A little update

When we took Emma to the Zoo we got her a stuffed tiger that she lovingly calls, "Kitty." At the right is a picture of kitty after Emma insisted that Kitty needed a diaper. That same week when she just had to take it with her to the babysitters I forgot to mention what had happened so when I came back there were a few questions. I just had to take a picture of it. One day Emma will see this picture and see the cute things she has done.


Les was awarded grant money to do research. After many months worth of work he put together a poster outlining what he wanted to do, what he did, and the actual results. Here is a picture of him with Emma, his boss (the short one) Dr. Zhou (pronounced Joe), his coworker Dusti, and Dusti's son Johnathan. Les' hard work paid off. He impressed quiet a few people with his project and his ablity to converse about it. See I told you he is brilliant!

This is what Emma did while Les talked with the guests about his project. First I fed her from the food that was provided. During which she took off her shoes and then managed to spill the drink all over herself and left a huge puddle in one of her shoes. Then it was play time. She and Johnathan played very well together. They even hugged a few times (each time I managed to get the camera up in time for them to stop). I love to see that huge smile on her face.

Then Daniel and Jana invited us over to their house to make Christmas cookies for Family home evening. After a little lesson Jana got out the dough and that is when the kids got excited. Each of the kids got to take a cookie cutter and help cut out a the cookies. Then once they were cooked we helped the kids decorate the cookies. I think I ended up with more frosting on my hands then on the cookies. I think that Emma had a ton of fun. Then as things got cleaned up the kids ran off to play. Emma was upset when we stopped it so we could take her home. She has gotten really attached to Tyler and Kailey lately. It is sad when we get her home and she looks around and realizes that there are no kids to play with. Her little head hangs and drags her feet around.

I think that the two plates of cookies that Jana sent us home with helped make up for it this time. This is what she looked like after had one of the cookies. So cute!

Then there was finals week! I had my one and only test
for a final. My other finals were art projects and I finished up with them the week before. Les had to wait until Wednesday before he was done with all of his. Then he had to buckle down for work.


Then we got snow! I didn't get any pictures of the first snow storm so I made sure I got plenty of the next one. While Les was out shoveling the sidewalk and driveway I got Emma bundled up and took her out to enjoy the snow. She walked everywhere she could. Most of the time she followed behind Les as he cleared the way. It was so cute to see her out there. Her cheeks were rosy and so was her nose. At one point she stopped to wipe off her shoes. It took her a while to be satisfied that enough snow had been wiped off.

One of our goals for the Early Head Start Program that Emma is in is for us to work with her to draw shapes. Getting Emma to draw is not the problem. It is where she draws. Les and I decided that she needed a place that is set aside for drawing. So while we were at Family Dollar one day we found this little desk. So now she has a special place for her to go when she wants to draw. She loves it is much that she pushes it around the house so it is anywhere she wants to be at that moment.

Les' cousin Jennifer held a Christmas party for all the little kids. Santa and Mrs. Claus came with a story and presents. Emma didn't want anything to do with them at first but then when she realized that he was giving out presents she looked a little bit on the curious side. When it was her turn she decided that she was going back the not wanting anything to do with them part. The only reason I got this picture was because Les was able to calm her just long enough for me to snap the pic.


Carolyn and I were going to meet in Salt Lake to go see the lights on Temple Square and to take family pictures for each other. However between the flu hitting their family and the big snow storm that day it didn't happen. So I had to scramble to find someone else to take the picture for us to that I could get my cards made. Thankfully I am an art student and happen to know a few people with artistic skill. So a friend of mine took several pictures of us as we walked around a park.


This is the wreath hanging on our door. I think it is cute especially since I made it with items that I bought at the dollar store. Well except that little wreath in the middle. I got that at a Christmas party when I worked at St. Marks Hospital. I hadn't found a good place to use it until I made that wreath. Okay so I am no Martha Stewart but I think it turned out very well anyway.


We left town to start our Christmas vacation last Thursday so that we could be at Les' parent's house while his sister was out there to visit. This is us in front of their Christmas tree. If you can't tell that Emma had enough of the picture time by the time all the cameras had finished with us. A little while later she got to open a couple of gifts that help her forget. Now she has to wait until Christmas to open anymore. Sorry but that is the way it works.

Uncle Bryan came to visit!

Bryan hung out in Ogden for the last week and then came up to Logan to see us. I made steak with sauteed mushrooms and onions and potatoes au gratin for dinner in honor of our guest. Les told Bryan he needed to come visit more often so I would feed him like that more often. I guess I could say the same for him. The only time he cooks for the rest of us is when we have visitors. He makes hashbrowns, bacon, eggs, etc. This time I talked him into doing orange cinnamon rolls along with his hashbrowns and bacon rather than the rest.

After dinner we all went over to Daniel and Jana's so they could visit with him too. Kailey was unsure about Bryan at first but it wasn't long before she brought him a book and some toys to play with. It was a nice visit. Les walked home with Emma to put her to bed. Tyler talked his mom into letting him come home with me to spend the night. We had dessert and the kids watched Kung Fu Panda. Oops don't tell Emma! We are getting that as a family present for Christmas. Part way through Emma fell asleep. Tyler waited until the movie was over and things settled down before he went to sleep.

This morning we were all awake before 8 and then ate Les' wonderful breakfast. After chatting for a while Bryan needed to head for home so he could get there in time to get Emily. Tyler and Emma had fun playing together. A while later Jana came to pick up Tyler.

From then on things were very quiet around here. More like how we are used to things. All in all it was a great time. Thanks for coming to visit! Sorry I didn't take a picture even though I thought about it numerous times.

Thanksgiving Day 2008

What a day! Mom reserved the school for dinner so that we all could fit comfortably and still have room for the kids to run and play. I didn't take a picture of the food table but I did take pics of everyone stuffing their faces. Okay so I didn't show anyone actually stuffing their face. There was Turkey, Ham, Yummy Potatoes (also known as Funeral Potatoes), Green Beans, Creamed Corn, salads of many varieties, and lots of pies.
After we ate it was playtime! The kids enjoyed playing with balls, hula hoops, jump ropes, and roller boards. It was fun to watch what they came up with to entertain themselves. Emma tried so hard to keep up and do what the "big" kids did. Les took pity on her and pushed her around on one of the boards. Her smile was so big and beautiful. It was wonderful to know that she was having fun.

Kailey wanted to do what Emma was doing so she tried to climb on with Emma. Les asked me to sit on the board and hold both girls. I didn't think about it at the time but as he was running us around the gym I worried about the fact that I had one arm around each girl and nothing holding me onto the board but gravity. Had Les tripped or if the board had hit into something too big for it to just roll over the three of us would have went flying. I tried to look like I was enjoying myself but really the whole time I was worried about falling off. I also worried about all the other kids. We almost ran Tyler over about a half dozen times. Thankfully we also managed to miss the kids that were being pulled around by my brother-in-law Kelly. Kailey didn't show much emotion one way or the other but most of the time Emma had this huge smile on her face.
When Les was too worn out to go on Emma decided that she would take over. She tried pushing Kailey and I across the floor. Unfortunately, I am too heavy for her to move so I used my legs to pull us as Emma pushed. It hurt me but it was worth it when I noticed that Emma looked so proud of herself for being able to move me.
Many of the kids would go up the ramp that leads into the gym and then roll down it. Emma headed that way to try so Les and I helped her. Les pushed to start us and I held her on.

Once all the adults were too tired to keep playing the Play Station was brought out. First they played Guitar Hero. I am so proud of my mom. For a first time player she did so well that she got the higher score when she played. From there we moved on to Karaoke. I was quiet surprised at how well my brother-in-law Ted can sing. He did so well. Here are pics of the PS games.



Mom and Jalynn playing Guitar Hero

Ted and Carolyn singing

Nick and Carson got in on it too

Les took Nick's place when he left mid song

Jen and Kelly

Daniel and Jana

We hope that your Thanksgiving was as wonderful as ours. May our Father in Heaven watch over and bless you and your family. Happy Hoildays everyone.

Thanksgiving Activities

I know that it has been more than a week since Thanksgiving and I am now just getting to a post about it. It's not that I am slow but that things are starting to slow down around here. So here is what happened . . . . .

Wednesday we headed out for Salt Lake. When we got there Sabrina (Les' sis) told us that they were at the zoo because it was free admission day. Just a plug, Hogo Zoo is doing free admission for everyone on the last Wednesday of every month until Feburary. It was too good a deal to pass up. We had been wanting to take Emma to see the animals for months and of course Les can't pass up anything free. Here are some of the pics.

Emma loved the swans and ducks!

The sign behind Les has a monkey on it. Since it was the day before Thanksgiving I had to take a picture of the turkeys.

The wolf and cheetah!

Emma didn't want to leave this statue behind!

Giraffes and penguins

Bears and boars

Cougars and elephants

Les and Emma with the elephant statue. I had to include the one with me to prove through a picture that I was really there.

From there we went to Sabrina's house to find an almond in some pudding. Les' grandma used to do this with her grandkids all the time. This year she wanted to renew the tradition. Guess who found the almond . . . . I did! Misleading I know. It was in Emma's pudding. I found it cause I was feeding it to her.

Emma got a candle and a gift certificate to WalMart for getting the almond in her cup of pudding. Les' nieces, Madison and Kaydence, and his Grandma Cheney.

Les' aunt Tammy and Sabrina. Emma with Zander? (Xander maybe) I'll have to ask how it should be spelled.

From Sabrina's we rushed out to Myton. I got the feeling from some of the people I talked to about our plans that they didn't understand why we were in a hurry to get there. Here are the reasons: 1- School Burn Out 2- To get away from our regular, overwhelming routine/lives 3- I don't enjoy a lot of traveling while I am pregnant (go figure) and 4- I hate traveling on a holiday. Not for normal reasons. I hate it because to me a holiday is for relaxing, eating, and sharing stories not for travel and other undue stress. Holidays are stressful enough with out adding other unnecessary things.

That night we precooked part of our potluck dish. That way all we had to do on Thanksgiving is throw it all together and put it in the oven for a little while. Between that and getting set up in our room for the weekend we didn't get to bed until midnight. Morning came all too soon.

This post it pretty long and I have a ton more pictures so I will save Thanksgiving Day for its own post. On Friday I watched my nephews while my sister Carolyn braved the throngs on shoppers for the Black Friday sales. That night for the first time all of my siblings, their spouses, and my parents were all in the temple together. It was amazing! It is something I hope we will all be able to do again and again. Saturday night we had game night at Jen's house. Kind of. For the most part the guys and the kids watched a movie in the familyroom while my sisters, my oldest nieces, and I played games and snacked in the diningroom. Les and I were going to see Twlight that night but we were having so much fun that 10 minutes before it was to start we realized what time it was and decided to skip it and go another night (I am still waiting for it).

It was a great weekend even though Les and I spent the majority of it doing homework and/or job related work.

Sleepless Nights?

I have been struggling lately with getting Emma to sleep. Why you ask? On Saturday Emma lost the last of the binky's (that we can find). That is when I decided that I was tired of going out to buy a new one everytime she looses them. So as of Saturday night Emma is going binky free. She is quite unhappy about it (imagine that).

When Les came home I explained what happened and what I was doing about it. He asked me what we were going to do if she finds one. I let him know that as soon as she was distracted that we would take it and stick it in a drawer so the new baby will have some when she comes along.

So for now we are trying our best to cope while Emma goes through "binky withdrawal." It does break my heart when she comes to ask for it. However, it sounds a lot like how she says baby so I pretend that is what she is looking for. And since I can't give her something that I don't have she will have to learn to cope.