Emmy's new favorite thing:

Neon colored miniature marshmallows. Audra introduced them to her a few weeks ago. She seriously asks for them all day. I have to do some major distracting to get her focused on anything else!

Lovin' Uncle Jake

On Friday Jake stopped by the house and played with Emmy, Audra, and Koda for about an hour. The entire time he was here Emmy spent giggling, Audra sat and stared at him with adoration, and Koda begged for him to throw the frizbee one more time. It was really quite comical. I took a short video of it using my camera but can't manage to get it on here. The still pictures just don't do it justice.



In other news, Emmy caught a cold from Audra this week and was up Sunday morning from about 1:30 until 5:00 coughing, sneezing, and wanting cuddles. We managed to make it to sacrament meeting despite the lack of sleep and her watery nose, but left Kurtis and came home afterwards because we were both at the ends of our ropes. When we got home I got Emmy some yogurt since she said she was hungry and sat her up to the table with it and a cup of milk. Then I grabbed my ice pack and went to lay down and ice my back while she was eating. When she yelled done about ten minutes later, I discovered that she had decided the yogurt was better for fingerpainting than eating. Everything within her reach had pretty swirls all over it, including the sides of her chair, front of her bib, and all over her sippy cup.

How do you explain two months to a 21 month old?

Wednesday night I took Emmy to a meeting with me about the bill to license midwives that's being presented to Legislature this January. The meeting was in the Magic Valley Birth Center in Jerome that just opened in August. Of course Emmy had to go potty while we were there because, well, she just has to go potty at any new place we go to. It's like an adventure for her. The restroom in the birth center had a huge poster on the wall of a 40 week pregnant woman and the baby in her belly. Emmy has loved looking at illustrations of babies inside bellies the past couple months, but she especially loved this one. I think it's because this was the first one she's seen that had the baby smiling with it's eyes open. Emmy started clapping and saying "baby, baby" pointing from the poster to my belly, and she's been obsessed about the baby since then.
This morning she wanted me to sing her favorite song, which is "I'm so Glad When Daddy Comes Home" but she likes to substitute different names in it. So we sing it through using Dada, Papa, Donna, Grandma, Chad, Mama...anyone she can think of...even herself. She tells me at the end of one version who she would like to sing about in the next version. It was probably about the ninth version when her eyes lit up and she got this huge smile and exclaimed "Baby!" while patting my belly. Okay, I never got this request before so it made me smile as I started the song for her. I changed the lyrics climb up on his knee to hold her on my knees and when we got done singing Emmy patted my belly and said "baby, a hold". I said she could hug my belly right now and then we would help her hold the baby after she comes out. Emmy looked at me and said "out now". I immediately opened my mouth to just say the baby had to stay in my belly for another two months but closed it when I looked at Emmy's puzzled and expectant face. Even though she is incredibly smart and understands perfectly what tomorrow means, she has no concept of how long a month is. I finally just sighed and told her it would be a very long time before the baby comes out.
Emmy hugged me and said "okay" then slid off my lap and climbed up on the love seat where she grabbed her baby doll and began reading her a book. Being the hormonal pregnant lady that I am, I had tears spilling down my cheeks in no time. Being a Mom is the greatest thing in the world!





PS A huge congratulations to Kelsey and Chris, who found out yesterday that they are having a little boy!! We're very excited about having another nephew!

My Little Fishy

Emmy loves water and taking baths, and always has. Well, she didn't like the sponge baths she got until she was a couple weeks old, but she loves being in the water. Her new thing that started a couple of weeks ago is to actually lay down in the water on her tummy. She kicks her feet and says "swim, swim, swim". It's so cute! She also loves washing her face!

Lazy Sunday

Kurtis and Emmy are currently in enjoying their Sunday afternoon nap together, so I thought I would update our blog. I tried joining them, but realized immediately that would not be a good idea, as we had just got done eating dinner. Thanks to the baby's current position, whenever I lay down, it causes her to further squish my stomach. If my stomach has recently been filled, this causes a very unpleasant sensation.
All of us had a good day at Church, and Emmy was so excited to go to Nursery after Sacrament Meeting that she refused a drink at the water fountain and put up a bit of a fight about going potty before class like she normally does. She really likes Nursery.
I was 30 weeks on Friday and we had a prenatal appointment the day before. Everything is going great, I was measuring at 34 weeks, and the baby's heartrate was 148. It's really starting to sink in that she's going to be joining our family soon and I'm getting really excited! I dream about having her almost every night and look forward to Emmy's first introduction to the new baby. I'm sure she'll be really happy at first; the jealousy probably won't start until her baby sister is a couple hours old. At least that's what I tell myself.
Here's a shot of my belly today at 30 weeks 2 days. :o)


Oh, and here's Emmy crawling under the table pretending to be a kitty. She meows and everything!

Outside, please!

Emmy loves being outside, so the past couple of weeks with what seems like constant wind and rain showers has really given her cabin fever. Well yesterday was one of those glorious days that there was no wind, not even a breeze. So despite it being completely overcast, around 50 degrees, and the ground still wet from the rain that morning, I couldn't tell her no when she stood at the door begging for "owside". I was just planning on having her walk to get the mail with me, but I ended up eventually pushing her in her stroller in circles up and down our driveway for nearly 40 minutes while I listened for Audra to wake up over the monitor which I perched on top of my car. Here's our little eskimo; she loves her hat and mittens.

Happy Veterans Day!

To all those who are serving or have served for our country, and to your family members, thank you for the sacrifices you have made to help ensure our way of life! You are truly heroes! And for those who are currently serving overseas, I pray that you will return home safely.





Three years ago today (fitting, isn't it?) I got to welcome Kurtis home after a 17 month deployment. It was really weird seeing him there at Gowen Field and knowing he was home now, that he wouldn't have to leave after only two weeks and go back to Iraq. It was even stranger witnessing him looking for a job and beginning the transition back into civilian life. It was a lot more difficult than I thought it would be, and I can't even begin to imagine what it might be like for those coming back who have seen hard combat and have to deal with PTSD.

The past three years have been wonderful and full of a lot of changes. We never expected to be in Wendell, and I think if you told Kurtis the day he got back that in three years time he would be working for his father-in-law and expecting his second baby in 73 days, he would have been more than a little amused(until the day Emmy was born, whenever he talked about having kids, it sounded like he thought he would be at least 30 when we had our first). Thank you, Pogi, for the past three years and for being such an amazing Daddy to our little girl. I know this next one will adore you just as much as Emmy does, and Audra for that matter. I love you, you're my hero, and Happy Veterans Day!

Sick little girl

Emmy is really not feeling well. Last night Kurtis and I took turns sitting up holding her so she could somewhat sleep. Even with keeping her upright, her chest would still get so congested that about every two hours she would wake up coughing and struggling to breathe until she would throw up a bunch of mucus. She sounded a lot like a seal, even when she wasn't coughing, just trying to breathe in. Sitting in the bathroom with a hot shower running and letting her breathe the steam for five to ten minutes would get her breathing back to pretty much normal and she could go back to sleep until her next coughing spell would wake her up. We couldn't do that too often, though, because it also made her fever start to climb. She's doing better now during the day, but she still got pretty bad during her afternoon nap. We're also having to make sure we give her tylenol exactly every four hours or her fever gets pretty high. Here's hoping she starts feeling better fast.

We have internet again!

Yea!! We're connected to the outside world again after what seems like a very long time! Halloween has come and gone, along with Election Day and my birthday. Emmy absolutely loved Halloween and is still walking around the house saying "trick-or-treat". She dressed up like a witch to match Aunt Donna and we went to my ward's Trunk-or-Treat with Aunt Donna, Grandma, and Papa. (Kurtis was gone to drill) After the Trunk-or-Treat we went back to Grandma and Papa's house to help hand out candy, which I think was her favorite part of the night. Emmy and Donna would try to beat each other to the door and Emmy always yelled "trick-or-treat" back to the kids after they said it.




All in all, it was a very exciting night for her and she wore herself out thoroughly.




(she didn't want to put her witch dress back on after the second potty break)

This week has been pretty hectic and the weekend is looking like it's going to be even better because Emmy has a cough that has kept her up for the last two nights and she projectile vomited during the middle of lunch today. :) Good times!

For those who want to see more pictures from the past two weeks, feel free to check out http://kurtisandrhondahill.spaces.live.com