BYU Game 2007

I found this clip of Emma at the one BYU game Paul and I got to go to last year. I think she's about 7 or 8 months old. I had this weird little tab in My Pictures and had no idea it was a video! I am so excited to have this of her when she was so little!! I think Damon recorded her with his camera, because we didn't do this. It's so fun to see her this tiny and then see the photos we took this morning as contrast. Boy how time flies!

Emma's Portrait Session

We had these photos taken this morning by my friend McKenzie Deakins. These are a few of my favorites. She was so good with Emma who wasn't wanting to smile, at all. We were apparently in a very "serious mood" this morning. Thank you so much McKenzie!! We love the photos and we had such a great time!

Our Fall Shoot with Bryndee

Bryndee took us to a secret place, and we played in the leaves and walked down this really pretty tree lined path. Unfortunately the shoot was halted mid way, due to a diaper situation. We had to go home; I was very sad because Emma was so cute in her little pea coat! I was hoping for some close-ups, but that's the way it goes sometimes! Thanks Bryn for choosing us! I wish it had turned out differently, but not the pictures! I love these, they are really sweet. Thank you bunches!

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New Best Friends

Over the past few weeks, everyone in our household has received a bonk, bruise, or scrape from Emma's Tickle Me Elmo. She insists on dragging him everywhere. Of course she would want to snuggle with a machine instead of something soft and cuddly. She keeps dropping him on her toes which are now cut and bruised, but her love is all encompassing and she takes her lumps. Well, we've all had enough lumps, so tonight I found a plush Elmo. It really was sweet to watch her expression as I pushed her down the toy isle. It's always so much for her to take in, and her eyes never stay in one place for long. As she was taking in all of the billions of toys (because there are billions, and billions), I quickly found the Elmo section and made a bee line for it. As she calculated our destination, her face lit up like a glowworm. There were two other parents in the isle, and we all started to laugh. It is amazing how the simple pure pleasure of a child radiates through all who witness it. She kissed him instantly and then hugged him all the way to the register. Well, Emma wouldn't let go in order to allow the cashier to scan Elmo. The cute lady started singing the Elmo's World theme song from Sesame Street. She was so sweet to Emma and finally was able to scan him. We got home and Emma immediately introduced the Elmos to each other. Then she put Tickle Me Elmo to "bed", which entailed Emma covering him with a blanket. Hopefully this will be a less painful love for all of us to endure!

The Flower Girl

These are a few of the pictures that Bryndee shot at my sister-in-law Brigette's wedding. I hope she doesn't mind that I've posted them, but they are so adorable I couldn't resist!! Thank you for capturing these moments forever, they are so precious! There are more but these are all I could get to load for me. I look forward to seeing the rest when they become available. We love you Bryn, thanks!!

Disney On Ice

Our Little Princess

In the Gateway parking lot looking cute as Princess Aurora. We are on our way to The Energy Solutions Center, aka the Delta Center, ha ha ha. Emma was already excited even though she had no idea where we were going. When we got to the street we could see all the people going to the show. There were soooo many little princesses walking around. She loved seeing all the other kids! This is a fuzzy picture of the castle but it was so clever! It turned into Beauty and the Beast's castle, and then it turned into the big Mountain with the avalanche for Mulan, and it turned into Small World with the clocks and everything. I know it turned into even more but that's all I'm able to recollect at the moment. We loved the Genies! It was so funny to see 20 genies skating everywhere. I thought it was very clever and Emma loved it! There was one genie that was like a foot shorter than everyone else, hilarious!!

This was during the intermission. You can see the nub of the churro that Emma had been eating. She managed to eat the entire thing!

Lumiere was so cute!! I couldn't get a good shot of the beast, he kept moving so quickly I couldn't get a lead on him.

We all loved the Army Guys from Toy Story, they were hilarious!! They even had a mesh face covering so they're faces looked green too. They were great!

Looking up at Daddy with a look of excitement and awe. I don't remember what exactly inspired this moment, but it was pretty much like this all night long! She loved every minute and so did we.

These guys were adorable! They did a skit to You've Got A Friend In Me, and then her little theme song which had everyone whooping and hollering like cowboys. It was very cute.

These are the Mickey Mouse Crown Ears that came with the bag of cotton candy we just had to have! Of course Emma has already busted off one of the ears, I think I might be able to super glue it back together. Not that they are worth it, really. The Nemo vignette was adorable with the huge Bruce and sharks. All the kids went crazy. It was so colorful and fun. They really kept the kids attention, and they were so fast!

Here's Brucie! He was truly awesome! I was worried that Emma would be scared but she just pointed and oooed. He was very thrilling.

Here you can see the churro in it's entirety. We couldn't believe she munched the whole thing. She had cinnamon sugar, and gold sparkles everywhere! The last vignette was The Lion King. Emma loved Rafiki the wise monkey. Paul took her down to the edge of the ice at the end, and she got to touch Rafiki, Nala, and Timon. She conked out in the car after about 4 minutes. I wasn't sure how she would do, but she was so good! I'm so glad we took her. I had only been once before when I was a little girl. I'm not even sure how old I was really, I think 8 maybe. Paul surprised me with the tickets, because he knew how much I would enjoy it along with Emma. My favorite thing was that Mickey and Minnie acted as the MC's and every time they would come out, Emma would shout "Mimmy Mouse, Mimmy Mouse!". It is one of the best night's we've had in a while.

Halloween Party

Here is a picture from our amazing Halloween party last night. I'm trying to download more but having some difficulty doing so. Hopefully I will be able to figure it out soon and then I will add them. Tyson is dressed as Super Why and Emma is an adorable Piglet. We had a little more than forty people attend and it was so much fun! I think our family has the cutest kids. It was so fum to see everyone and the food was great! We had so many treats and yummy things to eat. Thank you to everyone who participated and I hope you all enjoyed yourselves as much as we did!! For all of you who were unable to attend, we missed you and hope you'll be here for the next one! Have A Happy Halloween!!!

Photo Shoot in the Canyon

Denika, Dacia and the Boys, and Emma and I drove up the Provo Canyon to take some Fall pictures of the kids. These are some of my favorites of Emma. The kids were hysterical as usual, leaf fights and spells galore. I think Jonathon even cast the death spell at me, ya try that again kid! We had a wonderful time and it was so beautiful, just a little bit chilly. Then we rushed home to watch the BYU game against TCU that was terrible!! At least the au jus sandwiches were delicious!!

Last night on channel 5 news they reported that something like 48% of tv viewers were watching the Olympics. Most for a few hours a day. Not at my house, it's all day everyday. We do go to bed, but it's back on first thing in the morning to see what we missed. Paul thinks it's funny that I love to watch so much, being that he's never really gotten into the Olympics before. Funny thing, he has been watching more and become intensely interested! I love my husband, he makes me laugh!! I was totally bummed with the turn out of the men's all-around gymnastics final, but women's is tonight and maybe Shawn Johnson will do better. If you haven't seen Michael Phelps swim, get online and check it out. He's amazing, like superman under water!! Hope everyone else is enjoying the Olympics too! Happy watching!!

You Belong in 1954

You're fun loving, romantic, and more than a little innocent. See you at the drive in!

What Year Do You Belong In?

A Sad Passing

So, all of you in the immediate area, can bear witness to the crazy weather these past couple of days. Well, Saturday was nuts!! I was standing in the kitchen cleaning, watching Emma eat her dinner and the lightening, and listening to the thunder. All of a sudden there was a HUGE explosion that shook the house. I yelled to Damon who was upstairs in his room, (I was really surprised by the event), wondering what in the heck had happened. He came down and then I realised that the sprinkler system had come on, weird! We went to look at the timer and it wasn't even on, period. We couldn't figure out how to stop it and had no clue where the manual valve was. (I wasn't going out to look in the pouring rain, either.) But back to the main mystery, what the explosion was. We couldn't see anything or smell anything. So, we just figured it was really loud thunder that was over the house, wrong... Now, we're pretty sure the house was hit by lightening, or it was really close. Close enough to destroy our computer!! Mystery solved, our computer exploded. It sounded like a shotgun going off in the kitchen. The really terrible thing is that all of my pictures are on it and I didn't back up any of them. Ya, I feel like throwing up, seriously. Hopefully we'll be able to save them, if the something that exploded wasn't the hard drive. My prayers are pretty much consumed with just asking for anything else to have been busted. We're lucky that Damon's surge protector actually worked, so we still have internet access. Well, we say good bye to a good friend. We've had this computer since a few months after getting married. It's been really good to us and we loved it! I'm so mad, this is totally lame!! So, bear with me for the next however long. Hopefully the situation will be resolved in a timely fashion, but I have my doubts.

Oreo's with Daddy

The Oreo is Paul's favorite cookie, and from the look of it, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. This has been a common occurrence at our house since Paul came home with a big bag. I'll be glad when they are all gone!! Such a mess and no nutrition.

Breaking Dawn

I finished it in under 12 hours which was a huge achievement considering how sick Emma has been. All I will say, until everyone else has read it, is... I can't believe she came up with that story, with all it's twists, and had it published in a year! Pretty amazing stuff! I officially really enjoyed it and am very sad that it is over. But, this is only my first read through, so I guess it isn't really over, yet. Hurry up and finish it someone so we can discuss it!!

Watching Baby Einstein

Emma really loves to watch her Baby Einstein, but her favorite is to see the animals. She loves to see the doggies, of course! I think she is so cute when she sits like this with her little stuffed animals and pillow. I can hardly stand it!! She also enjoys playing with her foal letters. We're teaching her how to spell Emma, mommy, and daddy. I'm still trying to teach her the alphabet, but she hasn't been to interested, as of yet. Just this past week her vocabulary had taken off saying words like "hi", "cute","bye, bye" and a slew of others. I think we may be finally breaking through into speech, slowly but surely. She is just so much fun, and so intelligent. Once she figures out that she'll get things more quickly when she's talking, we'll be on a roll. This is such a fun and amusing stage!

Pals

After Spencer's party Dacia and Spencer came home with us for a sleep over. The two little pumpkins were so tired! We've been having a lot of fun. Jason dropped the boys off at Grandma and Grandpa Spann's in the afternoon yesterday and then we had a sleep over at my house. Emma and Spencer are so funny to watch. They want to be near each other but are constantly crying. Emma keeps giving Spencer his binky and he keeps stealing hers. And of course the entire scene plays over and over again. Hysterical!! Little kids are amazing, all in all, they get along very well. They really enjoy each others company.

Spencer's One!!

Dacia and Jason gave a really fun party for Spencer's first birthday. We had great cake and icecream. Spencer got lots of adorable clothes and toys. He was so happy the whole night, laughing and clapping. HE tried to put the candle out with his hand, even though he can blow. I can't believe he's already one, time is going by so fast!! We had a very good time, especially Emma! She loves to be around all of her family!

It's Coming!!

Only four more days!! Okay, I know it make s me a total nerd to be so excited about this book release, but I really just don't care! It isn't very often that I come across a series that is this entertaining to read. No, they aren't the best books I've ever read, coming from a literary point of view, but they are captivating. I always seem to lose myself whenever I start reading them, and that is something!! Paul surprised me with the pre-order of book four. He paid more for shipping than for the book so I would get it on the 2nd. What a sweet husband!! Of course, I know he wants it just as much as I do. I'm still reading the third book to him at night. We won't finish before the 2nd, but he knows I'll be done with Breaking Dawn before he can probably blink an eye. If you want to pre-order, Amazon has a great deal, or you could go to one of the many midnight parties on the 1st to get your copy. If you really want it, I would suggest either of these two options, or you probably won't get one for a while. These books sell out so fast that they can't get shipments in fast enough. The last book was sold out in several states like Utah, California, and Arizona for a long time and people were frustrated. You've got four days to choose. Good luck getting your own copy!

A Step Back in Time

Here is a fabulous look back at Paul's glorious last night at Los Hermanos. It's so fun to see some of the kids who partook in the spoils of the night. Check out the cake that said "Good Bye Paul" instead of the customary "Good Luck". So hysterical, they were really mad at him for leaving. Those were the days!!

Happy Birthday Daddy

This is one of my favorite pictures of you, Dad! I love you so much Daddy!! I wish I could be there with you today to help celebrate being a year older and more awesome!! I hope you get to go out and eat somewhere you want to and maybe kick your feet up for a minute?!? That would be nice!! You'll have to check Jarom's email, but we sent you a little something. I hope you can use it, I'm sure you'll manage somehow!! Have a great day!!

Memories...

I saw this on a friend's blog, and I thought that it looked like it could be fun! Okay, here is what you do. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little, or a lot, anything that you remember. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. Ahh!... memories...

The Dark Knight

We got to see this yesterday. It is very, very good, but dark. I think that all of the characters did a wonderful job and Ledger is an awesome crazy Joker! Be prepared to be overwhelmed. So much happens that it is really hard to take it all in. I'm sure we'll have to see it a few more times. There where parts that I wasn't sure I wanted to see, so I closed my eyes, but really I don't think I needed to. They do a fairly good job of keeping out the gore, still it is very edgy and you feel worn out by the end. If you're hesitating, don't - it's a must see for sure. Suggestion, don't take your kids unless you want them to be afraid of clowns forever!! That's probably a no brainer, but you never know. Go see it, and enjoy!

Austen Heroines Quiz

Take the Quiz here!

Lack of Camping Blues

Ok, so I'm having some serious Patrick's Point withdrawals! I can't shake the feeling of wanting to be somewhere cool, by the ocean, and under the trees with my hubby, princess, and the entire famn damily. Here are a few of my fav's from the last two trips. There are a lot of my little family, but at the end are some awesome waves! Hope this numbs a few aches for everyone!!

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Today's Activities

Paul and I have been painting Emma's room for the past two days. It looks really good, which is a relief. My body is aching from crouching for so long, ridiculous!! Then brilliant me decided to mow and edge the front yard by myself. It looks good too, but by the end I literally couldn't feel my arms anymore. I walked in the house with limp noodles. Then dear Paul asked me to write 20 invitations for a work meeting (his writing isn't very legible). I made it through and after a little rest, decided to tack this drab entry. I'll post pictures of Emma's room shortly. I want to get it all together first though. I'm still waiting for the rest of the wallpaper border to arrive. My arms are still shaking, and it feels odd. It's been a while since they have had such an extreme work out.

Disney Princess Quiz

You Are Cinderella!

Dignified and hard working. With a gentle and soft-spoken manner you have something many people don't. Patience. Even through the moments of heartbreak you're still able to hold onto all of your hopes and dreams. Bide your time; your dream will come true.

Which Disney Princess Are You?

Our 4th of July Celebration

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Picnic at South Fork

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Our Trip to the Calaveras Big Trees

Happy 60th Anniversary!