First Semester Break

Here's to Pete finishing his first semester of Physical Therapy School...

and passing with flying colors!!

I set out a few fun things for Pete to come home to after his last final: the rest of the Hunger Games books, cupcakes, popcorn, pool toys, and candy (okay, so the pool toys were mostly for Emery, but they looked good with the rest of the stuff).

We had a wonderful 4-day break from school in which we shopped, swam, read books, explored the area, exercised together, etc. We had a mega-list of things we wanted to do and realized that we wouldn't be able to do all of them. Ultimately, we wanted to have a good balance of relaxation and adventure and I think we succeeded for the most part. What I enjoyed most was simply just having Pete around---especially for the normal, boring stuff like grocery shopping, cooking, etc. It was just nice to spend time together without having his never-ending homework hanging over our heads. 

During Pete's break, I also had a R.S. Meeting (I'm Enrichment Leader/Relief Society Meeting Coordinator! Fun stuff.) to prepare food and decorations for. It took a good chunk of time but was really fun. In my last ward I had the same calling and was in charge of coming up with ideas for the activities, planning and conducting them, etc. I felt like with this activity I got to do all the fun stuff while Marie took care of everything else :)

I wish I would've gotten a few pictures!

This week, we got back to real life as Pete started a new semester. I'm excited to hear what kinds of new things he will be learning about. I'm surprised with how much overlap there is between the things I learned in nursing school and the things Pete is learning in PT school---especially about anatomy, patient care, and various illnesses. It makes for some very interesting dinner conversations :)

I love this picture of Emery because it captures the funny little "old man" face
she makes lately...pursing her lips out and showing off her ever-getting-chubbier little cheeks.

I love the people in this picture. A lot.
 :)

Sunday Pictures

Finals week is allllmost over. Pete's last final is Monday and then we get the rest of the week to just all play together. We have a big list of plans. Last week was pretty good for a finals week. Emery and I entertained ourselves pretty well while Pete studied. A few of our week's events included:

-A little shopping with Emery. I found some cute PJ's and outfit for her.

-Having our friend Dan Neff over for dinner while his wifey was away in Utah. We had him over on Sunday and dinner was, well, an epic failure. A delicious dish I've made several times just didn't quite turn out right. Dan was brave enough to come to dinner on Wednesday as well, and I think the meal turned out a bit better 

-Making cupcakes! Not a big deal...but I had been craving them for two days and the finished product just really hit the spot. I've been wanting to do more baking but it's seemed kind of overwhelming with a baby (I'm usually lucky to get dinner made). This was the first time I had made cupcakes since Emery was born--I like to think of it as a "mommy milestone"--so hopefully that means bigger and better things are ahead!

-Speaking of mommy milestones, Pete and I went on a date this weekend---without Emery! The Ford family graciously offered to watch her. Though I felt bad adding to their clan of 4 kids, they said Emery did awesome the whole time and we could leave her with them anytime. Hopefully they let us return the favor in the future, we love their 3 boys and little baby girl that is Emery's age. We had a hard time leaving Emery, but I think it was good for us.

-Finishing reading aloud "The Hunger Games." Ready for book 2 just in time for Pete's week off!

-Got ready for church early enough to make it there on time and even snap a few pics beforehand. The morning light was beautiful and the forest-y area right by our apartment was so lush and green looking. Georgia is starting to grow on me I think...if I could somehow get past the bugs, the process would be much speedier :) 

Happy Sunday!

5 months

 

Dear Emery,

Happy 5 months! I'm amazed at how much you change in just a month's time. These days, you love playing with toys and you make sure I know it if I take one away before you're done with it. You also love paper and plastic...and it's probably not a good thing...but if I let you crinkle a piece of paper in your hands (closely supervised to prevent it going into your mouth) you are the happiest, most excited little girl on the planet. The soft, stuffed bunnies that Grandma Hoyt got for you and the bright pink poodle that Grandma Dana/Jensen (not sure what we're calling her yet...) got for you seem to be some of your favorites. Up until now, you haven't shown much interest in books, but these days you seem to love looking at the pages and helping me turn them.

Guess what else? Your sleeping and eating seem to be improving greatly. For the past week, you've slept around 11 hours at night, only waking up once around 3 am. I hope you keep it up and getting better and better! Also, you are nursing better than you ever have before. Life seems to be looking up around here these days :)

In the past month, you got your first haircut (just a little trim from me...it was time for the natural mohawk to be tamed), tried a few solids and so far only like squash, have been giggling and smiling lots, and love being in the center of whatever's going on (cooking, cleaning, crafting). I'm starting to think you're growing up too quick! My favorite part of each day is coming to get you out of your crib when you wake up---you smile and flap your arms around, looking at me like I'm the coolest thing since sliced bread. It's so cute!

Love,

Mom

Chocolate Rules

The other day I went to the store to pick up one item. I came home with a plethora of sweets ingredients, including semi-sweet chocolate chips and milk chocolate chips. This is unlike me, and we usually don't keep these things stocked up. But I got sick of craving cookies or brownies and having nothing to make them with.

When I got home, I strategically placed the chocolate chips away where they wouldn't be in plain sight. Being an oldest child and naturally a bit bossy, I told Pete in a serious tone: "Okay, Peter, now the rule about all these chocolate chips is that they can only be used in recipes. No snacking on them." Pete didn't skip a beat before replying, "I'm going to hold you to that." And then we laughed, because we both know that out of the two of us, I would be the first one to bust open the chocolate chips solely for the purpose of popping them straight into my mouth.

Fast-forward a few weeks to right now, when you can find the package of half-eaten semi-sweet chocolate chips sitting on Pete's nightstand, and the half-eaten package of milk chocolate chips sitting on my nightstand. Although Pete was the first one to start snacking on the chocolate (claiming he "forgot" the rule...which he actually probably did), I quickly followed suit. I'm not sure how it started, but sometimes at night when Emery's gone to sleep, we each pour a little cup of our preferred chocolate chips and sit in bed, reading together. 

And the only reason I'm not upset with myself for being undisciplined is I believe eating chocolate while reading to be one of life's supernal pleasures.

I guess I need to come up with a different plan for keeping chocolate chips on hand.

Rolled Paper Flower Wreaths

The husband has finals next week, which means this week has been a pretty hefty study week. Luckily, my friend Lindsey found these awesome rolled paper flower wreaths to keep me busy making while Pete studies. She even took me and Emery to Hobby Lobby (a 25-ish minute trip one way) to get sweet paper for it! We started making them together at her apt (conveniently about a 2 minute walk up the road) a couple days ago and today I finally finished mine.

It turned out a little crazy with all the different patterns and different sizes. I don't think I ever quite mastered the leaf making. But, nonetheless, I LOVE IT. Soooo pretty. And guess what? It was cheap! Lindsey procured some foam tubes from Home Depot for $1 and we duct taped them into a circle form instead of buying a real wreath form. And my paper cost just a few dollars. The only other supplies included some hot glue for the flowers and fabric scraps to cover the tubing!

Right now Pete is lookin' at my mess with a worried face, saying "uhhh...there's a lotta glitter over here." 

Hahaha.

Guess I should go clean up my mess...

Emery Laughs

Thanks to Pete and his push-ups, we finally caught some of Emery's laughing action on video.

On Monday we get to celebrate three wonderful years of marriage

 as well as five challenging, amazing, sleep-deprived, awe-filled, and ultimately beautiful months of Emery.

Oh how we love this little girl! 

A Quick Two Weeks

Sorry for the wordless nature of my last post. 5 year old Nate (little brother) was talking to me on the phone and when he asked hopefully if there were any new pictures of Emery on the blog, I just had to throw something together real quick.

As for what we've been up to the past two weeks...

The Never-Ending Process of Setting Up Our House (we will still probably be doing this a year from now). We made great strides this week by buying and setting up Emery's crib and changing table! Finally! She definitely needed an upgrade from her mini pack 'n play. I love the crib that we chose---the style reminds me of the one my mom had for her babies. I decided to do soft white bedding because I couldn't find any that I liked. I really like the classic look of how the white contrasts with the dark crib. Emery seems to like it too as evidenced by the deeeeep sleep she's in below:

Georgia Storms. Getting caught outside in them? SO cool. Waking up at 4 am from them? NOT cool.

At 1 year old Ryker's b-day pool party, a nice Georgia rain storm rolled in. We looked like we had taken a dip in the pool by the time we got home.

 

I decided we need to go outside more when these happen--they're soo fun--like a warm shower.

Emery didn't mind the rain at all. She had water streaming down her face at one point and all she did was look around curiously. Of course, she was two hours overdue for a nap by that time, so maybe she was just in a tired daze.

Food with Friends. We've been having fun with other couples from school and the ward but have somehow been terrible at taking pictures.

Eating dinner at Dongik and Heeja's house (Pete's PT school buddy and his wife who are from Korea)

yummy, pretty rice.
(Sorry about how terrible all these pics are, I used our old, bad camera instead of our nice one)

Emery was in heaven playing with all their toys (they had lots more than she does).

Going to Craft Stores. Poor Pete (and Emery)---by the time the weekend comes around, I have a bajillion ideas of what I want to do together and what I want him to help me with. Somehow, a craft store trip seems to always make the list and he's been to craft stores for two weekends in a row now. What can I say? He's a brave man.

Reading The Hunger Games Again. I have read the books already, but out of uncontainable (I think I either just made up that word or spelled it wrong) excitement for the MOVIE coming out in 2012, I am going to read at least the first one again. I even convinced Pete to let me read it out loud to him.

Shielding ourselves from Emery's New Trick: spitting. She LOVES it. I'm not sure why baby saliva is so cute to us, but it apparently is, because we took a movie which I can't figure out how to upload right now.

And of course, Trying to Get Enough Sleep. I honestly feel like I'll be doing this for the rest of my life.
Sigh.
Oh well.

Hopefully I do blog posts a little more often this week, thus preventing scatter-brained, random posts like this. We'll see :)