A little late, but still sincere

Three years ago last Friday (I'm not exactly sure of the date that was three years ago, but it was the last Friday of March), Matt proposed to me.

Actually, this was the second time he proposed to me. The first time was Jan 12th 2006. We'd only been dating for 2 months, and he wanted, as he puts it, "to test the waters". Later he told me if I hadn't said yes in Jan, we would have stopped dating. But in Jan, I did tell him yes and then told him to propose again a few months down the road so we didn't rush into things.

Anyway, back to March. I knew Matt had the ring, and I'd helped him pick it out (online) so I basically knew what it looked like. I hadn't seen it in person yet. He met me that evening for a friend's piano recital and I didn't suspect anything. After the recital, we headed back to our apartments to drop our bags off and go for a walk. I started suspecting something when he came out of his room with a large bulge in his pocket.

We drove to the base of on of the mountains, and got out. We'd liked to hike this particular area and had many a picnic there. When we got to the top, we were looking out at all Provo and the sun had gone down so we could see all the lights and the temple. I was suspecting something. We hugged for a few minutes, then he pulled away, knelt down, pulled out the ring and asked me to marry him.

I couldn't say anything for a minute, but nodded yes. Then he pulled out a flashlight so I could see the ring, which is pictured above. (The other ring is his wedding ring. I don't have a picture of my wedding band though, sorry.)

So it's been three wonderful years since we got engaged. I still love him, even more than I did. I would say yes to him again. Thank you for being so wonderful, Matt!

Cute Emily Moments

I just needed to write these down so I don't forget. Sorry there aren't any videos of this, but our camera is down and we're waiting to get a new one.

1. In Emily's new house, whenever she goes into it she says to me, "Ba-ba Mommy!" (translation: Bye-bye) and she waves her hand. She continues to say this looking at me through her front door. Then she closes all her windows. Then she sticks her head out of a window and says, "Boo!"

2. Emily learned her name. Here's our conversation:
Mommy: "Emily, what's your name?"
Emily: "Cleo!"
Mommy: "No, Cleo is Papa's dog. What's YOUR name?"
Emily: "Emmy."

3. Emily loves food. She especially loves cookies (like her mom!) and toast. So she was happily surprised when we introduced her to Pop-tarts. She calls them "cookie-toast" because they taste like cookies but go in the toaster.

4. When I am preparing something for her to eat, she sits in her high chair and yells "MEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!" She will do this, getting louder and louder until I give whatever food I made, to her.

Spring Break and Special Dates

Matt and I have been saving our pennies to go on a "special date" before the new baby gets here. Since Matt is on spring break this week, we decided this was the week to do it. Matt's wonderful parents watched Emily for the night while we went out.
We stayed at the Bailey House, a B&B in Georgetown, OH. All of the furniture, china, furnishings, everything is antique and family heirlooms. Here are some pictures of the beautiful room where we stayed (it's the same room where we stayed for our honeymoon!).

The headboard to our bed. It's handcarved.

We were able to go on a walk, just the two of us, and hold hands because we weren't pushing a stroller! Then we watched a movie and went to bed by 11:00pm. In the morning, we had a delicious breakfast of Apple French Toast (if you want the recipe, ask me because it was amazing) and headed out to a morning of fun.

Matt took me to Jungle Jim's in Cincinnati. For those of you who have never been there, it's a HUGE store filled with every food possible, from health foods, to several hundred cheeses from around the world.

I got some chocolate from the Scandinavia section and Matt found several of his favorite French cheeses (one is so aged it can walk by itself). We bought real dijon mustard and a great baguette and enjoyed these snacks.

After this, we stopped in at a little French restaurant called La Petite France. Here's what we ordered:

Crevettes Sauce Boursin - shrimp sautéed with sun-dried tomatoes, corn and leeks in a garlic, herb cream sauce. (This was our appetizer and it was AMAZING.)

Panini de Poulet et Fromage de Brie - grilled rosemary chicken breast, brie cheese and spicy sun-dried tomato pesto sandwich garnished with field green salad in cassis vinaigrette (this was my meal and it was as superb as it sounds. Just thinking about it makes me hungry again!)

Steak Haché - ground beef tenderloin topped with mushroom, shallot and red wine sauce, served with pommes frites and vegetables (this was Matt's meal. The wine sauce was not overpowering and I loved it even though I hate mushrooms. Matt, who loves mushrooms, was in heaven.)

After that, we went back and spent the evening with Matt's parents. We had yummy chocolate fondue with perfect strawberries and some of Matt's baguette and cheese. All in all, our date was expensive but WORTH it, since we've never spent a night away and Emily was in such good hands. Not to mention, I would willingly drop that money again if we could have a meal like the one we did.

Mmmmmm!

With my grandparents

Our First Home

We bought a house! Okay, just kidding. We did not buy a house. My grandparents came for the weekend and gave us a little playhouse they used to have when we (my siblings and cousins) were all kids. Since we're all grown, they figured Emily would like to have it and play with it! She LOVES it. It's the perfect height for her. Now she stands at the kitchen window on her highchair and points to it saying, "House! Out!" She was bummed we couldn't go outside today to play in the house because it was raining. Here are fun pics of her with the house and my grandparents.

Springtime Fun

Now that it's spring again, Emily and I having fun outside! We discovered a duck pond only 15 min from our house and play at the playground all the time. In fact, Emily's newest word is "park" and she comes up to me in the morning (while I'm still in bed) saying, "Park! Park!"

I'm also posting a quick video of her going down the slide. She will do this over and over and over.....if you listen carefully, you can hear her saying park as she reaches the top of the stairs.

Nurture vs Nature OR the old debate revisited

It seems like ever since Emily was born, I've been reading books and debating this particular topic in my head. Lately, I've been gathering my thoughts so that I can take a stance. The debate is this:

Do you believe babies/children should co-sleep or learn to sleep on their own at an early age?

First, let me summarize the experts.

Dr. Sears-- children should be allowed to co-sleep with their parents until they are ready to sleep on their own. Even then, many children choose to sleep in their parents room until later ages (3-5 yrs). This choose promotes a child's sense of well-being and security.

Dr. Ferber-- children need love and security, but they also need to learn to comfort themselves from an early age. Parents should help their baby learn self-comfort by using a "controlled crying" method while the infant is still young. Then the child will be able to develop more self-confidence and security on his own.

Tracy Hogg (Baby Whisperer)-- children need love and contact. They also need to learn self-comforting techniques. One method of doing this is by allowing the child to fall asleep physically on their own, but by having a parental presence in the room. For example, the child is put into the crib awake. Maybe the child cries. The parents comforts, lays the child back down in the crib and sits by the crib until the child falls asleep.

There are many experts in between these three, as well, such as the author of Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child (an EXCELLENT book for any parent), but I think these three outline the three stances most prevalent.

From my experiences with Emily, I have come to this conclusion. Emily cannot comfort herself back to sleep usually. She is put in her crib awake, both at naptime and at bedtime. If she wakes up in the middle of the night, she will not fall asleep until she is in our room and/or our bed. This is a serious fault which was created by Matt and myself. I have a 19 month old who is going to be in for the shock of her life when her little sister is born and her mom is too tired to get up with her in the middle of the night.

I also conclude this: Emily's personality is very touchy-feely and contact-oriented. At one year we stopped nursing. However, Emily will still reach down my shirt (7 months later!) to touch my breasts when she is sad or tired. Emily's typical nap runs 1.5 hours by herself; in our bed with me, she'll sleep for 3 or more hours. She sleeps 100x better when she sleeps in our room and/or our bed. She loves contact. She loves to be touched, tickled, kissed, hugged, etc.

So we have come to a compromise. I do not co-sleep with her, nor will I with her little sister. However, understanding that Emily's personality needs the security that comes from close physical contact we cuddle most mornings in my bed and she often spends the second half of her nap in my bed. When baby #2 comes, Emily will be relegated to sleeping on the floor by our bed, but for now, I try to give her the physical contact she craves. We will do some things differently with this next baby and try to encourage a little more independence, but we're allowed to mess up sometimes. That's what being a parent means.

I would love to hear YOUR experiences, thoughts and opinions on this topic!

The crazies are coming!

This weekend we went to our nephew's baby blessing. It was a special occasion because all of Matt's siblings were there. That meant there were Matt's parents, 6 siblings, 6 in-laws and 18 grandchildren! Combined with our brother-in-law's family of 8 people, there were an extra 36 people at their ward on Sunday.

It was so fun...and crazy! We were able to get pictures of all the kids, all of us together and each individual family. Here are some pictures from the weekend.

Discipline Dilemma?

Emily and I are at a standstill. She hits. She hits a lot. Sometimes she hits because she's trying to get my attention, and other times she hits because she's actually angry at me. I've tried disciplining her several ways and there are only 2 ways that seem to get her attention.

1. Flicking her really hard
2. Isolation timeout (sitting in the corner)

The problem with #1 is this: I hate flicking her hard. I don't think parents should use fear or pain as punishment. I also don't like hurting her.

The problem with #2 is this: she can't sit by herself for more than 2 seconds. Sitting in the corner only works if we're holding her there--at which point it is no longer isolation. She will patiently sit with us for 3 or more minutes and be happy about it.

So how should I approach the problem? I don't like being a "mean mommy" or making her cry. But I don't think hitting is appropriate--either for getting attention or for when she's angry.

Any ideas?

Emily's favorite morning activity...

Emily figured out how to get on our bed by using our bedside table and now she climbs on every morning. She loves to spin and bounce!

Happy Happy Birthday!

Matt's birthday was today! As in keeping with birthday tradition, I made his choice of dinner (homemade pizza and breadsticks) and garbage cake. It was delicious! He didn't get presents from us because he's saving his money to buy a gun, but we had a great day anyway!

Happy 25th Birthday Matt!

Well, don't hold it back!

Thought this was an appropriate title because of two events that happened today.

1. I was walking home from taking Matt dinner at work. He only works about a 15 minute walk from our house, and I could walk it in my sleep! Anyway, I was walking past a corner market and a man came out of the market and across the street where I was. As he got into his car, he looked at me and said, "One in the stroller and one in the belly!" with a big smile. I smiled back and said, "Yep." And then he said, "Birth control, girl!"

How do you reply to that?

2. Emily threw up tonight. It explains why she took a 4-hour nap this afternoon and has refused to eat all day. It was yucky but at least she got it out.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...

Emily got two "owies" today when she grabbed some scissors. At first we had to wrap gauze around her hand until she calmed down and then we could take it off and let her see the bandaids.


This is part of Emily's new love. She loves hats. It's the end of the day, hence the wet shirt (from helping Mommy do dishes) and pumpkin muffin on her shirt.

Emily's animal sounds.

Having a toddler can be a great joy and also a struggle. Every day, I learn more and more patience. I also experience awe as I watch Emily learn at the speed of light. For example, in the last week she has mastered the words: stars, toast, cheestick, movie, bath, oval, stop, go, off, hat and probably more. She now knows a lot of animal sounds and can sign to me a lot of words she can't say. She is running around, climbing, drawing and generally finding great joy in discovering the world. She loves books--for which I'm grateful! We read at least an hour a day, all together!

At the same time, she is starting to have tantrums, hit when she's mad at me (she doesn't always hit me, sometimes she hits herself!), be stubborn and tell me to stop! On a night like tonight, I laughed while I watched her run on our walk. And then we got home and I got frustrated because I kept telling her "no" and she wouldn't listen.

It probably doesn't help that Emily and I have been tired all the time. Why have we been tired? Because of the simple fact that Emily still doesn't sleep through the night. It's not that she wakes up hungry, she just wakes up! Some mornings, like this morning, she wakes up at 6:45 and is ready to play! Or at least she thinks she's ready to play...but in reality, she gets cranky about 30 minutes after she wakes up. She often wakes up before she's done with her nap. What do you do with a toddler who thinks she's getting enough sleep but all evidence points otherwise? {Note: this IS a call for advice--I welcome any ideas or solutions!} If she were happy and ready for the day, I'd think she wasn't tired--but no! She gets cranky, has more tantrums and starts rubbing her eyes by 11am! Not to mention that Mommy isn't sleeping......between the baby in my stomach and the baby in the crib, I am getting cranky too!!!

Anyway, life is exciting and variety-filled with my toddler.

Going back in time...II

Finals week freshman year at BYU! We went CRAZY from studying. I'm not going to name the ladies in this picture....for their own sake!

Me at prom senior year. That was not my date. :) I had the only modest prom dress at my school.

I put this picture in because I LOVED this outfit. I wore it all the time (I was in middle school). What was I thinking?

Me with some of the same girls as picture #1, for a disco skate night sophomore year at BYU. My dress and the dress on the blond (far right) are authentic. And yes, they are hideously ugly as well.

I'm so cute!

Going back in time...

Matt on a swamp trip with his nieces and nephews. Before the mission.

Matt, Christmas 2005, in CA visiting his parents. That's a real pelican. And also, this gives you a great shot of Matt's broad shoulders. I LOVE Matt's shoulders.

Matt on the mission. I believe this was in Dijon, France. I would post some funny videos of Matt and this particular comp but I need permission from him first! :)

Matt and his best bud in highschool on graduation day. What a cutie!




Matt doing a play in highschool. Apparently, the eyeliner didn't come off for a week!