mother's day (i'm bragging a little)

This mother's day was pretty great, and it was all thanks to my wonderful husband. He took me to see Iron Man 3 yesterday, which was great because it's the first date we've had since Emmett was born. Plus, it was a really great movie. Then, this morning he made me breakfast in bed and gave me some gifts. To understand the significance of these two presents, we have to venture back in time a couple months.

A couple months ago, we went to Virginia Beach hoping to play some putt putt golf. The golfing didn't last very long because Evie got bored of it, so we walked around this souvenir shop for a while instead. While we were there, I found this super cute VA Beach picture frame and told Dan that eventually I wanted to buy one of those and take a picture at the beach to put in it, that way we would always remember that we lived here. Then, I promptly forgot about it. After that, I saw this super cute dress and commented on how much I liked it, but since I was pregnant I would never fit in it. Then I promptly forgot about that, too.

So, back to this morning. I open my presents and what should I find? That picture frame and that same dress. Well remembered, sir. It was touching to see how much thought he put into getting me something, but most especially it was touching to see that he really listens when I say things. Even meaningless, passing comments.

this is the dress. it's SUPER soft. wish you could feel it.

Dan also gave a talk in church today about mothers, which was just outstanding. I had to go out to the car and re-do my make up because I cried so much. I swear I was glowing from the inside out because I was so proud that he was my husband. Everyone should be jealous. He said some wonderful things about me and about his mother, and the whole thing was just phenomenal.

After Sacrament meeting, the young men went around and gave all the women some Godiva dark chocolate truffles. Yum. Then, all of relief society was spent chatting and eating yummy snacks.Not too shabby.

We ended the day by Dan making dinner and promising me a massage later.

Seriously, I could not feel more pampered or loved. What a wonderful day. I wanted to document it, in case I ever forget. What a great man I married, and what great children I have. I am so blessed.

I am also blessed to have such an amazing mother of my own. I wouldn't be who I am today without my mom, and words cannot express how much I love and appreciate her.

Alongside my mother, is my mother-in-law. Boy, did I win the lottery with her. I am so lucky to have a woman like her in my life and I love her more than I can say.

Happy mother's day to all you mothers and future mothers. It's the greatest job in the world. 

Evelyn is two

My Evie Lou is now two! I guess now I can't call her Evie Lou Who, who is no more than two, but I probably will anyway. She is so silly and fun, so let me tell you about her.

At two years old, Evie:

• loves to play at the park
• plays with her stuffed animals and pretends to feed them, change their diaper, etc.
• says full sentences! 
• knows her colors and shapes, and she can count to 5!
• mimics everything we say. My favorite is "oh gosh" and  "look at that!"
• loves blues clues and "sings" along with the songs
• along this same line, she is constantly trying to "skadoo" into her coloring book
• actually kind of likes her baby brother. She calls him baby Emmett and gets super concerned when he's crying
• is still an incredibly big eater. I don't know where she puts it all. 

She is so sweet and so much fun to be around. She loves to play with her dad the most of all, and I can't say I blame her. Recently she's wanted to watch more big kid movies, so I let her watch The Emperor's New Groove, and now she says "no touchy" and "awesome". Haha. That's my girl.

She no longer throws tantrums at the drop of a hat and is actually a really great helper for me. Watching her grow up has been one of the greatest experiences of my life. How did I get so lucky?

 Opening her present from Grandma Christensen

 She was super excited about the coloring, painting, and stickers book

For her birthday dinner, we had noodles and chicken. Two of Evie's favorite things.

yummy

I just thought this was cute. She loves to talk to him.

So, this was the world's ugliest cake, but she loved the frosting anyway

"oh no! mess!"

Cheese!

Opening presents from mom and dad

 She got a dry erase coloring book and another drawing pad that uses water. She was very excited.

 She got a whole bag of clothes, but she was not as excited about that. The little bag had a whole lot of bouncy balls, which went over a lot better than the clothes.

 parent victory

I can't believe it's been 2 years already! We seriously can't imagine life without our Evelyn Louisa. She has brought so much joy and love into our lives already, so I'm excited to see what this next year brings. 

Emmett

Our little Emmett is already 3 weeks old, so I thought I should finally post about him. He was born on March 21 at 3:11pm and weighed in at 8 lbs even. He was a big boy! I remember thinking, "8 lbs!? How did he fit in there?". I was actually induced with him so that my mom would be here when he was born, but mostly so that we could get started on all the paperwork we needed to do to move to Korea. They wouldn't change Dan's orders to include us until after Emmett was born, and we were fast approaching the point where they wouldn't have time to amend the orders and we wouldn't be going with Dan at all, so I was induced. I'll omit all the things about my doctor and the actual practice I went to, because anything I say will be negative and I want this post to be positive. I'll just say this, trying to get them to induce me was more work than the actual labor and delivery. There. I'm also going to skip the story about my actual labor because, again, anything I say will be mostly negative. I will say that I didn't push long, maybe 6-7 pushes, and then he was here. He was super red and super cute. His poor little face was bruised and his lips were swollen because of the whole being born thing, but the swelling went down after a couple hours. After they wrapped him up, he didn't cry again. Even when they took him up to be circumcised, he just stayed asleep. The only thing that was a little concerning was that he wouldn't eat for almost 24 hours. I tried to nurse him every 2 hours, but to no avail. The nurses said that he was born so fast that his mouth and stomach was still full of mucus, so it took quite a while to get him to want to eat. Ever since then, though, he's been a very good eater. For the most part, he's also a very good sleeper. Most nights he will go 4-5 hours at a time, but there are also other nights when he won't go back to sleep at all and we want to die. Luckily those are few and far between. Our little Emmett is the opposite of Evelyn in almost everything already. Where Evie cried all day long no matter what we did, Emmett only cries if he's hungry, and even then he will only cry if you let him whine and grunt for too long. He is just the most pleasant, most perfect little boy and we are so in love. It's lucky that he is so good because we have to move to Korea when he's 2 months old. Phew. Also, thanks to him, we may actually have more children after this, but not for a while.

 This is little Emmett right after he was born. Swollen face. He apparently got attached to the towel because he wouldn't let it go.

 Holding him for the first time

Don't be deceived by this smile. I was very groggy and exhausted. But, happy.

 

swollen upper lip. Poor guy

My mom and Evie came to see us after we were all settled.

Add caption

I love my little family. Hopefully we can get a better family picture someday

So, so cute

Emmett and Grandma. She fell in love at first sight, as did we all.

home at last. Look at that face. Seriously.

His first bath

So, say hello to our newest edition. We call him baby Emmett, lil man, baby boy, Mr. Baggins, and our lil Hobbit. If you're wondering about the Hobbit thing, it's because he has seriously enormous feet. Not only are they like little tug boats, but his big toe and middle toe are super far apart, just like a hobbit.

Love you, sweet boy. Thanks for choosing us to be your parents. 

St. Patty's

 You may not know this about me, but St. Patrick's Day is one of my favorite holidays. It probably stems from how awesome my mom made it when I was growing up. She would put a trail of gold glitter, that the leprechaun left, and it would lead to a basket of "gold" with other fun stuff inside. Then, we would have green food and wear green, and I absolutely loved it. In an effort to continue this tradition with my family, we did something similar, but not quite as awesome. Maybe as Evie gets older we will get a little more creative with it.

Leprechaun feet leading to her basket

starting at the door, cause the leprechaun broke in. Obviously.

She loved this

All her loot

We had corned beef and cabbage for dinner. Very Irish. Thanks, mom!

And key lime pie for dessert.

Following the footprints was Evie's favorite part by far. She loved it so much that she went back and did it again at least 5 times. Then, we had to switch where they went so she could do it some more. The basket of goodies was second place. 

 

Finally

30 weeks

I'm afraid with this whole Korea mess, this poor little man has been very overlooked. It isn't that we haven't been excited to have a new baby, but more that we haven't had a whole lot of time to think about it, so we just sort of forget that we're going to have a real, live baby really soon. However, I can honestly say that I am getting very excited to have him here. I can't wait to see what he looks like and what his little personality will be. So far, he is the opposite of his sister in almost every way. He sleeps most of the time and likes to hang out right over my belly button, whereas Evie never stopped moving and was super low. Evie has yet to stop moving, in case you were wondering. I predict he will be much more mellow than his older sis and will hopefully not cry all day long. We haven't bought him anything yet because we've been too focused on getting ready to move, but I finally made the leap today and bought him some jammies, a crib sheet, and a crib bumper. Now all we need is a crib! We've learned recently that there is a really good chance we will be able to have at least 3 bedrooms when we are in Korea, so that's a huge relief to me and I can actually plan on making a nursery for little man.


I am almost 32 weeks, so we should be seeing him in 8 weeks or so, which is not at all a long time. I wonder what Evie's reaction will be. How will she react to having a baby around all the time? I'm sure she will be super jealous at first, poor thing. I kind of wish her time as an only child could last a little longer, but there's nothing I can do about that now.

I may not sound like it most of the time, but I am really, very excited to meet this kid. I see babies at church and pictures of my friends' babies, and I seriously cannot wait to meet him. I feel like I know him already, so I just really want to see him. Will he look like me, or will he look just like Dan? Can't wait to find out!

this is the look I'm going for, though more blue and less turquoise.

my first purchases for the little guy

Just a little update

I haven't blogged in quite a while about our lives, so I thought I would do that now really quickly. We were able to go to Utah over Christmas to see Dan's family and it was so, so great to see everyone. Poor Dan hasn't seen his family in over a year, so he was ecstatic. Evelyn loved playing with all her cousins and getting so much attention from the adults. I could tell she was disappointed when we got home and there was no one but me to play with. While we were there we were able to see my grandparents from both sides, as well as my parents and Chris and Blaire, which was great because I missed seeing them over Thanksgiving. But other than that, our week was jam packed with family activities and bonding. Dan got to play nerdy games with his brothers, go fishing, and play the munchkin board game, so his trip was super successful. I love my nerd. It was seriously so great to spend Christmas with family and be around people who love us unconditionally, because we can be pretty weird and obnoxious sometimes.

Since we've been home, Evie has been sick. She got some sort of stomach flu or virus or something, and that was not fun for anyone, but that's gone and she now has a cold. She seriously gets sick more than any kid I know. Which brings me to this, I had Evie tested for Celiac disease because it runs in Dan's family and I don't think it's normal for her to get the stomach flu every month. They'll call me with the results sometime this week.

Other than that, this is what we've been doing:

• puzzles
• more puzzles
• reading books
• playing with blocks
• more books
• more puzzles
• blue's clues
• watching the biggest loser, season 7 on hulu. We are totally addicted to this show. It's a problem
• crying in the theater at les miserables (not just me, either. pointing at Dan)
• learning new words, such as "frog" and "fish". Except, Evie doesn't say them correctly and instead adds a "ck" to the end of all words starting with f. This is quite embarrassing when we're in public.
• watching almost no tv during the day, because that was my new year's resolution. Evie isn't taking that one particularly well, but we're getting there.
• and more puzzles

Dan finally got his official orders, but it still doesn't tell us where in Korea we will be stationed. I mean, seriously army? Seriously? Apparently they tell you once you get to Korea, where exactly you will be. Talk about annoying and inefficient. So, Dan is talking to a lot of higher ups hoping to get some information. I guess we just have to wait and see.