed. So I think I'm just going to upload pictures and maybe write a caption to go with it. And I'll try to get an update on here later. But, here was our October ....

I just love Fall- Fall and Spring are my favorite seasons- I just wish Utah had them for longer than they do. . .


Emma was a kitty for Halloween. For those of you who don't know, Emma LOVES kitties!

She also loved helping carve our pumpkin.
Oh and this is fun news- for those of you who don't know, That BYU jersey that reads "Sweeney"- yeah that's James' little brother. He's redshirting this year, but we got to watch him play in pre-season games. That was fun! We look forward to 2 years from now when he'll be back from his mission and playing on the team!