Emily B-day: the party

The night of Emily's b-day, after the beach outing (and a good long nap) we had the California Parker's and the MacEntire's over for a little party. Emily our neighbor also joined us. We had great lasagna and homemade cake. Emily thought it was great that she got a big peice of cake to poke her fingers into. She did eat some but not nearly as much as we thought she would. She did mash it up and throw it on the floor. She did enjoy opening her presents and playing with her cousin. She got a pretty blue dress from G-ma Pratt and managed to put it on(minus the arms of course) by herself. Thanks for the great gifts and thanks for coming guys! We wish that everyone could have been here to share her momentous occasion.

Emily's B-day: the beach

It was Emily's birthday this week and for the big one year old, we headed to the beach for some sand and sun. It was most delightful as we have not been to the oceanside for quite some time. We had the beach to ourselves save for the occasional passer-by because it was a chilling 60 degrees. Right. It was warm and the weather was beautiful. Emily had fun crawling across the whole beach chasing the seagulls. She tried walking after them too figuring she can go faster on two than on four. We were there at low tide so we got our fill of starfish and various other sea creatures and plants. It was a great birthday outing even though Emily ate tons of sands and got it all over her face when she biffed it.

Tri-Dimensional Couch Swap

This has been an interesting week for couches. Our old blue couch that we bought in Provo before we came here, has developed terminal springpokingoutitis, broken-frame-inosis, as well as sucking the unsuspecting person who dares to sit, all the way to China. We thought it was time to upgrade the ole sitting apparatus and Mary perused the garage sales, craigslist and various other places. Our criteria was that we could spend a little money this time to get a better couch (see:newer, non-torn, and more firm) and preferable brown in color. We wanted to shy away from plaid, flowers, and couches that come from non-smoking multi-cat houses. Our neighbor, whose daughter frequents our establishment, offered us a couch that her mother was wanting to get rid of. It came from her second home in the desert, and was practically new, leather, and we were told was brown in color. We though we had nothing to lose and since it was free, and jumped at the opportunity. So we rented a truck and followed our neighbors out to Newport Beach where the couch was being housed. Her mother lives in Pelican Hill, which by the way was fancy beyond anything these country bumpkins had ever seen (the guy at the gate was dressed in a nice suit and tie, instead of the typical black shirt and jeans at "normal" gated communities).

When we got to the house, which is huge, this wonderful woman took us down to get the couch, which ended up being not brown in color, but pink (think fleshy-pink). And not just pink, but one of those tight leather, curved couch that should be seen in the sitting room of some fancy estate house. Mary balked (nay, almost retched) at the thought at having a pink couch in our home and was hesitant to accept the couch. I felt that since we had the truck, went all the way out there, and were getting the couch for free we should just take it. Sooo, we took it. On the way home though we decided we would either sell it or try and trade it at the consigment store.

However, when we took it to the consigment store the lady took one look at it and told us it was a lovely couch, but because of the pink color she can't take it. Blast. We ended up bringing it home. This all occured on Tuesday.

So Mary had posted our blue couch for free and someone came to pick it up in Thursday. Then, Saturday morning Mary found the couch of her dreams (so she claimed) on craigslist. But someone had already called in and wanted to buy it. So Mary asked her to be notified if that person didn't want it. I went tto Church basketball (it was tournament day) and forfited our game. I did stay to help keep the scoreboard, and was going to stay one more game, so I called home to see how things were going. Mary was all a flutter (for my cell phone had died) and said I needed to come right then and go get the brown couch. I ran home and our neighbor took us to pick up the couch, helped us move it in and now it resides in our living room. Mary is much happier now, and the drama is nearly over. The pink couch still sits in our dining area almost mocking us, where it awaits someone who really wants to have a pink leather couch. Don't get me wrong, it's a nice couch. It's just too pink.

top to bottom: old blue, the pink offender, and the new brown couch

Cowgirl

We have another cowgirl in our midst. Emily ha learned how to mount and dis-mount the small rocking horse recently. It's hard to believe she's this old already.

More walking

Emily has really been walking of her own accord. We would like her to crawl for a few more months, but she is determined to get this walking thing down. Every chance she gets she stands up and takes as many steps as she can. We put off video-ing her, and she is getting better every day so we had to take a few videos of her in motion. One of her favorite things to do is to hold Natalie's hands and walk around the house with her.

Just girls

These girls are just the best and cutest girls in the whole world. Natalie and Emily make us laugh everyday (and make us cry too) and it makes life just seem great. Natalie is learning so much, and loves sunbeams and preschool. She loves to play with her best friend and is always sad to have to say goodbye. Emily is growing like a weed and wants to walk around everywhere thinking she's big stuff. She'll be a year old this week and that means our baby is more a toddler than our baby. *sigh* She loves to make faces and smile really big. She loves the bath and being independent as much as is permitted. And yes, she still has the flaming red hair. And yes, you're not seeing double, we have another pink bear lover. More often than not Emily loves to steal her sister's bear, but she does like to carry her own around too.