My Daughter the Dog

So when my mom and I talk on the phone a good 95% of the time we note how similar Emma and Tilly (my parents' dog) are.  We don't know if it is the fact that they are 18 days apart or what, but they are definitely "bosom buddies," "two peas in a pod," (etc. etc.) or "partners in crime" as we commonly refer to them as. Similarities include:

1. Both hear the word "go for a ride" and immediately perk up, drop everything and come to you.

2. At least once a week, AT LEAST, both me and my mother are yelling at either Emma or Tilly to "get out of the garbage."  I kid you not, there have been times when I hear my mom yelling at Tilly to get out of the garbage and I look over at Emma and yell the same thing.

3.  They both kiss with their tongues hanging out.  Emma is good at giving kisses now, but we are trying to teach her to close her mouth or at least to keep her tongue in her mouth.  And Tilly being a dog will sometimes get adventurous and try to kiss you...differently.

4.  They both love going for walks...

...on a leash.
That would be my sister "guiding" my 1 year old around the house.  Last time she was up here she did a little experiment to see if Emma would walk (or rather crawl) with a leash.  Not only did Emma do it, she did it happily...like Tilly.

5.  They both like to eat off the floor.  Emma will purposefully throw food when she is "done" eating.  Then when we take her out of her high chair and put her on the floor she will crawl right to the food and start eating.  Sometimes she won't even pick it up with her fingers.  She will stick her mouth to the floor and try and lick it up.  I have a strange child.  I know.

6. They both love balloons.

I've semi-been trying to upload these videos for a while.  I mentioned them in a previous post (on accident...I kinda forgot the erase the text after the videos failed to upload).

Anywhoo, you get the point...they are basically best buds...

Since day 1 (well this picture is taken at 3 months, but you get the idea)

In Other News...

After the many many weeks of applying and waiting for Post-Bacc Schools, we can finally say we know where we will be living in 3 months (ah!) from now.....

We are very excited and very scared at the same time!
Now the hard part...finding an apartment....using only the internet! :(

Life

Yes, I am a slacker.  I'm not very diligent at updating, but when you stay inside all day all the time because the high out side is 5 degrees not much happens a.k.a. nothing exciting to post.
However, there is one thing!  We were accepted to the University of North Carolina at Greensboro which means...we're actually going/moving somewhere in May! Very exciting but very, VERY scary.  We are now just waiting to hear back from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri so we can pray and make a final decision of where we will be living for the next 2 years! Yikes!
Also, I forgot I had these pictures. :)

Emma had her one year old appointment a few weeks ago.  She's basically still the same: small, short and a big head.  She weighed in at 19 lbs 4 oz (25 percentile).  She's short at 28 1/4 inches (again 25 percentile) and her head is big (forget the measurement) coming in at the 97 percentile.  Again we know why its is hard to put clothes over her head!
She is also having problems with plugged tear ducts so we were refered to a specialist and unless something happens between now and the 29th, she'll go in for a 3 minute surgery to hopefully clear up the problem.  They will put her under though (especially her), Yikes!

So...that is our life as of lately.  I'm really praying it warms up to at least 30 degrees one of these days so that I actually feel like getting the mail! :)

Christmas, Birthday and New Years!

So I realize it has been a long time since my last post, but our holiday break was CRAZY!  First we went down to my parents' for not quite a week and stayed through Christmas morning.  Then we drove down to Cedar City to spend a few days with Tyler's family.  Then we went to St. George to spend New Year's at my grandparents' house with them and my family.  And during that time drove down to Las Vegas to attend Tyler's cousin's wedding.  Oh, and then drove home!  That is A LOT of driving.  ESPECIALLY  with a 1 year old who has being in the car for mare than 20 minutes at a time. But somehow we made it though...barely and lucky for us Emma has been makin gup all of her lack of sleep.  See?  There is silver lining to every bad car ride! :)
So The post is a hodge podge of our trip, but stick with me until the end.  I promise you won't regret it...I hope. :)
Christmas was great.  We went to Temple Square on December 20th!
 And why is that date mentioned?  Because...3 years ago from that date we got engaged!  We look a little different now then we did then.

 First of all it was A LOT colder in 2012 than it was in 2009.  I think we stayed a total of 20 minutes.
Emma hated us the whole time.  We wrapped her up nice and warm and she looked at us like "I want to kill you."

The look she has here was not people watching.  She was giving Jackie the death look.

Christmas day was awesome.  We were very very spoiled (thank you to all our family).  Especially Emma.  She basically went to having few toys that were probably below her development level to having too many toys.  (We had to leave several at grandma's house for her to bring up later because we simply couldn't fit everything in our car!)  Emma was also spoiled by attention.  And if you weren't giving it to her she would make you!
It took her a while, but she eventually won Davis over. :)

And on top of everything, my dear mother spent hours making us all matching pajamas for Christmas!

Emma was obviously very tired at this point in the picture taking.

New Years was great too!
Emma did not stay up until midnight, however.  I think she made to til 7:30 though!

Rewinding one day...
Sunday was Emma's first birthday!  A year really goes by fast when you have kids.

Isn't she so cute?

And again, she got many, many presents.

She was a little overwhelmed. :)

But as always, Grandma saved the day.  Emma is definitely a Grandma's girl.  Once grandma shows up she won't even come to me anymore!

We then sang

And Emma dived into her cake.  She was a little apprehensive at first.

And then she started to get the hang of it.

And then there was no stopping her.
This is her contented "I'm done" face.

Clean up was no small feat let me tell you.  She got cake in place I never would have thought of.  But she sure had fun!

Her favorite thing by far though, was balloons!

So was Tilly's (my parents' dog and Emma's "bosom buddy" as we like to refer to them.  Despite being of a different species, they are 2 peas in a pod. Anywhoo...Tilly learned to play volleyball!

Granola Bar

My silly little girl.
She loves things that make crinkly noises.  Especially her granola bar.  She's loved this "toy for about 6-7 months now.  I'ts never been opened, but sometimes it is the only thing that will keep her quiet in church.

 Sorry for the bad picture.  My camera can be temperamental sometimes...and it was zoomed pretty far!

Lately she's taken to crawling around with it in her mouth.  You should have seen her struggle with it at first! It was so funny!  She'd get it in her mouth, crawl a little, then it would fall and she'd get it back in, crawl a little and it would fall out.  This happened at least 5-6 times until she finally got the hang of it! So funny!

Emma also LOVES to play peek-a-boo.  She'll play it with anything: blankets, bibs, curtains, burp cloths, etc.!  She's so cute!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

I'm trying to make up for my lack of pictures in November.  So we took a few before we headed to our ward Christmas party last night!

We decided to be festive...

Then we went to the party and guess who was there?

SANTA!

Santa insisted we get a family picture. :)

We were really worried that Emma would cry, but she was more curious than anything.  And once he gave her a candy cane...she didn't care who was holding her!

At the end of the party they had a dance.

Emma had a lot of fun!

Until she realized how tired she was.

Hope everyone is enjoying their Christmas season!
Merry Christmas!  And may you get more snow than we are! :(

11 Months!

Emma is now 11 months old!  I can't believe it!

She's grown a lot in the last month.  She is now up to 20 lbs!  YAAYYY!!!  Which means at the end of this month we can turn her around in her carseat!!  OH MY YESS!!  We went down to Cedar City for Thanksgiving to stay with Tyler's family.  The car rides were awful!  I was in the back about 90% of the time.  And it is not the most spacious backseat if you know what I mean!  And even then she would cry and scream because she wanted out.  It made me realize why we don't visit people very often...that and the fact that she won't sleep at night!  Ya, we left a day early just so we could actually get some sleep over the break!

Emma's favorite things this month
1. Books.

She prefers books over her toys.  She loves, and I mean LOVES to turn the pages.  You don't even have to say anything (but I always do don't worry).  And she will "read" the same book over and over and over and over and over again.  Literally until you decide you can't take that book anymore.

2.  Mac and Cheese.
It is her favorite.  She probably has it everyday for lunch because I know she'll eat it.  And she will eat an entire little easy mac thing (minus the bites that I steal).

3.  Head Diving.
Yes.  In order to get off furniture, she believes she must head dive off.  She used to cry every time but now I think she has gotten used to it.

4. Eh?
This is her favorite "word."  She says it ALL THE TIME.  If you are talking to someone else either in person or on the phone, or especially if you are talking to her she always looks at you, cocks her head and says "eh?"  Just like her Uncle Davis.

5. Other stuff.
Emma got one more tooth. One of her bottom teeth.  I think its really going to look funny once the other one comes in and they are off! Emma also refuses to walk and or stand.  She loves to walk along the furniture, but you try and get her to stand alone and she IMMEDIATELY sits.  She is such a turd.