Sunday walk

Emily loves to walk in stores, outside or around the hallways in church. We try to let her be independent, but I really would like her to get used to holding our hand while we are "out". Today after church she took dada for a walk, it was her first time crossing the street while walking. Robert told me he was sure to tell her to look both ways!

18 Months

Our little Em is 18 months old today. How time flies! She has been walking for almost 3 months now. She has a wonderful imagination, loves to play kitchen and help me bake/cook. She gets out her colors at least twice a day. Books and Blocks are still her favorite activities. We have taken to playing hide and seek lately, she always hides behind the curtains. Bo will even go seek for Emily. Emily's favorite foods at 18 months would have to be baked beans, fruit snacks, and spaghetti noodles. She loves watching for the yellow buses in the morning and afternoon, and loves walking around the block and pointing out things on the sidewalk.

We go to her 18 month appt. on Tuesday, I have tons of questions about potty training for the Dr. Anyone else want to give me advice?

Day with Daddy

I had a wonderful "Simple Pleasures" day with many of the women of my church on Saturday.

Robert had a fun day with Emily all to himself. I was happy they were able to spend the day together, he has been working hard all month, almost every nite. He always makes it home to have dinner with us, but often times he has to head out to meet with a Guidepost Financial client by 7:00 pm. I love that Robert takes lots of pictures while I am out. It often helps describe the day. You'll notice in the video Emily is playing with her bunny grahams. Emily always says "bah bah bah" for hop, hop, hop, because that is what a bunny does!

smile Emily

This is Emily's pose when you ask her to smile for the camera. She also looks about the same when you ask her to close her eyes or blink. She typically leans forward with her shoulders hunched if she thinks she is being sneaky or funny.

We had a really low-key weekend. Emily and I didn't leave the house for two days, and finally peaked out for church on Sunday. Our cold spell snapped today giving us about 15 hours of snowfall. Emily has spent a lot of time coloring and playing with her cookware and food set. She gets really frustrated (screaming) when she cannot serve up or flip the cookies, pancakes or toast with the spatula.

Emily doesn't mind helping herself to snacks in the lazy susan. I haven't come up with a good plan to keep her out of it, she loves to spin it, and must pinch her hand in it every couple of weeks. We have moved most of the crackers and raisins up to a high cupboard. This does not deter our little eater, she will bring us cans of beans instead! Em loves her beans.

Packers win

Peperoni "monkey" bread

We watched the Packer's playoff game this afternoon as a family. I made a new recipe for a snack. A roll of refrigerator bread sticks, I bought garlic flavor which I found a little overwhelming. Cheese, Parmesan and mozzarella, and peperoni (I used turkey pep.). Cut up the bread sticks into 1 inch pieces. Layer 1/3 of the dough into a bread pan (greased), sprinkle with cheese and peperoni. Layer another 1/3 of the dough pieces, followed by more pep. and cheese, then top with the remaining dough. Bake at 350F 15-20 minutes, serve with pizza sauce.

My daughter the "Foodie"

Emily won't eat/hold a banana with the peel still on. She also won't eat an apple unless it is whole, with the skin on.

I can un-peel an entire banana, hand it to her and she will gobble it down, but if I peel and slice and apple she won't touch it. She does however ask you to "open" her apple, which entails taking a small starter bite out of it for her. She also seems to always eat the butt part of the apple first! I am very happy she like fruit and considers it a good snack.

Change is a constant

It is the new year, which gives us new opportunity. Emily is currently going to a new daycare a couple days of week. The schedule causes me to go to work early twice a week, and we have to juggle cars due to only having one seat, but we really like her new daycare. She seems at ease there and has a friend only two months older than her to play with.

Robert has started off the year with several clients at Guidepost Financial. And I have stuck to my 2008 goals thus far.

Emily continues to amaze us each and every day. Her vocabulary is growing by leaps, she is consistently stringing a couple of words together. She can say about anything you say to her. She mentions people consistently too.
She loves to play with cups in the bathtub, she can do many puzzles, and plays a matching shapes from Candyland. She rides her horse almost daily.

Emily can't seem to go anywhere without her Packer Beads

Cooking me dinner, I hope!

Emily's first beaters to lick

Where are my boots already?

My first Caucus

Tonight we experienced our first Caucus. I did not know what to expect. We pulled up to our district site, which happened to also be our usual polling site, Stonebrook Church. The parking lot was full, we pulled into a circle drive in the neighborhood across the street to park. We arrived at 6:35 and the line was along side the church well into the parking lot. We stood in line for about 10 minutes. Periodically someone would step outside and inform us which direction to move if we needed to register or where we needed to be based on our last name. When we got to the front of the line we checked in by initialing by our name and address on the registry. We found a seat inside the auditorium next to some neighbors of ours.

To start the caucus we were asked to stand and begin with saying the Pledge of Allegiance. What a flashback, I have not recited that in a group setting in probably 20 years. The next matter of business was to sign up to speak for your candidate if you wished to do so, the speakers were limited to two minutes. Next we nominated and approved a secretary and leader for our district. People spoke for their candidates. Everyone stuck to the time limit, so at this time only 15 minutes had elapsed since they officially started, which was a little late, 7:15.
The front row passed out our ballots, which were little slips of paper about 1/4 the size of a post it note. We wrote the last name of our candidate, folded and passed to the left. It took a few people about 20 minutes to count the vote. Many people left before the results were announced. While we waited they asked for 14 volunteers, 7 back-ups, and 7 Jr. delegates to attend the Story County delegation from our district. There was also time allowed for people to talk about amendments, one person had a petition to remove judge Hansen who this fall legislated from the bench on same sex marriage.

Huckabee had 126 votes in our district with Romney coming in second with 92. Apparently our district has the largest number of registered Republicans in Story County at 800, I counted 370 seats in the auditorium, with many standing in the back. Pretty good turnout and all in all a great first for me!

Go Packers!

The Packers are experiencing a banner year. Go Farve! Emily received a new Green and Gold outfit from Grandpa for Christmas. It is a little big, but more room for football munchies that way...

Setting Goals

I didn't believe in making a lot of resolutions to celebrate the New Year. Mostly because I don't remember them past January 5th. My husband has helped me understand the importance of setting goals the last couple of years. Actually meeting the goals we set has made me a proponent of the process. Last year we set out to become debt free, so I could be home more, and look at me now!
I have discovered that we are in the minority. Experts find that only 5-10% of the population actually bother to think about their goals and only 1-3% have clear written goals. I think fear or fear of failure has a lot to do with people not putting their goals on paper or even considering them. I am going to put mine out there for everyone to help hold me accountable. I know they could be more specific, but perhaps it is "fear" keeping them general!

Laura's 2008 goals:

Financial- We have set family financial goals. They involve saving up the rest of our emergency fund and paying off the second mortgage.

Physical- Exercise at least 3 hours a week, focus on cardio to keep my heart healthy. I would like to start running some 5k races again this year. Aim for my goal of 10,000 steps a day, even on the days I am not at work. Another goal is too remove my nail polish from my toes before it grows off. When did I last paint my toes?

Personal Development- Read! I would like to read a book a month for pleasure; I haven’t done this in a long while. Another goal for me in 2008 is to read more non-fiction in topical areas that affect my life, i.e. parenting.

Family- Appreciate the fact that I get to hang with my little one 2 1/2 days a week more than I did most of last year. Not everyone gets this time, I need to remember that.
- Spend more quality time with Robert. In Proverbs 31 the bible speaks of the value of a wife to her husband. I would like to bring more to the plate to honor this passage. I need to really listen and offer my advice and be more involved in our relationship.

Spiritual- Participate in my small group. Develop better bible study skills.

Social- Hang out with some girlfriends once a month, even if it is just during small group or a quick trip to the store!