Stones & Bones

Oklahoma

2012-02-12T14:32:00.000-08:00

We are moving to Oklahoma in two weeks. I have never been there so it is kind of surreal to be up and moving. I haven't blogged about it, but Josh has been living in Wyoming/Colorado/Oklahoma for the last year for work so I have been home with Ember (and working full time too). My last day of work was Thursday and so now we are packing up and getting ready to move. Josh has a permanent office job now so he won't be traveling and although he will have to work a lot still, we will at least see him for a few hours every day. It will be so nice to be together after enduring a whole year apart with only sporadic visits every few months. Ember is pretty excited too. Whenever we talk about Oklahoma or moving she follows up with "And then we will see Daddy" with a big smile on her face. I am a little scared though, because I don't know anyone who lives there and I am currently 7 months pregnant. It is not very fun to worry about finding a new doctor, a new hospital to deliver at, someone who is willing to watch Ember while I am in the hospital, and living in a new place without any family support with a new baby. I guess I just have to trust that everything will be okay.
We had an ultrasound taken last week to get a better facial profile and he is doing well. We took Ember with us and she had a really rough morning. She cried through the entire ultrasound which is very unusual for her. Contrary to what the people in the office probably thought, she is generally a pretty well behaved girl- granted that she is only two-and-a-half and has her share of difficult moments. I could just see the looks from all the people working there that seemed to say, "Why did you bring the kid here"(okay so they may have thought *Brat*). Poor Josh didn't get to come to the first ultrasound and then had to hold a screaming kid through this one. I felt terrible. One fun thing that the technician said though is that he has hair already! Ember did too when she was born. Other than that he is healthy and growing well.
I have only gained 10 pounds so far with this baby, which anyone who saw me would probably think was a lie. I am huge already. My doctor said that I should gain at least 10 more in the next 10 weeks so I am trying to eat more without going overboard. I need to take a picture to see how my belly is with this pregnancy as compared with my last one. My sister in law, who is due in three weeks commented yesterday that I am definitely bigger than she is. I must just carry my baby all in front. I got asked the other day when I went to the temple if I was going to be okay through the session. It was quite funny because I could tell the woman was sure I was about to go into labor any minute. She probably would have felt bad if she knew my due date wasn't for another 2 months!

Happy Birthday Josh

2012-01-29T23:59:00.000-08:00

So my attempts to get a good Happy Birthday picture were thwarted by a little girl who wanted to draw on her chalkboard. As soon as I gave it to her to hold up she immediately erased it and then scowled at me for trying such a silly think. What was I thinking?
Anyway, without the nice picture, Happy birthday Josh/Daddy. We love you lots and can't wait to see you again. We are so lucky to have you as our husband/Dad. I hope you know how much you mean to us and how much we are looking forward to being a real family again. We love you and hope you have a very happy birthday.

Emberisms

2012-01-22T19:28:00.000-08:00

Here is another list of the funny things that this little girl comes up with...

She was sick and had diarrhea around Halloween. She informed me, "I have ballerina in my bum"
"I need to grow up" (Nothing provoked this, she just came and announced it)
(She says this one all the time for any food that she knows she is going to like) "Oh no [in a very dramatic, end of the world voice]... it is going to be yummy"
(While eating an entire sandwich, crust included) "I do not like crust"
Yesterday we were at my brother's house and we were going to have burritos for dinner. She told me "I do not like burritos" She proceeded to eat her entire burrito and ask for seconds.
There is a song that goes "When my mother calls me, quickly I'll obey..." The other day I was in the other room getting ready and she was asking for something. Suddenly she bursts into my room and in her most impatient voice says, "Mom... quickly I'll obey" as if I should have left what I was doing the instant she called me.
She has become infatuated with Mater from the movie Cars. She pretends that she is Mater and refers to herself in third person as Mater. I have been playing along so far but I don't know how long to let it go on.
We have bowls with a flower on the bottom and I was using one the other day to eat my soup. She likes to see the flower when it is empty and asked to look at it when I had finished. She then informed me, "It is kind of like Mater, but it is a flower." Thanks. I never would have known.
"Yellow is a bright color" and apparently it is the only one. When I try to tell her that sometimes orange or red can be bright she sets me straight.

She can be such a goon sometimes.

Merry Christmas

2012-01-15T14:19:00.000-08:00

I know it is a little late, but here are our Christmas pictures. We had a very low-key Christmas this year, mainly because I came down with a upper respiratory infection two weeks before and I still didn't have any energy when Christmas rolled around. Sadly to say, we didn't make it to see Christmas lights or to any of the parties, or to any of the other things we planned on doing. Santa, however, did make it to our house and Ember was appropriately spoiled with dress-ups, puzzles, a chalkboard, paper dolls, a frog towel, some clothes, and a monkey hat. She was supposed to get a new bike, but we procrastinated getting it and then never got around to it. She will be getting one soon though, but not as soon as she would like. Her favorite present was the drums at her cousin's house. I wish I had thought of that. Oh well, she has something to wish for next year.

I was spoiled out of my socks too! My parents gave Josh and I (me mainly) a brand new fancy digital camera. I have had lots of fun with it already, but I am sure that it will be a favorite for years to come. Josh surprised me with a new keyboard (the piano type, not the computer type). I have been wanting to learn how to play for a long time, but we just never had room. It is fancy.
My creative juices were sadly lacking this year and Josh got new clothes, a watch, and a couple of board games. I need to do better next year.

Ultrasounds

2011-12-03T12:48:00.001-08:00

Here are the pictures of my ultrasound. We are having a boy in April! Hooray!

Halloween

2011-11-11T15:17:00.000-08:00

Ember was a dragon for Halloween this year. A little known fact about her, her name was the name of a dragon in one of Josh's favorite books. We thought it worked well for a fiery little girl too. We had a busy weekend planned with a party Friday, Saturday, and Sunday then trick-or-treating on Monday. Well, things didn't exactly work out as planned. We went to the first party at a friends house on Friday. About 15 minutes into it, before most people had even arrived, Ember told me she wanted to "go night-night". After a few minutes more I took a better look at her and we said goodbye and left. We got home and I gave her a little snack since we didn't get dinner at the party. Then she climbed in bed. Within the next hour, she had thrown up all over her crib, the bedroom floor, my bed, and the living room floor. It was a great night. She felt a little better the next day but we still decided not to go to that party. The one party that we did make it to and got pictures was at my brother's house. Ember had a great time. Her favorite part was riding the trike around the pool. I think she did it for about an hour. It was the highlight of her night.

Ember's cousin, Joe

Ember's cousin Brian

Their playroom is set up like a jungle gym and Ember loves it over there. I saw her doing this and told her that she was "Living on the edge". Ever since she has called this "Living with Edge".

As you can tell, she loved it. It did end with her falling through the slats and biting her lip. I guess that is what happens when you "live with Edge"

On Monday we went trick-or-treating of sorts. We went to our neighbor who gave Ember a couple pieces of candy. Then I asked her if she wanted to go to other doors. She immediately told me she was "all done" and walked straight back to our house. So much for trick-or-treating. We will try again next year.

Emberisms

2011-10-01T21:39:00.000-07:00

Here are some new funny things she has said over the last few weeks. She really cracks me up sometimes.
* I was getting dressed and she walked into the room and said "Hello Bra"
* "Please have the magic spoons" (whisks)
*She was watching a little movie where it shows a word then shows a little clip of a kid or baby doing the action. It showed the words "Put your arms down" then cut to a clip of a baby doing that. Ember in a very angry voice said "NO BABY, LET EMBER DO IT"
* (after walking into a wall) "Wall, don't hit Ember"
* (when she was eating a granola bar) "Mommy get it a mate" -at least she didn't ask for one for herself.
*(while crying and throwing at fit) "I WANT TO BE HAPPY"

More Pictures

2011-09-27T19:10:00.000-07:00

Ember still loves shoes. She was trying to walk in Daddy's shoes this time.
I love that this picture makes her look like linus on Charlie Brown.
Ember now can get out of her crib by herself. One day during naptime, I snuck in to check on her and found her like this. At least she was asleep!

Two Cute

2011-09-24T20:59:00.000-07:00

Ember turned two last week and we had a low-key party for her. We went to a train park and let her play on the slides then rode the train and carousel. She has been asking to ride them both ever since. A couple of her cousins came too. It was a fun day.

So my cakes aren't very pretty, but they taste good. I have never been very good at decorating them. Hers was a red velvet and it was supposed to be six layers but only five survived.

Ember-isms

2011-08-20T15:11:00.001-07:00

Here is another update on the funny things that Ember says. She has got personality coming out of her ears.
*She was taking a bath awhile back and had some toys in there with her. She turned around and sneakily crawled/swam from one end of the bathtub to the other saying "I'm going to get you cup...I'm going to get you."
*She has lately taken an affinity to jumping. Whenever she is waiting for me to help her with something she will pass the precious seconds by jumping up and down and declaring "Ember's jumping" Here is an example, this is from a wedding we went to a few weeks ago. She could do this for hours.

*She was watching a kids movie that shows animals and some words and she pointed to a Gorilla and declared "There's Mommy". Classic eh. The next image was an elephant to which she pointed to and said "There's Mommy". I don't think she should watch that movie ever again.
*We were sitting on the couch the other day and she stuck both of her hands in her mouth and was grabbing her tongue. I asked "What are you doing, Ember?" she replied "Ember take her tongue out." She tried for a good ten minutes. I am glad to report she was unsuccessful and the tongue stayed put.
*The sad day has arrived, Ember can now get out of her crib. Today was the first day that I went in there and found her asleep on my bed rather than in her crib. Oh the fun has begun.

I'm a model...

2011-07-17T14:16:00.000-07:00

I had the illustrious Melissa Baxter take Ember's pictures when we were visiting my family a few weeks ago. They turned out fantastic. Hope you enjoy them.

Another Update (Finally)

2011-07-17T13:35:00.000-07:00

Ember has learned all sorts of things lately, like how to pose for the camera...
Where her tongue is...
What a tractor is (she also knows the difference between an excavator and a backhoe- but that is another story)...
How to climb in the laundry basket...
How to get what you want at any moment...
How to pop some wheel-ees...
How to ride a4-wheeler and look awesome while doing it...
How to sing some Beatles...
and how to ride a tricycle. Along with a myriad of other things that I can't remember. She is such a cute girl and we love having her around.

A Cornucopia of Pictures

2011-05-08T22:07:00.000-07:00

This is what I got for Mother's day. Aren't they so pretty. I really do like tulips.
This is my resident ducky. Ember LOVES ducks lately. She carries her duck around with her and she had a dream last night about her ducky towel. She says quack quack quite well for a year and a half if I do say so myself.
She loves climbing on the rocks outside.
And loves getting into anything...trouble is her specialty. She has been singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star quite a bit lately, but she only gets about a third of the words. I don't usually let her eat and watch TV but I was trying to get her to hold still while she was singing so I could get it on camera. She will sing on her own too. She has been saying This little piggy... too, but the only words she gets are "Market...Home...Wee Wee Wee"

Happy Easter

2011-04-26T21:24:00.000-07:00

We had a fun Easter weekend. On Saturday we met up with Ember's cousins and went to an Easter egg hunt at a nearby park. Despite them saying there were 6000 eggs, we only got three total. Ember didn't care one wit. It was much more fun to her to play on the slide. We did score this sweet picture with the Easter bunny though. Not one of us is looking at the camera. I think the woman in the background in the pink dress is hilarious. I couldn't look that bored if I tried.
The slides were a lot of fun. Ember loves the slides and swings.

On Easter morning she got a healthy breakfast of beans and chicken. Too bad they were Jelly beans and a chocolate chicken. Am I a bad Mom?
This is Ember's Easter dress. We didn't get a great picture of it so we might have to do a mock photo shoot later. She looked pretty cute, but then again, when doesn't she?
After so much excitement she had a nice long nap with her bum in the air. She was completely tuckered out. That afternoon we went to Josh's parents and played with some of her other cousins. I didn't get any pictures of that, but she had a great time.
The Easter bunny was good to us this year.

How does our garden grow...

2011-04-17T13:37:00.000-07:00

This is mainly for Josh who wants to see how our garden is doing. We built some planter boxes and are growing tomatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, brussel sprouts, green onions, squash, zucchini, corn, peppers, carrots, spinach, lettuce, eggplant, various herbs, broccoli and cauliflower. We used the "Square Foot Gardening" book which has worked great for us beginners. It has been a lot of fun.We have something growing in our carrots and I don't know what it is. It looks like some sort of squash or maybe lettuce. It is on the far left in the second square back. I am just going to let it grow and see what becomes of it.

Ember-isms

2011-04-09T21:50:00.000-07:00

(Ember loves purses... she took three with her when we went outside the other day. She has such a personality).

Anyway, since Ember has started talking a little I am going to try to keep track of some of the funny things she says and does (sorry Meghan I am stealing your "that's what he said" idea). So here goes.

Ember loves buses. She always points them out to me and has started calling them "Wawa (water) bus" then she will giggle. I don't have any idea where she got that one. Now she has changed to just giggling whenever she sees a bus.

When we are driving Ember will often guess where we are going. A few days ago she said "Aunt Ty's house" Too bad it should have been Uncle Ty's house.

The other night I woke up to Ember yelling, "No, No, NO Shoes, No shoes, ... BOOTS" Turns out she was dreaming. I can only imagine that she doesn't think that shoes go with her outfit and she wants to wear boots instead. I have a little fashionista for a daughter.

Speaking of shoes, every time we read a book (which is ALL the time- I think we must have read about 50 of them today), she insists on pointing out every person's shoes. Occasionally she will point out socks or a hat but shoes are much more common.

One more shoe story... Ember will often bring me a shoe from the closet and with an insistent "Uhh uhh" tell me to put it on. After I have one shoe on she will run back to the closet and grab the other one and bring it to me to put on. Typically they are a matching pair. Her favorites are my knee high boots. Not surprising considering her dream.

Ember loves to listen to a kids CD on the radio and even knows how to turn it on herself. One of the songs is about and owl and a cat. She has a little plastic owl and every time the song plays she will run in the other room and say "Owl" and frantically look for her plastic owl then run back to the radio and listen to the song with it.

I often get a play by play of what I am doing. When we were driving home yesterday I rolled up the windows and Ember said "Windows up". When I pour my cereal for breakfast Ember says "Mommy Chex" then "Mommy milk". When I am driving I get "Mommy drive" and so on and so on.

She sometimes will ask to go to bed (I am a lucky Mom, whose kid does that!). She will say "Night night" when she is tired. One time when it was nap time and Josh was watching her she went to her crib and tried to climb in saying "Night Night... Night NIGHHHT!" If only she did this every time.

This week I have been working in the field and we are starting really early so I have to take Ember to the babysitter at 4 am. She wakes up every time I take her down to the car and usually doesn't fall asleep on the way there, but I can tell she looks forward to going to sleep when she gets there. She will tell me "Shayla's house...night night"

Ember loves numbers too. She will often point out page numbers on the books we read and tell me what they are. She knows 0-9 but hasn't quite got the concept beyond that. She will call 10, "one-zero". The other day she looked down at her shirt that says "You make me happy" on it and pointed to the "h" (which is upside down to her) and said "four".

She has been trying to sing songs a little bit and she will get a huge grin on her face if I guess what she is singing correctly. Today she started singing "Old McDonald" but she got the E-I-E-I-O tune off a little and it was the words to Old McDonald and the tune of Mary had a little lamb.

That's all I can think of right now. Hopefully I can think of more later.

Psedu-Camping

2011-03-30T22:14:00.000-07:00

I took Ember camping a few weeks ago and she had a great time. It wasn't REAL camping because there was a cabin to sleep in but we got dirty and came home smelling like campfire. She loved running around outside and exploring.

We went to the doctor today for Ember's 18-month appointment. She is a tall girl, 34 inches which is the 97th percentile. She is 28 lbs which is the 90th percentile. She is a smart little cookie too. She is doing really well on her vocabulary and even putting words together. My favorite word she says is Rhinoceroses. It sounds like "eye-nos-rus". It is pretty cute.

Valentine's Cards

2011-02-11T20:22:00.000-08:00

If I did Valentine's day cards, I would want them to look like this...
If only I were that creative. Just pretend you got one like that in the mail with a really cute picture of Ember and a lollipop. If you don't get one, it must have gotten lost in the mail. ;-)
Instead here is the best photo I got this week:
Yep. That's my girl. Asleep in her cottage cheese. I don't know how long she was there before I noticed. I was using lunch time as my get stuff done time and since she wasn't complaining- I wasn't watching. She was quite a mess as you can imagine with cottage cheese plastered all over her face.This is another gem that my friend gave me. She loves the piano and loves playing with the boy she is with. He is a cutie. I would be okay if he these two were valentines at some point. Happy Valentine's Day everyone.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

2011-01-30T11:22:00.000-08:00

The winner...

The outtakes...

My Favorite Night

2011-01-29T18:06:00.000-08:00

My absolute favorite part of the day is feeding Ember a bottle before she goes to bed. I probably should have taken her off a bottle already but I just can't give it up. She lays in my arms, cuddles, and drinks her bottle and all the frustrations of the day seem to melt away and I realize how much I love my little girl. Tonight was especially nice because she was so ready to go. I was expecting the nighttime ritual to take longer tonight because she took a long afternoon nap and seems so awake. At about 6:45 she asked for bath time (her word for it is "Boo-a-boo". I have no idea where that came from but she says it every night.) and being the nice mommy that I am I said "Sure, we can have bath time now. She got in and I barely got her washed and rinsed and she wanted to get out. Again, being the nice mommy that I am I said "Okay". Then we went to read books. One book later she was running into the other room for her milk. She slurped down her bottle with her eyes half shut and laid on my shoulder while I brushed her teeth and carried her to her room. After a couple extra cuddles and a kiss goodnight she was in bed. 7:01 p.m. Ahh BLISS... I think it was the best night ever.
Oh no, I spoke too soon... I think I hear her crying.

(FYI: The pictures have nothing to do with the post. I just think she looks adorable dressed up for church. The first one is after her nap. She is looking her disheveled best.)

Mexico

2011-01-14T20:26:00.000-08:00

One of our Christmas presents was a cruise for the whole family to Mexico. I convinced Josh to go too (which is a feat in itself). We had a great time, except for the last day when we all got seasick from the rocking boat. Poor Ember didn't know what was wrong. She just wanted to play but everytime she tried she would get sick again.

We went to Chichen Itza one day and it was really neat. I wish we had more time to see more of the site. They don't let you climb to the top anymore and most of the area has to be viewed from a distance, but it was still neat to see such an interesting site.

It was a lot of fun, but it was nice to get home as well. We still have our sea legs so walking is a bit of a challenge. Ember is so funny when she loses her balance. She will be walking fine then she will collapse on the ground. She gets so frustrated because she doesn't know what is wrong. I feel bad for laughing, but it is too funny not to.

So I am a little late...

2011-01-14T20:00:00.000-08:00

But Merry Christmas anyway. We went to visit my family for Christmas and had a great time. Here are a few pictures of the festivities. On Christmas Eve we had a nativity. Grandma (aka Mary) needed a hug, even though Charlie had already claimed Grandma's lap. I don't think she minded too much.
Who knew that the wise men also doubled as Comet and Dasher. Santa must have stolen the wise men for his reindeer.

Dancer makes a great sheep.Ember had a hard time figuring out what she was. She was a donkey one minute, then an angel, and later she was a shepherd.
Char made a great baby Jesus, as long as he could have his bottle too.
Christmas morning we opened presents. Ember was more excited about her cousin's loot then her own, but who could blame her when they got these cool planes to ride.
After awhile Ember snuck away to Char's therapy room and played with all the toys in there. She is a sucker for a cell phone, even the toy ones are fun.We had a great Christmas and I hope all of you did as well.

Ho Ho Ho!

2010-12-12T12:40:00.000-08:00

Ember did really well for her picture with Santa. She was described by a girl at church today as "A social butterfly", which is true, so we didn't really expect any problems. She loves strangers and waves at everyone who walks into sacrament meeting. As long as you will hold her, you can be her best friend. She especially likes you if you will let her play with your phone.

These Boots are made for walking...

2010-12-12T11:56:00.000-08:00

Ember is such a girly girl. I don't know where she came from. She loves to walk around carrying a purse and to put necklaces and bracelets on. She has recently discovered a new favorite pastime...

She will bring me any of the shoes in our closet and beg to have them put on her feet. High heels and Josh's heavy work boots are her favorites. She walks best in this ballet flats though and now she can get this pair on by herself without any help at all.

We have also recently discovered that she is a sorter. She arranged her letters at bathtime like this:

She was in the process of moving the blue ones from the center to the side when she got out, that is why the K is still in the middle. She was very methodical about moving them and putting them in the right group. It is pretty funny.

We have officially entered tantrum stage and I don't like it at all. She is the type that will fall down on the ground and pound her fists when things don't go her way. Anyone know what to do about that?

Our Little Turkey

2010-11-28T14:54:00.000-08:00

We have decided that Ember makes a very good Turkey. She even posed for us on Thanksgiving.
This little girl loves to eat. I am starting to try to get her to use silverware and bowls. You can see how well it is working. She can do it by herself once or twice but then it is too slow so she goes back to using her hands again. She loves cottage cheese.
She is starting to say a bunch of words, but I think we are the only ones who can understand her. These are the words we recognize so far:
Mama
Dada
Ca - Car
Nana - Banana
Boon - Balloon
Eesse - Cheese
Cracka - Cracker
Dug - Dog
bowawa - Bow wow wow
baall - Ball
do-wap do-wap, do-wap - When your up your up
Baba - Bubbles or Bottle depending on her mood

Happy Haunting!

2010-10-30T22:01:00.000-07:00

We think she was the cutest Minnie Mouse around. Happy Halloween!

It has been a week!

2010-10-02T19:51:00.000-07:00

Isn't she a doll? Since this picture was taken last Sunday Ember has:

Bit her lip hard twice both times resulting in blood dripping down her chin

Hit her chin hard on the side of the bathtub

Hit her mouth on the baseboard of our bed

Fallen into a sand trap at a golf course

Gotten a goose-egg on her forehead from falling on a brick walkway

Scraped her nose at a birthday party

Fallen off chairs more times than I can count

Smashed her finger in our door (hard)

Bent back one of her toenails

Fallen off the couch

Headbutted into our ottoman

and about a million other falls that I can't remember

You can see the scrape down her nose in this picture. It looks really bad. (please don't call CPS, I promise I am not abusing her). Her legs are covered in bruises from climbing and I don't know how she is going to survive another week much less another year. We might come to know the emergency room very well over the next few years with this little one.

On top of all this, she is getting about 8 more teeth all at the same time. Her top premolars have just poked through and her top second incisors are just about to poke through too. The bottom ones of both don't look like they are far behind.

On a funner note, remember awhile back when I couldn't get her to eat bananas? Well, now I can't get her to stop. Every meal she says "Nana, nana" and then looks disappointed when I give her something else. She walks over to the counter where we keep the bananas and looks longingly at them even when she shouldn't be hungry. She ate half of another boys banana this morning because she stood by his mom and said "Nana". While cute, she might end up wearing out her welcome.

Somedays I am jeolous of the other mom's whose kids are not quite so mobile yet. We were at a birthday party for a little boy who is only two weeks younger than Ember and he isn't quite walking yet. His mom could set him on the floor or have someone hold him and he was happy and content. Ember was chasing after the kids that were 3-10 years old rather than sitting around with the 1-ish year olds. And she has the bumps to prove it. Oh well.

All Girl

2010-09-26T13:00:00.000-07:00

Ember is all girl sometimes. She loves carrying around her purse and packages. She is ready for her first trip to the mall I think.

It's My Party...

2010-09-25T21:22:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Miss Ember!

We had a pool part with some of her cousins and family last week for her birthday and had a lot of fun. Here are some pictures of the festivities.

Ember, however, wanted no part of the pool. She was much more interested in other things, like rocks (she gets it from her Dad). She spent most of the party climbing on the rocks. It was fine with me but was still a little funny.She loved the cake. She ate the raspberries on top of it right away but then she didn't know what to do with the rest. She patted it a few times then finally got a bite. She was very dainty and clean about it at first. By the end she was pretty messy though. It was cute to watch.

It is hard to believe it has already been a year since this little girl joined our family. We love her so much.

Babblefish

2010-09-04T09:03:00.000-07:00

I had been out of town for a couple days for work and I came home and laid down on the floor. Ember walked around me and then proceeded to sit down on my face. Repeatedly. Oh how nice it is to be home.
Ember loves shoes. She is constantly talking shoes out of our closet and carrying them around the house. One day, Josh found her in our closet with shoes piled one top of her and she was happy as a clam.
She has entered the wonderful world of climbing. She can get on almost all of our chairs which means that everything one the tables is within grasp. Oh what an adventure.

She has begun talking up a storm. I call her a babblefish (from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy). She loves to turn pages to books and read stories to us. It is pretty cute, especially when she starts to blow bubbles.

Summer Fun

2010-08-15T13:51:00.000-07:00

We had a family reunion at my parents house last week and had such a great time. It was so nice to see my family and to spend time with them and have them get to know Miss E a little better. Here are some pictures of our adventures.

Ember loved the swing. She was in heaven. I think we could have left her there all day and she would have been happy. Eating her first Avocado! It was a mess but she loved it.

My parents have an annual hobo party where everyone dresses up and we play all sorts of old fashion games. It was a lot of fun. Ember wanted to be held all day as we were getting ready for the party but as soon as everyone came (about 80 people) she wouldn't let us hold her at all. It was an adventure chasing after her but it was so much fun to see all the friends and family.

She loved the carousel ride at the zoo. I wasn't going to put her on it because I thought she was too young but my mom and sister convinced me to and you should have seen the smiles I got when we went up and down on the lion. She loves the motion.

This is a turtle shell she climbed inside at the zoo playground. She couldn't get enough of all the toys. We are going to have to start taking her to the park as soon as the weather cools off at home. It was so much fun.

It's Official...

2010-07-08T21:32:00.000-07:00

...we're walking! I count 9 steps in a row, maybe 10.

One of my First Steps

2010-07-05T17:27:00.000-07:00

So Ember has been making some attempts at walking lately. She will hold on to furninture until she can't get where she wants then she will let go and take a step or two and then fall down. She is so close to actually walking!

9 months

2010-06-22T21:56:00.000-07:00

Ember had her nine month appointment this morning and she is getting so big. She is 20 lbs 12 oz (which is in the 75-90%) and is 29 1/2 inches tall (97%). She is slimming down, she used to be in the 95% for weight and has always been tall. No wonder everyone is surprised that she is only 9 months old, she towers over all the other babies that are close to her age.
Father's Day sure was fun. We thought her onesie was appropriate. I didn't get a picture when she was all clean so here she is just before bed, looking her disheveled best.

Josh sent me this at work last week. Sometimes tired wins over hungry. She is a good little eater. She will pretty much eat whatever we give her except for bananas. I don't think she likes the sliminess of them. It is so sad because they are so yummy and are great finger foods.

She was reaching for a toy in her toy box and got high-centered on her wee little belly and fell in! You would have thought she was in heaven. She loved being able to explore. She loves to try to fit in the smallest places then gets upset when she gets stuck. It is awfully cute.

She is working on getting her top two teeth. We can see them there but they haven't quite poked out there pearly whiteness yet. She has a little bit of a hard time with teething, she gets a fever and is quite uncomfortable for awhile. I hope they cut through soon.

Pigtails

2010-06-10T17:53:00.000-07:00

Ember wore her first pigtails to church last Sunday and boy did she look cute. She looked so grown-up. She almost looks like a toddler rather than a baby. It is fun to watch her grow and change.

Swimmin' in the Water

2010-06-05T20:59:00.000-07:00

We took Ember swimming for her first time last Monday and she had the time of her life. I have never seen her so excited to do something. I love the squeals of delight. First, thought, we had to get her picture in her cute swim suit. I absolutely love the tutu.

She has also recently learned how to clap her hands together and she does it all the time, except when there is a video camera on. We can't seem to get it on video, but we will keep trying. It is currently her favorite thing to do.

We had some people over for dinner last weekend and they brought their 6 month old little girl. She was sitting in our exersaucer and Ember was playing with it from the outside. Ember started talking at the volume she usually does (DA DA DA-She definitely doesn't have an inside voice yet). The other girl got this terrified look on her face and started to cry. It was the saddest thing I have seen. Ember had no idea why she could possibly be crying and no idea that she had scared the daylights out of her. Funny, sad, and oh so cute all at the same time.

8 month photo session

2010-05-26T22:20:00.000-07:00

So I procrastinated getting her 6 month photos taken so here they are at 8 months. Rachelle did such a great job, I love them. Take a peek here
http://www.rpsphotography.com/2010/05/ember-8-months-growing.html

More Pictures

2010-05-26T22:10:00.000-07:00

Sometimes she surprises me with just how pretty she is. Of coarse, I am an adoring mom.

But she also has a wild side, that we see more than the peaceful one.

And then there is the getting into everything. I have never seen anyone so determined. She practically sprints across the room every time we open a cupboard or the fridge. She is so curious. She has two teeth now and she has been pretty onery for both of them. She got her first one about a month ago and her second one last weekend. I don't like her teething at all. I kind of wish they would all come in at once and we could be done with it.

What a Doll

2010-05-06T18:11:00.000-07:00

Doesn't she have a cute smile. It makes me melt.

I came home to this one afternoon. She loves to cuddle. She has figured out how to pull herself up to standing and man is she into everything. It is quite the adventure. She is so curious about everything and toys just aren't fun anymore especially when there are other things. Her favorite right now are cd cases and computer cords. Oh what fun.

We are going to be doing some serious childproofing this weekend.

Pictures and Giggles

2010-04-22T17:51:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter. This is her pretty Easter dress.

She also figured out how to crawl under things, but she gets stuck sometimes.

These are her cute giggles. She was a little slap happy that night and she absolutely loves puppets. We found this little duck at a garage sale. She loved it.

This is how she started out crawling, kind of like a little worm. Now she can get up on her hands and knees, but she still crawls like this sometimes.

Growing like a weed

2010-04-10T21:54:00.000-07:00

Miss E. is growing so fast! She is still at the top of the charts for height and weight. I LOVE this green dress, so we had an impromtu photo shoot before church a couple of weeks ago.

Speaking of big and strong, she is amazing at her yoga moves. It is definitely the best down dog I have ever seen. If you can't tell, she is one her hands and tippy-toes in this one. She has almost gotten the hang of crawling. She gets up on all fours and rocks then she will get on her tummy and wiggle her legs like crazy. It gets her moving forward but it is still a little slow going. I would guess by the end of this week she will be into everything.

She is really good at sitting on her own now although occasionally she will still topple over.

Horray for baseball season. She is already a D-backs fan. Snakes eat Mets (or Birds for Grandpa).

Hanging out with Daddy.

Bitter Beer Face

2010-03-12T15:56:00.000-08:00

Ember has discovered her lower lip and it is the cutest "old man" or "bitter beer" face in the world. We can't tell if it is because she is teething or if it is just a new discovery. She loves to suck on that lip though.

She also loves to grab for anything that you don't want her to get. She is getting to be pretty good at sitting up by herself as well.

Ember and I went to visit my family last weekend and it was so much fun. Ember loved playing with her cousins and seeing everyone else. Britty was especially fun because he would get down and play with her on the ground. He was so cute to spend time with his little cousin.

Speaking of cute-Look at these cute girls. Melissa planned a great little shindig with all the old girls. It was so much fun to see everyone and find out what everyone is up to. I love these girls!

Chunky Monkey

2010-02-20T09:02:00.000-08:00

Here are some more pictures of our little chunky monkey. I don't think I ever posted, but at her last doctor's appointment (in January) she weighed 15 lbs 10.5 oz and was 27 inches tall! She is in the 90 percentile for weight and 100 percentile for height. She is such a big girl. Here are some more pictures of her as she grows.

Josh's mom gave her this shirt. Isn't it cute!
This is the first time she has stood with us just holding her hands. She is still pretty wobbly.

This little outfit is her first Valentine's present. Isn't she cute in a hoody!

My First Food

2010-02-01T20:41:00.000-08:00

Ember had her first solids today, although rice cereal isn't exactly solid. It is more like a little thicker milk. She seemed to do okay with it although I don't think much actually got down. Most of it ended up in her bib. It was kind of fun though.

A Few of My Favorite Things

2010-02-01T20:27:00.000-08:00

Sleeping sideways and getting myself unswaddled and in quite a predicament.

My pirate binky. ARRRR.

And my all-time favorite- Jumping!

And today's new addition - wind.

Nursury Rhymes (Daddy Style)

2010-02-01T17:07:00.000-08:00

Hush little baby, don't say a word
Daddy's gonna buy you a mockingbird
and if that mockingbird don't sing
Daddy's gonna buy you a diamond ring
and if that diamond ring is fake
Daddy's gonna buy you a chocolate cake
and if that chocolate cake's no good
you still the sweetest baby in the hood.

(Josh sang this version to Ember today)

Kids Don't Lie

2010-01-06T20:51:00.000-08:00

We were watching Josh's niece and nephews last night and I had a conversation with his niece that went something like this:
Niece: "Do you like being a mommy?"
Me: "Yes, I love being a mommy. It is really fun. Do you want to be a mommy some day."
Niece: "Yeah."
Niece (while poking my belly): "It looks like you are going to have another baby."
Me: "No, I am not."
:-(

And I thought I looked okay for having a baby a few months ago. It is time to start getting serious about working out again.

Happy 2010!

2010-01-02T19:09:00.001-08:00

Sometimes I feel like I am the only one blogging still. I hope that doesn't mean that nobody is reading anymore.

Anyway, Ember was just a little bit spoiled this Christmas. She doesn't really need anything so we just got a couple of things for her this year. Next year I think we will just wrap the same gifts up again and give them to her all over again, because everyone knows that the wrapping paper in the real favorite toy anyway. Here she is with her loot. She still prefers her hands to any other toy. She got an unbrella stroller, two outfits, bubbles, plastic bowls, and a duck toy and duck towel from Grandma and Grandpa. She also got a couple of outfits from Josh's side of the family but she got those later on Christmas and they didn't make it in the photo.

The bubbles were a real disappointment. Granted, they were 2 for $1, but I can't get any bubbles to actually blow. Josh did manage to get one or two bubbles but they were a total bust. Anyone know how to make bubbles? I am guessing it is just dish soap and water but I don't know how much of each to put in. Google, here I come.

The duck, however, was a big hit. She loves it. She is trying to eat it in this one. Duck might be her first solid food and she is not a vegetarian.

It has a motion detector and it will say things like "I love you" or "Peek-a-boo" or "quack quack" Twice now, we have been playing with it and then I have put her to bed and maybe 20 minutes later I have come back into the room and the duck has said "I love you". It is a bit unnerving. I think it might be possessed. Either that or it has the hots for me. I don't quite know what to think about that. I hope everyone else had a fabulous Christmas and a Happy New Years.

Santa Photos

2009-12-26T16:03:00.000-08:00

Ember's First Meeting with the Big Man!
Ember's cousins, Joe, Brian, and Max.

Ember's cousin Britty.

Giggles

2009-12-21T19:45:00.000-08:00

Miss E. has started giggling and it is absolutely adorable. She loves to be cleaned and started giggling when I was washing her neck. She is getting so big and so much fun. It is so fun to make her smile and giggle.

Pictures

2009-12-13T20:07:00.000-08:00

We went to visit my family for Thanksgiving and had a really fun time. We drove the 11 hours up there at night and Ember slept almost the entire way. I wish I could have slept at all! Even when Josh was driving I couldn't sleep. It was a long day and I was completely tuckered out on Thanksgiving day. Ember was just starting to smile at people at this point and Grandpa loved trying to get the smiles out. I didn't take many pictures while we were there. Opps.

Uncle Ty invited us to go see Santa fly into the airport for his company party. We got a picture of her with Santa but I haven't got it yet. Britty came down to go too. It was a lot of fun and there was so much to do. Ember had a great time people watching until it was just too much and she decided she had had enough excitement for the day so naturally she started screaming.

At church a couple of weeks ago

Hangin' out at work with Mom.

"My Fingers are delicious!" (eating her fingers is her favorite pasttime)

So she has started to giggle just a little bit and it is adorable. I love to listen to it. She is getting such a pleasant personality. She is happy most of the time, but if she is upset she will let you know. She is starting to grab for things just a little bit. I will set her on the ground with a couple of toys and sometimes she will be able to get one in her hands. It is fun to watch her learn to do things and to actually succeed. I can't believe how much she has grown. She will be 3 months old on Thursday. She has found her voice too, she loves to babble away and sometimes it is hard to tell the difference between her talking and her starting to get upset. She is pretty loud, especially in quiet places (like during church today). It is cute though and I would hope that all the people there would understand. I really can't believe how lucky we are to have such an adorable little girl. You don't have to agree with me, but I sure think she is the cutest thing ever.

She LOVES it!

2009-11-09T17:45:00.000-08:00

Our Little Elf

2009-11-01T13:48:00.000-08:00

So we are a little lame and didn't do much for Halloween. I did finally make a costume for Ember yesterday afternoon. She wore it for about 10 minutes so we could get pictures then the hat and belt fell off. Oh well. It will be a lot more fun when she is a little older. I did love her elf costume. I kind of just made up the pattern and it turned out pretty cute. Of course when the little girl wearing it is so cute it is hard to go wrong.

This was not such a treat though... I have been pooped on twice in two days. Oh my what a runny mess. I told Josh that it is his turn next. He isn't so excited for that idea.

We are amazed at how fast she is growing. Look- She is already holding her bottle by herself. ;-)

This is Ember's only living great-grandparent. We went over to visit last week and to introduce the two of them. It was so fun.

I go back to work tomorrow, unfortunately, but luckily she gets to come with me for awhile. We will see how much working I will be able to get done. I hope it works out okay.

Miss E's Blessing

2009-10-20T20:55:00.000-07:00

So this isn't the blessing dress, but it was too cute not to show. My parents gave her this adorable dress and she wore it on her first week at church. I think she looks so perfect. I think the little socks that look like shoes are the cutest.

This is her on her blessing day. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of her with Josh. Everything was so rushed that I didn't think about it until the following day. She was perfect during her blessing-wide awake and alert but she never made a peep. It was beautiful. Here are more pictures of her in her blessing dress. I will freely admit that I am a first time parent. I dote on her all the time and I love to just watch her coo and squirm. She is such a sweet girl.

So besides having a beautiful daughter, she is also a very good little sleeper. Most nights she sleeps at least 6 hours in a row and last Sunday she slept for 9 hours! I know I am in for it when we have our next kid because no one gets this lucky for two kids in a row. We have decided that she just is slow to wake up and so she will half wake up and we will hear a couple of peeps but by the time we start to think about going to get her, she is fast asleep again. I am pretty sure by the time she is in school it is going to take forever to get her out of bed and ready. I can't imagine how hard she will be to wake up when she is a teenager, but I am going to enjoy it for now and not worry about the future.

Smiles

2009-10-10T09:34:00.000-07:00

We are getting some smiles from Ember. They may just be gas but we will take them. My Moms friend knitted this cute hat and blanket for her. She is so styling in them.

Ember's Photo Shoot

2009-10-05T18:54:00.000-07:00

My friend Rachelle took some amazing pictures of Ember. Take a look at her photo blog to see what an amazing job she did.
http://rpsphotography.blogspot.com/

More Pictures

2009-09-29T17:56:00.000-07:00

We are still absolutely in love with our little girl even though she can be difficult sometimes. She has a hard time going to sleep. She will work herself up into a fit before we can get her calmed down enough to close her eyes and just when we think she is almost out she will wake up again and start the whole process over. We have been lucky though, she sleeps for long stretches at night (4-6 hours at a time) so I guess the frustration of getting her to sleep pays off because we are able to sleep longer. Meghan, I hope you are right about the 5 week adjustment period. I don't know how people leave the house with newborns, I can barely get anything done and I have Josh to help me. I don't know how single parents do it.
Josh is such a proud daddy and he has the magic touch to calm her down-especially when I am getting frustrated.

She is not quite as sweet smelling as we would have hoped. I never knew that baby's could have such smelly gas!

She is pretty good at lifting her head up already when we give her tummy time. She can hold it up for around 10 seconds already.

This is her favorite position. She is a little escape artist with her hands. She usually has one or both out before we are even finished swaddling her. Luckily she still sleeps okay even when she escapes her swaddle.

She's Here

2009-09-20T11:54:00.000-07:00

Ember Leigh Florie was born on Thursday, September 17th at 7:12 p.m. She weighs 8 lbs 10 oz

and is 19 1/4 inches long. She has a full head of hair already and has dark blue eyes that will probably turn brown. She is absolutely perfect in every way and we are absolutely in love with her already. I will post more pictures later.

Still Here...

2009-09-13T16:50:00.000-07:00

No, I am not hiding anything. No baby yet. I guess I will have to go to work again tomorrow. I was hoping to be done. I decided not to post a picture because I look the same as I did last week and I am kind of protesting the fact that I haven't had the baby yet. My doctor thinks the baby is close to 8 lbs so there isn't any concern about her being too large. Unless she decides to come in the next couple of days, I am going to be induced on Thursday. Hopefully she will make her big debut before then. We will see though.

39 Weeks

2009-09-06T14:57:00.000-07:00

I am really hoping that this is the last picture of me that I have to post. Hopefully you will get much cuter pictures by next week. I am getting impatient for her to get here. I think that it is more boredom than anything. I am all ready so whenever she decides to come would be great.

38 Weeks

2009-08-30T19:53:00.000-07:00

So the countdown is really just 11 more days until I am due. We will see how it goes.

37 Weeks

2009-08-24T18:34:00.001-07:00

It isn't much longer now. I am nervous and excited at the same time. I just hope she doesn't come before Josh gets home on Thursday or Friday. It would not be fun to go into labor with your husband 3 or more hours away. They say that they aren't supposed to move as much the last month or so but she is still moving my stomach like there is an alien in there. I tried to take some video of it because I think it is a lot more movement than most babies but since I didn't have anyone to film it, it didn't turn out very well. Maybe I will try again later. My whole stomach moves though. She is super squirmy.

36 Weeks

2009-08-15T21:35:00.000-07:00

I can't believe there is less than a month left. It seems like time is flying by.

34 Weeks

2009-08-02T13:45:00.000-07:00

Cooking Creations

2009-07-26T16:29:00.001-07:00

I have kind of been trying a lot of new recipes this weekend and it has been kind of fun. I made these bowls out of parmesan cheese that you use for salads. They were really cute and all they are made of is cheese. I love the idea although eating the whole bowl was an accomplishment. I shouldn't have made anything else for dinner because the bowls were so filling.

Last week blueberries were on sale for $1 so we bought 3 pints. We ate two of them and I froze the last one, but i should have bought 20 pints and frozen them all. Today I made these blueberry muffins from the frozen ones and they are delicious. Josh gave me a cookbook a couple of Christmas' ago called The Bread Bible and every recipe I try from there makes one of the best breads I have ever had. I wand to get her other book The Cake Bible too so I can learn to make better cakes. My recent efforts have been less than spectacular...

33 Weeks

2009-07-26T16:23:00.000-07:00

I got told this week that I was big enough to be charged for two seats if I rode a bus. How is that for a compliment!?

32 Weeks

2009-07-19T14:43:00.000-07:00

I can't believe how fast time is going by. She is going to be here before we know it. I have been "nesting" of sorts this weekend. I moved all sorts of things around in our condo and set up the crib to make sure we would have room for it. Everything isn't quite the way I want it to be but it is much closer than it was. I am getting really excited for her to come.
On a different note, does anyone's baby move as much as mine does? I feel like she is doing gymnastics all the time. A couple of appointments back the doctor asked if I felt her moving very often and told me to count to make sure there were at least four movements in an hour. Well, I am lucky if there are fewer than 100 movements in an hour! And most of them are not small. She loves to push up against my belly and you can see her roll across. The first time Josh saw it he thought there must be an alien in my belly! I hope she isn't this active when she is born because there is no way I will be able to keep up!

31 Weeks and I LOVE Hand-me-downs

2009-07-12T20:24:00.000-07:00

Here I am in all my glory. I don't think that I have grown much lately. I haven't really changed size at all. Josh told me that I am not Basketball-sized yet, maybe soccerball-sized. I am sure I have some room to grow.A woman I work with gave me these great hand-me-downs. One is a small, portable swing and the other is a full-sized swing with all the great attachments. She also gave me a play mat with arches that the toys hang on. It also plays music and has all sorts of buttons and tabs to play with. I should have taken a picture of it, but I didn't. She also gave me all of her burb cloths and blankets and teethers. I feel so spoiled. Everything is used but is still really nice and the price tag is right in our budget! I love free!

30 Weeks

2009-07-08T19:59:00.000-07:00

2nd Annual Hobo Party

2009-06-28T14:19:00.000-07:00

My parents have started a tradition of having a annual summer hobo party. They have all the neighborhood kids and parents dress up as hobo's and have fun games and activities. The kids eat out of pie tins and the dinner is cooked in coals under a garbage can (at least that is the idea-it isn't perfected yet). There are gunny sack races, pie eating contests, a tug-o-war, and a train ride. The kids have a blast. This year there were about 70 people there and it was a great time. Here are some pictures from the event.

(Dogs even get to be dressed up too!)

My 1st Baby Shower

2009-06-28T14:06:00.001-07:00

I had my first baby shower last weekend and it was so adorable. My neighbors came up with the cutest decorations and most delicious food. It was wonderful. I am so lucky to have such great friends. I didn't get pictures of any of the people or any of the gifts, but I did manage to get some pictures of the food. My sister was taking all the people shots while I was sociallizing so I will have to get the pictures from her camera.

Aren't these the cutest fruit shis-ka-bobs ever! They glued a flower on the top of the skewer and put them in foam so they would stand up straight. What a cute idea.

They also did cute drinks with flowers on a toothpick and a piece of pineapple on them and delicious mini tarts on flower coasters. So adorable and delicious too.

The food was delicious. They had a variety of breads and dips that were scrumptious and lime flavored water. Thank you guys so much for such a fun shower!

29 Weeks

2009-06-28T14:02:00.000-07:00

Hooray for being almost there! One 10 1/2 more weeks.

Look What The Mailman Brought...

2009-06-16T16:47:00.000-07:00

Josh now officially is an ASU graduate! WooHoo!

27 Weeks

2009-06-14T21:00:00.000-07:00

So, I may not be a very nice pregnant person, but don't deal well with all the comments about how huge I am. Not the comments from my brother who is just trying to get under my skin, or the comments from close friends who have the "I'm-super-excited-for-you" tone in their voice, but those people who you really don't know very well that feel the need to tell you that you are SO much bigger than they EVER got and how you are ONLY 6 month along and how could you ever be any BIGGER. I hate those comments, like the one I got in church today. I decided the best thing for me to do was to say yes I am BIG and it happens when you are pregnant and walk away, then go outside for a few minutes so I didn't get really upset. If only I had my friend Cody's Incredible Hulk boxing gloves so I could do some serious damage to a brick wall...

On a positive note, I think she realized what she said wasn't exactly the best choice of words, and apologized later. :-)

26 Weeks

2009-06-07T15:04:00.000-07:00

Fun Saturday

2009-05-31T13:17:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a really fun, yet busy day. Josh got up at 4:45 in the morning and left to go paintballing with some people from our ward and I did laundry and ran a gizillion errands. We got home around noon and headed off the the D-backs game. We were a little late to the game (Josh thought he had to shower after spending the morning pretending he was a soldier- geez), but we made it for the good part. The D-backs won in extra innings! It was a lot of fun to actually go do something on a Saturday. We have been fairly boring but now that Josh is done with school and doesn't have to spend the whole day studying we can start planning more exciting things to do. WooHoo.

25 Weeks

2009-05-29T20:47:00.000-07:00

Only 15 more weeks to go! I am currently 40 inches around! She is definitely going to be a big one.

24 Weeks

2009-05-23T20:53:00.000-07:00

Are you sick of these yet? I know I am sick of taking the pictures. I just got out of the shower for this one and am definitely not at my cutest.

23 1/2 Weeks

2009-05-19T19:29:00.000-07:00

I am not very good at taking these pictures on time but here I am in all my glory. There are a bunch of other girls who are pregnant in my ward and all of them (including those who are due two months before me) are so much smaller than me. I must be really big for only being 5 months along. I am going to be huge by the time I deliver.

I have felt a lot of movements for the last month, but today she decided to kick really hard. I didn't think something that is only about 1 pound could kick so hard!

Graduation

2009-05-17T16:59:00.000-07:00

Josh graduated on Friday from ASU and I am so excited for him. He has worked so hard and been so busy for the last four years and I am so glad he is actually finished. We had a graduation party with all his family last night, which was lots of fun. We had a barbecue and pool party at our condo. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures so you don't get to see any of the action. It was fun to have his whole family over at the same time. I am so glad that everyone could come.

22 Weeks (A Little Late)

2009-05-17T16:49:00.000-07:00

The picture was on time, sorry the posting is so late.

Ultrasound Photos

2009-04-28T18:08:00.001-07:00

We had our ultrasound today and found out that we are having a baby girl! We are so excited.

This was our favorite, you can see her little hand waving at us!
This is the view of her bum. You can see her little legs too. The nurse doing the ultrasound said she had really long legs and that she was really skwerming around. She kept telling the baby to hold still- I hope that isn't a sign of what is to come!

This is anothe view of her bum. The other one is better though.

This is a view of her face but it is hard to see anything in it.

This is her face in profile. You can see her little nose and mouth. She is so cute!

20 Weeks

2009-04-26T20:14:00.000-07:00

So I never got around to taking the picture of 19 weeks, but here is the 20 weeks one. I am halfway thru. One Tuesday we get to go in for the ultrasound and hopefully we will be able to find out whether it will be a boy or a girl. I am excited and a little nervous. I have been feeling it move quite often and this morning Josh even got to feel a little movement.

18 Weeks

2009-04-13T21:27:00.000-07:00

It is probably more like 18 and a half weeks, but here it is. I am not good at the photo in the mirror thing but Josh is asleep and I am leaving town tomorrow so you get what you get. I saw my doctor today and everything looks good. My ultrasound is scheduled for April 28th and I am so excited to find out what we are having!

Angie's Wedding

2009-04-05T18:55:00.000-07:00

One of my best friends got married this weekend. It was so much fun to see her so happy and excited. Unfortunately it rained and snowed in Utah this weekend, but she was a beautiful bride and he isn't so bad looking either.

At the wedding luncheon they had some amazing decorations. Each person's place setting had a cupcake cup made of chocolate and filled with popcorn and then each table had a chocolate cake centerpiece that was the dessert for everyone at the table. It was very elegant and such a fun idea.

The place setting.

The centerpiece.

17 Weeks

2009-04-05T18:45:00.000-07:00

16 weeks and great deals

2009-03-29T17:50:00.000-07:00

Can you see my belly over my loud shirt? Pink isn't usually my thing but I kind of am in love with this shirt. My sister let me borrow all her maternity clothes and I think she owns more maternity clothes than I own regular clothes! I am not kidding either. I don't think I will need to buy any other clothes.
My brother and his wife are adopting twins and they found out about a yard sale with only baby stuff put on by the Paridise Valley Moms of Multiples (PVMOM) group. I went with her to the sale and they had some great deals. I wish I had know whether I was having a boy or a girl because I would have been able to get a lot more stuff. Since I don't though, I had to stick with the basics. I got this great pack and play for $30. It has a bassinet attachment too and retails for $130. Since we are pretty limited on space it will probably be our only crib. It is really nice and it looks like it has barely been used. There are no stains and no wear spots or anything. It also has a music player and vibrator and wheels. I love great deals.

The other thing I got was this car seat. It comes with 2 bases so you don't have to transfer them from one car to the other. Again, it looks barely used. I found a couple crumbs in the bottom but other than that it looks brand new. It even came with the head rests for when the baby is small. It retails for $160 and I only paid $60. I checked both of the model numbers for recalls when I got home and they are both fine. I love bargains.

15 Weeks

2009-03-25T17:26:00.000-07:00

Sorry it is late...

Braedon's Baptism

2009-03-17T18:28:00.000-07:00

My cute nephew got baptised on Saturday and it was so cute to see how excited he was. He is such a cute boy and Josh felt so lucky to be able to be the one to baptise him. He is such a smart kid and knows all the primary answers already. I hope he remembers this event for the rest of his life. His Mom was telling him that he has to go all the way under the water and that not even a toe or a finger could come up and his brother asked if a fingernail could come out of the water. Braedon replied "That's why they call it baptism by immersion, Duh." (as if every 8 yr old knows what immersion means) He is a really funny kid. Sometimes I wish he were mine.

14 Weeks

2009-03-15T14:00:00.000-07:00

I am starting to feel fat! People are noticing my tummy now.

Baby Beats

2009-03-10T20:21:00.000-07:00

(This may be a boring post so feel free not to read if you don't want to.) I had my doctor's appointment yesterday and got to hear my baby's heartbeat for the first time. It was so neat and kind of a relief to know that it is really alive in there. It was going about 150 beats per minute which my doctor said is normal. She told me that the heartbeat varies between 120-160 and is generally higher when they are younger or when they are awake. I thought about having Josh come with me to this appointment and now I wish I had. I have gained 4 lbs so far which is about right. Then my doctor told me that she never gets to tell people to do this so she decided to tell me to eat more. Not that I haven't gained enough, but she just wanted to say it. All my blood tests and my blood pressure were all normal. I have been very lucky so far- I haven't had anything that I would classify as morning sickness. There have been a couple of times (maybe 2-3 times in the last 3 months) when I felt a little off, but I haven't been nauseous or anything. I hope that doesn't mean that my karma is going to change and I will have an awful delivery...

13 Weeks

2009-03-07T14:18:00.000-08:00

So this is the second attempt at a photo-my head got cut off again. Josh told me that he was taking a picture of the belly, not of me. Ahh... What to do with him?!

Miss Crafty

2009-03-07T07:23:00.000-08:00

Don't worry, the 13 week pictures are coming (as soon as I do my hair, put in my contacts and look halfway decent-oh and then I have to convince Josh to take them for me and not cut off my head this time ;) We tried to take 12 week pictures but they didn't turn out very well). In the meantime, here is my crafty side coming through. We are throwing a bridal shower for my friend and I was in charge of the invitations. It is a Alice in Wonderland theme. I probably spent way too much time making all 66 invitations, but I thought the idea was too cute to pass up so I did it anyway. I hope everyone likes them.

It's a Girl!

2009-02-17T18:48:00.000-08:00

A girl turtle that is.

On Valentines just as I was about to put our romantic dinner on the table, I happened to walk past our turtle tank and glanced in. Then I did a double-take. One the bottom of the tank were 6 white spheres. I gasped. "What in the World are Those!" Josh jumped out of his chair and ran over to see. Michaelangelo, who we have been calling Mr. Turtle for the past 3 years has apparently a secret to tell us. He isn't really a boy. He has been quite offended by our gender mixing and would now like to set the record straight the he is in fact a she. Miss Turtle laid six eggs for our Valentine's day enjoyment.

Does anyone know what to do with turtle eggs? I sure didn't so with a little internet searching we discovered that turtles, like chickens, lay unfertilized eggs every spring once they are past maturity. They do not, however, care for them so it shouldn't have been that tramatic to take them out of the tank. They can lay multiple litters and as many as 30 eggs at a time. I guess this is something we get to look forward to every year from Miss Turtle.

We have been noticing some odd behavior from her for several weeks but didn't quite know what to make of it. She hasn't been eating very well, she has been basking for hours, and she has been frantically trying to get out of her tank. It all makes sence now! Poor Josh is now outnumbered by girls!

We're Growing!

2009-02-13T19:36:00.000-08:00

(Me in about 4 months)

It is official, come September-time there will be baby crying in our house! I found out I am pregnant a couple of weeks ago but didn't want to post until I had told my work, which I did this week. We are so excited and a little nervous to have someone depending on us for everything. It will definitely be an adventure. Both of our families are very excited about it. Most of my family is hoping for a girl and Josh wants a girl really badly too. I am not really as picky. I am sure that either would be great for the first one. My official due date is September 10th so I get to be as big as a house all through the sweltering summer. I hope the air conditioning works really well in our new place!

Slacker!

2009-02-08T17:40:00.000-08:00

I know I have been a slacker about posting, but life has been a weird combination of busy and not so busy that I have made all too many excuses for not posting some that I can talk about and some that will have to wait. So here is what has been happening in the Florie household since December.

Christmas: I know it is way late, but we had a wonderful Christmas in Utah visiting my family. We were spoiled rotten again, and enjoyed seeing our family and friends for the week we were there. We also got our family pictures taken in the freezing cold by Melissa which was a ton of fun! I love spending Christmas with my family. Here are some pictures of our nativity in the neighbors barn.

We always lined up on the stairs growing up and raced down to our presents, so we make all the kids do the same. I don't know if they are as excited about it as we were, but it is fun to relive the excitement of being a kid.

My brother-in-law's family had a gingerbread house making contest. Here is my brother-in-law's winning entry (so no one else spent nearly as much time as he did so it is understandable that his is the winner). It is a nordic chalet.
Me in all my glory on Christmas morning. I don't think I was expecting this shot.Moving: we moved from our apartment into our condo in mid-January and were amazed at the amount of stuff we have. I don't know how we got so much but I can't believe how long it took to move and how hard it was to find a place for everything. We are still looking for places for a couple of things so if you know any storage tricks, let me know. We had a ton of help moving and couldn't have done it without everyones help. It is kind of nice to finally live in a place you own, but that also means that if anything goes wrong, we have to fix it. Hopefully it will be smooth sailing. We are now officially urbanites. We both take the train to school and work and live in the middle of the highrises in downtown. It is different but I kind of like it for now.

LAST SEMESTER: Josh started his last semester of school in January and he is going to be busy! He has 19 credit hours and is teaching two classes and he is hoping to get straight A's this semester. He has done well so far and has gotten 100% on everything that has bee graded, but his first test is Friday and we will see how that goes. Cross your fingers for him. He is also trying to balance his school with being the ward Sunday School President and the Stake Sunday School 2nd Counciler. I do not envy him at all. So far he has been able to balance it pretty well, but it is still early in the semester. He is scheduled to graduate on May 14th and I can hardly wait.

He has also decided to put off graduate school for a couple of months to a year and see if he can get a better idea of where to go and what to study.

Happy Birthday to us! Josh turned 28 on January 30th and I turned 31 on February 3rd. We had a really good birthday. For Josh's we went out to eat at Joe's BBQ and had a delicious dinner. It is not a fancy place but the food is delicious. Then we had our b-day cakes at Josh's parents Super Bowl party. I made a six-layer red velvet cake that was divine-I just wish there had been some leftovers to take home! For my birthday my parents came in town and we went to lunch at a Thai place near my work and then I spent the rest of the day with them and went to ice cream at the Pink Spot. It was a really nice day and I completely enjoyed it.

Old Friends: This last weekend we got to go out to lunch with one of my old roommates and one of our favorite people ever. I didn't take any pictures though and I am very disappointed in myself so I will have to get one another time.

Last night another one of my roommates came into town and we got to see her again too. We love Jillsy!

That is what has been going on in our life recently and hopefully I will be a better blogger from now on.

Archaeology - Part 2

2008-12-17T21:18:00.000-08:00

For my work sometimes we get to walk around in the desert and look for sites. I have been doing this for most of last week and here are some of the beautiful pictures I have. It was cloudy and rainy on Monday when I took this picture. This is my favorite picture. They have a dam on the Agua Fria river and the water backs up into these little streams. I think it is so pretty. It almost looks like fall with some of the colors.

We were climbing on a pretty steep slope and saw these kayakers and canoers below. I though it would be fun if I could find one of them who took a picture of us. The guy I was working with twisted his knee (he might have torn his MCL) shortly after this picture and we had to get one of the fishing boats to take us out of there so we could get him to the hospital. Lots of adventure.
We hiked up to this ruin to see what it looked like. There were probably 10 structures on the top of a mesa. It was so pretty. Me in all my field gear (i set my backpack down before here).
You can see the view of the Agua Fria river and the ruins from the top.

Two wild burros who thought we were going to eat them.

These are from another project I went on where we were working near an old movie set. The two guys are people I work with. I think they missed their calling as actors, don't you?

A moonrise over the Sonoran Desert.

As much as I get frustrated with my job sometimes, I really am lucky to be able to enjoy what I do most of the time. Who else gets paid to walk around the desert and explore.

GRE Day

2008-12-13T17:05:00.000-08:00

Josh took his GRE (the entrance exam for graduate school, similar to the ACT or SAT) yesterday and he was so nervous this morning. It was really cute to see him worry so much. You get two of the three scores right after you finish so there isn't that much time to worry about it. He got a 580 on the verbal portion which is pretty good. On the quantitative portion (i.e., math and reasoning) he got a 730 which is pretty much amazing. He is on par with straight A engineering students. Hopefully his writing part will come back with a good score too. I don't really know how long it takes to get it back. Hopefully such great scores will help him get into grad school. Please vote in our poll to tell him where he should go! (I am rooting for U of U!)

Yummy Minestrone

2008-12-12T20:37:00.000-08:00

A friend at work gave me this recipe for minestrone soup and it is delicious. Ours turned out more like a stew than a soup so you may want to add more water, but it was so yummy and really easy to make.
Easy Minestrone
In a large nonstick pan cook over medium high heat
1 cup chopped onion
3 garlic cloves (pressed)
2 Tbsp olive oil
until onions are tender but not browned. Add
2 cans chicken broth (or 2 bouillon cubes in water)
1 jar of marinara sauce (16 oz)
1 can of kidney beans (drained and rinsed)
1 can of garbanzo beans (drained and rinsed)
10 oz of frozen vegetables
Bring to a boil. Add 1 cup of small pasta and cook covered (with lid slightly ajar) for 10 min, stirring occasionally. Serve with grated Parmesan cheese.

8 days and counting

2008-12-06T19:54:00.000-08:00

Josh has eight days of school let this semester and he is done. Only one more semester until he is an official geologist. He does, however, want to go to graduate school and so we will see if he can get in otherwise it is job hunting for us! It would be nice to have two full incomes for awhile, but we may not have that luxury. I think we will have to start looking for an internship for the summer soon. We tried to do so last year but got too late of a start on them. Anyone know of anything?
I babysat 3 of my nephews all day today and I am exhausted. I don't know if I would be able to handle having kids of my own yet. I only had them for about 9 hours and I think I might go to bed soon, even though it is only 9. I really admire moms, especially those with a lot of kids. I could barely handle three!
I still don't feel like Christmas is so close. I guess I am kind of feeling Bah Humbug-ish this year. It doesn't help that it is still 75+ degrees everyday and you barely need anything more than a light sweater in the mornings. It just doesn't feel like it should be Christmas unless it is actually cold. Josh keeps laughing at me because usually I want to start listening to Christmas music in October, but this year I have only listened to it once and he turned it on for me. I am such an old scrooge this year.