- Emery helped clean up for the first time ever tonight! For the past little while she has been really into showing us things. Then, in the last couple of days, she has started actually handing us things. And then tonight, she totally helped put toys into their boxes! I would hand her a toy and she would put it in! I am so proud of her.
- Levi has been getting better at memorizing the words to songs. He knows the start of the alphabet song but says "Alphabet G" instead of "E, F, G" Haha.
- Levi and Emery have started playing together more. Emery thinks Levi is hilarious and he is starting to include her a little bit in his games (ex: "Come this way Baby! Let's go in here!")
- Emery has started not just pulling up to things but actually cruising around! She is quickly becoming a big girl and not just my little baby anymore!
Anyway, it's been a while since I've done a blog post and a lot has happened! First off, we had spring break which meant the family reunion for my family up in Longbeach, Washington. We drove up Wednesday night after dinner with the idea in mind that both kids would just go to sleep and we would have a nice peaceful drive. Ha false! Poor Emery scream-cried for what felt like forever. She was pretty hysterical which along with the rain, dark winding roads, and practically non-functioning windshield wipers made me an incredibly stressed driver. Eventually, Eric squished himself in the backseat between the carseats to try to comfort Emery. Thankfully with the help of some loud white noise on his phone and his soothing her she did eventually fall asleep but man it was a long, torturous two and a half hours! Thankfully the rest of the week went much better than the drive! We got to spend lots of time with my family, walk along the beach, go to a kite museum, do smores on the beach, hot tub and swim in the super warm heated pool and play some hilarious rounds of Pictionary and heads up.
The wet sand perfectly reflected the sky and it looked AMAZING
Unfortunately, on Thursday afternoon I got some super intense abdominal pain that had me curled up in our bed and unable to do anything with anyone or eat anything. It was awful! And I was feeling so sorry for myself that I was missing out on so much time with my family. After a few hours of unrelenting pain, I eventually asked Eric and my dad to give me a blessing. The pain didn't go away immediately after that but it did pretty soon after and thankfully I got to spend the rest of the night with my family.
We got to stay up in WA until Sunday and then drove back home. Thankfully the drive home was much more calm than the drive up. Then on Monday, my friend Holly came to visit us! It was her spring break and she had had some plans that fell through so almost spur of the moment she planned the trip out to see us. I was so happy to have her here! We went to Salt & Straw, Powells and Batter Up and just spent time together. Levi took to her almost immediately and had a lot of fun playing with her. And I had so much fun talking with her and getting all caught up. She stayed with us Monday night through Wednesday morning and then went up to Seattle for a few days and came back Friday afternoon before leaving to go back to Utah early Saturday morning. So just a couple days with us but still so fun.
Then this weekend was pretty busy also! On Friday night Eric and I got to go see Shen Yun (Thanks to Mom and Dad's Christmas present to me!). It was a pretty cool experience. Definitely not really what I was expecting but still pretty cool. I really liked the dance with the long sleeves. Then after the show we went and got soft serve Salt & Straw and this place called Wiz Bang Bar which was in this cool indoor market. It kind of reminded me of the BYU Cougareat but with a hip industrial vibe. It felt very Portland and I would love to go there again before we leave. Eric and I were talking and realizing that we don't have that much time left here and a lot we would love to do before we go! There are several restaurants we would like to go back to or try for the first time (like Ken's Artisan
Pizza), I want to go back up to Saturday market one of these Saturdays and also I want to go berry picking again. I am really going to miss all the U-pick farms when we are in Texas. I'm pretty sure they don't have those there.
Then yesterday was busy because Eric was helping out with a merit badge from 9-12 so I had the kids by myself for the morning. We went to a baptism for a friend of our's kid and then went to the container store to get boxes to use for Levi's new quiet time boxes. The last three weeks or so Levi has been transitioning away from taking a nap and now he pretty much never takes them. Unfortunately, he also developed the really awful habit of dumping out literally every toy he owns during "quiet time" and refusing to pick them up. After the fourth day in a row of him doing this I was like, "we need to figure out something else!" So I went a little Pinterest crazy and decided to make quiet time boxes for him. So that's what took up pretty much all of my spare time last week. I took the kids to the dollar store and Target and Fred Meyer and got a lot of things and made a lot of things on my own after they were in bed and put together some pretty awesome quiet time boxes. He used one for the first time yesterday and it worked! He played with the things in the box and did the activities and didn't dump out any of his toys! And today he did the same for a little while before he actually ended up taking a nap! I'm sure we will still have some days where the quiet time boxes aren't engaging enough or he just decides to dump stuff anyway, but hopefully these help.
Also yesterday evening we had a ward game night. There were lots of games set up on tables around the room but I spent the whole time in the back where there were duplos and toys dumped out on blankets. Levi and Emery played and I chatted with Ashley, Mikelle and Jessica Lancaster. Even though I didn't get to play any of the games it was still nice to hang out with them.
So yeah, that's what's been going on! I can't believe that I turn 30 in just a couple of days. 30. That's like real adulthood right there. Like, not even young adult, just adult. Which I guess is fitting considering that I'm married with two kids and a career and we are about to buy a house! It's just crazy to me still.
Emery and I took this picture to re-create one I took a year ago while pregnant with her. I am soo so grateful that I get to have her in my life. As awful as pregnancy is for me, it is so incredibly worth it. I can't imagine our family now without her in it!
Best. Smile. Ever.
Anyway, here are some more random pictures that capture day-to-day life right now:
Levi sticks his tongue out when he's concentrating and I love it!
Spring is here with beautiful flowers! Unfortunately, we've also had a lot of rain lately which has knocked down most of the petals off of the trees already which means we only got to enjoy them for a few days. But they sure were a beautiful few days!
Love snuggling with my sleeping baby!
Levi and I went for a walk in the rain between sessions of conference last weekend because we both needed to get out of the house and move our bodies (I hate sitting that long!). When I took this picture he said, "I'm in a little tiny cave!"
Me and Emery chilling in the car in the Winco parking lot waiting for the rain to let up a little and Levi to wake up from his car nap!
