"The family. We are a strange little band of characters trudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another's desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together."
--Erma Bombeck
"People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway. The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway. Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway. For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway."
--Mother Teresa

Friday, April 24, 2009

Little Miss Em

On Wednesday we drove to Rigby and had Emily's 2 year pictures done. Why did we drive all the way to Rigby, some might ask? Well, just take a look at these pictures and you will understand why. Robin Spencer is one of the best photographers that I know of.....and I love her!! She took our wedding pictures and I still love to look at them. She is incredible!!! I loved the fact that she let Emily play for a little while before actually starting the photoshoot. I loved that fact that she allowed Emily to call the shots and just followed her around. Thus, we were able to get some pretty wonderful shots! Thanks Robin!
Just follow this link and it will take you directly to her blog. Scroll down to the bottom and you'll see our sweet Emily. And I must add that these are only a few of the great pictures that she took. It's going to be so hard to choose!

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Our baby girl is 2 today!

It's so hard to believe that our baby girl is 2 years old today!
Emily has been such a joy to have in our home! She has a sweet personality and a laugh that's infectious. How grateful we are to have her in our family. I can still remember praying each night for the blessing of becoming a parent. I wanted nothing more than to be a mother. After spending 4 years with empty arms, our prayers were finally answered on August 13, 2006 when we found our we were going to be parents. What a wonderful day that was! Pregnancy was incredible! I loved it!!! After wanting it so badly for so long, it was such a blessing to be pregnant. Then, on April 23, 2007 at 10:26 pm, our sweet girl was born. I can still remember hearing her first cry and the instant and undescribable love I felt for this baby. These last two years have be wonderful and we look forward to many more years with our sweet baby girl.

These pictures were taken the morning after she was born by an incredible photographer, Maggie Chappell. You can see her website here. The hospital hired her to take pictures for one of their newsletters that was sent to every house in the county. We were so excited to be chosen for the cover! We thought that was a great way to announce the birth of this sweet girl!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEET GIRL!!
Here are some fun facts about Emily....
*She loves pizza, ice cream, cheetos, chicken nuggets, and anything chocolate.
*She loves to sing and knows many songs.
*She loves to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Bolt.
*She LOVES to be outside playing.
*Her very favorite things to do are: jumping on the tramp, under-dogs on the swing, sliding, and blowing bubbles.
*She loves to go to nursery.
*She loves to give hugs and kisses.
*She loves Grammy and Grandpa Meredith's cat, Shadow.
*She loves to talk on the phone..and often calls Shadow.



Sunday, April 12, 2009

An Easter message

I saw this video on our friend's blog and it has truly touched my heart this Easter day. What a powerful message!!

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Just like Daddy!!!

I was headed into the bathroom the other day to get ready and this is what I found....


This is one of Geoff's activities while he's in the bathroom...electronic sudoku. (Is that to much information???) Well, Emily must has noticed and now that's what she likes to do in the bathroom. Whatever......

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Spring Fever

Yesterday was such a nice day, so we decided to take Emily to the park. The girl LOVES to be outside!! I have a feeling we're going to be regulars at the park now.

Everytime we go to the park, I swear she gets more and more brave! I think we've got a roller coaster girl on our hands!

CHEESE!!!!

I thought this was cute.


Sometimes I wish she would just smile instead of being silly!! She sure is cute no matter what face she pulls. What a fun time! We ended our celebration of the beginnings of spring by grilling hamburgers. Nothing says warm weather like grilled burgers!!! Now that we've gotten a taste of the warm stuff....it's probaby going to snow again!!!!

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Potty training.....yeah, not so much

I have been wondering if it’s time to start potty training Emily. There’s a checklist that I found that tells you if they’re ready or not and according to it, she should be ready to go. So, we brought home a little seat that fits on the big potty, thinking that she would be thrilled to sit on it like mommy and daddy do. YEAH RIGHT!!! I asked her if she wanted to sit on it and she was excited…until I took off her diaper. That’s when she realized that you do it with a bare bum…she HATES to be naked. Let’s just say, she screamed the whole time. So we abandoned that idea. Next, we came home with a little people potty. I think she understands that poop goes in there…but not HER poop! Her babies can poop in it, all her stuffed animals can poop in it…but not Emily! I guess we’ll wait for awhile. In the mean time, we’re just going to let her play with her potty (she calls it a “Pot”) and see what happens. She loves sitting on it...with the lid down and her clothes still on her body. I have a feeling that this is going to take some time.



"Where's the poop?"


She was very excited this morning, when she remembered her new "pot." She insisted on sitting on it while eating her toast and watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

I had the nerve to ask her if she wanted to take off her diaper and try going potty...she wasn't very amused.

Wouldn't that be great....a nice piece of toast and some cartoons while you're sitting on the pot...maybe she's got the right idea.

Saturday, February 28, 2009

A bunch of rambles...

Lately I haven’t been sleeping very much. Could it be the daily dose of Mountain Dew? I’m not sure, but that’s not something I’m willing to give up right now. It seems as though I go through spurts of way to much thinking and not enough sleeping. Maybe if I can ramble through my mindless, pointless thoughts, sleep will eventually come. So, bear with me, okay?

I am obsessed with disasters. You know earthquakes, tornadoes, floods, ice storms, blizzards, ect. I lay awake wondering what I would do if one of those things were to happen. What would I grab? Where would I go? I almost wish something like that would happen around here…Idaho is a very boring place, weather wise. I’m not saying that I want a terrible disaster that takes lives and destroys everything…just a little excitement.

I have really been thinking a lot about food storage and being prepared…could it be because of my obsession with terrible things happening, I don’t know. I like to think it’s because I’m trying to do what we’ve been counseled, but I’m sure it’s because I’ve gotten myself so worked up over what could happen. I’ve decided that a little excitement in the weather department wouldn’t be very much fun if we didn’t have food, water, and the ever important Mountain Dew.

Have you noticed that I love Mountain Dew? I know I shouldn’t drink it because of the whole caffeine thing and the being bad for your teeth stuff, and all the other things smart people say, but I just can’t help myself…I NEED it! Some call it an addiction, I call it my guilty pleasure. I was doing really good about staying away from my friend, until I had Emily, and then the utter and total exhaustion became more than I could bear. Let’s just say the greenish, yellowish yummy-ness helps me. Throw in a bag of peanut M&M's and that makes for a great day! Do I sound like a druggie?

I also lay awake at night worrying about having more kids. This may sound dumb to some, but I feel guilty for wanting more children. There was a time, not too long ago, when I prayed with all I had to just be able to have one child. Well, we were blessed to have Emily, so now I feel a little greedy for going back to Heavenly Father and asking for more, when He’s given me all I’ve ever wanted. I know that asking our Heavenly Father for more children isn’t really being greedy, but that's just how I feel sometimes. But, on the other hand, I worry about Emily being an only child. I want her to have brothers and sisters to grow up with.

Geoff is such a great husband! He works so hard so I can stay home with Emily. Not only does he tell me that he loves me, he shows me, too. He’s always willing to help out around the house or with Emily. I don’t think he realizes how much I appreciate that. I need to be better about telling him thank you and letting him know how much I love him. He has so many talents and I really hope Emily turns out more like him than me. I often wonder why he chose boring me...but I sure am grateful that he did!

I’ve noticed that I really like to take notes on things. I have so many notebooks filled with notes. Notes about scrapbooking, notes about food storage, quotes, stories, thoughts, recipes, ideas, cleaning tips, just to name a few. The only problem is, I take all these notes but I don’t do anything about all the stuff I’ve learned or want to remember. I guess I’m saving all of this information for the blizzard that traps me in my home for weeks…maybe then I’ll do something about all of it.

I love scrapbooking! The only problem is that I’m not very good at it. Well, I think I do okay, but they never turn out all fancy like they should. I’m not very bold…it really makes me nervous to cut my pictures or punch holes…you know, anything permanent. Plus, I don't want it to look dated and stupid in 10 years. I have these cute papers and ribbons, but I just save them and use all the boring safe stuff.

I think my daughter is so beautiful! I love to just sit and look at her and I’m amazed at how pretty she is. I have no idea where she got her looks…(I know you other mothers out there think your children are the most beautiful, but have seen my Emily? HELLO!!)

I really have been letting people get to me. Whenever I get my feelings hurt, it’s all I can think about. I replay in my mind over and over what I would say to that person if I had the chance. I think this has become my main obsession lately. This is really the source of my sleeplessness. It’s my fault, I know. I also know that allowing your feelings to get hurt is your own choice, but that’s easier said than done sometimes. I'm not very good about letting things "roll off my back".

Well, thank you for allowing me to ramble to all of you. Hopefully this will ease my mind a bit…I’ve got a lot more stuff rolling around in that head of mine. I’m sure there will be a Rambles #2 soon.

So, what do you think about? What keeps you up at night?