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Four months old . . .

My, how time flies!! Our sweet baby Emma Noelle turned 4 months old last week. It amazes me how much they change in such a short time. At Emma's well-baby check-up, she weighed 14 lbs, 10 oz and was 23 inches long. That means she is at 72% for her weight, and 22% for her height. Yes, our baby is a little butterball! I often joke that I am a jersey cow. Only rich cream for my babies! Emma is just so sweet. She has such a sweet, precious spirit about her. She is a very happy baby! She loves attention, and she loves to be held. With Aiva, she was always sooooo busy (and still is) that I sometimes felt like she didn't really need me, other than for the basics. Emma is a little bit needier, but I love having a baby that loves to be held and cuddled.

Emma is also a very LOUD little baby. As a newborn, she was always grunting, just to hear herself make noise. Nowadays, she yells. She doesn't cry. She just makes noise at the top of her lungs, sometimes so loudly that we have to yell to have a conversation over her.

We love her so much, and she has brought so much joy into our home.

Emma's Dress

My good friend Stacy custom-made this beautiful blessing dress for Emma! We had so much fun going to Quilted Bear to look at blessing dresses to get ideas for the dress, designing it, and picking out the fabric, ribbons and buttons. Stacy is AMAZING! We've been friends since high school, and I've seen her do some incredible things with fabric. You name it, she can do it. I was so happy with how it turned out, and I am sad that Emma only got to wear it once. But it now has a place of honor hanging in her bedroom, and it will be treasured forever. Thank-you so much, Stacy!

The magic is in the details

Tilt your head to the right. ;)

Emma's blessing day

We blessed Emma in March (yes, I am that late at posting) and it turned out to be a beautiful day, literally and figuratively. The weather was lovely, which meant that Mike's 13 nephews and nieces could play outside, instead of having everyone crammed in our little hosue. It was so much fun to have everyone over to support our family. Mike gave Emma a beautiful blessing, and she looked so pretty in her blessing dress! The entire day was perfect.

Our nieces Jaycee and Jane

My niece Courtney

Sweet Emma in her blessing dress

The girls, in the morning before church

There's that magnum face again

Randomness . . .

Here comes the totally random photos of all we've been up to, and a few just for fun.

The girls in Emma's crib. Aiva always insists on getting in with her. Oh, by the way...Emma still won't sleep in her crib. She sleeps in her carseat. Any suggestions for how to move to the crib??

Not one of my prouder days. I'm sleeping while Aiva watches Dora. Does anyone else have days like this???

My little Aiva playing dress-up

Mike got a bad sprain playing ward basketball. Yuck!

I love Spring rains! The Easter Bunny brought Aiva the umbrella and she's taken advantage of every opportunity to use it.

Splash!! If only we grown-ups could get the same joy out of something so simple.

Ahhh . . . Spring in Utah. Rain one day, sunshine the next, and then snow.

My cute Emma!

I love these crocheted hats with flowers!

Best friends!

Emma was having a rough few days, wanting to be held every second. This is the only way I was able to get anything done! I love this expression on her face.

Emma enjoying the bumbo we borrowed from a friend. Thanks April!!!

Hahaha! I love this face!!!

Sound asleep. LOVE the bumbo!!!

To the Best Five Years

On March 9th, Mike and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary! I remember when we first got married, thinking that couples married for that long were OLD and super-EXPERIENCED. Haha. We still feel like we are young kids (when did "kids" in their early 20's start looking so YOUNG???) trying to get the whole "grown-up" thing figured out. But I have to say on record that I am forever and ever grateful that I'm doing this "growing up" thing with Mike. Marrying my husband was, without a doubt, the best decision I've ever made, and I will be thanking my Father in Heaven for the rest of my life that He brought us together.

We met in February of 2004 on a double date . . . with different people. Fast forward many months. We were both single, and a friend gave Mike my number. We went on our first date on November 12th, and were engaged on Christmas day. Fast. Crazy. Insane. And neither of us are like that. The way we figure, we were never meant to be boyfriend and girlfriend, only husband and wife. It was so perfect and so right. I remember feeling the Lord leading me by the hand every step. I wouldn't recommend that others do it the way we did, because I realize that it's crazy, but for us, it was perfect. I've never regretted it.

Mike is the most compassionate, positive, kind, serving person I know. I am lucky to have the person closest to me be the person that I look up to and try to emulate the most. He is an amazing father, a loving and understanding husband, and he is such an amazing spiritual leader in our home. I often look at my little girls and think, "if only you knew how lucky you are to have him as your daddy." And I am so, so incredibly lucky to have him as my eternal companion. I so look forward to forever with him. So thanks be to God, and thank-you, Mike, for choosing ME.

"Pinkalicious!!!"

At our house, we are BIG fans of the book PINKALICIOUS. It's about a girl who makes pink cupcakes with her mom, and the girl eats too many and turns PINK. I wanted to try something like it, but I decided that I didn't want my family to turn pink, so my sister and I got together and decided on three colors instead!! I have a major case of Spring Fever, so I went with some very spring-y hues! Pink, purple, and lime green! Pretty and also quite yummy! Thanks for your help, Chels!

The Batter

in matching wrappers, I might add. We went all out.

Aiva was quite enthralled with the whole process

The Results

As I said: pretty and also quite YUMMY!!!