Christmas Fun

Well Christmas has come and gone and we definately did a lot of partying. Most of the time has been spent at my parents house with everybody else. We had a very white Christmas, at least it's the first Christmas I remember that we had a foot of snow on the ground and it continued to snow most of the day. Huge, fluffy, beautiful snowflakes; the kind that make you want to go outside and tilt your head back to try and catch them on your tongue.

Here's a lot of pictures of my sweet little princess having fun with her cousins on Christmas Eve. She really likes rough-housing and kept asking for more when all of us adults were telling the boys to be more careful. I have a feeling she might be the girl in her class that plays on the football team.








Emmy's big present this year was getting her ears pierced. She has been asking for earrings since she was 15 months old practically on a daily basis, and she's one tough cookie, so I figured she could handle it. I had originally planned on doing it on her birthday, but decided I would prefer having it done a few weeks before the new baby comes so we could have time to establish a routine for cleaning her ears three times every day. I can honestly say it was one of the hardest things I have ever done. Yes, I did it myself at home using piercing needles intead of taking her to Claire's because frankly the latter scared me a lot more. Emmy has done absolutely great with them and is thrilled that she has earrings now like Mama.


Here's Emmy riding her alphabet catapiller...


...helping Daddy with the Farming Game...


...in her Christmas pajamas that Grandma Jan made...


...and playing "tea party" with Aunt Donna...




...and Donna's new toy, Spike, the Ultimate Dinosour. (notice the butter knife in Spike's mouth?!)


I had a midwife appointment last night and apparently all the holiday food did me in, even though I took it easy on the sweets. Ten days ago at my last appointment I was measuring at 41 weeks, but last night I was measuring at 44! Yikes! When I said that I hadn't know it could get that big, my hilarious midwife said, "It does with twins!" Anyway, here's a picture of Emmy measuring my belly last week telling me that it's "big". (Excuse the frizzy hair, I was not feeling up to styling it.)


I forgot to mention that we took our Wii over to my parents house figuring that with all of the family being together it might be fun to play a few games of bowling. Well, guess who stayed up until 2:30 in the morning playing it. My parents. Yes, that's right, my mom and dad! I thought my dad was joking when he told me the next day, until Mom and Jake confirmed his story. It made me laugh.

(Sorry about typos, I couldn't get the spell check to work and I'm too lazy to do it myself!)

Hats and hair

So we finally pulled out all of Emmy's clothes and things from when she was a newborn to sort through them and start getting them ready for the baby, seeing as how she would be considered full-term and can come safely anytime after Jan. 1st. Well, Emmy found a hat with the face of a bear on it and decided it was the coolest thing ever. But of course there were a bunch of little baby hats, too, so she had to put one on her baby doll, because, according to Emmy, she was cold.





Lately I've been wearing a ponytail a lot because it's easy and I'm so hot all the time. Emmy thinks this is pretty cool for some reason, she probably gets it from Donna, and has been asking for her hair to be in a pony too anytime mine is. Here she is yesterday watching a big CAT try to clear some of the snow out of the streets. Sorry her face is so dark. My camera was registering all of the light from the snow behind her and wasn't letting the flash go off. It only has two settings, "auto" or "off". I really wish it also had an "on". Isn't her face priceless!

I'm still alive

Okay, so I know some of you might be thinking that I've fallen off the face of the earth, but the truth is I've just been somewhat miserable and incredibly lazy. :O) My last prenatal appointment was on Friday, I was 35 weeks that day, and I am measuring as a week past-due! Now I know why I've been hurting so much. I'm really, really starting to hope that this little girl decides she's ready to come meet us a couple weeks early. I can't imagine if I actually go all 40 weeks, or worse, past it. To top things off, this means I'm as big as I was the day I delivered Emmy. So from here on out I'm only going to get bigger than I have ever been before.

To sort of summarize this month: we got our tree up and decorated, Emmy and I have had a cold all month, Audra got a very contagious infection on her chin so I had to wash everything in the house with hot water and clean all of the toys, we've been Christmas shopping, we currently have lots of snow, and the Stake Christmas Cantata was last night. I was so nervous about my solo before we left for it that I thought I was going to be sick, so I asked Kurtis for a blessing and felt a lot better afterwards. It went pretty well and I was so thankful to have gotten through it without messing up so bad the director cancelled the rest of the show, fainting on stage because I couldn't breathe, or having my water break in the middle of the song. All three scenarios have played over and over again in my dreams the past week.

Okay, now time for pictures because they're the best part.

Emmy helping decorate for Christmas.



Here is a tired little princess.


Emmy after re-discovering her box of bows that I put up several months ago because she refused to wear them.


Emmy ready for Church yesterday.


And a shot of my 35 week pregnant belly which is measuring at 41 weeks after the Cantata last night. People kept asking me how I was even able to sing when we got done!


I also forgot to mention that Kurtis got done with his finals last week and Christmas Break started a day early on Friday when we had a snow day. I don't have to watch Audra again until January 5th. Yea for a break so I can try to get the baby's things ready before she comes!

We love you all and wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!!!

Busy Weekend

Our Thanksgiving vacation consisted of spending lots of time with family, staying up way too late every night, taking lots of naps, and eating! Oh, and we also got to have Christmas, too!
We ate Thanksgiving dinner with my family here in Wendell and then got up Friday morning after Kurtis delivered the newspaper and got ready to go to Pocatello to see Kurtis' family. We stopped in Twin on the way and got Emmy's pictures taken since she turned 21 months old on Thanksgiving day and we haven't had any professionally done of her since she was 5 months old.
When we got to Pocatello we had a little Christmas with Kurtis' parents and sisters since we're not going to see them for Christmas. Emmy loved opening the presents! But I think she loved just spending time with all the family even more. She's been asking for Grandma Jan and Papa this morning and asking to "go, go", which means she wants to go see them.


Emmy with Grandma Jan on the quilt Grandma made for Emmy's bed.


She's figured out what presents are for: to open!


Emmy playing with her new easel.


She really loved modeling the new play jewelry she got. "m'Emmy pwitty."

We came home home Saturday night and met up with my family in Twin to eat at Montana Steakhouse for Jake's 21st birthday. We had just gotten done eating a late lunch with Kurtis' family at Red Lobster two hours earlier, so we ended the night overly full.
Yesterday was one of the busier Sundays we've had for a while. Kurtis and I gave talks in our ward, had tithing settlement, and stake choir practice for the Christmas Cantata, during which the choir director announced that I would be doing the solo for one of the pieces we're doing. Wish me luck! I hope I can still breath deeply enough to sing in three weeks! If not, it should be very interesting. :O) After that we got to go have brownies and ice cream for Jake's birthday. Emmy sat on his lap and tried to help him blow out the candles. It was way cute, but of course I didn't have my camera with me.


Here's Emmy admiring her Christmas ornament that she picked out this week. Now we just need a tree to put it on.

I can't believe that it's already December! The last part of this pregnancy is definitely going by faster than the beginning did. I'm ready for winter and have been thoroughly enjoying the cooler weather. Bring on the snow! There's nothing I love better during the Christmas season than see Christmas lights in the snow.

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!