Whip Your Hair

Emma picks up quick on just about everything these days. We play a lot of music videos for her, since she loves to dance and watch the people in the videos dance too. I played the song, "Whip Your Hair" by Willow Smith (Will Smith's daughter) last night, and the end result was a hilarious video that we can't stop watching! I was laughing so hard while watching her, and you can tell she loved it too! Please enjoy!

There's not a day that goes by, where Emma doesn't make us smile and laugh! I am so thankful for modern technology, that makes it possible to record and capture these moments. We love you so much Emma!!

xoxo
The Twistles

Popcorn Popping On The Apricot Tree

Spring is here! We have been having outstanding weather here the last couple days, and I have been loving it! The sunshine has been badly needed, and really helps my mood :) When I was little, I remember that spring was here when the Hyacinths buds started to pop out of the ground. My Mom and Grandma both had some planted, and I looked forward to the amazing smell of these flowers every spring. I still love the smell of these flowers, and the nostalgia of childhood they bring with their beautiful scent. 

Emma has also been loving the weather, because it means she gets to go outside! She is a nature baby, and loves to explore the world outside of our home. We have taken her to the park, and have spent almost every night on our porch in the evenings. We can't wait to take her up the canyon, and go on some nature walks with her this summer. 

I have started teaching her the song, "Popcorn Popping" and she has really enjoyed it. When I start to sing, she gets her hands out and does the popcorn motions almost perfectly. I love this girl so much. She loves music, and hearing new songs-- her favorite one with Dad is "The Hokey Pokey" which he sings to her during diaper changes so she doesn't try to escape. I'm not sure if it does much good though, because whenever he starts to sing it, she starts kicking and wiggling her legs to the motions of that song. 

She is the sweetest thing, and loves to cuddle and be with us. She is starting to comprehend our words, but just can't reciprocate them quite yet. When I ask her for a hug, she comes right over with her arms open wide and gives me a squeeze. She doesn't like being ignored however, and if she sees me on my phone instead of watching or playing with her, she comes right over and grabs my phone, puts it down, and then will grab for my hand to go walk with her. She really teaches me about what is important, and it has nothing to do with being on my phone.

Here are some pictures we took this week, we were going to go to the park last week, but when I got out of the car, I realized how hot it was outside. Also, I forgot the sunblock for Emma. Most of all, I remembered how much I hate the heat. We stayed for about 5 minutes, and then loaded up and went home to play on the porch, where there's shade :)

The tongue means business and total focus

She figured out how to climb under and over, and was so proud of herself!

Happy Spring to all of you! I hope it makes you as happy as it makes me!

xoxo
The Twistles

Emma vs. The Spray Bottle

I'm not sure what it is about spray bottles, but kids seem to love them! Emma especially loves them, and hasn't given up on making it work for her. When I do her hair, I will spray her head with the water, and she giggles and then reaches for the bottle. Yesterday, Matt started to mist her face with the water, and she laughed so hard! We did it again last night, and got it on video, she had us cracking up! I remember doing this same thing to my niece Jessica when she was Emma's age, and the after picture was Jessica soaking wet with a huge smile on her face. Emma couldn't get enough, and we have to hide the water bottles now because if she sees one, she will make us spray her over and over again. This girl is too cute!

xoxo

The Twistles

Random Happenings

We have been having an eventful weekend so far, filled with birthday parties, buying Fiona Apple tickets (yeah!), and enjoying the amazing weather. 

Yesterday we visited Kami (Anne's little girl) for her birthday party. Her fabulous parents rented a bounce house for the kids, and reserved a special time slot for Emma to play in before all the big kids came over. Pictures to come, Anne had the camera and I need to get them from her. Emma liked the bounce house, as long as I was there to hold her steady so she could keep from falling. She loved to watch Kami jump all over the place, and kept laughing at her the whole time. 

Before heading to the McRaes for Kami's party, we bought tickets to the Fiona Apple concert in July. We have seen videos of her live shows, and it is pretty amazing. This concert will be at Kingsbury hall, which has a great sound for live shows. So excited!

The weather has been so great this weekend, sunny and warm-- just the way I like it! We are going to take Emma to the park after lunch today, she absolutely loves being outside. It doesn't matter what kind of mood she is in, the minute she steps foot outside, she is the happiest girl in the world. 

As for me and the pregnancy, (what did you forget already?) things are going well so far. I am still in the in-between stage of pot belly and pregnancy bump. I hate this stage, I just want to pop out officially so I won't be stuck in the middle. I don't fit into my regular clothes, and I'm not big enough yet to fit into my maternity clothes either (speaking of maternity clothes, all my old ones are for winter-- so I'll have to go out and buy some summer clothes now, since those long sleeves and pants won't be so great this year). It will probably be a few more weeks until this awkward stage has passed, but at least I'm out of the first trimester, that's what I keep telling myself anyways. The rage I had this time around was absolutely insane! 

I just had another baby check up this week, and everything is great! I even heard the fast thump of the baby's heart beat, I love that! The doctor said she will schedule an ultrasound at my next visit, so we will find out if it's a boy or girl probably close to the end of May. I've been telling Emma that there is a baby in my tummy, but she seems way more interested in my popped out belly button. She'll understand soon, that the belly button is hiding a baby brother or sister! 

I've taken a few pictures of Emma this week, including some with her pigtails! Her hair separates perfectly in the back for them, and I was able to do it quick while she was watching music videos. 

laughing at the kitties playing

Happy Emma, but sad Sugar in the background looking longingly outside...

Emma watching TV, Sugar looking at Emma like, "are you going to let me out?"

I'm just noticing that the last few pictures have Sugar in the background desperate to get outside

mmmm, clothing price tags!

She really is turning into her own little person, and looks less like a baby each day and more like a toddler. She picks up on everything so fast, we have been having to watch everything we do because she will do it right back at us! I love this little girl so much, she is such a joy to have in our lives. I'm so glad that families can be together forever, I can't imagine heaven without her! 

xoxo
The Twistles

Ingrid Michaelson

Last night Crissy and I went to see Ingrid Michaelson in concert, and she did not disappoint! Matty bought me two tickets for Valentine's day, and I have been looking at the tickets on our fridge every day. This was my second time seeing her (Crissy went with me last time too), and also the second time I was pregnant for the concert. I hope that it's not a recurring trend that I'm pregnant every time she comes to concert...

Her new album, "Human Again", is fantastic and heartbreaking at the same time, because it's apparent she went through a hard break-up but has been able to come out the other side OK. She has a lot of spunk during her concerts, and she always makes me laugh. I follow her tweets on Twitter as well, and she always has the most random things to say. I love it. 

The concert was great, I love hearing live music, it always feels so much more intense than on the record. I vibe off of the atmosphere around me, and it's all around a great experience. Plus, close to the end, she sang mine and Matt's wedding song that we walked down the aisle to, which brought a few tears to my eyes remembering how amazing that day was. If you ever have a chance to see her live, I highly recommend it!

Yep, they're blurry, but you get the idea

My go-to "silly face" I've gotta find a new one

This dude just stood still as a statue for the entire concert, his girlfriend was obviously the fan, but we got a laugh from his hat

I didn't have a choice, I had to use the bathroom with the "ladies" sign taped on the wall.

 The video is sideways, but it's more for audio anyways.


I love Ingrid Michaelson!


xoxo
Rachel

Easter 2012

Our friends Anne and Ben invited us to go up to Bear Lake with them this year for Easter. They have a family cabin in Garden City that they stay at each year. We packed up the car and made the short 2 1/2 hour drive up to my all time favorite lake. Granted, we didn't do any swimming nor did we spend any time at the lake, but it was beautiful nonetheless. The weather was nice, we had great company, and a whole lot of nothing to do for the entire weekend. It was fantastic. Emma loves their kiddos Kami and Kadan (she sees them 3 times a week when she's at their house), so it was fun to watch them all play. 

We took a drive to a store called, "King's" which pathetically is one of the town's only major shopping stores. It's a very low, low scale Target-- and that might be giving them too much credit. I don't think they sell much, because I bought some snacks (skittles, pringles, kit-kat, you know... the healthy stuff) and it was all bad. All of my purchased "goodies" had to have been on the shelves for a couple months! It was still fun to go on a little drive, and experience the... "simple?" side of life...

On Easter morning, we put out all the eggs on the patio, and let the kids collect their eggs. It was a bit cold since it was around 8 a.m., and we had been having some front door issues, where we thought it was unlocked... until the door got closed by mistake and we all realized that it was very much locked. All of our keys were inside, as well as phones. At least we had lots of sugary candy to eat for breakfast while we waited for Matt and Ben to jimmy the door open. They eventually did, and now we have a funny story that has to do with everything being "Ben's fault". If anything goes wrong, it's mostly likely his fault. 

We left Sunday afternoon, and had time to BBQ outside before turning in for the night. We had a lot of fun, and look forward to spending more time at the cabin with the McRae family this summer!

Kami and Kadan with the Bear outside King's store

Kami, Anne, Emma, and I

An old abandoned church that we passed on our drive

it's creepier in sepia

Kadan ready to collect some eggs!

Cute lil' Kami girl

Emma checking out her Easter goodies

She has a new fascination with climbing up onto things, then getting down, and climbing back up. Super Fun.

Emma's buddies

The Entwistles

The McRaes

Just What I Needed...

The beginning of April was General Conference, which we look forward to every 6 months. Not only because we get to gorge ourselves with delicious food non-stop for two days, but because we get to hear the words of the Prophet and be touched by the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ. This year was great, and I heard a lot of things that I needed to hear. The talk that spoke to me the most, was by Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf, called: The Merciful Obtain Mercy (Click the title to be taken directly to his talk). The talk was blunt, and what I got from it was, if you are merciful to others, then that is when you will receive mercy. I have had a hard time holding on to bitter feelings, resentment, and anger towards people from my life, and that is what I'm hoping to change.

An excerpt from his talk really hit home for me:

"I imagine that every person on earth has been affected in some way by the destructive spirit of contention, resentment, and revenge. Perhaps there are even times when we recognize this spirit in ourselves. When we feel hurt, angry, or envious, it is quite easy to judge other people, often assigning dark motives to their actions in order to justify our own feelings of resentment.

Of course, we know this is wrong. The doctrine is clear. We all depend on the Savior; none of us can be saved without Him. Christ’s Atonement is infinite and eternal. Forgiveness for our sins comes with conditions. We must repent, and we must be willing to forgive others. Jesus taught: “Forgive one another; for he that forgiveth not … [stands] condemned before the Lord; for there remaineth in him the greater sin”³ and “Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.”⁴

Of course, these words seem perfectly reasonable—when applied to someone else. We can so clearly and easily see the harmful results that come when others judge and hold grudges. And we certainly don’t like it when people judge us.

But when it comes to our own prejudices and grievances, we too often justify our anger as righteous and our judgment as reliable and only appropriate. Though we cannot look into another’s heart, we assume that we know a bad motive or even a bad person when we see one. We make exceptions when it comes to our own bitterness because we feel that, in our case, we have all the information we need to hold someone else in contempt." (Dieter F. Uchtdorf, General Conference 2012, emphasis added)

I was touched by the spirit, and I am still touched when I re-read this talk. When I read this, I feel as if he is speaking directly to me. I don't know how I am going to do it, the anger and bitterness I feel seems to get the best of me every time, but I know that holding on to these feelings is only hurting me, and preventing me from receiving my own mercy and forgiveness. I want with all my heart, to love the people who have hurt me. I want to cheer them on throughout their lives, and wish them all the best. I want to have the hope that someday they will return to the church, and feel the happiness of the gospel that they once had. It's going to be a work in progress, and may take some time, but I know that through the Atonement of Jesus Christ I can do it. If I can make a comeback from a 3 year hiatus from the Church, change my life, and be forgiven, then I can do this too. I encourage you to read and re-read this talk, it is full of life saving words that is for everyone.

xoxo

Rachel

April showers brings... a lack of blogging

Bad news: April has been a bit cold and rainy, which doesn't help my blogging mood, hence the lack of posts this month.

Good news: It's getting warmer! AND (this is the best part, ready??) AND, I am out of the first trimester of pregnancy!! Somebody please this girl a celebratory cake!! Wow, I feel human again. I don't feel like a depressed ball of gray gloom, and I have a bit more energy, and also feel more optimistic about this pregnancy ( I know, the first trimester really is that bad). I know Matt has noticed a difference too, and doesn't feel as terrified that the pregnancy dragon is going to burn him to ashes anymore. 

It's been a great month, we listened to the inspirational talks during General Conference (which were amazing), we cleaned off our porch and let Emma walk around, and we took a nice, relaxing trip to Bear Lake with our friends for Easter.  


I have a few more posts up my sleeve, but can't get to it yet because my sweet Emma just woke up from a nap, and she likes to contribute to my blogging by hitting the keyboard and chewing on the mouse. It's a bit counter-productive, so I will wait until bedtime to post more. 


More to come!!


xoxo
Rachel