Sara Bear

This little munchkin is growing up way too fast!! She has four teeth (ouch!), and she is already doing a little scooter-crawl thing. It takes all of her concentration, but she gets some pretty good distance when she is focussed. Lately she has been our little song-bird. She is a very vocal little girl. She coos and giggles and tells us little stories all day long. When she wakes up in the morning, she will kick around in her crib for about half an hour (sometimes longer) and just sing away. It is really cute- but VERY loud. It is nice to have her waking up so happy- but it sure would be nicer if we could sleep through her little serenade. Sara is such a wonderful baby!! I can't believe how good she is to me. She has made things os easy on me. She and Emma are the best of friends now too. No one can make her giggle like Emma can, and Emma loves to tickle her and help me bathe her. I was expecting all of this to be so much harder than it turned out to be- maybe I am ready for another one. . . :)

She loves to clasp her fingers like this- it is so funny. Look at that concentration! She WANTS that pacifier!

Seriously Mom, did you just move that binky farther away from me? Rude!

Keep your eye on the binky!

Success!

Progressionary Stages of a Labor of Love

Millions of Little Kids Do it Every Day, They Make a Kite and *Poof* Its In the Sky

Ross had a fairly laid back Father's Day weekend- by his own request. We have spent the last fe weekends down in Orem for Weddings and showers and other things like that. He decided it was time to just stay home. We didn't even go to the store.

On Saturday we worked in the yard for a while, and it is really looking pretty good. I will have to do a post all about our lovely, lush lawn. I am pretty proud of us, I have to say! Anyway, after mowing our home-grown grass, we planted a little garden with corn, pumpkins, cucumbers and melons. While I cleaned Emma up, Ross grilled up some burgers for us, and we had a wonderful meal followed by cuddling and some episodes of Grey's Anatomy (thank you Netflix!).
After sleeping in, Ross declined breakfast in bed and opted for some cold cereal- which was fine by me. He opened up his gifts, and seemed to like them. Emma got him Harry Potter 5, Sara got him Ocean's 13, and I got him Stardust and a Flight of the Conchords CD.

After church, we came home and had Ross's favorite meal- Roast Beef with carrots and potatoes. Let me just say that I make AWESOME roast. Actually, I made him a roast while we were dating one time, and he said that was one of the things that went into consideration when he was trying to decide between Erin and me (NOT I!!- that is for you Tracie!). Anyway, this roast was particularly delicious as evidenced by the fact that there was nothing left over for sandwhiches later on.

After some lazing around, Ross decided that he wanted to try out the kite that the Easter Bunny brought Emma. There wasn't really enough wind to get it very high, but we still had a pretty good time.

Ross is an amazing dad, and an even better husband. I am so lucky to have him in my life, and I am eternally grateful that things worked out the way they did. He is constantly showing me new reasons to put up with all the things I don't love about him! :) Seriously, snoring and unrinsed dishes aside-- Ross is so good to me. He is my best friend, and always will be. Nobody knows me the way he does, and I am convinced that nobody else would continue to love me after knowing me the way he does. I love you Babe!! Happy Father's Day.

This is in the little park that is right behind our property. They haven't put any playground equipment in yet, but we like having the nice big field anyway.

Success!! She was so proud of herself!

Crush Quiz

This was meant to be published on Father's Day, but our connection has been kind of off and on lately. This is the first day it has been up and running long enough to post anything.

Do you have a crush on someone? Yes, I do- a couple of them.
Do you talk to him everyday? I talk to Ross everyday, and Edward and I try to meet up in my dreams about twice a week or so. ;)
Do you talk about them to your friends? I think Carrie hears more than she would like about Ross- so yes.
Does your crush like you? Most of the time- especially now that I am not pregnant anymore.
Do you think about him? Yes- I still have silly day dreams about him doing terribly romantic things. Sometimes they even come true.
How long have you liked your crush? About 5 years off and on now. It is on right now :)
Is your crush handsome? Absofreakinlutely !!!
Do you dream about your crush? Yes, both of them. . . a lot.
Do you like hearing their voice?Well, Edward sounds pretty much like Ross to me, and I love Ross's voice. It is seriously one of the most calming voices- and that would be true even if I wasn't completely smitten with him.
Do you like recieving text messages from him? When they are romantic or slightly naughty- yes. When they are all businessy- no. I think text messaging is pretty lame over-all.
Do you like their laugh/giggles? Yes. One of my favorite things about him is that we both laugh at things that no one else thinks is funny. It is the same way with my friend Carrie. We can go to a movie and be busting up laughing when no one else in the theater is making a sound. It can be kind of embarrassing, but I am glad that Ross and I have such similar senses of humor.
When you see them, are you shy? Sometimes, yes. I remember having the WORST butterflies while I was waiting for him in the airport to introduce him to Emma. We had talked on the phone almost every night, but I was still so giddy and excited and yet scared to see him for the first time in four months.
If you could tell them how you felt about him, would you? I try to, at least once everyday.
Do you have pictures of your crush? Yup!
Do you get jealous when he/she talks to the opposite sex? Ummm, yes. I know that is totally horrible to admit, but I do get a little bit jealous sometimes.
Are you comfortable around your crush? Completely- most of the time at least. . .
What do you think about his/her clothing style? He dresses better than I do.
Will you wait for him/her, to be yours? I already did my waiting- I got him!! If I was asked to do it again though, I would. I would hate it- but he is worth it. I love you Ross, Happy Father's Day.

Primary Power

I just found out that our stake, out here in little old Eagle Mountain, a stake that was just split because it was getting too big, has the largest number of primary aged children in the entire church. We have more LDS children per capita out here than anywhere else ON EARTH. No wonder Sacrament Meeting is so noisy! I found this very interesting and really exciting in a way. Emma will never be lonely. I love it out here! I really really do!

Park City Mini-Vacation

I know this is late- like two weeks late, but I finally have all the pictures from our last minute Park City Get-A-Way. I go kind of picture crazy sometimes, especially on vacations- but who could lame me with this cute family? I think there will be almost more pictures than words in this post.

The first night was a pretty laid back. We tested out the swimming pool and found a wireless connection to steal. The big highlight of the night was when we stopped at a restaurant called Ruth's Chris Steak House. We were in the mood for steak, so this sounded like a good plan. Ross and I have a pretty good system when we eat out. Neither of us are really big eaters, so we have fond that we can afford to go on more dates if we split our entre's. We can usually get away with a full steak dinner and stop for ice cream for under $20- usually more like $15 if we are getting something that isn't steak. This is kind of what we were expecting to do this time. We had no idea from the name of the place or from the sign that this was a five star gourmet restaurant. When we sat down and looked at the menu and the prices attached to the meals we couldn't pronounce we were a little stunned. Just as I was about to get up and walk out, the waiter came over and gave us the seasonal menu which included a couple's meal deal thing. We perused this as the waiter went over his whole schpeal of the soup and catch of the day and the wine list, and we watched some meals get delivered to other tables that were giving off the most delectable aromas! When he left, Ross looked at me, pointed at the meal deal menu, and said that he wanted to stay. We calculated it all out and found that if were super careful with the rest of our travel budget, we would be fine. We also found that by doing the little promotion thing, we were saving about $70 if we had ordered it all off the main menu. So, we stayed and enjoyed the most delicious and expensive meal I have ever had. I tried to not taste the guilt I was feeling as I enjoyed the food. I had not expected to ever eat at somewhere that fancy, especially not with the girls, and ESPECIALLY not in my jeans. Oh well! Next time Ross decides to splurge on a meal of that magnitude I had better have some warning and a dress!! We had ceasar salad, seafood gumbo, au-gratin potatoes, sweet potato casserole, 12 oz. new york cut steak, 8 oz. filet mignon, and some chocolate dessert of heavenly delight (and this is coming from someone who doesn't really like chocolate all that much!). It was grand, and it fed us both for two more meals, so I think we came out all right in the end.

We kicked off the next morning with a stroll down the Historic Main Street. I love things like this. My mom makes fun of me for being so drawn to the tourist traps- but hey- I'm a tourist, so they suit me just fine!! :) It was a little cold and windy, but it was sunny and beautiful. We were a little dissappointed to hear that some of the most popular restaurants and the Olympic Park were all closed for the season until the next weekend! DRAT! We still had a lot of fun though, and it probably saved us some money to have certain attractions closed. We also have a sneaky suspicion that the slowness of that weekend was what got us into that restaurant in our shabby state in the first place. We got some breakfast (there wasno free breakfast at the hotel) at Cows Ice Cream Parlor. This was such a cute little store. Everything was decked out in bovile fashion!

I especially liked the air ducts with the udders- too funny!

This is how Sara spent the entire morning. She just smiled and giggled and slept. I did not have to take her out of her carseat even once until we got back to the hotel. She is such a good baby!!

This was my favorite stop! It is a year-round Christmas shop- need I say more?

Emma tried to be a big helper, but she pretty much just got in my way. At least she was cute while she was in the way though!

For lunch we went to Loco Lizzard which was reccommended to us by a few different people. We were less than impressed though. It was good- but it definitely didn't live up to all the hype.

Their guacamole was pretty fantastic though.

Emma was being so cute- I just couldn't stop taking pictures. I took like 20 of her, so be grateful I narrowed it down for this post. It was hard!

After a nice drive around some of the slopes (GORGEOUS), we rented PS: I Love You from Red Box with a promo code and went swimming for the rest of the night.

The next day was Sunday, so after crashing a very predominantly senior Sacrament Meeting, we went back to the hotel and took full advantage of the pool.

We tried to take some family pictures by doing the whole holding it out and hope you are in the center thing- but the best one I got ended up like this, and I don't know how to flip it on blogger. Sorry Aunt Carrie!

Ross will be mad when he sees I posted this picture because he is shy about his man-boobs, but I think Sara is so pretty.

I found this little car at Smith's for $1.50. We definitely got our money's worth out of it. Emma LOVED it and gets mad now when I won't let her use it in the bath tub.

We went to dinner at a place called Squatters, and it lived up to its name! I think we were being punished for not saving all of our steak for Sunday like we should have.

After our horrid meal experience, we went on a beautiful walking trail that is meant to show off the pastoral landscape. It was a lot of fun, and so pretty! Emma was being a little stinker though and decided that she HAD to ride on the stroller with the baby. Also, note her stylish blue shoes that she INSISTED on wearing.

She was a good help keeping the baby entertained though.

We stopped at a pretty old barn at the side of the trail and explored it for awhile. Emma was our little groundhog whisperer and got these little guys to come quite close to us. I think they wanted some crackers or something. Emma kept calling them bunnies and was asking me why they weren't hopping.

Ross used his farm expertise to tell me what all the old dilapidated equipment was used for.

I tried to get soem family shots with the timer thing, but Emma was not wanting to sit still fro 15 whole seconds at a time. I guess that is a little much to ask of a two year old when there are 'bunnies' running around.

Running around the old barn wore her out enough that we got her bck to the hotel, and were able to make it almost half way through National Treasure II (we picked it up the night before) before she needed some more attention.

We left the next morning after checking out the outlet mall (not a great experience with two kids in tow) and headed to my Grandparent's house for their little Memorial Day Get-Together. I was hoping to be able to see more things than that (like Olympic things), but we had no idea that half the city shuts down when the slopes are out of commission and the film festival isn't near. Now we know though. It was a fun trip and we are hoping to go back for the FULL experience some time- with skis and all!