Boy Names

Girls names seem to be really easy for us, so we have had a girl name picked out for a long time. But agreeing on a boy name is nearly impossible for us. These are a few of the most current options that we are considering... what do you think?

Unsatisfied Craving

I started craving these a couple of weeks ago. Apparently they no longer make them. Which, of course, makes me crave them more! Has anyone seen them around anywhere or know how to make a homemade version?

New Year's Resolutions Progress

I think part of staying on top of my resolutions is to tell other people about them, and then to re-evaluate them as you go. So I thought it would be interesting to see where I am...
1. Make my family a priority. This one is going well! I can honestly say that I have never felt closer to my little family than I do right now. I feel so blessed.
2. Exercise 3 x week. I never thought I would be the one to say this, but I absolutely LOVE yoga! I go to a yoga class twice a week, so then I only have to find one other workout a week. This yoga class is really intense, and I feel like I'm in really good shape because of it.
3. Take a class. Still deciding. I will probably take this class after the baby is born since a lot of the classes I want to take overlap or come really close to my due date.
4. Stick to the budget. After the month of December, January feels like it has been a breeze to stick to the budget! Also, I started part time baby-sitting this month(3 days a week), so that is helping in my efforts!
5. Monthly temple attendance. The temple was closed the first half of January, so I need to go this weekend!
6. Finish the Book of Mormon. Hit the halfway mark on Monday!
7. A project a week. I haven't been documenting these projects very well, but my friend Charlotte has inspired me to do more before and after pictures. She is also inspiring me to get them done every week and giving me some good ideas! In January, we have turned our spare bedroom into a playroom, framed and drywalled some stuff in our basement, hung a door in our laundry room, and built a recessed shelf to get our dvd player/surround sound out of Emma's reach. Most of this Jared did the work on- he is AMAZING, by the way. We need to finish texturing, so as soon as that is done and the spare furniture is out of the playroom, I will get pictures up. My personal project this week was deep cleaning the refrigerator(also the microwave and stove). Every drawer, every shelf. I feel like I have a brand new fridge! As you can tell, now I need to go grocery shopping! :)

11 Months

She is always cocking her head to get our attention and when she is trying to give us a cheesy smile.

Her first word was "ball." She now also says "bye-bye" when she waves good-bye. She will often randomly throw out "dada" and occasionally(usually when she is upset), I get to hear a "mama." She also loves mimicking anything we say... when we click our tongues or even cough. Last night Jared put her in her pajamas and then stood her up and said "Ta-da!" She immediately mimicked him. It is pretty fun to see her little personality becoming more and more apparent.

Emma must be going through a growth spurt. For the last week or so, I'm pretty sure she is out-eating me. It is like every dinner for her is a Thanksgiving dinner. This is her right after one of her ridiculous meals and she looks completely stuffed.

Dreaming of Snow

They have been forecasting snow for us all week, and last night they were pretty sure we would be waking up to some good white stuff... but no such luck... we haven't had snow since New Year's. I'm not asking for a lot- just enough to play in. Anyone want to share? :)

Emma the Explorer

If a hole is big enough to put her head through, she goes through it or under it. If she can get a foothold she will climb over or on it. Since becoming mobile, I often find Emma in predicaments like these:



She always gets stuck, at least for a second, but she has worked herself out of every situation(while I take pictures, of course). The only time she has ever needed to be rescued was when she climbed over this carpet remnant we got the other day. She was so mad and I was laughing so hard at her. Of course she must have had something to prove because she tried it again about five minutes later.

A Mother's Role

When Emma was born, I never felt like I had a hard time stepping into the role of a mother. Newborn babies are pretty simple- make sure they are fed, clean and comfortable. Even the small teaching moments I have had with her like getting her to sleep through the night or teaching her that screaming doesn't get her food any faster, etc. seemed to come fairly naturally.

Ever since I weaned her(it has been 5 weeks or so), I have felt a little lost as a mom. I used to feel like I was so in tune with her needs and emotions, and could be there for those things. Now she gets around on her own pretty well, drinks by herself out of a sippy cup, and I don't have to hand feed her very many foods anymore. I actually feel pretty unnecessary, like just about anyone can do what I do for her. She has had the flu this past weekend, so she pretty much returned to a pretty helpless state, and she just wanted to cuddle and be held(which gave me lots of time to think). It got me thinking about what my role really is in her life.

"Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children." (The Family: A Proclamation to the World). I looked up the definition of "nurture" in the dictionary. There are three definitions:
1. to feed and protect
2. to support and encourage
3. to bring up; train; educate

When she was younger, maybe my nurturing role did just entail feeding and protecting her, but it changes over time as she grows and develops and her nurturing needs are different. Her newfound independence doesn't make me less necessary or less important, it just means that my role in her life makes a subtle change.

Had "the" ultrasound today...

I LOVE this ultrasound! It is better than the first because the baby looks more like a person. I also feel like I get a taste of my baby's personality and it is so nice to see that all the pieces and parts are looking good and how they should be. I thought that Emma was an active baby, but this kid NEVER stops moving. The ultrasound tech was starting to get frustrated. She said, "Well, you definitely don't have a mellow baby!"

Growth is where it should be, so the due date stays the same, May 9th. Everything else looked just like it should.

PS- I guess I assumed that most people already knew this, but we aren't finding out what we are having. Sorry if you clicked on this post hopinig for more exciting news... think how much more excited you will be when the baby is born!! ;)

Family Pictures

Got some new family pics that I love! These are by my friend Mandy- check her out at http://www.awimages.blogspot.com. I'm trying to pick a couple of my favorites to print out very large and frame. Anyone have favorites?
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Emma's Pictures

My favorite pictures of Emma- seriously, how do you choose just a couple?

2010

I love setting goals. Without them I'm afraid I would get nothing done. But sometimes I think when I start setting goals(especially at the beginning of a new year), I get a little over-ambitious. So I'm trying to limit myself a little more. I would love to have a perfectly clean and cutely decorated home, an amazing yard/garden, 3 perfectly healthy, balanced meals on the table every day, accomplish amazing craft projects, get some scrapbooking done, a better routine for Emma, journal more, read more, practice the piano more, serve others more, bake bread weekly, coupon more... and the list can go on and on with things that I wish I did a little better or a little more. But I have set some priorities for my goals this year. I will work on all these other things, but I will try not to let them distract me from the others I have set.

Physical: Exercise. A minimum of 3 times a week. During and after this pregnancy. This is in large part to help the pregnancy go more smoothly as well as the delivery, but also because I am planning on running at least a 10K at the Pocatello Marathon this summer. I need to stay on top of things so I will be able to be ready and train for the race in just a couple of months.

Mental: Take a class. I haven't decided on which one yet. But CSI offers a lot of good community ed classes and I have a list of ones I would like to take. Spanish, gardening, cooking, parenting, sewing, finance, digital scrapbooking, photography. I have taken several classes there and have loved them all. I'm excited to take another one, now the trick is choosing!

Financial: Stick to the budget. I'm a little obsessive with keeping our budget current, and I also frequently update our debt payoff schedule. This year I want to stick to the budget rigidly so the debt payoff schedule doesn't have to be adjusted.

Spiritual: Attend the temple monthly. Preferably with Jared. At least every other month will be with Jared, but if I have to go on my own, that will still count. There is no excuse for me to miss a monthly temple trip when it is only 4 miles from my house.

Spiritual: Finish the Book of Mormon. I'm am happiest when I am consistently and daily working toward this goal, so I intend to accomplish it. I will re-evaluate this one monthly to make sure I am still on track.

Domestic: A project a week. This doesn't mean paint my house. This means clean out the coffee table and end table drawers one week, organize the kitchen junk drawer another week, sort through Emma's clothes and store the ones that are too small, etc. Just baby step projects to help keep the house more organized and clean.

Most of all, I plan to make my family a priority.
-Mealtimes around the table;
-More quality time with Emma everyday(reading together, going for walks, going swimming, getting down on the floor to play with her);
-Weekly date nights with Jared(even if date night is playing games or watching a movie together after Emma goes to bed at 8).

I really have so many other things I would like to improve and do, but for now I feel these are reasonable and attainable things. When I master all of these, I will add another...

The Battle of the Sippy Cup

Emma didn't have a problem switching over to the sippy cup. In fact, she didn't even seem to notice a difference except that she suddenly had handles on the thing she was drinking out of. I soon realized this was because the sippy cup we got her was really easy to drink out of, much like a bottle nipple. When we bought the next size up sippy cup, it was a lot harder to drink out of, and she refused to do it- for weeks. We finally decided it was time to go cold turkey with the switch since the other lid was worn and leaking. She would hold it up to suck out of, throw it on the ground and cry and scream for a couple of minutes. Then she would go get it, pick it up and try again. This happened over and over again for 45 minutes until she finally made a real effort. It still takes her a while to drink it, but at least she does it without temper tantrums!

Comparing the belly

Since there is much speculation about the gender of this baby, I thought it would be fun to show you pictures for comparisons. Don't "they" say you carry girls higher?

Emma- 24 weeks

Baby #2- 21 weeks