A plumber in the making . . .

The other day when I was cleaning my room, I noticed it was really quiet and thought, "Uh-oh, where's Emmy?" Any of you moms out there know that when you can't hear your child it's usually not a good thing. So I started calling her name and looking around for her. I found her in our bathroom and there she was, plunger in hand! She had seen us using it a few days before and now she apparently wanted to use it, too. She has been copying us a lot lately, she's such a big girl!

Easter Pics

Since it was Easter today and Emmy got an adorable new dress, I had to take advantage of the nice weather and take some pics of her. I made her a pair of adorable custom Binga Bows to match her dress and they matched perfectly!

We also got her some new shoes, Squeakers, and she loves them! In nursery today, she was running laps around the table. And she just marches around so she can hear the "squeak"! They are really cute shoes, but I have a feeling it might get a little annoying hearing that "squeak squeak" all the time :)

Emmy has had an aweful ear infection (I think I've talked about ear infections a few times . . . yup, same one, won't go away!) so we were glad she was so happy today! We've had some rough nights lately which makes me really nervouse because I leave for China this week. The doctor said it is a possibility that she might need tubes put in her ears. We're hoping that doesn't have to happen.

Yummy, eating a leaf

How adorable is she?
Having fun with daddy!

Fun with the fam

Some of Jake's family came into town this weekend. His brother has a little girl, Ellie, that is a couple months older than Emmy. They had a lot of fun playing together (although Emmy kept taking Ellie's toys - sorry!) and it was so fun to see Alex, Mary and Ellie!

Alex and Mary stayed at a friend's house in St. George. It was nice and HUGE!!! They had a trampoline in the backyard and Emmy and Ellie had so much fun jumping! I forgot my camera so Mary so nicely emailed me some pics - thanks Mary!

They were both giggling so hard - it was so cute!

They fell at the same time and when they were getting up, it looked like a bum kiss!

Emmy had so much fun! Her skirt has some weird shorts built in to keep the skirt from shifting around, I think. The skirt kept flipping up and exposing the weird shorts. Just wanted to let you know I wasn't layering her in rainbow colors :)

Jake's sister, Bekah, also came into town. I got this cute pic of her and Emmy:
It was great seeing all of you!!! Come back and visit again soon!

Mmm, donuts

I just had to post these cute pics of Emmy. She was just chillin, eating some powdered donuts. She looked so cute with the powder all over her mouth. Why are kids so stinkin' cute?!?!

New hiding place

Emmy has found a new hiding place. I cleaned out the bottom of our bathroom cabinet and she has been having so much fun playing in it!

Backing in . . .

Sitting down . . .

Woo hoo! New hiding spot!

If you don't know what it is, just sit on it!

If there is something in our house that Emmy's not so familiar with, sometimes she'll sit on it . . . I know, kind of weird, right? It's so funny, though! We had a delivery from UPS the other day and apparently Emmy got the box and liked it. I went into the kitchen and found her sitting on the box!

Other things she has sat on: a milk carton (with the prompting from my family), our tummy's, our legs, our heads, stuffed animals, her toilet seat while it is not on the toilet, all kinds of stuff. I Don't know why she's doing it, maybe it helps her explore the object? Who knows . . . Does she get that from Jake or me? Hopefully from Jake . . . :)

Bubbles!!!

I figured out what cures a child's sickness - bubbles! Since Emmy was feeling so yucky, we decided to have some fun. She forgot all about how yucky she felt and just had fun chasing and popping bubbles! Oh, the simple joys of childhood.

Sick Binga

Our little Emmy Binga hasn't been feeling too great lately. We had her 15 month check-up scheduled a couple of days after she started feeling yucky so I just waited to take her to the Dr. We found out she has another ear infection - in both ears. Poor girl!!! This has, by far, been the worst ear infection she's had. Constant fevers in the low 100's, lots of moaning and sleepless nights. I feel so helpless! Luckily the Dr postponed her immunizations for a couple of weeks.

Yesterday was the worst, she really wasn't herself. I could tell she just did NOT feel good. Needless to say, we've had a couple of movie days. We've had plenty of Baby Einstein, Hairspray and The Incredibles playing on our tv.

Wouldn't eat anything . . . except for marshmallows! What can a mother do?

Yummy, yummy marshmallow

You can see in her eyes that she just doesn't feel good

Yup, not feeling great. Poor Binga!

Camera Face

I had to post a pic of Emmy's camera face. I know I've posted pics before of it, but it is so funny, I had to post more. If I have the camera in my hand and tell her to smile, she just crinkles her eyes and smiles. It's so funny!




Oh, and this is my 100th post! Crazy.

Fun things . . .

Here are some fun photos from the past couple days.



I woke up Sunday morning to find Emmy and Grammy doing this . . .

Grammy was helping Emmy put my shoes on and Emmy LOVED it!!!

Cute pic! Emmy and Grammy

Why does Emmy look a little guilty in this photo? I don't know but she sure is funny!

Funny Girl

Just wanted to post some funny pics of Emmy. She is such a funny girl!

What a sweet face! I was taking some pics for my Binga Bows website (that's why she's got flowers in her hair here and bows in her hair below) and got some funny pics

I LOVE this picture! I want to know what she's thinking at this exact moment

Daddy hiked her pants way up making her look like a pregnant baby in maternity pants! I guess she's trying to read here? I'm not sure . . .
Once again, maternity pants, eh? I love her big little belly!

Having fun with Papa. He put his socks on her legs and pulled them all the way up her thighs.
Nice leg warmers
Playing in her new leg warmers

Poor Binga!

Emmy hasn't been feeling too great latelty. First, she's pretty much been teething for the past 7 months. She's already got 12 teeth! She has her 4 baby molars and then the 4 front teeth on top and 4 front teeth on bottom.

She's also been scratching herself all over. She's got eczema on her legs, but she started scratching her head, too. My first thought was, "Oh crap, she has lice!!!", but after a quick examination I was relieved that it was not, in fact, lice. Phew! So finally after a week of scratching, I took her to the doctor. We found out she's got eczema all over her body! It was just little patches that we couldn't see. So sad!!!

And after a quick exam, the doctor also informed us that she has her first ear infection . . . in both ears. Again, so sad!!! We were so focused on her scratching that I didn't notice her tugging her ears or anything (she was scratching around her ears, so that's what I noticed, not any tugging). So this week, we are focused on getting her better!!! No soap in her bath, just a little shampoo to wash her hair. We need to get rid of this eczema! And, of course, anitbiotics for the ear infection. My poor baby! I do have to admit that I love the fact that she has been so cuddly!

Santa Clause is coming to town . . .

Well I guess Santa already came to town! Emmy was on the nice list this year because Santa made a visit to our house! Santa only leaves a few presents for her, though, and the rest are from mom and dad. One thing she got that she loved was a spinbrush toothbrush. Santa left it in her stocking with some yummy toothpaste. Well, I guess Emmy doesn't think the bubble gum flavored kid toothpaste doesn't taste that great because she always has a funny look on her face when we use it. But she got some movies, including her favorite, The Incredibles. She got some clothes and toys and a ton of books. We didn't go overboard this year, we'll save that for when she's older and she knows whats going on! We spent Christmas Eve at Aunt Lindsey's house, which was a lot of fun. We slept over and Emmy loved being with her cousins. We had a great Christmas and hope all of you did, too!

Emmy with her cute cousins

Emmy with Uncle Derek - she loved wearing these reindeer antlers!
I LOVE the look on her face here!
Christmas morning - Santa always leaves Emmy an apple or orange in her stocking - her Christmas pj's were being washed, so she's nakey!
Here she is with her beloved toothbrush. She walked around with it all morning! And the Christmas pj's are clean here, so no more nakey!

And here is our attempt at taking some pics of Emmy in her Christmas dress after church on Sunday. We have 9:00 church so she is READY for a nap when we get home. Didn't have too much success, eh?

This one is blurry, but the only good full body shot I got

By the time I took this pic (with Jake strategically hidden in the background :) ), Emmy was done!

Poor Binga!

I was feeding Emmy dinner the other night when she started breaking out in hives all over her face. It was so sad! She hadn't eaten anything new so I have no idea what caused them. I gave her some Benadryl and by bedtime they were pretty much gone, but I felt so bad for her. I hate feeling helpless as a parent when your kids don't feel good and there is nothing you can do! (Don't mind her fro hairdo! Poor girl has hair like her mama!)

Binga Update

Emmy is getting so smart, I love seeing how much she knows!

Here are the words she can say: "Hi" (this is her favorite one and says it to EVERYONE! When we are at the grocery store, she sits sideways so she can see everyone and says it to anyone she sees); "bye bye" (with a little wave. She closes doors and says it); "no, no, no" (she has renamed the toilet paper "no, no, no" because I always say it to her when she gets into it); "Pa Pa" (my dad); "ma ma" (me); "da da" (Jake); "ball" (which comes out more like "ba"); "thank you" (she doesn't say it on her own, she says it if we say it to her, and it sounds more like "dee dee"). That's all I can think of, but I think she's pretty smart!

She knows objects and if I ask her to get something, like her ball, her book or her "happy hippo" (a stuffed animal that giggles), she gladly goes around the house looking for it and then brings it to me.

She can touch her nose or mouth if I ask her to. We're working on ears right now, but she doesn't have that one down just yet. And she sort of knows the actions to "itsy bitsy spider". It's so cute!

The one word that she conveniently doesn't know the meaning to is "No". If I tell her no, instead of stopping she does it more and runs away from me. For instance, she just love the toilet paper. If she's in the bathroom with me while I'm getting ready and I take my eyes off her for a minute, she is definitely going to go straight to the tp roll and start yanking the tp sheets off! If I tell her "no", she holds on to it and runs out, creating a tp trail and making a bigger mess! So, I know she knows what "no" means, she just chooses to ignore it.

One thing that is funny that she does is poops on the toilet. If I get her out of bed in the morning and she hasn't pooped yet, I take her to the toilet and wait for her to go, and she does! One less poopy diaper to change and hopefully she won't ever be scared of the toilet when potty training time comes along!

And she has this new Dora chair that she got from Aunt Lindsey, Uncle Derek, Dylan and Ella for her birthday. I think she feels so grown up in it. It's so cute! We put it in front of the tv for her and she'll watch her shows while sitting in her big pink chair. How fun to see them grow up!

Simple Pleasures

I love Emmy!!! Tonight, after Jake went to the library to do homework, Emmy and I were just hanging out. I held out my closed hand to her, she opened it up and pretended to grab something out of it and put the imaginary "something" into her mouth. She did it over and over. It was so funny, I was totally laughing out loud to myself!!!! I wish I could've gotten it on tape, it was seriously one of the funniest things I've ever seen her do!

Scary Santa?

I'm singing this weekend at the Dickens Festival in St. George. Today was my first day performing and they have a place where you can get pictures with Santa. We thought it would be fun to get Emmy's first official photos w/ Santa. Well, she didn't think it was so fun . . . she was totally scared of him!!!! It was so funny. He is a big burley man with a booming voice. He is the best looking Santa I've ever seen, exactly what I pictured Santa looking like. I tried distracting her even before I put her on his lap, but it was no use, the damage had already been done. She'd already seen and heard him. I hurried and put her on his lap and was jumping up and down, singing her favorite songs but nothing worked. So now we have a classic picture of Binga with Santa. What a great memory!

Leave it to dad

This is what happens when dad changes the diapers! He changed her diaper when we were out to dinner, so she had her pants like this until we noticed when we got home. In Jake's defense, there are no pockets on the bum of these pants so we really couldn't tell. It was just hillarious!

Birthday Girl

The day Binga was born

Emmy's First Birthday is this month. I can't believe it has been a year already! My pregnancy seemed to drag on FOREVER, but once she was here it has just flown by.

I gave her a cupcake to dig into but I think most of it ended up on the floor
She wasn't shy about rubbing the frosting ALL OVER herself!
Especially in her hair


Her cousins, Maddy and Grey, gave her this unicorn. She absolutely loved it. She just started hugging it and carrying it around with her after she opened it. Thanks, Mads, for picking out the perfect present!

Happy Birthday, Emmy! We love you so much! You have made our lives so exciting. We never knew we could have so much joy! Who knew our lives could be such an adventure!