Grandpa Venturi

Jake and I love this pic. It was taken at our wedding reception. Classic grandpa!

I posted some of these pics a couple of months ago, but Jake's Grandpa Venturi passed away this past week. We got a phone call on Tuesday saying if we wanted to say goodbye, we'd better get there quickly because they didn't know how long he would be around. We made a quick trip to Orem and back in one day, but it was worth it. Although grandpa was heavily medicated and wouldn't wake up again, we got to say goodbye. Jake was so glad for the opportunity to do that.

Grandpa Venturi was almost 93 years old. I remember when Jake and I were engaged and I met grandpa, I loved him right away. He was a quiet man but his eyes were filled with so much life and wisdom. They were such kind eyes. He was a great man and we feel lucky that our lives were touched by his.

We love you and will miss you, Grandpa Venturi!

Pumpkin Festivals, Blueberries & First Steps

Mom & Emmy
Grammy & Emmy

Emmy, Grammy and I went to our town's annual Pumpkin Festival this weekend. Emmy is still a little young to enjoy all of the activities (face painting, pumpking bowling, eating a donut on a string, etc) but we still had fun walking around.



Jake and Papa didn't go because they were busy hunting. J was so excited because it was his first time hunting. Sorry to say that they didn't even see a deer until the end of the 2nd day and they were does, not bucks. Oh well! There's always next year. Although I'm a little relieved because he wanted to make jerky out of the meat . . . sounds not too tasty!



Emmy tried her first blueberries a couple of weeks ago. And as you can see, she loved them!

She is also getting ready to walk. She took her first steps last week! Jake and I were walking her back and forth between the two of us. I let go of her hands as Jake was reaching for her. She took 3 or 4 steps on her own! She gets mad at us now when we try to do it, but I have to try! She is constantly wanting us to walk with her around the room, holding her hands. She cruises while holding onto her walker and while walking in her sit-down walker. So give her a month or so and I think she'll be walking on her own. I can't believe how fast she is growing up!!!

Mothers Who Know

For those of you who listened to conference this weekend, hopefully you heard the talk by Julie B. Beck, General Relief Society President. What an inspirational talk for mothers! I got onto lds.org today to listen to the talk again since I was a little distracted by Binga when she gave it on Sunday.

Sometimes I think "what am I really doing as a mother?" I change diapers, clean up after Binga, clean the house, do laundry, plus I work about 5 hours a day. Life gets so hectic sometimes that the more important things seem to get lost in all the chaos. It's nice to hear a talk like this one to help us see what is really important in life. And I'm always trying to be organized, but with a child crawling around, pulling out toys all day, sometimes I think "What's the point? She's just going to pull them out again." But we need to keep our house like the Lord's house:

"Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing; and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God." (Doctrine & Covenants 88:119)

If we do that, the spirit can feel welcome in our homes. And then it will be easier to focus on the important things, like teaching our children the gospel. Like President Bent said, our homes should be like a pre-MTC so that when our children go on missions, it's a review instead of a revelation when they go to the MTC.

Anyways, if you can't tell, I was really uplifted by this talk. Thank you President Bent! I love General Conference and the guidance that we get twice a year from our wonderful church leaders!


And here's a tribute to my beautiful daughter. I'm so lucky to be the mother of such a sweet, beautiful little girl. I love you, Binga!!!

Chatter Box

Emmy has been such a chatter box lately. She is constantly talking and having conversations with herself. It is so cute and fun to watch! She even started talking the other day after she fell and got hurt, in between cries. It was like she was saying "Mom, I was just trying to walk across the couch and I ran into something and I fell! And it kinda hurt!" all while she was crying. It was hillarious.

Emmy is also starting to use actual words, which is really exciting. She says, "Hi!" in the cutest little voice! She also says "What's that?" but it sounds more like "wha sa?" My child is so smart! She can say "Pa pa" which is what the grandkids call my dad. She says "ma ma" and "da da".

She can also sign. She signs "daddy" (not mommy yet, dang it!), "kiss", and "more" (she doesn't know what "more" means, she just knows how to do the sign so she does it randomly. I'm trying to teach her what it means).

I've also been working on teaching her to find her nose for a couple of months. She always just looks at me and doesn't do anything. And the doctor said his baby didn't do it until she was 14 months old so I kind of gave up a little. Well, I decided to try it again the other day and, to my surprise, she touched her nose! I was so excited! It is so fun to see how smart she is. Every age just keeps getting better with her!

Oh no!

So I was doing my hair the other day and I saw something in my hair. I leaned in closer to the mirror and to my horror I found . . . a gray hair!!!! This is the first gray hair I have ever found on my head and I was freaking out! I'm not old enough to have gray hair. My sister has a bunch of gray hairs (not enough to notice, but she has some scattered here and there) but she's almost 30 so you'd expect it a little more from her.

Some of you may be saying, "No big deal!" Others of you may be saying, "Wow, you are getting old, the proof is in the pudding!" So I am here to say, I'm trying not to make a big deal out of this. There are only more gray hairs to come!