Melynn's Birthday Pictures!

Here are the rest of the photos, as promised!

Cheezer smile

Nervous a little bit?

While we sang she smiled for reals

Cautious blowing out of the candles

I did it!

Presents

Excited girl

Tangled

And a doll

And her first princess dress!

Melynn's Birthday Party

We had a gathering last night to eat cake and ice cream and sugar up our friends' children. It was successful for all three things, I think. I made a huge cake that looked like a caterpillar. I only had one severe cake trauma and was able to recover from it before the party although it took me till an hour before the party to get it finished. That's an hour and a half past my goal. I also had to order pizza since I lost my dinner prep time from the cake disaster. I was pretty stressed out for a while. I was able to shake that off once people showed up and it went off without a hitch. I was very pleased. I don't have all the pictures yet because my camera battery died partway through the day and Emmett had hidden my camera case that had the power cord. I took the rest of the photos with my iPod and it isn't synching correctly so the rest will have to wait. Anyway, here is what I have so far (most are from Monday):

Which tulip is not like the others? That's right! I got a surprise white and red stripey guy!

Licking the beater the day before her birthday.

She was really getting into it.

Emmett's third t-ball practice. He is the one raising his hand. Or scratching his armpit. Not really sure what he is doing.

The caterpillar cake sans frosting

Emmett and Matthew playing in the backyard. Daxton in the foreground. This was the only party picture I got before the camera died.

Melynn is Three!

My sweet Melynn is three years old! I can't believe it. She is so pure and just sweet as can be. Everybody that meets her loves her. She has outgrown a lot of her mischievous tendencies. She is very independent. She likes to pour her own cereal in the morning and helps me around the kitchen especially in unloading the dishwasher and setting the table. She likes to cook with me and I am trying to let her get in my way. It is hard for me to allow that. She has learned her alphabet and can identify almost all of the lower case letters now in addition to the upper case. She loves playing on the computer and the ipod. She is just getting interested in pretend play and dressing up. She loves her princess shoes and I think she will adore the presents she is getting for her birthday. She is all girl. She will sit and watch me do my makeup and ask what everything is called and where it goes. She has never gotten into my makeup except one time a LONG time ago when she found a lipgloss and put it on her lips. She didn't put it anywhere else. She likes having her fingernails painted pink, but not any other color. Pink is her favorite color. One of her peculiar tendencies is creating nests, as my dad puts it. She likes to pile up blankets and stuffed animals and sit in the middle of it to play. She sleeps at night with three dolls, two stuffed dogs, a stuffed bear or two and her pillow pet along with at least three blankets. One goes underneath (the one with the kitties) and then you put her sheet and quilt and on top of that goes the butterfly blanket and maybe the sheep blanket too. I am surprised she can sleep under all of that but she insists on it. If she wasn't such a light sleeper I would take a picture of her with all her bedtime stuff. It is quite the pile.

I can't imagine my life without that little girl. She is so wonderful. Love her!!!

One more thing: Her favorite doll is called Sissy. Sissy got lost once at church and got locked in the nursery closet. It was traumatic because she HAS to have Sissy to sleep at night and we made it from Sunday until Wednesday before getting her back. I about lost my mind in those three days without Sissy because Melynn is so attached. Now we have very strict rules about where Sissy can go so she doesn't get lost.

T-Ball

Emmett has started T-ball. It is official! He is loving it. Last night Josh was home in time for dinner for the first time since Emmett has had TWO practices. Sad, I know. But that is how it goes. Anyway, Emmett was telling him all about it and I just had to write down the way he said a couple of things.

Emmett describing his practices:

"The first practice was on the grass but the second we were still at the park but we were on the field. There was just dirt on the floor. And no top."

Explanation: There was no roof, like an indoor sports arena. Josh was laughing so hard because Emmett thought he was ready for the big leagues and an indoor ball park.

The other thing that I found extremely funny was when Josh was asking if he had learned to field the ball and throw it to first base. Blank stare from Emmett. I helped Emmett remember that yes, he had done that, and Chase had been at first base. I saw recognition in Emmett's eyes. Then Josh asked WHY he was supposed to throw it to first base. Blank stare. I could tell the coaches did not explain WHY they had to do anything. They were just doing it. Train them to run as fast as they can to first. WHY? Train them to hit the ball, not the tee. WHY? Train them to throw to first base. WHY? Yeah, he doesn't get the rules yet but I'm sure he will if we keep working on it.

I think this spring will be very fun!

Successful Roadtrip!

I took a road trip with my two kids to Omaha for the weekend so I could attend my friend's sealing in the temple. It was great and it was horrible all in one. It was great because the travel wasn't terrible, the weather was sunny, I got to see lots of friends, and my kids were great in the car. It was horrible because I'm really pregnant (and it hurts to do most everything), Emmett got food poisoning, I had a terrible cold, and it was short. But, let's focus on the positive and let the other stuff go for now.

I left on Thursday, the day after my birthday. I had the sniffles on Wednesday and felt crummy. I almost didn't even go. But I had pre-paid the hotel room and I had promised Jennifer I would be there and I really did want to go, so I did. I drove from Memphis to Kansas City the first day and that was the night Emmett got the food poisoning. I almost turned around on Friday and drove back home. Seriously. But, he didn't have any other problems and only threw up once. One big one. So, Friday we hopped in the car and got to Omaha by lunch time and then met friends at the zoo. It was CRAZY at the zoo because the NCAA tournament was in Omaha and it was a beautiful day. What else do tourists do in Omaha on beautiful days? Of course, they go to the zoo! Other than the crowds and being really pregnant, I enjoyed myself. It wore me out so we spent a quiet evening with the DeFords. Thank goodness for them. They made it so nice for us.

Saturday we had a slow morning and even took time to play at the park, then I attended Jennifer's sealing and wedding reception. Both were awesome. The sealing was so crowded! I felt bad for the skinny girl I ended up sharing a seat with in the temple. Who wants to get stuck sharing a seat with a VERY pregnant lady they don't know?! Sad for her. Anyway, the sealing was great and my friend Kassi got awesome pictures and I may have to borrow some for my private blog but I won't put them on here since I don't really have the rights to what she took. She is a great photographer and hopefully someday I can learn some of her tricks. The reception was really well done. Food was just right, the DJ was entertaining and it wasn't too long. The kids got sugared up and really sticky. Good thing I took two sets of church clothes because the things they wore Saturday were not fit for church the next day.

I did stay Sunday and attended church. I'm glad I did. There was one talk during Sacrament meeting that touched me so much. I was seriously crying during the first two minutes of it. I miss how spiritual Sacrament meeting is in the branch. It just isn't the same in our big ward. Maybe I'm too distracted or something. I don't know. But it was great to be there and see everyone. We love the Conestoga Branch!

I left right after church and drove to Kansas City. Then Monday I drove the rest of the way. I made really good time and we even got back in time for Emmett's first t-ball practice. He LOVED it. I can't wait to get pictures of him in his little uniform! Here are pictures from the trip.

Melynn with fairy wings on at the DeFord's house

You wouldn't believe how much sharing a frosty can give you the case of the giggles.

The Ring Exchange with President Wilkinson in the middle.

Melynn with a cheeser smile at the reception

Jennifer and Rory Dillon

The boys found a place to play during the reception

I came home to blooming flowers. These are the tulips we got from the Nauvoo Temple gardener! They grew!

My Birthday Present (Kind of)

Josh gave me a new kitchen for my birthday. Isn't that cool? We painted the cabinets and the walls. I love it. Here are the before and after pictures:

Before: vanilla walls on top, tan on bottom (that stayed put), white trim

Before: boring vanilla counters (those stayed too) with wood cabinets

Before

Sanding

White cabinets. Made it look really bright with the vanilla walls.

Green walls

The green is from Sherwin Williams (although we got it color matched elsewhere for cheaper). The color is called Haven, which I love all by itself. Haven. Doesn't that sound like a place you want to be? It is a sage green although it does have a happiness to it. We had another color of sage that we also liked but it had too much gray to it and looked more dreary. I wanted a happy kitchen. Now I just need help deciding what color I should get for kitchen towels and accents. I do not want an apple theme or really any theme. I just don't really know what to go with. Maybe cobalt blue? Brown? Any suggestions?

30 Weeks and 30 Years Old

Melynn's artwork

Emmett's Dr. Seuss Hat from Cloverbuds

Melynn in her Easter Dress.

Look at that flaming cake! 30 candles baby!

I couldn't quite blow out all the candles with one puff. Pregnancy takes your lung capacity away.

Kids playing trains

My birthday is tomorrow and I'm trying to get ready for a trip so we celebrated early. We had a few friends over on Sunday night for fudge truffle cheesecake (it was awesome) and ice cream. Monday was my 30 week mark in the pregnancy. I am finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. It is faint, but it is there. So, here are some pictures from my birthday celebration and from the kids.

Working the Polls

I got another tiny job (earned $130 baby!) working the voting polls on Super Tuesday. Yes, it is Friday and I am just now getting around to writing about my experience. My mom reminded me today on the phone that I haven't mentioned it yet. It was really fun, but tiring. I had to be at the polling location at 6 AM (I was early, go me). The stinky part about the early morning was that the location I was assigned was 45 minutes away. I left my house about 5:10 AM and got there about 5:50 AM. I didn't get lost! That is a miracle since it is in south Memphis where I have never been and I was really nervous about losing my way....ya know, not the best area of town type of thing. In the dark too. I got up at 4 AM that day. It was early...but that is when Josh normally gets up so it gave me a really good idea of how he normally feels. I'm much more sympathetic now.

Okay, so the day started at 6 AM with setting up the polling machines and the registrar desk (which is what I did most of the day). There were three Republicans (all white) and three Democrats (all black) working at my polling location. And for people that came to vote there was one white person and the rest were black. There was one Republican voter (and it wasn't the white voter, surprisingly). Don't think I am racist by including these details. I just thought it was so fascinating that all but one voted Democrat. It isn't a great area of town and I heard the most ridiculous comments about the Republican candidates for president throughout the day. It actually kind of irked me, but I held my tongue. One voter was talking with one of the other polls workers and said, "I don't know how anyone could vote for a Republican. All they do is steal from the poor and give it to the rich." In my head I'm thinking, "So stealing from the rich to give to the poor (a.k.a. this voter) is a better way of doing things?" Anyway, it was an interesting day to say the least. I saw very unique names. Iola and Chandra and Ermal. But no boy names that helped me pick out a baby name for this little guy.

As we closed up (polls closed at 7 PM), we had to print a whole bunch of reports from the polling machines and the very last machine decided it didn't want to print. Ugh. We were stuck until we figured out how to finish up the reports. We finally got it finished about 7:55 PM. Then I got to drive back home. It was dark by then again. I missed the whole beautiful day. Boo.

But while I was gone, Josh took the kids to the zoo and it was wonderful. They love having their daddy around and it has been lots of fun hanging out with him. He is so awesome!

Week of Dr. Seuss

We took the week that had Dr. Seuss's birthday in it to celebrate the amazing author Theodor Geisel. I love Dr. Seuss books. We checked some out from the library and we did coloring pages just for fun. I also found some really neat online games that Emmett loved. If I had lots of extra money laying around I could have taken him to see The Lorax movie but I didn't. Maybe we will rent it on Redbox later on. Anyway, it was fun to learn about him and to read lots of Dr. Seuss stories.

Field Trip: National Civil Rights Museum

Memphis is famous for many things, mainly involving music, but there is one tragic event that Memphis is famous for and that is the death of Martin Luther King Jr. He was here helping organize a peaceful march to help the city sanitation workers when he was shot on the balcony of his hotel room at the Lorraine Motel. Emmett and I have been studying King's life for Black History Month and so we went as a family to the Lorraine Motel that has been converted into a museum. It is free admission on Mondays from 3-5 PM so we got down there and had a great time. They had a movie called The Witness that was focusing on the final hours of his life as told by the other pastor that was present in the motel room when King was shot. It was moving.

They have a display that is designed to represent the March on Washington when MLK, Jr. gave his I Have a Dream speech. They have the audio recording playing and it was really neat to imagine being there. He really did some amazing things. It was fun to learn more about Civil Rights, Rosa Parks, Ruby Bridges and Martin Luther King, Jr. I hope it helped Emmett learn that all men are equal, no matter the color of their skin.