Girly Girls...

Emily and I have been having fun doing "girly" things while Daddy is away at work/school. We like to paint nails on Sunday mornings (church is at 1...that's alot of time to fill before church!), we like to make brownies (not necessarily girly, but still fun), and most recently we tried putting our hair in hot rollers together....

Emily calls them "curlies" and she looks pretty stinkin' cute in them....



Trying to get her to hold still AND look at the camera is near impossible...


Here's a better view of her hair afterwards... she looked like a toddler pageant queen... except that the hair is real. :) (Again, trying to get her to hold STILL for a picture...)


Maybe it's because once little boy Mabb makes his appearance we won't get as much time do our "girly" things that I have really started trying to do these things with Emily. Maybe it's because she's actually old enough to know/enjoy what we are doing. Maybe it's because we have to take advantage of the fact that there are still more girls in this household than boys...at least until June...

Any way you slice it, we LOVE being girly girls!

Racing Ladies

Starting in November, I started my new hobby of doing races. The most AWESOME part about doing these races is that I get to do them with my Grandma! In November, I did a 10K, my very first race. Then, two 5K's in January, and most recently this last race last Saturday which was a 5 miler!

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This first race was in Springdale, Utah and ended up 6.2 miles later in Grafton, which is a "ghost town." It was pretty cool! I even enlisted my buddy Alisha to do it with me, although I spent most of the time trying to catch up with her. (It was HER first race too...she has longer legs than I do!)

SPECS OF THIS RACE:
NAME: Butch Cassidy 10K and 5K
DATE: November 7th, 2009
TIME: 1:08:16
PLACE: 11th in my age group (20-24)
WEEKS PREGNANT: 8

Myself and Alisha before the race:


What does Emily while waiting for Mommy? Enjoy playing around on the fences!


Alisha and I after the race. Exhausted and relieved to have finished!


My beautiful family enjoying the scenery.


My awesome Grandma Nelson who also did the race!


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SPECS OF THIS RACE:
NAME: First Annual "Freeze Your Buns" 5K Run
DATE: January 9th, 2010
TIME: 34:58
PLACE: This was a fundraiser, but I did get my name drawn for a free pizza!
WEEKS PREGNANT: 18

This particular race was cold, hence the name, but the hardest part was not slipping on the ice/snow in the road!

Grandma and I before the race:


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SPECS OF THIS RACE:
NAME: Painter's 5K and Half Marathon
DATE: January 23rd, 2010
TIME: 35 min 32 sec
PLACE: 20th in my age group (25-29)
WEEKS PREGNANT: 20

Before the race with my kiddo and my two Grandmas!


Grandma finishing up her race. Go Grandma!


After the race!


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SPECS OF THIS RACE:
NAME: Dam to Dam Five Mile Race
DATE: February 20th, 2010
TIME: 1:02:43
PLACE: 13th in my age group (25-29)
WEEKS PREGNANT: 24

Only one picture....


(The baby belly is becoming a little more apparent).

It started out not too cold, but as the race progressed became very cold and then it started to rain. Oh, and the wind...let's not get me started on the wind...

I didn't walk any of it though, which I was proud of, but 5 miles is a lot more difficult than 3.1 miles (5K). At the 3 mile marker, I was secretly wishing I was done, but kept right on going.

Thanks to my Grandma for keeping me motivated to run and for being my racing buddy!

I love you Grandma! :)

Now...which race shall we do next?!

Our Royal Ball

Emily LOVES the movie Enchanted (and so do I, to be honest) and she has recently gotten into her head that she is a princess. (We've only been telling her that since she was born!) So, last week for family night we had a Royal Ball. Emily and I went upstairs to get dressed up and Scott (her "Daddy Prince" as she calls him) got the "Ballroom" ready, complete with beautiful music to dance to! He even put on his suit coat to fit the part. Such a good sport.

Dressing up with Emily was fun. We put on a beautiful dress and these white shoes that don't fit her but that she insists on wearing. I put her hair in an updo, gave her some fancy jewelry, and we even did make-up! I put on a formal that I have that I though would fit a pregnant lady and off we went to the ball. There was music, and dancing, and a VERY handsome prince!


Emily trying out the dance floor! (aka a GINORMOUS quilt that we got as a wedding present.)


Emily is good little ballerina... (or "pinarina" as she calls it sometimes...not sure where she got that one.)


The handsome "Daddy Prince"...


Asking her Daddy Prince to come dance with her.


Dancing with Mommy. Needed an excuse to wear my sparkly earrings, anyway, right?


We finished up with eating some yummy brownies and we even put some candles in them, because Emily wanted to pretend it was birthday cake. It was a fun family night!

Snuggling with Grandma Mouse

My Grandma Nelson came to Cedar City a couple weekends ago to see a show at SUU and stay for a few days. While I was making Sunday dinner, Emily was entertaining Grandma (or Grandma Mouse) as Emily calls her. She (Emily) came up with the idea that she wanted Grandma Mouse to "take a nap" on the love seat with her. It's not a very big couch, and Emily was very particular about where Grandma Mouse could lay down. I thought the picture was really sweet...


She is a very nice Grandma to oblige Emily's silly request. She kept trying to scoot over, but Emily told her she had to stay where she was. Emily loves her Grandma Mouse!!

Brownie Baker

Emily and I decided for an afternoon activity we would make brownies!!!

And for the Grandparents afar, here is the play-by-play:

Excited to make brownies!


She wants to do the eggs, but mostly she just hits it and makes a mess.


Dumping the extra flour because we live in high altitude. A foreign concept to some folks...


Cleaning up the mess. Martha Stewart says to clean up as you go. She is learning young. :)


Stir it, stir it....


And of course, lick the fork!


Messy hands and messy face makes for one cute little girl.


After their done, nothing like a brownie and a cup of milk...mmm...


Stay posted for a cookie decorating post coming soon. :)

Dancing Cousins...

Emily's cousin Jace came over to play for a little bit after preschool last week. During lunch I started singing them a song and they got all silly and started dancing. So (after lunch, of course) we went downstairs to continue singing and dancing. I was looking for a version of a song that Lea Michele (from Glee) sings, but instead found her singing "On My Own" on YouTube. Emily put on her "toot-toot" and started dancing with Jace. I grabbed the camera because it was really cute:

See for yourself!

Little Letters...

I completely and unashamedly stole this idea from my friend Katie's blog. (Thanks, Katie.) They are little letters to various people/things/ideas... I loved it and here is my version. I may do this every so often...I really like it. Here goes...

Dear House,
Why do I feel like you are never completely clean? When I do take a day and completely clean you, you are messy within a day. Yet, somehow I keep doing it... I must really love you being clean. Oh, and if you could tell us what you'd like us to do with you (i.e. Sell or Rent...) that would be REALLY helpful.

Dear Emily,
You are such a smart little girl. I love it when you sing a song because it reminds you of something I said. Like this week when I told you we were going to call Aunt Kara and you chimed in with "Caroline....bom bom bom..." I looked at you in complete shock, but laughed and hugged you right away. You are definitely my daughter.

Dear Valentine's Day,
You are on a Sunday this year. This will lend itself to me eating sugar cookies, heart shaped cupcakes, and Sweetheart candies all day and not feel too badly about it. I should probably make some real food too, but don't worry, whatever it turns out to be will be served in a heart shape. Just for you.

Dear wiggly baby boy in my tummy,
You are going to be quite the little guy. I really enjoy feeling you move around in me, except for yesterday when you were doing handstands on my cervix and I felt like you were trying to push your way out 17 weeks early. Please don't do that again, it was really a weird/scary feeling for at least 20 seconds. Please stay in me till your due date. (June 12th) Or you could come on the 11th. I wouldn't mind. Really.
PS- Don't get too big though. I'm kind of worried about you breaking one of my ribs. Mabb boys are big boys.

Dear running/jogging,
I am really glad that you and I have become friends this year. I have been trying to become friends with you for the last 8 years, but this year you finally agreed to like me back. (Okay, maybe it was really me all along...) I am looking forward to our race next Saturday, but I am afraid the 5 mile distance will be partially walked. Sorry. Something about me turning 24 weeks pregnant that day just doesn't lend itself to actually running the whole thing.

Dear Scott,
Thank you for being such a hard working guy. I am grateful to be able to stay home with our little (or not so little anymore) Em. I am proud of you for finishing up school this year. I am looking forward to you being home more in the evenings starting next week. I really don't mind bringing you dinner every day though, it's just a lot more enjoyable eating dinner with you at home. Oh, and I really like that you don't snore anymore. ;)

Dear hair, ( I stole this idea from Katie too, but the sentiments are all my own.)
I am really glad that I decided to grow you out again this year. But why are you FALLING OUT?! Everyone keeps telling me that it's the pregnancy, but that's not supposed to happen until AFTER the baby is born. After that statement, most people tell me that it's the extra Testosterone. The doctor told me not to worry about you unless I start going bald. With as much of you as I have, that'll be a while...thank goodness.

Dear making dinner every day,
I am so glad that I decided to start using new recipes through out the week. This makes facing you so much more enjoyable for me everyday and I have found that I really enjoy cooking. I even thought it might be fun to go to cooking school someday. But I'd have to wait until all of the kids were grown up and I had more time. At which point, it might be pointless to know how to cook really well. (Except that I've always had a secret desire to be one of those ladies who puts on fancy parties with delicious hors deourvs (sp?) and I can wear a sassy red cocktail dress.) But, I do look forward to our meetings everyday as of recently.

Dear sugar cookies,
I really need to stop eating you. Okay, maybe I should stop making you so I will stop eating you. But with mom's recipe and some awesome frosting (and a glass of milk) you are so gooooood. Oh, and I'm pretty sure that the baby likes them. There. That makes it all okay. :)

Love,
Kristin

For Papa Hooah