I'm too tired to be clever

This first pic is a picture of the really warm, really nice quilt that Gramma Richau sent to Emi. It was just so beautiful, I wanted everyone to have a chance to see it.

I've stayed up way too late the last two nights. I've been up til midnight...which is sort of funny because that was an average to early bedtime for me before Emilia was born, but now I'm exhausted if I go to bed too much past 10:30. Of course, no one was waking me up for 15 minutes to an hour 3 times between midnight and 7am before either. I'm sure that makes some sort of difference.

Today was a hard day, too. I had Emilia for the entire day. Steve was doing other things. I love my daughter, but I really struggle with coming up with things that entertain both her and me for 14 1/2 hours a day. By about hour 10 my brain is pretty much spent, but brain spendage has no effect on whether my 5 month old will take a nap or just sit quietly while I do something that doesn't involve her one bit. So, I trudge on.

William: Oi sir, what are you doing?
Chaucer: Uh... trudging. You know, trudging?
[pause]
Chaucer: To trudge: the slow, weary, depressing yet determined walk of a man who has nothing left in life except the impulse to simply soldier on.


Yesterday was a better day, though. Emilia actually took a nap in her crib for 40 minutes. That was a breakthrough. I hope it happens again. I tried today, but she just woke up and then was tired for the rest of the afternoon. She looked really cute yesterday, too. She was wearing another of the dresses from Aunt Jean and a bow I made myself. Oh, and a bib from Nana.We had a couple over for dinner and the ribs I made turned out delectably. Then they stayed and played two games of Settlers with us. It was a lot of fun.

I talked to my boss at Penny's today and she said she wouldn't make me come in for my scheduled 4-6pm shift on Christmas Eve, so we get to leave Wednesday morning to go down to family's. And then Emilia and I are on our way to Arizona for Lavi's wedding. I'm excited for everyone to meet her. Hooray!

curling ribbon, colds, and cutting teeth

First off, I was wrapping a present for Nana today and Emilia was watching. I started curling the ribbon with a scissors and this was her reaction:

Next, I have a cold. I've had a cold for like a week and a half. I thought I was over it and then we went to my parents' this week and it came back for some reason. I wish it would go away.

Third, Emilia has been cutting a tooth for like 3 weeks now. She drools so much! Poor thing gets a rash on her chest because her clothes are constantly wet. If we put a bib on her, she gets a rash under her chin. I can't win. For those skeptics out there, she really is cutting a tooth. I can feel it coming in on the top on her left side. I hope this doesn't mean she's going to start biting me. She's too young to stop breastfeeding. :)

Tough Sunday

Emi had a really rough day today. I'm not sure what was wrong, but she screamed (literally) for longer today than I have ever seen her scream in her entire short life. Poor kid. And we had a busy day, so I'm sure that didn't help.

Steve got called to be the Ward Clerk, so he'll be keeping busy with that soon. Good thing he has a couple weeks of not being in school to learn the ropes and get used to the work load. My new church calling is Ward Photographer. I had never heard of such a thing until they asked me to do it. But hey--it's a fitting calling for me. For those of you out there who don't speak Mormon, a calling is like a job we're asked to do. A ward is just the name for a group of church members who live in the same area -- kind of like a parish, I think.

I found a photography contest for pictures of Logan Canyon and I had some good ones, so I entered them. Thanks to everybody whose opinion I got on which ones to enter. If you want to see them, go to: www.sabrinwattsphotography.com/logan_pics/

And since no blog is complete without a picture of my beautiful daughter, here is one of her sleeping. Steve took them and since the one with me looking like I'm on drugs is the one that turned out better of my daughter, I'm putting that one up. I look really skinny in this picture. Weird.

I haven't had much to say lately. We've been in the same routine for a while. I work 3 days a week, Steve teaches classes and goes to class. Although last Friday was his last day of teaching and this week he has two papers due, but no finals (lucky him!). After tomorrow afternoon, though, he's fun and fancy free until the first week in January. I'm trying to find a new job. Penny's isn't bad, but it doesn't pay very well and I've been getting an average of 10 hours a week, which isn't paying the bills. I saw a job working for the 2010 census that I will try to get. I have to go in and do some testing (make sure I can read and write and follow directions and stuff). They said they'd pay $11.50 to $13.00 an hour and you could do it part time, so it sounds like a great job if it has regular hours. I'm a little worried that if I get it we will no longer qualify for medicaid for Emilia, but really anything is better than being as poor as we are right now.

me and emi yesterday morning.

Steve and Emi on Sunday. Emi is wearing another one of the dresses from Aunt Jean. I couldn't get Steve and Emi to look at me at the same time, so this pic won because you can see the dress better. Sorry Steve.

Still tall and skinny

Emilia had her 4 month appointment on Thursday, so I thought I would report her growth. She is officially 14 lbs 5 oz (50th percentile) and 26 inches (90th percentile).

I was looking for baby photo contests to enter my pictures of her in and the only one that I found that looked legitimate was the Parenting magazine one. Their entry deadline for 2008 had passed already, though, so I'll have to wait until next year to enter. However, I did see that they were having a contest for the cutest baby talk, so I thought I would enter that instead. Here is the video I submitted:

Happy Birthday to me! Happy Birthday to me!

It was my birthday yesterday. When you have a 4 month old, you can't expect much from a birthday, but it turned out pretty good anyway. My present to myself was to not do housework all day. That was nice. Miss Emilia took a nap in her crib yesterday afternoon, so that was her birthday present to me. I watched an episode of Bones while she slept. Steve made me muffins for breakfast and then took me out to dinner using the giftcard he got for his birthday, which I thought was really nice of him. It was an excellent dinner, although there is all of 1 thing on Chili's menu that I can eat. Literally. The manager was REALLY nice and looked up the ingredient in a lot of the foods and made a special batch of fries without the season salt just for me and sauteed some mushrooms in regular butter instead of garlic butter for my mushroom and swiss hamburger. Wasn't that nice of them?

Emilia hasn't been feeling good all week. She's been very clingy and cranky. She seems to be doing better this morning. Lots of energy and wiggling. Unfortunately she has a doctor's appointment tomorrow where they'll give her some more vaccines and make her feel icky again. Ugh.

We were in Orem and Kearns from Tuesday to Saturday of last week for Thanksgiving. It was fun, though a little weird. I was in charge of pies for our family's dinner and I went all out. I made a blueberry pie (my favorite), a pan of apple bars, and a french silk pie. My mom made a pecan pie that my dad could eat and I was going to make a lemon meringue, but Haylee was nice and made a lemon pie, so I didn't have to.

It hasn't snowed here yet, so it doesn't feel like Christmas time. I have a hard time decorating and putting up a tree when there isn't any snow. Is that weird?

Well, Miss Emi is getting bored, so I guess I'll go entertain her. Hope everyone's Thanksgiving was good and happy.

For Aunt Jean

Emilia's middle name is Jean and that is one of my aunt's names, too. Aunt Jean gave me a whole bunch of really cute dresses that her daughter (my cousin) Dorothy wore when she was a little girl in the early 80s. She wanted me to take pictures when Emi was able to wear them. So here you go Aunt Jean (Uncle Clem, I'm counting on you to show her!). Emi wore this to church today.

Also, a gratuitous naked picture ;) What a cute little bum.

My parents came up to visit us this weekend and brought my birthday present with them -- a small deep freezer. Hooray! I'm so excited about it. Room in my in-house freezer and room to store extra stuff like meat that's on sale. I doubt as a teenager I would have believed that anyone could get so excited over something as boring as a deep freezer, let alone believed that it would be me getting that excited.

It was really nice to have them visit, too. I'm surprised at how much I miss having family close enough to see someone every week. We did a little shopping while they were here and played a couple games (my dad won at Carcassonne Princess and the Dragon and it only took us 2 1/2 hours to play--haha). Saturday morning we took some family pictures so we can finally give one to Nick and Wilda for above their mantle. It was a nice relaxing time. Ahh.

4 months old!

Emilia turned 4 months old yesterday! We celebrated by taking pictures and trying solid foods. She has been SO-O-O hungry lately, and they say if the baby will eat it they are ready for solid foods by 4 months. I probably will only introduce rice cereal for now (I want to keep breast milk as 98% of what she's eating), but I'm hoping it will keep her full for longer. Oy.

So here are a couple of the pictures. To see all of them, go here: http://www.sabrinawattsphotography.com/NovemberEmi/

This is my favorite one. Doesn't she have AMAZING eyes?! I didn't retouch the color of her eyes in any way. They are that blue. She is such a gorgeous baby. Do you think I could enter her in a beautiful baby contest and cash in on these genes? haha.

Tagged

8 favorite TV shows
1. Bones
2. America's Next Top Model
3. Chuck
4. Life
5. Eli Stone
6. Privileged (Heather and Nicole, you should really check this one out. It's on the CW and it stars the older sister from Reba)
7. Pretty much anything on HGTV
8. Anything I have on DVD: old seasons of Bones, Seasons 1-3 of Angel (i refuse to watch anything past that), The West Wing, Stargate SG-1, House, Charmed, The Pretender, Roswell
Keep in mind all of my TV watching is done on my laptop, so if they don't have episodes online, I don't watch it. I used to like Without a Trace, but they won't put episodes online.

8 Favorite Restaurants
These aren't in any particular order except for the first one.
1. Hamilton's Steak House
2. Cafe Rio
3. Betos
4. McDonalds
5. Chili's (default from being married to Steve)
6. Ground Round
7. Any place that will make fresh tortillas (are there any anymore?)
8. Coldstone

8 things I did yesterday
1. Read my book (State of Fear by Crichton)
2. Went to Stake Conference
3. Made dinner for the family and desert for us and some friends
4. Talked to my parents on the phone
5. Fed my daughter, changed my daughter, fed her, changed her, fed her changed her...you get the idea :)
6. Posted on my blog
7. Went for a walk because it was surprisingly warm and sunny outside in the middle of November
8. Read my scriptures and said my prayers

8 thing I love about Fall
1. The colors
2. Not dying of heat nor having to yet wear a coat
3. Crispness in the air
4. Getting to wear my warmer shirts that I haven't seen in 6 months
5. Feeling the holiday spirit
6. Remembering to be thankful
7. Not ever having to go back to school again (If I don't want to)
8. The colors

8 things on my wish list
1. Not having to work
2. Continued health for my baby
3. Continued happiness for my husband
4. Traveling the world
5. My own house whose walls I can paint whatever color I want
6. Photography equipment and training
7. Being less shy about sharing my testimony
8. Being able to teach

8 "crazy" people I tag
All the people I know who blog are the people who sent this to me, so the buck might stop here. ;) If you blog and you are not Nicole or Heather, you're it.

I'm a slacker

I've been slacking in my blogging. I started working and I started a good book and so I haven't been on the computer as much as usual.

My job is a job. Nothing to brag about. But I'm grateful to have it. We can keep our heads above water without having to put Emi in daycare (I work while Steve is home, so he can watch her when I'm not). Of course, I still worry about that. Not because Steve is a bad dad. He's a great dad. He's just a man and therefore inclined to let Emi "tough it out" more often than I would. :) She always seems happy when I get home, though, so I'm getting more used to it.

We finally decided it was time to start putting Emi in her crib at night. She was sleeping in the pack-n-play in our room up til now, but she seemed to be outgrowing it. She would always end up with her head mashed up against the top of the pack-n-play, or lying sideways in it. And she was always cold when she woke up because it was so close to the floor. So we moved her into her crib a few nights ago and she sleeps much more soundly in there. They say to keep them in your room until they're 6 months old now because it reduces the risk of SIDS, but it just wasn't working, so I decided to risk it. Besides, my dad sent me an article about SIDS that said that having a fan going in the room with the baby reduced the risk of SIDS by 72%. So we turned a fan on in there and I feel good about it.

I'm reading State of Fear by Michael Chrichton. It's a pretty good book. I like that he debunks the theory of Global Warming and other scientifically unproven environmentalist causes in it. The action is a little ridiculous, but otherwise it's well written. Did you know that he died last week? Cancer. He was 65. I didn't picture him that old.

Well, I had better go get ready for church. We never seem to make it on time any more with Emi. Oh well. God knows we're trying, right? Someday we'll figure it out.

Giggling

Grandpa Frohlich had Emi belly laughing last weekend just by making noises with his mouth, but apparently I'm not that funny. I have to tickle her to make her laugh. She is really ticklish under her chin on on her belly, so I take advantage of that whenever possible. This isn't a great example of her giggling, but of course when she's in the laughing mood, it never lasts long enough to get the camera out and set up, so this will have to do.

Christmas already

So we all went down to Kearns last weekend and we really had a lot of fun. Steve was able to get a lot of homework done because I had other people to entertain me during the day, and I was entertained without feeling like I was keeping Steve from getting important stuff done. Then we could both play games or whatever at night. And of course Emilia liked having so much attention.

While my mom and I were out shopping one day we found Emilia's Christmas present. And since she won't know the difference between now and Christmas, we just let her have it. She wasn't sure about it right away, but she really likes it now. Here are some pics of her playing in it.

I have no pajamas today

For those of you who have seen the original Sabrina, my post title will be clever. The rest of you will just think I'm a little strange, but that's okay, too.

My daughter has stopped fitting into her diapers and therefore poops or pees on everything I put her in and I have to do laundry twice a week just to have clean clothes for her to wear. This morning at 7am, she peed on her pjs and I didn't want to get her dressed until I could give her a bath, but Steve was using the bathroom, so I just wrapped her up in a blanket until he got out. Tonight I put her in pajamas that were a little too big for her because EVERY other pair we own was in the wash. So she filled her diaper about 5 minutes later and got it all over those. She's sleeping in a long-sleeved shirt and her loosest pair of pants at the moment. Hopefully they will last longer than 5 minutes. Argh.









You have to click on this one so you can see her face. She is so funny!

Turmoil

Emi is laying next to me putting herself to sleep. I feel so blessed to have such a beautiful, healthy baby. Today is election day and it has made me reflect on our country and the values it is supposed to be based on. It makes me sad that the majority of people in this country seem to value the wrong things or refuse to take a stand and make themselves heard. I also am sad that I don't feel like I'm doing all I can to make it better, but I don't know what things to do. I feel powerless to make significant changes to something as large and teetering as our government. That being said, it makes me all the more greatful for my religion in my life. It helps me feel peace in a world that seems to be falling apart. Because of it, I know that God is there, watching out for all of us, and that I can go to him in prayer when I'm scared or lonely or sad. I know he will help us make it through the next four years with a president who (I think) will throw the country into turmoil. I hope that doesn't offend any of you. I love you all. Brina

Guess the pumpkin

Steve and I carved pumpkins tonight after Emi went to bed. She went to bed pretty early, so YEA!!! Can you guess what we carved?


And just for good measure, a cute picture of Emi. I took this the same day I took the Lil Punkin picture and I just thought it was funny because she looked like she was ready to box somebody. :)

We're going down to Kearns tomorrow to visit my parents and I'm excited to spend the weekend with them. Hopefully Emilia won't let it upset her schedule too much. We'll see!

I got a real job

Well, I decided to quit pretending to be a photographer and get a real job. JCPenny offered me the job, and although it doesn't pay well, they're willing to work with my (or technically Steve's) schedule. I don't get to be a photographer there--they don't want to train new photographers this close to the holidays--but I'll get to "enhance" the photos and work with the customers, as well as get out of the house for a while each week, so it should be a pretty good job.

In other big news, Emi rolled over by herself today! She did it on the couch, so she had a little help (the couch has a slight tilt to it), but I was still impressed. Of course, then she was really mad that she was on her stomach, so I'd have to roll her back over so she could do it again. As everyone knows, it's so exciting to see her grow, but sad that she's doing it so fast. She's such a cute, fun baby, and I'm sure she'll be extremely independent as soon as she can be. That's life, though, right?

I caught her!

I caught Emi doing her arm thing on video. I was trying to capture how she's learning to grab things and bring them to her mouth and she did the thing I was describing a couple days ago about sticking her arms straight out in front of her. She's so cute!

No tears

Emilia finally had her 2 month appointment today. (I know, I know--she's over 3 months old. But we didn't have health insurance for her between her 2 week appointment and now, so I did it as soon as I got her on health insurance.)


You'll be happy to know that the doctor gave her a clean bill of health. He says she's very healthy and very active. The nurse was also very impressed with her. She got three shots today and didn't really cry. She gave one burst after the 3rd shot, but stopped as soon as the nurse leaned over and talked to her. She actually started grinning because of the attention. We'll have to see if she gets a fever from them.


They stamped her little feet for us. They're so cute! We were also told that she is in the 95th percentile for length and 60th percentile for weight. She's tall! But she seems so chubby! I can't imagine what a baby in the 95th percentile for weight looks like. haha

Super Baby!!

Emilia is figuring out her arms. She likes to stick one or both of them strait out in front of her with her hand in a fist. It looks like she is trying to fly. It's really funny. :D I haven't been able to capture it on film yet, but I'll post a picture as soon as I can catch her at it.

Our webcam does low-light pictures and video and when we're putting Emilia to bed, we turn the lights down. So I decided to try out the camera. Here she is lying on the couch (which is where she usually falls asleep--while eating--and then we transfer her to the pack-n-play). I can always tell when she's getting hungry when she tries to put BOTH hands in her mouth at the same time!

I have my laptop, so I blog and such from the comfort of the couch as well. Here I am in my comfy spot:

I have been cleaning house so far this week. Steve's parents are visiting for the weekend, so I needed to make sure we had a clean space for them and a clean bathroom. That's harder than it sounds when you're getting used to a new baby! I'm figuring her out, though, I think. Since she rarely naps during the day, I just have to do stuff while she's awake. She's generally content to entertain herself for about 10 minutes at a time. Which isn't much, but more than I had before.

I had my first photography job last Friday. Steve had the day off of school, so he watched the baby and I went and took some senior pictures for a girl here in Logan. She was a cute girl and it was fun to do what I love. I've been processing the pictures since then and finally finished today. I wouldn't have worried about finishing so quickly, but I have another job this Saturday doing pictures of a family and their little boy who is turning 1. I'm looking forward to it. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and be warm like they are predicting (if you call 62 warm that is!) Here is one of the pictures from the shoot last Friday:

Oh! and last but not least, both Steve and I had job interviews this week. I had an interview today with JCPenny Portrait Studios and Steve has an interview with Shopko tomorrow for a loss-prevention job. I think I'll get a job offer from Penny's; the lady talked about me possibly being an assistant manager at the interview, but we'll see what the Shopko job pays and what the hours are first. I'll have to work a few Sundays if I take the Penny's job and it only pays $8.00 (for the regular position--I'm not sure how much it would pay for the assistant manager job). We'll keep you posted though.

Love you guys. Brina

Pretty normal

I did my first Logan photography job on Friday and I think it went well. They were senior pictures and the girl was really cute. I hope the pics turn out well. I was able to do the shoot Friday morning because Steve had the day off from school. "Fall break" apparently. It was nice to have him home an extra day. It finally made it feel like a weekend! :) I have another shoot scheduled for next weekend; this one is a family and a little boy turning 1. That should be fun, too.

Miss Emi is a little cranky lately, but just a little. I think my milk has a hard time catching up with her growth spurts and she gets hungry really quickly. She's been taking better naps lately, so I've really been enjoying that. It will be especially good if I keep getting photography jobs so I can work on processing the photos while she naps (as well as do the housework and such).

I made lunch for us and another couple in our ward yesterday. I love Cafe Rio, but I can't eat there because they make everything with garlic. So I found some knock-off recipes online and made everything minus the garlic. It turned out SO TASTY. It was great.

Well, Miss Emi just woke up from her nap and is hungry, so I better go.

Brina

Li'l Punkin

BIG and STRONG

Miss Emilia (as her father calls her) is having another growth spurt. Waking up only twice to eat, she slept from 9:30 last night until 10:20 this morning. And then she ate almost every hour during the day today. If that doesn't shout "GROWTH SPURT," I don't know what does. :)

She is a strong little tyke, too. She is trying to sit up on her own and she likes to stand whenever we let her as well. She's not very good at it, yet, but I'm sure she'll perfect it way sooner than I'd like!

Everybody's favorite 3 month old

I have searched the entire house and I cannot find my glasses, so if I write something really funky it's because I couldn't see the computer screen very well.

We've discovered one way that Emilia is just like her mommy---She's like her daddy in almost every way. :D We realized in the last few days that she has bendy ears like her daddy, (They can roll over and suction to themselves. It really grosses mommy out.) and I think she has seasonal allergies, too, which mommy doesn't have.

She has been really happy to see her daddy the last few days. I caught these pics yesterday after he came home from school.

And here's a funny one of her chewing on her hand, just for good measure.

Have Dad read this one to you Mom. You won't want to see the pictures!

I went out to our shed earlier today to check whether we have an electrical outlet out there. I knew we had a light, so there was power, but I didn't know if there was an outlet. (I want to get a small deep-freezer so we can keep more frozen than what we can keep in our refrigerator freezer.) Anyway... I opened the door and lo and behold, right there at the bottom of the door is the biggest spider I've ever seen in my life. --I know-- anyone who's gone to South America will tell me they've seen way bigger. But this is a big one for Logan, UT. Ew.


I had to take a picture so everyone would believe it was big. I put my phone near it so you get an idea of it's size (You have to click on the picture and enlarge it to get the full effect). I got out the Raid and sprayed it down good, along with the rest of the doorway, and then made Steve go back out and stick his head in there to see if we have an outlet. And we do! Hooray! Guess we'll be looking for a used deep freezer. If anyone hears of one for sale, let me know! :D

It just got monster sized

I just got back from the Logan Instacare and I have strep. Well, I think I have strep anyway. It's funny how modern medicine doesn't know much more than the average person nowadays. I looked up strep symptoms online and I had all but one of them. Since I don't have insurance, I wouldn't have gone to the doctor and paid $126 if I wasn't sure I wasn't going to get over this on my own.

So when the doctor came in, I told him what my symptoms were and he looked at my throat, and he was like, "Well, it sure looks like you have strep, but we'll wait for the culture to come back." Well, the culture came back negative. UGH. So he said the other thing it could be was mono, but if the mono test came back negative, he would treat me for strep anyway because he was 85% sure I had strep before the test came back negative and the test is only 85% correct.

Thank goodness the mono test came back negative!!!

I think Heavenly Father heard my thoughts: I was packing it up and going home if I had mono. Can you imagine trying to take care of a household and a 3 month old baby with no health insurance in a strange town with MONO!??

So he gave me a prescription for penicillin. And I'm praying it works. Sorry to anyone down in Orem/Kearns/Eagle Mountain that I might have given strep to. I certainly hope it wasn't full-blown strep yet and I can spare myself from feeling guilty over that, too.

Love you all!
Brina

2 kitties, 2 skeins of yarn, and a whopper of a cold bug

The first kitty is of course Cosmo. Steve, Emi, and I drove down to Orem to watch the BYU vs. USU game. It's a little silly that we drove 117 miles to watch a game that was being played less than 5 miles from our house, but we can blame Steve for that. He didn't actually ask someone if students got discounted tickets to football games, so we were under the impression it would cost us at least $70 to go to the game. Which is WAY more expensive than driving to Orem. (We found out later from some friends that students get in free and spouses pay $5.) But...we were looking forward to spending the weekend with family anyway, so it was worth the drive. Surprisingly, the 110 (or so)-ranked Aggies managed to make the #7 ranked Cougars look bad during the second half of the game, so it was actually a fun game to watch.

Here is the second kitty:


This is Emi's halloween costume. We decided not to go all out on a costume for the non-existent halloween party that we're not going to that she won't know she's wearing anyway. I put her in it today because it was the only long-sleeved outfit I had that was clean. I got a ton of long-sleeved stuff from my sister this weekend (Thanks Megs!), but it needed to be washed.

Since I wasn't holding Emi all weekend, I actually finished the scarf that I've been trying to knit for 2 years. I took it all out and crocheted it and it took me all of 2 1/2 days to finish. I hate knitting. :P

And last, but certainly not least, the cold bug. I came down with a fierce sore throat Sunday and it still hasn't gone away. This is my first experience of HAVING to take care of someone else while feeling like crap...and it's really not all that fun. Although taking care of someone as cute as Emi makes it easier.

Little Personality

Hello everybody! I haven't blogged for a few days because I've been trying to work on my photography portfolio and another blog I'm trying to customize. It's not working--trying to customize the blog. I'll have to get Steve to tell me what I'm doing wrong. He's at school right now and Emi is laying here next to me and still in her pajamas at noon. Does that make me a bad mother that I haven't dressed her yet? She's blowing bubbles and smiling and talking to me while I blog. Oh! and I guess she's filling her pants, too. :)

I'm so excited to go down to Orem on Friday! Seriously, I've been looking forward to this weekend for 3 weeks. Everybody better not be disappointing. Haha. :D

Emi is getting so interesting! The grandparents are going to be so sad they haven't seen her in over a month. It's amazing how much she can do now. She's holding up her head (mostly) and she can keep one finger in her mouth when she wants to. I've discovered she only does it when she's hungry, though; she usually doesn't do it just for comfort.

We've also decided she is sensitive. Sometimes when I sneeze or we start the vacuum or something like that and she wasn't expecting a loud noise, she bursts into these sobs like we've seriously hurt her feelings. It's just so heart-wrenching. I haven't discussed this one with Steve, but I think she's a little shy, too. Whenever you talk to her and make her smile, she turns her head and brings her hands up to her face like she's trying to hide a little bit. It's really cute. That observation contradicts another one that we've made. She loves groups of people and whenever we get a camera out, she can't keep her eyes off of it. So I'm not sure how those two go together yet. I guess it will become more apparent as she gets older.

Her headbands finally fit her so I took some pics of her with one on. I think they look pretty cute on her, but then, she could probably make just about anything look cute. But then, I'm biased. :)

Maybe not so much

After avoiding talking to me about it for two days, Alison finally told me yesterday that her boss is going to flake on me. He's going to have someone in the office do his pics so it's free. Not surprising, but still disappointing. Oh, well. Better luck next time, right?

My morning sunshine

Like I said in my smiles post, Emi likes to smile after she's eaten her morning meal. I finally managed to catch a little bit of it on camera. (I had to hide the camera from her.) We don't have a video camera, but I bought a webcam so we could video conference with Nana and Poppa Frohlich. Once we showed Grandma and Grandpa Watts they could see their granddaughter every week (without the problems with internet speed they used to have), they decided they had to get one, too. :) It sure helps Momma with her homesickness, too. I miss spending time with evrybody! Good thing we get to go down and visit next week. It will b so much fun!

I got a job! Woo-hoo!

Thanks to Alison, I got a job doing some photos for the sales guys in her office. I'm excited. I love doing photography. It makes me happy and it helps support our little family. I have two more couples interested in my work. I'm supposed to do consultations with them tomorrow, but they haven't called back to confirm where we're doing it, so maybe those won't pan out. People are flaky sometimes. But I at least got 1 job and it means I get to bring Emi down to see her grandparents. It works out splendidly. :) Thanks again Al!

For all you who just care about the baby ;) here is a picture of her. There is a cute little park near our house that has a year-round zoo for kids. (They have a lot of birds: ducks, bald eagles that were injured in the wild, turkeys, pheasants, etc. They also have a chipmunk, some porkupines, horses, a kangaroo, and some deer.) I'm sure Emi will love to go next summer when she will be able to see them and understand what the animals are. We went just so mommy could hang out with someone who could actually talk to her. :)

Smiles

Emilia has the cutest smiles! She smiles when she sees me for the first time in the morning (after she's eaten, of course--gotta have priorities, right?); she smiles when she hears daddy after he's been gone all day; she smiles when you talk to her and let her try to talk back. She's just a smiley girl.





Our apartment is a two-story townhouse. Our rooms are upstairs, but in the mornings I bring Emi downstairs to feed her on the couch because it's comfy. :) A lot of times when she's done eating, she falls back to sleep, so I just set her on the couch and cover her up. (I'll stop doing that when she starts trying to roll around, but for now it works great!)

You gotta start somewhere...and really: who wouldn't want to look at her?

The whole reason I decided to start this blog was to help out my website, www.sabrinawattsphotography.com, but who am I kidding? How could anyone possibly be more deserving of camera time than my beautiful Emilia Jean? Just to prove my point, here are my latest professional-type photos of the Great and Powerful Emi:

This is my favorite. She just looks so peaceful.


I tried messing with the color a little on this one. You know...I wanted to make it look like an old black and white photo that they painted to put some color in. I like how it turned out. What do you think?



Before you look at the rest, I suppose I should tell you the story behind the pics. :) I was looking at some other photographer's websites in Logan, UT, to find out what competitors pricing was looking like, and I found a website for a lady who specializes in baby pictures. They were so cute that I was inspired to do some of Emi. So I got everything set up on our bed (because the lighting is the best in the master bedroom). I got the pillows all arranged and threw a blanket over the top, fed Emi, so she would be happy, got her undressed, and got all of like 5 pictures taken before she peed all over everything. Argh.







Looking very thoughtful in this one. :)





At least feeding her worked. She was pretty calm!



Well, it's late, so I'm going to bed, but I'll post again tomorrow. Don't have anything better to do while breastfeeding! :)