Quinn's Salute to New Moon

I've been collecting these for awhile now...

Go ahead and send your hate e-mail. I feed on it....like a vampire sucking blood through his fangs. Oh, wait. Fangs is just another convenient vampire fact that Twilight conveniently forgets...

Quinn

Emma's Birthday Part 2 - With the Van Bibber's

Yesterday we celebrated my Dad's birthday and Emma's birthday. We had a great dinner, lots of presents (mostly for Emma), eat cake and watched a very long soccer game. (GO REAL!) Emma had a great time feeding the dog her dinner, eating two cupcakes because she feed the dog and opening a huge pile of presents. She received clothes, two sing-a-long DVD's, cars, puzzles, a shape shorter, a piglet and a tigger stuffed animal, two snowmen figurines and a ball popper toy. This last toy I thought was going to be a hit but it makes Emma very nervous because the balls pop out on their own and sometimes go flying off the toy. Emma likes to control things and have order and so this toy causes her anxiety because her hands are so small she can't control all five balls at once. It's great fun to watch and hopefully she will learn to just have fun with it.

Helping Papa with his gift.

Loving her Winnie the Pooh sing-along-song DVD.

As you can see she has three of the balls in her hand and she is desperately trying to contain the other two.

Puzzles!

Piglet and Tigger!

Emma's cute cupcakes from her Grandma!

Helping Grandpa blow out his.

Messy Girl!

Playing with Uncle Taylor in a big box!

I'm being brave and posting my first belly shot of this pregnancy. Here is James and I at 22 1/2 weeks.

Happy Birthday again Emma - Can't believe you're 2 years old already.
We Love You!

Emma's Birthday Celebration with the Lavenders!

We celebrated Emma's and her cousin Tanner's birthdays this past Sunday. Emma had a great time and was able to figure out the present thing this year. It was a lot more fun than her last birthday when I had to open everything for her and she really had no idea what was going on. This year she got right into it the second she saw a present. As she opened her first gift (a Dora doll for the tub) she said, "Wow." She then immediately took it over to her cousin Tanner to show him, so excited to show it off. She then realized there was more and with each gift or card she opened she then took it to a different person in the room to show them what she got after saying wow. Emma had a great birthday. She received two snowman books, the Tigger movie, a sticker book and lots of stickers, gold fish crackers, and a stuffed snowman. Thanks to all the Lavenders for giving her a great birthday. We Love You!.

The Birthday Girl!

Wow!

The Birthday Boy - Cousin Tanner!

Tanner really did ask for a Snuggie - so he got one in his favorite team color.

He even modeled it for us.

Singing to the birthday kids - Emma was able to blow out her own candle this year without lighting her face on fire but due to a slow camera I missed it. Good thing I have another try this Sunday.

Emma got her very own cupcake which she then proceed to lick the icing off first before eating the cake part.

Because it was her birthday celebration she was even allowed to have two bowls of ice cream.

Cupcake Good!!

Happy 2nd Birthday Emma!
We Love You!

Life with a Toddler

Life with a toddler is never boring. On Sunday morning Emma woke up with red raised bumps on her legs and it was very clear she had been itching them because her skin was broken in places where she had scratched so hard. We kept her home from church and put anti-itch cream on to see if that would solve the problem. When she woke up from her nap that afternoon they had spread to her arms and face. So we quickly headed to the insta-care where we found out she had hives.

We think it is from something she ate. We went to a friend's open house on Saturday and Emma very quickly spied the cookies and ate some up. I believe one of them had macadamia nuts in it. So that might be the allergy but we're not sure. The doctor also suggested going back to the baby detergent and other things like that because she also has some eczema. Benadryl quickly made Emma feel better after we forced it in her mouth.

So that was Sunday. Yesterday after work I had some phone calls to make. During one of my calls I discovered Emma in the bathroom. I had left the door open by mistake. She had a cup full of toilet water. Normally I would only have been disgusted if she had drunk any but our toilet has an auto bowl cleaner in the tank. I don't think she had drunk any yet but I called poison control just to be on the safe side. They were very nice and told me not much chemical is released out of those and to just give her some milk to drink and watch for any signs of sickness.

I'm happy to report that nothing came of it and the hives are gone. Yeah! Now if we can just survive the rest of the week we should be good.

Baby Lavender #2

IT'S A BOY!!!

We had our 20 week ultrasound on Tuesday. This boy was not shy at all. The technician started at his head and was checking to make sure everything looked good and as she got closer to his abdomen his little boy parts popped up. She quickly moved off them and then made sure we wanted to know the gender before she went back because there they were. She didn't have to hunt at all. She said there is no question that this is a boy. We are very excited and happy that all is well with him and can't wait for him to join our family.

What a cute profile!

We were a little shocked that it was a boy though. We just think girl all day long at home because that is what we have. So in the back of my mind I thought it would be another girl. We have had to adjust our thinking a bit and get used to the idea. We we found out, Quinn and I looked at each other and said, "What do we do with a boy?" We don't know how to raise a boy but we will learn. I've been told they are easier in some ways (no accessories - you can even get away without combing their hair) and hard in other ways (very emotional in their toddler years, more than girls). I guess we shall see.

Everything on the ultrasound that look interesting was his umbilical cord only had two parts with blood flow instead of three. The technician and the doctor both said this is nothing to be concerned about it is just something they want to be aware of and will watch his growth a bit closer. The doctor said he will continue to do ultrasounds at 28, 32 and 36 weeks to check his growth, normally they don't need to do ultrasounds that late in the pregnancy. He will also hook me up to a fetal monitor while I'm in the office for my appointments started at 36 weeks. He doesn't think this is cause for a alarm he just wants to error on the side of caution.

Overall it was a very exciting and overwhelming day. For those of you who live in Utah and watch the news it was also the day that the Silver Eagle refinery had their explosion. This refinery is just two blocks south and just on the other side of the tracks that run behind our house. The explosion happen just as we were walking out the door to go to our appointment. It was the loudest boom I have ever heard and it shook the whole house. I immediately thought a train had crashed and Quinn thought a plan had crashed. We ran out side just in time to see the mushroom cloud of smoke started to dissipate.

We quickly exchanged cars with Quinn's Mom who had come to watch Emma. We threw the 72 hour kits in the car and asked her to take Emma to her house. Just this past January we were evacuated because of a fire at this same refinery. We didn't know if we would be able to get back into our house after the appointment. All is well though with us. They did not have to evacuate us, it doesn't look like our house suffered any damage. Quinn still needs to check on a few things. We only had two things fall off the wall. We were very lucky compared to our neighbors just 1-2 blocks south of us who suffered damage to their homes as the news has reported.

They say things come in three's. Well after our hearts got a jump start that morning and the good news of a healthy baby boy I decided to head to the grocery store. I set my purse on the seat got Emma out of her car seat. She immediately spotted one of those carts with the cars on front and wiggled out of my hand to make a beeline for it. As I lunged for her the car door shut on me. Me purse along with my keys, wallet and cell phone were all locked in the car. This is the first time this has happened to me. We quickly went inside and after a few calls my father-in-law got home and quickly came up and rescued us. Thank you, Thank you Craig.

What a day!!

Halloween!

Our pre-carving picture. If you're wondering where Emma's shirt went I took it off because she is sucking on a sucker. I was not able to persuade her to take it out and smile for the picture.

This is Emma's pumpkin, she was a little upset at first when I cut into it and then after she would not get any closer.

Our cutie, watching Quinn and I carve our pumpkins.





The finished products. All the adults that came with their kids trick-or-treating thought Quinn's pack-man was so cool and had to explain what it was to their kids.

Our cute but very tired Ladybug who had been dragged to four places and then taken up the street for a few houses. She definitely got what was going on but she let her Dad know when she had had enough. At the last few houses that they went to she kept saying, "Carry, carry."

Once home and after some dinner she had a great time running to the door everytime someone came, excited to see the kids. She also modeled this bike helmet she fell in love with at a garage sell because it had Elmo on it.

Emma decked out in all her Halloween gear!