busy but boring

I was sitting here thinking about what I wanted to post about and I couldn't think of anything! I've been so busy lately, but not with anything really exciting. Steve has 1 more week left in the semester, so he is way busy doing homework and grading. I've had 3 photo shoots in the last week and they've gone pretty well, but not really anything to tell about them. Emi had a doctor's appointment today, I guess. She weighs 20 lbs now and is in the 75% for weight. Up from 50% at her 6 month check up. Guess I don't have to worry about her not eating enough. haha. She's still above 90% for height, too. I think I have a picture of her, but it's on Steve's camera which is in the closet--which means I'd have to put the laptop down, move the blanket, stand up, get the camera, dig out the USB cable, get the pictures off, and then do all that in reverse. WAY too much work for 11:30 at night. (Even though it's Friday. Emi doesn't know it's Friday, so I don't get a break from getting up early.) Just thought I'd give a shout out to let you know I'm still here and thinking of ya. Love, Brina

ALL about Emi :)

Emilia has been cranky the last few days. I think she's teething again. Sheesh. She needs to just cut these teeth already.

I've been struggling to find ways to make her laugh lately. All my old stuff was "so yesterday" and didn't work anymore. So finally the other day, I was just goofing around with her and pretended to drop her. She loved it! Crazy kid is going to be one of those people that loves horror flicks because she likes being scared. Here is a video of it, so you know what I mean.

After I made the above video, she wanted to see the camera. I found it humorous, so I will share. It might be one of those "I'm her mom, so everything she does is cute" things, and if it is, I'm sorry. :)

A couple pictures of her as well:

Emi ready to go out in the snow we had AGAIN today

Emi on Easter Sunday after I took her dress off of her. She just looked so cute in the bloomers, I had to take a picture.

Emi showing off how flexible she is. She's got such cute chubby legs!

I just liked this one. :)

There you have it. All about Miss Emi, Queen of Everything.

talking and almost crawling

There's a little dead time at the beginning of this video as I'm going to get the "kitty," but I wanted you to see her reaction when I brought it out. And I didn't want her to know the camera was pointed at her, so it is a little far away. You may have to turn up the volume on your speakers to hear her talking. She's so great! :)

A Yummy Picture

We aren't sure whether my mom is going to be able to do a bakery. Apparently there are laws prohibiting people from selling food out of their houses. But...we're still looking into it and until then, we are encouraging her to do a cookbook. Here are our first pictures of a recipe:

Also, Emi is REALLY close to crawling and to talking. We were at my parents' house the last couple days and we all swear she says "kitty" when my mom's cats are in the room. She is just fascinated by them. She gets all excited and will try to pet them when they are brave enough to lay down near her. Good thing they are gentle cats because she still grabs a handful of fur every once in a while. All three of my mom's cats are black. I bought Emi a stuffed dragon this week at DI (a thrift store) and it's dark purple and about the size of a cat. I let her play with it this afternoon and I think she thought it was a cat. She got all excited and said her version of "kitty" and gently touched it's face. It was so cute! I'll have to try to get it on video tomorrow and post it. Love you all...Brina

My Amazing, Wonderful, Terribly Sweet, Handsome and Good Husband

I just wanted to get on and tell everyone about my amazing husband. I was very against him getting a full-time job while doing full-time school. Sadly, it was probably more for selfish reasons than my worry about him, but I was worried about, him, too. That's a lot to have on your plate. But he's doing it! He is not only working full time and going to school full time, but teaching his two classes (until the end of the semester) and doing all that goes with that (like grading), and doing his church calling and helping with Emi when he gets home from work and spending at least some time every day with me.

Then, on top of all that, he submitted some of his work to the school and got one of his research papers accepted into the USU Graduate Conference and one of his short stories tied for 1st place in a writing contest! So...tomorrow he is presenting his research at the graduate conference. And next month he gets to go to the Awards Ceremony to receive his prize. I am so proud of him! I have always known that he is a talented writer and now he is finally getting some recognition for it. Sadly, HE isn't giving himself as much credit as he deserves. Both times that he learned the good news, he said, "Well, they probably didn't have very many entries this year, so I didn't have much competition." Can you believe that? I'll just have to up the number of times I tell him that he's amazing, so maybe he'll get it through his thick skull. :)

Since this is my blog, I figured I can brag a little, right? So there you have it: My Amazing, Wonderful, Terribly Sweet, Handsome and Good Husband.

(The title to my blog is not only a tribute to my husband but to a favorite book growing up called My Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.)

MORE SNOW!

When I woke up this morning and looked out the window, there was no snow on our driveway. A little was sticking in the grass, but none on the driveway. That was about 8:30 am. When I got home from church at 12:00 pm, this is what it looked like:

Those shoe prints are mine from my heels that I wore to church. Yuck! Talk about cold feet!

So, since I'm officially not breastfeeding anymore, I could fast today for the first time in 18 months. For those of you who don't know, once a month we have "Fast Sunday," where members of the church are invited to fast for 24 hours. The idea is that if you deny yourself of wordly things or things of the flesh (such as food), you are able to get more in tune with your spiritual side. We then are given time during our church services to share our testimony of Christ or his gospel and we are asked to donate the money we would have used to buy those three meals to the church to use to help other struggling families in the ward or for other humanitarian stuff. It's surprising how difficult it is to fast for 24 hours. It's so easy to walk into the kitchen for something and see a banana or a treat we made yesterday and just eat it without thinking. I had forgotten about that. But I'm really glad I get to fast again. I've missed the spiritual high you can feel while fasting. And the answers to prayers that are so much easier to get as I fast and am better able to feel the promptings of the Holy Spirit. I think it is easier for the Lord to guide us when we are purposefully bringing ourselves closer to him and I am excited to have the opportunity to do so once a month again.

And last but not least, a video of Emi. I haven't posted one in a while, so she's a lot bigger and she can do so much stuff. Enjoy!

Life is good

Some reasons why life is good at the moment:

1. Emilia is sleeping through the night on a regular basis. Usually 10-12 hours at a time. Ahhh...to not be sleep-deprived. It's like I have a new lease on life. :)

2. Steve got a well-paying job. It's full-time, but they're letting him only work 30 hours a week until the end of the semester, so it won't be quite as crazy. Then he'll start full time at the end of April when school lets out. We will all be on the same health insurance, we might be able to go on vacation this summer, and eating out won't be SO out of the question. Hooray!

3. I booked two more jobs this week. One wedding in August (that is getting my biggest package) and senior pictures next month. Senior pictures are probably my favorite to do, so I'm excited.

4. It's almost spring. And although it snowed this week, I have confidence that once it's done this time, we'll have seen the last of it for a while. I really need some green!

5. I got to see the movie Twilight last week and now I'm re-reading the book. We actually hired a babysitter and went out on a date. That hasn't happened in a while, so that was good in and of itself. But I enjoyed the movie. It felt a little low-budget and of course it wasn't as good as the book, and of course the characters didn't look like the ones in my head, but that's to be expected, so I liked it. I don't often re-read books, but Twilight is so light-weight that I started with it today and should be finished with it tomorrow, so it's kind of like eating candy. A quick snack. :)

6. I'm not breast-feeding anymore!!!!!!!!!! Although the American Pediatrics whoevertheyare say that you're supposed to breastfeed until they are a year old. But some babies never get breastfed and they turn out okay, and given the multitudinous difficulties I've had trying to feed that girl it's a miracle I've made it this long. And do you know what that means???? I can eat PIZZA again! and Cafe Rio and Olive Garden....the possibilities are endless. Tee hee hee.

7. Emilia is healthy and happy and my husband feels good about our situation and I don't mind being at home with the baby. We are more content now than we have been in a long time.