No Hands

Not a whole lot has been happening. Still pretty tired. Abby's still not sleeping through the night. She sleeps better in her car seat so I think her ear might be bothering her at night. Hopefully it's just a side effect of teething which I would like for her to get out of the way as soon as she can. 

She's doing a really good job sitting up. I think it will just be a couple more weeks before I can sit her down and leave her. She wants to skip the step where she uses her hands to prop her up so she just needs a little more balancing skills. I don't know why she won't use here hands, but that's ok since she's doing good without it. She and Emma had a good time together last night. It was the first time they ever really interacted with each other. They kept making each other laugh and Abby kept grabbing Emma's face. It was really cute!

Doctor Appointment

I forgot to mention that I had a doctor appointment Monday morning. Nothing much to report. I got to hear to heartbeat which, to me, sounded a lot slower than the girls'...Maybe a boy?? It will be about a month before I will find out for sure. Can't wait! I really want to buy some boy things! Of course, with Scott starting school and everything, it would be more within our budget to have another girl since we already have everything. Oh well. If it is a boy, I would feel bad for it and want to try for another boy right away so he can have a little friend. Whether or not that would be completely healthy for me or not is debatable I guess. If it's a girl I won't mind just leaving it at 3 girls for the time being.

Emma got sent to bed early tonight for being a little demon. She only took about half of a nap today and started getting very grumpy around 5:30, so she ate dinner and was in bed by 6:30. She went right to sleep so I guess I made a good decision. I measured her today and was a little shocked to find out that she is 35 inches tall. I thought it seemed like she was getting taller but I thought it was just all in my head or something. Turns out she's grown about 1.5 inches since her appointment in January. At 18 months, that puts her in the 99th percentile for height and the 95th percentile for weight (she's 28 pounds). She must take after Scott!

Quick Update

Emma has been doing really well about going to bed and staying there. I was really worried after the other night when she ended up in our bed all night! If she does get out of bed I only have to put her back once. I have been very consistent with her nap and bed times so I think that might be helping. She does get to stay up late when my grandma babysits, but that only makes her more tired for when I put her in bed.

Abby on the other hand, was up about 5 times last night. And I had to get up with her and at least put her binky in her mouth to get her to hush since she's been sleeping in her room with Emma for about a week. I guess I'll have to put her back in the living room for a while. I really do think she is getting teeth though. I'm waiting for them to pop out any time now. She also learned ho to blow spit bubbles today. That's all she's been doing. It cute and everything, but she gets spit everywhere!

Apples to Apples

Yesterday was Easter, so of course I have some pictures of the girls in their dresses. Emma is not getting any easier to take pictures of so I don't have a very good one of her, but they'll do.

After church we went home so Emma could get her nap in before we had to go over to the Embry house for dinner at 3:00. After that Abby and I went back to church to hang out and play Apples to Apples. It was a lot of fun! The guys got a little rowdy playing baseball with a ping-pong ball and a coat hanger and scared Abby to death every time they started screaming and yelling. Once they left the room, she was fine and we got to have some less noisy fun.

I am having some troubles with Emma though. She finally figured out how to climb out of her toddler bed, even with the extra guard rail. So the first time she did it , I just set up the playpen for her to take her nap in there. She climbed over the side! I think that freaked both me and her out cause all of a sudden she was crying and running down the hall. Last night started out OK. It only took me 2 times to get her to stay in bed. I even got to bed a little before 10 myself. Then at midnight she woke up and I couldn't get her to stay in bed. I really didn't feeling like staying up for however long trying to get her to stay put so I let her sleep in our bed. (I am strongly opposed to co-sleeping so this was a big deal for me). It went pretty well - for me anyway. Scott said she had him pushed all the way to the edge, and we even have a king size bed! I didn't have a problem until she decided it was time to get up at 6am. That just doesn't work for me! So this morning I lowered the crib mattress to try and keep her contained a little while longer - at least until I get some of my energy back - but apparently there is no stopping this girl! I left the room and heard a big thump and here she comes running down the hall crying again. I didn't think she would be able to do that since the crib walls are taller than the walls of the playpen. I'm out of options. I'm just going to have to suck it up and be consistent about making her stay in bed. I think it will be more torture for me than her though. She went to bed easily tonight, so I'm hoping...

Big Girl

Yesterday Abby started sitting on her a own a little! What a big girl! The first time she did it, she was wearing the exact same thing Emma was wearing the first time she sat up. I don't know why I remember that, but I thought it was neat. She's doing a pretty good job so far. I know it took Emma about a month before I felt comfortable enough to just leave her sitting somewhere, but I'm just excited that she's started.I did something amazing today...cleaned my bedroom! That has needed to be done for I don't know how long and it finally go done. It's always the last room to ever get cleaned since no one goes in there, which also means it is where I throw everything that doesn't really have a place. It has been a complete disaster for quite some time now and I am so glad that I don't have to look at it anymore.

Lynn came over yesterday and we went to Walmart and ate Taco Bell - a tradition we do every time she comes home for a visit. Jessie also came over so I could do her taxes for her. That was fun! Emma got really tired and grumpy about an hour before bedtime, so dealing with her and working with number was a little interesting. We survived though. Luckily there isn't much to Jessie's taxes!

After 3 trips to the store, I finally got Emma's Easter shoes. The first time she wasn't with me and the ones I got were way too big, but they looked a little skinny at the store. The next day I took Emma with me so she could try them on and we had to get a different style, but that was fine, as long as they fit. When we got home she wanted to wear them, so I put the first one one and the second one wouldn't go on her foot. After a little investigating, I figured out it was a 4 and 1/2 (she wears a 6). I was so mad. I had to go back and put the 4 with it's partner and find another 6 to go with the other one we had. Who knew buying shoes would be so much trouble?!

Rough Day

Today was just awful for me and it seemed to drag on forever, until I got to Bible study. I think Abby might be cutting teeth. She's been a little on the grumpy side for a couple of days. Emma was also in a mood today. Scott was up yakking on the phone until sometime past midnight, so I didn't sleep well anyway and with 2 whiny babies to deal with all day, I wasn't in a very pleasant mood either. Scott is meeting with some guys from church tonight and isn't coming home until late. I love it when everyone is gone and sleeping. I always say that I will go to bed early on nights like these, but I usually end up staying up and enjoying the peace and quiet. I know I will regret it in the morning when I wake up tired, but I can't help it.

Today was our 3 year anniversary actually. Is it bad that I'm happy about him coming home late? We didn't do anything special obviously since he worked all day, I had Bible study, and now he's up at the church. That's OK. We don't usually do anything, just see a movie maybe, but we do that about every week anyway.

Sister Pictures

Emma's giant ball
Kisses

Big Smiles

Reading and Rock Star

I've been too tired to write anything lately. Scott has been keeping me up late playing Rock Band. It's such a fun game though. Once you start playing, you just want to keep going. It's just like Guitar Hero, except you also can play drums and sing. I have been rocking it out with the microphone while Scott has mostly stuck with guitar. We both tried the drums, but it's a little tricky. You have to have pretty good coordination. They're all fun though. I don't think anything interesting has happened as far as the babies go. Emma seems to be learning something new everyday. It's amazing. Now she says, "Oh no" and "Oh my". We went to see Enchanted last night. I thought is was cute and entertaining. Scott didn't like it too much, of course.

I finally finished a book!!!! I'm so excited about that. I can't even remember the last time I finished something, besides the Lies Women Believe book that we read for Bible Study. I just finished The Golden Compass. Scott read the book, then we saw the movie, then I decided to read it. It was really good, better than the movie. It took a few months to read, but I'm really happy I finished a book. I just started World War Z. It's a zombie book, which sounds stupid at first, but is actually pretty neat. I wasn't sure if I was going to read it until I found out Meredith (not VanFleet) liked it. 

Some Good Sleep

Abby slept from 8pm to 8am last night! I'm so happy to have gotten some sleep. Emma slept from 7:30 to 8:30, so she did really good too. I plan on keeping Abby in the living room just a couple more nights to make sure this is going to be an every night thing. I really hope it is!! Of course at this point, I can't make it through the night myself without having to get up for a potty break. At least I didn't have to listen to anyone scream last night!

The girls and I finally get to go to church for the first time in about a month. Yay! We couldn't go cause everyone was sick and then it was canceled cause of the snow. Nothing should happen between now and tomorrow morning so we should be good.

Abby discovered her feet a few days ago and now she seems obsessed with them. It's funny to watch her play with her feet all day. And I finally got her eating some baby food. She's doing really good with it so far. I started her a lot later than with Emma. I went with Debbie to pick out yarn for Abby's blanket. She is going to crochet one for her and the new baby, but we're waiting to find out what it is before we pick the colors. Only a month and a half left before we find out!! I can't wait! I hate not knowing. I don't really have a guess for this one yet. With Abby, I knew it was a girl after I got to a certain point, but I just can't figure this one out yet. I kinda think it's another girl. I think I'm just doubting myself cause I want it to be a boy. We'll find out soon enough though.

My Little Neat Freak

Last night Abby only woke up once and it wasn't until 4am. I'm thinking tonight might be the last night of torture. If she can make it til 7:00, I'll be happy. Emma always got up then until recently she's been sleeping until 8 or so. I really hope this is it!

I had to work today, a Lent Friday, and it got a little crazy for a minute. We ran out of tables a couple of times! Usually we have 4 people there, but Jessie started her babysitting job, which left only me, Scott and Jeremy. It went pretty smoothly. I think it was the busiest one yet. Scott might have been going crazy a little bit since he was the one running from front to back a bunch. He survived though.

I'm making oven-fried chicken tonight. I'm really excited about it cause I haven't made it in a while, since I really didn't cook at all for about 2 weeks. I'm starving right now and am going crazy waiting for it to cook. It's so good! I love it!! I can smell it from all the way back in the bedroom thanks to my super-pregnancy-sniffer!

I think Emma takes after my great-grandmother a little bit. That woman had to have everything spotless. Today, Emma found a paper towel on the end table in the living room and took it and sat down and started scrubbing the carpet with it saying, "Mess. Mess." and then getting up and moving to a different spot and doing the same thing. She did that for a few minutes before she got distracted by something else. I thought it was pretty funny. What a crazy kid! I know she doesn't get the from me. She always takes off with the broom and tries to sweep the carpet too. I guess she might keep her room clean when she's older at least.

Finally, A Nice Day

It was in the upper 60's today so I took the girls to the zoo. Emma loves going to the zoo and I think she was really happy to get out of the house. We have a pass, so in the summer we go nearly every week. Since we usually don't have a lot of money, it's nice to have something to do that's already paid for. My grandma went with us and about died from all the walking. I know what it's like too, cause as the summer goes on it gets worse and worse for me to go up and down those hills as my belly gets bigger and bigger! It was a perfect day for the zoo though!

Emma went to bed late last night and only got about 1/2 of a nap this afternoon. She was doing fine until about 6:30 tonight when she finally snapped. I made her dinner , but she wanted to color. I told her she could only color if she ate first, but she didn't like that idea too much and started throwing a tantrum. When she does that I usually just put her in her bed until she calms down. So I put her in bed with a sippy full of milk and next thing I know, she's passed out. Normally she goes down at 7:30 and I think she fell asleep right around 7:00. That's not too big of a difference so hopefully she doesn't wake me up at 6am.

I've been cleaning like a crazy person this afternoon! I don't know if anyone would be able to tell, but it's true. All I know is Scott better notice!!! I feel pretty good today even though last night wasn't too great again. I finally sucked it up and let Abby cry it out. She only woke up twice and cried for about 30 minutes each time, so it wasn't too bad I guess. I don't think it will take too long to get her back on track, which makes me really happy. Of course, as soon as she starts sleeping through the night, she'll start cutting teeth and I will have to get up anyway!

Need Sleep!

For some reason Abby has been waking up at least 3 times a night. At 5 months old, she shouldn't be doing that and it's getting very exhausting. I haven't really been able to let her cry it out like I did with Emma since they share a room and I definitely don't want them both awake. I decided to set the playpen up in the living room for Abby and plan on trying to let her get back to sleep on her own, or at least without eating. So pretty much, I'm not going to be getting much sleep these next few nights, because I can't sleep with her crying. It seems like torture for both of us, but it should be well worth it if I have her sleeping better by the end of the week. It's just so hard to listen to her cry, mostly because I want to be sleeping. It's so tempting to just pop a bottle in her mouth so I don't have to hear it. I really just need to be patient and consistent. Both are hard at 3am.

We watched Schindler's List this past week...What a sad movie. I had never seen it, but have always had an interest in the Holocaust in general. We rented it on Netflix and because it's so long, it took us about 4 days to get through it all. It was a really good movie. It did have some nudity and violence. Most of it was relevant to historical events though. I liked the ending, because I had no idea they were going to do this - They got all the remaining people from Schindler's actual list to appear. They were all probably in their 70's and 80's. I just thought it was really neat to see the real people that were involved. I would definitely recommend the movie, but beware, it is a little disturbing and very graphic at times.

Today we saw I Am Legend at the dollar movie. It was really good, I thought. It was pretty intense and weird. Anyway...here are some pictures...

Story time with Emma!

Emma's wrestling match with Tinkerbell.

Snow

This is some crazy snow! It just won't stop! Skip Jacks was closed today, which is good and bad. He gets to stay home, but he loses pay. Oh well. He was a little freaked out about driving anyway, because on his way home from work last night around 9:00, a big pick-up hit him in the side! Scott turned on his flashers and was going to get out and talk to the guy, but he took off in the other direction. Now there is a giant dent in the side of our car and there is nothing we can do about it. We're hoping the door will still open and close. We haven't tried it yet, but it's pretty bad looking.

Anyway, we took Emma out in the snow this morning for the first time ever. She has been standing at the window yelling, "Snow! Snow!" since it started so I thought she might like it. I'm not very fond of the snow, which is why she has never been in it before. She loved it though! She thought it was funny to watch Tinkerbell run around in it too. At first she was a little scared to walk in it. I put her down where there wasn't a lot built up, but every time she stumbled into one of the places where it had drifted up she fell down and couldn't get back up. It was funny to see her stuck in a big pile of snow! We didn't stay out very long, cause the wind was pretty cold.

A New Phone Already?!

I'm not very happy with Emma right now! I dozed off on the couch while Emma was watching some cartoons this afternoon. My phone made a noise which woke me up. I found it on the floor (it was on the back of the couch) and when I picked it up, it was covered in spit. How many phones does this kid have to destroy?! I have it turned off. I've tried it a few times , but I guess a few of the buttons are stuck and it keeps doing crazy things by itself. I'm hoping that once it dries out a little it might work. After I got done trying to explain to Emma how bad that was, I asked her if she had $150 stashed away in her diaper to replace it. She looked me in the eye and said some of her gibberish, so I'm not sure what she said, but I'm pretty sure she's broke! As I was getting on Emma about the phone deal, Abby thought it was hilarious and was just laying in the floor laughing so it was pretty hard to keep a straight face.

On another note, I tried making homemade chili today. I have only tried to make it once before and that was almost 3 years ago. It wasn't very good. I usually just use Hamburger Helper Chili Mac. What I made today turned out pretty good I think. It's a little too spicy for my taste, but I would rather have it too spicy than it have no flavor. Scott is the real test. He isn't very fond of the Hamburger Helper and wanted me to make some on my own. He'll be home in a little over an hour so I guess we'll find out then. Emma liked it though, which is pretty good since the only thing she has been willing to eat lately is yogurt.

Four Teeth

It's official...Emma really is getting four teeth. I don't know why she always gets them in groups of four but that gets it done faster I guess. After this she will only have her last four molars left to come in. She'll probably have a complete set of teeth by the time she's 2! I shouldn't get too excited - we should be starting all over again with Abby any time now. I think within the next day or 2 everyone will be feeling completely back to normal. We're almost there now, just Abby and I still have the remains of a cold, but it's almost gone. YAY! I hope no one gets sick again!

Now I have to get caught up on the housework.We're going to be moving in about 3 months, which should help, because every time we move I am forced to go through everything we own and usually get rid of a lot of junk. I have really had a hard time doing dishes these past few weeks. I don't know why that has seemed so difficult to me. The thought of standing there just wore me out ( I'm over that now though ). Luckily my grandma has been doing them whenever she was over or had to babysit, and even Scott did them the other night while I was at Liz's baby shower. I can't wait to move though. Where we're going is so much nicer - for now anyway. They are brand new so in about 10 years or so they will probably start getting a little run down, but we should definitely be out of there before that happens anyway. I'm so excited to get out of this place!

Scott just started a blog again in case anyone is interested. There is a link to your left. He's going to be starting school this fall at IUS. I'm really excited about it. He doesn't seem to be. I think he will really like it though. He's going to get a teaching degree in either English or History. He's going to try to go full time for his first semester. I would just like for him to get this done as quickly as possible. I know will be hard and stressful for both of us, but I think it will work out. Next month he will be able to pick his classes and everything. How fun!!

Recent Shots

Bad Haircut

I can't wait to start feeling better! And SOON!! I had to work today and after work I went to get my haircut. I told the girl what I wanted and she pretty much did what I asked, good enough anyway(I'm not too picky).....But then she just kept going! I usually tell them I don't really care as long as it's long enough to put in a ponytail. I didn't say that this time, but maybe I should have. She put way too many layers in it. The top ones are so short I can barely keep and ponytail in. It stays for a second, but then starts falling everywhere. I could wear it down, but I think it looks a little goofy cause it's so short. In a week or 2 it should be perfect, but AHHHHH. What am I going to do with this nub of a ponytail?!

Mormon Visitors

Well it turns out Emma's not just getting 1 tooth... She's getting at least 3, maybe 4. Today, she was in a much better mood though. Poor little Abby is all congested and everything though. We went and bought a humidifier today. Hopefully that helps her to get over her cold more easily.

It's almost 8:30pm right now and just a few minutes ago 2 Mormon guys knocked on our door. It kinda ticks me off that they knocked since it's so late. Not to mention we had all the lights off and I was already in bed. Scott plans on picking up our friend Tim from work at 9:00, so we were just watching an episode of Mythbusters on the computer before he had to leave. So I wasn't sleeping or anything, but gee whiz! Scott invited them in so, of course, I'm hiding in the bedroom. They have been talking for about 15 minutes now. Ever since seeing the movie September Dawn, Mormons kinda freak me out!

We saw Be Kind Rewind today. I had to get out of the house!! It was pretty funny. About what I expected at least. It stars Jack Black and Mos Def and they erase all the video tapes in their store and decide to re-shoot them themselves. It was definitely entertaining and not dirty at all, which seems harder and harder to avoid these days. Our original plan was to see Will Ferrell's new movie, Semi-Pro, but Scott decided it was probably too dirty. We are both Will Ferrell fans, but he's probably right. While we were at the theatre though, we saw a poster for a movie coming out in July starring Will Ferrell! When we got home, we found a trailer for Stepbrothers on You Tube and it does look hilarious.

Well, Scott has been talking to these guys for about 30 minutes now. He's got to leave soon so I wonder when they're going to get out of here...Scott wanted me to make it clear that he invited them in and was talking to them to try and present the Gospel and isn't considering Mormonism.

Poor Emma

Things just keep getting worse for Emma. On top of having a cold and an ear infection, she popped out a tooth last night and it looks like that tooth's partner isn't far behind. No wonder she's been extra irritable! She's getting happier slowly but surely though. I'm super tired now.The girls both woke up 3 times a piece last night - at different times of course. So I felt like I was up all night. I got about an hour nap cause both girls were finally asleep at the same time. Lynn Davis woke me up though! What a jerk. No, I knew she was coming, I just thought one of the babies would wake me up before she got there. Oh well. Apparently everyone is hanging out at Waterfront tonight. Hopefully Lynn made it there with my horrible directions! I do miss those days when I could just go wherever I wanted, whenever I wanted. A small price to pay I guess. That's difficult to say sometimes....like when I could be playing frisbee or something at Waterfront instead of listening to Emma scream in her room! She's only been wanting to go to sleep on the couch for some reason. I guess that is what we will be doing tonight.