contest again

Some people couldn't get the contest picture to come up with what parenting.com gave me. So here is the link. You should just be able to click on it.

http://modelsearch.parenting.com/contests/showentry/156904.?showH2HDetails=true

Contest

Vote for me in this contest!

Contest details

You don't actually have to vote. The votes are only used to determine the People's Choice award, which has no bearing on the contest. But I thought you might like to see her picture on Parenting.com and enter your kids if you have little ones.

Pictures

My happy-go-lucky child has looked like this for the last three days:
The poor thing has been so sick. Both Steve and I got the same thing, but we were over it in two days. But Emi has had a runny nose and a fever and now a cough that just won't quit. She is so miserable. And I worry because she won't eat anything, and she was so pale the other day, and her cough is getting worse. So, tomorrow if she's not better, I'm going to take her to the doctor. It's true Emilia fashion, though, to look so darn cute even when she's totally miserable.

Up next, Emi and her Daddy reading a book. She LOVES reading. Before she got sick, we would read for at least an hour every day. Lately, Steve is feeling a little left-out, though, because Emi is going through her "I only want mommy" stage. It's been worse since she's been sick. I keep telling him that it's just a phase and Emi doesn't love me any more than she loves him, but I don't think he believes me. Maybe some of you can set him straight. ;)

One of her favorites right now is one that I checked out from Logan's Family Resource Center. It's Skippyjon Jones. If you haven't read it, you should. Especially you, Emily T. I am interested to see what you think. Other great kids books I've found: Llama Llama books, I Love You Stinky Face (which I think older boys would get just as much of a kick out of as younger boys, Heather), and Bear Snores On. All of these Emilia loves, and they are fun for me to read, too. Well maybe not the 163rd time, but anything before that. :)

This is Emilia's new face. Every time she hears something out of the ordinary or loud, she does this. She's so funny.

I have no idea why she wanted to drink out of both sippy cups at the same time, but who really understands 18 month-olds anyway.

Emi turned 18 months on the 17th. She's getting so big! She had her 18 month doctor appointment a few days later and she is still in the 95+ percentile for height. She is SO-O-O tall. She is already wearing 3T clothes!

She's also growing up. A few weeks ago at Grandma and Grandpa Watts', she walked down their front two steps without holding on to anything and without falling! She hasn't tried it at home yet, thank goodness. She has also figured out how to open inside doors, which wouldn't be a problem except for this:

That's right, we moved her over to a big-girl bed. She thinks it's pretty cool that she gets her own bed. (Indicated by the smug look she got on her face when I put it up and told her it was her bed. There was also bouncing and giggling involved.) She's done really well. She's only fallen out twice--and given how much she moves around at night, that's amazing. And she is much more willing to go down for naps and bedtime. Hooray!

Since she hit a milestone, I wanted to do a photo shoot in some of her cute new clothes, but she is very uncooperative in that department lately. She doesn't want to stay in one spot for more than 2 1/2 seconds. So, when I was at the Watts' a few weeks ago, she was running around naked because she loves it so much and it was actually WARM in their house (that never happens here) and I didn't need to get her dressed immediately. So, I threw a blanket down on the floor and cajoled her into playing on the blanket and these are what I got. She has SO MUCH personality!








In other news, Steve has applied for a contract-based curriculum writing and editing position at BYU Independent Study (thanks to his mother!) which we are hoping will work out so he doesn't have to get a crappy part-time job at a call center working the shifts no one else wants. We've been trying to figure out what to do since he got laid off right before Christmas and this is the first promising thing we've encountered. If you all want to pray for good things to happen in that department, it would be appreciated. I have also applied to be a substitute teacher. We're just not sure how consistent that work will be. It would be good if I can do it, even though the pay isn't amazing, because it will help me to keep my certification current, and it gives me job experience. So here's hoping!

Also, to all those of you who aren't Wattses, check out my sister-in-law's new site: http://handmadehats.blogspot.com. They're really cute.

just my thoughts

I gave a Sunday School lesson today on the Fall of Adam. I spent probably 6 or 7 hours preparing it--reading through all the scriptures, figuring out what my class members might need to understand better, coming up with an object lesson, etc.--and I'm pretty sure it was one of the two worst lessons I've ever given. I hate it when I feel like a failure when I work so hard at doing a good job. Maybe that was my lesson that I needed to learn today. Sometimes no matter how hard we work, we're going to fail. And that's why we need the Savior.

Hair and there

So Missy Lou, as we are wont to call her, is fast becoming a two-year-old. An addicted to TV, computer, and crackers two-year-old. She can put on some really great tantrums already, especially when it's naptime or bedtime. She's still a happy kid most of the time, but if this whole tantrum thing gets worse when she actually turns two, I'm not sure my insurance is going to cover the mental health issues I'm going to have. :)

My only picture to share today is of my daughter's curly hair. When I give her a bath and just let her hair dry, it dries pretty flat against her head. But the other day she was playing in the water in the sink and NEEDED me to stand right next to her (read: threw a tantrum when I walked away), so I started playing with her hair and my hands were wet. This was the result:

Going private

This is my last post as a public blog. I've decided for the safety of my beautiful family that I need to make my blog private. This will not affect anyone receiving blog updates via email. The emails will still be sent to you, you just won't be able to type in the blog address and view the blog without logging in or being invited. So, I'm going to email everyone on my list an invitation to be able to view the private blog. All you have to do is click on the link in the email and enter your google account information. If you have a gmail account, that will work. If you don't have a google account, they are free, and you don't have to get a gmail account to have a google account. I think the email or blogger will tell you how to set up a google account if you don't have one, but if not, you can email me or call me and I can walk you through it. I hope this doesn't keep anyone from viewing the blog. I love you all.

Brina

Ahh! The Holidays.

You can take that as either, "Ahhhh! I think I'm going to pull all my hair out and then sit down and cry, The Holidays," or "Ahhh! It's so relaxing to spend time with family and finally be done with Christmas shopping, The Holidays." You pick. :)

It's been a crazy month, and for most of it, I was the first one. I told my mother that I can see why some people hate the holidays. Next year, I vow to not make myself and my family crazy for three weeks before Christmas because I've over-scheduled myself.

My livingroom before Christmas:

My livingroom after Christmas:

I think the 12 Days of Christmas went well. I ended up doing it for 2 ladies, and getting another mom to split the days of dropping things off with me. One of them caught us, I think, because we couldn't call her to let her know her stuff was at her door because she has caller ID and knows both of our numbers. So, in the process of knocking and running away one night, the other mom is pretty sure she was spotted. The second lady we could call, and it worked out really well. We didn't tell her who did it, so I can't tell you if she liked it or not. :)

Emilia has been SO cute all month, and I keep meaning to get on and blog it, but usually by the time I get to my computer at night, I'm so tired, I fall asleep because I'm warm under a blanket and the computer heats up. So here are some pictures and some of the stuff I remember. (This ended up being longer than I thought, but I wanted to have it written down, because I KNOW I won't remember in 20 years, let alone next week. So if you don't want to read ALL of it, I'll forgive you. :))

For Christmas, Emilia got some play food, and stuff to take care of her "baby" and a Fisher Price Animal Sounds farm, among other things. (Thank you everyone! You were very generous!) The other day, I got out the little kitchen I found for her at DI (thrift store), and the play food. She immediately went and got her "guys" (that's what she calls the Little People) and had them hide out in the kitchen. She stuck some in the fridge and some in the microwave and the oven. Then she had a few of them climb it like it was a mountain. When she got bored of that, she got out the cutting board from the food set and set a few of the guys on it, then found a spoon and a cup and began feeding them all. Haha.

Ever since she could crawl around, Emilia has found it fun to sit in boxes full of stuff and move it around. (Don't ask me, I have no idea why this is fun!) She did it in a box of Lego's at Alison's house when she was like a year old, she does it at my mom's house all the time in a box of blocks, and the other day, she decided she needed to get into the tub I keep her toys in. The toys almost buried her, though it's hard to see in this picture.

The first time it really snowed here was one of the first Saturdays in December (December 2 to be exact--it was my birthday). We had to go outside anyway for something, so Steve and I got Emi bundled up and took her out with us. Me and Emi all bundled up:

This is her standing in the snow after she took about three steps. Then she stopped, looked up at me, and said, "Ew, gross!"

She hated it! Still does. Poor child. She hates having her coat on, she hates having socks, and long sleeves, and especially gloves. She just needs us to move to a warmer climate! The one thing she does like is her hat. She is always pleased to be wearing a hat (although around the house, her hat is one of those throw-away tupperware containers--I have to have one dedicated to being her hat, because she wears it every day!).

She also loves playing in water. Since we can't go outside much (it's been really cold this year--negative 5 degrees the other night), she's been asking to take a bath almost every night). Here is a picture of her just playing in the sink. She especially likes the bathroom upstairs because she can make faces at herself in the mirror while she plays.

Also, Emilia loves phones. The thing I find funny is that she thinks it's really fun for other people to talk on the phones. She'll push buttons either on my cell phone or one of the play phones and then hand it to me, or whoever is available, and say, "Hedo!" which means we're supposed to say hello and keep talking. She will do this ten times in a row or more if I let her. Also cute: if I ever hand the phone back to her and say that they want to talk to her, she'll take the phone, hold it up to her ear, and say, "Hedo? Yes." Every time. Hello and then yes. Haha! And it's even cuter when you've heard her say "yes" before. It comes out more like "Szesssss," with a definitive, single nod. She is so funny!

She has also picked up the words, "no," and "wait" from Signing Time. She'll yell "WAIT!" whenever she wants our attention, but has to wait because we're busy, which I think is ironically hilarious, and when she really knows that she doesn't want something, she'll say, very calmly, "No." and do the sign with it. Otherwise, she'll just say, "Uh-uh," and shake her head.