February News

I took this Mid-March,
so it's almost done.

Here are some things that happened during our February:


1) We made a goal thermometer. Dallas signed up to run 150 miles before March 20, 2015. If he does it, he wins a super cool BYU Intramural Champion t-shirt. We also made goals for Emma and I. I must also make 150 miles (but walking also counts for me) and Emma's goal is to be 12 pounds by March 20, 2015.


2) We enjoyed a dinner with one of Dallas' professors. Dr. Glasgow was super nice and invited Dallas and Emma and I over for a family dinner one Sunday. It was fun getting to know Dr. Glasgow and his family and friends better.


3) We had excellent weather for ALL of February! This had to be the greatest February of all time. Well, if you aren't a skier or super wanting snow. The temperatures were in the upper 40s and 50s for the WHOLE month! I believe this was a gift from Heavenly Father so that Emma and I could go on lots of walks. :)


4) We sold our car and bought one a week later! Dallas and I had been looking at cars since December with no luck. Then, in February, our friend offered to buy our car. We were ready for something different and they were ready for our VW Passat so it was perfect. Unfortunately we couldn't find any cars we liked. I had decided that maybe we could make it without a car till Fall (since the weather was so nice and everything is pretty much walking distance), but! I looked on KSL one day and found something that got me excited again and we went to check it out. It was a mini-mini-van! So cute!



5) We celebrated Valentine's Day! The day began with Dallas sending me on a long run while he watched Emma and then I watched her while he went on a long bike ride. That was a great gift for both of us; neither of us had gone on long exercise ventures for a while. I don't remember what we ate for breakfast...but I am certain it was more than just the normal cereal or oatmeal. :) Later in the day we decided Emma should get some fun exercise as well, so...we took her rollerblading! It was super fun! I love being with Dallas and Emma - guess it's a good thing I married him and we get to have sweet baby Emma as our daughter. :)

It'd been a long time since we rollerbladed because I fell once while pregnant and Dallas said, "no más" until the bambina came. After rollerblading we went home and planned what we wanted for dinner and dessert and then Dallas went to Smith's and bought ingredients and we cooked it up! We also exchanged our gifts. This year we specialized in gifts of a symbiotic relationship. I got Dallas new blades for his razor and he got me packs of chapstick. The blades benefit me because they keep Dallas' face soft and smooth while the chapstick benefits Dallas so that he doesn't have to kiss falling apart, chapped lips. :) After eating and swapping gifts and valentines, we watched TWO chickflicks! We never do that...watch two movies and definitely not chickflicks, but this time we did. We watched Confessions of a Shopaholic and When in Rome. I liked the shopping one best - better story and actress and more fun. By then, it was mega late, and Valentine's day was over! It was an excellent day because it was with Dallas and Emma (Oh, Dallas also made Emma an adorable valentine :)

6) We got our blood checked! I'd been wanting to do this since my mission! High cholesterol runs in my family and I wanted to check and see how mine was doing. I've never checked it before so I figured I should get an idea. Turns out it is pretty high....so I am going to be working on that. Dallas is in great shape though! We'll hope Emma gets those genes from Dallas.

7) Dallas signed up to play intramural Soccer with graduate students. The first game was February 28th - they won!

February FHE = Reading Month

February was our reading month. Dallas was in charge of it. For our first FHE he carted us off to the Provo library. We got there a bit late (because we ended up watching all of Groundhog Day) and then had to hustle to get ourselves library cards and a book before the library closed. But! We got it done. After that we went home, had a little lesson (we watched this general conference talk about parents - it was perfect because it also discusses the importance of teaching children to read), and then Dallas read to Emma! That was the sweetest part of the evening.

Dallas read Emma two different books. Although she doesn't seem to be looking at the book, 
I am sure she was listening :) By the way, Emma is 22 days in this picture, just 3 weeks old!

And here is Dallas reading Emma the book, "Emma Goes Shopping". They are so cute together :)

For our second FHE Dallas and I had a book discussion. He chose a book called The Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck. The author is a psychologist and discusses several points that can be helpful in improving self or relationships. Dallas had read it before and thought it would be a good book for discussion, so! He assigned us to read the first chapter by this Monday and then we discussed it. Here are some things I like from the book:

For our third FHE we had a poetry night. We invited our friends Kevin and Amberly Stevens and asked them to bring some poems to share. Dallas quickly found a mormon message about studying the scriptures and then we shared our poems, followed by some great game playing. I don't remember what game we played, but probably Bonanza. Here is one of the poems Dallas shared:

The Pig, by Roald Dahl

In England once there lived a big

And wonderfully clever pig.

To everybody it was plain

That piggy had a massive brain.

He worked out sums inside his head,

There was no book he hadn't read.

He knew what made an airplane fly,

He knew how engines worked and why.

He knew all this, but in the end

One question drove him round the bend:

He simply couldn't puzzle out

What LIFE was really all about.

What was the reason for his birth?

Why was he placed upon this earth?

His giant brain went round and round

Alas, no answer could be found.

Till suddenly one wondrous night

All in a flash he saw the light.

He jumped up like a ballet dancer

And yelled, 'By gum, I've got the answer!'

'They want my bacon slice by slice

'To sell at a tremendous price!

'They want my tender juicy chops

'To put in all the butcher shops!

'They want my pork to make a roast

'And that's the part'll cost the most!

'They want my sausages in strings!

'They even want my chitterlings!

'The butcher's shop! The carving knife!

'That is the reason for my life!'

Such thoughts as these are not designed

To give a pig great piece of mind...

This is not quite the whole poem, but after this I do not like it as much. However, if you would like to finish it, you can look it up!

For our fourth FHE we continued our discussion with the second section of the book. Here are some things I liked from that part:



In honor of reading month, here are the books I read (some were read in January, but I'm accounting for them here):

Sarah, by Orson Scott Card
Mormon Scientist: the Life and Faith of Henry Eyring, by Henry J. Eyring
Night, by Elie Wiesel
Seven Miracles that Saved America, by Ted and Chris Stewart
Stargate?

Here is what Dallas read:
Xenocide, by Orson Scott Card
Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger

Emma's 4th-6th Weeks

Around this time, Dallas and I realized Emma had a "to-do" list. It included filling her diaper, leaking on at least one of her sets of clothing and at least one of mommy's, spitting-up all over mommy, and then, hiccups! These were her favorite! She had them all the time and Dallas decided she must do it whenever she felt bored and had nothing left to do on her list. I can now happily report (she is 9 weeks old) that her hiccups are much less frequent. Perhaps they are less frequent because Dallas has found more things to put on her to-do list. For example, she now must complete tummy-time, look at her black and white cards, listen to a story, get her vitamin-D drops, and, most recently, sing!

Emma also got her goal thermometer during her 3rd week! Dallas made it for her. It happened because Dallas joined the "Run for your Life" intramural group, which means he has to run 150 miles before March 20, 2015 (he's already completed it - yahoo!). Dallas wanted a thermometer to show his progress. While making his chart, we decided I should have a goal thermometer as well. And then, Dallas figured if we both had a chart, Emma should too! I didn't know what exercise or goals Emma could have, but, luckily for Emma, her daddy thought of one - GROWING! So she has a thermometer marking her goal to be at least 12 pounds by March 20. And, yes, in case you were wondering, we do own a baby-weighing scale. It was given to us by my good ole' sister Becky. Somehow she knew Emma would need one :)

Day 22, Mon, Feb 2: Just hanging out in her bouncer - looks like she's done some of her Houdini work and sneaked off her mitten :)

Day 24, Weds, Feb 4: Daddy's home! Emma loves when Dallas comes home. He is so much better at helping Emma keep her goals. Here they are enjoying some tummy-time.

Day 26, Fri, Feb 6: Emma's morning nap. She usually falls asleep 1.5-2 hours after waking up.

Same day, just later:  Emma almost always resists her pacifier the first few times, and often makes a gagging sound. But, eventually, she remembers she actually likes this thing and happily sucks away. 

Day 27, Sat, Feb 7: Emma being beautiful while Dallas and I finish up a yummy Chinese dinner. Dallas decided it had been too long since we had gone out, so we ordered Chinese and enjoyed it at home!

Day 28, Sun, Feb 8: Emma's adorable WIDE awake eyes. Emma loves resting on our shoulders and looking all around. Sometimes I think she is asleep because she is so calm, but when I have Dallas check, 99% of the time he responds, "Nope, she's WIDE awake!"

Day 29, Mon, Feb 9: Emma's 4 week birthday!! We celebrated by going on a nice long walk and afterward, Emma gave me some of the BEST smiles she'd ever given!

After the walk smiles :)

Even MORE after the walk smiles. This went on for several minutes - adorable smiles and cute little sounds, but I figure you only have time to look at so many pics :)

And a video - in case the pics weren't enough. You have to remember, it was her official four-week b-day, which constitutes for unlimited pictures and videos :)

Day 30, Tues, Feb 10: Emma's first time wearing pants! She looks like a little grown-up! Especially with her mini cardigan :) The pants were size 0-3 months and still big, but it was a cold day and she needed something to keep her legs warm.

Same day, just later: Here's Emma workin' on tummy-time with Daddy. She kept accepting and spitting out her pacifier - another one of her favorite things to do. It keeps daddy focused on her :)

And just because she's so cute, here's a video

Day 32, Thurs, Feb 12: Emma's OFFICIAL 1 month b-day! These are her adorable morning smiles - she loves waking up, just like her mommy :)

Same day, just later: As part of her 1-month festivities, Emma got to wear her new hat and go visit Daddy at the library (I know...we visit him almost everyday, but it's still fun!) As you can see, she's still got plenty of room to grow into her hat.

Day 33, Fri, Feb 13: Emma and I don't have enough pictures together. It's tough because it's just me and her all day, so who is going to take them? I finally figured, "what the heck, this bambina's gotta have some pictures with her mommy, so we'll just take them ourselves" :)

Day 34, Sat, Feb 14: Valentine's morning! Don't let Dallas' face fool you - he loves getting his picture taken with Emma. :) 

Day 35,  Sun, Feb 15: Tummy-time after church

Day 40, Fri, Feb 20: This is the ONLY picture I have of Emma during her sixth week! I don't know how that's possible...perhaps they accidentally got deleted? Or maybe this really is all I took. That's okay. The GREAT news about week six is that this is when Emma started sleeping for long stretches of the night (six hours) and singing during the day, especially mornings. 

 Well, that's the end of weeks four, five, and six! Off to seven, eight, nine, and ten!