Catch up (not Ketchup)

I have been really busy and have been neglecting the blog. I hope everyone is doing well and that you will enjoy the four plus weeks worth of pictures below.

Emilia turned 1! We had a good party and I made a dragon cake for our little princess. It was a really hard day for her, though. She didn't sleep well the night before because we were in a new place and because I couldn't just put her in a crib and let her scream because there were other kids that would have been woken up by it. The fourth picture says it all. :)

After the party, Emilia and I stayed at Grandpa and Grandma's and hung out with the Watts sisters while poor daddy had to go home and work until Thursday night when he drove back down. We had a Watt's family reunion with everyone but Ryan on Friday at Jordanelle Reservoir. They rented Ski Doos and a kayak and we all wore ourselves out! (And then I had to come home and get me and my house and my daughter recovered from our vacation!)

Emilia enjoying the pool over the 4th of July at Grandma and Grandpa Watts's house
Playing with cousin Haley in Grandma and Grandpa's new water feature over the 4th.
We also spent time with the Frohlich side over the 4th. Ben and Haylee just bought a new house, so they held their first family gathering there for the holiday. It's a nice house! Here are some pics of Emilia with her two cousins.
Emilia is so independent! She will not eat anything from me that she thinks she can feed herself. For example, she eats a banana for breakfast every morning; if I break a piece off and try to feed it to her, she refuses to open her mouth. But if I hold the whole banana up to her mouth to take a bite, or give her the peeled banana, she'll eat the whole thing. Every time I eat a meal with her, she wants to use my utensils. The anal side of me dreads this because she makes a mess of the table and herself and her high chair and the floor. But I push through those tendencies whenever I can and let her try. She has to learn somehow, right?

Emilia LOVES the Baby Einstein Neighboorhood Animals DVD that my mom gave me at her baby shower. She would watch it twice a day if I let her. She was cranky! yesterday and I was at my wits end (by 9:30 am), so I put in the DVD and cuddled her in a blanket. She just looked so adorable watching and holding her little bunny (you can see it poking over her shoulder) that I just had to snap a couple shots. She didn't even look away from the TV when the camera flashed.

She is such a ham! I take out the camera and she smiles. Such a daddy's girl! :) (This was taken at the 24th of July breakfast that our Stake put on. )

Emilia has become quite the little walker over the last couple weeks. I will have to try to get a video of it to show all yous far away people. Tonight though, she did the cutest thing that was reminiscent of her mother. (not that I pay attention to these things or anything) Steve finshed his classwork and grading today, so he had nothing important to do tonight. So we all took a trip to Best Buy and Borders for some window shopping. While at Borders, I was just browsing and Emilia was walking around looking at all the books at eye level. The next thing I knew, she had found a shelf that had some toys and decks of cards and tins that was on the second shelf from the bottom and a wooden step-stool about five feet away from the shelf. She proceeded to take one tin at a time from the shelf over to the step-stool, set it down carefully and go back for the next one. She made it through all five, making a neat little stack on the stool (she even pushed a couple around until they were more evenly balanced). When she turned around to get another one and realized that there were no more, she turned back to the stool to start putting them back! It was all I could do to keep from giggling and ruining the moment! She ended up dropping one and disrupting her walking, so that was the end of it. But it was SO CUTE! I loved it.

I am excited to take Steve and Emilia to North Dakota in a week and a half. They've never been and I think it will be fun to show Steve my old haunts and spend time with my Dad's family and Grandma Richau. We'll see how the traveling goes with Emilia. You just never know with a 1 year old!