We give up.....

We've have finally thrown in the towel. Our house we bought in 2006 for 330,000 is only worth 110,000. Today we have put the house up for short-sale. It's sad, but it's exciting too in a way. Jimmy's mom is ready to retire so she is going to buy a house up in the desert here. We are looking for a place with a "granny" house so that Jimmy, me and Emmy will live in the main house and Jimmy's mom, Marie, can have the smaller granny house. This will work out great for everybody because we'll finally get a place big enough to build a shop on the property for Fusion (Jimmy and Brian's company) to move in to - and out of my garage. And Marie's health had been getting worse so she could use to have someone close to her, plus she doesn't need her big ol' house anymore. And Marie can also be closer to Emily and any future little one(s)! So far we haven't found a new house yet but the short sale process is anything but short so we have plenty of time to find something!

Yum, cereal!

Today we tried cereal for the first time! She's not too sure what to do with it yet.

Calico

We've lived up in the desert here for 4 years and never visited Calico. So we decided to take Emmy to her first "theme park".

Look at that smile! We have a future hiker!

Emily trying on a Davy Crockett hat!

We took the train ride, walked through a real mining cave. And yes, I was an idiot and asked the woman at the enterance if this was a man-made cave or a real mining cave. Duh! A mining cave IS man-made.


In the real, man-made mining cave!

Have a Raging Day!

Today I started a group on Facebook for old employees of Raging Waters. I really loved that job which was hardly ever a job. It was like being camp counselors. We were all one huge family!
I worked at the park in the summer months from 1996 through 1998.

(Summer 1997)

Well, when I started the group I thought I was seriously the only loser who loved that job. Cut to three weeks later - there are over 200 members. Everybody was so excited to see each other that this summer we have a reunion beach party planned for July!

Valentine's Day!

Please ignore the tired Mommy just behind the beautiful baby!

Our first Valentine's Day as a family! After Emily had her breakfast of Mommy Milk then Daddy made me a delicious breakfast of eggs, sausage and heart shaped pancakes. No diets for me yet!

New Milestone Today!!

While getting ready to go down the hill to Jimmy's mom's house I got my first laughs from Emily!

The very first laughs were great but by the time we got the camera she had tappered off. I swear we need a camera on us at all times!!

Emily's First Super Bowl

This year the Saints kicked some Colt tushie! But that was only half the fun of Sunday. The three of us went to Ed and Ruth's house for a Super Bowl party. They gave us a whole bedroom to ourselves to make "baby central" for Emily. I was able to set up her pack and play in a back bedroom that was nice and dark and quiet for her naps. Jimmy remembered to bring the ipod so that she could have white noise playing while she napped to drown out the sound of the party. Shortly after we got there Samatha (Ed's daughter) showed up with her boyfriend Brandon. Brandon we just met a few months back but he is a great guy. (Jimmy loves to hang out with Brandon because Brandon is a chef at the Disneyland resort and loves to bounce recipes and ideas off of him.) But this time getting together was special because on Saturday Jimmy had called me while I was at Robin's to let me know that Brandon had asked to see Ed and Ruth privately WITHOUT Samantha...... and all of us knew what that meant!!! So Sunday when they showed up Samanthat went in to the backyard and Brandon showed Ruth and I the ring! It was a gorgeous ring - I'm sad to say I never got a picture of it. I'll try to remember next time I see her to get a close-up.  Brandon told Ruth that he wasn't going to do it that day but if she could hide it in the house. So Ruth and I went to the master bedroom and hid it. We were having a great party and all assumed we were going to just hang out and watch the game for the rest of the night. Jimmy made seared ahi tuna appetizer, Memphis spiced ribs and his chipotle potato salad. Ed and Brandon made kabobs with greek yogurt sauce. Of course there was the make you own nachos station! I mean, what makes a Super Bowl without good food and expensive commercials? Toward the end of the second quarter Brandon walks up to me and whispers in my ear. I nod my head and get up and head to the master bedroom. Jimmy says he thought this was weird but since Brandon didn't follow me that it was okay. :o)   Brandon had asked me if I knew where the ring was and if I could hold on to it discreetly. After I got the ring I gave Jimmy the heads up and told him to get the camera ready to take a video. Just after The Who started playing the half time I handed the ring off to Brandon and he wrangled the entire party to the living room. Where he popped the question to Samantha!!!!!!!

Brandon was so cute he actually had his family on speaker phone to hear the propsal since they couldn't make it.
The Happy Couple
Congratulations to Brandon and Samantha!

Weekend at Robin's

Emily and I went down to the Wahl's house without Daddy for two full days. Daddy dropped us off on Friday afternoon and picked us up Sunday morning. This was the longest Jimmy has been away from Emily ever! He missed her so much that instead of us staying at Robin's till Sunday night Jimmy wanted to pick us up in the morning instead.
Robin, through circumstances, ended up alone with her girls all weekend. Brad, Cheryle, and Mike all ended up taking separate trips on the same weekend. So we decided to get together for an all girls weekend. Alyssa and Brenna love Emily so much they just couldn't get enough of her this weekend. Robin and I mostly just hung out since it was raining for most of the time I was there. Which made the girls very restless since they couldn't go outside to play.

Here are pictures of Alyssa (5 years old) reading and playing with Emily (three months old).


And here is a picture of Robin (5 years old) rubbing my back (2 months old).

Uh-oh! I think I'm in trouble.....

Everybody was so great about giving me diapers that I had about 5,000 diapers (no exaggeration!) before Emmy was born. But lately anytime she has a #2 diaper they aren't holding the "stuff" in. I get leaking out of the back and sometime out of the leg. It doesn’t matter if I put them on tight; pull out the leg flaps, changing brands and styles, nothing! I think we need to move up to a size two. The thing is that I only have about 200 size 2s and about 2000 size 1-2s still left over, plus I still have about 30 size 1s! Nobody said that she would grow out of these sizes so fast. In my search to find a non-leaking diaper I opened both cases of the pampers (they were different styles) so now I can't even exchange them if I wanted to!


So I have a dilemma now, start buying diapers in size 2 (I have yet to buy diapers since she was born) or have her wake up every morning with a wet and smelly little girl? I guess it's off to the store I go!

I guess I'll just hang on to the other diapers because not this year but next year we are going to start on the next addition to our family.

Gotta go, Emmy is up from her nap!

Thumbsuckers Anonymous

Hello. My name is Liz and my daughter is a thumbsucker.......

This isn't something she's just picked up. She's been sucking her thumb since birth really, but she has full control over it now and is more often then not with her thumb in her mouth. It's almost always the left one too! When I breastfeed her I have to fight her to take the thumb out so I can get a breast in. I feel bad for her little thumb though because it gets pale and waterlogged.