8 Months Old!

Today my baby is 8 months old! Time has flown by so much quicker than it did with Emma.

Weight: 15 pounds
Height: 27.3"
Birth Weight: 7 lbs 12 oz
Birth Height: 20.5"

First Time Eating Eggs. LOVED THEM!

Linnea hasn't grown a whole lot in size but she sure has in personality. She is army crawling and babbling a lot now. She says "dada" and also makes a "baba" sound. Linnea loves her big sister and follows her everywhere she goes. Her favorite foods are peas, sweet potatoes, carrots, cheerios and eggs. Linnea has decided that she's too big to eat the mashed baby foods. She prefers to eat the real deal. For instance she won't eat mashed up green beans, but give her some whole ones and she gobbles them down.

Hotel Room in Boise headed to Utah to see family (December 09)

Linnea is finally on a regular sleep pattern. Took a little longer than Emma but we are finally at a place where she sleeps through the night without waking up! She takes two 2 hour naps a day (sometimes she'll take one 4 hour nap... I like that best :) and then goes to bed between 7:30 and 8:00 in the evening and wakes up between 7:30 and 8:30 in the morning. Linnea is a daddy's girl! When ever Jacob gets home from work she gets a big smile on her face and starts crawling to him saying "dada! dada!".

Some of her favorite toys are the Little People Zoo and Barn, stuffed animals (especially her stuffed Elephant from Great Grandma T and Great Aunt Linda), and Emma's Leap Frog Barn Yard Magnets.

Playing with the Barnyard Magnets

Linnea has to sleep with her stuffed Elephant.

We love you Linnea! We are so glad you are a part of our family!

Why? But (insert name here) does (insert action here).

(I didn't really have a picture to go with this post so here is a random picture of Emma for you. Asleep on our way down to Utah to visit Jacob's family this last December)

It's funny how when you are growing up and your parents say certain things you just roll your eyes and say "When I'm a parent I'll NEVER say that to my kids" and then when the situation arises you find yourself saying those exact words. I knew how to be the perfect parent when I was 16 and stupid. I had it all figured out. Didn't we all? Emma has been on this "Why" thing. Here is a recent conversation we had:
Emma"Mommy can you sing the big cake song"?
Me "I don't know the big cake son could you..."
Emma "Why?"
Me" I haven't heard it before could you si..."
Emma "Why?"
Me(getting a little frustrated) "I don't know! I just haven't. If you could sing a part of it to me then maybe I will remember it."
Emma "I don't know it.".

Or how about this one:
Emma "Mommy can I have a fruit snack"?
Me "No, you already had a fruit snack today".
Emma "Why"?
Me "Why? Because you wanted one earlier"?
Emma "So can I have a fruit snack"?
Me "No..."
Emma "Why?"
Me "Because I said so"!

Now the phrase "Because I said so" is one of those phrases that I vowed never to say to my kids. As soon as I said it, I stopped and called my mom and told her what I had just said. We had a good laugh about it and I went about my day. Then at dinner this conversation happened:
Me "Emma, you need to not talk when you have food in your mouth"
Emma "Why"
Me "Because it's gross"
Emma "But Olivia does it"
Me "Well Olivia doesn't live here now does she"

I can't remember how many times I heard growing up "Well (insert name) doesn't live here". Or "Well if so and so lived here they wouldn't be doing that". I again had to laugh.

And another thing that disturbed me about the last conversation was the logic behind it. I didn't think I'd be hearing "well so and so does it" until she was in late Elementary School. Where do kids come up with these things? I am grateful to be a parent though. I have so many stories to tell my children and friends now that I could fill books and my oldest is only 3. I'm excited, scared, and already slightly annoyed to think about all of the story making moments I'll have with my children. Isn't being a parent great?

Couch to 5k Running Program

This year I have decided that I will run a 5k. I am NOT a runner. The way I run has been described to me as looking like a duck running. I have more upward motion than I do forward motion. I have a friend Lisa who did this program last year who is also not a runner and ran a 5k last year. There is a local 5k here in June and I will be running it. Here is the workout schedule below for those of you who are interested. I like it because it's so easy and only 3 days a week. On the off days I am planning on going to the gym and doing some resistance training. Here is the link to the website I got the program off of. You read it going across. It's a 9 week program so I will be ready to go in less than 3 months. I'm so excited.

Week	Workout 1	Workout 2	Workout 3
1	Brisk five-minute warmup walk. Then alternate 60 seconds of jogging and 90 seconds of walking for a total of 20 minutes.	Brisk five-minute warmup walk. Then alternate 60 seconds of jogging and 90 seconds of walking for a total of 20 minutes.	Brisk five-minute warmup walk. Then alternate 60 seconds of jogging and 90 seconds of walking for a total of 20 minutes.
2	Brisk five-minute warmup walk. Then alternate 90 seconds of jogging and two minutes of walking for a total of 20 minutes.	Brisk five-minute warmup walk. Then alternate 90 seconds of jogging and two minutes of walking for a total of 20 minutes.	Brisk five-minute warmup walk. Then alternate 90 seconds of jogging and two minutes of walking for a total of 20 minutes.
3	Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then do two repetitions of the following: Jog 200 yards (or 90 seconds) Walk 200 yards (or 90 seconds) Jog 400 yards (or 3 minutes) Walk 400 yards (or three minutes)	Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then do two repetitions of the following: Jog 200 yards (or 90 seconds) Walk 200 yards (or 90 seconds) Jog 400 yards (or 3 minutes) Walk 400 yards (or three minutes)	Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then do two repetitions of the following: Jog 200 yards (or 90 seconds) Walk 200 yards (or 90 seconds) Jog 400 yards (or 3 minutes) Walk 400 yards (or three minutes)
4	Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then: Jog 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes) Walk 1/8 mile (or 90 seconds) Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes) Walk 1/4 mile (or 2-1/2 minutes) Jog 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes) Walk 1/8 mile (or 90 seconds) Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)	Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then: Jog 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes) Walk 1/8 mile (or 90 seconds) Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes) Walk 1/4 mile (or 2-1/2 minutes) Jog 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes) Walk 1/8 mile (or 90 seconds) Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)	Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then: Jog 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes) Walk 1/8 mile (or 90 seconds) Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes) Walk 1/4 mile (or 2-1/2 minutes) Jog 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes) Walk 1/8 mile (or 90 seconds) Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)
5	Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then: Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes) Walk 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes) Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes) Walk 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes) Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)	Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then: Jog 3/4 mile (or 8 minutes) Walk 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes) Jog 3/4 mile (or 8 minutes)	Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog two miles (or 20 minutes) with no walking.
6	Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then: Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes) Walk 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes) Jog 3/4 mile (or 8 minutes) Walk 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes) Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)	Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then: Jog 1 mile (or 10 minutes) Walk 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes) Jog 1 mile (or 10 minutes)	Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog 2-1/4 miles (or 25 minutes) with no walking.
7	Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog 2.5 miles (or 25 minutes).	Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog 2.5 miles (or 25 minutes).	Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog 2.5 miles (or 25 minutes).
8	Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog 2.75 miles (or 28 minutes).	Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog 2.75 miles (or 28 minutes).	Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog 2.75 miles (or 28 minutes).
9	Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog 3 miles (or 30 minutes).	Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog 3 miles (or 30 minutes).	The final workout! Congratulations! Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog 3 miles (or 30 minut

My Little Linnea (aka future trouble maker)

I was watching Linnea yesterday while Emma was down for a nap and trying to soak up the one on one time I had with her. She's so different than her big sister. Linnea is always happy and smiling. Very much a people person. Emma is more reserved and shy. Even as a baby Emma was only comfortable around people she saw frequently. Linnea is very content on playing by herself and when she wakes up from her naps she prefers to be left in there for a while and play with her crib toys before I come in to get her. Emma would want out right away. Just completely opposite of each other. One big difference too is that Emma was happy and content with her surroundings. If she had toys in front of her then there wasn't any reason to go anywhere else. Linnea on the other hand is always wiggly and constantly wanting to get into EVERYTHING. She's started army crawling and is now able to get into a lot of things.



Emma put this laundry basket over Linnea's head. I walked into the toy room looking for Linnea and didn't see her right away, until I heard squealing coming from under the basket. She was so happy playing under there. She puts up with a lot from her big sister.

Does anyone want a copy of my favorite recipes?

I have a computer copy of recipes that I've tried and love and if you would like a copy send me your email address and I'll email you a copy of it. I need to add some more recipes to it and reformat a couple pages so it might take a couple weeks but if you'd like a copy just let me know. I am constantly adding to the book too so I will post at later times asking if you'd like the updated version. It also has emergency substitutions, pan substitutions and a couple other tidbits of information that I have found to be helpful when cooking or baking. I'm still going to post recipes and I'll try to keep it regular like I started out doing.

I'm back!

haven't been in the blogging mood and I'm still not really in the mood but I'm putting off doing things that actually need to get done today, like cleaning the kitchen so I can make dinner in a couple hours... but anyway. I got to thinking about this last year and how much happened. I thought I'd start off recapping 2009.

January- Jacob was pretty much out of work and I was subbing

February-Still no work, still subbing

March- Work picked up a ton, bought Emma a big girl bed, my brother Tyler came home from his mission, and Jacob's grandma Willey died so we did a weekend trip down to Utah for her funeral.

April- Jacob and I celebrated our 4th anniversary, we went to Seattle to see Jacob's sister and her family who had come up from Texas, and we started getting ready to welcome Linnea into the world.

May-Jacob was working 80+ hours a week, We had Linnea who was a successful VBAC

June- Jacob's other grandma died so we headed back down to Utah for a quick weekend trip and funeral.

July-Jacob took the venture scouts on a high adventure and had to come home early because one of the boys got dehydrated. The girls and I went to my parents house to do some canning.

August- More trips over to my parents to do canning. Jacob came along this time.

September- I had gall bladder surgery after experiencing severe chest pain.

October- My parents came over and my dad took down 6 trees on our property. Linnea started rolling over.

November- Emma turned 3, I turned 25, and we hosted our first Thanksgiving dinner with Jacob's family.

December- Jacob turned 27 and we celebrated at Chuck E Cheese, and we celebrated the birth of our savior Jesus Christ.


So far this year Jacob has been released from his calling as Venture Scout Leader and is now a counselor in the Elders Quorum Presidency. Linnea has started pulling up and standing. I have started teaching the most difficult class imaginable in primary. And Emma has started Primary. I'm excited to see what this next year holds.