Target Pictures

I wanted to have her pictures taken for her birthday but this and the other stopped it. I finally got them scheduled more around the 13th month mark which was same time as Eric's graduation. I ended up cancelling because her face was red and snotty nose in general looked sick. Finally we got them done on June 2 closer to 14 months than a year. Oh well better lat than never. I have really enjoyed the service I've received at Target and have done most of our pictures there and plan on continuing to do it there.

This was one of my favorite collages. I had to have this one though I mostly stick with regular portraits as these enhancements are a lot more expensive.

Big Scare

Miriam lately has been climbing on all chairs in sight and starting to climb on the table. She then grazes on whatever is on the table as she can take lids off like the syrup, ketchup, and dressing to name the top favorites.

Wed while I was making my week menu she was busy behind me getting into things on the table. All of a sudden I hear her gag and throw up so I rush over to see what was going on. She had a bottle of water conditioner for water beds open and the blue stuff everywhere. I grabbed her up and took her to the sink to wash out her mouth and she threw up again. Quickly reading the bottle it said call the DR, so hunted up that phone number and they told me to call poison control. A very nice man there said main concern was it burning her throat so get her to drink whatever she likes, 4 oz to dilute. About the only thing she drinks is water and she would drink a little but then make her raspberry and stick her tongue out like it was a bad taste. I tried whatever else I had, Miriam wasn't interested at all. Finally in desperation I gave her medicine and that went down the best so I tried apple juice in a medicine dropper which worked better. I don't think she got much and other than burping more later I believe we made it through without undue concern. Poison control checked back with us after an hour which I thought was great and the Dr's office also checked back. Case closed.

Our big helper

During the move Miriam was helpful and not so helpful. Under the not so helpful she liked to take out whatever I put in the box, then as loading/unloading she liked to wander away so we were constantly calling for her, and she likes to stand in the middle of the dirt piles from sweeping to name a few things that come to mind. Surprisingly she really was helpful too. Because we loaded and cleaned all week she really got in the act. As we took whatever out to the car we would give her something small to carry and put in- she thought she was big stuff when she did that.

She got so good at it when mom was leaving to go home she took things out of the car that were supposed to stay all on her own! Now I won't say the items always made it to their final destinations in her hands but it sure kept her busy.

The other helpful thing was help wash. The first Sat when we were washing all the walls she pitched in and helped Granddaddy wash. It was hard to capture because she would stop when she saw the camera.

After seeing us wash things so much she wanted to wash everything in sight! We got some old grocery shelves from Eric's parents that needed to be washed down and she had a great time helping with those and then proceeded to wash our deck.....

Teething

So the question I have when do you count the new tooth? Is it when it finally breaks the gum or when it is all the way in and settled? In any case Miriam has her fourth tooth so she now has a pair of choppers matching top and bottom. Boy let me say beware of getting between them! Yeow! Am I ever glad we're done nursing. Then Sun Eric thought he saw a flash of white up top right side (I think), later he dismissed it after feeling/ looking as much as she would allow. Then last night he saw it again when he holds her upside down so we maybe looking at tooth number 5. Breaking update!! After exploring her mouth just now number 5 on the upper right is pretty much in and on the upper left there is a bulge so she is actually working more on number 6. Finally after all this time she is getting on with the teething business I was beginning to wonder if she would only ever have the bottom 2.

Driving is Fun!

This one Miriam's favorite things to do and inevitably after work or for awhile Eric was taking her out in the morning to help start his truck so it could warm up they spent time with her driving. Miriam would turn the wheel, adjust the temperature controls, radio volume (sometimes stations), turn signals, and windshield wipers. She even tries to put the lap belt on like mommy and daddy do, bringing it down and trying to get it buckled!

She can practically climb into the car now also and is always trying to open random car doors. While we're on the car subject she is getting more agreeable (not that we always had a hard time just once in awhile) about getting into her car seat. She even occasonally tries to help buckle herself in. She's a tricky girl and parrots us more and more in figuring things out.

New House!!!

On May 22 we closed on our very first home after months of frustrations! For those not aware we started looking for a house in November but very casually as we were told we needed 2 paycheck stubs when Eric started working full time in January. Brent Harvey, the scoutmaster Eric worked with in the ward offered to facilitate looking and thus became our realtor. We went out about once a week to about 3 homes and boy was it interesting to see what folks did with their homes. We only looked in Springville and Spanish Fork, we didn't want the growing congestion of parts north and wanted to stay close to Eric's work in Provo.

In Feb we put the first offer on a house in SF but the real estate agent put us in 2nd position and strung us along for a month! we finally moved on in March successively putting bids on 2 other homes that were closer to short sells, but someone always bid before us. The second home was particularly bitter because we had the better bid but the bank (who owned it) didn't want to deal with an FHA loan. In April we found our home and put a bid on it. We gave all the houses we looked out nicknames to keep them straight and this was the "Grandma House" because an older lady was living here alone and it was decorated as such. I wasn't first convinced that this would be our home but agreed to put a bid on it anyway (I think I was tired of the whole process). She accepted the bid and other than a little maneuvering especially on the closing date we got it. The timely fashion that we got the home was due to couple of wonderful guys who really went the extra mile for us, some miracles happened for us to actually get it.

Sat the 23 we came with some help from the old ward got the house cleaned and painted the master bedroom and Miriam's room.

The next week was filled with touch ups at the house and packing and moving. I'm sooo incredibly grateful my mom came down to help me. I never would have been able to get it all together otherwise with my pregnancy limitations. Our pattern was to clean and pack in the trailer in the morning till it got too hot then head over to the house to clean and unpack. Of course everything took a lot longer than we expected. Poor Miriam spent the majority of her naps in her car seat and we all got to bed late every night.
Then Sat May 30 was the big moving day. Eric's Dad, 2 brothers and sister-in-law came to help get everything out. Also my Aunt Jamie and Uncle Craig (who owned the trailer and already have it sold) we are so grateful for all their help it turned out to be slightly larger project than expected and not very organized unfortunately. Alls well that ends well we had everything out of the trailer and in the house (somewhere) by 4:30ish. Also Deb watched all the kids so we could move and Miriam had her first all day away from mom and G-ma experience. By all accounts she had a great day with her cousins.

Now we are just trying to organize and being worn out by the previous week it is a slow going process but it feels great to be in a house!!

Dance, Dance!!

Miriam is getting more into music and dancing these days, it is so cute. I never know when the mood will hit her to put her groove on so its been really hard catching it on video. It has been really fun watching her self expression grow and change.