Better Late than Never

I figured Valentine's Day was my last day to reasonably expect to be part of the "holiday season" group. Yet, I had such high hopes for getting these out by Christmas with a note about how this season we are celebrating the birth of two lambs and include the poem by William Blake.


Wouldn't I have looked smart and on top of it?


But, really, I'm just lazy, so I combined Emma's birth announcements as a holiday card and with thank you notes written on the back and stayed up until midnight the past 2 nights to get them done.

Delightful Emma

With those cheeks, that double chin, and that smile, I must admit that I'm completely smitten.

Fishes

A few weeks before Emma was due, Asher and Luke won 3 goldfish (Thomas, James, and Gordon) at a birthday party. We kept them in their cups, thinking they'd die.


But, they didn't, so about 3 days later, Nate got the fish a pretty swanky tank, some plastic plants, and neon colored rocks. The boys were thrilled. Well, they were a little sad when James died--Nate forgot to check the temperature before he dropped the first fish in the new tank. We still feel bad about that.


This past weekend, we realized the tank was getting a little scuzzy. That's when we learned that we were supposed to clean the filter every 2 weeks (remember Emma is 2 months old now). So, Nate cleaned out the tank, bought some real plants and let the boys pick a feature for the tank. They chose the volcano over the castle, so now, I can't resist saying "Shark bait, who-ha-ha," every time I walk past it.


I think they're decent pets. They don't make a mess or get into my stuff. In fact, if they just took care of the mice, I wouldn't see a need to ever get a pet with fur.

Lukeisms

This picture shows Luke, wearing his dad's glasses and with his face painted in White-Out (he and his cousin, Cora, did that). Know that White-Out does NOT wash off, and despite daily scrubbing, he remained painted for 5 days.

Anyway, I keep putting off a post about Luke because he keeps saying so many funny things. Here are a few:

When someone asks Luke's name, he says, "My name is Lukey-boy."

The other day, he pooped his pants (again), and I told him that it smelled bad and he needed to go in the potty. His response: "My poop smells like strawberries."

Sometimes, Luke will spontaneously say in his most grown-up voice, "Give me my hug!" and proceed to strangle you with a giant hug around the neck.

"Baby Emma is my best friend." Luke and Emma are now best friends. They will look at each other and smile, and then, Luke will sing his very special lullaby for her. You know, that famous lullaby, "I've Been Working on the Railroad."

Also, should you come to our house and be worried about not knowing anyone, never fear, Luke has taken it upon himself to introduce people when the come over, including Nate when he comes home from work. Luke makes sure he has both of our attention and then, says, "Mommy, this is Daddy. Daddy, this is Mommy."

Emmeline's blessing

We blessed Emmeline on January 2nd in our church, hoping that more family could come because it was during the holidays. Unfortunately, that didn't turn out to be the case, so we would like to particularly thank Emmeline's grandparents, my sister, Rachel's family, and Nate's sister, Julie's family for making it.


We had friends make the trek out from Gilbert (thanks, Steeds!), and a whole host of ward family there.


I'm usually too overwhelmed to plan much beyond telling Nate and the bishop when we'd like to bless our baby. Maybe it's because Emmeline is such a good sleeper, maybe it's because I haven't sent out holiday cards or birth announcements that I had more time to make the day special, but I did a few things to try and make the day more significant:


Most importantly, Emmeline wore the same blessing dress every woman in the Sorensen (Nate's mom's) family has worn since Nate's grandma. Grandma Wanda took her wedding dress and made it into a blessing gown. It's beautiful and delicate, and I was in a panic that Emmeline would have a blow-out diaper wearing the 70 year old dress. I'm still breathing a sigh of relief that she didn't.

I told Nate that I needed Emmeline wrapped in a giraffe blanket that my Exponent blogger friends had given her. I loved that Emmeline would be blessed in blanket given by women I love, wrapped in a giraffe print that has special significance to me. Then, Nate forgot to take up the blanket...oh well.

My aunt, Carol, gave Emmeline a pearl bracelet, so I was able to have her wear something from her matrilineal line, and I decided to wear the pearls I wore on my wedding day as a kind of other connection.

And, Nate gave a short, but sweet blessing in church. Then, I gave my testimony during the meeting, explaining why we had named her (you can see this post for the details) and how I hoped that she would take after the man and women she was named after.


Then, we ended the busy day with a pie party with more friends and family. Judy and Julie made some French silk pies, my mom made my favorite peanut butter pies, Nate made his famous banana cream pies, and I made a key lime and a couple of apples. Seriously, if you have to plan an easy party, do a pie party!

A lovely day, but I must admit that I'm not that sad that it was the last baby blessing day I have to organize.

Expressing His Feelings

Last night after a particularly horrendous trip to Costco, the kids and I drove by Blockbuster. As we drove by, Asher said how much he wanted me to take him to Blockbuster. I said no--people had not been good in Costco and we had plenty of movies to watch at home (thank heavens for Netflix streaming through the XBox 360).

Asher said, "Mom, when you don't take me to Blockbuster, it makes me feel like..." and then, he mumbled the rest.

I was so happy to hear Asher expressing his displeasure, you know, really thinking and exploring his feelings, but now that he's in the very back of the car and I'm in the front, I didn't hear everything so I asked him to repeat.

"MOM, when you don't take me to Blockbuster, it makes me feel like I want to kill you."

Ah, yes, those were the feelings I was hoping he would express.

Scenes from a Marriage: Hot and Heavy

Emily is in the car with three screaming, crying kids. Nate is home.

Emily: I just want to warn you, everyone is crying, no one is happy...I feel like as I'm driving home that I'm trying to land a plane that's on fire.

Nate: Awesome.

Emily: What do you call that? When a pilot calls in to warn the tower that things are bad and it'll be rough when the plane lands?

Nate: They say that they're coming in hot and heavy.

Emily: Ok...Tower, we're coming in hot and heavy.