Goal ATTAINED!!!

We don't have a scale in our bathroom. But we do have Wii Fit. Santa brought it two years ago. We've had a blast charting our weight since then, especially through my pregnancy and following it. We created a Mii for Joshua, and have watched his weight increase, and maintain for the past 7 months.

Today, I reached a goal of mine. I have been working on it off and on while chasing a 15 month old, working half-time, trying to continue to make noticeable improvements to our partially "set up" home, being in the Primary presidency at church, etc. I hit an all-time low on my weight, since April. Wohoo!! And April was the first time I hit this target since before Joshua was born. I figure April was the peak of nursing, and it's only been downhill since then. Well, I guess my weight has been a little uphill...

Anyway, congratulations to ME!!

(the hola-hoop should remind some of you of some

super funny memories we have together...)

(*photos borrowed from Nintendo)

Christmas Tree Drama

We picked out our Christmas tree this past weekend. We found a place to cut our own, and had fun bringing it home. We set it up, lit it, and started with ornaments.

About an hour after we finished decorating it, we heard a huge crash. We found this:

We called in for some reinforcements, and had some help re-fitting our tree into a larger base. But it still kept falling to one side.

We discovered upon further investigation that the trunk of our beautiful tree is not in the center of the branches. The tree is definitely growing fuller on one side, despite the symmetric appearance.

If you look closely, you'll see some fishing line holding our tree to our window, preventing it from diving into our room again. But don't look too closely...

We restrung the lights, and waited to see if the tree would flop again. We may have lost our energy to decorate a tree this year....But this morning, we finally put ornaments back on the tree, and it is beautiful.

Thanksgiving 2010

This year we joined the Heatons in Kiawah South Carolina for a few days before Thanksgiving. Joshua loved being on the beach, and we enjoyed riding bikes, beautiful weather, playing games,

and eating wonderful food the entire trip.

Georgia Aquarium

You've never seen anything like it!!!

We got to go to the Georgia Aquarium in downtown Atlanta with Andrew, Mandy and Austin Baron over Labor Day weekend. Joshua might not have been terribly impressed with it, but I sure was. Phenomenal!

Sharks, sting rays, jellyfish, penguins, they've got it all!!!

Really?

So Joshua is barely a year old, and somebody at church asked me if I was expecting. "Nope." I guess that means it's about time for me to further my role in multiplying and replenishing. I've had enough time for myself, now it's time to be selfless again.

This individual continued to say that she thought I was showing a little bit. "Oh really? That's a good thing to hear 12 months later..." So, I guess it's not a surprise to tell you that I haven't lost all my baby weight after 12 months. But, really, does that give you a right to say something like that? Showing? Isn't that a 2-3 month stage development?

I keep forgetting that I can say rudish things when people say blatantly rude things to me. But what should I have said? I was completely taken off guard. But if I'm entering this next phase where everyone expects I have news to share...I'd better get my whits together. Suggestions?

"You sure grew out of your baby ways, Happy Birthday to you!"

We had an exciting weekend, celebrating Joshua's first birthday with family and friends. Among the guests were: Tyler and Isaac Pruitt, Dani Smith, Lydia Welch and Taki Townsend. We let all the little ones swim, have sweets and cupcakes and then play with all the amazing presents. Some of the best gifts included bath toys, books, and stackable and nesting toys, and a first toothbrush.

All day, Joshua carried his plastic spoon, and kept his grip tight on it. He enjoyed crumbling his cupcake, but didn't care for the taste much. But he was willing to go for an Oreo cookie. So despite it being overcast and threatening rain, and preventing the host and at least 3 guests from napping, it was a fabulous party.

We can't believe Joshua has already been a member of our family for a whole year. Time has flown. And we're having more fun with this little personality every day.

Step One

The past few days, we've noticed Joshua letting go of the furniture he's been stabilizing on and standing for up to a minute before he opts to sit down or grab back on to what he's holding. He's getting closer!!

Tonight, Joshua is taking a step away from the table or couch that he's balancing on. He doesn't make it far, and crashes every time, but he's going for it like he's been doing it for weeks.

Happy August, so far. I wonder what other things we'll discover this month.

Summer is HOT

We've been trying to stay cool this summer...with BUBBLES.

And with FRIENDS.

Emily Ruth and her two busy boys!

Look what Joshua can do:

We're always moving.

And Joshua is the only one that is getting any faster...

What more can we say?

Master Me

So, look what came in the mail not long ago...

Benjamin sometimes calls me "Master Emily." It usually makes me smile. He sometimes will purchase things online, rather than in a store, and he's even had something shipped to "Master Emily" rather than Mrs. It's enjoyable.

Now we can be a True Blue Cougar Family. With 3 degrees of higher education awarded from Brigham Young University, now Joshua can wear this proudly:

Remeber when...?

So, sometimes we'll say "remember when..." and recall something that was amusing or unexpected. Typically, the silly comment is still the current state of things, but it's theraputic to imagine it is just a memory. We've been saying this phrase more often lately. For instance

Remember when:

*Joshua was content to just roll around or army crawl in this one room?

*the monkey started to climb stairs and pull up on everything?

*we tried to make bread in the breadmaker and the machine

squeaked so much it wouldn't proceed?

*all three toilets in our house started to run nonstop in the same evening?

*laundry wasn't so backed up that the pile of clean clothes was

three times as large as the pile of dirty clothes?

*we had a garage door opener remote? That was the life! Someday we'll find that thing.

And my personal favorite of the month:

Remember when we had air conditioning in one of our cars?

(it's been a pretty hot hot hot spring for us, and one car only blows cold on one half of the car, while the other car has no AC at all, and neither front windows can roll down...needless to say, I try to run my errands during the morning or after sundown...)

Three Years Stronger

We've been married for 3 years today. And Benjamin is just as handsome and charming as ever. Here are some of the milestones we've endured:

Emily finishing grad school.

Benjamin publishing his paper in a peer-reviewed journal.

Having a heart breaker of a baby boy.

Moving all our belongings 5 times so far.

Buying a house.

Benjamin, I love you, and I'm still the luckiest. All my love!

Our "sweet-tooth" found his first TOOTH!!

Joshua cut his first tooth yesterday! It's on the bottom, and he's been cranky, but not enough to pin it on teething alone! Sorry no pictures, he will hardly let us shove our fingers into his mouth to feel it. We'll post one as soon as we capture it.

Every tooth in a man's head is more valuable than a diamond. ~Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote, 1605

Thesis (finally) done!

So, we got all the revisions taken care of, and I'm finally done with the requirements for my Masters' Degree. Too bad we were 5 days late for the April graduation deadline....but so what!?! What's 4 more months? I'll technically graduate in August, but I suspect I will be receiving my degree come Christmas (given the 6-12 week delay in processing and postage). So, Amber, remember when you gave me a mock degree for Christmas? You must have been psychic...or a year early.

Easter cute!

Joshua had a great first Easter!! He got to listen to the voice of a living Prophet, and got to play with cousins and friends all weekend long.

Happy Easter.

I'm so grateful for our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and His powerful love.

eat your veggies

*I really like carrots. And peas. Chicken and gravy is pretty good, and sweet potatoes have been pretty terrific the past few days, too. But eating is sure a messy business...

*And did you notice it's spring outside? The sunshine is sure bright after 7 months of being inside. But it makes my mom smile, so it must be a good thing...

*dictated by Joshua, penned by his mother.

King SIZE of beds!

We've had a new HUGE bed waiting for us, ever since before we moved to Georgia last summer. However, we didn't have the hardware to assemble the bed. So it's been waiting. Last week, much rejoicing was happening as we got everything put together. What do you think?

The upgrade:

Look at all that room!

The replaced:

This bed was bought many many many years ago, when my father was an infant. Each of my siblings slept in this miniature crib for a period of time. I got to spruce it up with a coat of white paint when I lived in my parents' basement right before Joshua was born. I love it.

But we'll pull it out next time.

is sleep THAT important?

Sometimes Joshua doesn't want to sleep. That makes sense, sometimes I don't want to sleep, either. But, let's be honest...We don't have the option to make that decision until we can keep ourselves from acting like this:

Thank heaven, we look like this more often when we sleep:

who's baby is this?!?

joshua:

So, what's your vote?

Is Joshua more of an Emily baby or a Benjamin baby?

emily:

benjamin:

benjamin:

emily:

Cast your vote on our poll to the left...

Thesis (not) done!!

So, I've been revising my thesis since I passed my oral defense over two weeks ago now...and still no final product yet. But I've been working on it like CRAZY. Who knew I would have to redo my headings and add so many transitional sentences. It's been occupying quite a bit of my time...still...Almost there...

Thesis

I'm done.

And it's a relief. We took a family trip to Utah last weekend, and I defended my thesis. All ended well, but I don't want to do that again. But I passed.

I just wanted to share.

Thriving in Life

No real excuses for disappearing for 4 months. So on to the updates!

(unless you want to count the best Thanksgiving vacation EVER, a full and exciting Christmas with all our family, an 8 week full-time internship placement, finalizing and DEFENDING my thesis, and GA Tech life for 16+ hours a day...but who wants to count all that?!?)

Joshua is 6 months old! We went to the doctor last week, and he is 15 lbs (on the nose) and 25 inches. He has grown so much in just 6 short months. He is pretty low on the growth charts, but I'm not complaining. He's happy and healthy, and we're still wearing some clothes labeled as 3-6 month. I actually took a pair of pants off of him this morning because they were too short. I checked the tag, and they were labeled as Newborn. So, that's going into the "too small" box immediately.

Joshua loves to sit on his own. He has been stable sitting alone for about 2 1/2 months. He will roll from his stomach to his back over both shoulders, but has a definite favorite direction to the right. No rolls back to his tummy yet. But believe me, we're trying. He's not, but we are. Joshua really likes strings. He plays with my necklaces, and hood strings on jackets. He also is noticing his mom has really long hair, alway within reach.

He is such an observant little guy. He will just watch things, and probably is figuring out the secrets of the universe, much like his dad does. Joshua began sleeping through the night around Christmas, and is pretty stubborn when he needs a nap. I don't blame him. I always feel like I'm wasting valuable time when I nap.

We like to take baths. He splashes and laughs in the tub, and enjoyed the new rubber duck we introduced this past week. Joshua also recently discovered his wrists. What amazing hinges!!! He watches them so carefully as they shake things back and forth.

ps-a more detailed report of the last few months to come...let the suspense grow!