11-year-old Emma

I am thankful for Emma! I am behind on putting up a post about her, since I had a little bit of unexpected drama on her birthday this year. Emma is such a sweetheart and I love her so much. Emma has a sweet, tender heart, and she cares deeply about what others think of her. One of Emma's greatest strengths is her honesty and her desire to do what's right. She is a perfect example of someone who lives a life of integrity. If Emma ever tells a fib she immediately recognizes it and tries to fix it. She takes schoolwork seriously and strives to get good grades. At home, she tries to follow the rules and be kind to everyone. She loves her family dearly.

Here is what 11-year-old Emma has to say about herself:

Favorite Colors: Black, red, green, purple
Favorite Foods: Cheeseburgers, french fries, chili, steak, mashed potatoes
Favorite Movies: Batman, Toy Story 3, Kiki's Delivery Service, My Neighbor Totoro
Favorite Books: The Warriors series and Hugo
Favorite Animals: Cats, NYAN CAT!
Favorite Superheroes: The Batman family, and Spiderman
Favorite Video Games: Mario Brothers, Batman and Robin, Catwoman, Tomb Raider, and Hatsworth
Favorite Songs: Batman/Batgirl, Candy Hearts and Paper Flowers, How Much is that Kitty in the Window?
Activities and hobbies: Art, reading, playing with family, and school
Goals for the next year: Read all the Warrior books!
I would describe myself as: Smart, nice, helpful, and wonderful!

You ARE wonderful, dear Emma! You are a light to us all and we love you.

Annual Thanksgiving Artwork

Family Traditions

I love the month of November. I remember as a child sitting down at my aunt's big dining room table with all of my relatives on Thanksgiving, eating good food and listening to the grown-ups talk. I remember corn pudding, sweet pickles and olives on the table, and little mini corn cobs that I liked to play with more than eat. As a family tradition, we always took some time before the dinner began to share what we were thankful for. Sometimes it was too hard for me to just name off one thing I was thankful for, so I remember sharing multiple things. Of course my number one response has always been family.


I am grateful for family traditions. They were definitely the highlights of my youth and childhood. I loved looking forward to traditions. My grandparents kept many traditions alive for their children and grandchildren. I loved going to Family Camp every summer. I loved going swimming at the lake, going deer watching, playing "Store," and making camp movies every year. I loved the way my grandparents would dress up as Mr. and Mrs. Claus at Christmas time. I loved the little baby corns on Thanksgiving day. I loved my grandpa's never ending joke of "Sorry, the garage door fell on the birthday cake." All of them are cherished memories now. I hope that my children will have many fond memories of their family traditions as well.


It's not always easy entering into an already established family, but I'm grateful for the traditions Brad already began with Scott and Emma before I married him, and for the traditions I was able to start with them afterward. I think family traditions are very special and important. I love my family. I love creating memories with them.

Family Photos 2011

Jeana Bird took some amazing photos of our family again this year. We originally scheduled to have her take our photos on October 4th, but that was the day little David decided to enter the world, so we had to postpone the photo shoot for a later date. I told Brad this morning that David came early just to make sure he was included in our family photos for 2011.

1 Month Old: Whose Child Is He?

My precious little boy is over a month now, and I can tell he's getting bigger and heavier and growing up quickly. A part of me wants him to stay little, because I don't know for sure if he's my last baby or not, but a part of me also wants him to get big so I can see who he turns into. He looks far different than I imagined he would look! I'm still puzzled by his golden-brown, almost blond hair and his big bright blue eyes. Where did he come from? Whose child is he? Brad insists that he looks like me, but I have a hard time seeing that. He definitely looks like he could come from Brad's side of the family. I actually think he looks a lot like Scott did when Scott was born. There are some resemblances between him and Lizzy as well, like their noses and puckered lips. The only "me" I see in David are my overlapping toes, although they're long and skinny like Brad's are. Mine are short and stubby.

Baby David has a wonderful personality. He's generally a calm and peaceful baby. He likes to sleep a lot, and he likes to eat when he's awake. He's not much of a crier. In fact, most of the time he gives warning grunts and squeals, just like I did when I was a baby. He only cries when he's had enough and needs food NOW, or if he wants to be held. As a one-month-old, he loves looking at people's faces and gets bored if he's awake and there's no one to look at. He hasn't given me a social smile yet, but I can tell he's getting close. He wants to interact with me. His eyes get BIG when I talk to him or make noises. He's got such pretty blue eyes.

Halloween Post #3: Yee-haw!

Brad, Lizzy, and I all had a fun time wearing cowboy hats for Halloween this year. We were inspired by Lizzy's love and obsession for horses. She is very much into horses right now. She always looks for horses when we drive in the car together, and she loves watching movies or cartoons with horses in them. Her favorite movie for the longest time was Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron. Now she enjoys watching Bullseye in the Toy Story movies, and she loves Maximus in Tangled.

We wanted baby David to match our costumes somehow, so I crocheted a horse hat for him so he could be a little colt for Halloween. He looked very cute in brown wearing his hat and little horsey slippers.

Halloween Post #2: The Video Game Geek

Scott has a passion for geeky video games. If he had his way, he would play video games all day every day, so it's a good thing he has school, church, and chores to balance his life a bit. Scott, of course, had to wear a costume that reflected his love for video games this year for Halloween. He dressed up as a test subject from the video game Portal 2. Last year he was a test subject from the first Portal game. He had very little modifications to make to his costume.

Scott's Portal costume from 2010:


Scott's 2011 costume next to the original character, Chell, from Portal 2:


A close-up of Scott's homemade Portal gun:

Halloween Post #1: The Gotham Girl

Emma is a diehard Batman/Gotham Girls fan. She developed a passion for Batman about five years ago while reading comic books and watching Batman the Animated Series with her father. She loves the female characters from Batman the best. Emma decided three years ago that she wanted to be a Batman character for Halloween for the next few years, so she began planning what her costumes would be right then and there. She was Batgirl in 2009, Poison Ivy in 2010, and she plans on being Catwoman in 2012. She wanted to be Harley Quinn for Halloween this year.

Doesn't Emma look fabulous as Harley Quinn?

"I'm crazy about... Well hey, I'm just crazy." - Harley Quinn, Gotham Girls

The Highlight of My Day: October 2011

Something good happens each day. Here's what happened in October 2011:

Sat 10/1/11: It's General Conference weekend! I enjoyed listening to conference and cleaning up the living room at the same time. Loralee and her girls came over for dinner tonight and I made taco salad. It was fun watching "The Princess Bride" with the girls.

Sun 10/2/11: We had a big sleepover with the cousins last night. We had a great time watching General Conference in the morning and eating lots of yummy food throughout the day. I finished crocheting a little brown hat for David during the first session of conference. It's very cute. I think I'll add ears and make it into a horse hat.

Mon 10/3/11: I enjoyed Family Home Evening tonight. We talked to Scott and Emma about our plans for when the baby comes. I think the baby is coming very soon!

Tue 10/4/11: The baby decided to join our family today almost 2 weeks early. Things didn't turn out the way we had planned, but we are indeed blessed to have Baby David arrive when he did. Welcome to the world, Little D!

Wed 10/5/11: I held David for the first time today. It was one of the most emotional experiences of my life. I will treasure the memory forever. David, your mama loves you with all her heart! You are so precious to me.

Thu 10/6/11: No more breathing tubes for David! David will be in the NICU for the next few days at the very least, but he is doing better every day! I got to hold him tonight again. We tried breastfeeding, but all he wanted to do was sleep on Mama's nice warm skin, which was very sweet. He loves his mama. I got to feed him two bottles of my expressed milk instead.

Fri 10/7/11: Lizzy and Marilyn came to visit us in the hospital again this morning. We planned it better, and Lizzy got to stay with us longer than yesterday, which made everyone happier. Baby David nursed for the first time tonight! He did a wonderful job!

Sat 10/8/11: My baby loves to nurse! That makes me so happy! I was discharged today, which made me feel all sorts of emotions, mainly happy to be home with Lizzy again and sad to leave David behind. Now that I'm nursing David I feel a stronger tug to be with him. I think about him constantly.

Sun 10/9/11: I was able to sleep in my bed tonight! Last night I was in too much pain to lie down on my bed so I slept on the couch. It was nice being in bed with my husband again.

Mon 10/10/11: Brad took care of Lizzy while I visited David in the NICU by myself this morning. Lizzy was so happy to see me when I met her and her daddy in the hospital lobby. She screamed out "Mommy!" from the floor above and made everyone around me laugh.

Tue 10/11/11: David's white blood cell count was too high for him to come home today, which made us sad. But we were happy visiting with him tonight. He looks so nice not wearing his oxygen tubes anymore. They moved him into a room with a window, too.

Wed 10/12/11: Best nursing session this morning! David did fantastic! By the end he looked like a little drunk leprechaun in my lap. I loved it! He looked so cute!

Thu 10/13/11: Baby David might be coming home tomorrow! Crossing my fingers...

Fri 10/14/11: The best news ever! David came home from the NICU today! His numbers were perfect! Lizzy was so happy to meet her little brother for the first time. She wanted to mother him and love him over and over again.

Sat 10/15/11: I have been blessed with another easy-going baby! He woke up only once during the night. He likes to sleep a lot, and he eats about every four hours. He's such a sweetie.

Sun 10/16/11: The Bruce-Clan came to see David tonight.

Mon 10/17/11: It was so nice hearing the pediatrician say that David looked "perfect" at his two week check-up. I like hearing the word "perfect." That was exactly what I wanted to hear.

Tue 10/18/11: I took a nice short walk with Brad this evening to get out of the house and get some mild exercise while spending time with my hubby. It was a good way to combat the "baby blues." I love my husband. He's so loveable and supportive.

Wed 10/19/11: David's cold went away! Yay! He just had it for one night. Lizzy, on the other hand, can't seem to get rid of her cold. Maybe it's because she does things like walk barefoot outside in 40 degree weather, or take a cold bath with all her clothes on. She did both of those today.

Thu 10/20/11: Brad's dad came back from South America today. We had KFC for dinner tonight. Yum!

Fri 10/21/11: Bradley was my highlight tonight. I love being Brad's wife more than anything else in this world. He always goes out of his way to make sure I'm taken care of and that I feel loved. He makes me feel sexy and beautiful, even though I'm recovering from childbirth and I feel sluggish and icky most of the time. He truly is wonderful.

Sat 10/22/11: My mother flew in from Long Beach to see Baby David today and tomorrow. She treated me and my family to dinner at Hires tonight, which was yummy. It was David's first time at a restaurant. He wasn't so sure he liked it.

Sun 10/23/11: I loved watching Lizzy interact with my mother today. She loved playing with Grandma Whitcomb outside in the backyard. They spent hours playing ball, Ring-Around-The-Rosie, and going up and down the slide.

Mon 10/24/11: Brad and I watched the first episode of "Once Upon a Time" tonight. It's been such a long time since Brad and I have sat down together to watch a show. I liked it.

Tue 10/25/11: Tonight was David's first trip to the library with his family. He did super well! I enjoyed getting out of the house and doing something "normal" again.

Wed 10/26/11: We wore our costumes tonight for the ward Halloween party. Emma dressed up as Harley Quinn, Scott dressed up as a Portal 2 test subject, Brad, Lizzy, and I dressed up as cowboys, and David was a baby foal.

Thu 10/27/11: Lizzy and I watched "Kiki's Delivery Service" tonight. It was Lizzy's first time and she loved it.

Fri 10/28/11: Brad and I watched the documentary "Buck" tonight. An excellent film! I wouldn't mind owning it.

Sat 10/29/11: We went to Temple Square this morning for family pictures. In the evening we had dinner with the Bruce-Clan and watched "Buck" for the second time.

Sun 10/30/11: I enjoyed watching Scott and Emma carve pumpkins tonight. They both created their own designs. Emma chose to make a cat face for her pumpkin, and Scott chose make a "creeper" face on his (from the video game Minecraft).

Mon 10/31/11: We had fun going trick-or-treating and having dinner with the cousins. Loralee made a spooktacular Halloween feast featuring spiders, eyeballs, worms, slime punch, and snake. The chips and guts (homemade salsa and guacamole) were yummy, too!