Blog Envy

I've always wished I was witty. And funny. And who wouldn't want to be a prolific writer as well? I openly admit that I am envious of my friend Anna. Just look at her blog. Her expressions of being a wife of a grad student and mother of a 2 year old are clever, insightful, and entertaining. She would of course also have a knack for taking awesome pictures too. I often wish I could express my dealings with a toddler as well as she does.

I was therefore suprised today to discover that Anna felt the same way I do. While I was looking at her latest post she divulged her own little secret. She has an ingenious friend that causes her to have blog envy too. After reading this I figured if Anna felt this way, I should definitly see who this chic is. So I did. And what did I find? The most hilarious post I think I've ever read. If you want a good laugh - meet Casey. I don't think I can compete with Moosh in Indy and its 1,500 followers, but I guess I can at least get a good laugh from it and maybe here and there I can be inspired for my own posts and maybe then I can score more than one comment.

Home At Last

Well, we're back from our week in Kaysville. Here are a few highlights of what my days consisted of while we were there:

Emily & Sara having a snack and hanging out while waiting for the kids to come home from school.

Sam got his bobcat at scouts that week. Congrats Sam! Way to go!

Emily was usually the aggressor and would take toys away from Sara. We had several one-sided discussions on how she needed to share and how they were all Sara's toys to begin with. Emily seemed to get the point and was ok for about 10 seconds and then they were battling it out again. In the end, Sara just learned that when Emily was in one of those moods, it was best to just stay away. But when they were in the bathtub together, the roles suddenly reversed. Sara was chasing Emily around the tub and patting her back and giving her loves and also taking toys from her. Emily didn't know quite what to think.

Most of the girls' time was spent pushing their "babies" around in their strollers. Sara was the one that tended to be left out because she was the smallest and there were only two strollers. On Friday Ally decided that her Baby Alive wasn't cutting it and she wanted something even more life-like. Sara was a great sport and rode around in that stroller for 45-minutes before it was time for Ally to go to school. She's such a sweet baby and sure puts up with a lot!

Emily and Sara liked to push the chairs around the kitchen and then hide behind them. They would peek at me and then just laugh. Although I think they mostly hid because they were pooping - we always had to have a diaper changing session after.

When Emily wakes up she likes to stay in her bed for quite awhile. She will play with her bears, look at books, and just play. She's also into jumping and she likes to fall down too. After one of her naps I took Sara with me to get her and Emily wanted Sara to get in and jump with her. They both loved it!

The girls having "dinner".

Emily thoroughly enjoyed having siblings and Jeff and I liked having a big house. But despite how nice it was, we know we aren't ready for the time commitment 4 kids and 6 bedrooms bring. Although we wouldn't mind having a bit more storage...

Peace & Quiet

Normally I would say that I understand how nice a little peace and quiet can be. But after today, I know that I haven't fully appreciated the joy of it. My sister and her husband are spending the week in Grand Cayman and Jeff and I are taking care of their three kids. While Emily has had a blast playing with "Ally" (pronounced with the spanish double L sound) and "Sa-sa" (Sara) and they in turn with her, I have found myself already counting down to Sunday. And I think you could probably pinpoint the moment the clock started ticking to when I read over Jenn's directions last night (Sam is up by 7:00am and by 7:20 is practicing the piano). But at the moment Sam & Ally are in school and Emily & Sara are napping and I get at least one hour of undisturbed time to myself (well, at least today I do). You wouldn't believe how great it is! Of course the time will be cut short by school getting out, babies waking up, and all the extracurricular activities that then take place. But as exhausting & long as this week will be, I have at least learned something about myself. I am perfectly content with my quiet life at home with Emily and I'm really in no hurry to change it.

Cheese

Usually at the beginning of every year we clean out our garage - it makes it easier to put all of our Christmas decorations away and by the end of the year it’s a disaster and needs to be reorganized. Plus it always helps us to get a count of our food storage. Anyway, as we were cleaning it the other day Emily saw all of our macaroni and cheese. She immediately got excited, started saying “cheese, cheese, cheese” and went and grabbed a couple of boxes. She carried the boxes around the rest of the time – and we of course had to have it for lunch after.

Later, Emily wanted to ride Jeff’s bike and she had a blast with it. She thought it was the neatest thing and it was a pain to try and get her off it. I'm starting to wonder how we're going to survive the supposed terrible two's tantrums - she's already dramatic enough.

Diaper Duty

Emily is quite the little mommy. She rocks her babies to sleep, reads them stories, gives them bottles and feeds them in the highchair. But the other day she went one step further and decided it was time to change diapers. She pulled out her bin of books and used that to climb higher to reach her changing stuff. She grabbed the changing pad and spread it out on the floor. She then proceeded to lay her bear on it and then got a diaper and some wipes. Since then diaper changing has become a daily ritual. It's cute, but I think it’s time to rethink where I keep her diaper supplies. Jeff thinks it's time to teach her to change herself.

Christmas Recap

Wow. Where does the time go? It has been a while since I last posted (as I’ve been told by many). It’s been busy. The normal everyday life squeezed in with all the craziness of Christmas got to be a little overwhelming. Besides that, with how much has gone on it was hard finding a place to start. I figured a big recap was the only solution. So, below are a few pictures of what we took the time to document over the holidays…

Lights at Temple Square

Gift Exchange with Holbrook Siblings

Thanks Brad, Heather & Ella for the baby - she LOVES it! ~ Thanks Stan & Mel for the house. Emily loves all the noises ... and the baby.

Christmas Eve

We tied blankets for Primary Children's Hospital & watched a Ice Age. Emily was enamored with Grandpa Newman that night and wouldn't leave his side.

Christmas Morning

Playing with her farm animals on her new table & chairs. ~ Having her first tea party with her dishes

Emily wanting to watch her new movie with her baby. ~ When we were fixing breakfast I turned around to find Emily sitting in her chair reading a book to her baby.

Christmas Night

Talking to Elder Newman!

We pretty much had two straight weeks of parties. We enjoyed seeing so many of our family and friends, however Jeff and I decided it was too much and we’ve spent the last week as hermits in an attempt to recover.

Happy Birthday!

Happy 15th Uncle Matthew!

Zoo Lights!

We went to see the lights at Hogle Zoo the other night. It was really neat. There were animals everywhere and some were set up to flash in intervals to make it look like they were moving. In the picture below, the monkey was shooting a banana into his mouth and in the other one all the animals were passing a star along to put on top of the tree. They also had an orangutan jumping/swinging through a tree and an alligator opening and closing his mouth – we thought that one was the coolest. We even got to see the real bear and tiger playing around in their cages. It was a bit chilly so Emily was bundled up like crazy. She was so fascinated with everything though she didn’t even notice. All in all, a great night out and totally worth it.

Ho! Ho! Ho!

We went to see Santa today. Emily was completely fine sitting on his lap, but we had a hard time getting her to smile and once she took the candy cane Santa offered her she was ready to get down. From afar we could get her to say “Santa”, “ho, ho ho”, and “thanks” but she still wouldn’t crack a smile. A minute later we discovered she’d broke into the candy cane and was trying to eat it. After she got a piece of it she wouldn’t stop grinning and we were able to get a good picture with Santa. We’re glad that she was fine sitting on his lap and thrilled we were able to get a good picture.

Before the candy cane

After the candy cane

In the parking lot after - still loving it!

Happy Anniversary!

Yes I know we got married on the 11th, but due to Jeff’s unfortunate final schedule we decided to post pone it (well, at least the celebration) and pretend it’s today. Jeff had a rather big final Wednesday morning and studied all day and night on Tuesday. It’s hard to believe it’s already been four years…but at the same time, it’s only been four years? I often ask myself what life was like before Jeff and what I ever did without him. It’s really hard to remember. I know he says the same thing. How lucky we are to have found each other. Happy Anniversary hon, I love you!