Emri Turned ONE........part I

CAN IT BE TRUE?!?! My baby turned ONE!!!!

Emri's birthday weekend started out great with the arrival of these 2 special birthday visitors on Wednesday, Uncle Kolby and Momma Max...all the way from Utah! We took them to eat at one of our favorite places here in Columbus "Caffe DaVinci."

Emri came down with a fever on Thursday and just wasn't feeling great, so we pretty much just bummed around home and watched the Olympics the whole time they were here.

Emri is SOOOOO loved! I can't thank everyone enough for sending such fun packages and birthday wishes to her in the mail! I was so excited everytime something came to our doorstep! It means so much to know that all of you were thinking about her, especially from so far away! We couldn't wait to open this one from Angi and her family, it got here early and we didn't hesitate to tear right into it! This "Stinky Face" book is the cutest ever! She loves it!

Saturday, FEBRUARY 20th...actual birthday morning....and not really the face of a babe that wants to celebrate all day :( We still tried to make the best of it though! Here she's wondering what in the heck are all these balloons doing in my crib?!

Brett tried to see how many balloons he could get to stick on her static head!

She got to wear a crown and have a special breakfast, although she didn't feel like eating much of anything...

Strawberry Waffles.....mmmmmmmmmmm! This was not Emri's plate....it was mine! Whip Cream anyone????

my 2 babies....kolby and E

We tried to spread out the gifts throughout the day so she wouldn't be too overwhelmed. First, this cute little number from Parker (her boyfriend in UT) and some other fun outfits and jelly shoes. So dang cute!!!! Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny......ha ha!

E sportin' some crate paper decor Rambo style. We taped these up to the ceiling fan in her room....she insisted pulling them off to play with them. Just turning the iPod to her favorite song "Single Ladies"....I'm not joking about song choice (dancing video to come later).

We did manage to get a few smiles out of this birthday girl despite feeling under the weather!

The monthly pic....Wow....I can honestly say this has been the fastest (hardest, best) 12 months of my life! Her birthday girl shirt is courtesy of Heather and her adorable leggings were a gift from Aunt Mindy even before Emri was born (when we got them I thought they looked so big and now I can't believe that she's wearing them)! She looks sad in this picture :( We're ready to zap all the sickie bugs and get summer here quick.

Emri in front of all her treasures! ummm, can you say spoiled??

"Hey, I like this!"

She got lots of new toys, books, clothes, shoes, and jammies! She was really cute when she'd see what was inside the gifts she'd make a little ahhhh, or squeal! She was genuinely excited about everything!

Playing with her mega blocks....while standing! She hasn't shown much interest in walking more than 3-4 steps at a time. She's such a fast crawler she doesn't seem to need any other mode of mobility!

I guess this officially means she's a BIG GIRL! Daddy changed her carseat around to front facing! So far she seems to really enjoy it. There's a whole new world out there now!

We celebrated her birthday dinner at Applebee's. She wasn't too thrilled to be there, so we ate quickly and brought her home for an early bedtime!

We postponed cake and icecream with friends till she felt a little better the next day..... stay tuned for more pics!

The Most Expensive Shirt I've Ever NOT KEPT

So a few weeks ago I went shopping to find something new to wear to the Mandiball Dance. I couldn't find a dress I liked and ended up purchasing a top to wear with a skirt I had. When I got home I decided to call Kara and just borrow one of her dresses. I'd return the shirt, save $20, and still have something cute to wear!

Today I ventured to the mall to return this exact shirt:

Upon my arrival I get out of the car and shut my door, open the back hatch, get Emri's stroller out and set it up, throw the shirt to be returned into the stroller, open the back door and then lock it, get Emri out of her carseat, turne my back to the car to buckle Emri into the stroller and.....

I HEAR THE CAR DOOR SHUT

I reach into my pocket to get the keys......THAT WEREN'T THERE!!!!!!

Probably say (read: say) some choice words under my breath (so Emri won't hear, of course).....

Think to call Brett and have him come rescue me, only to realize that he has late clinic tonight so he won't be heading home till at least 7pm (it's only 1:30 pm at this time)....

Think to call Megan who has a spare key to our house....and then she could get into the house, get my spare car key and come rescue us after she gets off work....I can just use the cash I get back from the shirt to buy a snack to tide Emri over for a couple hours while we wander the mall and wait for someone to save us......

ACTUALLY, that won't work either because I HAVE our spare house key in the car that we usually keep at Megan's because I haven't returned it yet since Christmas when they picked us up from the airport and used it to get into our house.....

DON'T KNOW WHY I AM EVEN THINKING TO CALL ANYONE.... MY CELL PHONE IS STILL IN THE CAR, ALONG WITH MY WALLET AND DIAPER BAG. I don't know anyone's phone numbers besides Brett's (and family in Utah) to even call for help! Plus even if did know their numbers, there is no way to solve getting into the car till Brett was able to get the spare key here.....

AWESOME JAME! YOU ARE AWESOME!

So, I might as well just go into JC Penney and return the shirt and ask someone to use a phone. Well I bought the shirt with my debit card, which happens to still be in the car so I can't just get cash back. Also, JCPenney's phones don't call outside of the store. Thank goodness the sales associate is so understanding and lets me use her phone.

First I call Brett and leave him a message...which really does me no good because he can't call me back! JCPenney also doesn't have a phone book handy, so again, the SUPER nice sales associate just tells me to dial 4-1-1 on her phone to get a locksmith's number.

They say they will be there in 10 minutes. It will be $30 just to come, then starting at $19 for labor. I am feeling so desperate at this point.....so, I just tell them to come to the mall....but I don't have a cell phone to call when they get there, so I'll just wait at the entrance....

The young kid shows up, looks in the car for 5 seconds, scribbles some numbers on his paper and hands it to me to sign before he does anything more....

GRAND TOTAL = $89.00 ???

ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? Wow, this sounds like it's going to take a while. At this point I'm ready to just wait it out for Brett....but then I still have to pay him $30 just for making the trip.

AAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!

So, I sign it, rolling my eyes. Why am I so dumb!

All I wanted to do was return this shirt, to save us $20 and now I have to pay $90 to get my door unlocked?!?!?

(By the time I finish thinking this, that the kid has my door open and the alarm is going off).

SERIOUSLY??? YOU CHARGE $90 FOR LESS THAN A MINUTE OF "LABOR?" I was pretty bugged (mostly at myself).

WHY IS MY HUSBAND STUDYING TO BE A DENTIST?!?!?!?!?!? We should go into Locksmithery! ha!

I thank him.....

pull my crap out of the car....

walk back into JCPenney with steam coming out of my ears....

make a return for a credit of $21.34 back to my MasterCard....

and head back home so I can get Emri down for a nap.

Wow, so much for trying to save a buck! I am so bummed! I have learned a lesson though, an expensive one! And the dumb thing is I usually lock the door and put my keys straight into my pocket so Emri can't see them (or she wants to eat them) and for some reason I just dropped 'em into the diaper bag on the seat today. GRRRRRR.

I should go make some cookies for the nice lady who let me use her cell phone!

Getting Out of the Comfort Zone...

WARNING....it's a long one!

Last week was one of trying many new things..... Re-apholstering a window treatment, dancing at the "Mandi-Ball" (basically a prom for the dental school), working at the LDS dry-pack cannery, and successfully making a recipe with lots of new ingredients I've never purchased/used!

Yes, I'm broadening my horizons if you will (AND YOU WILL)!

Since we painted our living room, the color of the old window treatment was looking yucky and bland, and blended right in with the new paint....

so I found some fabric at JoAnn's, borrowed a staple gun,

and walaaaaah....New window treatment! The brown looks good with our accent wall (that you can't see). Now, I need to get some different decor goin....

For Valentine's Day Brett took me to the "Mandiball" (very clever) that the dental school puts on. It was actually on the 12th. Brett brought these flowers home for me the day of the dance. Very sweet!

Me and my Valentine! He's a babe! I'm so lucky!

They served hors' doeuvre, then a main course, and dessert. They held a big drawing of door prizes which NOBODY from our table won, and then had dancing.....here's me and Amanda gettin' our groove on! She was the life of the party!

Some slow dance action...

Our table at dinner....Paxtons, Andertons, Williams, Baldwins. The Mormon tables were obvious....dresses with sleeves and no beer bottles! Good clean fun ;)

A fancy cake of a dental op chair....

Waiting for the valet guys to get our cars....yep, we felt special!

Thanks babe for a rockin night! I was thinking back on our dating/married life and I don't think we've ever been dancing before (other than at our wedding). It was really fun and I'm sure we'll try to go again next year.

I had my first experience going to the LDS dry-pack cannery and it was actually quite fun! I'm a nerd, I know! I mostly went to see what it was all about, but did come home with a few food storage items. This was part of our crew: Liz, me, Melinda, Meg, Erin, Brittany! We canned: dry milk, hot cocoa mix, refried beans, white beans, pinto beans, black beans, onion flakes, flour, sugar, spaghetti noodles, macaroni noodles, rolled oats, quick oats, wheat, rice, potato pearls, dried apple chips.....all while looking dang sexy in this attire! ha!

I tried a new recipe Pasta with Pumpkin and Sausage and all those who sampled it were pleased! I printed this recipe off in October and finally got around to making it. If you notice the title, you can see that it is a perfect Fall/comfort food. Not only was the recipe a first for me, but there were several ingredients in it that I had NEVER purchased before, including: fresh sage, bay leaf, romano cheese, sweet italian sausage, and white cooking wine. I usually tend to skip over recipes that have new ingredients....mostly because it intimidates me to go to the store and not know exactly where to find something. Lame, I know! Anybody else do that??

Emri has been busy as well....

Enjoying the blizzards from INSIDE the house (I'm surprised she's smiling when I see my scary eyes in the reflection). This was the beginning of several storms...

Gpa was in town for work and we finally got to give him his birthday present.

E has been mastering a few tricks as we pass the time blizzarded in our house. "SO BIG!"

Licking the bowl clean...

And keeping some treats close by for an afternoon snack.... I realize she's in her jammies, but I promise we don't feed her Mac n Cheese for breakfast!

Just a quick update.....this picture of Brett was today! The snow kept him....and every other grade, middle, highschool and college student home today! We didn't mind having him around!

Our Week in Pictures....

In RAnDoM order, this is what we've been up to this week....

SWIMMING LESSONS!! Emri and I started a 4 week "swim lessons" class! It's so cute to see all the little babes in their suits! Emri has always loved the water, so we thought it would be a fun winter activity to spice up our boring lives! Here she is very concerned about all the people in the pool with her!

Mastering the back float... apparently, if you hold a squishy toy in your left hand, it will level out the weight of the extra chub roll in your right thigh :)

Our friends Kate and Averi are in class with us! It was really cute to see them interact!

DOING LAUNDRY! Emri is really into helping me right now! She LOVES to unload/undo anything! Here she's handing me clean clothes as i fold. She also hands me dirty laundry, one by one as I load the washer! Personally I think her favorite part is the free ride up and down the stairs with all the laundry piled on top of her!

When she gets bored with her food it ends up on the ground....lovely! Luckily, she eats whatever we give her! She even ate steamed broccoli tonight! Yay Emri!

This is a regular Saturday morning occurrence....cartoons or Einstein while snugglin' with Dad (especially since she's been sick....such a cuddler)! She's obviously too into the show to even look at the camera! Honestly, I think this is Brett's way of getting out of his honey-do list! I dont' blame him..... she's so dang cute!

Q: What's better than receiving a package on your doorstep?

A: Finding out that the contents of this package are EDIBLE and OH SOOOO YUMMY! Thanks Angi for putting a smile on my face! You're the best! Does anyone else want to send me some love too? ha ha

Hey....nothin' better than a little reading al naturale!

TUBBY TIME! Just love this happy girl....

and all that hair!!