I had a bridal bouquet to do on Monday (my birthday), but other than that, I basically did nothing. It was so nice. The house was a mess, as it usually is after a holiday and a weekend spent running around. But I decided it could wait one more day - who wants to clean on their birthday? I played with the kids, talked on the phone and I think fell asleep watching Tigger and Pooh with Emily.
That night we had a fancy dinner - wendy's on the china. Emily was SO excited. She loves any reason to celebrate.

Then Jeff and Emily sang happy birthday and I opened presents. Emily had packed up a bunch of Jacob's toys and books and a package of wipes in her suitcase as one of my presents. I also got some stackable cooling racks, a rice cooker and an awesome set of pans (it counts as mother's day too). Oh, and I can't forget the sweet notes (and pictures) they all wrote and colored for me.

Jeff and I also went out to celebrate last Friday. We had an amazing dinner at Tucanos. Yum. I don't like pineapple, but I could eat a whole one if it was grilled like that. We then went to see Blindside. Oh so good. I love Sandra Bullock. A huge thanks to my mom and dad for watching the kids for us for several hours. I don't remember the last time Jeff and I went on a real date - meaning more than just dinner. I wish we had something to celebrate (and babysitters) so we could go out every weekend. Thanks to everyone for the birthday phone calls, emails, texts and wishes. It's always nice to be remembered.

3 Months ... A Little Late

I've been meaning to make this post since... well, since Jacob turned 3 months. I know I'm a bit late, but I want to remember all the things he learned in the last month so it's better late then never. As I blogged about before, Jacob has a hard time napping in his bed. He is awesome at napping in my arms though. This has been very frustrating, but at times a very good excuse to get extra snuggle time. He has become more interested in looking at things and has started playing with toys. Towards the end of the month he started grabbing at his toys and trying to bring them to his mouth. He smiles a lot and is always happy to see his daddy when he comes home. Jacob is very good for Jeff and its nice to know that he is just as good for him as he is for me. When I'm gone I don't have to worry that only I can calm him down or feed him. I also pulled out Jacob's next set of clothes the beginning of March. It was sad to pack up his 0-3 month clothes, but it wasn't as hard as it was with Emily. I still can't believe how big he is and how much he's grown. When I looked at some of those 3-6 month clothes when I first got them they seemed huge! And now he's wearing them. It's crazy.

Those awesome dimples.... I'm in love!

Emily

Emily is such a good big sister. She completely adores her little brother and is such a good mommy to him. She is always so willing to help feed him, get him dressed, and entertain him. Jacob in turn loves watching everything she does. Emily has never resented having a sibling and always makes sure Jacob is included - we can't ever skip him when it's his turn for family prayer. Whenever he is crying she always races to give him his paci or hold up a toy for him to play with. She totally mimics everything I do and say.

Over the past 6 weeks the effects of a baby have started to sink in though. Emily is more emotional (but then what 3 year old isn't) and isn't listening as well as she used to. She has become more clingy to me as well. Every Tuesday and Thursday we battle about preschool. She is constantly saying she doesn't want to go to and that she doesn't like it. Whereas before we could bribe her with anything if we said she couldn't go to preschool. We've tried several approaches to try and make it a more positive thing, but unfortunately I think it's only time that will make it better. I wouldn't 'force' her to go each time if she didn't love once she was there. Every night before bed, Jeff talks to Emily about her day and then sings to her. It's their special daddy and Emily time. Well yesterday Emily asked when we were going to have just mommy and Emily time. I'm sure the fact that she doesn't have my attention all day long anymore is to blame for the whining and preschool battles. I guess I just need to carve out more time for just the two of us - and hope that that will end the whining.
(Emily had to include Jacob in this picture)

Emily has pretty much done nothing but color for the past two weeks or so. She has LOVED it. I have to sharpen her colored pencils every couple of days she colors so much. We are very impressed with how much her coloring skills have grown in such a short period of time. I love how she always has to give them away too. She'll write who the picture is to and sign her name at the bottom. I love all of her letters. Most of the pictures end up being for me, Jeff, Jacob, cousin Ella, or a gma or gpa because those are the names she knows how to spell. But she did give one to my visiting teacher on Sunday.
I had to include this last picture. To me it looks like they're planning something- something mischievous. I can only imagine what these two are going to be coming up with and doing in the coming years.

We sure love our little Emily. She is so smart and such a happy girl. She loves helping with anything and everything. She tries so hard to choose the right and please us. She is so sweet and sensitive. We are so proud of what a beautiful girl she is. I am so lucky to be her mom and her best friend.

We Finally Know...

Yesterday we found out where two family members are going to be living for the next 4-5 years. Jeff's brother, Brad, and my sister's husband, Spencer, are both in medical school and are starting their residencies in June. Brad and his family will be moving to Albuquerque, New Mexico for an OB/GYN residency. Spencer and Lisa will heading back East to New Hampshire for a 5 year orthopedic surgery residency at Dartmouth.

We're sad that neither will be 'home,' but we're excited for their upcoming adventures. We're also looking forward to having excuses to visit a few new states. Congrats you guys! We're all so proud of you!!

Jacob's Blessing

Due to conflicting schedules and our families never-ending travels, we ended up squeezing Jacob's blessing in on March 6th. Due to our Stake Conference we held the event at Jeff's parents house. Everything turned out really well and it was an enjoyable evening. Jacob ended up crying through most of the actual blessing and then was all smiles the rest of the night. We missed Jeff's two brothers and their families, but were grateful for all of those that were able to be there.

The Utah Holbrook's

The Newman's - minus 2 that were sick

Jacob's grandparents & great-grandparents

I was so busy talking to family and such that I wasn't able to get any great single pictures of Jacob on Sunday. So the next day I snapped a few at home. He was a pretty good sport. However I just can't seem to get any pictures of him smiling. He'll only smile if I coax it out of him and the second I pull up the camera he stops looking at me and the smile disappears.

This is the closest I could get to a smile

We are so grateful for our little Jacob. He is such a joy. We are so blessed to have him as a part of our family and we all love him so much.

Snow, Hair, & Flowers

A week ago Friday we all went to my mom's for a playdate and lunch. We lucked out with the big snow storm the night before so we brought the kids snow clothes and sent them out back while we made carmel brownies and chicken craisen salad. They were so cute out there and they all loved it. Sara & Lucy's favorite thing was to eat the snow. Emily's favorite was the sledding and Jackson kept trying to make snow angels half-way on the concrete. I'm so grateful to live so close to family and that Emily has so many cousins to play with. We had the youngest 7 grandkids there - all 31/2 years and younger. It was pretty busy. I'm glad we had my mom and Lisa there to help.

Emily attempted some snow eating - but she couldn't be bothered to pick it up.

After a yummy lunch and some persuasion on both sides, Lisa cut 8-9" off my hair. I decided I was done having it catch on everything and Jacob grabbing it. So it's now quite a bit shorter, lighter, and curlier. And you'd think that 9" would be enough for anyone to notice you've gotten a haircut right? Think again. The first person that noticed was a mom at preschool the following Tuesday - and that includes Jeff who complains about it almost every night when it gets in his face.

The rest of my evening and the next morning (besides dealing with kids) was spent doing flowers. Lisa needed another arrangement for her stake conference. After falling in love with some orange Ranunculus at the shop I decided to take a purple and orange route. It made me excited for spring and summer and to see more color outside.

Sweet's

Emily's preschool had a fieldtrip to Sweet's Candy Factory last Thursday. Jeff took the day off work to come with us. It was fun and pretty interesting to see. I think we got more out of it then the kids though. They just liked all the samples we got. I'm sure glad Jeff was able to come and help keep track of Emily since I had Jacob strapped to the front of me. We thought it was cute that even he had to wear a little hairnet.

I'm So Glad When Daddy Stays Home

The end of February Jeff had a work conference all weekend. That put him gone 7 straight days. To help with my sanity he then took off the following Monday and Tuesday to stay home with us and on Monday we decided to go to the children's musuem. As usual, Emily spent the majority of the time buying groceries. Jeff was a good sport and allowed her to boss him around. He spent the day helping her re-stock the shelves, buying his own food, and checking out Emily's and several other kids groceries.

We were able to pull Emily away for a little bit so Jeff could see the rest of the museum. Emily loved having dad around to play with her the whole time since I was so busy taking care of Jacob. He was good, as long as he was held, which really made it hard for me to play with Emily much.

I guess she was pretty worn out from all the festivities that day. When we went to put Jacob down that night we found Emily only half way in her bed. I love all the funny positions we find her in sometimes.

How Can You Not Smile...

... when you're 3 year old plays hide and seek with her baby doll? Or plays patty cake?

... when she asks when she can see the prophet and give him a big hug?

... when she tries to calm down her crying brother by saying, "I know you miss daddy. But that doesn't mean you can cry about it."?

... when she is constantly coloring pictures and writing 'mom', 'dad', 'emily', and 'jacob' on them?

Ode to Bjorn

Today I paid bills, worked on primary stuff, cleaned all three bathrooms, read books with Emily, did laundry, and made dinner ... all with Jacob strapped to the front of me.

He's still only napping well if he's held and the past couple of days it seems to have gotten worse. He's now not content during his awake time unless he's being entertained. He can't quite hold his toys by himself yet so unless I'm there to play with him he just cries. He has such a hoarse little cry it makes it extremely hard to just let him cry things out. I feel so guilty. So today I gave in and just carried him around with me. I'm sure I'm just making things worse in the long run. But I guess I'm the one that has to deal the consequences - let's just hope they won't be too bad. So I want to say thank you to the Swedish for saving my shoulders. I've used our baby bjorn more with Jacob in the last week then I ever used with Emily. Oh, and the extra $40 we spent on getting the one with better back support - totally worth it.