Arizona

Mom, Dad, Amanda, Alison and I, got to accompany dad on a business trip to Arizona. We toured in a cool new rental (cool as a van can get). Mom loved it; as she got to lie in the sun, which is what she does best. I did what I did best, which was running around outside, and running on the treadmill inside. Alison took a few really good pictures, which was an activity she got into there. Here is the tanning order from the greatest time to least time spent: Mom, Amanda, Dad and I, and very much last place – Alison.

As far as “out of the resort activity” there was shopping, riding bikes, and using the other resorts tennis court. We all went on a bike ride together, and a hike. Then Dad and I went on a navy seal type bike ride on pathways filled with small boulders and uphill almost the entire way. Amanda went grad dress shopping with mom, the mall was cool, and Dillards department store is twice the size of Midnapore mall. With stuff close to the same price, but has actual worth.

The weather was very nice, and the resorts and vegetation were incredibly unique and beautiful. A lot of the buildings and houses are made of a red-brown rock. There were cactuses that were bigger than we thought possible; some were at least 30 feet high.

Dads 54th

Dads 54th. I asked him how old he was turning to get it right...it took him a little bit to figure it out.

How Cute is This Girl?

Emmeline at 8 weeks old

I have a goal to catch up on my posts and from then on to post more regularly. What better way to end my blogging hiatus than with a post about this cute little girl.

Emmeline is such a great baby. She is currently 10 weeks old and for the last 3 weeks I've stopped feeding her at night. Her last feed will be around 9:30ish and then she doesn't eat again until between 8:30 -9:30 am. She still wakes up at night but she usually goes right back if I pop her soother in her mouth. She takes a great morning nap, and we're working on stretching out her afternoon nap to get 2 solid hours of straight sleeping. I follow a baby sleep schedule and start training from super early on (like day 3 pretty much). I swear by it, and it makes my life so much more manageable a predictable.

Emmeline is so happy, calm and smiley. She is especially charming and talkative right before bedtime. It takes so much will power not to keep her up and play with her. It's like the little stinker knows it's bedtime.

Oh and for those wondering, we've stuck with the pronunciation of EmmeLINE. We went back and forth for a while, but her great great grandmother pronounced it that way, and we love it, so we're keeping it.

Life has been feeling back to normal lately. Charlotte went through a difficult and emotional phase and luckily it seems like she's rounding the corner on it because she seemed like a completely different child. We've been getting out a lot and I've been getting back to the gym which I absolutely love.

This post is feeling all over the place, but maybe that's a reflection of how busy we've been since Emmeline was born. Dave's schedule is so crazy. If he didn't love what he was doing I swear he would require some meds and counseling (and maybe me too). This last month he's averaged close to 100 hours of work per week which doesn't include study time. Also about 1 month ago, he got called into the young men's in our ward which occupies at least 1 night per week away as well. He is pulling at least one 27+ hour shift at the hospital per week so catching up on sleep is almost impossible for him with all his responsibilities. He's had busy weeks likes this during other times in our marriage but I have never seen him this tired. Never. I feel like I can't allow myself to feel tired because the girls need at least one parent functioning on a healthy level.

You would think that a crazy schedule like ours would make things pretty tense around the house but it's been just the opposite. It's like we both recognize that the other is working as hard as they possibly can to keep this family afloat so there is really no place for judgement, criticism, or discussions about division of responsibilities. I've noticed that Dave does whatever he can to help me, whether he has 5 minutes or 30 minutes, and I try my hardest to keep things going at home so he doesn't have even more to worry about. Truthfully I have never felt so appreciative of him. He's like totally the guy of my dreams. Not even kidding.

That's not to say that we haven't had our moments of frustration. After a 4 day stretch of Dave being either out of town or on call and I had been juggling the girls at home completely on my own I sent Dave the following facetious email

"Please scan the list below:

maintained, clean home
regular meals
clean clothes
girls tended to
wife not in sweat pants
bills paid
errands run

Now choose 3 of the above."


For the record, Dave doesn't have certain expectations for me for any of the things mentioned above. I had just stepped in cracker crumbs one too many times that day.

Despite my moments of frustration, I can honestly say that I am relishing this special time in our family's life. I have made it a point to enjoy each day and soak up as much as my girls as I can. Our life is busy, yet simple, tiring, but fun, difficult, yet rewarding.