Rice

We desperately needed a new activity.
Anything besides "Nemo. Nemo. Nemo."
I think she asks for Nemo 50 times a day.
I created a monster.
So, I busted open a big, huge bag of rice and put it in a bucket.
Threw some small containers and toys in there, and let her go to town!

Yes, it made a huge mess all over my carpet.
Yes, I was constantly scooping up piles of rice that accumulated all around the bucket.
Yes, all the flying rice stressed me out, just a bit.
Yes, Nemo is an easier activity. But at least I felt less guilty about this.

What's a little rice on the floor, right?
(I keep trying to convince myself that it will clean up easy and that having grains of rice stuck to my feet isn't that annoying)
I will probably be finding rice for years to come in all my nooks and cranny's...
But it kept her entertained. And it kept her from the television.

Perhaps I will let her play with it again someday.
When I'm desperate.

She's a...

Oops. Did I blow it with the title?
That's right! We're having a little girl.
Hooray!

4 Years.

Happy Anniversary to us!
Wowee. It hardly seems four years ago that we got married!
I remember it like it was yesterday...
Josh picked me up to drive us to the Salt Lake temple. He was late. I stood in the driveway waiting with my big poofy wedding dress in hand.
Our ceremony was beautiful and so many people came.
For a little while we just got to sit together in the temple. No one else was around. It was perfect.
That February day was freezing, but I was far too happy to care.
The cute little temple workers called me the 'bride-sicle.'
My photographer brought me hot chocolate and hand warmers. How thoughtful.
Josh's uncle Mark caught us kissing in the elevator...
And then he brought it up at our luncheon. Hello, we're married. We can kiss!
I also had to stand up and say a little something at the luncheon. I don't remember a word I said.
Our reception was totally PACKED! The line went outside. We couldn't believe how many people loved and supported us.
We served ice cream with yummy fruit topping. Cold. But yummy.
We cut our cake and then ditched the party.
My sister Rebecca and cousin Katie thought our cake cutting was boring, so they had a little cake cutting of their own.
Someone decorated our Jeep with window paint and streamers. It froze to the jeep and took us a while to clean off.
And then we had a honeymoon. :)
We'll leave it at that.


Hmmm.
Today is a bit different.
My husband is at school. Studying. He has to, it's his job to study.
This evening he has a OB/GYN class he has to attend.
So he'll be doing vaginal exams on other women.
Poor guy.
(Am I allowed to use the word 'vaginal' on my blog? It's purely medical, I assure you)
After that he has an Elders Quorum meeting. They always go late. So he probably won't get home until 10:30 or later.
I have plans too.
I need to set up some visiting teaching appointments.
I'm going to sew after I put Brinkley to bed. Haven't done that in a while.
Maybe I'll even watch a chick flick.
I think I'll wait up for him. He deserves a kiss after such a long day.
How do you like that? An anniversary where we see each other for 2 hours?


It's not all bad though, don't worry.
We have big plans for this weekend!
My good friend Laurel offered to watch Brinkley OVERNIGHT so we could go away for the weekend!
So, we are.
It's a happy anniversary after all!

Our Valentines Day Dinner

For Valentines, Josh made this wonderful roast with potatoes, carrots and onions. I made fruit smoothies as well as something new...
Edamame.

I've never tried edamame before, but saw it in the frozen food section at the grocery store and thought, "eh, I'll give it a try."

For those who are not familiar with this particular legume, it is more commonly known as the 'soybean.' Supposedly very healthy and good for you. You have to shell it and eat the beans inside, much like a pea in a pod.

Josh and I thought they were just okay,
but Brinkley saw us eating them and wanted to try them too. I figured, sure give her one, she'll stick it in her mouth and spit it back out... like she does with most new foods.

Boy, was I wrong. She loved them! She ate a whole plateful!
I was seriously in shock. I just kept staring at her to make sure she actually chewed and swallowed each bean. She did! She didn't just hide them or throw them on the ground. She ATE them!!!

I'm still in shock. See, my daughter is a picky eater.
She lives off of cheese, gogurt, fruit snacks, macaroni and cheese, cookies, crackers, pretzels
and sometimes spaghettios, apples, and ... that's all I can think of.

But, EDAMAME???

Weird.

My daughter, who won't even open her mouth for potatoes, real spaghetti, any kind of meat, soup, any vegetable (except cucumbers), many fruits including strawberries and cantaloupe, juice, plain milk (must have nesquick) ... this list could go on and on.
But she'll devour edamame? I'm confused.
Not that I'm complaining. If she'll eat it - I'm more than happy to give it to her. It's packed with fiber and protein and good fats.
I really hope it lasts.
We'll see.

I heart valentines

I love Valentines Day.
What's not to love??
It's a day that's all about love and I'll tell you what I absolutely adore...

This little cutie pants right here.



We decided to have a little Valentines photo shoot today.
The sun was coming in just right through the kitchen window. So I plopped her down on the table and got shutter happy.

She wouldn't smile until I gave her Lion to sit next to her, but since she loves her lion so much, I guess it would be appropriate! We are, after all,
celebrating love!

By the way,
We still can't believe how much snow there is!
Josh had to go back to school today :(
That's a bit of an adjustment after having him around for 4 glorious days!
I think it was an adjustment for him too.
But on the bright side, only one more day until the weekend! Then we can spend our days together again!

Pigtails

Guess what? My little girl's hair finally got long enough to do something new!
Pigtails!!

For a long time, it wasn't long enough to do anything.
Then, I started putting the long top bit into her signature "sprinkler" hair-do on top of her head.
NOW, we can put it in pigtails and I love it!
I think she looks so stinkin' cute! She's not a baby anymore, she can have real live little girl hair styles.

My baby is a little girl.
*sniff, sniff*
When did that happen?

Oh, winter. There you are!

So, we got some snow... A lot of snow.
A hefty 20 something inches of snow!
This was the 3rd biggest storm Pittsburgh has seen in a century!
We were in a 'State of Emergency.'
And we got to be here to experience it. Lucky us. Ha ha.
(We are lucky though, we didn't lose our power and lots of people did)

Actually, I do like the snow, I always have. I think it is beautiful (I haven't stopped looking out the windows since Friday night), and fun to play in!
However, I'm not quite as fond of driving in the snow, and the roads are treacherous!
I don't think I'll be going anywhere for a while! Unless, of course, Josh is willing to drive me...
Which he has. We went to church on Sunday and I had a doctors appointment this morning. Yeah, we were late to both events.

Speaking of Josh, I have to give a big fat shout out to him real quick. He has spent I don't know how many hours shoveling snow just to un-bury our cars! But he's done it without complaint. I offered to help, but he said no since I am pregnant. Isn't he nice?
Because he spent so much time working on clearing our parking space in front of our house, we have to place a chair in the spot when we leave so no one steals it while we are gone! We're not the only ones though, so, it's not totally weird.

While Josh was digging out the car, Brinkley and I decided to take advantage of all this marvelous snow and go play!

The piles of snow are taller than she is!
She enjoyed smacking the walls of snow on either side of her while we walked down the sidewalk... but she didn't like when snow would get on her mittens. She'd say 'uh oh. uh oh. uh oh. Until I would brush them off. Then, she'd do it again!
She also enjoyed stepping on clumps of snow and squishing them with her boots. So easy to entertain.

We also went to a nearby park and trekked our way through the knee deep snow (chest deep for Brinks). I tried to teach her how to make snow angels by laying her down in the snow and pumping her arms up and down. But she just stared up at me like I was crazy. So I laid down in the snow and did it for her, which made her giggle... but no more willing to try again.

Supposedly it's supposed to snow another 6 inches tomorrow.
I honestly don't know where Pittsburgh is going to put all of this snow. We've simply run out of space to shovel and plow it!
I have a feeling we're going to be looking at snow for a looooong time.




Josh, digging out.

His car, parked on a side street.

Brinks, smacking the snow!

Uh oh. Uh oh. Uh oh. Get it off my gloves!

Our snow angel attempt... Unsuccessful.

Enjoying the snow!