Neela Rue

Just a quick post, yes, she's here!

She is a sweet, little thing, and we just love her! Its funny how as soon as you see them you can't imagine life without them.

Her two older sisters are very sweet and attentive, maybe a little too attentive. Hopefully she won't be they type that needs a lot of personal space, cause Emmy doesn't understand the meaning of that phrase.

More to come once I am getting more sleep (and can figure how to get the photos off my husband's dang IPod!!! grrr)

It's Been a While . . .

Valentine's Day 2011

Okay ladies, I give in, here's a new post. I was talking to a best friend that moved to the dirty dirty south and she commented that she still pictures Maisy as a six month old baby. Yep, its time to update the blog. This is for my three main hecklers, you know who you are. :)

So, its been a busy year and a half since we last spoke. What have we been up to? Lots, and lots. These girls keep me busy.

Emmy is a VERY talkative four year old. She loves to talk and talk and talk. Anything princess or Disney is a favorite, or Pixar (yes she knows the difference). If I had a dime for every time she has said "Mom, that is NOT Disney, Dreamworks is NOT my favorite!" I might be able to pay back my student loan. She never stops making me laugh, or roll my eyes. She is a great big sister, and loves Maisy so much. They play very well together, and might not fight at all if Emmy weren't so bossy! (I wonder where she gets that, hmmmm) She is so excited we are having another girl, and can't wait to have a baby around. When we went for the ultrasound she assured me it would be a girl, she didn't want a brother because "Mom, boys just play too rough" -- she could use a little of that! She will be starting preschool in the fall, and can't wait. Seriously, she needs new people to talk to all day. Here are a couple pictures from Easter. We did rag curlers and they actually turned out.

Maisy is a busy busy busy girl. She moves fast, and is a bit crazy. Overall she's not a very difficult child, just a safety risk ;). Some days I really don't know how I am going to handle three, but it will work out, I'm sure. As an almost two year old, Maisy is quite talkative, but only Mommy understands what she says. She does use sentences, which is great, and would be better if she could enunciate. She runs everywhere, and is a tiny girl (only 20 pounds). She's been sick so much this spring, and I attribute that to her tendency to chew on everything. All day long I am saying "not in your mouth, Maisy". Grocery carts, shoes, toys, seatbelts, books, rocks, pretty much anything she can she will chew on. I am hoping this phase ends when her K9 teeth finally finish growing in. She is a moody teether. Here are a couple pictures of her from Easter. The second picture is her 'Uncle Layn face' -- some of you will recognize the face.

Dan and I are just plugging along. He is almost finished with his last semester of school. Just a couple final reviews to go. Then its on to the real world, job hunting! I am super pregnant, and this pregnancy has been a lot harder than the previous ones. This baby is nameless. Being the third girl, and because Dan and I have such different opinions on names, we have NO idea what to name her. Anyone have any suggestions? Please, really, we need help. We have read name books, looked at websites, I read the credits to every movie I watch waiting for inspiration to strike. So far, not much.

And just cause I updated the blog, don't get any unreasonable expectation about my frequency blogging ;) Hopefully I will get pictures of the new baby up by Christmas, right? Really, blogging is a struggle for me. I don't find my life very interesting. I don't make really cute crafts, throw great parties, go on wonderful vacations, take my kids pictures very often, or really have a very blog-worthy existence. And I'm totally okay with that!

So, until next post . . . . . .

Christmas

As kids get more into the holiday, it makes it worth every effort we put into the day as parents. Having Emmy be old enough to understand that Santa was coming and to really enjoy her presents, made it such a fun day! It was fun to start our own family traditions this year as well. There are lots of traditions different families have for Christmas and Christmas Eve, and I borrowed a few from some families I know.


Here are a few pictures of our sweet girls over the holidays.




Christmas Eve jammies.



Emmy dumping out the goods, she's a fast learner ;)




Maisy opening a gift.

Emmy blinged out with her Ariel stuff - shoes, earrings, necklace, headband, ring, did I miss something?

Maisy opening her Noah's Ark. She loves it almost as much as Emmy, HA!

Emmy's 3rd Birthday

Our big girl is just getting so grown up! For her birthday, we had a small family party at the park. Her P-Paw was in town so that made her day! She is obsessed with Ariel, and almost every gift she got was themed around her favorite princess. She had a great time running around the park with her cousins, eating cake, opening presents, and overall enjoying the day. As a big three year old girl she is now going to Primary and loves it, she is just growing up so fast! We are so happy to have such a loving little girl and such a good big sister in our family.

Blowing out all three candles.

So excited over her Ariel dress.

Helping her Minnie Mouse friend down the slide.

She loves Ariel so much its scary!!! (this picture is so funny I had to post it!)

Maisy's Five & Six Months!

The older she gets, the less I remember to take a picture of this girl on her actual 'month-days'. She sure is a sweet and cute baby. She is getting too big, sitting up, eating baby food, trying to crawl, and is teething -- and a joy to have in our home. She is the happiest girl as long as Mommy is close by, she doesn't let me get too far.

Here she is a five months, just a cute little smiley bug!

Here at six months she is making her 'I'm not really smiling, but I am' face. She just loved that almost smile for quite a while, little faker ;)

We love our Maisy!!!

Our Big Girl!

Emmy is finally potty trained! Okay, she's been potty trained for over a month now - ha! I have just not posted about it! Here is a picture of her picking out her big girl undies! She just had to have Brobee undies, she loves him so much! For those of you that don't know who he is, go to UTube and look up 'party in my tummy' by Yo Gabba Gabba. Its awesome!!!
And Yes, Emmy is the goofiest picture subject!!!

Maisy three months and four!!!

Maisy has been such a sweet baby! She is definitely a different person than her big sis! She is finnicky and a total Mommy's girl, but yet so happy and sleeps so well!

Here she is at three months and four months. You can definitely tell she and Emmy are sisters!

Halloween!

Halloween was so much fun for Emmy. In the morning she got Halloween pancakes, and loved them.

For lunch she had Halloween mac and cheese. Kraft makes a Halloween shapes one, and it was a hit! She ate the whole box!

When night time came, we were running a bit late so I thought I would just get pictures after the trunk or treat. Emmy had been talking about 'going to Halloween' all week and was so excited. She really got into the whole people give me candy just cause I ask for it thing. She loved trick or treating at the park we went to. Emmy was so excited for Halloween that I thought she would just pee her pants once we got there . . . oh yeah, she did. Sooooooo, there is not a picture of our cute little 'duckie' from Halloween as the duck got a little wet before we got any pictures. Next year, note to self, take pictures before the trunk or treat.

Maisy, however, we did get some pictures of. Daddy took them while Mommy cleaned up the mess the duckie made :)

Wasn't she the cutest little stinker? Loved her costume, she was a skunk, I know you can't see the tail. But she was so cute. Someone at the park actually thought she was a doll. But nope, she's our real little stinker.

Remiss: Exhibiting carelessness or slackness.

So that about sums it up! I have been busy adjusting to two kids, got flooded out of our house for a couple months, Dan's at school all day every day, got a new job, etc. etc. etc. So, here's a quick run down of what's been going on.

Flood: When Maisy was 3 weeks old we came home to several inches of water in the living half of our house!

Starting in the bathroom, and stretching to both bedrooms, hall, and laundry area. Luckily it did not get the other half of our house or we would have had no place to move all our furniture to keep it from getting ruined. Here is what our house looked like for the two months we had to wait for the insurance company to get repairs etc done.

So while we couldn't live at our house, we did what anyone else would do. Stayed with the parents. So grateful for that. Don't know what else we would have done! Thanks MOm and Dad!

During our stay at Mom and Dad's we had a visit from Aunt Nanny (or Manny, to Emmy). It was so fun! We just hung out, did a little swimming (actually not me, couldn't yet cause of surgery), hit up a kid's museum, and had a great time! We miss you already Aunt Nanny!!! Come back soon!!!

We also went to visit Roger and Kelly! We love to see them and Emmy had a blast watering all the desert plants that probably don't really need that much water!!!

Utah Peach season is always something I look forward to! This year I only made a couple pies, as the peaches didn't seem to be a sweet. This raspberry peach one was a favorite for sure!

Maisy turned one month old, and two months old at her grandparents house :)

One month:

In between one and two months (I love this pic, its so Maisy):

Two months:

She was also blessed. What a special day for her. She is the sweetest thing, and we are so grateful for her. Here are a couple pics from her blessing day. Emmy had to get in on the picture taking, and was so sweet to her sis.

I've been a bit of a slacker on the blog lately, more details on that to come! But here is a little gem of a conversation Emmy and I had this morning that I couldn't pass up posting!!! She cracks me up.

Em: Mommy are you Maisy’s sister?
Me: No, I am her Mommy.
Em: Are you an adult?
Me: Yep, I’m an adult.
Em: I will be an adult someday too.
Me: Yes you will be.
Em: Then I can hold the tiny baby geckos in my hand and jump in the pool.
Me: Yes, among other things.
Em: And I will look like Daddy.
Me: Oh, okay.

Then I hurried and grabbed my laptop before I forgot what she said. We just love this girl.

This picture is from our last grocery trip. Emmy's good behavior lasts about 20 minutes, and she was well beyond that time limit so I did what any good mother would do to keep her sanity. Gave her a chocolate covered granola bar and told her she had to sit in the cart if she wanted to eat it and then ran like a crazy person to get the shopping done before the granola bar was gone!

I seriously love this face!

Sweet Sweet Baby

Here are some pictures of our sweet girl. We are loving her in our family! She is a good baby, a bit of a Momma's girl, but good. She sleeps pretty well and loves to smile at those she knows. Emmy has been such a great help, and really loves being a big sister too. It's great to see a sister bond growing already.

We had her pictures taken by

Celeste Ruth Photography

Check her out!

This is how we roll .......

So this is what we've been up to since coming home from the hospital.

Me, well I'm somewhere in between :)

Dan, he's just playing house :)

Baby Maisy Luell!!!

We are happy to announce the arrival of our new little girl Maisy Luell!!! Bekah and I (dan) went into the hospital early in the morning to get prepared for her C-section. Maisy is really little for our family, only 7 lbs 1 ounce. To us, she resembles emmy alot when she was born, except maisy has lighter hair. So far baby and mommy are doing wonderful. We are thankful and blessed to have such a beautiful healthy baby girl.

Here are some pictures...

Lately

Emmy just keeps getting more and more talkative. Today we had the following conversation:

Em: Mommy, you still have that baby in your tummy?
Me: Yep, she's still there.
Em: You sure its just one baby, or two? Huh?
Me: It's just one.
Em: Oh, you sure?
Me: I'm sure.
Em: Does the baby cost fifty dollars, hmm?
Me: (long pause) Ummm, no the baby is ours.
Em: Oh. Good.

During the long pause I was thinking "babies really cost much more than fifty dollars, but Emmy won't understand that. Should I tell her we have to pay the doctor to deliver the baby? No, she might grow up thinking you really buy babies. Hmmm, reality or lie? I guess its the truth that she's ours, yeah, that's what I'll tell her."

Seriously, where does she get this stuff. Fifty dollars? Don't know where that figure came from.

The pregnancy is not the best for this time of year. I am grateful we have a spell of double digits in the middle of June. That really is helping. And I'm double grateful that I caught the flu during that spell of double digits. Yeah, the flu at this stage of pregnancy is not so much fun. I couldn't even keep down water. All I kept thinking is "I hope this dehydration doesn't throw me into labor cause my OB is out of the country!" Luckily all is well and thanks to a great priesthood blessing by my hubby, I had just the 24 hour type of flu. Glad that is over!!!

Otherwise, I am just working and sleeping pretty much. Dan has been great, staying home with Emmy for the few hours I'm at summer camp, and doing the dishes after dinner! It is great to have a helpful husband when I'm this busy, this pregnant, and therefore this useless. :)

Crazy say what?

Seriously, she cracks me up .....

I was getting ready to take her to my mom's while I attended a work function. She played with her toys the whole time, and when it was time to go, we had the following conversation:


Me: Em, get your shoes, its time to go to Mamaw's house.

Em: What mom, what you need?

Me: Em, get your shoes on, you are going to Mamaw's house while I go to work.

Em: (looks at me in the eye, then looks away and shrugs) Ummm, no thanks. I think I'll just stay here, I'm a big girl now.



Yeah right? Then why aren't you doing the dishes and cleaning the toilet!!!! HA! seriously, this girl cracks me up! Gotta love her.

Small Update

Okay, its been a while. The baby is still a girl, whew! So glad my doc was able to do another ultrasound. I am so glad to know for sure!

Emmy has started swimming lessons! She loved the first one, and wasn't so sure the second day. Hopefully next week will go better :) She continues to amaze us with some of the things she says. The other day Dan kissed her on the forehead, and she turned and looked at him with her dirty look and said "No Daddy, that's EMMY'S face. Don't kiss it!" He couldn't do anything but just laugh. She'll probably bring it up in a therapy session someday that when she was a toddler her parents laughed instead of responding to her demands and questions. Honestly, how can we not? :)

The other big news is that Mother's Cookies are back!!! Anyone else noticed the beautiful bags of white and pink frosted animal cookies with sprinkles at their grocery store? I was so excited, Dan was a little embarrassed that I was making a scene in the isle at the store. Then the cashier did a double take as she scanned the item, we discussed how they had gone out of business and we missed them -- I told Dan that I'm not the only crazy one!

Dan is finished with another year of school. Its nice to have him around, especially since I'm so tired all the time. Emmy loves to have Daddy around to build castles, color, and read books. Seriously, Daddy means play time around here, Mommy is always busy cleaning, cooking, laundering, etc. She is probably as happy as I am to have him home!

Favorite Emmy quote of last week:

While she is looking at Daddy and making her obvious poo face, she says "Daddy, I'm pooping, I need you to change my diaper in a minute, ok?"

Is this child ready for potty training or what? Yeah right, she won't use the potty for #2's for anything, and trust me I have tried many many things!