May I Have This Dance?

Emily has always loved music and dancing. Earlier this summer we bought her some sunglasses and she thinks that whenever she has them on it’s time to dance. At first she did the “Night at the Roxbury” head bob, but now she’ll get her whole body into it. Whenever I have music on at home she’ll run around the house skipping and dancing and she’ll eventually come up to me and say “dance” and want me to hold her. As soon as I pick her up she grabs my hand and starts bouncing up and down and laughing. She sure has a ton of energy.

Brrr...

The other day we decided to try Emily's winter coat on her. It's a little big right now, but we're hoping it'll fit ok when it gets cold. Emily loved it and ran around the house dancing in it. She even liked having the hood on - which really surprised us. Hopefully she likes it this much when she has to wear it in a couple of months.

Party Animals

Last week was our last school-and-football-free weekend. We decided to celebrate by going to the zoo, attending the Farmer's Market, and visiting some parks. ~ Emily loved the zoo. The baby orangutan came and played right in front of the window where we were standing and Emily got so excited she kept pointing at the baby with her surprised “oh” face. We also took the time to see the bird show this time. Emily sat in awe as the birds flew back and forth right over our heads and she was very eager to clap when each bird was done. ~ Emily was in heaven at the Farmer’s Market because everyone decided to show up with their dogs. I think she “barked” the whole time we were there. ~ At the park on Saturday we decided Emily was big enough to try the slides alone. Our first attempt didn’t go so well when Emily freaked out and flipped over to her stomach and just held herself in the middle of the slide. Our efforts at coaxing her to lift up her arms and feet and just slide down, didn’t really work. Jeff finally had to climb up and pull her down. The next time Emily was a little hesitant, but actually made it down all by herself and after that she was a pro. She loved coming down all by herself and even felt brave enough to lift her shoes up – just a little bit – so she went faster. ~ All in all, it was a good week and one we are definitely missing right about now. Fall is in full swing now with Jeff pretty much just coming home to sleep between classes and games. He told me on his first day back that he had two goals for the semester: 1. To survive and 2. To see me and Emily. Not exactly the most exciting thing I’ve heard. I’m really not looking forward to spending the next 16 weeks as a single parent. But I guess I can survive if it means only one more year of school, right? At least, that's what I keep telling myself.

Teething

As we have mentioned, Emily decided that 13 months was just about the right time to cut teeth, so our perfect little angel cut her first one while we were back East. She is now working on a second tooth and has been quite the little devil. She has had a fever & runny nose and is more fussy than not. She has become pretty clingy to her mom, dad, teddy bears, baby and blanket (and of course her pacifier) and has a hard time parting with any of them. We've also had a difficult time getting her to take a decent nap and to go down quietly at night (giving us flashbacks to her first three months -ahhh!). Last night, we, or I should say Jeff - as I was in a meeting - was attempting the nightly routine with the only results being a baby that was screaming so much that her nose was running worse than ever and a dad that was beginning to question his decision on fatherhood. However after an hour and a half of his pleading and her screaming, she finally passed out. When we went back in to check on her, this is what we found...

Now how can you possibly stay frustrated when you see something like that???

Back to Reality

Even though we've been home almost two weeks, we still haven't managed to get back on top of everything. Jeff and I have returned to a monstrous list of "To Do's" and are trying all we can to complete it before he starts school next week (or at least make a sizable dent in it). Emily, however, has come back to all of her long lost toys and has probably made more headway in playing with every single one, then we have with our lists. But even amongst our crazy schedules, we've been able to snap a few pictures of Emily doing what she does best. But then how can you not take the time to whip out the camera when you have a daughter as cute as ours???

NY & VA

Well, as Jeff has mentioned, we just got back from a very fun, and very lengthy, trip back East. Jeff's parents & sister were in the Hill Cumorah Pageant in New York so we flew out to meet them and tour around. Jeff's youngest brother, Stan, and his wife, Melanie, also joined us. We toured around Palmyra, NY, went up to Canada and saw Niagara Falls, dropped down to Kirtland, OH and toured some more church history sites and then went on to Virginia. There we stayed in Stan & Mel's new home and went to see Natural Bridge and also spent some much needed time relaxing. After a couple of days there we crossed the state and headed to Brad & Heather's in Norfolk. We spent a few days playing on the beach and getting to know the latest Holbrook addition - Ella Marie. We enjoyed all the time with family and everything we were able to see. It was all a great experience...however, we were more than ready to come home. After three weeks of being on the road with a one year old, I've decided traveling isn't all it's cracked up to be.

Emily did extremely well though. She was completely thrown off schedule and her naps were almost non-existent on some days. It got continually harder to coax her into eating cheerios and goldfish in the end and I know she was craving some fresh fruit or something that didn't come out of a box. Emily also decided to continue extending her "firsts" while we were gone. She not only visited three new states, left the country, and played in the ocean for the first time...she also decided to finally show us her pearly whites. Well, ok, one of them. Emily kept biting and gnawing her fingers and thumb. On our last day I noticed she finally cut her first tooth! So considering how far away from home and routine she was and the fact that she was teething, I would say we pretty much had a little angel on our trip!

More to Come

Sorry for the lapse in posts, we were out of town for most of the month of July. We've only been back for a few days and we're trying to get back in the swing of things. Also, Bec came home to a special package... the new Harry Potter book, and she didn't put it down for 2 days (until she finished it). We (by we I mean Becca) will share with you about our trips, Emily's newest tricks, and anything else that comes to mind within the next few days.

Angels Camp

We just spent five days with my family in the gold rush hills of California. It was a fun trip with a lot of new firsts for Emily and also a few for us. Emily had a blast running around with all of her cousins and was pretty resilient considering the lack of sleep and how thrown off schedule she was. All in all it was a good trip - but I think we came home more tired than when we left.

We decided it was best to fly rather than drive 10 hours, so Emily was able to go on her first airplane ride. We were fortunate enough to not have a full flight (both ways) and Emily was able to have her own seat. And boy did that make all the difference. She loved looking out the window, flirting with the other passengers, and playing with the seat belt and buttons on the armrest. That first day we were on the road and going for about 16 hours and Emily only slept about 20 minutes in the car. Besides a few meltdowns, that only lasted till we were able to find something to distract her with, she did well (but completely passed out the minute we put her in bed).

We went on a steam engine ride in Jamestown and it was probably Emily's favorite thing. She loved watching the engine and feeling the wind in her face. She was smiling and pointing at everything. She was pretty excited about anything we went past and was more than happy to point it out and tell everyone.

We were able to go down one of the many caves in the area. We climbed down a narrow set of stairs and then a long spiral staircase for 165 feet (the main opening of the cavern is large enough to fit the whole Statue of Liberty). It was really interesting to see everything and Emily loved all the echoes she could make. We weren't able to stay too long though. Emily was extremely tired (as is inevitable on a trip) and after a few minutes of uncontrollable crying, we decided to spare everyones ears and we headed back up.

Sunday we went hiking in Big Trees National Park and saw all the giant sequoias. Emily was quite the little hiker. She loved running around in the dirt and touching all the trees. She also loved all the attention she got as she met people on the path. After running around the trails she was definitely in need of a bath when we got home.

We drove over to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom on Monday. Emily would cry until a ride started, say "Wheee..." the whole time it was going, and then begin crying again as soon as it was over. Besides going on rides, we saw a whale show, splashed around in a pool of sting rays and got to pet an elephants trunk. It was really fun...until we got home and realized how sunburned we were.

We went to Sutter Creek (where my brother Chris is currently serving his mission) and took a tour in an active gold mine. It was pretty interesting. It was a nice break from the hot weather and it really made us appreciate the hard work of a miner.

On our last day Emily was running around the condo and tripped and cut her eye on the molding by the stairs. We knew within seconds of looking at it that it would need stitches. We called the front desk and found the nearest hospital and frantically ran out the door. It wasn't until 10 minutes into the drive that Jeff and I finally calmed down a bit and were able to be more rational. Being that we were in a small town there was virtually no wait and Emily received her first two stitches and we were back home in about an hour.

Here comes the Bride

Since the spotlight is typically on Emily I figured it might be my turn to show off what my life consists of (outside of mom-dom). I've been rather busy so far this summer and somehow I can really only come up with one thing to account for most of my time (besides Emily of course). I've had the opportunity to expand my business a little bit more and do several weddings these past few months. It's interesting to see all the different personalities in the brides and what colors and ideas they have. Pink is always a big favorite but lately orange seems to be a big rival. All in all it's been really fun and enjoyable. But then what's not to love about an extravegant party that takes lots of planning and money? No wonder I like weddings so much.

A new member of our family

Well, it’s happened. Jeff and I finally broke down and decided it was time to get a pet. Actually, it was our neighbor who got a fish and when she kept finding her kitten's paw all wet, she decided it hadn’t been such a great idea. Therefore we inherited it. Needless to say, we were hesitant to accept it and became even more so when it dawned on us that the bowl needed routine cleanings. But with “fish” being one of the few words Emily can say and her immediate love of it, we’ve decided it’s going to stay. We’ve already had him for two weeks and apparently we’re not that creative because we’re still just calling him fish. We welcome any comments with suggestions on a name. We couldn’t tell you if it’s male or female though…how can you tell on a fish?