The results are in.....

I can't believe my baby is 6 months old!

I tear up when I think about what a gift this little girl has been to us.

We truly cherish every moment with her!

Her 6 month stats are in,

and here's the report:

Weight: 16.73 lbs, 67th %ile

Height: 26.8 inches, 86th %ile

Head: 16.5 inches, 34th %ile

How she's so tall with a mother who isn't quite 5'2 is beyond me... I'm sure that will change! :)

But STATS, SCHMATS.....

Here are some of the tricks our Little Em has been working on: A contagious smile that she'll quickly share with strangers... she is SUCH a happy baby and has contributed so much joy to our home! She wants to throw up every time she tastes rice cereal (can we blame her?), but still is happy as can be when the torture is through. She's been practicing these push ups

for about 7 weeks & has become a very strong little girl.

But she's just trying to keep up with her older brother....and doing a great job of it, might I add! When she wants something, she takes action (literally) and gets it by pulling herself over to appease her curiousity. She'll take about 2 crawls on her knees, then pulls herself along like a snake the rest of the way. This is supposedly more of a 9 month milestone (per the pediatrician), but it just shows that Emmie has always tried to expedite things....

Trying to make her debut into the world 2 months early

was the first indication of our eager-to-get-things-moving Little Emmie.

They all move at their own paces, that is for sure! Parker wasn't doing this until around 8 months.Emmie is perfecting her sitting up skills.
She can sit all by herself for close to a minute before she starts to wobble over.

The girl will put anything and everything into her mouth!Emmie LOoooves her crib. When it's time for sleep, her right thumb automatically goes straight into her mouth as soon as I begin to swaddle the lower part of her body. I can just lay her down, and she'll go to sleep! A-M-A-Z-I-N-G after having Parker who was such a difficult sleeper. When I go into get her after her nap, she's all smiles. She's still an awesome night sleeper, too. She usually sleeps from 7-10 p.m., I'll feed her, then it's back to bed til' around 5 a.m.ish. I have to say, that even after all these great tricks, being CUTE and ridiculously LOVABLE are still Emmie's forte. She has an overwhelming SWEETNESS about her & I just can't get enough of our precious baby girl!!!
We LOVE you Emmie and are so excited to continue to watch you grow and do all that we can to help you reach your potential!!!

Under arrest and proposing

So usually when one thinks of a couple getting engaged, they think of a romantic setting, such as a nice dinner, a carriage ride, a beautiful view, possibly the backdrop of a temple (if you're LDS)....you catch my drift.

Well, not in THIS story!

My cute little brother got engaged to darling Kylie Taylor (whom he met while being an EFY counselor last summer) last Friday night. And I have to say, after what he did, he's lucky she said yes! (KIDDING :))

Here's what happened:

Steven has a cop friend who followed them and pulled them over. After looking over Steven's license, the cop told he and Kylie to get out of the car and that Steven was under arrest for some outstanding tickets. He was handcuffed and told to get down on his knees and was asked if he had any last words. Steven said he did, and went on to profess his love for Kylie and asked her if she would marry him!

Kylie had no idea what was going on until he popped the question! Talk about a rush and wide gamut of emotions she must have experienced in a matter of a few minutes... NERVOUSNESS at being pulled over, FEAR and SHOCK as she was told her boyfriend was under arrest, CONFUSION as Steven started rambling about how much he loved her while handcuffed on the ground, RELIEF that he wasn't being hauled off to jail, a possible (tiny) bit of ANGER that a joke was being played on her, and finally EXCITEMENT & JOY as he pulled out the ring and asked her to marry him.

CRAZY!

Boys will be boys, I swear. I have to admit, it was pretty clever and it will be a moment to remember, that is for sure!

The important thing is that Kylie said "YES!"

You are such a darling girl, Kylie, and I am so excited to be getting a new sister!

The couple will be taking the plunge in the Salt Lake Temple this June.

Bring on the wedding plans!
CONGRATULATIONS Kylie and Steven! :)

The C word

Did I just hear you think the word,

"Chubby"?

Nah.

O---KAY. I'll admit it. MAYBE from THIS angle (above) the word enters into my mind too...But from THIS angle, all that comes to mind is

A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E!

Oh I just LOVE LoVe LOOOOOOOOVE this baby girl!!!

And all I can say is, if that's CHUBBY, chubby sure is stinkin' cute these days!

Thanks Jill and Jason for the cute dress, and Cindy for the darling bow.... they were meant for each other! :)

Hooray for the girls

Introducing.... Afton and Emmie!

These cuties are only 3 days apart. Are they sweet or what? I met Afton's Mommy - my cute friend Alicia - while living in Arizona. Alicia's husband was going to the same grad school as Chris at the time to become a PA and they were in our stake. Alicia helped me to keep my sanity when we first moved there and we'd go on fun shopping trips to the Anthem outlets where we would raid Ann Taylor's $4.99 and $9.99 clearance racks. (She's a girl after my own heart - a real bargain shopper!) They still live in AZ but dropped in for a fun visit today since they were in town. Afton has such a sweet countenance and is so darn cute. We wished they could of stayed longer! So fun to see you Alicia and Afton!

Come again soon!

(L to R) Jill, Cami, Tammy, myself & we missed you, Lacey & Amanda! :)

Later, we (meaning myself and the kiddos) met up with some of my good friends from high school at Noodles and Company. It's always a little crazy when we get together because all of our kids just run wild. I'm sure that eating establishments cringe upon our arrival every time, but it's all worth it because it's so fun to catch up with these girls for a minute! I've said it a million times, but I am so lucky for such great friends throughout my life. We're coming up on ELEVEN (yes, 11!) years since high school ended (man we're getting old) and what a blessing it has been that these friendships have sustained over the years.

HERE'S TO HAVING GIRLFRIENDS! :)

V-Day

A mysterious Valentines Day package showed up at our doorstep at 8 a.m. on Saturday before Chris left for work. Parker was very excited to find this bucket of treasures on our porch. He was MOST excited though for the couple of treats that happened to be included. Surprise, surprise. So much so, he kept trying to share them with Emmie (bottom middle). Don't worry Parker, I'm sure she'll be addicted soon enough, unfortunately. For now, she is on a milk only diet. (We're soon adding rice cereal to the menu...)

All in all, we just had a relaxing day at home while Chris worked. I am such a homebody, and I sure love playing with my kiddos, so it was a nice day. (Minus the fact that we were all a little sick...)

Thanks to ALL of Parker's grandparents for their cute Valentines gifts!

Just because you want me to, I won't....

I can't believe that coming up this June, that it will be two years since Chris graduated from Pharmacy School. A lot has changed in that year and a half & we look back on our Arizona/grad school days with smiles and such fond memories. We love the friends that we made during that time in our life, and our closest Pharmacy school friends also moved back here to Utah post graduation. We got together with some of them the other night at Ben and Shannon's house. We all had our first babies in Arizona, and it's fun to reunite and see everyone's growing families. Here are our kids:

(minus cute little Siena who left just before we managed this picture...)

Notice how sweet and obedient they all are to sit where we asked them to and smile at the camera.

Well, all of them, that is, except for one. In the right hand corner you may notice a child literally RUNNING to get out of the picture. Yes, that is our Parker. Shannon threw him down several times hoping to get him to comply and quickly got out of the picture herself, but little P wasn't going to give in that easily. In fact, he wasn't going to surrender for picture time at all. This is not surprising behavior. I love and adore my little boy, but he is sure a strong-willed little guy, always keeping us on our toes.

I have to say, that the rest of the night he was really well-behaved. It's just when he is told to do something......

Ooooooooooohhh NO!

He doesn't like to do anything unless it is on HIS terms.

Does anyone else see a problem here?

Any advice on a defiant 2 1/2 year old?

Here's to hoping that this is a very short phase (we've been experiencing it for at least a year now) that is about to see it's end!!

Disclaimer: I know that Parker's unwilling participation to sit with a group of kids for a picture isn't that big a deal, & I wasn't sweating about it. However, I just found it funny to capture this perfect display of his very independent personality on film & thought I'd document this common behavior, as this is soooo my world these days. :)

They make me laugh

Pre-kids, I really had no idea how funny & entertaining these little people can really be. Parker is constantly making us laugh at his silly sense of humor and his endless insights which seem to be beyond his barely 2 1/2 year old little brain. I really need to write more of these interactions down... so, off the top of my head, here a few of the funny things he's said over this last couple of days:
A TEACHING MOMENT.... Parker being the teacher

Setting: Chris is reading books to Parker before bedtime. Roxy (our dog) leaves the room and Parker wants her to come back in.

Parker: Hey, Dad, go like this.... (Parker puckers his lips and kisses the air) and this...(pats his lap) Now say, "Here Boxy, Boxy Boxy (Roxy)" It will make Boxy come back!

Thanks, Parker for teaching your Daddy how to call for the dog. Most of all, thanks for making him (& us) laugh.

APPLES GET SICK, TOO

Setting: Parker was picking out an apple to eat. The day before, he went to grab one that wasn't good, so I told him, "No, you don't want that one, it's bruised, it's bad. Pick a different one". The next day, he said the following when going to pick out another apple:

Parker: (Pointing to the "bad" apple from the previous day) No. We don't want that apple. It's sick. It needs to go to the doctor. We need to take it to the doctor, Mom, and the doctor will give it medicine and make it ALL better!

We'll have to call Dr. Wilcox and see what he can do for our apple...

WHEN I GET LITTLER....

Setting: I opened some new Old Navy jeans for Emmie delivered by the UPS man today. (The girl is growing so fast! She hardly has any 6-12 month pants to fit her large 5 month old body) Upon opening them, I said, "Oh, these are cute!" Parker, who was watching me said:

Parker: Oh! Those are CUTE, Mom! When I grow LITTLER, I can wear Emmie's jeans, too!

Yep. When you grow littler, you can wear Emmie's flared jeans, too Parker! :)

CUTTING STRAWBERRIES

Setting: I took strawberries out of the fridge to cut up for part of Parker's meal. The boy LOOOOVes strawberries. He excitedly ran over to the cupboard, pointed to our butcher's block of knives and exclaimed:

Parker: Here, Mom! Use THESE knives to cut my strawberries! When I grow bigger, I can use the knives to cut my strawberries, too! But not right now. I'm tooooo littow (little) to use knives.

Everything at our house is commentated on the fact that when he or the baby "grow bigger" that they'll be able to do this or that, too. Too funny.

Just a few other little Parkisms of the moment:

• Whenever myself, Chris, or the baby sneezes, we hear a tiny, high pitched, "Bwess you, Mommy!".
• When Parker runs into something, or falls, etc., he (usually) jumps right up and before anyone can ask, he exclaims, "I'm BINE!" (fine)
• Even when I don't expect a thank you, I usually get one. (Like when I turn on the light..) His "dakes" (thanks) and "dake you" are so precious!
• "Oh! That'd be good!"
• "Don't be sad. Let's be happy!"
• "You be NICE!" (he is told this thousands of times as he teases the dog, but it's kind of funny when he says it to US!)

What would we do without these little ones who add so much meaning & SMILES to our lives??

Cute, FREE, & fun!

So here is a great blog to check out!

www.giveawaytoday.blogspot.com

Each day just by leaving your name as a comment, you enter for the chance to win a really great prize! (Everyday there is something new) The extra exciting thing is that my cute friend, Lichelle, has an awesome business, "Shelby Bows and Flowers" that is being featured there TODAY! I have gotten the majority of Emmie's cute hair bows and flowers through her (& also thanks to my sweet sis in law Cindy's craftiness). She has such great products and sells them at such reasonable prices. For a chance to win some adorable new hair accessories, go to the giveaway link above and it's as easy as typing in your name. Also, to check out more of Lichelle's darling products, go to: www.shelbybows.blogspot.com

(If you don't have a daughter or a niece, she also sells cute hats in adult sizes!)

GOOD LUCK!!!